Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below the main deck of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are, as always, hard at work bringing you the latest sports news …
Or the latest news in fish cracker brands.
Anyway, ‘tis time to turn attention to the NHL. With the season already a tick past a quarter of the way through, definite trends in team performance (or lack thereof) and individual players have become evident. We start by looking at teams.
The Colorado Avalanche have thus far been the cream of the crop, having, as of the time of this post (November 30, 2025), played 25 games. Total number of losses in regulation? One. That’s scary good. Yet even with this gaudy record, they are leading the Central Division by only six points over the Dallas Stars.
The most competitive division is the Metropolitan, where the gap between the first-place Carolina Hurricanes and the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets is a slim six points. Speaking of the Metropolitan, the next-to-last-place New York Rangers are currently in one of the more bizarre situations in any sport. On the road, their record is an impressive 11-4-1. At home? 2-8-1. Apparently, they don’t like being in the same city as Zohran Mamdani either.
Looking at some individual players, three names have firmly worked their way into the conversation: New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer, San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, and Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard. We’ll start with Bedard, as he is the senior citizen of the trio at the ripe old age of … 20.
Bedard currently (November 30, 2025) has 16 goals and 21 assists, his 37 points making him tied for fourth place in scoring. Bedard has carried the Blackhawks into the playoff conversation, although, to be blunt about it, talking about playoffs this early is rather silly.
Way out west, that sound you hear is Los Tiburones de San José swimming back into relevancy in the NHL, thanks in no small part to the exploits of 19-year-old second-year player Celebrini. Presently tied with Bedard in points with 37 (14 goals and 23 assists), Celebrini, along with linemate Will Smith, has turned the Tank into a place once again worth visiting. Also, in the first 20 games of the season, Celebrini amassed 30 points. The only other NHL players to do the same while they were teenagers? Wayne Gretzky, who did it twice; Sidney Crosby, and Mario Lemieux. That’s some mighty fine company.
Finally, the Islanders’ Schaefer. His on-ice efforts have been stellar, with eight goals and 10 assists, leading to a plus-seven rating (translation: while he has been on the ice, New York has scored seven more goals than it has allowed). He is the youngest player — Schaefer is only 18 — to record an overtime winning goal in NHL history. That said, it has been off the ice where Schaefer’s star has shone the brightest. He lost his mother to cancer in 2024 and has devoted himself to lifting up other youth facing similar trials. He skipped his high school graduation to spend the day visiting and comforting kids at the Western New York Compassion Connection.
When it comes to the NHL, the kids are all right indeed.
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