play0:56Jack Hughes scores hat trick in Devils’ winJack Hughes leads the Devils to a 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs with his third career hat trick.
play0:47Alex Ovechkin extends record goal tally with No. 899Alex Ovechkin lights the lamp for his 899th goal to pad the Capitals’ lead.
play1:19Logan Cooley scores natural hat trick in under 5 minutes for UtahCheck out this quickfire trio of goals from Utah Mammoth’s Logan Cooley against the St. Louis Blues.
play1:03Anze Kopitar announces he’ll retire after season to focus on familyKings captain Anze Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, announces he will retire after the 2025-26 season to focus on family.
Alex Ovechkin: I still love the game and have a passion for it (1:30)As he closes in on his 900th goal, Alex Ovechkin sits down with Emily Kaplan to discuss his career accomplishments and future. (1:30)
Jack Hughes scores hat trick in Devils’ winJack Hughes leads the Devils to a 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs with his third career hat trick.
Alex Ovechkin extends record goal tally with No. 899Alex Ovechkin lights the lamp for his 899th goal to pad the Capitals’ lead.
Logan Cooley scores natural hat trick in under 5 minutes for UtahCheck out this quickfire trio of goals from Utah Mammoth’s Logan Cooley against the St. Louis Blues.
Check out this quickfire trio of goals from Utah Mammoth’s Logan Cooley against the St. Louis Blues.
Anze Kopitar announces he’ll retire after season to focus on familyKings captain Anze Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, announces he will retire after the 2025-26 season to focus on family.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, announces he will retire after the 2025-26 season to focus on family.
Greg WyshynskiOct 28, 2025, 07:00 AM ETCloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.Follow on X
play0:40Brad Marchand scores goal vs. PenguinsBrad Marchand lights the lamp
play0:29Kirill Kaprizov tallies goal vs. RangersKirill Kaprizov nets goal for Wild
play0:33Leo Carlsson scores goal vs. PredatorsLeo Carlsson nets goal for Ducks
There will be some popular main courses. There will be some delectable side dishes. But with all 32 teams in action from 6 p.m. ET puck drops through the Battle of California showdown between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks at 11 p.m. ET, fans will be able to sample all the NHL has to offer in one gluttonous sitting.
Here are reasons to watch all 32 teams during the Frozen Frenzy and beyond, from superstar players to teams with championship aspirations to controversial storylines to Alex Ovechkin once again chasing NHL goal-scoring history.
Since 2023, the Bruins have said farewell to franchise standard-bearers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci (retirement) as well as Brad Marchand, their heart-and-soul captain who won a Stanley Cup with Florida after an NHL deadline trade.
Which is to say that Pastrnak has seen a lot of friends leave the Bruins’ locker room, but he just keeps doing what he does best: scoring at will. Pasta has 13 points, including five goals, in his first 10 games this season. That’s to be expected for the fifth-leading scorer in the NHL (329 in 246 games) over the previous three seasons.
There are many reasons the Sabres have crashed like a Bills fan through a table in every season since last making the playoffs in 2011, but one of the primary ones has been a lack of quality goaltending. That problem was exacerbated by presumed starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen taking a step back last season.
Injuries to Luukkonen in the preseason opened the door for backup Alex Lyon, signed as a free agent and coming out of the gate with a .922 save percentage in seven games; and rookie Colten Ellis, who made 29 saves in his NHL debut. Dashing early-season hopes is kind of the Sabres’ thing, but at the very least, these two netminders have generated some hope for Buffalo.
It’s an annual rite in the NHL: The Red Wings being poised to break out as a contender before falling short of the postseason, which they’ve done every season since 2015-16.
The Panthers’ bid for a third straight Stanley Cup win and fourth straight trip to the Cup Final got off to an injurious start.
Star winger Matthew Tkachuk had groin surgery in August, putting him out until December at the earliest. Then the Panthers lost star center and team captain Aleksander Barkov on his first day of training camp, needing surgery to repair the ACL and MCL in his right knee — injuries that will sideline him for the regular season and potentially the playoffs. They also lost defenseman Dmitry Kulikov for five months with an upper-body injury.
And yet the Panthers are maintaining their level of play, if not thriving: 5-5-0 in their first 10, being led in both goals (five) and points (11) by the Rat King himself, Brad Marchand.
Brad Marchand scores goal vs. PenguinsBrad Marchand lights the lamp
Through 10 games, the Canadiens led the Atlantic with a 7-3-0 record. There are plenty of reasons for this great start, from the outstanding play of rookie goalie Jakub Dobes and winger Ivan Demidov to the continued maturation of players such as Lane Hutson and Alex Newhook.
But the constant for the Habs has been their No. 1 line of Cole Caufield (seven goals), Nick Suzuki (13 points) and Juraj Slafkovsky, who are scoring over 3.5 goals per 60 minutes and giving up only 0.95 goals per 60 minutes to far this season.
Brady Tkachuk is the driving force behind the Ottawa Senators, both statistically and as one of the NHL’s most influential captains. But the Sens lost him to a torn ligament in his right thumb on Oct. 13 that required surgery, and likely will keep him out until around Thanksgiving.
The Sens are 4-4-1 through nine games. Helping to fill the void left by Tkachuk are two players off to a fast start: Centers Shane Pinto (eight goals through nine games) and Dylan Cozens (six).
Of course, as Billy Zane taught us in “Titanic”: Sometimes you make your own luck. Getting a more consistent defensive performance from their dynamic top line — Brayden Point is a minus-10 already — would be a good start.
The good news in Toronto: The incredible run by the Blue Jays to the World Series has brought the city — and much of the nation — together in following every Vladimir Guerrero Jr. swing and Trey Yesavage pitch this postseason. (Hence the change in start time for the Maple Leafs-Flames game to 6 p.m. ET.)
That means there has been a lot less attention — and scrutiny — on a post-Mitch Marner Maple Leafs team that is decidedly OK and nothing more so far. They’re eighth offensively thanks to 14 points in eight games by William Nylander — and 28th defensively thanks to below-replacement goaltending. Joseph Woll is back after an extended personal absence, so that should help the latter.
Some cynical Winnipeg fans are bathing in schadenfreude watching Ehlers’ first handful of games with the Hurricanes.
Ehlers left the Jets as a free agent for a six-year, $51 million deal as the latest solution on the wing for Carolina’s top line. While linemates Seth Jarvis (seven goals) and Sebastian Aho (10 points) are thriving, Ehlers went five straight games without a point to start the season.
The good news for Carolina and their new great Dane: He has assists in three straight games, so maybe the aforementioned rolling has started.
Dmitri Voronkov doesn’t have the name recognition of Zach Werenski, Adam Fantilli or linemate Kirill Marchenko when it comes to Blue Jackets in the hockey discourse. But the 6-foot-5, 235-pound winger who self-bestowed the nickname “Big Boss” has been an absolute force so far this season on Columbus’s top line.
He scored five goals and added four assists through eight games for the Jackets, skating to a plus-8. GM Don Waddell challenged Voronkov to work on his conditioning when he signed him to a two-year contract extension in July. That could be the key for the Big Boss surpassing his 23 goals and 24 assists in 73 games last season.
When Hughes is healthy and in the lineup, few players in the NHL provide their team the propulsive offensive spark that the 24-year-old center provides the Devils. Hughes has eight goals in nine games for New Jersey, including two game winners. Jesper Bratt has assisted on five of them — there are times when Bratt and Hughes seem like they’re playing on a different speed setting than everyone else.
The Devils have never had a 50-goal or 100-point scorer in franchise history. Hughes is on pace for both — provided he can stay in the lineup.
Jack Hughes leads the Devils to a 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs with his third career hat trick.
Few rookies have arrived in the NHL with the boundless enthusiasm and positivity of Matthew Schaefer. The first overall pick in this summer’s draft, the 18-year-old defenseman has earned his freshman year ice time (23:12 per game) with seven points through eight games, including three points on the power play.
The charismatic Schaefer was an instant fan favorite, with the crowd at UBS Arena chanting his name during a recent win over San Jose. Schaefer acknowledged those cheers after the game: “I love this place! Let’s go Islanders, baby!”
Perhaps this is a transition season. Perhaps new captain J.T. Miller hasn’t imprinted his win-at-all-costs style on the rest of the roster. Perhaps new coach Mike Sullivan just needs more time to unlock his roster’s offense or perhaps even he can’t solve the team’s depth issues.
Whatever the reasons, the Rangers have stumbled to a 3-5-2 start, with goal scoring that ranks 31st in the NHL. There’s still plenty of time to turn the team around in front of goalie Igor Shesterkin. Perhaps that starts during the Frenzy.
Before the season, former Ducks phenom Zegras told me that he wanted people to “go from saying ‘He’s good at hockey’ to ‘He’s a hockey player'” after his first season in Philadelphia.
The early returns are strong: two goals and six assists in eight games, skating to a plus-5 while averaging 16:48 of ice time per game. The only bummer for Zegras is that he hasn’t gotten a strong run at center yet for the Flyers. But as his game continues to rebound, perhaps those opportunities to be a “hockey player” will flourish.