The 2025-26 NHL season is here, and Matt and Tommy have plenty to talk about, especially since there was no official WhyHockey show since April. While we didn’t get to everything we wanted to, we did get to all of what’s below and more, including:

5:00: WhyHockey housekeeping (please subscribe to the Substack!)

9:00: Do the Panthers actually have a chip on their shoulder because of the Barkov and Tkachuk injuries?

19:35: A little primer on the Panthers unique salary cap situation and how it might play out

29:00: With all of this said, how does this all play out for the Panthers on the ice?

35:45: What will the season look like for Anton Lundell and Mackie Samoskevich?

42:00: The Lightning-Panthers preseason farces

1:06:00: The McDavid contract! As Tommy calls it, McDavid’s Crosby moment

1:16:00: Brief Flyers takes!

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From around 25-35 minutes into the show, you may hear some background noise behind Matt, which is an audio recording and editing snafu that will be fixed for the next show. We’re working out the gremlins getting back into the swing of things.

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Intro and outro music is “Arcade Montage” by Lee Rosevere from his album “Music for Podcasts 3”, which you can find here: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/lee-rosevere/music-for-podcasts-beats/arcade-montage/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whyhockey.substack.com