Cotter, Knies among new faces in new places off to hot starts in 2026-27
You only get one chance to make a good first impression.
It isn’t always easy for players to successfully adapt to a new environment over the course of a single training camp, especially now that each team is allotted only four exhibition games before the regular season begins, but the five players listed below appear to have taken that rule to heart after joining new teams during the lead-up to the 2026-27 NHL regular season.
With a little more than a week of meaningful games now in the books, these players have already laid strong foundations to build upon over the rest of the new campaign. Here’s a closer look at some of the new faces in new places who are tearing it up to start the year.
Paul Cotter, LW (Vancouver Canucks)
Where in the world did this come from? After scoring just nine goals and 15 points in 79 games with the New Jersey Devils in the 2025-26 season, Cotter signed a one-year, $2.15 million deal with the Canucks on July 1 and has now lit the lamp four times in his first four games with the Canucks. Along the way, he’s been elevated from the fourth line to the top six, logging 18:47 of ice time — his highest total in nearly four years — in Vancouver’s 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 3.
There’s no doubt Cotter is riding one heck of a shooting percentage wave to start the new season — he’s scored his four goals on just seven shots — but he’s also been a fairly valuable depth player throughout his career. With its relatively depleted lineup, the Canucks are naturally able to provide the 26-year-old with greater opportunities than he’s seen in the past, and he’s taken full advantage in the early stages of the year.
It’s easy to see why Cotter has already endeared himself to new Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra, who carved out a great NHL career for himself as a workmanlike utility player over parts of 16 seasons. With relentless efforts like these, he’ll never have any trouble earning ice time in Vancouver:
Nils Höglander, RW (Nashville Predators)
Cotter signed in Vancouver just two days after the Canucks traded Höglander – a popular but undersized winger – to the Predators in exchange for a future third-round pick. Squeezed out of regular deployment with the Canucks in 2025-26, Höglander appeared in just 38 games with the club and scored two goals and five points — decidedly less than ideal for a player who scored 24 goals with the Canucks two seasons earlier.
Under new general manager Chris MacFarland, the Predators aggressively changed the makeup of their forward group over the summer, adding Mavrik Bourque, Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Alex Kerfoot, and Höglander. The early results have been mixed, with the Predators getting off to a 1-1-1 start, but Höglander has undoubtedly been a standout. The 25-year-old winger scored his first goal with Nashville in a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Oct. 3. Then, on Tuesday, he tallied twice more as the Predators fell 5-4 in overtime against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Höglander is still waiting to see an increase in responsibilities under Predators head coach Andrew Brunette, but as a likeable and speedy player who works hard, he shouldn’t have much difficulty landing a promotion before long. So far, he’s averaged just 10:56 of ice time across his three games with the Predators.
Matthew Knies, LW (Columbus Blue Jackets)
It’s rare to see a full-fledged blockbuster trade go down the day before the regular season starts, but we got just that on Sept. 28, when the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs swapped Knies and Kirill Marchenko (along with a handful of other pieces). It was an eye-popping deal that should go into the books as a win for both clubs, but Knies has gotten off to a stronger start in his new environment.
The Blue Jackets desperately needed a young, cost-controlled winger to pair with top-line center Adam Fantilli, and Knies fit the bill — particularly in a deal for Marchenko, who was clearly disenchanted with the prospect of re-signing in Columbus. Owing to the Blue Jackets’ strange early-season schedule, with a huge five-day break right off the bat, Knies has appeared in only two games with his new club, tallying twice and adding a pair of assists.
With Knies now in the fold, it’s much easier to see a path for the Blue Jackets to become a competitive team again in the Metropolitan Division. He’ll turn 24 later this month, which puts him in the same age cohort as Fantilli (21), Denton Mateychuk (22), Kent Johnson (23), and Jet Greaves (25). Columbus has Knies under contract through 2031 at a $7.75 million cap hit.
Jacob Markstrom, G (Florida Panthers)
Considering he last suited up for the Panthers over a decade ago, Markstrom still qualifies as a “new face” in Florida, even if he’s technically a returnee rather than a fresh arrival. However, Markstrom was never truly a full-fledged NHLer during his first tenure with the Panthers, being traded to the Canucks after just 43 games as part of the package used to reacquire Roberto Luongo. The 6-foot-6 Swede only emerged as a starter in Vancouver during the 2017-18 season and subsequently played for the Calgary Flames and Devils before being dealt back to Florida (in true Luongonian fashion) this past June.
Markstrom was widely considered one of the top goaltending prospects in the league during his first stint in Florida, and while he came pretty close to realizing his full potential as a starter, he’s also been plagued by inconsistency and a tendency to allow early goals throughout his career. Fortunately for the Panthers, neither of those traits has been on display through Markstrom’s first starts of the 2026-27 season, with the 36-year-old netminder posting a 2-0-1 record and a .927 save percentage while allowing just four goals in three games.
Compared to many of the other goaltenders on Stanley Cup frontrunners, Markstrom’s playoff resume is quite limited, and as he follows in the footsteps of Sergei Bobrovsky, who led the Panthers to three Stanley Cup finals and won two, Markstrom has a lot of work to do to help return his new club to contention. So far, he’s looking pretty comfortable in his return to South Florida.
Victor Olofsson, RW (Vegas Golden Knights)
Olofsson didn’t have to wait nearly as long as Markstrom to find his way back to one of his old teams, signing a one-year deal with the Knights on July 1 after previously playing with the club during the 2024-25 season. The 5-foot-11 winger started the 2025-26 campaign with the Colorado Avalanche before being flipped to the Flames at the 2026 trade deadline as part of the Nazem Kadri deal; then, after playing out the rest of the season in Calgary, Olofsson returned to a Vegas team in need of scoring help after losing Pavel Dorofeyev to the New York Rangers.
A three-time 20-goal scorer during his tenure with the Buffalo Sabres, Olofsson has developed into a journeyman and power-play fixer over the past couple of seasons. He’s been red-hot to start the 2026-27 campaign with Vegas, scoring four goals in his first four games and fitting in seamlessly alongside the likes of Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, and former Sabres teammate Jack Eichel on the team’s top PP unit. Even at 31, Olofsson still has one heck of a shot — and he isn’t afraid to use it.
Olofsson scored a pair of goals in the Knights’ 6-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday but had to be helped off the ice after taking a dangerous-looking hit from Ben Meyers midway through the third period. If Olofsson misses any time with an injury, it’ll come as a significant blow to a Vegas team already figuring out how to navigate life with a weakened winger group. With the Knights about to kick off a stretch of four games in six nights, it’ll be difficult to ease him back into the lineup — but it’ll be even trickier to fill his spot on PP1.
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