Lenny Talks Sports

Tag: featured

  • The Incredible Journey of Alex Mogilny to the Hall of Fame

    Notable New Jersey Devils Deals in History: The Alexander Mogilny Trade - All About The Jersey

    The wait is finally over. After sixteen seasons on the ballot, Alex Mogilny will officially be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 10, 2025, as a member of the Class of 2025.

    Entering the league in 1989-90 as the first Soviet defect to the United States, the Khabarovsk native joined the Buffalo Sabres after being drafted in the 5th round of the 1988 Entry Draft. As a rookie, Mogilny would put up a solid 43 points in 65 games; he would only continue to improve, recording over a point per game in the next two seasons and becoming an All-Star in the 1991-92 season.

    Mogilny’s fourth season in the league would be his best, as he tied for the league lead with 76 goals, while also recording 51 assists for a total of 127 points in 77 games. Mogilny had elevated his game to the level of the elites in the NHL; as he had cemented himself as a star in the league. The Sabres would name Mogilny the first Russian captain in NHL history, and Mogilny would follow this up by recording 79 points in 66 games to earn himself his third straight All-Star appearance. The shortened 1994-95 season would be Mogilny’s last season with the Sabres before being traded to the Vancouver Canucks before the following season.

    In his first year in Vancouver, Mogilny would once again have another fantastic season putting up a 50-50 season, with 55 goals and 52 assists totaling 107 points. This would be the first season that Mogilny would receive Hart trophy votes and make his fourth All-Star game appearance of his career. The 1995-96 season would be Mogilny’s best season in Vancouver and he would eventually be moved to the New Jersey Devils at the 2000 trade deadline.

    Mogilny would join the Devils amid a playoff push, playing 12 games to end the regular season. Mogilny would then proceed to play 23 games in the postseason, winning his first Stanley Cup as New Jersey defeated the Dallas Stars in six games. With the win, Mogilny entered the prestigious IIHF Gold Club as a winner of the Stanley Cup, Olympics, and IIHF World Championship.

    The 2000-2001 season would be Mogilny’s best season as Devil recording 43 goals and 40 assists totaling 83 points in 75 games. Mogilny showed that he still had that same scoring flair during his age-31 season. He would follow the regular season up with his best postseason performance recording 16 points in 25 games as the Devils reached the Stanley Cup before ultimately falling to the Colorado Avalanche.

    Mogilny would leave the Devils in the offseason joining the Toronto Maple Leafs where his tenure would be highlighted by his Lady Byng Award win in 2002-03. The 2005-06 season would be Mogilny’s last season in the NHL as he retired in the place where he won his only Stanley Cup, New Jersey.

    Mogilny would retire after sixteen seasons recording 473 goals and 559 assists for a total of 1032 points in 990 career games. A consistent player, playing at an All-Star level for the better part of sixteen seasons, never getting the recognition he deserved until June 24th, 2025, being named to the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

  • Is Jesper Bratt the most underrated player in the NHL?

    Photo by Len Redkoles/NHL via Getty Images

    When New Jersey Devils superstar Jack Hughes slid shoulder first into the end boards against the Vegas Golden Knights, many Devils fans were holding their breath in fear of what happened. Hughes exited the game as the Devils lost the game 2-0 dropping their season record to 33-23-6 and a lowly 8-10-3 since the start of 2025.

    As the team awaited Hughes’s testing results the Devils would face one of the league’s top teams in the Dallas Stars where the Devils entered the third period trailing 3-1; this is when Jesper Bratt and the Devils offense came to life tallying two goals in 3:34 to tie the game at three. The Devils seemed content to go to overtime until a Johnny Kovacevic icing with under twenty seconds left in regulation set up a Dallas offensive faceoff. Off the faceoff, the Devils failed to clear the puck and Stars defenseman Thomas Harley ripped home a dagger with under five seconds to play giving Dallas the two points.

    Late Thursday night the news would drop of Jack Hughes undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery; the news was heartbreaking to Devils fans as going into Friday’s trade deadline the season’s outlook looked bleak. New Jersey made minor moves acquiring defenseman Brian Dumoulin, center Cody Glass, winger Daniel Sprong, and defenseman Dennis Cholowski; the Devils fans were not convinced this would help the playoff push after losing a superstar like Hughes. New Jersey played the top team in the Western Conference the Winnipeg Jets and got run out of the building losing 6-1. The Devils were now 33-25-6 and only led the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers by four points in the Metropolitan Division standings.

    Since that day New Jersey has won four out of their last five games and Jesper Bratt has recorded three goals and seven assists for ten points being named the second star in the NHL last week. Bratt hasn’t been paired with the top line with Timo Meier and Nico Hischier, instead, he has been on a line with Erik Haula and the newly acquired Cody Glass on the Devils third line. To show how impressive Bratt’s performance has been, Haula has not recorded a point since November 25th (he has three points over his last four games) and Glass had 15 points in 51 games before being traded to New Jersey (he has five points in his first five games as a Devil). Many fans outside of New Jersey had seen the stats of Bratt with Hughes early in the season where he recorded 68 points in 62 games while playing together, and thought he was the Robin to Hughes being Batman. But after his strong performance in the 4 Nations Faceoff with Sweden and his play without Hughes, Bratt has cemented himself as a star in this league.

    The smooth-skating Swede will be at the forefront of the Devils push to the playoffs as they enter the last thirteen games of the season. He currently sits at 80 points in 69 games, while also tying the Devils franchise record for assists in a season with 60 assists tying Scott Stevens’ record set in the 1993-94 season. Last year Bratt set his career high in points with 83 and is on pace to shatter that number with a projected 95 points. But at the rate he’s scoring since Hughes’ injury don’t be surprised if Bratt continues his tear and finishes with over 100 points and leads the Devils to their second playoff appearance in the last seven seasons.