Mailbag: Early-season surprises; latest on Shesterkin

Here is a special ‘Frozen Frenzy’ edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X. ‘Frozen Frenzy’ is a special whip-around show on ESPN+ (7 p.m. ET) and ESPN2 (8 p.m.) providing coverage of all 16 games on the schedule Tuesday.

The NHL will also feature the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative during ‘Frozen Frenzy,’ rallying around an epic night in hockey and evolving the Hockey Fights Cancer League-wide moment with a public fundraising component for Hockey Fights Cancer.

Send your questions for the mailbag to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

What's the concern-o-meter for Nashville? -- @mugnoma

Rising.

The Predators are the 25th team in NHL history to start a season 0-5-0. Of the previous 24, nine made the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That’s 37.5 percent. Not good for a team with such high expectations going into the season.

I didn’t have Nashville losing its first five games on my bingo card, but I don't think we should be shocked about an inconsistent start when you factor in the major offseason additions of forwards Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skjei. That's three players who were established on their previous teams coming to a new team and trying to find their place. It's easy to say that is what training camp is for, but reps in real game situations are impossible to recreate in camp or preseason games. Stamkos finally got on the board with his first goal in a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. He's a minus-6. Marchessault, who has four points (one goal, three assists), is a minus-4. Skjei has one goal and is a minus-6. They need to get comfortable and that takes time.

In the meantime, the Predators must start getting some saves (Juuse Saros is 0-4-0 with a .875 save percentage in four starts) and limiting the giveaways and missed coverages low in the zone. The latter two cost them against the Red Wings on Saturday. Nashville has been outscored 18-6 after the first period. We’ll see if that changes on Tuesday when they host the Boston Bruins (8:45 p.m. ET; FDSNSO, NESN, SNO, SNE).

Is anyone going to talk any Devils? Since the start of the season I feel like no one has talked about them and they've had a pretty good start to their season so far. -- @katielee1322

I'm going to stop you right there. The national hockey conversation has included the Devils and they have gotten credit for a strong start, which many of us who participate in that conversation expected.

The Devils were ranked No. 6 in the NHL.com Super 16 power rankings last week. That was up from No. 11 in the preseason rankings. They likely will be at least in the top 10 again this week. Our Super 16 comes out every Thursday. We have 15 writers and editors who submit votes for the Super 16, and 14 of us had the Devils in the top 10, including seven in the top 5, and one (Derek Van Diest) ranking them No. 1.

In addition, ESPN.com had the Devils No. 5 in their power rankings that ran Friday. Sportsnet had them at No. 6 in their power rankings that ran Thursday.

That's just a sampling of how the Devils are viewed nationally. Expectations are high and so far the Devils have been meeting them, off to a 5-2-1 start. The longer that goes, the deeper we get into the season, the more noise you'll hear about them. They get a really good test Tuesday against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning (6:45 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, MSGSN).

Throw a few at ya: Biggest surprises so far this season? Concern for Edmonton or Nashville yet? Utah legit or just a hot start? What's the latest with Igor's contract? -- @bfeintuch14

The biggest surprise of the season so far comes when you look at the scoring leaders on the NHL.com stats page and you have to go to the next screen to find Connor McDavid (No. 61) and Leon Draisaitl (No. 76) of the Edmonton Oilers. McDavid has six points (one goal, five assists) and Draisaitl has five points (three goals, two assists). In fairness, there were, entering Monday, 27 players who had exactly six points and 35 who had five. But it is shocking that McDavid and Draisaitl are not near the top of the list, let alone on the first page, which has the top 50. That will change, but it speaks to the Oilers’ start. Not only are they 2-4-0, but they have scored 12 goals in six games. It's alarming, but it's not concerning, at least not yet. There's enough evidence, especially from McDavid and Draisaitl, to believe their offense will start to fire soon enough. There is concern about their defense (24 goals against), but that concern was obvious in the offseason and preseason too. It needs to be addressed. They will try to get going at home Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes (9 p.m. ET; TVAS, SNW, FDSNSO).

On the good side, the Minnesota Wild being 3-0-2 with 10 goals against in five games and the Calgary Flames being 4-0-1 with 20 goals for in five games are both surprises. On the negative side, I thought the Buffalo Sabres (2-4-1) would have gotten off to a better start after seeing them finish their training camp in Europe with so much energy and excitement. They started with back-to-back losses to the Devils in the 2024 NHL Global Series Czechia presented by Fastenal and they've been playing catchup since.

I already addressed the Predators in a previous answer.

As for Utah, I still have to see more before I believe they won't regress from a 4-1-1 start, but that was an impressive 2-1 overtime win against the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Utah allowed 23 shots on goal and dug out the win despite being down 1-0 in the third period. They had plenty of Grade A chances to score on Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman before defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok scored off the rush with a terrific power move to his backhand. Michael Kesselring won it in overtime. You saw the speed and tenacity of Utah in that game. If they can keep the shots against down and start driving some more offense they could be a playoff team.

There's nothing new with Igor Shesterkin and his contract negotiations with the New York Rangers. There has been talk that the goalie does not want to negotiate during the season, but that should not stop his agent and Rangers general manager Chris Drury from having a dialogue. I expect Shesterkin will sign during the season if the Rangers meet his asking price.

I hear a lot of talk about Steve Yzerman and Derek Lalonde being in the hot seat. Is there any truth to that? Seems hard to believe since Detroit has improved every year and has had no lottery luck. -- @ScheuerHockey

The Red Wings have to start winning or coach Derek Lalonde may start feeling the heat.

The Red Wings have gotten better on a year-over-year basis, since Yzerman started as the general manager in 2019-20 and Lalonde came on board as the coach in 2022-23. Detroit's points percentage has increased in each of Yzerman's five seasons as GM from .275 to .429 to .451 to .488 and finally to .555 last season. The Red Wings and Washington Capitals each had 91 points last season, but Detroit missed the playoffs because of the regulation wins tiebreaker.

You're also right in saying the Red Wings have not had luck in the NHL Draft Lottery. They have not drafted higher than No. 4 in 2020 (Lucas Raymond) despite missing the playoffs for eight straight seasons. They did, however, pick in the top nine of every draft from 2017-23. Filip Zadina (No. 6 in 2018) is the only top nine pick the Red Wings selected in those drafts that is not still with the organization.

At some point, though, the Red Wings have to start winning or changes might be made. This is the season the Red Wings have to get off the periphery of the playoff race and make some noise to solidify their spot. It hasn't been a good start. They are 2-3-0, with consecutive losses to the New York Rangers, 4-1 and 5-2, last week. It's too early to panic or to come to any rash decisions on the Red Wings, but 14 goals in five games isn't good enough. Maybe they can start building off of their 5-2 win against the Predators on Saturday even though it wasn't a work of art with 39 shots against and two empty-net goal for to seal it. They play at the New York Islanders on Tuesday (7:45 p.m. ET; FDSNDET, MSGSN2).