The 2023/24 NHL season ended with two local NHL stars bringing the Stanley Cup back to the area for a one-day celebration. We’ll take a look ahead to the 2024/25 season and see which Hamilton and area hockey players you might want to keep an eye out for this season.
The Florida Panthers raise their first Stanley Cup championship banner on Oct. 8 in a game against the Boston Bruins. Meanwhile, there’s a new NHL team entering the season. The hockey club in Utah goes by the name The Utah Hockey Club. At least for now. The team’s new owners haven’t yet had time to come up with new branding, so that name may change. The team was moved from Arizona in April after playing there since 1996. Before that, the team was in Winnipeg.
For a full look at the prospects for all seven Canadian teams this season, check out this preview from CBC Sports. Meanwhile, CBC News business reporter Peter Armstrong says it has never been more complicated or expensive to watch an NHL game. You can read all about why he says that, right here.
The champions: Brandon Montour and Carter Verhaeghe
Let’s start with the two Stanley Cup champions in town. Brandon Montour and Carter Verhaeghe played for the Florida Panthers and lifted the Cup after Game 7 of the final against the Edmonton Oilers in June.
This season he’s with a new team, the Seattle Kraken after signing a seven-year deal, which the team announced on July 1. He’s played with Florida, Anaheim and Buffalo in his NHL career and is expected to be an anchor on Seattle’s defence this year.
Verhaeghe also signed a new contract but he’s staying with the Panthers. Verhaeghe signed an eight-year deal on Oct. 8. He brought the Cup to Hamilton’s Waterdown area on Aug. 19. He played minor hockey in Hamilton for years and also won the Cup in 2020 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The almost champions: Darnell Nurse and Adam Henrique
Henrique is another player with a new contract. He signed his new deal with Edmonton in July. The six-foot, 195-pound Henrique agreed to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $3 million. He’ll aim to provide some support for Oilers star Connor McDavid as the team looks to return to the finals.
His teammate Darnell Nurse was the target of critics during the Oilers’ playoff run in 2024. He was coming off a season where his point totals as a defenceman dropped to a six-year low.
Nurse comes from one of the great Hamilton sporting families. His father Richard was a receiver with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and mom Cathy played basketball at McMaster University. Sister Tamika played basketball at Bowling Green and Oregon.
His younger sister, Kia, is a guard for the Los Angeles Sparks in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She’s a two-time WNBA champion and was named a league all-star in 2019. His cousin Sarah Nurse plays as a forward for Toronto’s Professional Women’s Hockey League.
The others: Arber Xhekaj and Shane Wright
It’s hard not to root for Hamilton’s Arber Xhekaj. He wasn’t drafted into the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) when he was a teenager. And he wasn’t drafted into the NHL. But after signing as an unrestricted free agent with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 quickly became a favourite of coaches and fans for his willingness to fight for his teammates.
During a pre-season game, this season, against the Toronto Maple Leafs, new Montreal Canadiens winger Patrik Laine was badly injured after a knee-on-knee hit from Leafs forward Cedric Pare that is expected to leave Laine out of action for months. Xhekaj responded, fighting Pare and earning a fine of $3,385.42 US for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Will this be the year for Burlington, Ont.’s, Shane Wright? Since falling from a likely first overall pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft down to fourth where he was chosen by the Seattle Kraken, Wright’s career hasn’t yet matched the promise he showed as a junior in the OHL and, before that, as a star for the Don Mills Flyers in the Greater Toronto Hockey League.
It’s easy to forget he’s just 20-years-old. While he spent most of last season in the American Hockey League, he had made the final roster to start this season in Seattle. In an interview with Seattle Kraken media after a pre-season game on Oct. 2, Wright said his “confidence is building, confidence is definitely getting up there, but still a lot of work to do.”