If the start of the National Hockey League regular season on Tuesday night snuck up on you, know that you are not alone.
With the expanded 84-game regular season schedule under the new collective bargaining agreement, the league’s start has been pulled forward. The trade-off is that of a compressed preseason – music to the ears of most fans and players, less so for coaching staffs trying to evaluate their rosters from top to bottom.
Yes, young skaters like Michael Misa in San Jose (first in preseason scoring) and Beckett Sennecke in Anaheim (first in preseason goals with four) were expectedly impressive. But I have three lesser-known names for you heading into the season – three players who meaningfully improved their status as NHL hopefuls, and three names I expect we will hear more about before this season concludes.
Let’s start in New Jersey.
Remi Poirier, G, New Jersey Devils
Some waiver claims stick out more than others, and that was certainly the case over the weekend when the New Jersey Devils stole Poirier from the Dallas Stars organization.
The 24-year-old netminder was outstanding in a pair of games with the Stars this preseason, stopping 35 of 36 shots (97.2 per cent) in games against the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild.
Two games, let alone two preseason games, won’t define a goalie. But Poirier’s broader resume looks the part of an NHL goalie.
Over the past four seasons with AHL Texas Poirier has outperformed the league average and has done so across 137 games, a large enough sample to believe that production could be repeatable at the NHL level:
Aydar Suniev, F, Calgary Flames
The Flames are in a deep organizational rebuild, and their outlook for the 2025-26 regular season is nothing short of bleak, but plenty of youthful help is on the way.
The Flames have started restocking their prospect pipeline and one name that caught my attention this summer was Aydar Suniev, a former third-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Suniev appeared in a pair of preseason games with Calgary and tallied three goals, typically on a line with Ben Jones and William Stromgren. It’s just a pair of games, but it’s in line with some scoring touch we observed with Suniev last year with AHL Calgary, where he potted 16 goals in 57 games. That scoring touch earned him a six-game cup of coffee with the Flames at the NHL level last season as a 20-year-old.
Suniev is still a bit raw as a player (especially away from the puck), but you imagine he’s on the short list of call-ups for Ryan Huska to start the year, especially given that howitzer of a shot he possesses. The Flames are desperate to find more scoring across the organization and there’s a chance they have something in Suniev.
Yegor Borikov, Utah Mammoth
Poise. Swagger. Confidence. Those were just some of the words Utah Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny used to describe 21-year-old Belarusian winger Yegor Borikov after an outstanding training camp.
Borikov showed some scoring touch last year with Minsk Dynamo in the KHL, scoring 16 goals in 59 games, but it was his play this summer that turned him from a lesser-known prospect to a potential major weapon for a Mammoth organization loaded with young talent.
Borikov was fortunate enough to get meaningful preseason time with reputable NHL names – Kevin Stenlund, Gabe Smith, Liam O’Brien, and blue-chip prospect Tij Iginla all saw time on Borikov’s line.
The on-ice results were extraordinary: the Mammoth outscored opponents 4-0 (+4) across three games, with Borikov carrying an even-strength expected goal rate of 80 per cent. He looked exceptionally comfortable with the puck on his stick, was sound defensively, and played his minutes like a 10-year veteran.
For my money, Borikov was on the short list of most impressive young players I watched this summer. The only issue? He’s going to need to be outstanding with AHL Tucson to earn a call-up. The Mammoth depth chart is loaded with quality forwards blocking even blue-chip prospects like the Iginla and Caleb Desnoyers.
But if Borikov keeps playing like this, he won’t be in the AHL for long.
Data via NHL.com, Evolving Hockey, Hockey Reference
