NHL Inbox: Crosby's long prime, the Celebrini question, more hot topics

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.

Season of generational overlap

The state of the NHL is often reflected in the names atop the scoring leaderboard. As of Friday morning, Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon occupied the top spot with an absurd 33 points in 18 games, while 28 others - 27 forwards plus Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar - were at 20 or more points.

Seven of the players with at least 20 points are early in their careers (19-24 years old). Seventeen, including MacKinnon and Makar, are in the middle of their careers (25-31). And five are late in their careers (32-39).

Maybe I'm a prisoner of the moment, but I can't recall a time in which there was such a striking overlap of not two but three generations of stars this deep into a season. The younger guard is Macklin Celebrini, Leo Carlsson, Connor Bedard, Matthew Knies, Cutter Gauthier, Wyatt Johnston, and Jack Hughes. Old dudes: Mark Scheifele, John Tavares, Evgeni Malkin, Brad Marchand, and Sidney Crosby.

In many ways, Crosby remains the face of the NHL two decades into his illustrious Mount Rushmore career. Nobody - and I mean nobody - is more respected on or off the ice, which is wild to say about a 38-year-old. Crosby's the main attraction right now at the Global Series event in Stockholm, overshadowing Swedish stars Erik Karlsson and Filip Forsberg, and he isn't receiving the attention as part of a farewell tour. No, No. 87 is still elite.

Twenty-eight-year-old Connor McDavid, who's second in scoring with 27 points, is the world's best player. He, World No. 2 MacKinnon, and standard-setting blue-liners Makar and Quinn Hughes are certainly marketable faces as well.

But this new group of Gen Zers appears to be gaining some ground in 2025-26. Once Crosby's retired and McDavid and MacKinnon start slowing down (we might be talking mid-2030s), will Celebrini and Bedard be the sport's dominant faces? Will they become the new Crosby and Alex Ovechkin?

Celebrini and the experience question

I, like most observers of the past 13 months of NHL action, believe Celebrini should be one of the 14 forwards named to Canada's 2026 Olympic roster.

The budding superstar has followed up a terrific rookie season with a Hart Trophy-caliber performance 17 games into Year 2. Celebrini's biggest supporters whisper about how he's already a top-10 forward in the league.

But of course not everybody sees Olympic roster construction the same way.

I was reminded of that when I recently asked an NHL coach about Celebrini potentially making Team Canada. The coach acknowledged Celebrini's talent level and projected the kid would be a first-line forward on the 2030 Olympic team. As for 2026 in Italy? If the coach was in charge, there's absolutely no way he'd take Celebrini over the likes of Sam Bennett, Anthony Cirelli, or Seth Jarvis.

The coach said you must know with absolute certainty that every Canadian player is going to deliver defensively, and, at least in his opinion, Celebrini is unproven. In other words, you can't teach experience. At 19, Celebrini has zero NHL playoff games or best-on-best international games to his name.

Bridge deals not so hot anymore

The NHL is transitioning from a five-year run of minimal salary cap growth to a boom period. The upper limit rose to $95.5 million this year from $88 million in 2024-25, and it's projected to reach a whopping $113.5 million by 2027-28.

An early trend: Fewer impactful young players are signing bridge deals (two-to-five-year extensions) because teams are seeing tremendous value in locking up a core piece for six years or more. The trade-off is a relatively high cap hit.

Logan Cooley, Thomas Harley, Lane Hutson, Jackson LaCombe, Luke Hughes, Mason McTavish, Dustin Wolf, Jackson Blake, and Logan Stankoven are all 24 or younger and have signed hefty long-term deals since July 1.

"A lot of these young players are still going to be young when their second contract expires," one prominent agent said of the benefits of going long. "Is it about the money? Sure. Is it just about the money? With most players, no."

The agent continued, saying if a player likes where he is and is confident there's another substantial deal on the other side of the second contract, then why not take the early payday and security? If the player becomes "underpaid" halfway through the second deal because the upper limit of the cap has skyrocketed, yet he loves his teammates, the team's staff, and its facilities, then so what?

"Never underestimate being happy in professional sports," the agent said.

One veteran team executive noted that general managers should avoid grinding young core pieces down with intense negotiations that ultimately lead to a bridge deal neither team nor player is particularly pleased with. That type of penny-pinching can create resentment. That said, as the executive pointed out, capped-out Stanley Cup contenders have no choice but to offer a bridge.

Carolina, Montreal, and Utah are three teams clearly trying to capitalize on the new cap world. Each club is in tremendous shape financially moving forward.

Ducks GM Pat Verbeek did well with the McTavish and LaCombe deals but must be kicking himself for being too conservative on other files. Cornerstone forwards Carlsson and Gauthier became eligible for extensions on July 1, which means Anaheim could have gotten ahead of each player's unsurprising breakout by offering enticing long-term contracts. But Verbeek, who's known for being a tough negotiator, wasn't proactive, and now Carlsson (26 points in 17 games) and Gauthier (12 goals in 17) have all the leverage in the world.

Early-season woes across Canada

Four Canadian teams are currently on the wrong side of the playoff cutline.

The Flames rank last in the NHL in points (12) and goal differential (minus-18) roughly 20% into the season - OK, not a groundbreaking development. The Canucks, who are running Quinn Hughes into the ground at 27 minutes of ice a night, have been mildly disappointing at 8-9-1. The Oilers and Maple Leafs, meanwhile, have severely underwhelmed relative to preseason expectations.

One note each on 8-7-4 Edmonton and 8-8-2 Toronto:

• If you didn't understand McDavid's reluctance to sign a long-term deal in the offseason, surely you get it now. The talent in Edmonton's forward group drops off a cliff after McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and the injured Zach Hyman. McDavid and Draisaitl, individually and together, have been involved in 66% of the Oilers' 58 goals this year. Isaac Howard, Vasily Podkolzin, Adam Henrique, Matthew Savoie, David Tomasek, and Trent Frederic have combined for just 11 goals. At least Hyman's imminent return from injury is giving the fan base some hope.

• Toronto taking a step back in the regular season wouldn't qualify as shocking, given that it lost a 100-point two-way winger in Mitch Marner. But the body of work through 18 games feels like multiple giant steps back. The Leafs are the worst defensive team in the league. They're playing a style completely misaligned with their strengths, and top forward Auston Matthews and top goalie Anthony Stolarz are sidelined by injury. All of a sudden, goalie Joseph Woll is tasked with being the savior as he slowly returns from a leave of absence. Not ideal, even in the short term.

Hall of Famer Chara: unique all around

Zdeno Chara, a headlining member of the stacked 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame induction class, is arguably the most unique player in NHL history.

He's the tallest player on record. He comes from obscurity as a native of Trencin, Slovakia. He was an intimidating defenseman on the ice and a gentleman off it. His 2006 six-year contract with Boston might be the greatest free-agent signing of the cap era. He played well into his 40s, retiring at 45.

And the stories about the man are straight out of a Hollywood script.

Longtime Bruins GM Don Sweeney visited Chara in the hospital during the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. The captain had broken his jaw in Game 4 and couldn't speak, so, as Sweeney recalled this week, Chara slipped him a note with a short message. "I'm playing," it read. (He returned for Game 5.)

Chara's considered an all-time leader. He treated everybody the same, from the highest-paid player to the equipment manager. He called rookies "first-year players" and despised any form of hazing. He banned the so-called rookie lap, where a player making his debut begins the on-ice warmup alone.

"Z ... he's just the best," Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in September. "He would literally be like, 'No, there is no such thing as rookies on our team.' That was his thing."

Fightin' Stankoven joins large group

Stankoven, 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, fought for the first time in his life Tuesday. The Hurricanes forward was assessed a five-minute major after throwing down with 6-foot-2, 215-pounder Martin Fehervary of the Capitals.

It turns out Stankoven isn't close to being the shortest NHLer in history to drop the mitts. According to the league's stats and research department, 96 players listed 5-foot-8 or shorter have earned at least one fighting major in the regular season or playoffs. The shortest of them all: 5-foot-5 forwards Bobby Lalonde and Doug Palazzari, whose careers peaked in the brawling 1970s.

Are after-the-whistle antics annoying?

Reader Alan M. recently asked about post-whistle shenanigans:

The one thing that annoys me about hockey is all the after-the-whistle antics. Facewashing, checking, pushing. Once the whistle is blown, the game stops, and anything after should be penalized. What do you think?

Call me old school, but I enjoy the occasional scrum. It adds to the drama of the specific matchup and is something you don't see in other sports. I like how there's the game within the game - an art to agitating, drawing penalties.

Do referees sometimes complicate matters by, say, taking just one player to the penalty box after a massive scrum? Yes. But by and large post-whistle shenanigans are entertaining, and the NHL is in the entertainment business.

What do you want to know, hockey fans?

There are three ways to submit a question for future NHL Inbox editions.

• Comment on this article in theScore app
• Email John at [email protected]
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