The anatomy of an NHL season is complex.
Look back after the 82-game grind has come to a halt, and it all seems fairly straightforward. The powerhouses surged, the lottery clubs languished, and everyone else sorted themselves into some form of a dark-horse or a disappointment.
But amid that regular-season slog, the schedule is dotted with, and defined by, moments. Those games that mean just a little bit more. Those opponents that fans rain a few more boos down upon. Those battles that seem to weigh heavier on the question of how far a team might go in the end.
It’s the rivalries that make a season. Not just the historic ones, not just the holdovers from last year’s playoff routs, but all those smaller ones. The games you circle on the calendar because you just want to see how exactly the drama plays out, standings be damned.
That in mind, with the first week of the 2023-24 campaign in the books, and that drama beginning to take shape, here’s a look at a few oddly specific rivalries that seem set to play a prominent role in the story of this season.
The Oilers vs. the Canucks (and the weight of Cup expectations)
Rewind back to a week-and-a-half ago, when this season was still shrouded in hypotheticals, and the Edmonton Oilers looked like a team on the cusp of greatness. Asked to fire off some educated guesses on how 2023-24 might play out, a wave of insiders from across the game tabbed Connor McDavid’s club to finally break through and lift silver — myself included. Generational talent can only be held down so long, the thinking went, and the group around No. 97 is as well-stocked as it’s ever been. Like Crosby and Ovechkin and MacKinnon and all the others, this was the year it would all come together for the game’s most prolific talent.
So, naturally, the Oilers hopped over the boards on opening night and got absolutely stomped, run out of the building via an 8-1 rout by a Canucks team that finished 22nd in the league last season. Still, it was the next game that really stoked the flames of this fire. Back on home ice, hungry for some quick-turnaround redemption to write off that early stumble, the Oilers came out in the second half of their home-and-home with Vancouver looking to flex their offensive might. Their three century men — McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — all scored. The Oil lost 4-3.
Maybe the Oilers sort out their defensive issues and rights the ship, maybe they reel off a 10-game win streak and reclaim their place as one of the West’s best. Either way, after having their season start in absolute shambles at the hands of one club — a Western Conference rival already long tired of McDavid Mania — expect fireworks when the pair meet again on Nov. 6, and again in mid-April, with post-season seeding potentially on the line.
Connor Bedard vs. Logan Cooley for the Calder crown
If you’ve caught a single game this season, read a single story about the league, listened to even a few minutes of chat over the airwaves, you’ve heard all about Connor Bedard’s rookie campaign. All eyes have been on the next Next One since he began dominating in the junior ranks, pulling everyone forward in their seats to wonder how dangerous that all-world shot could be in the big leagues. The 2023-24 campaign already seems set up to be the Year of Bedard. Drafted to an Original Six club, playing out an early slate of the schedule that seems built to tour the 2023 No. 1 pick around some of the game’s biggest markets, Bedard’s already begun to impress through his first weeks as an NHLer with the Chicago Blackhawks.
And yet, despite that undeniable promise, the path to his first trophy, the Calder, will hardly be a cake-walk. Because quietly, on the other side of the rookie landscape, Logan Cooley’s begun making his name, too. The young American came to the Arizona Coyotes with a story just as wild as No. 98’s — and just as intertwined with the legacy of Sidney Crosby. While his debut hasn’t earned the same fanfare, the same spotlight, the 19-year-old Pittsburgh native already has showed his quality with a point-a-game pace through his first handful of NHL appearances, leading all rookies through this early stretch. He’s fresh off dominating in the college ranks to the tune of 60 points in 39 games, leading the scoring for a Minnesota squad that featured much-hyped Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Matthew Knies, and finishing just behind Columbus Blue Jackets rookie — and fellow Calder hopeful — Adam Fantilli for the overall NCAA scoring title.
All to say, the 2024 Calder race figures to be a good one, and one that’ll only pick up steam as the two phenoms find their footing in the league. They face off against each other for the first time in NHL sweaters on Oct. 30.
Auston Matthews vs. Connor McDavid for the Rocket Richard
If we’re talking trophy debates, how about this one: who wins the Rocket Richard in 2024? It’s a closer race now than at any time over the past decade. After eight years of Alexander Ovechkin’s name already being pencilled in on the trophy, the past four seasons have seen David Pastrnak sneak into a tie for the crown in 2020, Auston Matthews snag a pair with a 41-goal season (in 52 games) in 2021 and a 60-spot in 2022, before McDavid decided his trophy case wasn’t quite full enough and came up with a 64-goal effort of his own in 2023 (with Pastrnak joining that 60-goal club, too).
On the cusp of the Maple Leafs’ new campaign, amid all the conversation of front-office overhauls, unaltered cores, and turnover on the lineup’s fringes, one thing seemed a given for all among the Leafs faithful: for Toronto to have any chance of contending this season, No. 34 needed to get his swagger back. It’s not about the trophy or the records or anything else — it’s that these Leafs, as constructed, cannot best the top teams in the league without Matthews potentially taking over games. Case in point: the blue-and-white’s leading man opened the season with a statement, scoring back-to-back hat tricks to prove he’s healthy and ready to reclaim his throne as the game’s top sniper, and his side won both nights. And then he was held off the board the next two games. Toronto lost both.
Regardless of where the two Canadian clubs finish by the season’s end, the hockey world’s been treated to a dizzying back and forth from McDavid and Matthews over the past two seasons — McDavid establishing himself as the best overall offensive talent the game’s ever seen, Matthews seeming to make history with his 60-goal season (snagging the Hart from McDavid despite a 123-point season that led the league for the third straight year), and No. 97 ultimately putting any semblance of a debate to bed with a ridiculous 64-goal, 153-point line. Where do they land in 2024? We’ll have a good sense by the time they meet, in mid-January.
Kyle Dubas’s Penguins vs. the Maple Leafs
Speaking of Toronto, you can bet Dec. 16 is circled on the calendar of one Kyle Dubas, former general manager of those Toronto Maple Leafs, now president of hockey operations and GM for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Few front-office legacies come apart with as much explosive drama as what played out between Dubas, Brendan Shanahan and the Maple Leafs this past off-season. It wasn’t just the exit though, it was the whole thing. From the day the young executive was named to the GM role in Toronto, there were already fireworks, the then-32-year-old earning the top job over the more-established Mark Hunter (who left the organization soon after), as a replacement for veteran GM Lou Lamoriello (who left the organization soon after). Following a half-decade run that saw Dubas turn the Leafs into a regular-season juggernaut — while still falling short of post-season progress — his tenure in Toronto then came to an end with a cryptic press conference, a behind-the-scenes power struggle, and Shanahan ultimately taking to the podium to make public the details of Dubas’s unheeded contract demands.
Soon after, Dubas swapped blue and white for black and gold, joining the Penguins at Shanahan’s level, president of hockey operations, before adding the GM tag a few months later. And just as he had in Toronto with the blockbuster acquisition of John Tavares, Dubas made early waves for his new club, too, landing reigning Norris Trophy-winner Erik Karlsson, fresh off a career 101-point campaign, to team up with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. That Dubas’s biggest splash for his new team was a move that brought in precisely the type of piece the Maple Leafs have been craving — a truly elite, right-shot blue-liner to run the power play and bring the best out of the club’s core, in the moments that matter most — only added to the fireworks. They’ll continue as the rest of the hockey world sits back and takes stock of how Dubas’s new project fares compared to his old one. And if the Penguins manage to have the type of resurgent season their front office is hoping for, and wind up alongside the Leafs among the East’s best, expect even more.
The Battle for the Hudson River (and The Metropolitan Division, and maybe The East)
The true battle for the East’s best doesn’t figure to run through Toronto or Pittsburgh, though. Continued dominance in Raleigh aside, it’ll come on either side of the Hudson River, where the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers have resumed their places as big-league powerhouses. For all the historic rivalries that are propped up around the league, this one might be the only one that has some real juice — two clubs that are both thoroughly in the thick of the race for the Cup, two clubs that seemingly have everything needed to go all the way, and two clubs that will need to go through each other to get there.
And, of course, two clubs whose fanbases seem to genuinely despise each other, after decades of the Devils living in the Rangers’ shadow, after the once-great Rangers had to sit through Jersey becoming dynastic, after two approaches to rebuilding seem to have peaked at the same time. The rivalry found renewed life and a new chapter last season, as the young, high-flying Devils became the team of the season, jumping from seventh in the Metro to second and earning a first-round playoff matchup with the skilled-but-rugged Rangers. A wild, back-and-forth, seven-game series added to the theatrics, before the Devils put the Rangers to bed and moved on (only to be immediately bounced by the Carolina Hurricanes). Both clubs remain among the class of the East, both added key pieces to their lineups in the off-season, both have Cup dreams. Who wins out? The first installment of the reunion comes Nov. 18.
Pierre-Luc Dubois vs. the Winnipeg Jets faithful
Out west, beyond the two most recent champs, Vegas and Colorado, it’s the momentum-building Los Angeles Kings who seem on the cusp of making some magic this season. At the heart of that dream is the arrival of Pierre-Luc Dubois, fresh off a trade from Winnipeg that was followed up with an eight-year extension to set roots down in California. For the Kings, it was a no-brainer, Dubois beefing up the club’s centre depth short-term as they look to build on their resurgence and now go for the big prize, while potentially serving as the heir to the No. 1 spot down the middle once Anze Kopitar eventually calls it a career.
But back in Winnipeg, things are less rosy. After trading away 2016 second-overall pick Patrik Laine to land Dubois in 2021, the Jets looked set to make waves in the West. They’d managed to part ways with their polarizing winger in what amounted to a draft-day do-over, Dubois having been tabbed by Columbus right after Winnipeg had called Laine to the stage. But the team success didn’t come, Dubois didn’t blossom as hoped, and a trade request eventually fulfilled now leaves Winnipeg without either of those 2016 lottery talents. Though the landslide of roster change that Dubois’ exit seemed set to trigger was eventually quelled by the surprise dual extensions for Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck, you’d be hard-pressed to fault the Jets faithful for holding some ill will towards Dubois. Three nights into their season, that ill will was hurled onto the ice as Dubois returned to town with his new club, scored the opening goal, and helped the Kings stack five goals on Winnipeg in a 5-1 rout. They’ll meet again in December, and once more in April, when the Jets could very well be fighting for their playoff lives.
The Senators’ young core vs. Alex DeBrincat
Also filed among the ‘Ill Will For Stars Who Spurned Us’ folder is the situation that played out between Alex DeBrincat and the Ottawa Senators. After a promising half-decade in Chicago that positioned DeBrincat as one of the game’s top young goal-scorers, the Senators were hailed as the 2022 off-season’s savviest operators when they engineered a deal to bring the 40-goal scorer to Ottawa. It seemed a perfect fit, DeBrincat adding some pure sniping prowess to a promising young Sens core already well-stocked with Tim Stutzle, one of the most dynamic creative talents in the league, and Brady Tkachuk, perhaps the top power forward in the league at the moment. And to top it all off, veteran playmaker Claude Giroux elected to come home too, bringing some more veteran vision to Ottawa’s offence.
But after a lone season of DeBrincat in a Senators sweater — and after the club gave up a package to acquire him that included the seventh-overall pick in the 2022 draft, used by Chicago to add star defensive prospect Kevin Korchinski — the dream hit a snag. The winger refused to sign with the club, prompting an eventual trade to the Detroit Red Wings. The addition of Vladimir Tarasenko, and the growth of Ottawa’s own young talent, offsets the loss some. Still, like the Jets faithful, you can’t fault Sens fans for not having enjoyed seeing DeBrincat look around the room at Ottawa’s young core and, promising as it is, decide he’d rather score his goals elsewhere. The lead talent among that young core stoked those flames just a bit himself, too, when asked about DeBrincat’s exit by the 32 Thoughts crew in September.
“It’s his choice,” Stutzle told Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek when asked whether he tried to get DeBrincat to stay. “You can say whatever you want — if he doesn’t want to be there, then I don’t want to make him have to be there. That’s fine to us. The whole group, we’ve been saying we want him to stay, we want him to be part of this group. He’s a great guy, great player.
“But in the end, if you don’t want to be there, then good luck on your way.”
They meet for the first time this Saturday, and three more times over the next three months. Bring on the fireworks.
