We’re just weeks away from the start of the 2024-25 season.

In recent times, the Professional Women’s Hockey League finally announced team names and logos, while three different defencemen are in the news.

Let’s dig into all of that in the latest Around the NHL!

The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) ran from Jan. 1 2024 until May 5, 2024, with PWHL Minnesota lifting the Walter Cup.

Well, the team from Minnesota will now be called the Minnesota Frost, as they’ll look to defend their Walter Cup trophy. The runners-up will be named the Boston Fleet, while the season champions will be named the Toronto Sceptres. Montréal will be named Montréal Victoire, while Ottawa will be named Ottawa Charge. The team from the Big Apple will be named New York Sirens.

Unfortunately, a start date for the 2025 season has yet to be announced. Still, it’ll be exciting when the second season of the PWHL rolls around!

The Calgary Flames Pacific Division rival, the Seattle Kraken, re-signed Adam Larsson to a four-year deal worth an annual average of $5.25 million. The contract will kick in after the end of the 2024-25 season.

Larsson was drafted fourth-overall back in 2011 by the New Jersey Devils. He spent five seasons with the team, before the Edmonton Oilers traded Taylor Hall in a one-for-one deal with the Devils at the end of the 2015-16 season. Hall won the Hart Trophy in 2017-18, while Larsson had some solid years with the Oilers, including 19 postseason games.

At the end of the 2020-21 season, Larsson agreed to a deal with the Kraken as he was a pending unrestricted free agent. Since joining the newest National Hockey League team, Larsson has scored 20 goals and 105 points in 245 games, along with a career-best eight goals and 33 points in 2022-23.

Speaking of the Edmonton Oilers, the forward core looks fantastic heading into the 2024-25 season. The same cannot be said about their defence core, especially after Philip Broberg was scooped away by the St. Louis Blues.

To alleviate these issues, it’s believed that the Oilers are signing left-shot defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout, according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.

The 27-year-old was selected in the second-round by the Toronto Maple Leafs back in 2015, and spent parts of five seasons with the team. He eventually landed with the Vancouver Canucks for two seasons, before signing with the Arizona Coyotes for the 2023-24 season. Last year, he scored two goals and seven points in 50 games.

Dermott is a few weeks older than the Oilers’ generational talent, Connor McDavid, but he also grew up in the same city (Newmarket, Ontario) and played junior hockey with McDavid for the Erie Otters.

The Oilers need all the help they can get when it comes to their defence core depth, and Dermott is a solid seventh defenceman.

It was announced on Tuesday afternoon that former NHLer, Jordie Benn, is retiring from the sport after 607 games played.

The 37-year-old is the older brother to Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn, and went undrafted after playing four seasons in the British Columbia Hockey League. He eventually made NHL in 2011-12 alongside his brother, becoming a regular the following season.  After parts of six seasons with the Stars, Benn was traded to the Montréal Canadiens, where he spent parts of three seasons with the team.

Benn signed with the Vancouver Canucks before the start of the 2019-20 season, before another trade at the trade deadline saw him land with the Winnipeg Jets. Over the next two seasons, Benn played for the Minnesota Wild (2021-22) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (2022-23). In his last season, Benn played overseas for Brynäs IF, helping the team get promoted to the Swedish Hockey League while also captaining Team Canada in the Spengler Cup.

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