11 NHL Players with the Most to Prove During 2023-24 Season
"Having something to prove" is a notion open to interpretation.
Take it from the reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, who had been objectively one of the best teams of the past few years but seemed to operate with a perpetual chip on their shoulder.
Could you blame Bruce Cassidy, after the Boston Bruins fired him out of the blue? Could you blame Jack Eichel, who spent his entire career missing the playoffs on a team that then discouraged a surgery that would improve the quality of his life (and his play)? Despite its newness, could you blame the franchise as a whole, which had been told the desert was no place for a hockey team? Could you blame the front office, which found success in an unconventional-yet-shockingly simple way: Trade for good players?
Proving people wrong feels good.
You know what also feels good? Proving people right.
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour often uses this phrase when talking about both the recent success (financial and on-ice) of the Canes, and how he tries to coach. He's able to squeeze career years out of so many players by putting them in positions to succeed, trusting them, letting them make a few mistakes and watching them give maximum effort in return.
Then there's stumbling upon a golden opportunity to prove yourself, like rookie goalie Devon Levi in net for the Sabres, and there's a less golden but just as wide-open opportunity, like anyone who has found themselves playing center on the Boston Bruins roster in 2023-24. There are expiring contracts, career-worst years to bounce back from and career-best years to one-up.
Let's explore this concept with a look at the 11 NHL players with the most to prove in all different ways as the 2022-24 season gets rolling.
Jonathan Huberdeau, Calgary Flames
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Do you want the good news or the bad news, Flames fans?
The bad news is Jonathan Huberdeau set an NHL record for largest drop-off in points from season to season by going from 30 goals and 115 points in 80 games in 2021-22 to 15 goals and 55 points in 79 games in 2022-23.
This drop-off occurred, of course, the season the Flames traded Matthew Tkachuk, receiving and extending Huberdeau. The potentially worse news? The extension was an eight-year contract with a whopping $10.5 million average annual value that kicks in this season and lasts until Huberdeau is 38. The contract carries the 10th-highest cap hit in the league.
The good news? If Huberdeau's career-high 115-point season was an outlier, so was his 55-point season, and there are a few convincing (and fixable!) explanations. Much of his point decrease came in the assist column, where he'd recorded the third-most assists of any NHL skater in the previous five seasons.
Former Flames coach Darryl Sutter played Huberdeau on his off-side for almost half of 2022-23 when he clearly looked uncomfortable. He also shot less, averaging 1.59 shots per game last year compared to 2.78 in 2021-22 and his 2.36 career average. New head coach Ryan Huska has Huberdeau back on the left side, and the 30-year-old has one goal and two assists in three games as his new contract kicks in in 2023-24.
Some more good news to consider? The Flames as a whole were horribly unlucky last season, and it's unlikely every player who had a career-worst year will repeat that. It's just as unlikely that they will endure as many bad bounces and overtimes. And although there's more internal pressure for Huberdeau given the contract extension kicking in, there will be less external pressure via comparison to Tkachuk's monster season and the Panthers' Stanley Cup run.
Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks
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Whether the pressure is truly warranted or not, we can all agree that it's real for 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard. The 18-year-old, among the youngest players to ever make an NHL debut, did so to heightened fanfare, in the era of social media, NHL on ESPN and TNT, and the league actually attempting to have some personality.
Not to mention, Bedard was one of the highest-touted prospects in years, joining a rebuilding Blackhawks team that jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 in the draft lottery. The Blackhawks have been trying to usher in a new era as the hockey world reckons with the Kyle Beach case. With Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews gone, Chicago now looks to Bedard.
He immediately became No. 1 center, immediately got mic'd up in his debut and immediately had his "Welcome to the show, Kid" moment, dueling with Sidney Crosby on the faceoff dot in game No. 1.
So far, Bedard has shown a refreshing bluntness and realness in interviews—he's not going to try to be something he's not. He's got a dry humor that breaks the fourth wall of hockey players being boring, a maturity about him, and he's pretty hard on himself.
He's also living up to the hype as much as an 18-year-old thrust into a first-line center position on a formerly tanking roster can, with one goal and two assists in his first three huge-market games.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Los Angeles Kings
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The Pierre-Luc Dubois saga reminds me that, even subconsciously, people often forget that athletes are human. People also forget that while the NHL provides entertainment for us, and yes, athletes get paid to play a sport, it is still a job full of decisions and context we aren't always entitled to.
Even if we don't understand it, even if he never provided a reason we deemed valid, even if you don't agree, it was always Dubois' right to request a trade from anywhere, for any reason.
At 25 years old, Dubois has now requested and received two trades.
"Everybody's entitled to their opinion," Dubois told The Athletic's Murat Ates in a must-read story that details his decisions. "At the end of the day, it's my life: I only live once. I only have one career."
Dubois went from Columbus to Winnipeg, and then when his contract was expiring, requested a trade from Winnipeg. He landed with the Los Angeles Kings, where he signed an eight-year $68 million extension upon arriving.
"I think, where I was going in my career and in my life … I'm 25. I've said this before but eight years is a long time," Dubois told Ates. "I don't know how I'm going to feel in three years. But I felt like, for me, L.A. was a city that I could be happy in for the eight years of the contract. I could be happy playing here. I could be myself here."
With all of that out of the way, Dubois now finds himself on a playoff team looking to make the jump to Cup contention. The Kings have absolutely needed to round out their top six with a player like Dubois at his best.
He hit his career high last season with 63 points in 73 games, and he's going to need to not only replicate that best season but also improve on it to be worth the $8.5 million cap hit and to send the Kings past the first round. Between putting the speculation to rest with himself and his contract, and Kevin Fiala returning from injury, Dubois could find peace and success with the Kings.
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Pavel Zacha, Boston Bruins
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In the same way we were quick to call the Boston Bruins a disappointment in the 2022-23 season after a first-round exit, I am willing to find hope in the 2023-24 iteration of the team despite Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci's retirements.
The best goalie tandem of 2022-23 is back in Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, and the 2-0 Bruins have already given us 2-of-2 goalie hugs. David Pastrnak is locked down through the rest of the decade, Brad Marchand is still Marchand with an added "C" and the defense is still strong, led by Charlie McAvoy.
Pavel Zacha, who is now centering the Bruins' top line, was incredible at times stepping in for Bergeron in a tough situation last season. He flirted with left wing and center throughout the year, and enjoyed a career-high 57 points last season mostly on that wing. He's been granted an opportunity in between top wingers in the league now, but that comes with the pressure of replacing Bergeron.
How will he handle it? No pressure, but 2015's No. 6 overall pick could determine the flow of the season.
Filip Zadina, San Jose Sharks
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Filip Zadina put himself in the most clear-cut, individual "something to prove" situation in the NHL this season.
The 23-year-old, selected No. 6 in the 2018 draft, left $4.56 million in cash on the table with the Detroit Red Wings after a mutual termination of his contract. There was little drama, no big event and seemingly no bad blood with Detroit. Zadina, selected in the top 10 primarily because of his goal-scoring potential, simply wanted a fresh start after only 28 goals and 40 assists in 190 games to begin his career.
So he initially requested a trade, and then ended up terminating the contract altogether knowing he wouldn't get anything better. He ended up with a one-year, $1.1 million deal from the still-very-much-tanking San Jose Sharks. Will it give the winger a new outlook, hunger and bigger opportunity? Yes, and he's got a goal and seven shots in two games already on the first line alongside countryman Tomas Hertl. Will any of this be easy or certain? Of course not.
But Zadina is still young, and though his career hasn't panned out the way those of his comparable draft peers have, he believes he can do better. This storyline is compelling enough to consider actually watching the Sharks this year.
Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
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Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs are a particularly ambiguous iteration of the "prove yourself" notion.
He'd probably roll his eyes at being told he was on some list like this, and he'd be right without context—the Leafs' "failures," aka their failure to make a Cup run, haven't really been about him.
How about the coaching staff proves itself, the various management proves itself or the rotating people in net prove themselves? But this is all about the Maple Leafs as a whole.
Maybe Matthews has more to prove for himself, to himself. He's fresh off a contract extension carrying a $13.25 million AAV, and coming off a season he dropped from 60 to 40 goals and from 106 to 85 in points with a one game-played difference.
Maybe this is the year he bets on himself and feels less pressure. I thought it was fitting that all the talk was on Connor Bedard and his rookie season, and Matthews did a sort of reprise on his own rookie season—instead of four goals in one game, it was a back-to-back hat trick in his first two of the season.
We'll see what this new life and fun from Matthews breathes into the rest of the Leafs.
Joonas Korpisalo, Ottawa Senators
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With star players returning to health, key additions highlighted by last trade deadline's Jakob Chychrun acquisition, and a killer blue line, the Ottawa Senators could return to the playoffs this season. At the very least in the stacked Eastern Conference, they're expected to hover around a playoff spot.
Their offseason included signing one of the few higher-profile goaltenders available: Joonas Korpisalo. The Senators invested a hearty five years and $20 million in him. No one is crying about the very fair $4 million AAV, and imagine how genius the Senators front office will look if that works out amid the rising cap? But the five-year term is a big bet on a 29-year-old goaltender who hasn't fully reached proven-starter status yet.
This isn't a harsh knock on Korpisalo himself as a player, considering the situation he's been in as a goalie in the Blue Jackets organization from 2015 to '23. But he has yet to play 40 games in one season in an NHL net.
The good news? The closest he came—39, split with 28 in Columbus and 11 in Los Angeles last season—was his strongest season. More than one NHL goalie has told me they tend to play and feel better with more time in net, which feels equal parts obvious and counterintuitive to those who don't tend goal, but the small sample size with Korpisalo points to some good news.
There's also the fact that Ottawa's defense is strong and the overall team is sound, and we saw Korpisalo's numbers jump when he went from the Blue Jackets to the Kings.
Again, the small sample size in various situations is the issue with the five-year term, but this is Korpisalo's best chance to turn that small sample size into a real career and prove the Senators right.
If he can stay healthy, I say he does it.
The 'Kids' of New York
8 of 10
If I had a nickel for every time the contemporary New York Rangers had an underperforming 2019 No. 2 draft pick and an underperforming 2020 No. 1 draft pick, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
We should be extra patient with younger players transitioning to the NHL who've been disrupted by COVID, and there's no doubt the unusual transition to the league has had an impact on both Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko. The revolving door of Rangers head coaches and management surely hasn't helped.
But the Rangers have had recent success despite—not with the help of—Lafreniere and Kakko. The publicly proclaimed rebuild has been suspiciously ahead of schedule because of Igor Shesterkin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox. Imagine where this team could be if the recent No. 1 and No. 2 draft picks performed?
I loved the Rangers' offseason, full of cheap contracts with proven, veteran, fringe guys who are often effective to some degree in the postseason. The Rangers tried the Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane deadline experiments, and heck, they might try something like that again this deadline.
But deep down, I think everyone knows they aren't making it to the Cup until the "kids" truly show up, or at least one of them has a true breakout. It makes you think about the Golden Knights' success via trade strategy, doesn't it?
Devon Levi, Buffalo Sabres
9 of 10
Nobody is going to call Buffalo Sabres rookie goaltender Devon Levi a bust if they extend their league-leading playoff drought this season. The city of Buffalo is far too cursed to place any significant blame about anything on a 21-year-old who has barely sniffed the league with only two NHL games under his belt.
If anything, you scold Buffalo management for putting him in this position in the first place if it all goes wrong. But what if it all goes right?
Levi might have the most to prove—in a good way—of any player in the league. Imagine the glory of Levi coming into the net and leading the Sabres to their first playoff appearance in over a decade. As I'm typing this, though, dear reader, the Cam Ward predicament comes to mind.
How much can you really judge a young goalie by the year they arrived in net? What have we learned since 2006? And do we even want to put such a potential talent under that much pressure again?
Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
10 of 10
Isn't it strange that the vast majority of us would agree with the following two points:
1. Connor McDavid is the best hockey player in the world;
2. Connor McDavid still has something to prove.
Probably no one agrees with point No. 2 more than McDavid himself, who has candidly spoken of his Stanley Cup hopes again and again the past few seasons.
"I think hockey is a team game, but with that being said, all those great guys have won (the Stanley Cup) before and it's certainly something that we're after in Edmonton," McDavid said most recently, during the preseason. "There has been no shortage of talk or coverage on that, but I certainly feel that the greats have all won and that's what you have to do."
As the team around McDavid and Leon Draisaitl has taken the necessary steps to actually contend the past few seasons, there's a growing pressure around McDavid to make it all count in this window. More of this pressure should weigh on management for failing to build the right team around a generational talent, and there's no doubt in my mind McDavid will eventually win a Cup, whether that's in Edmonton or elsewhere.
But until then, he's right. The greats have all won, that's what you have to do, and until it happens, he'll have to keep fielding these questions.
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