NASHL

Final
CLB	5
ANA	2

Final
DET	3
BOS	4

Final
EDM	2
BUF	1

Final
FLA	4
CGY	1

Final
LA	1
CHI	3

Final
MTL	5
DAL	6

Final(OT)
NYI	3
NJD	2

Final
PIT	2
NYR	3

Final
TB	3
OTT	1

Final(OT)
STL	2
PHI	3

Final
PHX	3
CLB	1

Final
SJ	2
DET	0

Final(OT)
TOR	3
EDM	3

Final
VAN	5
FLA	2

Final
WSH	3
LA	5

Final
WPG	4
MTL	7

Final
BOS	4
NYI	1

Final
BUF	2
PIT	3

Final
CGY	1
STL	4

Game 330
CAR
PHX

Game 331
CHI
SJ

Game 332
COL
TB

Game 333
NJD
TOR

Game 334
PHI
VAN

Game 335
OTT
WSH

Game 336
NYR
WPG

Game 337
CLB
ANA

Game 338
EDM
BOS

Game 339
FLA
BUF

Game 340
DAL
CGY

Game 341
DET
CAR

Game 342
LA
CHI

Game 343
MTL
COL

Game 344
NJD
CLB

Game 345
NYR
NYI

Game 346
TB
OTT

Game 347
TOR
PHI

Game 348
STL
PHX

Game 349
SJ
PIT

Game 350
ANA
VAN

Game 351
WSH
WPG

Game 352
BOS
DAL

Overall Standings

TEAM	GP	W	L	T	PTS	L10
TampaBay	23	18	3	2	57	10-0-0
Buffalo	24	16	6	2	49	6-4-0
Edmonton	24	14	7	3	44	6-3-1
Florida	23	13	10	1	40	7-3-0
NYRangers	24	12	7	4	40	6-3-1
Boston	24	13	10	1	40	5-5-0
NewJersey	23	12	9	2	39	4-5-1
Phoenix	23	13	8	2	39	5-5-0
Chicago	23	13	10	0	37	8-2-0
SanJose	23	12	10	1	37	5-5-0
Columbus	24	12	9	3	37	7-2-1
Ottawa	23	10	5	8	36	5-3-2
Vancouver	23	11	11	1	36	4-5-1
Toronto	23	10	8	5	35	5-2-3
Colorado	23	11	12	0	35	8-2-0
Detroit	24	11	12	1	35	3-7-0
Carolina	23	10	8	5	34	4-5-1
LosAngeles	24	10	12	2	32	5-5-0
StLouis	24	8	11	5	31	2-7-1
Pittsburgh	24	9	11	4	30	4-4-2
Dallas	24	8	11	5	29	4-5-1
Winnipeg	23	9	12	2	28	2-8-0
Montreal	24	8	14	2	27	4-6-0
Philly	23	8	13	2	24	2-8-0
NYIsles	24	8	15	1	24	2-8-0
Washington	23	6	14	3	22	3-7-0
Anaheim	24	5	15	4	22	3-6-1
Calgary	24	3	20	1	12	1-9-0

News

NASHL Free Agency: The $5 Million Scrub Club

The NASHL unassigned free agency market has officially entered the Twilight Zone.

With teams scrambling to remain compliant with the league's $46 million salary cap floor, a number of otherwise unassuming free agents have suddenly discovered that they are apparently worth $5–7 million per season.

No, they haven't suddenly become superstars.

No, there hasn't been a secret league-wide scoring explosion.

And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you when you see some of these contracts.

They are CAP-FLOOR CONTRACTS.

The biggest beneficiaries of the annual ‘We have too much money and nowhere to put it’ sweepstakes include:

Micheal Stone — 1 year / $7M — Calgary

Mike Danton — 1 year / $6M — NY Islanders

Nate Thompson — 1 year / $5M — Winnipeg

Troy Brouwer — 1 year / $5M — Winnipeg

Marc Methot — 1 year / $5M — NY Islanders

Taylor Pyatt — 1 year / $5M — Tampa Bay

Rob Scuderi — 1 year / $5M — Tampa Bay

Brian Gionta — 1 year / $5M — Calgary

Kris Versteeg — 1 year / $5M — Calgary

Ryan Shannon — 1 year / $5M — Calgary

Mathias Tjarnqvist — 1 year / $3.5M — Vancouver

David Moss — 1 year / $2M — Winnipeg

That's $56.5 million being handed out to 12 players who, collectively, have apparently become the NASHL's newest financial instruments.

CALGARY: JUST GIVE EVERYONE $5 MILLION

Calgary appears to have embraced the philosophy that if you can't find a superstar, simply give everyone superstar money.

Brian Gionta? $5 million.

Kris Versteeg? $5 million.

Ryan Shannon? $5 million.

And then, just for good measure, Micheal Stone gets $7 million.

At this point, Calgary's front office may have stopped asking:

‘What is this player worth?’

And started asking:

‘How much room do we have left under the floor?’

WINNIPEG JOINS THE PARTY

Winnipeg has also been particularly aggressive in the cap-floor market after purging half their team, handing out $5 million contracts to both Nate Thompson and Troy Brouwer, while David Moss gets a comparatively modest $2 million.

That's $12 million spent on three players whose primary contribution may simply be ensuring Winnipeg doesn't accidentally fall below the salary floor.

Somewhere, an accountant is smiling.

THE ISLANDERS ARE PAYING FOR DEFENSIVE PEACE OF MIND

The New York Islanders weren't going to be left out.

Mike Danton: $6 million.

Marc Methot: $5 million.

That's $11 million in one-year contracts that should make the Islanders comfortably compliant while simultaneously leaving opposing general managers wondering what exactly happened to the free-agent market.

TAMPA SAYS ‘WE HAVE MONEY TOO’

Not to be outdone, Tampa Bay has handed out matching $5 million contracts to Taylor Pyatt and Rob Scuderi.

Because apparently the best way to solve a salary-cap problem is to make your depth players look like they just signed franchise-player contracts.

Oh, and then deal them to the Winnipeg Jets!

AND VANCOUVER QUIETLY JOINS IN

Mathias Tjarnqvist checks in at $3.5 million for one year, proving that you don't necessarily need to reach the $5 million mark to participate in the annual NASHL Cap-Floor Charity Drive.

THE WINNERS? THE PLAYERS.

Let's be honest: nobody is complaining about this situation except perhaps the general managers who have to watch their cap ceilings.

For these players, it's Christmas.

A one-year deal worth $5 million because a team needs to spend money?

TAKE THE CHEQUE.

And for the teams, it's a relatively painless solution. Most of these contracts are only one year, meaning the cap hit disappears after the season.

It's basically the NASHL equivalent of putting your spare change into a vending machine just to get rid of it.

Except the spare change is $56.5 million.

THE 2026 NASHL CAP-FLOOR ALL-STARS

If the league created an All-Star team consisting exclusively of players who appear to have benefited from the cap-floor scramble, we'd have one hell of a roster.

Projected annual payroll: $56.5 million.

Combined term: 12 years.

Combined panic from NASHL general managers: immeasurable.

And somewhere out there, a GM is currently looking at his roster and thinking:

‘We're only $3 million above the floor... who's left?’

Free agency isn't over.

THE SCRUB MARKET IS OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS.

NASHL's Great One, Jumbo Joe?

NASHL's Great One, Jumbo Joe, Leads Future NASHL HOF, and other milestones to watch.

As 37 year old Jarome Iginla approaches 700 goals with 695, he is only 19 ahead of 35 year old Joe Thornton. For Jarome to secure the NASHL record, he'll need to open up that gap or else Joe will eventually surpass him. Not only as the older Iginla eyes retirement, but Joe is just on another level and pace.

Jumbo recently hit 1700 points, 200 points more than the recently retired Peter Forsberg who is in second (and first ballot NASHL HOFer?). Does this cement Jumbo Joe's status as the NASHL's Great One? The only thing that can stop Joe is random chance if he retires early, GMs around the league are praying for this man to stop terrorizing the league. There is no young player, yet, putting up enough points that would outpace his career. That said, we have seen a very strong rookie class recently with MacKinnon, Draisaitl, and the upcoming McDavid. They could one day surpass him, but that conversation is 20 seasons and about 10 'real-life' years away!!

The goals record is more attainable, as Joe likely surpasses Jarome, but not by a huge margin. That leaves room for Ilya Kovalchuk as the likely next youngest player within striking distance. Kovy is 31 and just reached 500 goals this season, he's currently at 505. He's 171 behind Joe with 309 fewer games played. At the current pace this would have Kovy fall short by about 25 goals, so not out of the question. The problem is that Thornton is not slowing down at all, in fact he's already netted 9 goals in 8 games this season, Kovy has 7.

An honorable mention goes to sCorey Perry, who has surged recently and sits at 333 goals in 872 games at age 29. He's way off Kovy's pace but has recently picked it up. Leading the league this season with 13 goals in 8 games!! I should also bring up Paul Kariya who is having a monster year with 11 goals, and reaching the 600+ goal milestone this season. Although signed to 4 years with Florida, the 39 year old is likely to retire soon, another hall-of-famer.

Other milestones coming up this season include Dallas' Ed Jovanovski hitting 1400 games played, padding his league leading games played stat, currently at 1390, please don't get some sort of injury jinx! Speaking of hitting, the league leader is Big Z, Zdeno Chara, with 4596 - on pace to be just shy of 5000 by season's end. He's followed by Eric Lindros, oddly enough, at 4564. Then a huge drop to the aforementioned Jovo-cop who has 4033.

In net we have some interesting storylines. The league leader in games (1123) and wins (542), JS Giguere, retired early at 35. While he clearly belongs in the NASHL HOF, these are going to be temporary records. The next in line is active 35 year old Roberto Luongo, sitting at 534 wins and only 60 games back of JSG. Luongo could play another 3-5 seasons and pad the lead a bit, but there are still yet a number of younger goalies who are outpacing him.

See 31 year old Antti Niemi, 29 year old Brian Elliott, and 26 year old Semyon Varlamov. Niemi has played his entire career with the Oilers and has only 2 losing seasons since his rookie campaign in season 5. He's also on pace to become the only goalie to retire above 900sv% with more than 350 games played. Elliott has famously played his whole career with Boston, and while his pace is off Niemi's, he looks to slot in as the 2nd best goalie ever. Then there is Varlamov at 26, he is the only other goalie on the list that is on pace to be in the conversation. Ultimately it will come down to if these goalies remain on contenders, and avoid a shocking early-retirement a-la Jean-Sebastien!

Random observation of a player who will not make the HOF: While looking over Niemi's stats I came upon Vladimir Tarasenko. Currently a top 6 winger and just 22, this guy has been a wonder in how poorly he's played his NASHL career aside from a decent campaign in season 16. He remains a disappointment as he sits with 2 assists in 8 games. I know I had high hopes for him back in the day, season 15 feels like yesterday when I pumped him full of camps and sat him on my top line, only to see him dog his way to 3 points in 31 games! There is potential though, we have to wonder if there is something wrong with his build? Does the sim just think he's a fatass at 6'0 and 225 lbs?

The Evolution of Matt Taormina

Matt Taormina, 25, was selected 61st overall in the 3rd round of the Season 9 draft (2005), an unlikely future star or Captain of any NASHL team. Matt was just that for the Devils over the past 4 seasons, and he's grown into a 'star' defenseman for the Devils during that time. The team went into a rebuild at the start of his tenure, and the team lacked young talent to develop. Matt was called up as a rookie in season 12 at age 21, was named captain, and was camped heavily.

In season 12 he was rated 73ov at 21, and jumped to 77 in season 13, things were looking good!!! But the sim had other ideas, and he rated down in season 14 and was stuck at 77 even after camps that season. Thankfully he hasn't regressed again and climbed to 79 in season 15, and this season is a strong 82.

The experiment to create a defenseman paid off as he's grown in an anchor on the Devils defense. Last season he helped lead the Devils back into the playoffs alongside Kyle Mclaren and superstar goalie Semyon Varlamov. The Devils finished tied for 2nd in the league with the fewest goals allowed at 221 (with CBJ), behind only Edmonton's 213 goals allowed.

This season the Devils look to lean on Varlamov, Matt, and Kyle even more, but Matt is passing the captaincy torch onto another young superstar in the making, Evgeny Kuznetsov. Matt tells us this trio has the defensive end covered, but offensively they need help and hope to see Kuzy step up.

I think it would be a great, although a painstaking process, to look at the late round picks and see how many have made it to 'star' status. So if anyone else has any similar player projects, please share!!!

The evolution of Matt Taormina's ratings:

Season IT SP ST EN DU DI SK PA PC DF SC EX LD OV

16 84 81 84 82 80 82 80 61 70 85 61 74 66 82

15 80 80 80 81 79 82 80 57 65 82 58 63 65 79

14 76 80 76 81 79 87 80 57 65 80 58 59 53 77

13 74 80 74 82 79 84 80 60 65 78 61 54 48 77

12 69 77 69 80 77 87 77 54 62 76 57 47 38 73