When Pavel Dorofeyev led the Vegas Golden Knights with 37 goals last season and scored 12 more on their run to the Stanley Cup Final, he did so as part of a stacked lineup featuring Mitch Marner, Jack Eichel and Mark Stone.
Traded to the New York Rangers, who signed him to a seven-year, $77 million contract, Dorofeyev will be counted on to lead the way. The shoot-first winger has no fear of being the guy.
“You just have to be a man and accept the challenge and do your best,” he said.
Dorofeyev, who turns 26 in late October, is one of several familiar faces in a new place this NHL season.
After spending his first eight years in the league in Ottawa, Brady Tkachuk asked for a trade and ended up with the Panthers and brother Matthew. As if a team with one Tkachuk and Sam Bennett needed more toughness, but Florida got it.
“It’s way better to have them on the same team than playing against you,” said captain Aleksander Barkov, who is returning after missing all of last season with a torn ACL and medial collateral ligament in his right knee. “Knowing how tough it always was to play against Brady, he’s one of the guys you always circle from the lineup. You need to be aware of him. Literally anything he does is dangerous, and he can score, he can make you pay, he plays physical, aggressive and he has that skill, too, so I’m really excited to have him on the same team.”
After winning the Stanley Cup back to back in 2024 and '25 and missing the playoffs last season, the rejuvenated Panthers are favored to hoist the trophy again.
The goalie known as “Bob” who backstopped Florida to those titles left in free agency to sign a three-year, $21 million contract with the Maple Leafs, who are banking on him at 38 to bounce back from a subpar season.
“As he’s aged and how he takes care himself, it’s become kind of legendary,” Toronto center John Tavares said. “Really excited to be around him because of, I think, the skillset, the pedigree, what he’s going to bring to the team and then the quality of goaltenders he is.”
Bobrovsky is one of several additions made by new general manager John Chayka, who also did a sign-and-trade for defenseman Darren Raddysh and acquired forward Nick Paul from Tampa Bay.
After helping Buffalo end the longest playoff drought in league history, Alex Tuch worked out an eight-year, $84 million deal with Washington as part of a sign-and-trade. Tuch is coming off a 66-point season.
The Capitals also dealt for winger Jordan Kyrou from St. Louis and signed forward Boone Jenner and defenseman Vincent Desharnais to load up for what may be Alex Ovechkin's final chance at making another deep run.
“As a player, if you see your organization going out and trying to get the best players available, it’s a really good feeling,” winger Tom Wilson said. “It’s our team, our organization saying 'We’re here. We want to win now. Let’s try and go get this thing.' And as a player, that’s all you can ask for.”
The Rangers' summer of changes included sending center Vincent Trocheck to the Mammoth. Trocheck and Anders Lee, signed in free agency after the Islanders let their longtime captain go, could be key role players for Utah as it looks to become a perennial contender.
“We have a young core, but I think it’s good to have some guys that have been in a lot of different situations where us young guys could kind of lean on them,” forward Logan Cooley said.
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) practices during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Toronto, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
FILE - Vegas Golden Knights right wing Pavel Dorofeyev reacts after having his shot blocked by Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord for a Kraken victory in a shootout in an NHL hockey game, April 9, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage and “fake news,” and threatened that more such media bans could be coming — the latest salvo in the president's increasingly aggressive response to media coverage he finds unfavorable.
Like many of Trump's other confrontations with news organizations — some of which are playing out in the legal arena — this one has potential First Amendment implications.
The president wrote on his social media site that effective immediately, “I am banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico “from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Minutes later, speaking at an event in the Oval Office, Trump was asked to explain his statement.
“Because they’re fake news,” he said. “You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it’s just fake. That’s why their ratings are no good. When you look at MS NOW … , it’s fake news.”
“And when you look at Politico ... the stories they wrote are fake. So there’s a lot of news and there may be others to join them, and maybe they can get better," he said. "But our country has to have honest news.”
CNN denounced the move, saying it stands behind its White House team and their “fair and accurate reporting.”
“We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government,” it said in a statement posted on X. “Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right.”
Politico said it would “continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.” MS NOW did not immediately return an email asking about the ban.
In his second term, Trump and his administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets, both in the courtroom and through regulatory action. Trump has also lashed out at individual reporters in person or over social media, sometimes in strikingly personal terms.
The move follows the president's decision last year to keep Associated Press journalists out of the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events in retaliation for the news outlet’s decision not to follow his lead in changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, which lies partially in Mexican and other waters. The AP said that it would note when appropriate that Trump had ordered it renamed the "Gulf of America."
The AP filed suit and the case is ongoing. Since returning to office, Trump has pursued other legal action against a variety of different outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. His administration is also involved in a long-simmering confrontation involving ABC over renewal of its broadcast licenses.
Trump seeking to block White House access for CNN is especially notable, as it could upend the traditional five-network television pool that travels with the president and tracks his every move — meant to provide independent coverage of his actions and interactions for the Americans who elected him and for the world.
In his social media announcement, Trump did not provide details on how the ban would be implemented.
It came moments before Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office as part of a health care event. He later planned to take the press pool to his golf club in Virginia for a meeting and dinner sponsored by his Super PAC before spending the weekend at Camp David — one of the few places reporters don’t follow him.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
At the event, Trump doubled down on his opinions about various media outlets.
"The New York Times is so fake. Washington Post is disgusting,” he said.
A federal judge ruled the government couldn’t punish the AP based on its editorial decisions. But an appeals court stopped most of the ruling as it weighed the Trump administration’s appeal. The case remains pending 18 months later.
In Sherrill v. Knight, a federal appeals court ruled in 1977 that although the White House is not required to open its doors to the news media, once it establishes press facilities for credentialed journalists, it cannot deny access based on the content of a journalist’s coverage.
The court held that any denial must serve a compelling government interest and that the journalist must receive notice, the chance to respond and a final answer in writing.
President Donald Trump speaks about healthcare in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
