Marner-Leafs drama, Point's potential replacement, more NHL 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.
Marner, Leafs should have no regrets
Amid the endless chatter about Mitch Marner and the Maple Leafs this week, one thought kept bouncing around my brain: Man, people sure seem to have short memories.
It's tempting to play the "Does the departed player miss his old team more than the team misses the player?" game. And, hey, I totally get why that kind of discourse flooded social media and why Thursday's TSN broadcast of the Leafs-Golden Knights game leaned into the juicy narrative. What-ifs are fun.
But, in reality, neither Marner nor the Leafs should be regretting the divorce.
The late June sign-and-trade that sent Marner to Vegas for the next eight years closed a chapter in Leafs history (and Marner's career) that was equal parts exhilarating, excruciating, and exhausting. His departure wasn't overly controversial in the moment because it was the logical next step.
Remember the playoff failures - two series victories in nine postseasons? The toxic relationship between homegrown star forward and Stanley Cup-starved fan base? How badly all three parties - team, player, fan base - needed to take a breather and redirect their energy elsewhere? Asking who's better off half a season later misses the entire point of opting to move on in the first place.
Everybody's better off, by default.
The 23-16-8 Leafs aren't a perfect team, but they're better off seeing what comes of spending Marner's salary on multiple pieces, even if it means one fewer 100-point two-way winger in the lineup. Marner's transition to Vegas hasn't been smooth on or off the ice, but he's better off establishing a new identity, even if it means fewer points, minutes, and reps at center to start.
It couldn't have been fun to be Marner on Thursday, getting booed by visiting fans on home ice. But that, and whatever vitriol next Friday's Leafs-Knights game in Toronto brings, is part of the transition and act of finally moving on.
Doan and Sabres keep rolling
Since Dec. 9, the Sabres lead the NHL in standings points collected (30 in 17 games) and points percentage (.882) off an expected but thrilling 15-2-0 run. A team doesn't go on a monthlong tear, climbing from last in the Eastern Conference to the first wild card, without nearly everything going well.
Top players Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin have been sensational. Multiple lines have been highly productive, team defense has been locked in, and the three rostered goalies have combined for a .918 save percentage.
"We're not taking anything for granted. Every game is like a playoff game for us," Dahlin told theScore on Monday from his stall at Buffalo's KeyBank Center.
"After the 10-game winning streak we had, we lost a game," the team captain added, referencing a 5-1 road loss to the Blue Jackets on Jan. 3. "Right then and there, we told each other that this is going to be the biggest test of this season. Are we going to bounce back? Or not? What do we have in us?"
Spoiler alert: A lot. Five wins in their next six games to be exact, boosting their playoff odds to 56.6%, according to MoneyPuck. The Sabres have failed to make the postseason 14 straight years - an NHL record that's in danger of falling this spring.
First-year Sabre Josh Doan has been the biggest standout during the run. Part of an offseason trade that sent dynamic forward JJ Peterka to Utah, Doan has emerged as a detail-oriented first-line winger, allowing the rest of the forward group to click into place. The 6-foot-2, 198-pound son of ex-NHLer Shane Doan is tremendously effective along the walls, disruptive on the forecheck, and skilled enough to facilitate and finish around the net. He moves the needle.
"He's an infectious type of player," head coach Lindy Ruff said.
"He looks like he's been playing in the league for 500 games," Dahlin said.
Doan, a 2021 second-round pick who turns 24 in February, is the perfect complement to a game-breaker like Thompson, assuming the Zach Hyman role alongside Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews. "You want to have a skilled guy, a dog, and then the third guy depends on the line," Sabres winger Jason Zucker said. "You have to have versatility throughout the lineup."
Zucker, a 15-year veteran on his fifth team, sees some Zach Parise in Doan.
"Really good netfront guy. Was always hounding pucks. Had a really good stick and created a lot of turnovers," Zucker said of Parise, a former stud winger for the Devils and Wild. "I'm impressed with Doaner's ability to turn pucks over and get pucks back. He's really good at keeping plays alive."
Picking Point's potential replacement
Brayden Point, one of the first six players named to Canada's Olympic team, needed to be helped off the ice during Monday's Lightning-Flyers game.
The Lightning say Point is out "week-to-week." Olympic men's hockey starts Feb. 11, four-and-a-half weeks from the time of his apparent leg injury.
Point struggled to start the year but recently started to look his electric self, racking up eight goals and 11 assists in his last 15 games. Despite him being a natural center, many penciled in the Calgary native as McDavid's right-winger, thanks to his quick feet and hands and off-puck habits. Most crucially, McDavid and Point were linemates for a stretch at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Wyatt Johnston, Seth Jarvis, Connor Bedard, Mark Scheifele, Travis Konecny, and Sam Bennett will contend for a roster spot if Point's forced to bow out. General manager Doug Armstrong has said that Canada's injured Olympians will likely be replaced by players with similar skill sets and makeups.
Johnston, the unflappable 22-year-old Stars winger, is most comparable to Point. He marks off the handedness, speed, offensive versatility, and defense traits. Also, he leads the NHL in power-play goals while ranking top 10 in inner-slot shots, scoring chances generated off the cycle, and chances off rebounds. A couple of connections won't hurt his chances: Stars GM Jim Nill and ex-Stars coach Pete DeBoer are key members of Canada's brain trust.
Bedard and Bennett deserve serious consideration too. The other three, while stellar players in their own ways, seem to be a tier below.
Maurice: NHL is harder, heavier, faster
Paul Maurice sits second all time in NHL games coached, splitting 1,976 contests between Hartford/Carolina, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Florida. Three decades in, he remains one of the most insightful people in the entire sport.
On Monday, I asked Maurice about the uniqueness of 2025-26. With teams gritting through a condensed schedule caused by a three-week Olympic break, players have limited practice time, and a disproportionate number of them have been injured. How's the quality of hockey been at ice level?
"It's way harder, way heavier, and at times, faster," the 58-year-old reported.
Maurice believes his back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning Panthers have influenced the increase in physicality across the league. He's also noticed "more and more teams run a wing lock" - a reference to Florida's smothering, aggressive forechecking tactic. "Teams have adopted the styles that we stole from somebody else. It's made the game quite a bit more physical," he said.
Most teams, Maurice added, have shifted from playing a protect-the-slot zone defense (Vegas' preferred style during its 2023 Cup run) to an aggressive man-to-man defense (Florida's style). The change has led to different types of hockey being played in each conference, he said.
"In the West, I think it's faster, and that's just a function of how teams defend," Maurice said. "They will give you (open) ice, like Vegas does. You can win (playing that brand of hockey). They're a hell of a team, and we couldn't get a puck near the net when we played Vegas (in the 2023 final)."
Texier, the Habs' latest project
Montreal signed Alexandre Texier to a two-year, $5-million contract extension Wednesday. The goal-scoring winger joined the club as a free-agent signee just two months ago, with his original deal having been terminated by the Blues.
Texier, 26, is another reclamation project for Canadiens president Jeff Gorton, GM Kent Hughes, and head coach Martin St. Louis. The franchise has gone out of its way to acquire 20-something forwards in need of a change of scenery, hoping St. Louis and his staff can wring out untapped potential. The full list follows.
- Kirby Dach, acquired in July 2022 trade
- Sean Monahan, August 2022 trade
- Alex Newhook, June 2023 trade
- Patrik Laine, August 2024 trade
- Joe Veleno, July 2025 signing after buyout
- Texier, November 2025 signing after termination
Monahan, who arrived in Montreal with a first-round pick then fetched the Habs another first on his way out of town, is the one home run. While the rest are a mixed bag of strikeouts and singles, attempting to resuscitate careers in such a manner is a worthwhile pursuit if done tastefully. I appreciate the hustle.
No winner in year-old Miller trade
Most high-profile trades end up in one of two buckets: win-win or win-lose. It's rare to revisit a trade almost a year later and declare it an L for both sides.
Yet, that's exactly what the Jan. 31, 2025, swap between the Rangers and Canucks is. A refresher: New York acquired J.T. Miller, Erik Brannstrom, and Jackson Dorrington in exchange for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a conditional draft pick that turned into 12th overall selection Jack Nesbitt.
The fiery Miller was named New York's captain in the fall, but he's one of many Rangers floundering amid a miserable season. Brannstrom, a 300-game NHLer, is currently playing in Switzerland. Dorrington looks like an AHL lifer.
The oft-injured Chytil was supposed to fix the Canucks' center depth, but he's appeared in just 21 total games due to ongoing concussion issues. Mancini's spent more time in the AHL than the NHL. Nesbitt, the trade's most promising asset as a 19-year-old OHL center, doesn't have a particularly high ceiling.
It's no coincidence that Vancouver is ostensibly on the rebuilding path and New York is officially undergoing a retool 12 months after the Miller trade.
Is expansion on the horizon?
Reader eraldeb recently asked about expanding beyond 32 teams.
Expansion in the future? There are many cities that can bid, but who really has a chance at gaining an NHL club? Houston? Atlanta? Quebec City? Portland? Kansas City? There are tons of cities!
It's a near guarantee the NHL will expand to 34 teams at some point, perhaps within the next decade. Expansion fees of $2 billion or more per club await.
"It could well happen, and there's a tremendous amount of interest out there," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told The Hockey News earlier in January.
"We're not pushing expansion," the 73-year-old added. "If it happens, it will be, for lack of a better word, organic. Somebody will come in and say, 'We can check the four primary boxes. Let's have a good look together.'"
Ownership, market, and arena are three of the boxes, Bettman said. The fourth is more ambiguous: Will expanding to City X with Ownership Group Y in Year Z "make the game stronger, make the league stronger?"
From reading between the lines of league comments and my own off-the-record conversations with people in the sport, here's my ranking of the top possible cities.
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Houston, Texas
- Austin, Texas
- Phoenix, Arizona
- New Orleans, Louisiana
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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