Let's build a ghost roster of NHL free agency regret

If you’re a Canadian hockey fan of a certain age, the phrase “ghost roster” might bring back some bad memories.

Back in the late-90s, the concept of the ghost roster became popular with the various brain trusts who put together the country’s international teams. The idea was that when it came to creating the perfect team, you don’t just pick the 20 or so best players. Instead, you first map out an ideal roster based on specific roles, and then you find the players who best fit that particular role.

In theory, the concept makes sense. In reality, and when followed to the extreme, it gets your Rob Zamuner over Mark Messier on Team Canada at an Olympics where they can’t score. For the record, Zamuner was a good a player; maybe not a superstar, sure, but also not a bum. But when he’s cracking a Team Canada roster, it’s possible that a GM somewhere has made a mistake.

Well, GMs making mistakes is what free agency is all about. So today, let’s borrow that fabled ghost roster concept, and use it create a lineup of some of history’s worst free agency mistakes. We’ll use all of NHL history, although the focus will be on the cap era because most of you aren’t old like me. We’ll even see if we can find any candidates in this week’s action.

Our roster will be four lines of forwards, three defense pairs and a couple of goalies. Will it be good? Eh. Will it be expensive? You'd better believe it. Here we go…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Remembering the sheer joy of the NHL offseason’s craziest hour, ten years later

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing exactly ten years ago?

If you were a hockey fan back then, there’s a decent chance that you do. But it depends on what time you’re reading this.

If it’s early in the morning, then you probably have no idea. Exactly ten years ago, the hockey world was waking up to what felt like a typical Wednesday. We’d just had the draft, with Auston Matthews going first overall, and the Red Wings had traded Pavel Datsyuk to the Coyotes, because that’s just what we did with Hall-of-Fame players back then. And we were still a few days from free agency, a crop loaded with wingers like Milan Lucic, Kyle Okposo and Loui Eriksson who'd surely sign reasonable deals.

Exactly ten years ago, on that pleasant summer morning, your hockey fan brain was probably taking a nice deep breath and enjoying the calm between the storms.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Which NHL team makes the best all-time starting lineup from first-round picks?

 It’s been a quiet week in the NHL world, with up to several hours passing in between blockbuster, franchise-shifting moves. Luckily, the first round of the draft is tonight, so fans will finally have something to talk about.

While we wait, let’s play a roster game. Which team can make the best starting six out of their first-round draft picks?

This should be nice and simple – three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie, all of them from a specific team’s first-round picks. And to add a degree of difficulty, one caveat: We can only use a specific pick number once per team.

We’ll do this the usual way, where I give you a dozen teams to start with and then hand it over to you in the comments to fill in the gaps. And we’ll start with the team that usually does well in these things…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Remembering 10 draft picks that toured the league before they were finally used

The 25th overall pick in this year’s draft has been on a bit of a journey.

The story starts at last year’s deadline. The pick originally belonged to the Lightning, but they traded it to the Kraken in a deal for Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde. The pick stayed with the Kraken until this weekend, when they shipped it to Florida for Mackie Samoskevich. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the Panthers had something even bigger in mind, flipping the pick to Ottawa few hours later in the Brady Tkachuk blockbuster. Now we wait to see if Ottawa uses the pick, or moves it again for immediate help.

Not a bad story for one pick. And I’ll be honest, I kind of love when this happens. Some picks have lived a full life before they’re ever actually used to draft a player. I remember as a kid being fascinated that the biggest trade of 1992 – the Eric Lindros blockbuster – and the biggest of 1994 – Mats Sundin for Wendel Clark – both involved the same pick, one that started off in Philadelphia before heading to Quebec, then Toronto, and ultimately on to Washington (where it was used on Nolan Baumgartner, who played just 143 NHL games).

Today, let’s go back through the cap era and see if we can find some picks that have stories to tell. We’ll set the bar high, looking for picks that changed hands at least four times. We’ll rely on the invaluable Pro Sports Transactions database, and see where this takes us.

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Let's welcome the 2026 class of inductees to the Hockey Hall of Very Good

It’s Hockey Hall of Fame announcement day, which means three things. First and most importantly, we’re about to find out which players and builders are going to receive the sport’s highest honor. Second, it’s a good day to avoid that one fan you know who’s weirdly passionate about Rod Brind’Amour.

And third, it’s time for us to induct a new class in our Hall of Very Good.

This is an annual tradition, kind of, that started back in 2022, when we inducted a full roster highlighted by names like Saku Koivu, Al Iafrate and Tim Kerr. The second class was another full roster, featuring Ziggy Palffy, Brian Rafalski and Miikka Kiprusoff. In 2024 we scaled back a bit but still found room for Rick Nash, Shane Doan and Olaf Kolzig.

And then last year, uh, I think I forgot.

But that’s OK, because there’s nothing quite like a double cohort to juice up an induction meeting. So today, we’re going to welcome the Class of 2026. As always, these are players who have no realistic shot at the real Hall of Fame, meaning we’re not going to look at guys like Patrik Elias or Henrik Zetterberg. These guys are a tier below, but still deserve recognition. You’ll often hear fans use “hall of very good” as an insult, meant to imply that the HHOF is too lenient. But today, it’s a compliment – a chance to remember some guys who were all sorts of fun.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic