The Hockey News Prospects 2022-23

ONE OF THE FIRST times I went to Buffalo for a Sabres game, the end result was not pretty. It was during the 2007 playoffs, and the Sabres were hosting the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference final after clinching the Presidents’ Trophy at the end of the regular season for the first time. Now-managing editor Edward Fraser and I drove down from Toronto to watch the likes of Daniel Briere, Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller attempt to push the Sabres back to the final, and to do so as the favorites in the series. Prior to the game, I specifically remember walking down from the arena to the Washington Square Bar and Grill, where the place was packed with fans in Sabres gear, and everything I ordered was deep-fried. A few…

TUESDAY, SEPT. 5, 1972, was my first day of Grade 7 at my new school, St. Ignatius of Loyola in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough of Montreal. I remember it as though it was yesterday, because the night before, Canada beat the USSR to tie the Summit Series at 1-1, and everyone in Canada was in a pretty great mood. When I walked onto the unfamiliar schoolyard for the very first time, I saw a circular crowd of students who were chanting “fight, fight, fight.” Naturally, as a bit of a fighter myself, I wanted to see what was going on, and as I made my way to the center of the circle, I saw a big guy beating up a much smaller guy, Scott Pearson, who is one of my closest friends…

DAVE MANSON’S BEAMING grin told the story when the Stanley Cup visited his hometown of Prince Albert, Sask., in early August. His 31-year-old son, Josh, won the NHL’s top trophy six weeks earlier with the Colorado Avalanche, and the elder Manson, a hockey lifer, was the proudest papa around that day. Manson, 55, knows the intensive labor it takes to win. If not for a Jason Arnott double-overtime goal 22 years ago that gave the New Jersey Devils a Stanley Cup title in six games over Manson and the Dallas Stars, he would have preceded his son as an NHL champion. “It was a goosebump day,” said the elder Manson. “As a former player, you know the price you must pay to win the Stanley Cup. I felt good for Josh. It was…

WHAT DID CARD COMPANIES do back in the day when teams changed cities? Sometimes a lot, and sometimes nothing at all. Prior to 1976-77, the California Golden Seals and Kansas City Scouts relocated to become the Cleveland Barons and Colorado Rockies, respectively. Since both teams moved in July, Topps did not have time – or didn’t really care – to reflect the relocations in its 1976-77 card set. However, O-Pee-Chee released its set mid-season and had time to revise its cards accordingly. Team names and logos were updated, and O-Pee-Chee also either noted on the player’s photo that the team had transferred to a new city – or they went all-in and airbrushed the player’s uniform to a nondescript, achromatic jersey.…

SINCE CAM TALBOT’S early NHL days, the ‘Goalbuster’ – a puck-stopping homage to Ghostbusters’ Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man – has been the focal point of the stopper’s mask design. No more. Now in Ottawa, Talbot has stepped his way through to The Upside Down and embraced a much less cartoonish villain, Vecna from Stranger Things. Keen-eyed observers and fans of the TV series will note the presence of the spider-like Mind Flayer, too. It’d sure be a useful addition to Talbot’s toolbox if he managed to harness Vecna’s psychic and telekinetic powers.…

THE SECOND WAVE OF the NHL’s Reverse Retro jerseys dropped in October, and once again, it gave the hockey world a lot to talk about. One of the most impressive looks belonged to the Florida Panthers. Their first Reverse Retro was rather dull, but this second effort is a complete 180. Turning the old shoulder logo into the main crest was a no-brainer and should have been done years ago. Sun, palm tree, hockey stick…easy win. But on top of that, going with a base of the light blue from the team’s 2009 third jersey allowed the Panthers to give their history a nod while also using a color that truly pops.…