Gustav Nyquist, who had the best year of his 11-year National Hockey League career a year ago, and newly-signed Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman are among four former University of Maine hockey players who will be on NHL rosters as the league opens regular season play in North America this week.
Buffalo and New Jersey actually opened the season with a two-game set in Prague, Czechia over the weekend.
Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Ben Hutton and Calgary Flames winger Ryan Lomberg are the other two former Black Bears.
Bradly Nadeau, a first-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2023 and the 30th overall selection, signed with the NHL team after a memorable freshman season at UMaine a year ago and made his NHL debut for the Hurricanes in their regular season finale at Columbus.
But he will start this season with the Hurricanes’ Chicago Wolves franchise in the American Hockey League.
Nadeau had a goal and an assist in three exhibition games for the Hurricanes.
In addition, two former UMaine players and a former interim head coach of the Black Bears are back behind the benches for their respective NHL franchises.
Jim Montgomery is beginning his third season as the head coach of the Bruins; John Tortorella begins his second campaign with the Philadelphia Flyers and Greg Cronin returns to guide the Anaheim Ducks.
Cronin, a Colby College graduate, was an assistant coach at UMaine before becoming the interim head coach when Shawn Walsh was suspended for a year for NCAA violations. He went on to become the head coach at Northeastern University.
Center Nyquist racked up 75 points on 23 goals and 52 assists for the Nashville Predators a year ago which is 21 points better than his previous best during the 2014-15 season with Detroit when he had 54 points on 27 goals and 27 assists.
Nyquist, who is 35 years old, is a former fourth-round draft pick of Detroit (121st overall), has appeared in 784 NHL regular season games and has 198 goals and 305 assists. He has also played in 77 playoff games with six goals and 24 assists.
The 25-year-old Swayman signed an eight-year, $66 million contract with the Bruins over the weekend and was listed as a possible starter for Tuesday’s opener against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers despite the fact he wasn’t in the Bruins training camp.
He had been working out with Boston University’s team and even spent a few days in Maine including a workout with the Black Bears.
Swayman, a fourth round pick of the Bruins in 2017 (111th overall), is coming off an impressive playoff run last season as he posted a 2.15 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage in 12 playoff starts. He was 6-6.
He was 25-10-8 with a 2.53 GAA and .916 save percentage during the regular season and will enter his fourth full season with the Bruins with a career GAA of 2.34 and save percentage of .919 to go along with a 79-33-15 record in 132 regular season games.
The 31-year-old Hutton is entering his 10th full season in the NHL and is coming off a season in Las Vegas in which he appeared in 41 games and had two goals and eight assists. His plus-12 rating in plus-minus is the best of his career.
A player receives a plus-one if they are on the ice when their team scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal and a minus-one if the other team scores one.
Hutton, a fifth round selection of Vancouver in 2012 (147th overall) has played 509 NHL regular season games and has 24 goals and 98 assists.
Lomberg played the last four seasons for the Florida Panthers but is returning to Calgary where he began his NHL career in 2018-19.
He had five goals and two assists in 75 games for the Panthers before appearing in eight playoff games. He didn’t register a point in the playoffs.
The 29-year-old Lomberg, who signed with Calgary as an undrafted free agent in 2015, has played 257 games in the NHL with 28 goals and 22 assists. The hard-nosed left winger has 359 career penalty minutes.
Thirty-year-old center Devin Shore was waived by the Minnesota Wild but was expected to play in the AHL for their Iowa Wild affiliate.
He was a second round draft pick of Dallas in 2012 (61st overall).
He had three assists and was plus-3 in three exhibition games for Minnesota.
Shore was with the Seattle Kraken last season and had a goal and three assists in 21 games.
He spent most of the season with their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and had seven goals and 18 assists in 39 games.
The Firebirds reached the Calder Cup finals where they lost to Hershey.
Shore had five goals and 13 assists in 18 playoff games.
He has 443 NHL regular season appearances on his resume with 51 goals and 88 assists.
