Friday Four: Toews already playing significant role for Jets

The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing storylines from around the NHL. On deck this week:

• Mark Stone‘s injury derails hot start

• Sharks need to find a way to win somemoregames

When Jonathan Toews signed with the Winnipeg Jets this past summer, it was a leap of faith from both sides. Toews was trying to revive his career after being away for two full seasons, and the Jets didnâ€t know what they were getting. There was a chance the game couldâ€ve passed Toews by, as it isnâ€t easy trying to make a comeback at 37 years old with the speed of today’s NHL. At best, Winnipeg was probably hoping Toews could provide them some solid depth down the lineup.

Instead, a little more than half a dozen games into the season, Toews is already playing a much bigger role, and the Jets desperately need it. Adam Lowry is still at least a couple of weeks from returning from off-season hip surgery, so without Toews, Winnipeg would be very thin at centre. He is currently playing behind Mark Scheifele on the second line, and after him itâ€s Vladislav Namestnikov and Morgan Barron down the middle. Thatâ€s not exactly an ideal depth chart for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, and it has forced Toews to take on more responsibility and minutes early in the season.

The veteran has tallied four points in seven games and is skating more than 17 minutes a night, helping the Jets to a recent five-game winning streak before the Kraken snapped it on Thursday night. Winnipeg is also leaning on Toews in its own end. Heading into that game against Seattle, he was starting 53.3 per cent of his shifts in the defensive zone, which would be a career high. Only once in his 15 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks did Toews have a season where he started more than 50 per cent of the time in the defensive zone.

Winnipeg has been using Toews in that capacity in part because heâ€s been so proficient in the faceoff circle to start the year. Heâ€s currently winning draws at a rate of 63.5 per cent, which would also be a career high. Thatâ€s an area where Toews can really help the Jets, as the team finished 21st in faceoffs last season, winning less than 50 per cent of their draws.

Itâ€s also not just Lowryâ€s loss the Jets are trying to overcome. Nikolaj Ehlers walked out the door this summer, and pre-season injuries to Dylan Samberg and Cole Perfetti have stung. Perfetti provides Winnipeg with some secondary scoring and last season Samberg emerged as one of the leagueâ€s best shutdown defencemen, so losing that duo just prior to the season was a huge loss. The fact that Toews has supplied some offence and is taking on a defensive role helps at least mitigate the loss of both players somewhat and when everyone is eventually healthy, Toews†presence is only going to make the team that much deeper and stronger.

Thereâ€s still a long way to go in the season and itâ€s possible Toews hits a wall at some point, but right now itâ€s hard to imagine things going any better for team and player. The Jets are ultimately only going to go as far as Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey and Connor Hellebuyck take them but having a three-time Stanley Cup winner around canâ€t hurt during what Winnipeg hopes will be a deep playoff run next spring.

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If someone told you prior to puck drop on the 2025-26 campaign that the Vegas Golden Knights would be atop the Pacific Division and sitting first in the NHL in goals per game after the first few weeks, you wouldnâ€t be that surprised. Vegas, of course, just signed Mitch Marner over the summer to give the offence a boost and heâ€s off to a good start, but a more familiar face to the Golden Knights has actually been the biggest catalyst for the team.

With all the talk around Marner joining the organization, Jack Eichelâ€s hot start and the emerging Pavel Dorofeyev, Mark Stoneâ€s torrid pace has largely been overlooked. Stone is averaging more than two points per game so far and his 13 points had him second in league scoring only to Eichel after the first two weeks. The 33-year-old has played so well that Vegas was able to play him with Eichel and put Marner on the second line to give the team more balance. Stone already has 11 assists and heâ€s been one of the biggest reasons Eichel is on pace for a career high in goals.

Everyone knows how talented Stone is, but Iâ€m not sure most believed he had this type of high-end offensive talent. His career high in points is 73 and heâ€s on pace to shatter that at the moment if his campaign isnâ€t derailed by injuries. One of the things that has prevented Stone from a monster offensive season is he just canâ€t stay healthy. Stone hasnâ€t played anything close to a full campaign since 2018-19 and heâ€s already on the shelf with another ailment thatâ€s landed him on LTIR.

Stone will now have to miss at least the next 10 games, which is a huge blow to Vegas. Along with Stoneâ€s hot start, Eichel has taken his game to an MVP level, theyâ€ve added a 100-point player in Marner and Dorofeyev looks like one of the brightest up and coming goal scorers in the league. A healthy Stone could make Vegas a legitimate contender in the Presidents†Trophy hunt. Now things will be a little more challenging for Vegas, as will Stoneâ€s quest to make Team Canada at the Olympics if he canâ€t stay healthy.

Alex Lyon to the rescue. Again.Â

The Buffalo Sabres goaltender is making a habit of bailing out teams stuck in tough situations and now heâ€s plying his craft on another team in a difficult spot. Buffalo got off to a rough start which had its fans frustrated, but the Sabres have somewhat gotten back on track after a few victories. What was lost in the shuffle of those early season woes is how good Lyon has played. He has five quality starts in six outings, a .924 save percentage and ranks in the top 10 in goals-saved-above-expected.

Lyon, a journeyman goaltender who has just 119 games to his credit, has played this role before. He was excellent in Detroit for the first half of the 2023-24 season as the Red Wings needed help stabilizing their crease and was strong for stretches in the Motor City last year, too.

In Lyonâ€s most impressive outing this season he shut out the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. The Panthers historic run over the past few years actually got its start thanks to Lyon. Late in the 2022-23 season Sergei Bobrovsky was injured and Lyon was pressed into duty. He went 6-1-1 down the stretch with a .943 save percentage and if not for his heroics, Florida doesnâ€t even make the playoffs that season, their first in a run of three-straight finals appearances.

Lyon probably doesnâ€t have the skillset to be a bona fide No. 1 and play 50-plus games, but he is building a resume as a great stopgap when teams are desperate for help in the crease. The Sabres would certainly qualify as a desperate team this year, especially when starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen went down with an injury. Buffaloâ€s start couldâ€ve been much worse if not for Lyon and heâ€s now got a reputation for playing well enough to give a team in a bind some time to figure things out.

The San Jose Sharks picked up their first win of the season Thursday night with a 6-5 overtime win against the New York Rangers, thanks to Macklin Celebriniâ€s five-point outing.

It shouldnâ€t be all that surprising it took San Jose this long to get a win, as the Sharks are still rebuilding and werenâ€t expected to contend this season. Theyâ€ve been accumulating young talent through the draft and doing a good job of it. Celebrini had an electric rookie season, Will Smith looks like heâ€s going to be a good running mate and players like Sam Dickinson and Michael Misa give San Jose a lot of reason for optimism. Then thereâ€s William Eklund and Yaroslav Askarov who could also be future core pieces.

Most franchises would gladly accept a little losing in exchange for that group but how much is too much? Dating back to last year and prior to Thursday, the Sharks had lost 17 straight games, had won just seven times in their past 46 and only 10 times in their past 60 games. San Jose boasts two of the five worst seasons by points in the cap era and their 2023-24 mark of 47 points was only better than Detroitâ€s 39 in 2019-20, but that season was shortened due to COVID.

Part of the reason San Joseâ€s futility isnâ€t more glaring is that they have some exciting players and they lose in entertaining ways. As evident by Thursdayâ€s affair, the Sharks love overtime and last year they lost 12 times in either the extra frame or a shootout, including a late season 8-7 defeat to the Minnesota Wild. Theyâ€ve started off in a similar fashion in the early part of this campaign, losing a 4-3 heartbreaker to Vegas in OT and then 7-6 to Anaheim, again in the extra session. Fun games to watch for the casual fan but itâ€s just another loss on the calendar for San Jose supporters.

Now in 2025-26 they are on pace for an even worse campaign than their previous two, which should be cause for some concern. A lot of their young talents, like Celebrini, havenâ€t been around for too long, though you donâ€t want to struggle to such extremes that losing becomes part of the culture and players get demoralized. The Sharks were a perennial playoff team for 20 years before this recent rebuild and while no one expects them to get back to the post-season this year, they need to start at least being a little more competitive to avoid going too far in the other direction.

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