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  • Greg Wyshynski, ESPNMar 2, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

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      Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

Matt Rempe‘s eye looked like a wall of paint samples at a hardware store. A lot of black, some blue, a touch of chartreuse around the edges. Facial bruising is a commonplace sight on an NHL rink. Rempe’s shiner was more noticeable because he stands around 6-foot-8 without skates.

“It’s nothing. Just a little … I don’t know, nothing,” Rempe said to an unusually large group of reporters on Tuesday after the New York Rangers‘ morning skate. “It’s awesome. Just part of what goes along with hitting. You get bumps and bruises along the way.”

Rempe is a 21-year-old rookie whose first NHL games sparked a leaguewide obsession few could recall witnessing. He had three fights in his first five NHL games. He might have had a fourth had he not been ejected for an illegal check to the head against the rival New Jersey Devils.

Through six NHL games, Rempe has more penalty minutes (32) than minutes spent playing (28).

To counterbalance that disobedience, his first professional goal was also the game winner in a nationally televised game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“It’s gotta be one of the craziest NHL debuts that there’s ever been,” Rangers center Jonny Brodzinski said… I don’t know if there’s been anything else like it.”

The Rangers promoted Rempe from AHL Hartford ahead of their Stadium Series game against the New York Islanders at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. He was an injury replacement for winger Blake Wheeler, whose season ended with a lower-body injury on Feb. 15.

In front of 79,690 fans, on his first NHL shift, Rempe fought the Islanders’ Matt Martin, immediately earning cult hero status in New York. In his fourth game, he fought Philadelphia Flyers pugilist Nicolas Deslauriers three minutes into the first period, and then later scored the game-winning goal when a Barclay Goodrow shot bounced off Rempe’s lanky frame into the net. In his fifth game, he fought Columbus Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier 2:12 into the first period, which is why his left eye turned several different colors after Olivier pummeled him.

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Rangers rookie Matt Rempe gets into fight on first NHL shift

New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe gets into a fight just minutes into his NHL debut.

Does Rempe like fighting?

“I’m not going to lie: It’s good. I enjoy it,” he said. “I want to get better at it. I want to learn. I want to do everything.”

Rempemania has run wild on Rangers fans for a number of reasons. It’s his unusual size and enthusiastic physical play, including those fights. It’s also his endearing personality and inherent goofiness, such as when he pridefully described taking photos with Rangers fans at a local Cheesecake Factory “while rocking the black eye.”

The crowd cheered for him at his first regular-season game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, a rematch against Columbus. The NHL’s flagship retail store, located about two blocks from the Garden, had Rempe’s jersey displayed in its front window, available for purchase. That doesn’t usually happen for a player that hadn’t played more than eight minutes in a game yet in his NHL career.

But Matt Rempe’s debut was anything but usual.

“I think you’ve seen it all over the internet. He’s definitely created a buzz,” Rangers winger Jimmy Vesey said. “It’s been a while. You don’t really see fighting like that anymore.”

It’s not just the frequency of fights that has created that buzz. It’s how he fights, according to John Scott, who was one of the NHL’s leading heavyweights for eight seasons until his retirement in 2016.

“It’s a rarity these days, just because fighting is such an anomaly. I know it’s still around, but the types of fights that Rempe is having, you don’t see them anymore. I think guys who fight are more strategic and defensive, whereas he came in and he just throws,” Scott said. “He doesn’t care if he gets hit. He just wants to inflict pain and hurt people, like back in the 1970s where you just grab on and just start chucking. So people aren’t used to that. That’s why I think it’s such a novelty now.”

The thing about novelties is that they wear off.

Can Rempe become something more than a two-week sensation for the Rangers?

REMPE HAS AN aw-shucks way of handling his sudden and inexplicable fame.

“It’s been awesome. My dream is playing in the NHL. Got a goal, got an assist, and we’re winning hockey games. Had some good fights. And you know just playing hard, playing good,” he said. “I am just trying to keep a level head, just try to stay down to earth. I’m at the beginning of my career. I’ve got a long, long way to go.”

He said he’s avoiding all media, social or otherwise, to remain focused on his growth as an NHL player. Rempe said he’s relying on his usual diversions to avoid getting caught up in his own hype.

“I love reading books. I love to do that. I’m a big fantasy book guy, so I like to read my books,” he said. “I go home, read my books, talk to my family, do that type of stuff. Play my guitar.”

Matt O’Dette, head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds, where Rempe played junior hockey from 2019 to 2022, said this is the “multifaceted kid” that he got to know well in the Western Hockey League.

“He is a really intelligent kid, really smart kid. He’s an authentic guy. He’s a reader, he’s a musician, he’s got a personality,” O’Dette told ESPN. “People are seeing him as this 6-foot-8 monster. He plays the game a certain way. He wants to protect his teammates. I’m excited for the people to get to know him more.”

As Rempe’s teammate in the AHL and NHL, Brodzinski has had the same experience.

“When you meet him and when you get to know him, he’s the nicest guy ever. Such a family man and just a good all-around human being. And then he gets out on the ice and something clicks, and it just switches,” he said. “You hear that about a lot of great NFL players: Great guys off the field that just turn into absolute killers during the game.”

Rempe is from Calgary and has two older twin sisters obsessed with hockey. Steph and Alley Rempe went on to play at Brown University.

They lost their father, Rom Rempe, to a heart attack in February 2018. Matt Rempe called his father his best friend, someone who fueled his love of the game. His NHL debut in the Stadium Series was on the six-year anniversary of his father’s passing.

O’Dette, who welcomed Rempe to the Thunderbirds in the 2019-20 season, noted how difficult losing his father was for the young player.

“We were supportive of him and anything he needed,” he said. “And I tried to be the best mentor I could for him. But that’s a very tough thing to deal with as a kid that age.”

O’Dette mentored Rempe on and off the ice. One particular challenge was his height. Rempe plays a physical game. But because of the height disparity between him and his opponents, checks that were intended to be legal ended up being penalties or, in some cases, suspensions.

“Oh, it was extremely difficult. You have to understand that Matt Rempe is not a malicious guy. He’s not a predator. He is a very nice kid, very smart kid. He is just trying to play hockey and finish his checks and do it in as clean a way as possible,” O’Dette said. “Just him being bigger has led to some violent looking hits that were, in our opinion, more on the clean side.”

That scenario has already played out in the NHL. In a recent game against the Devils, Rempe went to deliver a check to forward Nathan Bastian and made primary contact with Bastian’s head. Rempe earned a match penalty, ending his night after just 13 seconds of ice time, but wasn’t given any supplemental discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety.

“That’s a play where he doesn’t want to do that. That’s not the type of guy that he is, either,” Brodzinski said. “After looking at it, he did everything right. He tucked his elbow. It’s just unfortunate that the main point of contact was his head, but he’s like 6-foot-7. It’s a learning curve for him, obviously, being that tall. He has to play a certain way, so you’re never going to really get around it.”

O’Dette said that hitting at his height was something Rempe struggled with in the WHL. He was suspended four times during the 2021-22 season and five times total in his Thunderbirds career.

“He was profiled, you know, for his size. The refs always had an eye on him,” O’Dette said. “So anytime there was a heavy hit, it more often than not led to a major.”

“I remember at times he would get so frustrated and be in tears some days. He’d say, ‘I’m not meaning to hurt anybody’ or ‘These aren’t dirty hits.’ And he just continued to get kicked out of games and suspended. So it was really frustrating,” the coach added.

Rempe wasn’t a prolific fighter in the WHL. O’Dette said it wasn’t for a lack of trying, but that there weren’t a lot of takers, given his size.

“I just think he’s just learning about what he can do [as a fighter]. He is still relatively inexperienced in that area,” he said. “Seeing him do as well as he has, it’s been impressive. But yeah, it’s, still relatively new for him.”

Brodzinski said it was the same story in the AHL, although Rempe did fight more there.

“I think around six or seven fights this year, maybe a couple more in preseason. So he has fought quite a bit,” the Rangers center said. “I don’t think a lot of guys really wanted to fight him. He’d ask a bunch of guys, and people would just say ‘no.'”

But Rempe has heard “yes” in the NHL, starting with Martin in the Stadium Series game, who likened Rempe’s reach to that of Zdeno Chara, the retired defenseman listed at 6-foot-9.

“Matt Martin didn’t have to say ‘yes’ at that point at all. So it was kind of a nice old guy giving the young guy a fight, and the young guy showing up to the show and saying, ‘Here I am,'” Scott said.

When Scott, the 2016 NHL All-Star Game MVP, played his first full season with the Minnesota Wild in 2009-10, his inaugural fight was with Anaheim Ducks enforcer George Parros.

“He said before the fight, ‘I shouldn’t fight you. But any time I ask you to fight going forward, you have to say ‘yes,’ because I’m doing you a favor.’ And I was like ‘absolutely.’ So I kind of treated it like that where the young kids come up and I’d give ’em a shot whenever they would ask,” Scott said.

Now, Scott is looking out for another young fighter.

SCOTT SAID HE CONNECTED with Rempe through social media and has been offering advice to the Rangers rookie.

“If you don’t use your reach, it’s useless. It’s almost a hindrance,” he said. “Being a tall guy too, I know how to protect myself, but still be able to do my job and inflict some damage.”

Some have expressed concerns about Rempe’s future health with the way he has taken punches in these fights. It turns out one of the NHL’s most prolific fighters of the last 15 years shares those concerns.

“I’ve just been trying to give him a few tips on how to protect yourself a little bit and prolong your career,” Scott said. “If he keeps doing what he’s doing, he will have a short career. He’ll get concussions and it’ll just be hard for him to come back.”

Rempe’s home debut for the Rangers was notable for what didn’t happen. Despite being in MSG in front the fans that had embraced him, despite being on the ice against Olivier for a potential rematch, Rempe didn’t have a fight. He threw a couple of good hits in 7:42 ice time and had a team-low 11 shifts.

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette wouldn’t detail the conversations he has had with Rempe about when or when not to fight. But Laviolette, in his 22nd year as an NHL head coach, acknowledged that he has told players in the past to keep the gloves on.

“I think in Carolina we told the whole team not to fight. It was the end of the year. We were locked in for the playoffs and just didn’t want to lose anybody,” he said. “I think there’s always situations that happen where you got to defend yourself or you got to defend your teammate. Those things happen out there. But we’ve definitely had those conversations.”

Scott said he wouldn’t be shocked if the Rangers had discouraged Rempe from fighting so frequently.

“As a young kid, you don’t pick your spots. You just ask everybody at all times. The Olivier fight was great. I don’t think it was a good spot for him to fight because the Rangers are a better team and obviously Columbus got momentum from it,” Scott said. “So it would not surprise me if they sat him down. If not [the coaches], just a veteran on the team who could just say, ‘Hey, we know you’re tough now. You don’t have to do it every single shift. Maybe pick your spots a little better.'”

Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said he hasn’t had that talk yet and wouldn’t tell Rempe to change his behavior.

“I’m sure he’s had some conversations with some people, but from my standpoint, he is doing what he wants to do to contribute to the team,” the veteran defenseman said. “I think he’s come in and provided something that we didn’t have. I think there’s a lot of value to it. I have a lot of respect for what he’s doing. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially coming as a young player, but he’s contributing.”

Rempe believes he has more to contribute beyond fighting. He has worked on his skating, his wall play as a winger and his speed when playing center. He has tried to go from a wrecking ball on the forecheck to someone more aware of the details on a play. While no one’s going to confuse him with Artemi Panarin, Rempe believes he has some offensive upside, having scored 17 goals in 56 games in the WHL back in 2021-22.

“I want to continue to show my skill set,” he said.

But his greatest asset is his energy. O’Dette talked about how the Thunderbirds used Rempe as the template when talking about commitment, long after he had left the organization. “First guy at the rink, last guy to leave the ice. He shifted our culture,” he said.

It was the same story in Hartford, according to Brodzinski, who said Rempe was a pacesetting teammate before and during games. “He’s always high-tempo. He’s very assertive when he plays, so you’re going to get that from him every night,” he said.

Trouba has now seen Rempe bring that energy to the Rangers. “I think it raises everyone’s level in a way. I think you have a guy on your team that goes out there and puts it on the line every night like that, I think it’s a message to the room,” he said.

No one’s sure about the shelf life of Rempemania. The Rangers’ lineup could change by the March 8 trade deadline, leaving Rempe out in favor of a veteran addition on the wing. Laviolette could decide to go in another direction with his forward depth as the playoffs draw closer. Maybe Rempe ends up not being as effective after this initial euphoric blast.

Rempe said he’s not worried about sticking around in the long term. He’s too busy trying to make the most of this “dream come true” that he’s experiencing on every shift.

“I’m 21, so I’m going to play my heart out every time and every practice, every game,” he said. “I love this game. I think it’s so fun. I love getting better. I love practice, I love it all. I love every aspect of it. I’d love to be a New York Ranger for a long time, but I want to take it day by day. I don’t know what tomorrow brings. I don’t know what the next day brings. If I just do my job, that’s all I can control.”

No matter how it ends up, it has been a myth-making few weeks for Matt Rempe, both in New York and around the NHL.

“We haven’t seen someone come in the league and do what he’s done in a long time,” Trouba said.

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The top reason to watch every NHL team in the Frozen Frenzy

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October 28, 2025

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The top reason to watch every NHL team in the Frozen Frenzy

  • Greg WyshynskiOct 28, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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      Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

The NHL Frozen Frenzy is like the best hockey buffet ever cooked up.

There will be some popular main courses. There will be some delectable side dishes. But with all 32 teams in action from 6 p.m. ET puck drops through the Battle of California showdown between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks at 11 p.m. ET, fans will be able to sample all the NHL has to offer in one gluttonous sitting.

Here are reasons to watch all 32 teams during the Frozen Frenzy and beyond, from superstar players to teams with championship aspirations to controversial storylines to Alex Ovechkin once again chasing NHL goal-scoring history.

Here we go … and enjoy the Frenzy!

Atlantic Division

The constant David Pastrnak

Since 2023, the Bruins have said farewell to franchise standard-bearers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci (retirement) as well as Brad Marchand, their heart-and-soul captain who won a Stanley Cup with Florida after an NHL deadline trade.

Which is to say that Pastrnak has seen a lot of friends leave the Bruins’ locker room, but he just keeps doing what he does best: scoring at will. Pasta has 13 points, including five goals, in his first 10 games this season. That’s to be expected for the fifth leading scorer in the NHL (329 in 246 games) over the previous three season.

The cast changes in Boston. Pastrnak remains a shining star.

Is the goaltending finally fixed?

There are many reasons why the Sabres have crashed like a Bills fan through a table in every season since last making the playoffs in 2011, but one of the primary ones has been a lack of quality goaltending. That problem was exacerbated by presumed starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen taking a step back last season.

Injuries to Luukkonen in the preseason opened the door for backup Alex Lyon, signed as a free agent and coming out of the gate with a .922 save percentage in seven games; and rookie Colten Ellis, who made 29 saves in his NHL debut. Dashing early-season hopes is kind of the Sabres’ thing, but at the very least, these two netminders have generated some hope for Buffalo.

Is this the year?

It’s an annual rite in the NHL: The Red Wings being poised to break out as a contender before falling short of the postseason, which they’ve done every season since 2015-16.

But through nine games, Detroit is 6-3-0 and in second in the Atlantic Division thanks to a dominant 5-1-0 record at home. The chemistry between leading scorer Dylan Larkin (13 points) and standout winger Lucas Raymond with rookie forward Emmitt “Finsanity” Finnie has been palpable. The line of Alex DeBrincat, Marco Kasper and Patrick Kane is chipping in. The Red Wings are thriving despite goalies John Gibson (acquired from the Ducks last summer) and Cam Talbot playing below replacement level to start the season.

If every part of Detroit’s engine gets roaring at the same time, how far can the team roll?

The champs are (mostly) here!

The Panthers’ bid for a third straight Stanley Cup win and fourth straight trip to the Cup Final got off to an injurious start.

Star winger Matthew Tkachuk had groin surgery in August, putting him out until December at the earliest. Then the Panthers lost star center and team captain Aleksander Barkov on his first day of training camp, needing surgery to repair the ACL and MCL in his right knee — injuries that will sideline him for the regular season and potentially the playoffs. They also lost defenseman Dmitry Kulikov for five months with an upper-body injury.

And yet the Panthers are maintaining their level of play, if not thriving: 5-5-0 in their first 10, being led in both goals (five) and points (11) by the Rat King himself, Brad Marchand.

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Brad Marchand scores goal vs. Penguins

Brad Marchand lights the lamp

No. 1 for a reason

Through 10 games, the Canadiens led the Atlantic with a 7-3-0 record. There are plenty of reasons for this great start, from the outstanding play of rookie goalie Jakub Dobes and winger Ivan Demidov to the continued maturation of players such as Lane Hutson and Alex Newhook.

But the constant for the Habs has been their No. 1 line of Cole Caufield (seven goals), Nick Suzuki (13 points) and Juraj Slafkovsky, who are scoring over 3.5 goals per 60 minutes and giving up only 0.95 goals per 60 minutes to far this season.

The bunch without Brady

Brady Tkachuk is the driving force behind the Ottawa Senators, both statistically and as one of the NHL’s most influential captains. But the Sens lost him to a torn ligament in his right thumb on Oct. 13 which required surgery, and likely will keep him out until around Thanksgiving.

The Sens are 4-4-1 through nine games. Helping to fill the void left by Tkachuk are two players off to a fast start: Centers Shane Pinto (eight goals through nine games) and Dylan Cozens (six).

Is their luck turning?

Eight of the Lightning’s first nine games this season have been decided by one goal. They were 1-2-2 in those games until back-to-back wins against the Ducks and Golden Knights at home.

Of course, as Billy Zane taught us in “Titanic”: Sometimes you make your own luck. Getting a more consistent defensive performance from their dynamic top line — Brayden Point is a minus-10 already — would be a good start.

What happens when the World Series is over?

The good news in Toronto: The incredible run by the Blue Jays to the World Series has brought the city — and much of the nation — together in following every Vladimir Guerrero Jr. swing and Trey Yesavage pitch this postseason. (Hence the change in start time for the Maple Leafs-Flames game to 6 p.m. ET.)

That means there has been a lot less attention — and scrutiny — on a post-Mitch Marner Maple Leafs team that is decidedly OK and nothing more so far. They’re eighth offensively thanks to 14 points in eight games by William Nylander — and 28th defensively thanks to below-replacement goaltending. Joseph Woll is back after an extended personal absence, so that should help the latter.

But once the World Series is over, fans will go from talking about Max Scherzer to Max Domi. And we can’t even imagine the takes if the Jays eliminate the Dodgers and plan the parade the Leafs have been trying to draw up again since the 1960s.

Metropolitan Division

When will Nikolaj Ehlers get rolling?

Some cynical Winnipeg fans are bathing in schadenfreude watching Ehlers’ first handful of games with the Hurricanes.

Ehlers left the Jets as a free agent for a six-year, $51 million deal as the latest solution on the wing for Carolina’s top line. While linemates Seth Jarvis (seven goals) and Sebastian Aho (10 points) are thriving, Ehlers went five straight games without a point to start the season.

The good news for Carolina and their new great Dane: He has assists in three straight games, so maybe the aforementioned rolling has started.

The Big Boss

Dmitri Voronkov doesn’t have the name recognition of Zach Werenski, Adam Fantilli or linemate Kirill Marchenko when it comes to Blue Jackets in the hockey discourse. But the 6-foot-5, 235-pound winger who self-bestowed the nickname “Big Boss” has been an absolute force so far this season on Columbus’s top line.

He scored five goals and added four assists through eight games for the Jackets, skating to a plus-8. GM Don Waddell challenged Voronkov to work on his conditioning when he signed him to a two-year contract extension in July. That could be the key for the Big Boss surpassing his 23 goals and 24 assists in 73 games last season.

Jack Hughes, goal machine

When Hughes is healthy and in the lineup, few players in the NHL provide their team the propulsive offensive spark that the 24-year-old center provides the Devils. Hughes has eight goals in nine games for New Jersey, including two game winners. Jesper Bratt has assisted on five of them — there are times when Bratt and Hughes seem like they’re playing on a different speed setting than everyone else.

The Devils have never had a 50-goal or 100-point scorer in franchise history. Hughes is on pace for both — provided he can stay in the lineup.

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Jack Hughes scores hat trick in Devils’ win

Jack Hughes leads the Devils to a 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs with his third career hat trick.

The joy of Matthew Schaefer

Few rookies have arrived in the NHL with the boundless enthusiasm and positivity of Matthew Schaefer. The first overall pick in this summer’s draft, the 18-year-old defenseman has earned his freshman year ice time (23:12 per game) with seven points through eight games, including three points on the power play.

The charismatic Schaefer was an instant fan favorite, with the crowd at UBS Arena chanting his name during a recent win over San Jose. Schaefer acknowledged those cheers after the game: “I love this place! Let’s go Islanders, baby!”

Are they OK?

Perhaps this is a transition season. Perhaps new captain J.T. Miller hasn’t imprinted his win-at-all-costs style on the rest of the roster. Perhaps new coach Mike Sullivan just needs more time to unlock his roster’s offense or perhaps even he can’t solve the team’s depth issues.

Whatever the reasons, the Rangers have stumbled to a 3-5-2 start, with goal scoring that ranks 31st in the NHL. There’s still plenty of time to turn the team around in front of goalie Igor Shesterkin. Perhaps that starts during the Frenzy.

Trevor Zegras‘ second act

Before the season, former Ducks phenom Zegras told me that he wanted people to “go from saying ‘He’s good at hockey’ to ‘He’s a hockey player'” after his first season in Philadelphia.

The early returns are strong: two goals and six assists in eight games, skating to a plus-5 while averaging 16:48 of ice time per game. The only bummer for Zegras is that he hasn’t gotten a strong run at center yet for the Flyers. But as his game continues to rebound, perhaps those opportunities to be a “hockey player” will flourish.

Crosby, Malkin delay the inevitable

What the projected timeline had been for the Penguins this season: After an atrocious start clinches a fourth straight season without reaching the playoffs, franchise icons Evgeni Malkin (in the last year of his contract) and Sidney Crosby (exhausted by losing) are traded to Stanley Cup contenders.

Instead, Geno and Sid have disrupted the timeline.

The Penguins’ stars have helped the team to a 6-2-1 start, good for second in the Metro. Malkin leads the team with 14 points through nine games, while Crosby has 11 points through nine games, which includes a recent hat trick against the Stanley Cup champion Panthers. They’ve both said they don’t want their ride in Pittsburgh to end. They’re playing like it.

Ovechkin goes for 900 (and more…)

During last season’s Frozen Frenzy, Alex Ovechkin was still 41 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record. One year later, Ovi has not only surpassed The Great One’s 894 career goals — the “Gr8 Chase” ended on Apr. 6 — but he is one goal away from becoming the first NHL player to score 900 goals in his career.

Ovechkin recently played his 1,500th career game, a standard only seven other players have achieved. That’s a lot of games … and how many more Ovechkin will play in the NHL beyond this season is an undeniable undercurrent every time he steps on the ice for the Capitals.

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Alex Ovechkin extends record goal tally with No. 899

Alex Ovechkin lights the lamp for his 899th goal to pad the Capitals’ lead.

Central Division

The new dynamic duo

For 15 years and three Stanley Cup championships, the Blackhawks were defined by a pair of star forwards: Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. We’re not looking to burden two burgeoning stars with that weight of history, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the “Chicago’s new dynamic duo” hype when discussing Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar.

Bedard, 20, is looking to rebound after failing to meet expectations last season, following his rookie of the year win in 2023-24. Nazar, 21, looks primed for a breakout season in Year 2, leading Chicago in goals (four) and points (nine) through nine games.

If nothing else, they’ve already achieved something Kane and Toews did in Chicago: Making the Blackhawks a team worth watching again.

Nate Dog is barking

Nathan MacKinnon willed the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup in 2022. Since then, Colorado has lost in the first round twice and the second round once despite a deep, star-studded lineup.

“You don’t want to win just one with this group. If we only got one, it would be tough,” MacKinnon said before the season.

The hunger for a championship is back for the Avalanche and MacKinnon, who has seven goals and seven assists through 10 game and is looking absolutely dangerous every time he touches the puck.

Otter in the net

It has been quite a ride for Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger. He made the Team USA 4 Nations Face-Off roster last season and is expected to challenge Connor Hellebuyck as the nation’s Olympic starter next February in Italy.

Then, he’ll hope to lead the Stars back to the Western Conference finals … where coach Peter DeBoer pulled him after giving up two goals on two shots in their Game 5 elimination to the Oilers. DeBoer was let go this offseason, partially for the way he handled that situation. Oettinger has said his piece about how it affected him.

Now, it’s back to leading the Stars to a fourth straight conference finals while increasing his standing in the eyes of Team USA.

The $136 million man

Kirill Kaprizov has been the most important player on the Wild since he arrived in the NHL, winning rookie of the year in 2020-21. Beginning next season, he’ll also be their wealthiest player.

Kaprizov and the Wild shocked the NHL when the inked an eight-year, $136 million contract extension in September. It’s the richest contract in total dollars and annual cap hit ($17 million) in NHL history.

As he does every season, Kaprizov is proving his worth: He has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 10 games.

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Kirill Kaprizov tallies goal vs. Rangers

Kirill Kaprizov nets goal for Wild

Countdown to extinction

The Predators (4-4-2) are off to a better start than last season’s 0-5-0 stumble that helped dig a hole from which they could not climb. But there are many more questions than answers right now.

Can they maintain that pace without top defenseman Roman Josi, who is week-to-week because of an upper body injury? What happened to Steven Stamkos, as one of the best goal scorers of the past 20 NHL seasons mustered only one power-play goal in his first 10 games?

The good news is that Juuse Saros looks like his old self again. Perhaps he can keep this thing on track because if Nashville jumps the rails, it might be time for GM Barry Trotz to plot a new course for the franchise.

The future is now for Jimmy Snuggerud

Snuggerud is so polished as a 21-year-old player that it’s sometimes hard to remember that he’s an NHL rookie.

Blues fans (and Snuggerud himself) got a reminder of that last week when coach Jim Montgomery kept him on the bench for the third period and overtime in a loss to the Kings. Snuggerud has three goals and three assists through eight games for the Blues, making his mark in a crowded rookie field this season.

Meet the NHL’s newest contender

While they have many former Arizona Coyotes players on their roster, the Mammoth are considered a new franchise by the NHL. They were the Utah Hockey Club in their inaugural 2024-25 season. Now they’re the Utah Mammoth in Year 2 and looking to make some serious noise in the Western Conference despite their newbie status.

That goes for their players, too: Top scorers like Logan Cooley (21 years old), Dylan Guenther (22) and JJ Peterka (24, acquired from Buffalo last summer) are some of their youngest players, as well. The Mammoth enter the Frenzy atop of the Central Division having won seven games in a row — unsurprisingly, a franchise record.

The Toews comeback

Before this season, Jonathan Toews last played in the NHL on April 13, 2023, as the then-captain of the Chicago Blackhawks and a three-time Stanley Cup champion.

Dealing with the effects of long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome, Toews said he was stepping away from hockey but not retiring. He went on a “healing journey” that included “five weeks in India undergoing an Ayurvedic detox called a Panchakarma” in November 2024, after which Toews said his health was “trending” in the right direction.

He signed with his hometown Jets as a free agent this summer. That Toews is even playing is miraculous. That he has five points in nine games, playing 16:04 per game on average for the Jets, is extraordinary.

Pacific Division

Leo Carlsson‘s star turn

Carlsson has oozed star quality since the Ducks drafted him No. 2 in 2023. His big frame (6-foot-3) and great hands have earned him comparisons to Penguins star Evgeni Malkin, and now Carlsson is trying to have the offensive stats to match.

The 20-year-old center has nine points through eight games, playing in between fellow young star Cutter Gauthier and veteran winger Alex Killorn. He’s one to watch, for sure.

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Leo Carlsson scores goal vs. Predators

Leo Carlsson nets goal for Ducks

Time to salvage the season?

After nearly making the playoffs last season with 96 points, the Flames are one of the most disappointing teams early in the 2025-26 season.

Their offense ranks last in the NHL (2.00 goals per game) after producing only one goal in five of their first seven games. That led standout goalie Dustin Wolf to lament, via Sportsnet: “I mean, I can’t generate offense. I do my job, I try to keep the puck out of our net, and hope that our guys can generate a couple.”

Calgary had an uptick in scoring heading into the Frenzy, scoring three times in a loss to Winnipeg and a season-high five times in a win over the Rangers. But at 2-7-1 after 10 games, time is already running short for coach Ryan Huska’s team.

Can they turn things around, starting against Toronto?

Connor and Leon

Let’s not overthink this. The Oilers are blessed with arguably the two best hockey players on the planet in Connor McDavid, who has 12 points in 10 games but only one goal thus far, and Leon Draisaitl, who has 11 points in 10 games, including seven goals.

They power their own lines for Edmonton and combine their supernatural hockey acumen on the power play. Connor and Leon have led the Oilers to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final losses to the Panthers.

With McDavid signing just a two-year contract extension before the season, the Oilers explicitly understand they’re on the clock to win soon with these two superstars on the roster.

Farewell, Mr. Kopitar

While some veteran NHL stars are playing it coy about their futures, Kings captain Anze Kopitar announced before the season that this will be his last NHL campaign. (That he announced it the same day that Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw revealed he was retiring was a matter of unfortunate timing.)

The legendary center is in his 20th season with the Kings, having led them to two Stanley Cup wins and winning both the Selke Trophy (best defensive forward) and Lady Byng (gentlemanly play) twice. Catch the best Slovenian-born player in hockey history while you can.

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Anze Kopitar announces he’ll retire after season to focus on family

Kings captain Anze Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, announces he will retire after the 2025-26 season to focus on family.

Macklin Celebrini, superstar

After being drafted first overall in 2024, Celebrini had a strong rookie season (63 points in 70 games) and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy. Through nine games this season, it’s clear he’s on the cusp of superstardom.

Celebrini has dominated with six goals and nine assists, combining with fellow young star Will Smith and veteran winger Tyler Toffoli on a line that’s averaging over 4.6 goals per 60 minutes when paired together.

He has played himself into the Team Canada Olympic roster conversation. He’s going viral in weird New York City street interviews. He has arrived.

The NHL’s most surprising start

The Kraken began this season with a new head coach in Lane Lambert, a new power forward in former Stars winger Mason Marchment but much of the same cast as last season’s also-ran that earned coach Dan Bylsma a ticket out of town.

There wasn’t much optimism surrounding the Kraken … and yet there they are at 5-2-2 through their first nine games, second in the Pacific Division.

They’re not dominating offensively or defensively, nor are their special teams exemplary. But the Kraken are winning hockey games, including being a perfect 3-0-0 at home, where they’ll face the Canadiens in the Frozen Frenzy.

J.T. Miller returns

The Canucks are 5-5-0 under new head coach Adam Foote, which is impressive given some of the injuries the team has been playing through — the latest being star defenseman Quinn Hughes, who has a lower-body injury.

But Tuesday night’s spotlight is on a former Canucks player: Rangers captain J.T. Miller, who makes his first trip back to Vancouver after they traded him to the Blueshirts last season.

Please recall that Miller was traded after clashing with Vancouver star center Elias Pettersson, a conflict that rocked the Canucks’ locker room so roughly that team president Jim Rutherford said there was “no good solution that would keep this group together.”

How Miller will be received by Vancouver fans is one of the Frozen Frenzy’s most anticipated moments.

Mitch Marner finding his fit

The 28-year-old winger made his dramatic exit from Toronto last summer after nine seasons of outstanding statistical output but was treated as a postseason pariah for the Maple Leafs’ lack of playoff success. He’s in Vegas now on a blockbuster eight-year, $96 million contract.

Marner has produced around his career averages so far (10 points through nine games), but he’s still finding his fit with the Knights. His much-anticipated line with Jack Eichel was broken up after three games — with Marner dropping down to play with Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev — but Marner and Eichel were reunited in Sunday’s overtime loss to Tampa Bay. Only two of Marner’s points have come on the power play, but Vegas is ninth in the NHL with the man advantage.

One extra bit of intrigue in Vegas’ Frozen Frenzy matchup against Carolina: Marner used his no-movement clause to reject a trade to the Hurricanes during last season, later saying it was out of consideration of his wife’s pregnancy. (They welcomed a daughter in May 2025.)

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Passan: 18 innings, 11 runs, a walk-off homer — and an epic Game 3

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October 28, 2025

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Passan: 18 innings, 11 runs, a walk-off homer -- and an epic Game 3

LOS ANGELES — The game that had everything ended at 11:50 p.m. PT on Monday. For the previous 6 hours, 39 minutes, Game 3 of the World Series played out like a fantastical dreamscape of baseball, filled with tension and drama and madness. It was a game unlikely any before, never to be repeated again, and when the 18th inning ended and the Los Angeles Dodgers had beaten the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5, it was, in a way, a relief, because holding your breath for hours on end is not a sustainable way to live.

Such is the price we pay for an affair like Game 3. The Dodgers and Blue Jays competed at an exceptional level in the longest game in World Series history by innings and second-longest by time. They punched and counterpunched, emptied their benches and bullpens. They executed with wizardry and found pieces of themselves they didn’t know existed. And in the 18th inning, it was Freddie Freeman, already the hero of last year’s World Series, who deposited a center-cut sinker from Brendon Little over the center-field fence 406 feet away.

There have been 703 games played in the 121-year history of the World Series. While there are certainly competitors, this one launched itself into the upper echelon, undoubtedly elite, and left the 52,654 fans at Dodger Stadium as giddy as they were almost seven years to the day earlier, when the only other 18-inning game in World Series history ended the same way: with a Dodgers walk-off homer.

The heroes were plentiful, and in the aftermath of the lunacy, one of them stood in the Dodgers’ clubhouse, still trying to process what happened. Will Klein, the last man out of the Dodgers’ bullpen, a reliever who had topped out this year at two innings and 30 pitches, threw four innings of one-hit ball and struck out five on 72 pitches. The last of them, an 86 mph curveball, induced a swing and miss from Tyler Heineman and a scream from Klein, who understood what had been asked of him and knew he’d delivered.

Games don’t become classics without efforts like Klein’s — and he had an admirer who wanted to acknowledge that. Into the Dodgers’ clubhouse strode Sandy Koufax, his eminence of Dodgers pitching, who, at 89 years old, looked no worse for the wear at 12:48 a.m. Koufax walked up to Klein, stuck out his hand, looked him in the eyes and said: “Nice going.”

This was that kind of game, the one that forges bonds between a Hall of Famer and a man with 22.2 career major league innings who didn’t make the Dodgers’ roster in any of the previous three rounds of the postseason. The kind of game that prompted Klein to unlock his phone just to see how many messages he had, only for him to scroll … and keep scrolling … and keep scrolling to the point he just stopped. The kind of game that made Klein marvel to a friend in the clubhouse: “Seventy-two. Can you believe it?”

Game 3 was anarchy, a funhouse mirror of a ballgame, everything out of order. Shohei Ohtani‘s magnificence is never in question, but to see a baseball player reach nine times, something that had been done only twice in big league history — never in the postseason and not since 1942 — still registered as incredible, his magnitude lording over the game from beginning to end. He led off the game for the Dodgers with a double. He homered his next time up. He doubled again. He homered once more, his second of the game, his eighth of the postseason, to tie the game at 5 and unleash the chaos to come.

At that point, Blue Jays manager John Schneider had seen enough. In the ninth inning, Ohtani became the first hitter intentionally walked with the bases empty in the ninth inning or later of a postseason game. The next three times he came to the plate — twice with the bases empty — Schneider held up four fingers and gladly gave Ohtani a free pass. In the 17th, with a runner on first, the Blue Jays opted to pitch to him — and Brendon Little promptly deposited four balls nowhere near the strike zone. (Schneider said after the game to expect more tiptoeing around Ohtani in the days to come.)

Schneider’s decision-making earlier in the game, in which he tried to scratch across runs by substituting in a cadre of pinch runners, left the Blue Jays’ lineup compromised for most of the second half of the game. Against a Dodgers bullpen that had been a sieve for most of the postseason, Toronto managed just one run in 13⅓ innings. Los Angeles used 10 pitchers — including Clayton Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer. Kershaw came on in the 13th with the bases loaded, ground through a nine-pitch at-bat against Nathan Lukes and induced a dribbler to second base that Tommy Edman scooped with his glove to Freeman.

Memorable moments abounded over the game that featured 615 pitches, the most in a postseason game since MLB began tracking pitches in 1988. In the 14th, Will Smith lofted a fly ball to center field and dropped his bat, thinking it was a game winner. The ball died on the warning track. Teoscar Hernández, who, like Ohtani, had four hits, did the same in the 16th. It wound up in a glove, too.

By that point, Klein had arrived and set about pulling a modern-day Nathan Eovaldi, who went 97 pitches over the final six innings of the 2018 marathon. In Klein’s final inning, Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who had thrown a 105-pitch complete game two days prior — was warming up in the bullpen. Klein walked two batters. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts could have easily gone to Yamamoto. He stuck with Klein.

Klein just did it, because he had to, and that, as much as anything, is the lesson of an evening like Game 3, when a great game — which this was for the first dozen or so innings — evolves into something different altogether. Game 3 was a test. Of endurance and will — or, as it were, Will.

“You just got to either do it or you don’t,” said Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski, who spent time with Klein at AAA this season. “You go out there and you’re like, ‘I know what has to be done here and let’s see what I got.’ I like moments like that because it’s a test of your character. More than that, it’s a test of everything else.”

Klein passed. And Freeman, of course, is the valedictorian of such moments, one of the clutch kings of his generation. He had struggled much of the postseason, entering the game with only one RBI in the Dodgers’ previous dozen playoff games. His first two in this World Series had looked a far cry from his performance last year, when, nursing a number of injuries, he hit a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 and won series MVP. It wasn’t just the lack of production. He wasn’t hitting the ball particularly hard, either.

On the final pitch, he finally did. This is the kind of thing that happens in 18-inning games. They are uncomfortable and scary and can end with the crack of a bat. It is terrifying. It is beautiful. It is everything.

Those lucky enough to bear witness will never forget it, either. They squirmed and flinched and closed their eyes and prayed and squealed and cringed and, in the end, saw 31 hits and 37 runners left on base and 19 pitchers and one particularly majestic swing that, 10 minutes shy of Monday turning into Tuesday, ended one of the best World Series games ever — and gave the Dodgers a 2-1 advantage in this year’s series.

Klein isn’t sure how his arm will feel by the time he returns to the ballpark Tuesday for Game 4. Typically, he said, he’s a Day 2 guy, the soreness not coming until the second day after an outing. After being lavished with praise from his teammates and thanked by Sandy Koufax and written into the annals of Dodgers history, though, tomorrow and the next day wasn’t of much concern.

“I feel great right now,” he said, and with good reason. He was the winning pitcher, the stopper, the MVP of the night every bit as much as Freeman and Ohtani, and the adrenaline rush numbed whatever pain will eventually arrive. That’s for another day. This was everything — and more.

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Springer exits with injury; Jays await MRI results

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6 hours ago

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October 28, 2025

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Springer exits with injury; Jays await MRI results

  • Jesse RogersOct 27, 2025, 11:06 PM ET

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      Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.

LOS ANGELES — Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer exited Game 3 of the World Series with a right side injury, leaving his status for Game 4 uncertain.

Springer injured himself on a swing in the seventh inning Monday night. He was clearly in pain as he grabbed the right side of his body immediately after fouling off a 95 mph fastball from Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski. Springer called for a Blue Jays athletic trainer, and there was almost no discussion of him staying in the game.

“George, it’s some right side discomfort,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Toronto’s 6-5 loss in 18 innings that put L.A. up 2-1 in the Series. “He already went for a MRI. We’ll see how it comes back and see how he walks up [Tuesday], but it sucks.”

Ty France replaced Springer with an 0-1 count and eventually struck out in an eight-pitch at-bat against Wrobleski. Springer, France and Davis Schneider combined to go 2-for-9 with three strikeouts out of the leadoff spot.

“He’s obviously a huge part of our lineup,” Schneider said of Springer. “Glad I got him out when I did, and hopefully it didn’t make anything worse, but we’ll see how he is [Tuesday].”

Springer was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium, where he was routinely booed before each at-bat — a callback to his days with the Houston Astros and their sign-stealing scandal of 2017 and 2018. Springer was the 2017 World Series MVP when the Astros beat the Dodgers in a seven-game World Series.

Springer had three hits during the first two games of the World Series in Toronto.

Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.

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