NHL Player News

Montour scored a goal on three shots and went plus-2 in Tuesday's 4-3 shootout win over the Red Wings.

Montour missed one game due to a lower-body injury he sustained against the Lightning last Thursday. The 32-year-old defenseman was able to make an impact in his return, scoring Seattle's third goal of the game. He's up to six points, 16 shots on net, 14 blocked shots, eight hits, 27 PIM and a plus-2 rating over nine outings in a top-four role.

Talbot stopped two of three shots in relief Tuesday in a 6-2 loss to Toronto.

The Leafs overwhelmed Jet Greaves early, and then barely engaged Talbot -- those three shots came in close to a half game's work (27:57). The Blue Jackets sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with few signs of life right now. Both Talbot and Greaves are headed for a winter of discontent.

Grubauer stopped 22 of 25 shots in Tuesday's 4-3 shootout win over the Red Wings.

This could have been a much less dramatic performance -- Grubauer kept the Red Wings off the board for the first two periods. A three-goal collapse in the third sent it to overtime, but Grubauer stopped three of four attempts in the shootout to seal the win. He's allowed nine goals on 86 shots while starting three of the Kraken's last four games (no back-to-backs). Head coach Lane Lambert remains as unpredictable as ever with his goalie usage, so it's unclear if Grubauer will get a chance to build off this win when the Kraken host the Mammoth on Thursday.

Greaves allowed five goals on 19 shots in 32:03 Tuesday before being replaced by Cam Talbot in a 6-2 loss to Toronto.

The Leafs came in waves early and there was little Greaves could do with his team on their heels. He's had a rough start to the season. In five starts, he's 2-3-0 with a 3.34 GAA, .883 save percentage and one shutout, and he has three games where he's allowed four or more goals. Ugh. The Blue Jackets sit last in the Eastern Conference with a 3-5-0 record -- yes, they're worse than the slow-starting Flyers. And they're tied with Chicago with the fourth-worst record in the NHL. Greaves is good, but this could be a long season.

Stolarz made 35 saves in a 6-2 win over the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Stolarz is 3-1-0 in four starts with a 2.99 GAA and .897 save percentage this season. That save percentage is slightly better than the current league average (.892), and his GAA is a hair worse than average (2.91). In a projected 30 starts this season, Stolarz will be as good as anyone you can have in the blue paint and maybe even better once the team in front of him figures things out. The Leafs have been a mixed bag so far, so Stolarz's numbers could even improve with time.

Nylander had a goal and an assist in Toronto's 6-2 victory over Columbus on Tuesday.

Nylander's strong start continues. He has six goals, nine assists and 33 shots in 11 games so far. Five of those points (two goals, three assists) have come on the power play. If he can stay healthy, Nylander could top the 100-point mark point with ease. He's in the NHL's top-10 scorers and on a 115-point pace right now.

Matthews had a goal and an assist in a 6-2 win over the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

His goal stood as the winner. And the snipe was Matthews' 436th goal in his 700th career game, tying Pavel Bure for the sixth most by an NHL player through that mile marker, behind Hall-of-Famers Wayne Gretzky (589), Mario Lemieux (580), Mike Bossy (542), Brett Hull (504) and Jari Kurri (454). Matthews is on fire so far this season. He has five points (two goals, three assists) in his last two games and 18 points, including eight goals, in 11 contests so far. Both of those marks put him in a tie for second in the league thus far.

Rielly had three assists in Tuesday's 6-2 win over Columbus.

It was Rielly's first multi-point game this season. The elder statesman on the Toronto blue line has seen his role change with the arrival of Darren Raddysh, and Tueday's game was just the second game in his last eight that Rielly hit the scoresheet. His days of 72 and 68 point seasons are long gone, but this performance shows he can still create in transition now and then. Whether that translates into more than last year's 36 points (11 games, 25 assists) remains to be seen, though. This performance gave him seven assists on 14 shots in 11 games this season.

Roslovic had a goal and two assists in Tuesday's 6-2 win over the Blue Jackets.

Both Roslovic and linemate Easton Cowan had three-point nights -- are they this good or is it a function of their pivot? That's a guy named Auston Matthews. Roslovic's best season came in 2021-22 when he put up 45 points, including 22 goals on 131 shots, in 81 games. But he did score at a 58-point pace in the COVID-shortened season when you project it across a full season. Roslovic is worth a waiver squeeze while he's enjoying AM34's company.

Cowan had a goal and two assists in Tuesday's 6-2 win over the Blue Jackets.

The goal came shorthanded to push the score to 4-1. Cowan became the first Maple Leafs player age 21 or younger to score a shortie since Mitch Marner on Feb. 14, 2019. It was also his first NHL three-point game. Cowan is sitting fourth in Leafs scoring with 10 points (four games, six assists) in 11 games. He already has 23 shots in that span. We don't expect Cowan to maintain this pace, but the kid has outperformed expectations at every level.