Scott Cullen's Hockey Newsletter

The Toronto Maple Leafs missed the playoffs by 21 points in 2025-2026 and are facing the daunting task of improving enough to get back to the postseason this year. If they don’t, a full-scale rebuild may be necessary and that could mean a future that does not include team captain Auston Matthews. Matthews, who turned 29 last week, is signed through the 2027-2028 season but most teams do not want to take a star player into their last season before unrestricted free agency.

My 2026-2027 NHL projections are ready. The recent decline in save percentage has shifted the league somewhat. It’s been hard enough to project goalies for the entire time that I’ve been doing this, but the league save percentage going to .889 last season, after a drop to .893 the season before (and .898 the season before that), does shift the landscape a bit. Will the downward trend continue? If it does, my point projections will probably be conservative.

This is already shaping up to be an active NHL offseason and the major moves continued right through the draft. With an uninspiring free agent class, trades seem to be the way to make the biggest changes. Here is a look at the latest NHL trades. Carlson, 36, has been a hugely productive defenceman for a long time. Since 2017-2018, he has 520 points (108 G, 412 A) in 633 games, ranking second among defenceman, behind only Nashville’s Roman Josi.

Not willing to wait for Friday’s draft to get dealing, NHL teams continued their pre-draft trading frenzy on Tuesday. Let’s take a look at the four deals: The Blackhawks Get: D Bowen Byram and LW Jordan Greenway Byram, 25, is coming off a season in which he recorded a career-high 42 points (11 G, 31 A) while averaging more than 22 minutes per game of ice time and playing in all 82 games for the second consecutive season.

NHL teams have wasted little time getting into the offseason swing of things, with the Ottawa Senators trading captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers in a blockbuster deal to wrap up an active week of transactions. Here is a look at the major moves so far: Thanks for reading Scott Cullen's Hockey Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

My 2025-2026 NHL projections are ready. Defensive hockey is thriving, believe it or not. While the average goals per game was just a shade over 6.00 last season - the fourth year in a row exceeding that threshold - it was also the lowest scoring season of the past four years. This happened even though the league's save percentage was .900, the lowest it had been since 1995-1996. So that means goal-scoring went down in a league that had its lowest save percentage in 30 years.

This year’s edition of my NHL projections is ready. With goal production ticking up in recent seasons, there are more players surpassing the 100-point plateau, with nine crossing that threshold last season. There were four 50-goal scorers, led by Toronto's Auston Matthews, who finished with 69 goals, the most a player has recorded since the 1992-1993 season. Thanks for reading Scott Cullen's Hockey Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This first season of the PWHL has been a great addition to the sports landscape. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and can hardly wait to see more. Thanks for reading Scott Cullen's Hockey Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Never mind what I think about it though. More importantly, I see how my 13-year-old daughter responds to it.

I know it has been a while since the blog was updated. It’s not like I’m not writing. All season I’ve had a weekly fantasy hockey article on McKeen’s Hockey and I’m writing full-time for Pinnacle, so there have not been as many openings to dig into topics here. That should change, at least a little, now that the regular season is complete. Here is a look at my unofficial awards ballot (For the record, I don’t have PHWA votes for these awards).

Discover more from Scott Cullen's Hockey Newsletter Hockey Analytics, Fantasy, Handicapping and Analysis Here are my Top 100 NHL players for the 2023-2024 season. Due to injury, I did not include Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and it is difficult to know what to make of players who have missed significant time due to injuries.