The holiday season is ramping up as people try to get last-minute shopping taken care of and hockey fans will be wondering what comes next for their respective teams heading into the new year.
Every team has goals and a clear wishlist of items that they need to accomplish. For the seven Canadian NHL teams, being the one to end the Stanley Cup drought at 30 years remains the biggest challenge.
Here is a look at what should be at the top of each club’s wishlist heading into the holidays.
Calgary Flames: Getting Jonathan Huberdeau out of his funk
Some Flames fans might be asking for time machines for Christmas with the way Jonathan Huberdeau’s tenure has gone so far.
When the winger was acquired as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade, he was coming off a 115 point season and inked an eight-year, $84 million deal. Safe to say, the 30-year-old hasn’t lived up to expectations with four goals and 15 points in 33 games this season which has him on pace for a career low in points.
The Flames hoped that a coaching change would lead to a resurgence from Huberdeau but it hasn’t had the desired effect. New bench boss Ryan Huska has tried scratching Huberdeau and it’s clear that he’s struggling with his confidence.
“It’s not easy, obviously, not getting points and stuff but we’re in a good stretch as a team so that’s kind of all that matters,” Huberdeau said about his struggle to put up points.“ Obviously, I want to be part of it, but right now it’s just hard.
“At the end of the day (working hard) is all I can do. If it doesn’t go my way, it doesn’t go my way. I’m not getting any breaks, but no excuses and obviously I want to be there for my teammates and stuff. If we’re winning, that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
While a lot of the talk in Calgary has been surrounding the futures of Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin–and for a good reason–the team needs to find a way to get their highest-paid player going otherwise that contract will continue to look like an eye sore for the next six seasons.
Edmonton Oilers: A solution for the goaltending
All the Oilers should want for Christmas is league-average goaltending.
Sure they would love to strive for something much higher but considering where the Oilers currently sit, they’ll take what they can get.
Edmonton is near the bottom in the league in team save percentage (.878) sitting just above the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils. With the Oilers seven points out of a playoff spot, there is no margin for error especially between the pipes.
Currently, the burden is on Stuart Skinner’s shoulders to try and help the team dig out of their hole. It looked like Skinner was turning the corner after recording seven straight wins but he’s dropped his last two starts.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported last month that the Oilers were searching the goaltending market for a solution. The challenge is finding a team motivated to make a deal and of course the elephant in the room, Jack Campbell’s contract.
Edmonton only gets $1.15 million in relief with Campbell in the AHL and are on the hook for $3.85 million. Unfortunately, Campbell hasn’t been able to rediscover his game in the minors posting a 4-6 record with a 3.46 goals-against average and a 0.888 save percentage.
Finding a team willing to take on Campbell’s contract, which has three years after this season with a $5 million cap hit, won’t be an easy task. Friedman reported on 32 Thoughts that the Oilers were planning to give Campbell another shot in the NHL but his struggles in the AHL forced the team to abandon that idea.
Montreal Canadiens: Support for Caufield and Slafkovský
Canadiens fans have endured a tough transitional period and would love nothing more than to see the team start to emerge from their rebuild.
Having building blocks like Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki and Kaiden Guhle have put the team in the right direction but this group is still a work in progress.
When you look at the star power within the Atlantic Division alone, the Canadiens come up short in that department. Slafkovsky is still working towards reaching his potential as a first-overall pick, and the team needs to find another star of Caufield’s calibre.
Finding elite talent is not an easy task and sometimes it requires a little luck. When the Canadiens ultimately decide to make the aggressive push to be buyers rather than sellers, they’ll benefit from the assets they brought in that can be used to trade for players, but having the cap room to go after free agents in the coming years is another bullet in the chamber too.
With Sam Montembeault, Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau all under contract, the Canadiens will be a team to watch at the trade deadline with some clubs desperate to find solutions in goal because of injuries and/or poor play this season.
Ottawa Senators: Stability within the organization
This year was supposed to be different for the Senators.
With new owner Michael Andlauer and team president Steve Staios now in the driver’s seat of the team’s future, it feels like more of the same in the nation’s capital despite the front office’s desire to see the Senators be a consistent contender.
“My first priority is to instil stability and confidence in the group,” said Staios after announcing Pierre Dorion’s departure. “I think when changes like this happen, and we’ve been hit with a few things we’ve had to deal with, we have to give the group, staff and players the confidence. We have to continue to support and build.”
In that same press conference, Staios expressed confidence in the team’s ability to get on the right track under D.J. Smith but the following month the coach was fired and replaced by Jacques Martin and Daniel Alfredsson behind the bench.
Now the team is operating with interim tags on their general manager and head coaching positions with no firm timeline on when those roles will be filled. The new GM will be inheriting a team with many players signed long-term and could look to make some changes depending on how far out of the playoffs they are, while the new coach will need time to instil their system.
More changes are coming off the ice in Ottawa but can this new regime push the right buttons, avoid falling back to the instability this club had under the previous ownership group, and bring an on-ice product the fans will be proud to support?
Senators fans will be hoping their patience will be rewarded with some holiday cheer down the road.
Toronto Maple Leafs: A top-notch defenceman
After their 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, each player on the Leafs might have found some coal in their stalls as an early Christmas gift.
A lot of the attention will be paid to the team’s goaltending situation, and rightfully so with Joseph Woll injured and Ilya Samsonov admitting that he needs to figure things out mentally.
However, the No. 1 priority for this team has been the blue line and it continues to be especially with John Klingberg sidelined for the rest of the season. The obvious problem is finding the ideal target that is worthy of the assets the team has to give up.
Chris Tanev has been a popular name in the rumour mill and is probably at the top of the Christmas wish list for most Leafs fans. However, with the Calgary Flames within striking distance of the playoffs, they might be more willing to hold on to the Toronto native.
What the Flames will also keep in mind is whether Tanev plans on signing a contract extension. General manager Craig Conroy hasn’t been shy about pulling the trigger on trading a player who doesn’t see Calgary as their future home and has tried to get assets in return.
Friedman did suggest in 32 Thoughts that Toronto knows exactly what it will cost to tweak their defence and could be looking to see what other parts of the roster they could potentially upgrade as well, whether it’s the goaltending or solidifying the bottom six group of forwards.
How quickly a deal can come together depends on whether GM Brad Treliving is ready to meet the prices out there.
Vancouver Canucks: A nice tidy contract extension for Elias Pettersson
What a difference a year has made in Vancouver.
At this time last year, there were talks about shipping some players out of town to help retool the lineup and create some cap flexibility. Now the Canucks are at the top of the NHL standings with 47 points.
What better way to rain snow on the fun times in Vancouver than to bring up player contracts, especially Elias Pettersson’s pending deal.
Nothing would make Canucks fans happier than to wake up to the news of a contract extension for Pettersson on Christmas morning, but that would truly be a Christmas miracle.
With reports that GM Patrik Allvin and Pettersson met to discuss the centre’s future, president Jim Rutherford feels positive about the situation and did not want to share more beyond that. It’s safe to say both sides have not been operating on a strict deadline to put pen to paper on a new deal.
The 25-year-old centre has 13 goals and 41 points in 34 games this season after putting up his first 100-point campaign in 2022-23. Pettersson is a pending restricted free agent who will want and, more importantly, deserve to see a pay bump from the $7.35 million he’s making now and is also arbitration-eligible.
The last thing Canucks fans want to worry about during a season where the team has shown great improvement under Rick Tocchet is what Pettersson’s next contract will be. Unfortunately, that uneasy feeling only goes away when the ink is dry on a new deal.
Winnipeg Jets: Building on current momentum
Raise your hand if you had the Winnipeg Jets in a three-way race for the top spot in the Central Division heading into the Christmas break.
You can’t blame any Jets fan acting like they’re walking in a Winter Wonderland given how everything has come together this season.
Before the season even began, Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck locked down new deals which ended the speculation that both players were potentially looking to move on from the team at the end of the season in hopes of getting a chance to compete for a Stanley Cup.
The team could not be happier with the way the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade has unfolded with Gabe Vilardi thriving in a top-line role. In the 10 games since Vilardi’s return to the lineup, the Jets are 7-2-1 with the 24-year-old recording six goals and 12 points.
With everything going right for the Jets, the fan base can only hope that the good times can keep on going. It will be tough to do it without Kyle Connor who is sidelined long-term with a knee injury.
Working in the Jets’ favour is that they have cap space and their own draft picks to help solidify their roster, which will be necessary given that the Colorado Avalanche will be an active team at the trade deadline and the path out of the Central will likely go through them and the Dallas Stars.
