2025-26

• The name was actually revealed before the end of the previous season, but the Utah Hockey Club christened itself as the Utah Mammoth. The team had been leaning towards Yeti or Yetis, but it ran into problems when Yeti Coolers took issue with the proposed name.

• During the off-season, three legendary goaltenders passed away -- Ken Dryden, Ed Giacomin and Bernie Parent.

• NHL players will be competing in the Olympics this winter. Thus, there was no All-Star Game this season.

• Two teams battling for playoff spots fired their coaches with less than 10% of their seasons remaining, replacing them with veteran journeymen coaches. The Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy with eight games remaining, replacing him with John Tortorella. And then with just four games left, the Islanders fired Patrick Roy and replaced him with Pete DeBoer. The Golden Knights' move paid off, as Tortorella led them to a first place finish in the weak Pacific Division. DeBoer, however, wasn't as successful, leading the Islanders to one win in their last four games and a one-way trip to the couch to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

• "Our long, national nightmare is over!" That's what Sabres fans were saying as after a 14-year absence, their team finally won their way back into the NHL's postseason. And they did so in emphatic fashion, winning the Atlantic Division in the process.

• With the Sabres' NHL-record 14-year playoff drought over, the longest current playoff drought now belongs to one of the league's former perennial powerhouses -- the Detroit Red Wings, who have now gone ten years without making the playoffs.

• What a difference a year makes, and not in a good way. One year after winning the Presidents' Trophy, the Jets went into an all-out tailspin, finishing with a .500 record and out of the playoffs. And after an epic four-year stretch that included two straight Stanley Cups, three straight Final appearances and a Presidents' Trophy, the injury-riddled Panthers found themselves out of the playoffs.