The puck drops on the first round of the NHL playoffs Saturday when Winnipeg hosts St. Louis followed by the must-see matchup of Colorado and Dallas.
The other six series get going next week, from the Toronto-Ottawa Battle of Ontario to Tuesday's opener of another cross-state showdown between Tampa Bay and defending champion Florida.
An infusion of young talent fresh to the league in recent weeks, a handful of veterans in their mid-to-late 30s chasing the Stanley Cup and the best goaltender in the league this season looking to change his reputation are among the things to watch as the playoffs unfold.
"There’s a million different storylines that I love," retired tough guy Paul Bissonnette said.
Just like Chris Kreider did for the New York Rangers in 2012, Tom Wilson for Washington in 2013 and Cale Makar for Colorado in 2019, a handful of teams have added top prospects just in time to make a difference at the most important time of year.
The class of 2025 is headlined by Montreal's Ivan Demidov, St. Louis' Jimmy Snuggerud, Minnesota's Zeev Buium and Washington's Ryan Leonard. The hype around Demidov — one podcast even had a livestream of him arriving off his flight into Canada — has been the hottest because the 19-year-old Russian winger was considered the best young player not in the NHL.
“There’s a 19-year-old kid that played his first game (Monday night), Ivan Demidov,” longtime forward-turned-ESPN color analyst Ray Ferraro said. “He scored a goal and an assist. The building almost fell over in Montreal. It was amazing to watch.”
Snuggerud got his first goal for the Blues on Tuesday night. Leonard slid his into an empty net the same night Alex Ovechkin tied Wayne Gretzky's record. Buium could make his debut early in the playoffs.
“Not only Demidov but also Ryan Leonard coming in, Buium, it just seems like this young wave of players (are) getting to come in and potentially make an impact,” said Bissonnette, now an NHL analyst on TNT.
Demidov and Leonard will face off in the Canadiens-Capitals first-round series.
Blues defenseman Ryan Suter is 39 and has played 1,526 regular-season games — the most of anyone currently in the NHL who has not won the Stanley Cup. Carolina's Brent Burns, also 39, is next at 1,496.
Suter's team is a long shot to win it all. Burns' team has a better shot at getting through the East to have a chance at the Cup. There's also Ottawa's Claude Giroux at 36 and 1,262 games played and Dallas' Jamie Benn at 35 and 1,192 games hoping to finally reach hockey's mountaintop.
“One that I’d love to see win is Jamie Benn,” said 2003 Cup champion Mike Rupp, who now works for NHL Network. “He’s had some really good years. He’s had some years where he’s been in question and he’s been through some stuff as far as just, ‘Is that a good contract? Does he still have anything left in the tank?’ And I thought he’s really answered that the last few years.”
Want some other greybeards without a ring? Toronto's Max Pacioretty, Minnesota's Mats Zuccarello and Tampa Bay's Luke Glendening and Cam Atkinson all fit the bill.
Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck just finished a second consecutive season that should win him the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender, which would be his third. He went 47-12-3 with a league-best 2.00 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage that's the highest of any netminder with more than 35 starts.
He also might win the Hart Trophy as MVP. But now his play is really in the spotlight after developing a recent reputation for turning into a different (worse) goalie in April.
Hellebuyck over the past two playoffs has a 4.28 GAA and an .875 save percentage, which is the worst of anyone in that time with at least 10 appearances.
“I think the book is still out,” Bissonnette said. “If he’s able to get past that first round, it’ll do a lot for his psyche and his confidence, so if I’m a betting man, I’m betting on Hellebuyck this playoffs.”
Even before the grinding toll of the playoffs gets underway, the wear and tear of the regular season and some bad luck has caused some injuries that could tip the balance of series.
The Stars won't have No. 1 defenseman Miro Heiskanen for at least the start of their series against the Avalanche, more than two months since he had knee surgery. There's also concern about scorer Jason Robertson, who left the regular-season finale with an apparent right leg or knee injury.
“Heiskanen makes such a huge difference on that back end.” TNT's Anson Carter said. “When you have to go against (Nathan) MacKinnon every single night and have (Cale) Makar coming down the other way, you want to have someone that could equalize that. ... You can’t replace a Heiskanen.”
The Capitals have their own questions, since starting goaltender Logan Thompson and 30-goal-scoring forward Aliaksei Protas were injured in early April. Edmonton won't have top defenseman Mattias Ekholm for at least the first round, the Oilers' fourth consecutive year opening the playoffs against Los Angeles.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn, right, and center Wyatt Johnston react after a play against the Utah Hockey Club during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Washington Capitals right wing Ryan Leonard (9) skates with the puck during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Montreal Canadiens' Ivan Demidov (93) celebrates with teammate Joel Armia (40) after scoring against the Chicago Blackhawks during first-period NHL hockey game action in Montreal, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 11, 2026--
Torq, the established Agentic AI security operations pioneer, today announced it has closed a massive $140 million Series D funding round, propelling its valuation to $1.2 billion and total funding to $332M.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112510774/en/
Led by Merlin Ventures —a leading cybersecurity fund renowned for its deep access to the U.S. commercial and Public Sector markets—with participation from all existing investors, including Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Ventures Partners, and Greenfield Partners, this capital injection is a definitive investment in the future of security. Torq is driving the industry’s critical shift: the complete transformation of the Security Operations Center (SOC) through battle-tested AI Agents at enterprise scale.
The new funds will accelerate the adoption of the Torq AI SOC Platform, the only end-to-end solution built on the pillars of advanced Hyperautomation, Alert Triage, and Fatigue Reduction to deliver full operational autonomy for global enterprises and government agencies.
“Torq is redefining security operations,” said Shay Michel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures. “They’ve fused automation and human judgment into a new AI SOC Platform built for asymmetric threats and real-world scale. This is why Merlin is leading the investment. Our focus now is speed—accelerating go-to-market, expanding across commercial and government markets, and building the next global category leader in AI security operations.”
Torq Delivers On the Promise of the AI SOC
“This funding accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market. We are moving far beyond the constraints of legacy SOAR and SIEM, harnessing the Agentic AI Era to deliver outcomes our customers rely on,” said Ofer Smadari, CEO and co-founder, Torq. “Global enterprise adoption of our AI SOC Platform has validated our vision for the future of security operations. We have achieved tremendous revenue growth, with Fortune 100 customers adopting our AI Agents in their SOCs for everything from investigation to response. Our partnership with Merlin Ventures is the definitive signal that Torq is now ready to scale this massive customer success into the high-stakes Federal and Public Sector markets.”
The Growth Engine: Massive AI Agent Adoption
The primary driver behind Torq’s 2025 growth is the unprecedented adoption of its AI Agents across its global customer base. Unlike legacy security tools that require extensive professional services, Torq AI Agents are designed for self-service, enabling security teams to build and deploy sophisticated agents with minimal effort.
Today, Torq AI Agents are deeply embedded in the daily operations of Fortune 500 SOCs, managing millions of complex security tasks autonomously. This "bottom-up" adoption has transformed Torq from a specialized tool into the primary platform for the modern SOC.
“Torq delivers fast, measurable value to Valvoline’s SOC and eliminates the manual tasks that once consumed our analysts’ time,” said Corey Kaemming, CISO, Valvoline. “Within 48 hours of deployment, our team was using Torq’s AI SOC Platform for automating phishing triage, accelerating alert handling, and reducing response times across the board. The results were transformative. Analysts reclaimed hours of time, containment actions became automatic, and the security team evolved from reactive responders to proactive strategists. Torq took the vision that was in our heads and actually put it into practice. My team is in love with Torq.”
Strategic Expansion Into the Federal Market
Torq's partnership with lead investor Merlin Ventures has accelerated Torq’s traction within the U.S. Federal and Public Sector markets. With nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market, Merlin Ventures provides Torq with the strategic support and deep government relationships necessary to navigate complex compliance requirements, including FedRAMP, and rapidly scale the Torq AI SOC Platform to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure.
Explosive Growth and Enterprise Maturity Validation
The Series D affirms Torq’s proven market traction and maturity. In 2025 alone, the company delivered significant customer expansion, demonstrating that the Torq AI SOC Platform is built for complex, multinational security environments. Torq now protects hundreds of multinational enterprises, including Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic.
Torq Leads the Shift To AI Agents: Autonomous Investigations and Advanced Automation
Torq is driving this transformation through its singular Agentic AI foundation. In 2025, Torq solidified its market lead by delivering the most advanced multi-agent security capabilities, backed by the strategic acquisition of RevRod. This proven platform empowers SOC teams through two critical product pillars:
“We’re always innovating our security operations approach at Virgin Atlantic and the Torq AI SOC Platform is driving significant benefits for us,” said John White, CISO, Virgin Atlantic. “Today, innovation stems from an AI-first approach, which Torq excels at. Torq is making our security operations simpler and more efficient, and providing us with complete coverage across our security stack. Torq is now our umbrella platform.”
About Torq
Torq is transforming cybersecurity with the Torq AI SOC platform. Torq empowers enterprises to instantly and precisely detect and respond to security events at scale. Torq’s customer base includes major multinational enterprise customers, including Abnormal Security, Armis, Check Point Security, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inditex (Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear), Informatica, Kyocera, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Telefonica, Valvoline, Virgin Atlantic, and Wiz.
About Merlin Ventures
Merlin Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Merlin Group, a network of companies with nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market. Merlin Ventures rapidly scales visionary companies and introduces disruptive solutions designed to help enterprises address today's most critical cybersecurity challenges. Its unique business model combines robust infrastructure and capital, technical advisory and engineering advisory, market readiness acceleration, and deep-rooted government and industry relationships that enable its portfolio to rapidly grow and scale. Learn more at merlin.vc.
Torq Secures $140M Series D at $1.2B Valuation to Lead the AI SOC and Agentic AI Era
