Ho, ho, ho. With the holiday roster freeze officially in place, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, and ‘tis the season for giving.
Everyone has a Christmas Wish List this time of year, and that includes NHL teams. So, without further ado, here is a list of what every NHL team wants for Christmas, starting with the Atlantic Division.
Boston Bruins
The Bruins have a Christmas wish list a mile long. They don’t have any players over a point-per-game, and David Pastrňák only has 12 goals on the season. Boston shelled out a $7.75 million for seven years contract for Elias Lindholm in Free Agency, but with just five goals and 17 points in 34 games, he hasn’t exactly been a seamless fit. Their powerplay is firing at just 12.7%– second-worst in the league– and their penalty kill isn’t much better.
So, what does Boston want? I’d imagine they want their freshly-extended $8.25 million goaltender to consistently play like one. Jeremy Swayman has a record of 11-10-3 on the season, but has a .887 SV% and a 3.13 GAA.
Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres are currently in a season-sinking skid. They’re 0-9-3 in their last 12 games, and have been outscored 51-27 over that stretch. Tage Thompson has 16 goals through 27 games this season, but no one else on this Sabres team has more than nine.Their powerplay is the 30th in the league with a 13.5% success rate, and their 77.1% penalty kill is ranked 22nd.
What the Sabres want is to make the playoffs for the first time since 2011, but with the way this season is going, what they really need is for management to commit to a rebuild. The last one didn’t work. It’s time to wave the white flag.
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings and their -15 goal differential are struggling to find their footing in a below average Eastern Conference wild card race. They currently sit six points out of a playoff spot. For once, goaltending isn’t their biggest concern– they have a team average SV% of .903– no, this year, what’s doing Detroit in is failure to generate enough offense. The Red Wings average 2.69 goals per game, which is 25th in the league.
The Red Wings want– and need– a new coach. Firing the coach doesn’t do much to fix a bad team, but the Red Wings shouldn’t be a bad team.
Florida Panthers
Well, I’m sure the Panthers would love nothing more than to run it back and repeat as Stanley Cup champions. But since the ultimate goal for every team is to win a Cup, I’ll dig a little deeper.
The Panthers are having a good year. Sam Reinhart is on track for a 48-goal and 104 point campaign, and Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov are both well over a point-per-game. But Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky isn’t having the greatest season so far. His .896 SV% would be the worst in his career. So, what Florida really wants is Bobrovsky to find his game, and get hot at the end of the year right before the playoffs.
Montreal Canadiens
Short of a miracle, the Montreal Canadiens aren’t making the postseason this year. They’re seven points out of a playoff spot, and are the 15th team in the Eastern Conference. So, their Christmas wish is going elsewhere.
Rookie defenseman Lane Hutson is currently third on the team in scoring with 22 points in 31 games. He’s just four points behind Matvei Michkov in the rookie scoring race. So, what Montreal really wants is for players to finish on the chances Hutson creates, so he can have a better shot at the Calder Trophy.
Ottawa Senators
The Ottawa Senators haven’t made the playoffs since 2017. It looked like that trend was going to continue. But the Senators are in the middle of a five-game win streak– they’ve gone 7-1 in their last eight games– and are currently clinging to the second wildcard spot. What they want for Christmas is for this recent string of good play to continue. If it does, I’d say that coveted playoff spot is as good as theirs.
Tampa Bay Lightning
I’m not sure there’s much Tampa Bay could want. They’re comfortably in a playoff spot, and Nikita Kucherov is tied for third in the league in scoring with 49 points. Andrei Vasilevskiy is having another good season, with a 15-9-1 record, a .913 SV%, and a 2.38 GAA. Most importantly, the Jake Guentzel gamble is paying off, as he has 18 goals and 33 points in 30 games.
What the Tampa Bay Lightning really want is some national attention for Brayden Point. Point has 21 goals and 38 points in just 26 games. He’s on pace for a career high 57 goals and 103 points. And he’s flying completely under the radar.
Toronto Maple Leafs
This one is pretty obvious, right? They want a Stanley Cup. The Leafs haven’t won a Cup since 1967, a fact that has been hanging over the team ever since.
But that might not be entirely realistic. There’s a reason why people say that the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports. So, let’s say that the Maple Leafs want to make it out of the first round for just the second time since 2004.
