Sabres Notes: Ruff, Tuch, Kekalainen
The Buffalo Sabres’ magical run of 2025-26 came to an end at the hands of a Game 7 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After a stretch where they earned an NHL-best 63 points from a 29-9-5 record since the beginning of 2026, the Sabres ended a drought where they missed the playoffs for 14 years. They won the Atlantic Division for the first time in franchise history, having never finished above fifth in the division before this season. Overall, Buffalo finished with 50 wins and 109 points en route to the postseason.
A huge positive in the right direction for the trending upward Sabres came earlier today during end-of-season press conferences, after the team announced the extension of head coach Lindy Ruff to a two-year deal. Ruff has been with the Sabres before, but in his current stint with the Sabres, he has 86 wins across two seasons and is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, an honor bestowed upon him 20 years ago when he won the award behind the same bench in 2005-06.
The biggest headline outside of Ruff saw all eyes on pending UFA forward Alex Tuch. The Syracuse, NY native finished his fifth season with the Sabres, scoring 33 goals for 66 points in 79 games and adding seven points in 13 playoff games to cap off the final season of his seven-year, $33.25MM ($4.75MM AAV) contract. Tuch said he has an interest in coming back to Buffalo, and that general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen expressed that he wants him back in exit interviews. Contract talks were put on hold during the playoffs, but we’ll see where things go between the Sabres and Tuch.
Additional notes:
- Tage Thompson said he was dealing with lower back injuries that had been lingering from the regular season. He also expressed ‘hitting a wall’ throughout this hockey season, a campaign which began for him at the IIHF World Championships, winning gold for the USA in the summer of 2025 and later at the Olympics in February, leading into the playoff push. The 28-year-old forward finished his 2025-26 NHL season with 81 points in 81 games played and had 15 points in Buffalo’s 13 playoff games.
- In terms of injuries, there were a few notable admissions along with Thompson. Owen Power was dealing with a grade-3 ankle sprain that he suffered late in the second round series against the Montreal Canadiens. Logan Stanley was playing with an undisclosed injury, and Sam Carrick was rushed back from a left-arm injury he suffered in the regular season.
- Along with Lindy Ruff being a ‘no-brainer’ extension for Kekäläinen, there are certainly some decisions that will require all parties to take time as Buffalo moves into its first summer where the grass is greener, thanks to a playoff berth. The window is now open, and Kekäläinen has to build on what this team he inherited had been able to accomplish. Buffalo has just $12.9MM in cap space as they enter this summer, and a good chunk of impact players that they’ll want to ensure they can retain before they make additions to the core. Along with Tuch, Buffalo has to address UFA forwards Beck Malenstyn, Tanner Pearson, Joshua Dunne, and defensemen Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley. On the RFA side, three key younger members in Peyton Krebs, Zach Benson, and defenseman Michael Kesselring are expiring this summer. Kekäläinen also said he told defenseman Bowen Byram, who has a year left at $6.25MM, that he’d like to have him back on a long-term deal.
Capitals Sign Timothy Liljegren To Two-Year Extension
According to a team announcement, the Washington Capitals have extended defenseman Timothy Liljegren to a two-year deal worth around $6.5MM ($3.25MM AAV), as first reported by David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
The 27-year-old finished this past year with Washington, playing just four games with the Capitals after being traded in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2026 from San Jose at this past deadline. With the Sharks, Liljegren finished with one goal for 11 points in 43 games in over 20 minutes of average time on ice and had 83 blocks, which was fourth on the team in that statistical category as well by season’s end.
Liljegren was the back end of a two-year, $6MM ($3MM AAV) contract that he originally signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2024. In Toronto, he played just one game on that contract before he was traded early in the 2024-25 season to the San Jose Sharks for a package deal. He finished his 2024-25 campaign playing 67 games with the Sharks.
The 6-foot-1 Swede was originally selected 17th overall by the Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft and spent his formative six years in Toronto, signing his entry-level contract and later a two-year deal in 2022 worth $2.8MM (1.4MM).
Liljegren’s short stint in Washington saw few games in the lineup, but after top prospect Cole Hutson entered the mix, having finished his NCAA career at Boston University, most of his time was spent in the press box as a healthy scratch.
Washington’s blue line has two other defenseman who have a right handedness under contract. Liljegren is second on the depth chart in that category in terms of the highest average annual value for next season, behind Matt Roy ($5.75MM) and ahead of Dylan McIlrath ($850K). The Capitals have a little over $33MM in cap space and have a few important names to address among expiring contracts. It should be noted that Washington enters next year with the uncertainty of when Rasmus Sandin will return, who is currently healing from his ACL surgery and has been a mainstay for the Capitals’ defensive group.
Alex Ovechkin is the huge headliner that looms for the Capitals among their UFA players. Add in forwards Brandon Duhaime and David Kampf, as well as restricted free agents in Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre, and that will give Chris Patrick some thinking to do. This signing begs the question of what Washington will do about pending UFA Trevor van Riemsdyk, who remains a question mark on the defensive side of expiring deals. As a veteran 34-year old right-shot blue-liner, it’ll be interesting to see if Patrick will opt to run it back with all the familiar names he had in 2025-26 while Sandin heals from his injury and inserts a full campaign of their shiny new toy in Hutson.
Free Agency Notes: Jenner, Laughton, Chrona
The Columbus Blue Jackets may need a new captain for next season, as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reported yesterday that Boone Jenner may be getting “squeezed out of the mix in Columbus” in advance of the expiry of his contract on July 1. Jenner, who was reported to have recently swapped longtime agent Joe Resnick for Pat Morris of Newport Sports Management, has only played for the Blue Jackets in his 808-game NHL career. He’s the franchise’s all-time games played leader. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on today’s 32 Thoughts podcast that Columbus is hoping to find a way to keep Jenner, but Jenner “feels whatever he’s being offered is not anything he’s willing to accept.”
It’s not immediately clear what the Blue Jackets’ offer to Jenner might look like. Head coach Rick Bowness spent much of his time in Columbus utilizing Jenner in the bottom-six. He averaged 16:04 time on ice per game this season, down from 18:00 per game last year. Jenner also lost his grip on a spot on the Columbus power play, after averaging 1:48 time on ice per game there last season. Another factor that could contribute to Jenner’s exit from Columbus is his health. He’s missed significant time due to injuries over the past three years and despite solid production (13 goals, 38 points) in 2025-26, Columbus simply may not be able to offer Jenner the kind of contract he’s looking for given his availability and the amount of money they just committed to another veteran pivot, Charlie Coyle.
Other notes about pending free agents:
- The Los Angeles Kings are holding talks this week with pending UFA center Scott Laughton on a potential contract extension, reports Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period. Laughton, who is also repped by Morris, will see the five-year, $3MM AAV contract he signed in 2021 expire on July 1. The 31-year-old was acquired by the Kings as a deadline deal that returned a third-round pick to his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just one year before that, Laughton’s league-wide stock was high enough for him to return a first-round pick and prospect Nikita Grebenkin on the trade market. Bernstein noted that Laughton was “solid in [head coach] D.J. Smith’s system” after arriving in Los Angeles, so the decision on who the Kings might hire as their permanent bench boss could impact how far the team is willing to go to extend the center. Laughton scored eight points in 21 games with the Kings but has a career-high of 18 goals and 43 points from 2022-23. AFP Analytics projects him to receive a three-year, $4.1MM AAV deal on the open market.
- The SHL’s Brynäs IF have officially announced the signing of goaltender Magnus Chrona to a two-year contract. We first covered reports indicating Chrona would be headed overseas for 2026-27 in January, and today’s announcement has made it official. Chrona, 25, has been a member of the Nashville Predators organization for the last two seasons, originally arriving to the team as part of the Yaroslav Askarov trade in August 2024. In each of his two seasons with the Predators, Chrona served as the No. 2 goalie for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. He posted a .903 save percentage in 2024-25, his debut campaign in Wisconsin, and had an .894 save percentage in 25 games this past year. Although this deal will allow Chrona to return to his home country of Sweden, he has not played there since 2018-19, during his junior hockey days. Chrona backstopped the Denver Pioneers to an NCAA National Championship before beginning his pro career with the San Jose Sharks.
Latest On Mark Stone
Injured Vegas Golden Knights star Mark Stone skated with the team’s scratches this morning. Per Jesse Granger of The Athletic, this is the first time Stone has skated with the team since suffering his lower-body injury. After the skate, head coach John Tortorella was asked about Stone’s status but did not provide any update.
The injury in question was suffered in game three of the team’s second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks. The Golden Knights were still able to fend off the Ducks and win the series despite losing Stone, but the Avalanche present an even greater degree of challenge.
For Vegas to stand the best chance of getting past the Presidents’ Trophy winners to reach their third Stanley Cup Final in franchise history, they’ll likely need Stone back in the lineup.
The 34-year-old winger is among the game’s best all-around forwards when healthy. He has consistently produced around a point-per-game rate since arriving in Vegas, while also playing stellar two-way hockey.
While he has struggled to stay healthy during the regular season – he has hit 80 games played in a season just once in his career – his efforts in the playoffs have helped the Golden Knights make deep playoff run after deep playoff run.
This past season, injuries limited Stone to just 60 games played. But in those 60 contests, Stone reached new heights in terms of impact. He scored 28 goals and 73 points, which is a 38-goal, 100-point 82-game scoring pace.
Stone was also a regular member of the team’s penalty-kill rotation up front. Stone has been a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy twice, and has appeared on Selke ballots nine times throughout his career. His two-way impact is unquestioned – but his availability has been a persistent source of worry.
Vegas will have their hands full stopping the Avalanche’s high-flying attack, especially if star defenseman Cale Makar, who will miss game one with an injury, can return in short order. A healthy Mark Stone would be one of the Golden Knights’ most valuable assets in their fight to slow down the Avalanche, so today’s news is certainly a step in the right direction for the team.
Photos courtesy of Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports
Buffalo Sabres Sign Lindy Ruff To Contract Extension
The Buffalo Sabres announced today that head coach Lindy Ruff has been signed to a two-year contract extension. Ruff’s contract was set to expire this summer, so in signing him, the team has ensured he will return as their head coach for next season and beyond.
Whether Ruff would return behind the bench in Buffalo was never truly in question. While the 66-year-old bench boss could technically have been a candidate to retire, Ruff has shown no indication of slowing down, nor has he expressed even the faintest interest in concluding a coaching career that stretches back to the early ’90s. 
Ruff is a singular figure in the modern history of the Sabres, far and away the franchise’s most meaningful off-ice figure in that time period. He first took charge of the Sabres for the 1997-98 season, and won two playoff series as a rookie head coach. The following year, he led Buffalo to the Stanley Cup final, where they would lose in six games to the Dallas Stars.
After a brief three-year downturn in the early 2000s, Ruff made consecutive runs to the Eastern Conference Final in 2006 and 2007, winning more than 50 games in consecutive regular seasons. He was given the Jack Adams Award in 2006 as the league’s coach of the year.
Now, Ruff could be positioned to win the second Jack Adams Award of his career, in what is his second stint behind the bench in Western New York. In 2024, Ruff took over a Sabres franchise that still had not reached the playoffs since 2011, when Ruff himself was still head coach. It was the longest playoff drought in the NHL. His Sabres overcame a slow start to the season and eventually caught fire, finishing with a 50-23-9 record and an Atlantic Division title.
Ruff had done what had seemed so impossible for much of the late 2010s and early 2020s: turned the Sabres into not just a playoff team, but a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. If not for an Alex Newhook shot in game seven of the team’s second-round series, Buffalo would be in the Eastern Conference Final with a legitimate chance at winning the Prince of Wales Trophy.
Without question, Ruff earned the extension he’s received. With that said, there are still problems for him to sort out. Despite his achievements, Ruff’s work in Buffalo isn’t done yet. He frequently swapped between netminders Alex Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the second round against Montreal, suggesting the team doesn’t yet have a truly reliable No. 1 option in goal. And Ruff’s Sabres were consistently let down by a struggling power play.
But the issues Buffalo now faces are dwarfed by the sheer enormity of the challenges Ruff inherited when he took the Sabres job. The simple fact that the Buffalo market will get to spend the summer discussing improving the power play, or finding more consistent goaltending, rather than the existential crisis of a league-leading playoff drought, is a testament to the magnitude of what Ruff accomplished on his last deal.
Now under contract for an additional two years, Ruff will get the chance to continue coaching this ascendant Sabres team.
Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Anthony Mantha, Penguins Reunion Unlikely
The Pittsburgh Penguins might lose a huge piece of their forward group this summer.
As first reported by Josh Yohe of The Athletic in his offseason writings, Penguins forward Anthony Mantha “was clear with his plans” after meeting with General Manager Kyle Dubas; it appears unlikely that Mantha will return to Pittsburgh. The 31-year-old is projected to eye free agency and capitalize on a career year.
Mantha was one of the most cost-effective players in the entire NHL based on scoring this past season. On a one-year, $2.5MM contract, he finished the 2025-26 season with a career-high 33 goals for 64 points in 81 games played. Crossing the 80-game threshold this season earned him an extra $2MM in performance bonuses per PuckPedia.
That production was fourth on Pittsburgh outside of Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, and Bryan Rust. Most notably, it only cost the Penguins $39K per point that Mantha registered this season, the eighth most cost-effective UFA forward on the market this summer. In six playoff games against the Philadelphia Flyers, he added an assist in the first round.
He was also recognized as the Penguins’ Masterton Trophy nominee, which is given to the player “who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey”. This nomination stems from his bounceback career-year that blossomed after suffering a right ACL injury that limited Mantha to just 13 games with the Calgary Flames in 2024-25.
Mantha has been a bit of a journeyman recently, with Pittsburgh being his fourth stop in the last four seasons of his 11-year NHL career. As a former first-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, he spent six years wearing the winged wheel, three on an entry-level deal before signing a two-year, $6.60MM extension that took him through 2020.
The first year of a newly signed four-year, $22.8MM ($5.7MM AAV) deal, the Red Wings traded the 6-foot-5 forward to the Washington Capitals in April of 2021. He spent three seasons with the Capitals before being dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights in the final year of that deal in March of 2024.
The offseason for Dubas feels opportunistic, but in the Penguins’ end-of-season press conference, the message was clear that the front office is looking to internal and external options to grow their current roster, whether it be through young up-and-coming talent or via a trade. Pittsburgh has around $42MM in cap space to make further decisions on several expiring player deals after extending with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte in their forward group.
If Mantha were to test free agency, it would certainly make Dubas’s ability to keep him in black and gold difficult, not just because of the production, but considering the other members of the team that require addressing. It may not be as easy to allocate a decent portion of that cap space that Mantha would command. But for a player who was a key
Along with Mantha, the Penguins still have unrestricted free agents in forwards Evgeni Malkin, Kevin Hayes, and Noel Acciari, along with back-end expiring deals for Connor Clifton, Ryan Shea, and goaltender Stuart Skinner. As for restricted free agents, Dubas has forward Egor Chinakov and Arturs Silovs in net to figure out.
NHL Sets Offer Sheet Thresholds For 2026
The NHL announced the offer sheet tier list for this summer. Historically, players very seldom sign offer sheets. Since the beginning of the salary cap, over the last two decades, only 12 restricted free agents have signed offer sheets. Of those 12, only four went unmatched by the team that held the player’s arbitration rights.
Still, the last three offer sheets signed have all gone unmatched. The Carolina Hurricanes sent a 2022 first-round pick, a 2022 second-round pick, and a 2022 third-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 for signing Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Additionally, the St. Louis Blues sent a 2025 second-round pick and a 2025 third-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers two summers ago for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, respectively.
It’s always a gamble, especially considering that the highest tier of the threshold requires the signing team to part with four consecutive first-round picks, which very few General Managers, if any, have the stomach to do. That alone may stop teams from approaching Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson about an offer sheet, but there could be other offer sheet-eligible RFA’s to keep an eye out for. Here are the offer sheet tiers for the 2026-27 season as provided by PuckPedia:
| AAV | Draft picks required |
| $1.57596MM or less | No compensation |
| $1.57596MM to $2.387832MM | 2027 Third-round pick |
| $2.387832MM to $4.775666MM | 2027 Second-round pick |
| $4.775666MM to $7.163498MM | 2027 First and third-round pick |
| $7.163498MM to $9.551332MM | 2027 First, second, and third-round pick |
| $9.551332MM to $11.939166MM | ’28 First, ’27 first, second, and a third-round pick |
| Over $11.939166MM | ’30 First-round pick, ’29 first-round pick, ’28 first-round pick, ’27 first-round pick |
Hurricanes Sign Noel Fransen To Entry-Level Contract
According to a team announcement, the Carolina Hurricanes have signed defenseman Noel Fransen to a three-year entry-level contract.
The 20-year-old will make $850,000 in 2026-27, $900,000 in 2027-28, and $950,000 in 2028-29 at the NHL level. If in the AHL, he will receive $85,000 for all three seasons. The deal will include signing bonuses worth $270,000. He signed this deal after finishing his 2025-26 season between two teams in Sweden. In the SHL, he scored two points in 13 games with Farjestad BK and also posted six goals for 14 points in 38 games on loan with BIK Karlskoga in HockeyAllsvenskan.
General Manager Erik Tulsky said in the team’s release, “Noel has all of the attributes we look for in a Carolina Hurricanes defenseman. He has the mobility to close quickly on a play, as well as the speed to be active on offensive transitions. We’re looking forward to seeing him in North America next season.”
Leading into the 2024 NHL Draft, Fransen profiled as a prospect who prioritizes offense through his skating in both transition and in the offensive zone on the blue line. That mobility is emphasized in his transition ability to connect a play from defense through the neutral zone. Fransen was selected as a third-round pick at 69th overall by the Hurricanes in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
He dominated in the junior levels of his native country. In the J18 South and West regions he participated in, Fransen led his counterparts in scoring and overall points by a defenseman. Those same honors followed as he progressed into J20 Nationell play, where he led all defenders in the league in scoring in 2023-24. An honor previously held by other Swedish NHL defenders, including Erik Karlsson (2007-08) and Alexander Edler (2004-05), dating back to 2000.
Fransen graduates from a list of unsigned Hurricanes defensive prospects like Kurban Limatov, Timur Kol, and joins the likes of fellow 20-year-old defender Dominik Badinka in the system, and will compete as a potential NHL roster player on the Hurricanes’ back-end, like another former third-round pick in Alexander Nikishin, who Carolina will consider as a top-priority RFA signing this offseason.
Before this signing, the Hurricanes had around $11.9MM in cap space for the offseason that they’ll have to address towards their unrestricted free agents, which include Nicolas Deslauriers in the forward group, as well as defenseman Mike Reilly and goaltender Frederik Andersen.
Latest On Jesper Wallstedt, Wild Goaltending
The Minnesota Wild could be considering a shift in their crease.
After making the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2014-15 season, General Manager Bill Guerin is going to want to ensure he can elevate his team further beyond that threshold with the current core of players he has built. Among moves the Wild could make, Elliotte Friedman on the FAN Hockey Show said that he doesn’t think Minnesota is going to move off goaltender Jesper Wallstedt, and that Filip Gustavsson would be the netminder in consideration to trade. The discussion originated from an article in The Athletic, which reported that Minnesota had offered Wallstedt in a package deal for Blues center Robert Thomas at the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.
The discussion originated from an article in The Athletic, which reported that Minnesota had offered Wallstedt in a package deal for Blues center Robert Thomas at the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline. Since opting to keep their 23-year old goaltender, Wallstedt split the workload down the stretch of the regular season, playing 10 games, as did Gustavsson. But Wallstedt earned his keep, tallying a .930 save percentage and a 1.98 goals against average to end the regular season. In the playoffs, Gustavsson saw one game to Wallstedt’s 10 in between the pipes, where the rookie goaltender averaged 29.9 saves throughout that stretch.
However, that workload didn’t come without reason. In Minnesota’s end-of-season press conference, it was announced that Gustavsson will undergo offseason hip surgery. Furthermore, the Wild are not sure if he’ll be able to play by the start of next season. This development brings complications to Minnesota and its approach to how it can progress in its offseason moves.
Gustavsson and Wallstedt took up only 6.2% of the Wild’s cap hit in 2025-26, but it won’t be that low for long. Amid Minnesota’s transition in net, having lost Marc-Andre Fleury to retirement, extended Gustavsson to a five-year, $34MM ($6.8MM) contract back on October 4th, 2025, which is set to kick in next year. Despite the decrease in workload due to his injury down the stretch, the 27-year-old Swede still went 28-15-6 through 50 games in 2025-26, posting a .904 save percentage and 2.69 goals against average. He started one playoff game, a 5-2 Game 2 loss to Colorado en route to Minnesota’s second-round exit.
Gustavsson’s extension carries a no-movement clause in the first two seasons of his deal, meaning Guerin would have to get him to waive that clause if a deal were to get done. However, based on comments made at the Wild’s presser, it doesn’t seem like they’re eager to move off either ‘No. 1 goalies,’ a combination that has been fruitful for them so far. Furthermore, the tandem has a good dynamic as natives of Sweden who both represented their country at the past Olympics in Milan.
However, despite the early commitment to having a solidified duo in net for the foreseeable future, Minnesota will have to decide if it is comfortable in keeping both netminders and risking the opportunity of trading for a big-name center pass them by if they decide to stand pat and wait for Gustavsson’s status post-surgery. Top-line centers don’t come across the market often, but management has recently demonstrated that they’re unfazed by making a move to acquire a star.
The Wild have a little over $13MM in cap space this summer, with the eight-year, $136MM ($17MM AAV) extension of Kirill Kaprizov beginning and the ability to extend another key piece in superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes. Some creativity will need to be employed as this contending window has elevated itself for the Wild in its quest for the State of Hockey’s first Stanley Cup.
Minnesota will need to make decisions on a hefty list of pending free agents, including unrestricted forwards Vladimir Tarasenko, Nick Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, Michael McCarron, Marcus Johansson, Robby Fabbri, and defensemen Zach Bogosian, as well as Jeff Petry. Add forward Bobby Brink, who they acquired at the deadline from Philadelphia, and defenseman Daemon Hunt as restricted free agents; that totals 10 skaters that will surely keep the front office pretty wild this summer.
Eastern Conference Final Preview
The Eastern Conference Final is set, with the Carolina Hurricanes hosting the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 on Thursday night at the Lenovo Center. Both teams are four wins away from a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, and both arrive playing some of their best hockey of the season. Carolina returns to the Conference Final for the third time since 2022-23 under Rod Brind’Amour, while Montreal is back at this stage for the first time since their unexpected run in 2021, and the first with their head coach, Martin St. Louis.
Paths to the ECF
Carolina has been the story of the postseason. The Hurricanes swept the Ottawa Senators in Round 1 and followed it up with a four-game sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers in Round 2, becoming the first team to sweep the first two rounds since the NHL went to a best-of-seven format in all four rounds in 1987. Through eight playoff games, they’re 8-0 with a plus-14 goal differential, allowing just 10 goals total and never more than two in a single game.
That dominance comes with a question, though: will 12 days off be a gift or a curse? Carolina last played on May 9, and the layoff is the longest of any team in the conference finals. The history of teams with extended layoffs in the playoffs is mixed. Extra rest can mean fresh legs and full health, but it can also mean a loss of rhythm against a team that’s been in playoff intensity for weeks. Brind’Amour’s group used the time to get fully healthy, run extra video sessions, and skate without the wear of a daily playoff schedule. The Hurricanes have been playing the most cohesive, structured hockey of any team in the postseason, and there’s a real question about whether that timing holds up against an opponent that has been playing high-intensity playoff games for over a month.
Montreal’s path has been the opposite. The Canadiens needed seven games to put away the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1, including four overtime games, before grinding out another seven-game series against the Buffalo Sabres in Round 2. That series included an 8-3 Game 6 loss before the Habs bounced back in Game 7 on Monday night, where Alex Newhook was yet again the game seven hero, scoring the game-winner 11:22 into overtime. Montreal has played 14 games to Carolina’s eight; they arrive battle-tested but on shorter rest, with less than 72 hours between their Game 7 in Buffalo and Game 1 in Raleigh.
Head-to-Head
The 2025-26 regular season series belonged entirely to Montreal. The Canadiens swept Carolina 3-0-0, winning all three games in regulation and outscoring the Hurricanes 15-8. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov each posted five points in the three games, with Slafkovsky scoring the game-winning goal in two of them. Lane Hutson added four points from the back end. Sebastian Aho led Carolina with six points (two goals, four assists), five of which came in one game, and Andrei Svechnikov added five (two goals, three assists).
The two franchises have met twice previously in the playoffs since Carolina’s relocation from Hartford, with the Hurricanes winning both. The most recent meeting was the 2006 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, a series in which Carolina trailed 2-0 before rookie goaltender Cam Ward took over the crease and helped the Hurricanes win the series in six games en route to a Stanley Cup. This is the first time these two have met in a Conference Final.
Key Players
For Montreal, scoring has come from across the lineup. Suzuki has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 14 playoff games, while Newhook (seven goals), Slafkovsky, and Caufield (four goals each) have all chipped in up front. On the back end, Hutson leads the entire team in points with 14, has been logging 26-plus minutes per game, and is the engine of the Canadiens’ transition offense. Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson round out a mobile defensive group.
Carolina’s depth has been the calling card. Taylor Hall has found another gear in his game, playing some of his best hockey since his MVP season back in 2018, and leads the team in scoring with 12 points. Additionally, Jackson Blake, Seth Jarvis, Nikolaj Ehlers, Logan Stankoven, and Andrei Svechnikov all give the Hurricanes scoring threats across the top three lines. Defensively, Jaccob Slavin remains one of the NHL’s premier shutdown defensemen, and rookie Alexander Nikishin has emerged as a real puck-mover in his first full NHL postseason.
Goaltending
Frederik Andersen has been one of this postseason’s biggest stories. He’s 8-0 with a 1.12 GAA and .950 save percentage, leading all playoff goaltenders in both categories. He’s allowed only 10 goals in eight starts and has two shutouts. The catch: Andersen’s regular season was uneven. He went 1-9-2 over a 12-game stretch earlier in the season before bouncing back with a 9-4-0 record after the Olympic break. His two starts against Montreal came during that rough patch where he went 0-2-0 with a 3.73 GAA and .806 save percentage.
For Montreal, Jakub Dobes has stabilized the crease. He started all three regular-season games against Carolina and went 3-0-0 with a 2.67 GAA and .922 save percentage. His postseason numbers are more pedestrian (.910 SV%, 2.52 GAA), but he’s won when it has mattered and, aside from the full team collapse in game 6, was at his best in the Buffalo series. Dobes leads all goaltenders in saves through two rounds with 363.
Transition vs Forecheck
The cleanest stylistic clash of the postseason runs through the neutral zone. Carolina has been the NHL’s premier shot-suppression team for nearly a decade under Brind’Amour, leading the league in 5-on-5 Corsi at 59.77% during the regular season (via moneypuck.com) and allowing just 23.9 shots against per game, also a league best. The mechanism is their aggressive forecheck, which applies pressure on both the strong and weak sides of the ice, an approach that’s rare in the modern NHL. Their wingers crash hard, their weak-side defenseman pinches down the wall, and their defensive zone coverage relies on man-to-man assignments. The result is a team that spends almost no time in its own end and forces opponents into low-danger looks when they do break out.
Montreal is built to attack that structure in the one place it can be exploited. When Carolina’s forecheck is beaten with a clean first pass, their forwards play so deep in the offensive zone that recovery becomes difficult, and odd-man rushes in the other direction are the most common result. The Canadiens have the personnel to take advantage. They have one of the fastest lineups in the NHL: Suzuki, Newhook, Anderson, and Hutson all rank in the 90th percentile or better at their position in 20-plus mph speed bursts, per NHL Edge. The engine, though, is Hutson. The 22-year-old defenseman ranks among the NHL’s most prolific puck-transporters from the back end, but he’s 5-foot-9 and can be worn down on extended defensive shifts where physicality takes its toll. Carolina’s forecheck with guys like Stankoven, Jarvis, and Martinook is specifically designed to dump the puck to a defenseman’s side and hound him through long retrievals. If Hutson handles that pressure cleanly, Montreal’s offense unlocks. If Carolina grinds him down and forces turnovers in his own zone, the Habs’ best weapon becomes a liability.
The Canadiens’ three regular-season wins over Carolina were very likely powered by exactly this dynamic: clean breakouts, fast transitions, and high-quality looks generated against a team that thrives on grinding opponents down in the offensive zone. The shift-by-shift battle to watch: how Carolina’s forecheckers recover after offensive zone turnovers, and whether Montreal’s forwards consistently arrive in the neutral zone in time to punish those breakdowns.
X-Factors
The X-factors for these two teams are essentially mirror images of each other, both rooted in a longstanding tension between chance generation and chance conversion.
Finishing (Carolina): The Hurricanes are perpetually in this conversation, and 2025-26 was no exception. They led the NHL in shot attempts, scoring chances, and high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, yet finished with the 19th-best shooting percentage. The pattern showed up in the regular-season series with Montreal in vivid fashion; Carolina outshot the Canadiens 103-60 across three games and lost all three. Through eight playoff games, the Hurricanes’ shooting percentage has trended back toward the league average, which is a big reason they’re 8-0. Sustaining that against a goalie who has owned them is the question. If Carolina reverts to its season-long shooting struggles, the volume of chances they generate may not be enough to outscore Montreal’s opportunism.
Limiting Chances Against (Montreal): The flip side of Carolina’s chance-generation problem is Montreal’s chance-suppression problem. The Canadiens have been consistently outshot and outchanced through the first two rounds, surviving on goaltending and finishing rather than defensive structure. In the regular season, they ranked fifth-worst in the NHL in high-danger shots against (via moneypuck.com). That’s a manageable issue against the Lightning and Sabres, both of whom run conventional offensive systems. It’s a far bigger problem against a Carolina team specifically built to bury opponents under shot volume. Montreal doesn’t need to flip the underlying numbers; they need to keep Carolina to the perimeter, force them into the low-danger looks that have defined their finishing struggles all season, and trust Dobes to handle the rest.
Wrap Up
On paper, Carolina has every analytical advantage: better possession metrics, better penalty kill, dramatically more rest, and the hottest goaltender in the playoffs. But Montreal arrives with history on its side and a blueprint that’s already worked. They are the youngest team to reach a Conference Final in 33 years, since the 1993 Canadiens, and that team won the Stanley Cup. Add in the regular-season sweep, a stylistic matchup that gives Montreal a real path, and a young core playing with no fear, and the makings of a series far more competitive than the oddsmakers expect are all there. Game 1 drops Thursday in Raleigh.