Brandon Carlo was acquired at the trade deadline by the Toronto Maple Leafs to provide some stability and practicality for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, in a critical year of their internal timeline. As the Maple Leafs fight for the top spot in the Atlantic Division, Carlo has formed a mutually beneficial partnership with Morgan Rielly, providing the team with their best four-man unit on the blue line of the past decade.
“I love playing with guys like Mo. His capability of moving the puck makes me feel really comfortable in the defensive zone, getting it over to him, knowing we’ll be able to make some good plays coming out of the d-zone,” Carlo said prior to Wednesday’s game against the Florida Panthers. “He’s been doing a great job communicating with me, as well. Defensively, on rush reads, I’m really beginning to recognize his voice, with my voice as well. It’s been great. For me, it’s an ideal partnership, the kind of guy like that is the perfect guy I’d love to play with.”
Rielly and Carlo have been paired together for 13 games, and the underlying results are promising, especially if they’re going to be used as the Maple Leafs’ second pairing in the playoffs. During 154:53 of ice time at 5-on-5, Rielly-Carlo have registered a plus-two goal differential (7-5) with a 59 percent share of the expected goals, with a minus-eight shot differential via Natural Stat Trick. The pair are trending upwards after it took a few games for Carlo to get acclimated with the Maple Leafs’ system, and the duo finished with the two best individual shares of the expected goals in a pivotal 3-2 victory over the Panthers on Wednesday.
During the past 13 games, using this number to reflect Carlo’s tenure with the Leafs, Rielly leads the Maple Leafs with 23 blocked shots, Carlo has blocked 21, Jake McCabe has blocked 17, while Chris Tanev, the NHL’s premier shot blocker, recorded 16 blocks in 11 games. No one is expecting Rielly to completely transform his game, but he’s eating pucks, entering the rush, and more importantly, has shown significant improvement off the rush when paired with Carlo. Rielly is simply playing better when paired with Carlo and has found a permanent partner, after several experiments this season.
“Really good, obviously,” Maple Leafs defenceman Chris Tanev said Wednesday morning of the Rielly-Carlo pairing. “They’re moving the pucks and defending well. Getting up in the play. Brando has done a great job of acclimatizing. It’s not easy to come into a room three quarters of the way through the year. I did it last year. Just trying to fit in and find your role and try to help the team win, and he’s done an amazing job of that.”
Carlo is a cool, calm, stabilizing force and he’s been able to clear opponents from the net-front, a key principle of Craig Berube’s system. Here’s an example of Carlo using his frame and positioning to clear a dangerous rebound in a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on March 29, after Rielly contests the initial shot on goal.
“You can hear him for sure. He’s been loud. When you’re assertive like that, it’s something I’ve learned a lot throughout my time in the NHL is that communication is huge, and we’ve been doing a good job of bouncing back and forth off each other,” Carlo said of Rielly.
Carlo is excellent at breaking up dangerous lateral passes to the net-front, and here’s another example of his clever positioning preventing an inviting scoring chance during a 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 15. Rush defence has been a continued point of emphasis for Berube throughout the season, and I wrote extensively about how the Leafs were coming up short in this department through January. This is something that Carlo does routinely, and it’s becoming more evident as he’s found real comfort with the Maple Leafs. It’s not perfect, but with McCabe serving as the team’s premier point-of-attack defender while Tanev operates as the Maple Leafs’ best defenceman overall, Carlo’s chance prevention and strong rush defence is another key asset.
Brandon Carlo and Jeff Malott got some SHOTS in during this tiltpic.twitter.com/pEKrKlm2OV
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 29, 2025
And of course, there’s the clear toughness that doesn’t require much explanation. Carlo often snarls at opponents and he’s willing to throw down with anyone, even if it’s against an opponent with some MMA lineage such as the Kings’ Jeff Malott. It was one of the best fights of the year and further endeared Carlo to his new Leafs teammates.
McCabe and Tanev are firmly entrenched as the Maple Leafs’ top pairing, while the Rielly-Carlo pairing is a great second unit for the team to deploy during the playoffs. Rielly has struggled throughout the year, but he’s playing to his strengths when equipped with a genuine shutdown defender who can play with physicality and clear the net-front. Although the Atlantic Division is loaded, and the playoffs won’t be easy, Toronto boasts its best defence corps of the past decade, with Oliver Ekman-Larsson rounding out a strong five-man unit. It’s been a mutually beneficial partnership and both players will be heavily relied upon this spring as a unit Berube can trust in tough matchups.
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The waiver wire is an interesting thing to keep tabs on. For the most part, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a pretty boring history of activity on the waiver wire, but every so often, there’s the possibility of finding a diamond in the rough. Take Curtis McElhinney, for example, who the Leafs claimed off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets midway through the 2016-17 season. He went on to do a stellar job backing up Frederik Andersen en route to the team’s first playoff berth in a full season since 2003-04.
All of this is to say that the waiver wire is always something worth keeping an eye on throughout the season. The potential to find gems cast away from other teams is equal to the possibility of losing somebody on your favourite team that you might want to keep. And the Maple Leafs have a handful of players who will lose their waiver eligibility next season.
Before we dive into that, let’s get a little refresher on how waiver exemption works courtesy of PuckPedia.
Note that only one of these four needs to be met for a player to lose exemption status.
Roni Hirvonen
The Maple Leafs selected Hirvonen in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft, where the Finnish forward established a reputation as a hard worker with pesky tendencies and some sneaky offensive ability. He unfortunately ran into some adversity immediately upon his arrival in Toronto, suffering a concussion at 2023 development camp that kept him out of activities until mid-October. After that, he took a stick to the eye in only his second AHL game with the Toronto Marlies, but despite both setbacks, he made his way back to pro hockey as the calendar flipped to 2024.
With 21 points in 54 games so far for the Marlies in 2024-25, Hirvonen would need to have a blazing hot start to next season to be considered a call-up candidate for the Leafs, but at only 23 years old, he’s young enough that a team would probably be willing to give him a shot.
Mikko Kokkonen
Selected in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft, Kokkonen has always been a high floor, low ceiling type of player. He’s never been a whiz offensively, but his hockey IQ and defensive game got him selected in the early rounds of the draft and helped him find his footing in North America.
Kokkonen has 13 points in 47 games in his third full season with the Marlies, and given his place on the Leafs’ back end depth chart, it’s unlikely the team jumps to call him up unless, like it would be for Hirvonen, he catches fire at the start of next season. He’s young enough that another team might take a chance on him, but the chances of him being claimed at any point past this season feel relatively low.
Topi Niemela
Niemela has had one of the most up-and-down paths of any prospect in the Maple Leafs’ system. Like Kokkonen, he’s a former third round pick of the Maple Leafs and was selected for his high hockey IQ and sound defensive instincts. In his post-draft year, he had a breakout season with 32 points in 48 SM-Liiga games, prompting some to believe he might have more to give from an offensive standpoint.
Although he had a solid rookie AHL season in 2023-24, posting 39 points in 68 games, he’s struggled to replicate that success in 2024-25. He has only one goal and 20 points in 58 games with the Marlies, and it feels like his name has been floated more in trade rumours than any other prospect still with the team, and yet, no trade has ever materialized with him. He could be a call-up candidate, and thus, a waiver claim candidate if he channels his success from his rookie season and build on it, but it feels more likely that the Leafs give him a fresh start elsewhere, especially with Chris Tanev and now Brandon Carlo locked into NHL roles.
William Villeneuve
Villeneuve is the most intriguing prospect on this list and one the Maple Leafs could consider getting into a game or two towards the end of the season once their playoff position is sealed in place. Selected in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, Villeneuve possessed some intriguing offensive abilities from the back end, but it was his defensive game that held him back. So, when he joined the Marlies and posted two 25-point seasons in 54 games back-to-back, many wrote him off as a contender for an NHL job.
It’s been different for Villeneuve in 2024-25. He’s having the type of season most expected Niemela would, with 34 points in 49 games. If he builds on this season and continues to elevate his game into next season, he could be an unlikely call-up candidate, but that would come with the risk of losing him on waivers. Whether or not any teams show interest depends entirely on how he does to start next season, whether he gets a call-up, and whether he performs well enough to stay up with the big club. There are a lot of factors that have to play out, but there’s some interesting upside in this player that rebuilding teams might value.
Overall, it’s extremely hard to gauge how prospects like the one above will be valued around the league this time next year. For every prospect that makes it through the waiver wire without fail, theres a Dryden Hunt type that gets claimed by a team simply looking to try somebody new. Overall, the fact that there’s nobody the Leafs might be counting on to fill a roster spot at risk of being lost through waivers is a good problem for the team to hav.
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Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin has officially rewritten the history books, becoming the NHL’s all-time goals leader. Ovechkin scored the 895th goal of his career on Sunday against the New York Islanders, surpassing Wayne Gretzky during the second period on the power play.
Ovechkin fittingly scored from inside the faceoff circle, where he’s torched opposing goaltenders from the moment he entered the league. He was promptly mobbed by his teammates in celebration at centre ice.
The record was previously considered to be one of hockey’s unbreakable accomplishments, and Ovechkin can be firmly considered the greatest goal-scorer of all-time. Ovechkin has been joined by Gretzky over the past week, where the NHL’s all-time points leader has been more than happy to celebrate with the Capitals, marking the passage of time.
Here is Ovechkin’s record-setting goal:
ALEX OVECHKIN IS THE GREATEST GOALSCORER IN NHL HISTORY!#Gr8ness pic.twitter.com/NKef3VvNaJ
— NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2025
Gretzky is seemingly thrilled for Ovechkin, and spoke at length about the Capitals’ superstar tying his record.
“It was a wonderful night, because both teams played hard,” Gretzky said. “I’m so impressed by what the Washington Capitals have done over the last year, and the record they have. And people don’t realize this – because I went through what Alex is going through – it’s hard on your teammates, too. It’s joyful and it’s exciting, but they feel the pressure and the stress, and they have to answer all of the questions also.
“So, my hat goes off to the entire organization. I’m so proud of the fact that Washington has become such a great hockey city, and Alex is obviously a huge part of that. More importantly, their team is winning now. And it’s icing on the cake that when he breaks the record, I’m so proud of the fact that my wife Janet and I are going to be here like Colleen and Gordie Howe were when I broke his record. And that’s’ what our game is all about.”
After consulting with Ovechkin, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery elected not to place the captain on the ice with an empty-net and explained his decision plainly following Friday’s victory.
“He wants to break the record with a goaltender in the crease,” Carbery said. “Which I appreciate. Being at home, it’s hard being as coaches, I just wanted to make sure – [could’ve been] a hat trick at home – he didn’t want to go out and score on an empty-net to break the record.”
The 39-year-old has been in terrific form this season and his 42 goals rank third this season, only trailing Leon Draisaitl and William Nylander.
Washington has arguably been the most positive surprise of the season and will clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a victory Sunday. Ovechkin has been at the forefront of the Capitals’ ascension to title contention, and it’s a well-deserved accomplishment for the greatest goal-scorer of our lifetime.
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We’re back for one of the final Around the NHL segments of the 2024-25 regular season. With only a couple of weeks left in the year, the Stanley Cup Playoff picture is starting to take shape, meanwhile, Washington Capitals’ great Alex Ovechkin has been busy lighting the lamp and breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record.
From making history to historic winning streaks to locking in playoff spots, here’s the very latest from around the NHL outside of the Toronto Maple Leafs world:
Tom Wilson ‘honoured’ to assist on Alex Ovechkin’s record-setting goal
Move over Wayne Gretzky, there’s a new goal-scoring king in NHL history. Sunday on Long Island, the hockey world stopped as Washington Capitals legend Alex Ovechkin potted his 895th career goal, surpassing Gretzky for the top spot in NHL history. And fittingly, OV’s long-time teammate Tom Wilson was involved, assisting on the historic marker:
HE DID IT, HE DID IT
ALEX OVECHKIN HAS THE MOST GOALS IN NHL HISTORY
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 6, 2025
Wilson spoke to reporters after the game and was humbled and honored to be a part of NHL history. “It’s not about me. It makes me a little bit emotional just because I think so much of him. To be able to be beside him forever in a big goal, I feel very lucky, I feel very honoured to be a part of that. It’s not about me at all. I’m just really proud. I love that guy, I love his family, and I’m really proud of him.”
“It will be the honor of my career to play with ‘O,’ learn so much from him, win with him, watch him score this goal. There’s really no words to describe it.” Wilson continued. Ovechkin broke Gretzky’s 31-year-old record and was honoured with the rare mid-game presentation, which included Wayne and his wife Janet, along with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
St. Louis Blues set franchise record with 12th straight win
The St. Louis Blues are the hottest team in hockey and have shot themselves out of a cannon, all the way up the Western Conference Standings and securely into a wild-card position.
The Blues won their 12th straight game on Sunday, defeating the Colorado Avalanche 5-4, and now have an eight-point lead on the Calgary Flames, who are chasing the Blues and Minnesota Wild for one of the wild-card spots in the West.
Along with setting their franchise record for consecutive wins, goaltender Jordan Binnington also tied a franchise record with his 10th straight home win, while Pavel Buchnevich also recorded his 100th goal as a Blue on Sunday.
Needless to say, head coach Jim Montgomery has turned the Blues around and pumped some serious life into the franchise, who were considering a fire sale at one point this season.
“It’s good to enjoy these moments, especially at home,” Binnington said following Sunday’s victory. “It’s really fun to play here right now, and you can tell there’s good energy all around. At the same time, we’ve got to focus and keep looking forward while we’re here.”
Los Angeles Kings clinch playoff spot
For the fourth straight season, the Los Angeles Kings are headed to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-0, and with the Calgary Flames losing to the Vegas Golden Knights over the weekend, the Kings have found the separation they needed to punch their ticket to the second season.
While the Kings have now clinched for the fourth straight season, they haven’t won a playoff series over this stretch, thanks to the Edmonton Oilers, who have eliminated the Kings in each of the last three seasons. As it stands right now, the Kings are set to face off once again with the Oilers.
The Kings join the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Washington Capitals as the 10 teams who have clinched their berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Quick hits from around the NHL:
- The Washington Capitals will be without Aliaksei Protas on a week-to-week basis after the forward suffered a lower-body injury.
- Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews became the first US-born player to record nine-straight 30-goal seasons.
- The Oilers signed prospect Nathaniel Day to an entry-level contract.
- Stars forward Mikko Rantanen became the third-fastest Finnish-born player in NHL history to hit 700 points.
- Bruins defenceman Nikita Zadorov called his team ‘easy to play against’ during their 10-game losing streak, this coming days after he called out goaltender Jeremy Swayman for his poor play.
- Stars veteran Jamie Benn had his iron man streak snapped at 371 straight games.
- Flyers’ Owen Tippett admitted the players were also part of the problem leading up to John Tortorella being fired last week.
- Niklas Backstrom has followed Ovechkin and the Capitals around to ensure he got to witness history first handhttps:
What an incredible moment between Alex Ovechkin and longtime line-mate Nicklas Backstrompic.twitter.com/BNpkliK9tV
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) April 6, 2025
I only have two words. Matthew Knies.
There genuinely has to be some kind of superior force at work here. Ever since Knies lost the Frozen Four on the sheet of ice at Amalie Arena, completely unrelated to the Tampa Bay Lightning at all, he has turned into a complete and utter force against that hockey team. He entered Wednesday night’s game with seven goals and 13 points in eight games against the Lightning in his career, including setting up the goal that sent the Toronto Maple Leafs to the second round for the first time in 19 years, and if that wasn’t enough of a sample size, he scored a hat trick including the overtime winner in the latest affair.
It’s seldom I ever include highlights in here, but you simply have to watch him at work on that overtime-winner.
If the sheer courage to attempt a between-the-legs pass on a 2-on-1 in overtime wasn’t impressive enough, the hat trick goal to seal the game had to have the entire fanbase on their feet. Knies entered the game with 26 goals and left it with 29 goals and 55 points in 74 games. It’s been an excellent sophomore season for the team’s 2021 second-round pick, and the sky truly seems to be the limit in regards to what his ceiling is. He’s a unicorn of a player that this team has lacked for years, and the early burst of offence in his career should have him considered among the best on the team.
He won’t get as much of the spotlight, but Anthony Stolarz deserves serious props for how clutch he came up in overtime. Three goals allowed or not, he made the saves that mattered, and that itself is all that matters in the playoffs. The biggest of his stops came on a breakaway surrendered to Brayden Point in overtime, complemented by a number of game-savers in the final minute of play.
The Maple Leafs have extended their divisional lead on Tampa Bay by three points, giving them the season sweep of the team for the first time since the 2011-12 season and increasing the odds of a Leafs-Senators first round.
They’re back in action on Saturday night when they host the red-hot Montreal Canadiens. Late regular season hockey has not mattered this much in a while, at least not for the Leafs, so enjoy the rest of the ride before the real one begins.
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A player in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ pipeline is taking home some hardware.
On Saturday night in St. Louis, Western Michigan University defeated Boston University, 6-2, to win the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship. With that, Leafs prospect Wyatt Schingoethe ends his college career as a national champion.
JUBILATION
WESTERN MICHIGAN WINS ITS FIRST MEN'S HOCKEY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPpic.twitter.com/HCDr1bHTNs
— ESPN (@espn) April 13, 2025
Schingoethe might not have been the biggest name on the roster this season, with talented players like Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alex Bump and captain Tim Washe leading the charge, he stepped up and had arguably the biggest game in his four years as a Bronco.
In front of a partisan WMU crowd, Schingoethe rode the energy from the fans, tipping in a point shot from Iiro Hakkarainen less than two minutes into the game to give the Broncos the early lead.
Let's SchinGOethe! @w_schingoethe gets the Broncos on the board first! #MFrozenFour xESPN2 / @WMUHockey pic.twitter.com/E4JcAo1mk1
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 12, 2025
The Algonquin, Illinois native wasn’t done yet. Later in the game, with Western Michigan up by two, he made a pretty pass from behind the net to Hakkarainen for an insurance marker that put the game out of reach.
HOLY HAKKARAINEN!@IiroHakkar22042 flips it in off the back of the goaltender to put the Broncos up 5-2! #MFrozenFour x
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 13, 2025
Schingoethe’s two-point night helped WMU win the program’s first national championship.
For the senior, ending his college career on the highest of highs couldn’t be any sweeter. Even though he arrived in Kalamazoo as an NHL draft pick, Schingoethe had to earn his ice time. With the Broncos acquiring so much quality talent in their four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, the former Waterloo Black Hawk sometimes found himself as the extra skater on some nights.
His determination to improve impressed head coach Pat Ferschweiler to give him some more playing time his season, appearing in a career-high 30 games. Schingoethe scored his first goal in two seasons in January, ending up with five goals and 11 points on the season.
In 85 games with the Broncos, Schingoethe scored six goals and 11 assists for 17 points.
It isn’t yet known what the future will hold for Schingoethe, although many speculate he won’t be offered a contract by the Leafs. The 22-year-old was originally drafted by Toronto in the seventh-round, 195th overall, of the 2020 NHL Draft. Per the the league’s draft rules, Toronto holds Schingoethe’s signing rights until 30 days after he leaves school. After that, he becomes a free agent.
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