Schaefer gets assist in Islanders debut; Haula has 2 goals in 1st game back with Predators
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Matthew Schaefer had an assist in his NHL debut, a 3-2 shootout loss for the New York Islanders against the Philadelphia Flyers at UBS Arena on Sunday.
The 18-year-old defenseman, who was the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, was in the starting lineup on a pair with Scott Mayfield.
It was the preseason opener for each team. The Flyers won the game in the 11th round of the shootout on a goal from Emil Andrae.
Schaefer got the assist when his one-timer from the point was stopped by Philadelphia goalie Aleksei Kolosov, but the rebound was put in by Kyle Palmieri at 4:01 of the second period to tie the game 1-1.
Schaefer, who was limited to 17 games last season with Erie in the Ontario Hockey League because of a broken collarbone sustained Dec. 27 while playing for Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, played a total of 24:39 of ice time, with five shots on goal.
Palmieri also assisted on Marshall Warren’s goal at 16:48 of the second period that gave New York the 2-1 lead. David Rittich made 13 saves for the Islanders, allowing one goal. Parker Gahagen made 15 saves, also allowing one goal.
Rodrigo Abols opened the scoring for the Flyers at 2:42 of the first period. Matvei Michkov tied the game at 18:42 of the third period.
Kolosov made 15 saves, allowing both goals. Carson Bjarnason made 17 saves.
Rangers 5, Devils 3: The New York Rangers scored four goals in the second period at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Sunday.
Dylan Roobroeck had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick stopped 12 of 13 shots for the Rangers before being relieved by Dylan Garand midway through the second period. Garand made 13 saves.
Brian Halonen and Arseny Gritsyuk each had a goal and an assist, and Jake Allen stopped nine of 10 shots in the first period for the Devils. Nico Daws allowed four goals on 13 shots in relief.
It was the preseason opener for each team.
Gabe Perreault gave New York a 1-0 lead at 3:12 of the first period with a wrist shot from the slot after a feed from Casey Fitzgerald.
Halonen tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 10:55, one-timing Dennis Cholowski’s pass from above the left face-off circle.
Roobroeck put the Rangers back in front 2-1 at 3:11 of the second period on a rebound of Matt Rempe’s backhand attempt.
A sixth-round pick (No. 178) by New York at the 2023 NHL Draft, Roobroeck had 34 points (20 goals, 14 assists) in 72 games with Hartford of the American Hockey League last season, his first as a pro.
Conor Sheary gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead when he scored on a breakaway at 11:45, and Scott Morrow made it 4-1 at 13:29.
Paul Cotter cut it to 4-2 at 15:52 on a backhand, but Jonny Brodzinski scored on a rebound at 16:53 to make it 5-2.
Gritsyuk scored a power-play goal at 18:20 of the third period for the 5-3 final.
Rangers at Devils | Recap
Predators 5, Panthers 0: Erik Haula scored two goals in his return to the Nashville Predators, and Justus Annunen and Matt Murray combined for 20 saves against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers at Bridgestone Arena on Sunday in the preseason opener for each team and the first of two games in Nashville.
Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei each had two assists, Ryder Rolston and David Edstrom had goals, and Reid Schaefer scored on his 22nd birthday for the Predators.
Brandon Bussi (17 saves) and Kirill Gerasimyuk (five) were in goal for the Panthers in their first game since winning their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship with a 5-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 17.
Rolston gave Nashville a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal at 5:24 of the first period.
Haula made it 2-0 at 3:41 of the second period. The 34-year-old forward was acquired in a trade with the Devils on June 18 for defenseman Jeremy Hanzel and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. He had 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in 51 regular-season games and four points (one goal, three assists) in six Stanley Cup Playoff games for the Predators in 2020-21.
Schaefer scored at 12:19 to put the Predators ahead 3-0. The forward was a first-round pick (No. 32) by the Oilers in the 2022 NHL Draft and was acquired in the deal that sent Tyson Barrie to Nashville and Mattias Ekholm to Edmonton on Feb. 28, 2023.
Haula scored again at 7:11 of the third period to make it 4-0, and Edstrom at 15:44 for the 5-0 final.
Maple Leafs 4, Senators 3: The Toronto Maple Leafs scored three goals in the first period, then held off the Ottawa Senators in the preseason opener for each team at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.
Calle Jarnkrok and Nicholas Robertson each scored for the Maple Leafs. Artur Akhtyamov stopped 16 of 17 shots before being replaced midway through the second period by Vyacheslav Peksa, who made 16 saves.
Ridly Greig had a goal and an assist, and Drake Batherson had two assists for the Senators. Linus Ullmark allowed three goals on eight shots in the first period. Mads Sogaard made 11 saves in relief.
Jarnkrok gave Toronto a 1-0 lead 47 seconds into the first. He stole the puck from Ottawa center Nick Cousins in the left circle, powered his way to the net and jammed a shot past Ullmark.
Robertson made it 2-0 at 12:47 with a one-timer from the top of the left circle.
William Villeneuve gave the Maple Leafs a 3-0 lead with a power-play goal at 18:00, a wrist shot from the point that found its way through traffic.
Greig cut it to 3-1 at 1:45 of the second period, but Matthew Barbolini restored Toronto’s three-goal lead with a power-play goal at 5:42 to make it 4-1.
Arthur Kaliyev one-timed Greig’s feed in the slot at 13:12 to cut it to 4-2.
Olle Lycksell cut it to 4-3 with a power-play goal at 4:33 of the third period after a feed from Brady Tkachuk, but the Senators were unable to tie it.
Ottawa outshot Toronto 14-5 in the third.
Maple Leafs at Senators | Recap
Blue Jackets 4, Blues 1: Milan Lucic had an assist in his first NHL game since Oct. 21, 2023. The 37-year-old signed a professional tryout agreement with the St. Louis Blues on Aug. 19 after not playing last season to take a leave of absence from the Boston Bruins in November 2023. He later entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
Ivan Fedotov made 14 saves in two periods of his debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who got goals from Brendan Gaunce and Mathieu Olivier, a goal and an assist from Luca Del Bel Belluz, and a goal and two assists from Dmitri Voronkov. Fedotov was traded to Columbus by the Philadelphia Flyers on Sept. 14 for a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Nikita Alexandrov scored, and Joel Hofer (13 saves) played two periods for the Blues. They lost their preseason opener 2-1 in a shootout at the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
Gaunce opened the scoring 2:41 into the second period to give the Blue Jackets at 1-0 lead and Del Bel Belluz made it 2-0 at 15:42, with Voronkov assisting on each goal. Alexandrov scored at 16:58 to trim Columbus’ lead to 2-1.
Voronkov scored at 17:31 and Columbus got at empty-net goal from Olivier at 19:37 for the 4-1 final.
Capitals 5, Bruins 2: Marco Sturm made his coaching debut for the Bruins in a loss at TD Garden. The 47-year-old was hired June 5 and is a head coach for the first time in the NHL.
Sonny Milano had four points (two goals, two assists), Hendrix Lapierre had a goal and two assists, and Logan Thompson made 14 saves for the Capitals before he was pulled about midway through the second period.
Morgan Geekie and Patrick Brown scored, and Michael DiPietro and Simon Zajicek combined for 26 saves for the Bruins, who are coming off a last-place finish in the Atlantic Division after making the Stanley Cup Playoffs the previous eight seasons.
Geekie’s goal at 6:17 of the first gave Boston a 1-0 lead.
Milano tied it 1-1 at 6:48, the first of four unanswered goals for the Capitals. Lapierre scored at 11:33 of the second to put Washington ahead 2-1. Milano and Bogdan Trineyev then scored 47 seconds apart to give the Capitals a 4-1 lead.
Brown cut it to 4-2 at 3:35 of the second. Washington took a 5-2 lead on Ryan Chesley‘s goal at 8:45.
Capitals at Bruins | Recap
Wild 3, Jets 2: Yakov Trenin scored twice, including the overtime winner with 1:01 remaining, to help the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg on Sunday.
Hunter Haight also scored for the Wild and Jesper Wallstedt made 21 saves.
Morgan Barron and Danil Zhilkin scored, and Samuel Fagemo had two assists for the Jets. Thomas Milic stopped seven of eight shots he faced in two periods, and Isaac Poulter made nine saves in relief.
Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.
Barron put the Jets up 1-0 with a power-play goal 5:33 into the first period when he shoveled in a rebound off a point shot from Elias Salomonsson.
Zhilkin took a no-look, behind-the-back pass from Kevin He and sent a wrist shot from the left circle past Wallstedt to push it to 2-0 at 8:02.
Trenin cut the lead to 2-1 at 4:23 of the second period, taking a Vinnie Hinostroza pass from behind the net and slipping it past Milic in front.
Haight tied it 2-2 on the power play at 17:02 of the third period.
Trenin scored his second goal at 3:59 of overtime when he found a loose puck in the slot and beat Poulter through traffic for the 3-2 final.
Wild at Jets | Recap
Kings 3, Ducks 1: Alex Turcotte had a goal and assist, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California on Sunday.
Alex Laferriere and Andre Lee scored for the Kings. Carter George made 20 saves.
Nikita Nesterenko scored for the Ducks and Ville Husso made 22 saves.
Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.
Nesterenko opened the scoring for the Ducks 1:15 into the first period. He sent a wrist shot from above the right circle that deflected in off the back of Kings defenseman Kyle Burroughs.
Turcotte banged in a rebound off a point shot from Brandt Clarke to tie it 1-1 at 4:27.
Laferriere put the Kings ahead at 6:11 of the third period. After sending a pass to Turcotte on a short-handed rush, Laferriere crashed the net and tucked in a rebound on the doorstep.
Lee secured the 3-1 final at 18:34 with an empty-net goal.
Predators 5, Panthers 3: Matthew Wood had a goal and two assists to lead the Nashville Predators to a 5-3 win against the Florida Panthers at Bridgestone Arena, the second game of a doubleheader in Nashville on Sunday to begin the preseason for each team.
Filip Forsberg and Ryan O'Reilly each had a goal and an assist, and Cole Smith and Steven Stamkos scored for the Predators. Juuse Saros stopped nine of 10 shots before being replaced midway through the second period by Magnus Chrona, who stopped 14 of 16 shots.
Mike Benning scored twice, and Brett Chorske had a goal for the Panthers. Daniil Tarasov, who was acquired by Florida in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets on June 26, made 15 saves. Cooper Black replaced him midway through the second period and had 11 saves on 12 shots.
Chorske put the Panthers ahead 1-0 at 7:44 of the first period, sending a low shot from the left of the crease that went in off Saros.
Smith deflected a shot from the right point by Nick Blankenburg to even the score 1-1 at 17:44. Stamkos put the Predators ahead 2-1 on the power play at 18:59.
Forsberg increased Nashville’s lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 9:39 of the second period.
Wood sent a wrist shot through traffic from the right circle to put the Predators up 4-1 at 13:24. He was selected with the No. 15 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. The 20-year-old forward recorded one assist in six games with Nashville last season after collecting 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists) in 39 games at the University of Minnesota.
Benning cut the lead to 4-2 21 seconds into the third period, tapping in a loose puck in the crease over the goal line. He scored his second goal of the period on a one-timer from the right circle at 6:39.
Benning has spent the past two seasons with Charlotte of the American Hockey League after three seasons at the University of Denver, upping his production from 26 points (nine goals, 17 assists) in 72 regular-season games in 2023-24. The 23-year-old defenseman also had nine points (five goals, four assists) in 18 AHL playoff games, including the overtime winner in Game 2 of the Calder Cup Final.
O’Reilly sent a shot into the empty net at 19:25 for the 5-3 final.
Nicolas Hague, who was acquired by Nashville in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on June 30, was injured in the second period and did not return to the game. The 26-year-old defenseman had one assist and three shots across 15:09 of ice time.
Avalanche 5, Mammoth 1: Gavin Brindley and Tristen Nielsen each scored twice, and Valeri Nichushkin had three assists in the Colorado Avalanche’s 5-1 win against the Utah Mammoth.
The preseason opener for each team was played at Magness Arena on the campus of the University of Denver.
Isak Posch made 12 saves for the Avalanche, allowing one goal. Scott Wedgewood made eight saves.
Michael Carcone scored the first goal for Utah under the name Mammoth. Matt Villalta made 28 saves.
Carcone gave Utah a 1-0 lead at 11:00 of the first period, but Brindley scored the next two goals — the first at 4:13 of the second on assists from Cale Makar and Nichushkin. Brindley then scored unassisted at 5:07 of the second to make it 2-1 Avalanche.
Maker and Nichushkin teamed up again to assist on a goal for Danil Gushchin to make it 3-1 at 5:57 of the second period. Gabriel Landeskog assisted on Nielsen’s goal at 18:03 of the second to make it 4-1.
Nielsen scored his second goal at 14:35 of the third on an assist from Nichushkin to complete the scoring.
Sharks 2, Golden Knights 0: Newcomers John Klingberg, Jeff Skinner, Tyler Toffoli and Alex Nedeljkovic each shined in their San Jose debuts.
Michael Misa, selected by the Sharks with the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, had one shot on goal in 17:40 of ice time in his NHL debut.
Nedeljkovic, who was acquired in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1, made 24 saves for the shutout.
Klingberg, a defenseman who signed with San Jose as a free agent on July 1, opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 7:18 of the first period. Toffoli won an offensive zone face-off and got the puck the Klingberg, whose wrist shot beat Vegas goalie Carl Lindbom.
Skinner, who signed as a free agent on July 11, scored on a delayed penalty at 19:14 of the second to make it 2-0. Toffoli, who signed with the Sharks as a free agent on July 1, scored an empty-net goal at 19:17 of the third period.
Golden Knights at Sharks | Recap
Oilers 3, Flames 0: Kasperi Kapanen scored and the Edmonton Oilers shut out the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday.
Connor Clattenburg and Riley Stillman scored, and Samuel Jonsson and Nathaniel Day combined to make 20 saves for Edmonton. Jonsson stopped all 12 shots faced, and Day made eight saves in relief after entering the game at 10:29 of the second period.
Devin Cooley made 26 saves for Calgary.
Each team was playing its first games of the preseason. The Oilers and Flames played with split-squad lineups at Calgary and Edmonton on Sunday.
Kapanen shot off Cooley’s glove and in from between the hashmarks to put the Oilers up 1-0 at 2:38 of the first period.
Clattenburg pushed the lead to 2-0 at 8:18 of the third period with an unassisted goal, a shot from the slot that beat Cooley over the glove after a turnover through the middle of the defensive zone by Matvei Gridin.
Stillman scored on a slap shot from the point through a screen that beat Cooley glove-side to push the lead to 3-0 at 11:46.
Kraken 5, Canucks 3: Jani Nyman scored twice, Vince Dunn had three assists, Kaapo Kakko had two assists, and the Seattle Kraken topped the Vancouver Canucks in the preseason opener for each team at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
It was Lane Lambert’s first game as coach of the Kraken and Adam Foote’s coaching debut with the Canucks.
Eduard Sale, John Hayden, and Jaden Schwartz also scored for the Kraken. Joey Daccord made nine saves, allowing two goals, while Nikke Kokko made 13 saves, allowing one goal.
Victor Mancini, Chase Stillman and Nils Aman scored for Vancouver. Nikita Tolopilo made 13 saves, allowing one goal, while Ty Young made six saves, allowing four goals.
Sale, selected No. 20 by Seattle in the 2023 NHL Draft, opened the scoring at 14:06 of the first period with a wrist shot that finished off a two-on-one.
Mancini tied the game at 3:25 of the second, by Nyman scored the first of his two goals at 10:54 of the second to make it a 2-1 game. Schwartz made it 3-1 at 13:45 of the second, and Nyman made it 4-1 at 14:25 of the second. Nyman’s two goals were each assisted by Dunn and Kakko.
Stillman made it a 4-2 game with an unassisted goal at 19:44 of the second, but Hayden made it a 5-2 game at 3:07 of the third period. Aman completed the scoring at 7:25 of the third period.
Canucks at Kraken | Recap
Flames 3, Oilers 2: Morgan Frost scored twice, including the overtime winner, to help the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.
Each team was playing its first games of the preseason. The Oilers and Flames played with split-squad lineups at Calgary and Edmonton on Sunday.
Joel Farabee scored a power-play goal, and Dryden Hunt had two assists for the Flames. Ivan Prosvetov stopped 28 of 20 shots he faced.
Matvey Petrov had a goal and assists for the Oilers. Matt Tomkins made 11 saves.
Darnell Nurse scored at 3:46 of the second period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.
Frost scored at 7:14 to tie it 1-1. Farabee put Calgary up 2-1 on the power play at 11:02, tapping in a cross-crease pass from Rory Kerins.
Petrov evened it 2-2 at 18:41 when he banked in a centering pass from behind the net off the skate of Flames defenseman Ilya Solovyov.
Frost secured the 3-2 final with his second goal 1:07 into overtime on a wrist shot from the left circle.
Avalanche 3, Mammoth 2: Martin Necas had a goal and two assists, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 win against the Utah Mammoth.
Both teams opened their preseasons with split-squad games at Magness Arena on the campus of the University of Denver and Ball Arena on Sunday.
Artturi Lehkonen and Brock Nelson scored for the Avalanche. Trent Miner stopped 19 of 20 shots in two periods, and Kyle Keyser made four saves coming in relief.
Sammy Walker had a goal and an assist, and Daniil But scored for the Mammoth. Vitek Vanecek, who won the Stanley Cup last season with the Florida Panthers, made 13 saves on 15 shots through two periods before being replaced by Jaxson Stauber, who made five saves.
Lehkonen gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 17:59 of the first period, whacking at a loose puck during a net-mouth scramble that eventually trickled under Vanecek over the goal line.
But tied the score 1-1 with a power-play goal at 4:56 of the second period.
Necas put the Avalanche back up 2-1 at 8:12 when he collected a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated in alone and beat Vanecek’s glove with a wrist shot.
Walker evened the score 2-2 with a wrist shot from the right circle while on a power play at 14:09 of the third period.
Nelson put Colorado back up 3-2 36 seconds later after Necas sent a one-timer towards the net that was deflected in front.
Utah forward Logan Cooley left the game in the third period after taking a hit along the boards from Avalanche forward Zakhar Bardakov and did not return.
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