NHL Inbox: Dissecting hot topics, answering your questions, and more

Combining his own perspective with what he's been hearing from those in and around the game, senior NHL writer John Matisz breaks down the hot topics across the hockey landscape.

Extreme highs, lows in Wings land

Red Wings players and coaches woke up Wednesday riding a five-game winning streak and holding down the top spot in the Atlantic Division.

Now, what was the head coach most pleased with following a 5-1-0 start?

"The response after Game 1," Todd McLellan said in the bowels of KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

"We felt we had a real productive training camp, where we worked (hard) and put in play a lot of our structure and the way we wanted to play in certain situations," he added. "That didn't show up in Game 1 ... but the response since that day has been real positive."

Hours after McLellan's answer, Detroit put forth another lackluster effort. The Wings were flat from puck drop, took three penalties in the first period, and never recovered, losing 4-2 to Buffalo. On Thursday, Detroit's record slumped to a mediocre 5-3-0 following an embarrassing 7-2 defeat at the hands of the Islanders. The Wings were deficient and sloppy in all areas.

The 2025-26 season is still young. However, a trend appears to be emerging: Detroit's "on" nights will be tantalizing, and its off nights will be ugly.

Such is life for a proud Original Six franchise attempting to break a nine-year playoff drought. The Wings' floor is relatively high. Yet, the club's ceiling is anybody's guess eight games in. Claim an Atlantic seed? Wild-card spot? Miss the playoffs again? The biggest variable might be McLellan's system.

He was hired midway through last season, which means the longtime NHL bench boss had to wait until September to drill down on team identity.

"We try to be a fast-playing team, whether that's through our own zone or neutral zone. Of course, we then try to spend as much time as we can in the offensive zone, preferably down low," star winger Lucas Raymond, who's collected six points in six games, told theScore prior to the loss in Buffalo.

"Teams get to that kind of offense in different ways. With Florida, they pound the puck in and go after it. Then you look at Edmonton, and they spend a lot of time in the O-zone but are possessing the puck for longer periods. For us, it's about playing fast. We've got a lot of fast, hard-working guys to execute that plan. The more puck touches deep in the O-zone, the better. And then we just have to be hard on the opponent. In the D-zone, we have to be really detailed."

Detroit dressed nine first-round NHL draft picks Thursday, eight of whom the club selected. That's a ton of pedigree.

Put another way, the Wings are done taking steps back individually and collectively. Three lousy efforts in seven games would've been a minor story as recently as two years ago. It isn't the end of the world now, but it is cause for concern because it suggests McLellan's standards aren't being met.

Rival: Stolarz poured gas on fire

Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz called out his team after its recent loss to the Kraken, blasting everything from William Nylander's backchecking to the meh offensive attack to a lack of response to Seattle's crease crashing.

Multiple news cycles ensued, and Stolarz's next meeting with reporters was uneventful. Toronto is eager to move on publicly and behind closed doors.

Asked about the whole ordeal, one veteran NHLer said he wasn't a fan of Stolarz's comments. He believes players should avoid fueling negative storylines during media interviews - especially if they play for a Canadian franchise - and keep that kind of candidness between the players and coaches.

If somebody's going to spout off, the veteran continued, it should be the captain, not the goalie. The vet then offered an interesting metaphor: If your kids were acting up at home and you and your partner were frustrated, would you ramble on about it to your neighbor the next time you saw him or her? Or would you smile and wave to keep the family's private issue ... well, private?

Journeyman Lyon vibin' in Buffalo

Sabres goaltending is an early-season success story I did not foresee.

AHL call-up Colten Ellis turned aside 29 of 31 shots Wednesday to win his NHL debut, and Alex Lyon owns a .924 save percentage despite facing 198 shots through six starts. Lyon, who's shouldering a larger load than anticipated with partner Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen sidelined by an injury, has earned a quality start in all but one appearance, according to Sportlogiq.

Beyond the saves, Lyon's teammates are appreciative of his on- and off-ice vibe.

"He always comes to the rink super wired," Sabres defenseman Conor Timmins said of the 32-year-old journeyman. "You can always hear him talking when you're out there. He not only leads by example, but he's also very vocal."

Predators, young players don't mix?

The Predators sent Brady Martin back to the OHL's Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday, ending the young forward's weekslong stay in NHL purgatory.

Martin, the fifth pick in this summer's draft, dressed for three of Nashville's first seven games. He logged what are essentially fourth-line minutes (12:44, 10:40, 10:51), contributing one assist, two shots on goal, and not much else. The Ontario kid watched the entirety of a four-game Canada road trip from the press box.

It feels as if the team never had a concrete plan for Martin. I wouldn't be shocked if general manager Barry Trotz and head coach Andrew Brunette had wildly different opinions on the 18-year-old's NHL readiness. More concerning for Preds fans, people around the league are getting suspicious. A few sources have recently brought up Nashville's track record with young players.

The drawn-out Luke Evangelista negotiations, which ended Oct. 4 with a completely reasonable two-year, $6-million extension, was unnecessarily contentious. The 2024 Yaroslav Askarov trade was unnecessary, period. Philip Tomasino, Eeli Tolvanen, and Kevin Fiala are three other high picks who butted heads with management/coaching and currently play elsewhere.

Prospect Reid continues to ascend

Chase Reid, one of Brady Martin's junior teammates, is a prospect to watch.

The big-bodied right-shot defenseman was one of 27 players to receive an "A" rating this week from the NHL's Central Scouting group, indicating he's a strong 2026 first-round candidate. Reid's an effortless skater with offensive flair and a defensive conscience. He was off the radar to start last season, playing 18 games for the Bismarck Bobcats of the NAHL before a transfer to the Greyhounds in December. Now an integral part of the club, Reid's up to 54 points in 53 career OHL games - no small feat for a seventh-round OHL pick.

Don't be surprised if he's the first OHLer picked in next June's draft.

3 appealing developments in Utah

Three Mammoth-related tidbits.

One: Dmitri Simashev, the sixth pick in the 2023 draft, has impressed over his first eight NHL games. The Russian's currently averaging 14:41 a night. Watch for him to eventually take on penalty-killing duties and for his nightly usage to climb closer to 20 minutes by season's end. Simashev is a suffocating defender who can close in on opponents quickly, thanks to a wide wingspan, elite skating, and excellent defensive instincts. He helped keep Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon off the scoreboard Wednesday in a Utah win.

Two: The Mammoth's top offensive line of Logan Cooley between JJ Peterka and Dylan Guenther is cooking early in Peterka's Utah tenure. The trio's outscoring the opposition 7-1 through 77 five-on-five minutes. Pure speed from Peterka. Give-and-go's featuring Cooley. Finishing ability with Guenther.

Three: While talks between Utah and Cooley's camp are ongoing, I don't sense a long-term extension is imminent. The 21-year-old, who's accumulated 116 points in 165 career games, is in the final season of his entry-level deal.

Hughes, LaCombe, or Hutson?

Three stud defensemen in their early 20s signed long-term, big-money contract extensions in early October.

• Luke Hughes, 22 years old: seven-year deal with an average annual value of $9 million (starting this season)
• Jackson LaCombe, 24: eight years, $9 million AAV (starting 2026-27)
• Lane Hutson, 21: eight years, $8.85 million AAV (starting 2026-27)

If you could pick one, which D-man would you want on your team long term?

"LaCombe is the guy I would take," an NHL assistant coach said of the Anaheim blue-liner. "He's the best at defending, in my opinion. Offensively, he's calm and smooth, and I expect him to keep getting better with the puck."

LaCombe boasts a more varied skill set than the thoroughbred Hughes and the dazzling Hutson. Smart, extremely mobile, and fairly large at 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds, LaCombe drives play at five-on-five despite facing stiff competition. He's central to Anaheim's No. 1 power-play unit and No. 2 penalty kill, as well, resulting in the highest usage on the team (24:52).

What really sticks out to the coach from afar: LaCombe, a second-round pick in 2019, once had offensive dynamos and first-rounders Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger ahead of him on the organizational depth chart. Now, in his third full NHL season, he's the undisputed alpha dog of the Ducks' back end.

Coach: Hurricanes are a wagon

The Hurricanes have finished in the top 10 in standings points in each of Rod Brind'Amour's seven seasons behind the bench. They've altered their style slightly over the years but still dine out on the forecheck. In other words, it can be easy to gloss over Carolina's 6-1-0 start because we know the drill.

The coach has seen the 2025-26 Canes operate up close. He thinks the offseason additions of defenseman K'Andre Miller and winger Nikolaj Ehlers make them a uniquely terrifying opponent. There's no room to breathe.

"Miller can really skate and so can Ehlers, who's really one of the fastest guys in the league. So, basically, they're playing similar to other years but are now faster than ever," the coach said. "The way that they come at you in waves, the depth at forward and defense - it's all very tough for teams to handle."

Playoff expansion coming soon?

Reader Steven S. recently submitted a question about playoff expansion:

Has there been any talk about adding an extra round to the playoffs or including every team in the playoffs using a 1-16, 2-15, 3-12, etc. format? This would generate extra money for all teams and could potentially make for an excellent Cinderella story, where a team that would not have made the playoffs under the current format makes a run for - and possibly wins - the Cup. Admittedly, the season would have to be adjusted to ensure the playoffs finished before the end of June, but that could easily be fixed by starting a week earlier. Thoughts?

In general, don't expect any changes to the playoff format in Gary Bettman's final years as commissioner. He's strongly against a return to the popular one-versus-eight format, so adding a round or bucking tradition completely with a March Madness-style playoff bracket currently qualify as nonstarters.

That said, Bettman, 73, won't be in charge forever. The sense I get from conversations over the past couple of years is that his predecessor - whoever that may be - won't have issues pushing through some kind of change. Many team owners, presidents, and general managers see the value (i.e. money) in adding a wrinkle to what's widely viewed as the best postseason in sports.

What do you want to know, hockey fans?

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