10 players who can shift the NHL’s power balance in 2024

Credit: Elias Pettersson (© Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports)

Which players will define the year 2024 in the NHL?

Sure, we can say Connor McDavid will. That’s the easy answer. Same goes for Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes or Auston Matthews. They represent some of the best players on the planet. Of course they’ll have a major impact on the sport.

But who will change the NHL’s power structure with their play, their contracts and/or their potential to be traded?

Listed alphabetically, here are some names I expect to have a significant influence on what the league looks like a year from now.

Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks

No pressure, Connor, but…did you know Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid both (a) missed the playoffs in their first seasons and (b) won the Art Ross and Hart Trophies and led their teams to the playoffs in their second seasons? Bedard has been as sensational as advertised so far in his rookie season. With his scintillating goal-scorer’s release, he truly looks like a generational talent. He also serves up healthy portions of swagger when he makes spectacular plays on the ice, hinting at some long-term marketability as a future face of the NHL. But while Year 1 has been about getting comfortable and learning to be a pro on a rebuilding team, the expectations could spike quickly in Year 2, especially if other members of Chicago’s promising prospect crop, such as Frank Nazar, turn pro and begin contributing at the NHL level. Will Bedard show he’s so good that he can drag a young team into playoff contention by next season? Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s see if he can hold off the likes of Luke Hughes and Brock Faber and take home the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Macklin Celebrini, Boston University

No talent hawk places Celebrini in the generational tier a-la Bedard. But Celebrini certainly belongs in the next tier down as a potential franchise-altering superstar the way Jack Hughes did in 2019. After burying 46 goals in 50 games as a USHLer last season, Celebrini has been so dominant as a freshman at Boston University that he may outdo Adam Fantilli’s historically great freshman effort of 2022-23. The 2024 NHL Draft Lottery winner thus projects to find an important piece of their rebuild this June in Las Vegas. Celebrini, who has the ability to make everyone in his orbit better, is more of an all-around scoring talent than a pure shooter in the vein of Bedard.

Jake Guentzel, Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins are supposed to make the playoffs. New president of hockey ops and GM Kyle Dubas overhauled his roster with slew of offseason moves punctuated by trading for reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, after all. But at some point we have to acknowledge that the Pens, while still in the hunt, sit seventh in their own division, let alone the Wildcard standings. They are far from guaranteed to play postseason hockey this spring. And their top left winger Guentzel happens to be unsigned after this season. Given his tremendous track record of playoff success – he’s sixth all-time in playoff goals per game (min. 50 GP) – he could be the most impactful Trade Deadline acquisition out there should Dubas make him available. But doing so would feel like an admission of failure for someone brought in to turn this proud team around. A Guentzel trade wouldn’t be fun to make.

Carter Hart, Philadelphia Flyers

For a second consecutive season, the cerebral Hart has excelled in a situation that, on paper, looked daunting. While Hart’s career has plateaued at times, he’s still just 25 years old, practically a baby in goalie years. As the Flyers and GM Danny Briere embark on their rebuild, Hart sticks out as a potentially fortune-changing acquisition for a few of the contenders desperately seeking goaltending in a season where no one can get a save. (listens to earpiece) Hold on…I’m told the…Flyers are third in the Metro Division and holding down a playoff spot. Well, then. If they maintain their improbable success, Hart has all the makings of a series-stealer who could lead a Flyers upset over a higher seed in Round 1 of the playoffs. It feels like Hart is going have some kind of impact on the postseason, whether it’s with the Flyers or someone else.

Elias Lindholm, Calgary Flames

As the Flames and GM Craig Conroy tiptoe to the precipice of a rebuild, Lindholm represents the threshold they must ponder crossing. Lindholm is Calgary’s top center and one of the better two-way players in the game; If you push that domino over, his fellow pending UFAs Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin may as well go, too. Calgary ownership has indicated it would rather see a retool than a rebuild, but the types of offers Conroy might receive for his top UFAs could be too tempting to turn down, even if they skew more toward futures than immediate help. Lindholm just feels like the final piece of someone’s championship puzzle given his all-around skill set.

William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs

It boosted Nylander’s odds of re-signing with the Leafs when superstar Auston Matthews took slightly less than his actual market value on his four-year extension last summer. It helped when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced a projected salary cap increase of $4.2 million for 2024-25. But not even the most optimistic prognostications imaginable had Nylander tied for fifth in league scoring and tracking for 116 points by January. If he maintains this career-best pace and his camp decides being paid for his actual value trumps his desire to remain a Leaf…it’ll be one dramatic offseason in Toronto.

Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

A popular mini-conspiracy theory suggests the Capitals, happy with their 2018 Stanley Cup, believe having their all-time icon break Wayne Gretzky’s career goal record is more important than limping along for several seasons as a fringe playoff threat in the Eastern Conference. I don’t know whether that’s true, but I wouldn’t fault the Caps for it; the goal record has far more staying power than a few forgettable ninth-place finishes, right? But this scenario no longer makes sense if the goal record is no longer a foregone conclusion. Ovechkin’s goal-scoring drought this season has outlasted any notion of it merely being bad luck. He’s in obvious decline at 38 years old. Eventually, the Caps and GM Brian MacLellan must prioritize their long-term future over their greatest player ever. Even if that means embracing a full roster teardown. Doing so would also mean weakening Ovi’e supporting cast and hurting his odds of breaking the record, though. But if his scoring place continues to tail off dramatically and goal No. 895 remains multiple seasons away, how long can the Caps wait?

Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks

It’s way too early to sweat over the wild rumor circulating about Pettersson, the year’s top restricted free agent, wanting to leave Vancouver to join Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks next season. But Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said it best: Pettersson has the power to erase all that speculation by re-signing. He was in no hurry to do so last summer even coming off a 102-point season. It begged the question: how much higher did he expect his value to climb, and what would his asking price be if he achieved that goal? He’s been as dominant as ever this season and, more importantly, his Canucks look playoff bound. The number on his next contract likely starts with an 11, if not a 12. If the sides can’t come to an agreement, the return on a trade would be gargantuan. But I’d bet on GM Patrik Allvin and the Canucks to figure things out and lock up their franchise center.

Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers

Just like his fellow 2014 first-round draftee Nylander, Reinhart is blowing the doors off his previously perceived value, tracking for 50-plus goals and 100 points while playing excellent two-way hockey to boot. The Panthers appear poised to secure a more comfortable playoff position than they held last season, meaning any notion of a sell-off on Reinhart as a rental is out the window. He’s a Panther for at least the rest of this season on a team with a real chance at a Stanley Cup. After that, however? Whether the Cats re-sign him or another bidder does, they’ll be buying high on a player who smashed his personal bests in his age-28 season and is currently scoring on more than 25 percent of his shots. It will be tough for him to live up to whatever AAV he secures on his next deal. Same goes for Nylander.

Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning

Steven Stamkos will play his entire career with the Lightning…right? He cast doubt on the idea before the start of this season when he expressed his dismay over (a) not having a deal in place for 2024-25 and (b) the Lightning not even approaching him to start talks yet. While GM Julien BriseBois immediately went into public damage-control mode insisting that the Bolts want to keep their captain around, he also indicated he wanted to wait until after the season to see if re-signing him still makes sense. We can no longer call it a certainty that Stamkos stays. Particularly if the Bolts find themselves out of a playoff position as of the trade deadline. Given their perpetual cap-space struggles and the fact their farm system is cleaned out at the moment, using Stamkos to get younger via pieces acquired in a retool trade wouldn’t be the worst idea. The next couple months should be awfully interesting in Tampa.

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