Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
> Latest Issues
Top 100 NHLers 2025
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
Explore
> Top Prospects
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…
CHANGE HAS BEEN A near-constant part of Nick Lardis’ life in hockey. Lardis began his OHL career in Peterborough after the Petes took him sixth overall in the 2021 OHL draft. After a solid start to his OHL career, Lardis was traded to the Hamilton Bulldogs midway through his sophomore season. The move brought him closer to his hometown of Oakville, allowing him to move back in with his parents. But the homecoming was short-lived. That summer, the Bulldogs relocated to Brantford, which meant Lardis would be moving back in with a billet family. Throughout all of that upheaval, Lardis developed into a go-to scorer at the OHL level. That put him on NHL teams’ radars going into the 2023 draft, where he went 67th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Although Lardis…
CATS OUTTA THE BAG
NO PLAYER WANTS TO finish their first year of pro hockey back in junior. But if that’s where the path leads, the situation Dyllan Gill now finds himself in is about as ideal as one could ask for. The 20-year-old defenseman has taken his 24 games of AHL experience with the Syracuse Crunch back home to Moncton and the QMJHL-leading Wildcats. A seventh-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022, the 6-foot-3, 196-pound Gill offers everything teams at all levels covet in a blueliner: size, strength, poise in all zones, superior decision-making and a right-handed shot. Perhaps the most useful tool at his disposal, however, is a nuanced approach to a difficult situation faced in being returned to junior. “It was a lot of mixed emotions,” Gill said. “Staying in pro…
CRISTALL CLEAR FUTURE
WHEN PROSPECTS FIRST join their NHL teams, they’re often assigned random uniform numbers until they prove they have staying power. But the Washington Capitals gave Andrew Cristall an immediate vote of confidence after they selected him in the second round (40th overall) in 2023. “When I got drafted, they had No. 28 in my stall,” he said. “I thought that was pretty nice.” After starting his hockey career wearing No. 14 as an homage to former Canucks winger Alex Burrows, the Vancouver native chose to double his digits when he joined the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets in 2021. And while Cristall was wearing No. 28 when he nearly cracked the Caps’ opening-night lineup last fall after a strong showing in four pre-season games, he might find himself asking for a switch when he…
> oral histories
> Between the Pipes
A LESSON IN FAITH
THE ROAD TO THE NHL is paved with adversity for all those who grow up with Stanley Cup aspirations. But for Brandon Halverson, his road was fitted with even more bumps and forks than most. There were the demotions, the cuts and the stint playing overseas. There were whole seasons lost to injury. All that hardship is what made it so surprising to so many when the Tampa Bay Lightning inked Halverson to a two-year contract Feb. 3. Surprising to everyone but Halverson, that is. For Halverson, who turns 29 March 29, faith and determination have steered him head-on to this moment. “There was a small part of me that kind of knew that this was going to happen,” Halverson said. “And I don’t want that to sound cocky, but you have…
BEHIND THE MASK
WITH SAM MONTEMBEAULT BEING born and bred in Quebec, his hockey heroes weren’t so much chosen as preordained. Growing up a goaltender, it bordered on compulsory for Montembeault to lionize Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Carey Price. And with the help of Jordon Bourgeault of JBo Airbrush, Montembeault has brought those Canadiens crease giants into the future. This cyborg-head design, a nod to a former Price motif, cobbles together pieces of the iconic fiberglass masks worn by Plante and Dryden, with intricate wiring connecting to circuit-board messages that pay homage to Canadiens history. On the left jawline, “1993” is displayed in honor of Montreal’s most recent Stanley Cup victory, while “1909” on the opposite side honors the franchise’s founding. On the right panel is the longest message: “To…
PROJECTING NHL ARRIVAL DATES
THESE EIGHT YOUNG GOALIES can be found in this year’s Future Watch list of the game’s top 100 prospects. You’ll probably see a couple of them in the NHL next season. The others will need several more years to develop. 37 JESPER WALLSTEDT 22, Minnesota Drafted 20th overall in 2021 Marc-Andre Fleury’s pending retirement opens the door for Wallstedt. He’ll likely be broken in slowly next season, somewhere around 20-25 NHL games. He’s four years younger than Filip Gustavsson, so it will be several years before the Wild have two big-ticket stoppers. 46 TREY AUGUSTINE 20, Detroit Drafted 41st overall in 2023 Augustine and Sebastian Cossa represent Detroit’s future in net. The thinking might be for Augustine to turn pro this spring after a second superb NCAA season, then apprentice a year or two in the AHL. Then he could…
> Collections
Search for your favorite player or team
Made possible with the support of
