Carolina raises a banner and the winners of the last three Cups meet on opening night, front offices race to pay the next generation, and a brutal preseason emptied benches before a single game counted.
The Banner Goes Up, and the Chase Resumes
The 2026-27 season drops the puck Tuesday, and it does so with the game's recent history stacked on one sheet of ice: the Carolina Hurricanes will raise their Stanley Cup banner in Raleigh before opening against the Florida Panthers, a meeting of the clubs that have won the last three Stanley Cups. Carolina brings back nearly the roster that outclassed the field in June, which is why the preseason power rankings slot the Hurricanes and the Colorado Avalanche at the head of a genuinely deep pack of contenders. The Avalanche launch their own title push against a made-over Los Angeles Kings club. The most scrutinized opener belongs to Edmonton, where the Mike Babcock era begins against the rebuilding Canucks, a hiring so divisive that franchise icon Mark Messier said he was 'horrified' by it. And in Las Vegas, a Golden Knights team still stung by June's Cup Final loss opens against a Blackhawks side that will again be without the injured Connor Bedard. Read the season-preview capsules for the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference back to back and the same story emerges: continuity at the top of the league, churn nearly everywhere else.
The Kids Get Paid
If there was a through-line to the week's transactions, it was front offices rushing to lock up the next generation before it gets more expensive. Columbus ended a training-camp standoff by signing Adam Fantilli to a six-year, $82.5 million extension, the largest average annual value in Blue Jackets history. Chicago handed 21-year-old Oliver Moore a five-year deal, the latest young Blackhawk secured after Bedard's summer extension. In San Jose, the Sharks made 20-year-old Macklin Celebrini the youngest captain in franchise history, months after he signed a five-year, $94 million pact. Carolina even got ahead of next summer by extending goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov two years. The lone holdout still souring the mood belongs to the champions: Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin remains unsigned and has asked out, with the Rangers reportedly close to a deal at one point. The pattern is unmistakable — the league is committing enormous money to players barely out of their entry-level deals, and betting the ceilings justify it.
Toronto Blows It Up; Montreal Believes
Nowhere was the churn more dramatic than in Toronto. On the eve of the opener, new general manager John Chayka pulled off a blockbuster, sending winger Matthew Knies to Columbus and bringing back Kirill Marchenko, who promptly agreed to a six-year, $75 million extension. It capped an offseason of wholesale change — first overall pick Gavin McKenna, veteran goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, a new coaching staff under Jim Hiller — as the Maple Leafs try to turn the page on a last-place Atlantic finish. Their Tuesday opponent could hardly present a sharper contrast: the Montreal Canadiens, coming off a run to the Eastern Conference final, are thinking big, built around Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and a maturing young core. Two Original Six rivals opening against each other, one still assembling its identity on the fly, the other convinced its window is already open.
A Preseason That Took Its Toll
The compressed four-game preseason exacted a heavy price. The most alarming news came out of Minnesota, where defenseman Brock Faber underwent surgery to repair a fractured skull after taking a deflected shot near the ear — an injury that had Wild general manager Bill Guerin, himself freshly signed to an extension, urging everyone to worry about the human being before the lineup. Elsewhere, the Flyers watched Dan Vladar leave a game with an upper-body injury that clouds his status for opening night; the Rangers lost forward Adam Sykora for four to five months; and the Blues will be without Logan Mailloux for at least eight weeks after he broke his hand in a fight. Pittsburgh, too, will open without Bryan Rust. For a preseason that barely lasted a week, the casualty list read like a midseason stretch.
Away From the Rink
Two developments off the ice framed the week, and they could not have been more different in weight. The first was a tragedy: the father of Penguins forward Andrei Kuzmenko, Alexander, was killed by a bear while on a fishing trip in Siberia. The club said Kuzmenko chose to practice with his teammates before flying to Moscow to be with his family. On the business side, the New York Islanders are reportedly selling a 15 percent stake at a $3 billion valuation — a striking figure for a franchise pegged at under $2 billion a year ago, and one more sign of how fast NHL franchise values keep climbing even as the games themselves finally get underway.