On the eve of the new season, Toronto and Columbus swung a blockbuster trade yesterday involving six players.

The Maple Leafs received talented 26-year-old right wing Kirill Marchenko, along with forward Miles Wood and goalie Elvis Merzlikins. The CBJ received power forward Matthew Knies, forward Steven Lorentz, defenseman Emil Andrae and a second-round pick in the 2027 draft.

The 6’3” 201-pound Marchenko, who expressed a desire to leave Columbus, scored 27 goals and 67 points last season, on the heels of 31-goal, 74-point campaign in 2024-25. The Leafs promptly signed him to a six-year, $75 million extension.

The 23-year-old Knies, a 6’3” 232-pound tank of a left wing, is nearly as accomplished offensively, tallying 52 goals and 124 points over the past two seasons. He happens to be a second-round pick (57th overall) of none other than Penguins POHO/GM Kyle Dubas.

Totally different types of players, but each with pedigree.

It’ll be interesting to see how the deal pans out…for both sides.

Different Strokes

Speaking of different types of players, guess who made the Panthers opening-night roster?

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A month ago, I wrote an article pondering the Penguins playoff worthiness. With the start of the NHL regular season fast approaching, I thought I’d revisit the issue while attempting to answer a burning question.

Will the Penguins be any good?

Sure wish I knew. Truth be told, I could anticipate a wide range of outcomes for this group. If everything—and I mean everything—goes right, I could see us duplicating last season’s success and snagging a wild-card berth in the highly competitive Eastern Conference.

On the flip side, if our venerable core fades, the injury bug bites and/or the kids fail to pick up the slack, a bottom-ten finish might be in the cards. To say nothing of a sell-off at the trade deadline.

Most likely, the Pens will wind up somewhere between the extremes. I can easily envision us regressing by a dozen points or so. Not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to qualify for a lottery pick. In other words, smack dab in the dreaded mushy middle.

Reasons for Optimism

If the Pens stay reasonably healthy (already proving to be a challenge) and the core continues to produce, we have the potential to score a lot of goals.

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The Penguins continued to take steps toward finalizing their roster ahead of Wednesday’s season opener against the Flyers.

Forward Bill Zonnon, defenseman Harrison Brunicke and goalie Joel Blomqvist were assigned to the Baby Pens.

Four other players, forwards Justin Brazeau, Ben Kindel and Blake Lizotte, and defenseman Ryan Graves were placed on IR to open the season. Brazeau and Kindel are week-to-week with lower-body ailments. Lizotte (upper-body) is listed as day-to-day. Graves (lower-body) is out indefinitely.

Tristan Broz and Bryan Rust are being evaluated for injuries sustained in Saturday afternoon’s victory over the Sabres.

Here’s a list of the 25 players currently on the roster, including Broz, Rust and Andrei Kuzmenko (away on leave). Two more players will need to be pared from the roster before the opener.

FORWARDS (16)

Broz, Chinakhov, Crosby, Dewar, Gustafsson, Hållander, Koivunen, Kuzmenko, Lapierre, Malkin, McGroarty, Novak, Rakell, Robertson, Rust, Söderblom

DEFENSEMEN (7)

Carlile, Girard, Karlsson, Korczak, Letang, Solovyov, van Riemsdyk

GOALIES (2)

Murashov, Šilovs

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The Penguins closed out an up-and-down preseason with a workmanlike 3-1 victory over the Sabres in Buffalo yesterday afternoon.

Sidney Crosby staked us to an early lead nine minutes into the first period. Sprung on a partial breakaway thanks to a heady neutral-zone feed from Tommy Novak, our captain lasered a slapper over the shoulder of Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen, ticketed for the upper-right corner.

Ville Koivunen extended our lead to 2-0 a couple minutes later, jamming home a rebound following a classic wraparound attempt by Bryan Rust. Ville helped set the play in motion with a slick pass to Rusty. Hopefully a sign of good things to come from the $32-million kid.

The Pens nearly padded their advantage in the second period. However, would-be goals by Evgeni Malkin (goalie interference) and Rickard Rakell (offsides) were challenged and overturned.

Sabres forward Ryan McLeod struck on the power play at 11:30 of the third period with Geno in the sin-bin to narrow the gap to a goal. But Nick Robertson added an empty-netter for the good guys at 18:55  to provide the final margin of victory.

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Before I begin, I need to be clear. There have been absolutely no creditable reports to back up what I’m about to write. Only faint whispers passed along by someone who has connections to the NHL and has proven to be a reliable source in the past. Other than that, it’s strictly a case of yours truly attempting to connect the dots.

Okay, here goes. Will 2025 first-round pick (24th overall) Will Horcoff follow in the skate tracks of Cruz Lucius and refuse to sign with the Penguins? Opting instead to join the Red Wings?

The basis for my concerns are three-fold. A Michigan kid through-and-through, Horcoff hails from Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit. He currently plays for the University of Michigan in nearby Ann Arbor. The topper? Will’s dad, Shawn Horcoff, was recently named the Red Wings’ GM, albeit on an interim basis.

Frankly, the thought the kid might choose to jump ship sickens me. Six-foot-five power forwards who possess a scoring touch, not to mention a mean streak, don’t grow on trees. Especially around these parts, where the Pens still tend to favor players of Smurfish dimensions and milder temperaments.

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I confess, I didn’t watch last night’s preseason matchup between the Penguins’ kids and the Blue Jackets regulars, which resulted in a 4-0 whitewashing for our boys at the hands of the CBJ.

Instead, I opted to listen in on radio.

Aside from peppery forward Avery Hayes and goalie Sergei Murashov, radio color man Phil Bourque didn’t seem to think much of our collective effort. However, Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now had a different take, pointing out some bright spots.

Caught in-betwixt and between, I decided to look at the underlying numbers on Natural Stat Trick to see if I could get a read. Statistically, there were some clear-cut standouts (and some not-so-hots).

Any way you slice it, the line of Connor Dewar, Filip Hållander and Elmer Söderblom enjoyed a strong game. The trio registered a 66.67 Corsi and a 70.96 expected goals for percentage (xGF%). The unit didn’t yield any goals. A good thing, since this may very well be our fourth line to begin the season.

Likewise, the Hayes, David Gustafsson and Atley Calvert troika wasn’t scored upon and had similarly solid metrics (63.64 Corsi and 66.42 xGF%).

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