PuckPedia Hockey Show Episode 46: NHL Free Agency Preview + Draft Winners & Losers ft. Emily Kaplan

Episode 46 of The PuckPedia Hockey Show features a very special recurring guest, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Emily is joined by PuckPedia’s founder Hart Levine and host Keith Kavanaugh. Emily was on the broadcast for the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo this past weekend, so we get her insight on how she thinks the Draft went as the NHL is in year 2 of de-centralization (2:00).

Then we talk through how she manages breaking NHL trade news while being on TV at the same time, and what she thought about a couple of the big trades that happened during the Draft (6:00). JJ Peterka was traded to the Boston Bruins and Pavel Dorofeyev was traded to the New York Rangers.

Then we dive into the chaotic week before the NHL Draft and her take on some of those trades (15:00). Brady Tkachuk was traded to the Florida Panthers, Simon Nemec to the Calgary Flames, Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch to the Washington Capitals, Bowen Byram to the Chicago Blackhawks, and William Eklund to the Ottawa Senators.

We then dive into NHL Free Agency which starts in a couple of days (23:00). We talk about the USA Hockey trio of players who look to find new homes (Dylan Larkin, Zach Werenski, and Connor Hellebuyck). We get the latest on what she’s hearing with Jason Robertson (30:00).

Emily talks through if she thinks Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid will have new homes before the season starts (34:00).

We get into if there might be any players who will get offer sheets (36:00). Which players who are extension-eligible on July 1 might put pen to paper right away (39:00). Then we wrap up with some questions from the viewers (43:00).

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