The NHL’s first week has already produced extremes that would have looked made up a year ago. The Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes went 64:55 before the first goal was scored, the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks piled up 16 goals in a 9-7 Oilers win 48 hours later, and Igor Shesterkin became the 18th goalie in NHL history to score on Oct. 1 in a 5-1 New York Rangers win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
That is the backdrop for why Spencer Stastney is being searched now: the opening stretch of the 2026-27 campaign has been loud enough that general managers are already weighing what it says about the league. Don Waddell, Steve Staios and Bill Armstrong all looked at the same small sample and came away with different instincts about what they were seeing, which is part of what makes this early and unusual. It is not a settled read. It is a snapshot from a week when one game barely had a goal before overtime-level time had passed and another turned into a track meet.
Waddell, the Columbus Blue Jackets general manager, said the NHL always opens with uncertainty and that this year has been no different. He said the play around the league has looked more scrambly and more loosey-goosey than usual, and suggested the timing could be off, especially if the reduced preseason load is part of the reason. Staios, the Ottawa Senators general manager, drew a similar line in a different way, saying teams usually need five to 10 games to find their game and that the start has been a bit sloppy to watch comparatively.
That view sits next to Armstrong’s. The Utah Mammoth general manager sees the same opening games and focuses on a different trend line: better skill. He said he really sees the skill level of the players changing in a positive way, that it has already been on display early, and that younger players are arriving better, stronger and faster than ever. In his view, those players are pushing the league, not just keeping up with it.
Staios also pointed to the other side of the modern schedule. He said his team was one of the last to start its regular season, so it had extra time to prepare, and he added that shorter camps may leave players healthier when the games begin. That helps explain why one club may feel ready while another is still settling in, even though the league is only at the beginning of a long season.
The early results are dramatic enough to make the first week feel bigger than a first week should, but the executives’ comments point to a league still sorting itself out. If the play stays messy beyond those first five to 10 games, it will say something about the way the schedule is shaping the season. If it sharpens quickly, the opening extremes will look like exactly what Waddell called them: unpredictable, and no more than that.
