A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing -- it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world's attention.

For context, the Blackhawks won 26 games the season before drafting Bedard, then went on to win even fewer games (23) during his rookie season. They have 14 wins at the halfway point of the 2024-25 regular season, putting them on pace for a modest increase to 28.