Dan’s Daily: Penguins Trade Value; Sabres Deal Peterka; 84-game Schedule?!
The Daily for Thursday is going to be rapid fire as we have more stories today than the previous three days combined. We assessed the Pittsburgh Penguins X-factor, Erik Karlsson’s actual trade value, and previewed an exciting player new mock drafts show could fall to the Penguins at No. 11 or 12, Victor Eklund. The Buffalo Sabres pulled off a late night trade, sending JJ Peterka to Utah, while the Edmonton Oilers shipped Evander Kane at full boat to the Vancouver Canucks. The NHL CBA negotiations could lead to a longer regular season (whoopie!), as soon as 2026-27, but at least we’d be guaranteed two trips to Madison Square Garden. And, Reilly Smith took a cheap-o deal to stay in Vegas.
I posted a thing on X last evening. It took a bit longer than anticipated, and there were more late plot twists than Departed. I’m taking a huge personal risk to push our company to the next level, and with any luck, into big-time territory. There are so many avenues that we’re going to expand into that I can’t list them all, but I can say that newspapers and a TV channel are on the table. No, I’m not getting rich from this deal, and in fact, I eschewed the cash value of National Hockey Now a couple of months ago to enter into greater discussions for this merger.
The last seven years have taken an enormous toll on me. Friends have drifted away while I plunked away on the keyboard or was glued to my phone, while others talked at the top of my head or stared at my vacant face while my mind worked through content or business issues. The stress has often taken away the parts of me that I liked and sometimes made it too easy for me to snap at others. I’ve had far too many 100-hour work weeks, and more than a few that I calculated at over 120, but if we are ever able to make NHN a long-lasting company and put our flag in the mainstream of the industry, I had to do it just to get here. This moment is our chance. No, I’ll not take days off–that’s just weird to me–but now I’ll have help on the business side that is much smarter than I. We’ll announce all of the details soon.
And thus it has been agreed.
Just wait until you see what we’ve got coming next. pic.twitter.com/UI8LG1AZnX— Dan Kingerski (@TheDanKingerski) June 25, 2025
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Hockey Now: A name that has been out of reach for the Penguins for most of Draft season is suddenly in play. Could it be? A zippy, aggressive right winger with a good shot and scrappy forecheck falls to the Penguins? We preview with scouting video and analysis, Victor Eklund.
So, we’ve all talked about the possibility. I’ve asked the player about the possibility. However, no one seems to have a good handle on the specifics of that possibility. The Penguins’ wild card, X-factor, and unknown. I dug in and came up with a pretty good answer. What is Erik Karlsson’s trade value?
And we had a good time on the Live Chat. We just kept going. I wish I had a counter so I could direct you to the different topics. However, the first 20 minutes were draft, then the Karlsson trade talk took over, and then it was a free-for-all. Hope you enjoy the latest Penguins Live Chat.
I’d love to know the person who goes back and gives a thumbs-down to all of our videos. I think they’re a late-night creature, but at this point, it’s pretty funny. Every single one that has my face on it will have a 100% rating, then…boom, one thumbs down by morning. Do we think he was a big “FIRE MIKE SULLIVAN” person, or a “PLAY THE YOUNG GUYS!” zealot who can’t let go?
The funniest thing is, some of the people who are the hardest on me in the public square are also subscribers. That part always humbles me. Like, what?!
Pittsburgh Baseball Now: It’s about one month until the MLB trade deadline. Here are the latest Pirates trade rumors.
NHL Trade Chatter, News, & National Hockey Now
Sportsnet: JJ Peterka will NOT be a New York Ranger. The restricted free agent is headed to Utah. In fact, as part of the Buffalo Sabres trade to Utah, Peterka got a mammoth contract (you see what I did there?). Buffalo got a nice return and some snarl for their lineup.
ESPN: No, why are we making the boring part of the NHL season longer?! As part of the CBA negotiations, which are close to completion, the NHL and NHLPA are discussing an 84-game schedule, but will shorten the preseason.
Edmonton Journal: A good deal for Edmonton but a big gamble for Vancouver. The first big trade Wednesday was the Vancouver Canucks spending only a fourth round pick to acquire the occasionally embattled but always productive Evander Kane.
Forever Blueshirts: The stamp of Mike Sullivan. Chris Drury is trying to fix up the left side of the New York Rangers’ blue line, and the tag line is consistency of volatility. Vintage Sullivan, eh? Jim Cerny has the targets and the attempts for the Rangers’ defense.
NYI Hockey Now: The Islanders have a big few days, too. They have the No. 1 pick thanks to a long-shot lottery win, but are also trying to cleanse the mistakes of Lou Lamoriello, which locked them into the mushy, mushy middle. Russ Macias has four Islanders trade targets.
Boston Hockey Now: Is that seventh overall pick available? Is it not? GM Don Sweeney is playing coy, and it seems he is hinting that the Boston Bruins are open for business.
Vegas Hockey Now: There are two stories from Hannah Kirkell, the second because I laughed out loud at the headline. It seems both sides have learned from their mistakes, and the Vegas Golden Knights delivered a team-friendly deal when they re-signed Reilly Smith.
And Pittsburgh-native Brandon Saad is sticking around in Vegas, too. Check out Hannah’s headline: The Saadfather, Part II.
That’s just great headline writing there. Stay cool, peeps.
Categorized:Links NHL Trade Rumors Penguins
Dan,
here’s my congratulations 🍾 on your expansion!!
It’s remarkable that you have shared your feelings about this process and it’s obvious you have sacrificed a great deal to climb your mountain.
As for the hockey, your Undisputed Least Knowledgeable Commenter predicts that if GMKD doesn’t trade one of our first round picks, he’ll go Eklund/Atchison (sp?) at 11 & 12 as his favored centers will already
be gone and Atchison brings the edge the Penguins are sorely missing at the blue line.
Thanks for your obsession Dan,
Scott Becker
If the Pens don’t move in the draft, I’m praying for Craig Button’s mock draft results. He has the Pens picking McQueen at 11 and Aitcheson at 12. Two positions that Dubas has specifically mentioned. He has Eklund going to Detroit at 13.
My heart is broken that we couldn’t have signed Reilly Smith! 💔
As well, we really need a codename for “He who should not be named”. 🙂
Or, people could move on? 🤷🏻♂️
But that’s no fun. 🙂
With all the upgrades what’s the chance you can finally get a new website without all the malware Spyware and bugs that’s follow me to other websites?
And single sign on so I can read linked stores on other NHN sites without needing to login again and again and again?
That is coming. We will be changing the structure of the network websites, so hopefully that will be easier. It would have cost us an ungodly amount of money
Those are called cookies. Every website that has ads has them, and has for 20 years.
The Rangers didn’t get Peterka? Awwwwwwwww. Since we got their 1st round pick this year, I’m hoping for the Rangers to SUCK again, but not be part of the McKenna lottery.
I told you but you did not post it that JJ would get 6-7.5 million!He even got more!!!
He got $7.7m for 5 years. Is that much more than $7.5m? Come on.
Yeah it is. I’ll take the difference and live quite well!
You can’t compare Professional athletes and every day people salaries or people who get paid hourly work. You are going to have a 10 yr old come on here and be like that’s a $1,000 difference. That’s a huge difference.
Give me a break. Look at the big picture.
We’ve never not posted a comment about Peterka. If your comment didn’t get posted, it was caught by the filter for other reasons.
Lots of things here Dan.
1. Congratulations
2. Sounds like we are your only friends now, sorry to hear that…
3. Bummer we didn’t get JJ
4. Buffalo did not get a good return for him. The forward is at best a 3rd liner and the D guy does have potential they should have gotten another prospect, established NHL player or pick.
5. Too much draft hype if players falling or rising like the NFL.
6. They need to shorten the season, you know ESPN is already waiting for a team to set a new points record in a season…
Some of you should write greeting cards
That is what I do for a living…
Dan
Congratulations on the future becoming now! Love your stuff and appreciate your articles and efforts. My Pens hockey is an addiction and your articles are my crack!
THANK YOU!
You’re not fooling anyone saying that you working 120 hour weeks, Dan (maybe you’re counting your hours on the road). You’re a writer, not an Elon. Nonetheless, congratulations on the expansion. <3 from South Africa
If I were only a writer, this expansion wouldn’t be happening.
Sure, big shot
Class act.
Dan, I would look at “Tom” as being your late-night down-voter on the videos.
Or down-voting every response Dan provides. Sheesh people!
The Sabres got fleeced for Paterka. Too bad Duby didn’t have the d-man to give them..
So if they lengthen the season and shorten the pre-season, the first four or five games of the season will basically be practice. And congrats on all your success! I know in the early days you hated to see comments from me because I kept urging you to clean up your grammatical mistakes. It just didn’t feel professional to me. You might notice I haven’t done that the past few years because you truly did clean up your act. You deserve all the success you have worked so hard for.
Thank you, Dorothy.
Congratulations, Dan. You’re right at that 7-year sweetspot where a startup goes big or, um, the other thing.
Raising a dram of a highland single malt for going big.
For Pens and hockey insight, your network is as good as it gets. Well done.
And, anticipating the pain we’re facing with this rebuild we, the fan faithful, will need the writing to be good. To keep us from leaping off half-a-dozen Pittsburgh bridges. (We could have used you in the ’70s and early ’80s. Dark, dark times.)