Friday Four: How notable players have fared after missing training camps

Nobody wants to be sitting at home while the rest of the NHL is bursting with excitement as a new season gets underway, but that’s the reality for a few key players across the league right now. We’ve seen the occasional trade request or contract stalemate leading up to a season before, though this many important contributors not in lineups a few days into the season is rare.

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck wants out and a trade seems inevitable, even if it doesn’t feel imminent. Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Alexander Nikishin is in a similar boat, although he needs a new contract as a part of any deal, which complicates things.

Over in Detroit, Simon Edvinsson’s situation should be simple as a restricted free agent who needs either a bridge deal or a long-term pact that should age well in this new financial market. However, the Red Wings still are searching for a general manager and interim GM Shawn Horcoff now has to contact Edvinsson overseas about a new deal, as the defender has returned to Sweden to skate.

Horcoff also has to figure out the Dylan Larkin situation. Larkin, like his U.S. Olympic teammate Hellebuyck, has requested a trade but it does seem like he’s willing to play for the Wings while waiting for a deal to be worked out. That said, Larkin also missed the majority of training camp with an injury, so it may be challenging for him to hit the ground running once he returns.

Whenever these four hit the ice for the 2026-27 season, they will be facing an uphill battle to get up to speed and have a productive season. We’ve seen disastrous examples in the past where players who missed a bunch of time in the early part of the year ended up struggling mightily when they finally returned to action. But you also can point to players who still managed to thrive even after sitting out.

Here are a few recent examples of how players fared after missing training camp and the early part of the season:

Matthew Tkachuk
Missed most of training camp prior to 2019-20 season

Tkachuk, then a Calgary Flame, was absent for much of training camp following the final year of his entry-level contract, where he posted 34 goals and 77 points. Just a few weeks earlier, Mitch Marner had signed a six-year deal that carried a $10.89-million average annual value with the Toronto Maple Leafs and somewhat reset the market for players coming out of their entry-level deals.

Tkachuk wanted to cash in but wasn’t willing to commit to as much term as Marner, ultimately settling on a three-year $21-million contract. Brayden Point had just signed for three years with a $6.75-million AAV a few days prior, setting the stage for Tkachuk to return to the team.

Tkachuk made it into the lineup for opening night and showed little rust out of the gate. He picked up an assist in the opener and the went on to score 10 goals and 19 points in his first 20 games of the campaign. Tkachuk’s pace slowed slightly after that with 42 points in his next 49 games but it’s hard to get an entire picture on how his season would have ultimately played out because the pandemic cut things short in early March.

Last year, Tkachuk ended up missing all of camp and a huge chunk of the season while recovering from an ailment, but still managed to tally 34 points in 31 outings on a Florida Panthers team that was decimated by injuries. Perhaps his experience in Calgary helped him better prepare for getting back up to speed quickly when missing a bunch of time to start the year.

Jason Robertson
Missed most of training camp prior to 2022-23 season

The Dallas Stars forward is no stranger to contract impasses. He had his first back in the summer of 2022. Robertson didn’t end up signing a new four-year deal worth $31 million until Oct. 6, after most of training camp had transpired. He didn’t miss any regular-season action, though, and much like Tkachuk, wasted no time piling up the points.

Robertson had seven points in his first five games and never really slowed down after that. He finished with 109 points on the campaign,, which is still his career-best season and the only time he’s broken the century mark.

Robertson also had a career-high 46 goals and went on to score 18 points in 19 playoff games later in the spring. The 27-year-old just went through another tough negotiation this past summer, only signing a one-year $12-million deal in late July to avoid arbitration after posting another stellar year. Robertson is going to get paid on a long-term deal one way or another at some point by July 1, when he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

What Robertson did after his contract stalemate should give optimism to the Red Wings, or any team that trades for Larkin. He still could have a productive start to the year and ultimately a strong season despite missing camp.

Jeremy Swayman
Missed all of training camp prior to 2024-25 season

The Boston Bruins goalie dug his heels leading up to the start of the 2024-25 season and ultimately was rewarded with an eight-year contract that paid him an $8.25-million AAV. That made Swayman one of the highest paid goalies in the league but it cost him all of training camp and the opening night of the season.

Once he did get into the crease, Swayman started slow and never caught up. He gave up at least four goals in four of his first eight starts and won just six games in the first two months of the season. Swayman finished the year with an .892 save percentage and a goals-against average over 3.00, while finishing 92^nd among qualified goalies in goals saved above expected. To put in perspective how much of a disappointment that season from Swayman was, consider that he has a career .910 save percentage and last season he rebounded to finish second in goals saved above expected.

Swayman’s brutal campaign should be a cautionary tale for Hellebuyck or any team that might be interested in trading for him. Hellebuyck is much older than Swayman was when he missed camp and he’s also likely joining a new team. That is going to make Hellebuyck’s transition back to the ice this season an even tougher one.

William Nylander
Missed training camp and first two months of 2018-19 season

If you take a look at Nylander’s HockeyDB page there is one season that stands out as a complete anomaly. It’s the 2018-19 campaign where not only did Nylander miss all of camp while negotiating a new deal, he also missed the first two months of the season. Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs agreed to terms at the 11^th hour on Dec. 1, making him eligible to play that season.

The season couldn’t have gone any worse for Nylander, who finished with a meagre seven goals and 27 points in 54 games. Nylander has averaged 0.92 points per game for his career but that number plummeted to 0.5 during the year where he missed so much time.

Plus, he’s a three-time 40-goal scorer and three-time 30-goal scorer, so not being able to hit double digits is absolutely unheard of and the only logical conclusion you can draw is he was trying to jump on a moving train after missing a huge chunk of the season.

That Dec. 1 deadline Nylander finally signed on is notable for both Edvinsson and Nikishin, as they must be under contract by then if they want to play this season. There’s still plenty of time to get that done but if this list is any indication, the more time you miss, the greater the odds of you having a down year.