NHL Season Opens Tuesday as Hurricanes Raise Cup Banner Before Panthers
The short version
- The NHL season opens Tuesday with Carolina raising its Stanley Cup banner before hosting Florida.
- Connor Hellebuyck is suspended in Winnipeg amid a trade request; Dylan Larkin's Detroit situation is unresolved.
- Both AP writers pick Macklin Celebrini for the Hart Trophy and see San Jose as a playoff riser.
- Wawrow picks Montreal to win the Cup; Whyno picks Florida over Edmonton in the Final.
Connor Hellebuyck's suspension in Winnipeg and Dylan Larkin's uncertain status in Detroit headline the NHL's return, with Carolina hosting Florida on opening night.
The new NHL campaign gets underway Tuesday night in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes will lift their Stanley Cup banner before taking on the Florida Panthers in a matchup of the two teams many expect to contend for the title. The league has scheduled a record 1,344 regular-season games ahead of the postseason and the June Final.
Two situations loom over the start of the year. Winnipeg is without Connor Hellebuyck, the Olympic gold-medal-winning U.S. goaltender, who has been suspended while he waits for the trade he asked for. In Detroit, captain Dylan Larkin's status remains unresolved as the season arrives.
Associated Press hockey writers John Wawrow and Stephen Whyno offered their forecasts for the months ahead. On the surprise front, Wawrow believes San Jose general manager Mike Grier's steady, sensible rebuild will pay dividends with a Pacific Division crown. Whyno also likes the Sharks, predicting a playoff berth for Macklin Celebrini and company after a Hellebuyck trade brings an established netminder rather than continuing to wait on Yaroslav Askarov.
As for potential letdowns, Wawrow pointed to Edmonton, where Mike Babcock takes over behind the bench on a boom-or-bust proposition. Whyno forecast a fall for Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh, sliding back toward the lower half of both the Metropolitan Division and the East after an unexpected playoff appearance in Dan Muse's debut season behind the bench.
Both writers see the same Hart Trophy winner: Celebrini, whose first MVP award would come with a scoring title ahead of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon. In goal, Wawrow leans on Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy as the safest Vezina choice, while Whyno tabs Boston's Jeremy Swayman for a career-best year that challenges Hellebuyck and Dallas' Jake Oettinger as the top American-born goalie in the league.
For the Norris, Wawrow passed on Colorado's Cale Makar despite his annual candidacy and sided with either Minnesota's Quinn Hughes or Montreal's Lane Hutson. Whyno took Makar, whose record-setting contract begins in 2027-28 and who would be collecting his third Norris. On the Calder, Wawrow backed Toronto's Gavin McKenna, a Yukon product whose Penn State season proved he could compete against grown men, while Whyno chose Washington defenseman Cole Hutson to follow his brother Lane as rookie of the year, ahead of candidates including McKenna and Philadelphia's Porter Martone.
For the Jack Adams, Wawrow picked Buffalo's Lindy Ruff to rebound from last season's near miss, with San Jose's Ryan Warsofsky a threat, and Whyno went with Montreal's Martin St. Louis on another Canadiens playoff run. In the East, both writers agree on Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Buffalo, Washington and Philadelphia, with Wawrow adding Columbus and Whyno adding Boston. Out West, Colorado, Minnesota, Utah, Dallas, San Jose, Vegas, Anaheim and Edmonton fill Wawrow's bracket; Whyno's differs only in ordering those same eight clubs.
Their championship picks diverge sharply. Wawrow called for Montreal over Minnesota in six games, snapping Canada's long Cup drought, while Whyno expects a third straight Edmonton-Florida Final to end like the previous two, with the Panthers claiming their third title in four years.
Turning to high school play, Larkin is scheduled for a Friday, September 25 matchup at West Aurora High School, with an 8:00 PM EDT start.
Games to watch
