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…

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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.

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Brayden Point? Jaccob Slavin? Six active players who could be tough Hall of Fame calls

The Hockey Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2026 on  Monday, and you know what that means: It’s time to get mad about who’ll get in and who won’t.

That guy from your favorite team? He should be a lock! That guy from the team you hate? He’s a bum, why are we even mentioning him? That other guy who seems like a classic borderline call? You’re very, very sure you know the right answer there too, and anyone who disagrees is a big fat stupidhead.

You get the drill. Or at least I hope you do, because we’re doing a Hall debate today. Just not one about this year’s class.

That’s not to say that this year doesn’t present a few opportunities to argue various cases. Patrice Bergeron is a lock, and Carey Price probably is too after losing out to the numbers game last year. That leaves two spots on the men’s side, and with a weak-ish crop of first-year eligibles other than Bergeron, that gives the committee a chance to backfill some candidates who’ve been waiting for years.

That’s cool, but honestly, I can’t do another round of Patrik Elias or Henrik Zetterberg or Curtis Joseph debate. Rod Brind’Amour remains a tough call, especially now that he’s won a Cup behind the bench (which shouldn’t matter to his case as a player but obviously does). There are plenty of arguments to be had on those names and more.

Just not today. Today, we’re going to break out a gimmick we like to try every year or so: A look at the active players who are shaping up as the toughest calls down the line. By definition, none of these guys are finished products. But all of them are closer to the end than the beginning, with enough road behind them that we can at least make some educated guesses on where they’ll wind up.

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Did the Hurricanes just become the best team with no Hall-of-Famers in NHL history?

This week is always a weird time on the NHL calendar. The Stanley Cup final has just ended, and everyone is trying to catch their breath before the offseason truly gets going. The draft, trade rumors, and UFA boards are all happening against the backdrop of Cup parties and parades.

But we’re also just days away from the announcement of this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class, which comes Monday. That timing always struck me as a bit odd, since what should be a huge announcement ends up being overshadowed by everything else happening. If you’re a history nerd like me, the HHOF is catnip – perfect for debates and speculation and analysis. But most years, that’s a hard pivot to make after the final has just ended.

But maybe not this year, because the Venn diagram between “just crowned the new champions” and “Hall of Fame debates” produces an interesting sliver of overlap, in the form of a question: Did the Carolina Hurricanes just win the Stanley Cup without a single future Hall-of-Famer on the roster?

I think they might have. And if so, that’s an incredibly rare feat. In fact, it’s so rare that it leads to a bigger question: Among teams without any future HHOFers, could the Hurricanes be the best team ever?

>> Read the full post at The Athletic