Florida Panthers waiver claim extraordinaire Gustav Forsling ranked 12th on NHL Network’s Top 20 Defensemen Right Now countdown, highlighting the National Hockey League’s top-performing blueliners. Forsling, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, finished one spot behind Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins and one spot ahead of Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators. He ranked sixth on last year’s list. Last season, the 29-year-old appeared in 80 regular season games and produced 11 goals and 20 assists. He played in all 23 of Florida’s postseason games and finished the Stanley Cup run with a goal and four helpers.
NHL Network’s Top 20 Defensemen Right Now, 1-20:
- Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
- Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks
- Zach Werenski, Columbus Blue Jackets
- Miro Heiskanen, Dallas Stars
- Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg Jets
- Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres
- Jaccob Slavin, Carolina Hurricanes
- Roman Josi, Nashville Predators
- Evan Bouchard, Edmonton Oilers
- Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins
- Gustav Forsling, Florida Panthers
- Jake Sanderson, Ottawa Senators
- Thomas Harley, Dallas Stars
- Shea Theodore, Vegas Golden Knights
- Adam Fox, New York Rangers
- Devon Toews, Colorado Avalanche
- Mikhail Sergachev, Utah Mammoth
- Lane Hutson, Montreal Canadiens
- Brock Faber, Minnesota Wild
The Columbus Blue Jackets re-signed forward Mikael Pyyhtia to one-year, two-way contract worth $775K. Pyyhtia appeared in 47 games with Columbus in 2024-25, producing four goals and three assists. He also played 28 AHL games with the Cleveland Monsters and put up three goals and 16 points.
Today is an off day at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. In Wednesday’s games, the United States routed Germany 8-1, Sweden blanked Slovakia 7-0, Canada shut out Czechia 5-0 and Switzerland nipped Finland 4-3 in overtime. On Friday, the United States (2-1) will take on Canada (3-0) and Finland (1-1-1) will face Sweden (3-0) in the semifinals.