Shesterkin's season ends, four hat tricks and a franchise-record skid: NHL digest, Oct. 5–11

The NHL played 47 games between Oct. 5 and Oct. 11. The week's biggest story arrived Friday night in Washington, where Igor Shesterkin's right skate jammed into the goalpost and his leg bent under him in the crease. 1

The Rangers announced the next morning that their best player would miss the rest of the season. 1 Three other things shaped the week: four players scored hat tricks in six nights, Toronto came back from 3-0 down to win in overtime, and Philadelphia lost its seventh straight game to open a season, a franchise record. 234

Shesterkin went down at 8:20 of the second period of a 3-1 loss at the Capitals on Friday. 1 His skate caught the post as he scrambled back into his net, and he had stopped 13 of 14 shots before leaving. 1 Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson helped him off the ice, and he could not put weight on the right leg. 1

"It's our friend. It's our teammate, and when that happens, you think about him," Mika Zibanejad said after practice Saturday. 1 Four days earlier the league had named Shesterkin its First Star for the week ending Oct. 4, after he became the first goalie in Rangers history to score a goal. 5

His value extends beyond stopping the puck. Shesterkin retrieves pucks behind his net and starts Rangers breakouts, which changes where opponents aim their dump-ins. 6 "Shesty might be the best that I've seen play the puck, so obviously teams might think a little bit differently," Durzi said. 6

The new No. 1 is Dylan Garand, a 24-year-old who cleared waivers on Sept. 28 and was recalled Oct. 1 after Joonas Korpisalo was hurt. 1 Korpisalo will miss four weeks, so Garand keeps the net unless New York trades for help. 1

His first start since the news went well: 19 saves in a 6-2 win over Vancouver on Sunday. 7 Tye Kartye and Will Cuylle each scored their first two goals of the season, and New York is 4-0-0 at home. 7 "Everybody in here knows what needs to be done," captain J.T. Miller said. 6

Carolina leads the league with 11 points in seven games, and Vegas leads the West with 10 in six. 8 Points outrank points percentage in the sort order, which is why Edmonton owns the best rate in the league (.900) and still sits second in the Pacific behind the Golden Knights. 8

Both wild-card races have already changed hands. Toronto is the East's first wild card with seven points, after opening the season 1-2-0. 8 Ottawa, which held the top East wild-card spot a week ago with one game played, has gone 3-1-0 since and moved into the Atlantic's top three. 8 Washington holds the second spot on six points, ahead of Florida because the Capitals have three regulation wins to the Panthers' one. 8

In the West, Vegas has climbed from a wild-card spot into first place in the Pacific, and Colorado has dropped from first in the Central to the second wild card. 8 Seattle holds the first wild-card spot at eight points, and Nashville and San Jose sit level on six and outside the line. 8 San Jose has won three times without a regulation win, all in overtime. 8

Three teams have yet to win. Philadelphia is 0-5-2, Calgary is 0-5-0 and Los Angeles is 0-2-2, and Calgary has been outscored 27-8. 8

Nine of the 47 games went past regulation, and the table below carries every one of them, grouped by date. 910

Four hat tricks in six nights. Alexis Lafrenière started it on Oct. 6 with three goals against the Islanders, the last two into an empty net 32 seconds apart. 2 Logan Stankoven's was the rarest of the four, a natural hat trick on Oct. 8 built from an even-strength goal, a power-play goal and a short-handed goal. 14 It was the 15th such hat trick on record, and it made Stankoven the fourth Hurricanes player to score at even strength, on the power play and short-handed in one game. 14

Kirill Kaprizov and Brandon Hagel both did it on Saturday. 316 Kaprizov's was the seventh of his career, two behind Marian Gaborik for the most in Wild history, and he added an assist. 16 Hagel's third goal went into an empty net at 18:37 of the third. 3

McKenna's first goal, and Toronto's rally. The No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft had gone three games without a point. 11 Then Gavin McKenna scored and assisted in a game Toronto trailed 3-0, and Auston Matthews finished the comeback with 14 seconds left in overtime. 11

"A big monkey off the back, that one felt good. That's a goal I'll obviously remember forever," McKenna said. 11 At 18 years and 290 days he is the youngest Maple Leaf to score his first NHL goal since Luke Richardson in 1987. 18 Two nights later he hit 23.34 mph against Vegas, the fastest burst by an 18-year-old since the league began tracking speed in 2021-22. 18

Carolina has won five straight. The Hurricanes are 5-1-1 and closed the week with a 4-1 win at Philadelphia in which their top line produced three goals in 6:38. 4 Sebastian Aho has 11 points during a six-game point streak, and Mark Jankowski has scored in four straight games. 4 They did it without captain Jordan Staal, who sat out with a lower-body injury. 4

"We've had a lot of hockey here in a short amount of time, and then we've got a couple guys out that are big parts, and other guys are just stepping up," coach Rod Brind'Amour said. 4

Philadelphia's 0-5-2 is a franchise record. The Flyers are the first team to lose its first seven games of a season since Vancouver in 2022-23, and Sunday's 4-1 home loss to Carolina was their fourth straight regulation defeat. 4 They have scored eight goals and allowed 28, the worst differential in the league. 8 Philadelphia also placed Travis Konecny on injured reserve Sunday with a lower-body injury. 4

Ovechkin's first goal, in his fifth game. His goal at 16:47 of the first period on Sunday was the 930th of his career and his 1,007th including the playoffs, which leaves him nine behind Wayne Gretzky's 1,016 for the most combined goals in league history. 17 Both Protas brothers, Aliaksei and Ilya, assisted on it, and Joey Daccord became the 190th goalie he has scored against. 17

The 41-year-old missed the preseason with a lower-body injury and has said this will be his last season. 17 "We know when he gains confidence and pucks start to go in for him, that's a good thing, and it can snowball," coach Spencer Carbery said. 17

Bouchard is tied for the league lead in goals. Evan Bouchard scored twice on Oct. 7 in Anaheim and has six goals in five games, the same total as Sebastian Aho, Kyle Connor, Kirill Kaprizov and Nick Schmaltz. 19 He is the only defenseman in that group, and his 12 points trail only Connor McDavid's 13. 19 Edmonton won both of its games this week and is 4-0-1. 8

Vancouver's road trip is going badly. The Canucks have lost four in a row and are 2-5-0, with 35 goals allowed in seven games, the most in the league. 8 Kevin Lankinen is 1-5-0 with a .786 save percentage and a 6.88 goals-against average. 20 "It's disappointing when you let the game get away from you like that," coach Manny Malhotra said after Sunday's 6-2 loss at the Rangers. 7

These are season totals through Oct. 11, when most teams had played five or six games. 19

The goalie board is where the week's extremes sit. Jake Oettinger has allowed three goals in four starts, and Kevin Lankinen has allowed 29 in six. 20

NHL.com ranked the season's top 10 rookies on Oct. 7, the morning after Toronto's overtime win. 21 Here is what the rest of the week did to that list.

Gavin McKenna (ranked No. 2) scored his first NHL goal and added an assist on Oct. 6, then picked up another assist on Oct. 8. 1821 He is starting 51.4 percent of his five-on-five shifts in the offensive zone, the 95th percentile among forwards, and playing 1:59 a game on the power play. 18

Anton Frondell (No. 5) scored his first NHL goal on Oct. 6 against St. Louis, and Roman Kantserov (No. 7) scored his first on Oct. 10 at Carolina. 23 Chicago has the two of them on the ice and is still waiting on its captain.

Porter Martone (No. 3) scored his first NHL goal on the power play on Oct. 10 at Boston, the only Philadelphia goal in a 5-1 loss. 3 Ivar Stenberg (No. 4) set up San Jose's overtime winner on Oct. 8, and Luca Cagnoni (No. 9) is still on the Sharks' first power-play unit. 1322

Cole Hutson (No. 1) picked up an assist on Oct. 7 and another on Oct. 11. 1012 James Hagens (No. 8) has four points (two goals, two assists) this season, and scored again on Oct. 5 against Ottawa. 923

Three players outside that list are worth knowing. Tye Kartye scored twice on Oct. 11 in his first multi-goal game, on a line with J.T. Miller. 7 Mark Jankowski has scored in four straight games, a career first. 4 Freddy Gaudreau of Seattle has four goals in six games. 19

The week's list is longer than usual, and it starts at the top of the Rangers' depth chart.

Two of those entries need a line of context. Melanson was hurt on Oct. 1 in Seattle's opener and the diagnosis came a week later. 24 "I think our team did a really good job and acted appropriately and promptly and, fortunately, he's OK," Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. 24

Bedard wore a regular jersey in every drill on Oct. 11 and took his usual spot at No. 1 center between Roman Kantserov and Patrick Kane. 26 Chicago is 1-5-0 without him. 8

Shesterkin's injury reshapes the goalie market first. Garand is now a starter on a 5-2-0 team and sits outside the top 25 in NHL.com's goalie rankings, which were published Oct. 11 before the Rangers' Sunday win. 28 He is the clearest add of the week in leagues where he is still unclaimed.

NHL.com's waiver list, published Oct. 5, named ten players with their lines and power-play units. 22 Four of them are worth more now than they were then:

Two of the week's own producers are the kind of add this column usually misses. Jankowski is scoring on 13:34 of ice time a game, so treat the streak as a short-term stream. 419 Kartye has moved onto a line with Miller and scored twice in a game New York needed after losing its goalie. 7

On the selling side, Vancouver's goaltending has sunk its start. Lankinen's 6.88 goals-against average is the worst in the league. 20

Tuesday is Frozen Frenzy, with all 32 teams in action across 16 games at staggered start times for the fourth season in a row. 23 Colorado visits Winnipeg at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, and Boston closes the night at San Jose at 11 p.m. ET. 23

Wednesday brings Dallas at Colorado on TNT and Montréal at Washington, and Saturday has the last two No. 1 picks on the same sheet when Matthew Schaefer's Islanders visit McKenna's Maple Leafs. 23 Schaefer leads the Islanders in ice time at 25:27 a game. 23

Monday's slate, still ahead as this is published, opens with Florida at Buffalo at 1 p.m. ET and continues with Ottawa at New Jersey at 7 p.m. ET. 23