Rinkside Roundup: Luca Cagnoni beats the odds, earns first NHL point

With most leagues getting ever-closer to the start of the playoffs, there have been some phenomenal storylines to follow at every level of hockey.

The San Jose Sharks’ young core expectedly landing in a top lottery spot has led to Luca Cagnoni being the latest in a long line of rookies to get their start. Meanwhile, Tristan Luneau is finally getting his ducks in a row in San Diego this year — despite the team’s woes.

On the complete opposite end of the prospect spectrum, Gavin McKenna — who could have easily featured on this list every week for the past 20 or so weeks — deserves a mention for his particularly impressive end to the WHL regular season. On the NCAA side, the Big Ten regionals have already started, and Isaac Howard had a monster game to lead his Michigan State Warriors to the win. Finally, Theo Stockselius has been scoring at will as of late in Sweden’s junior ranks — we take a look at how he does it.

Starting off a packed Roundup at the highest level, we break down Cagnoni’s NHL start.

Luca Cagnoni, LD, San Jose Sharks

Season stats: 0G, 1A, 1PTS

Last Week Stats: 0G, 1A, 1PTS

After waiting until the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Draft to hear his name called, Luca Cagnoni went back to Portland and dominated the WHL, earning 90 points in 65 games before signing with the Sharks. Now, after posting 47 points in 56 AHL games, the 5-foot-9 left-shot blueliner earned his NHL start, not even two years after his selection.

Cagnoni didn’t just play — he looked just as impressive as he did with the Barracuda leading up to his NHL debut. He played 23 minutes in a 3-1 loss against Carolina on Thursday, and then earned a secondary assist against Boston in a 3-1 win, in a fashion that both hints at the growth in Cagnoni’s game, and gives Sharks fans a glimpse of what they’re likely to see for the next decade.

A neutralized zone entry and separating hit from Cagnoni leads to William Eklund passing the puck to Macklin Celebrini, who returns the favour for the goal. There could be no better example of what Sharks fans have to be excited about than that play. Once an undrafted free-agent WHL signing, Cagnoni’s defensive and physical improvements over the past four years are at the core of his astoundingly smooth transition to pro hockey. 

Now, he is officially the first defenceman from his draft class to play an NHL game, despite being the 32nd blue-liner picked in 2023. Cagnoni’s storyline might be one of the best in the entire league at the moment.

Tristan Luneau, RD, San Diego Gulls (Anaheim Ducks)

Season stats: 6G, 40A, 46PTS

Last Week Stats: 0G, 4A, 4PTS

After looking impressive in his short NHL call-up last season, Tristan Luneau was diagnosed with a knee infection while on loan with Canada for the World Juniors, and missed the rest of the 2023-24 campaign. Then, back in October, Luneau didn’t manage to live up to expectations with Anaheim, and was sent down to San Diego to continue his development.

Since then — and especially as of late — Luneau has made the most of the adversity he has faced. 

Luneau has been using his feet a lot more consistently in the AHL, both offensively and defensively. He closes gaps more comfortably, invites pressure before deceiving his way out of it, and attacks more directly. This head-on approach has been the main contributor to his 46-point tally in 48 games, and also helped him notch two multi-point games over the weekend back-to-back against the Henderson Silver Knights. Developing more poise is the next step, but so far, Luneau has overcome a lot and become an AHL star.

Gavin McKenna, LW/C, Medicine Hat Tigers (2026 NHL Draft)

Season stats: 41G, 88A, 129PTS

Last Week Stats: 4G, 4A, 8PTS

Frankly, the debate every week since the start of his 40-game point streak has been “how many times can we put Gavin McKenna on this list?”. He could’ve made it last week, for instance — McKenna scored 11 points in the two games he played. We instead held out until the end of the WHL season in order to highlight something amazing:

This was right before the last game of the season, in which McKenna added three points — meaning he outscored all but five WHLers during that streak. A mind-boggling tally of 26 points in his last six games of the season has only made it clearer: Gavin McKenna can score with the best of them.

Highly dynamic, triple-threat skill makes him incredibly difficult to solve from the half-wall — he fakes, delays, accelerates and stops up faster than opponents can think, and then exploits the gaps he creates. His production at just 17 years old is breaking NHLe models left and right, and with talks of him being sought after by NCAA programs, McKenna might be tempted to bite given how much he has proven already in the WHL.

Isaac Howard, LW, Michigan State Univ. (Tampa Bay Lightning)

Season stats: 26G, 25A, 51PTS

Last Week Stats: 2G, 2A, 4PTS

The Michigan State Spartans are the top-seed program in the Big Ten conference, and Isaac Howard has been a key part of their success all year. It therefore comes as no surprise that Howard was their best player when the Big Ten Championship was on the line.

With two goals and two assists in a 4-3 win, including the game-winner in double overtime, Howard put on a clinic. His first two points — a partially deflected power play seam pass and a shot off the faceoff — were tame in comparison to the latter pair. On his second assist of the game, he carried the puck through the neutral zone, stutter-stepped at the blue line, attacked wide on the left flank, then timed his pass perfectly with a slight opening to find Tanner Kelly at the back door. Then, to win the game, he adjusted his feet quickly in the slot off a bobbling puck and whacked it past Logan Terness.

No slick hair celly, either — just straight to his teammates while chucking equipment. Howard is ready for pro hockey — both his increasingly translatable skill and his “take over the game” mindset have proven as much.

Theo Stockselius, LW, Djurgårdens IF J20 (2025 NHL Draft)

Season stats: 22G, 29A, 51PTS

Last Week Stats: 7G, 2A, 9PTS

Last but not least, we take a look overseas at Theo Stockselius, a draft-eligible prospect who is on an absolute tear as of late, scoring seven goals in his last three games at the Swedish J20 and J18 levels — six of which came in the playoffs against Björklöven.

Stockselius scored his goals through intelligent off-puck mapping and swift in-motion plays — for big-framed prospects, these skills are rarely the baseline. Rather than fight his way through coverage and work the net front, he fades out of coverage, pops back up in open space, and attacks quickly. He can occasionally display some handling flashes, but mostly, Stockselius’ sense shone brightest in those two key playoff games for Djurgården. 

He currently projects as a C-grade prospect due to pace and skating limitations, but with more and more skillful elements rearing their heads in his game, there could be room for more.