The calendar has flipped to November, and we're almost a month into the 2025-26 NHL regular-season schedule. While it's early in this season, there was some activity in the trade market in October.

The NHL is proud of its parity, but all but four teams in the Eastern Conference sitting on either 13 or 14 points is probably overkill.

USA TODAY Sports' NHL points projections saw pretty much the status quo from the 2024-25 playoff field. Mark Scheifele has passed Blake Wheeler as the franchise's all-time point leader and is the ...