The NHL’s Metropolitan Division is looking like it might be the best and most competitive division in the league this season, with a number of strong teams that are capable of making a deep run in the playoffs.
There are also several NHL stars, from Alexander Ovechkin to Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
While some of hockey’s biggest stars play in the bright lights of the Metropolitan Division, there are also some young players looking to emerge as elite players this year.
Last week, we looked at the Young Guns cards of young players to watch from the Atlantic Division.
Here is a list of Metropolitan Division players hockey card collectors should keep an eye on in 2024-25.
Yegor Chinakhov, Columbus
Young Guns rookie card #471 in 2021-22 Upper Deck Series 2
The 23-year-old Russian winger was picked 21st overall by Columbus in 2020, but by then COVID-19 had begun to throw obstacles in front of the development paths of many players.
Chinakhov stayed in Russia to play in the KHL, and he had 17 points in 32 games as a 19-year-old.
This season is his fourth in Columbus. He was showing signs of a breakout season last year, but he had injuries at the beginning and end of the campaign. Still, he had 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points in 53 games.
In the first five games of the 2024-25 season, Chinakhov has three goals and four assists for seven points and is leading the Blue Jackets in scoring.His first NHL season was 2021-22.
His first NHL season was 2021-22.
Paul Cotter, New Jersey
Young Guns rookie card #720 in 2021-22 Upper Deck Extended Series
The 24-year-old center has some size, good hands, and a good shot. He also plays a rugged game, and is built for playoff hockey.
Cotter is playing a bigger role on a very strong New Jersey Devils team. Don’t be surprised if the Eastern Conference comes down to a Devils-Rangers rivalry series to go to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Cotter was a fourth round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018. He had a career-high 25 points in 76 games with Vegas last year. With the Devils, he will play a much more important role with the team with more quality ice time.
He scored five goals in New Jersey’s first eight games of the season.
Will Cuylle, New York Rangers
Young Guns rookie card #213 in 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 1
The 22-year-old left wing from Toronto is not going to ever challenge Artemi Panarin for the team’s scoring lead, but he is certainly capable of producing.
He had 43 goals and 37 assists for 80 points in 59 games with the Windsor Spitfires as a junior. In Hartford, he had 25 goals and 20 assists in 69 games in the AHL in 2022-23. He followed that up with a 13-goal campaign last year in his first full NHL season with the Rangers.
Cuylle started the season with a goal and three assists for four points in five games. He is capable of making a run at 20 goals and 50 points.
Adam Fantilli, Columbus
Young Guns rookie card #711 in 2023-24 Upper Deck Extended Series
Had it not been for Connor Bedard, it may have been Adam Fantilli receiving all of last year’s hobby hype.
As a Freshman at the University of Michigan, Fantilli won the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in the NCAA. He led the Wolverines to the Frozen Four after being named Big Ten Tournament MVP.
Fantilli led the nation in scoring in 2022-23, scoring 30 goals and adding 35 assists for 65 points in 36 games.
He had a modest rookie year with 12 goals and 15 assists for 27 points. Watch for him to break out with a big 2024-25 season. He had two goals in the first five Blue Jackets game. The 6’ 2”, 200 pound center turned 20 October 12.
Fantilli was also featured in the Upper Deck Team Canada Junior set in 2022-23.
Tyson Foerster, Philadelphia
Young Guns rookie card #225 in 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 1
At 6’2”, 215 pounds, the 22-year-old right winger is the prototypical power forward. As 80-point player in his last year of junior hcokey with the Barrie Colts of the OHL, Foerster scored 20 goals with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL in 2022-23, and then scored 20 last season in his first full NHL season with the Flyers.
Flyers coach John Tortorella loves Foerster’s style of play. He is a 200-foot player and he wins battles along the boards. He is already a player who has his coach’s trust. While 20 goals may not seem like a big deal, consider that from Jan. 12 on last season, Foerster was the Flyers’ top goal scorer.
Cody Glass, Pittsburgh
Young Guns rookie card #237 in 2019-20 Upper Deck Series 1
Glass was a bigtime scorer in junior hockey with the Portland Winter Hawks and was selected sixth overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL draft.
Glass had 102 points in 64 games with Portland in 2017-18, and then had 69 points in 38 games in 2018-19.
He spent two partial seasons in Vegas before ending up in Nashville. In 2022-23, he played his first full NHL season and had 14 goals and 21 assists for 35 points.
Penguins GM Kye Dubas and coach Mike Sullivan thought he was a good fit for their system in Pittsburgh as a physical third line winger with a high offensive upside.
Simon Holmstrom, New York Islanders
Young Guns rookie card #713 in 2022-23 Upper Deck Extended
Holmstrom is a big winger who is a righthanded shot but often plays left wing. He was a big offensive producer as a junior in Sweden in the HV71 Jonkoping system.
After being selected by the Islanders in the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft, he came to North America and joined the Bridgeport Sound Tigers – they are now called the Bridgeport Islanders – and spent three seasons with them in the AHL.
He is coming off his first full NHL season and scored 15 goals. He should get more ice time and in better situations this season.
Kent Johnson, Columbus
Young Guns rookie card #209 in 2022-23 Upper Deck Series 1
Like Adam Fantilli, Johnson was a top five draft pick out of the University of Michigan. Johnson is a premier playmaker with a scoring touch. He had 16 goals and 24 assists for 40 points in 79 games as a rookie in 2022-23 before getting 16 points in 42 games last year.
He showed next level talent in his stint in the AHL, with five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in 10 games with Cleveland.
Johnson has two goals and three assists for five points in four games to start the season.
Alexis Lafreniere, New York Rangers
Young Guns rookie card #201 in 2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1
At one point, his 2020-21 Upper Deck rookie cards were as anticipated as Connor Bedard’s rookie cards were last year.
He was so highly anticipated that exceptions were made in the hockey card world to get him into sets, and the way the lottery works was changed.
Unfortunately, Lafreniere was not a franchise player out of the gates.
Lafreniere has size, he is a great skater, and he has next level hands. It started to come together for him last season as he had 29 goals and 28 assists for 57 points. He added another 14 points in 16 playoff games.
Lafreniere can be a 75-point player, and perhaps this is the year.
His 2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Young Guns RC #201 has been on a roller coaster ride, reaching highs of $300 ungraded and lows of $20 ungraded. Like anything, the reality is somewhere in the middle. But if Lafreniere, who had three goals and three assists for six points through five games, continues to improve and produce, watch for a point-per-game season and a rookie card climbing in value.
Aliaksei Protas, Washington
Young Guns rookie card #706 in 2021-22 Upper Deck Extended
The 6’6”, 220 pound forward from Belarus was a big scorer in junior with the Prince Albert Raiders, but he has yet to become a scoring threat at the pro level. Last year, he had six goals and 23 assists for 29 points. Protas gets shots and some good looks, but he had trouble putting the puck in the net last year.
Once he has that figured out – many are expecting that to be this year – Protas could become a force with the Capitals.
Cole Sillinger, Columbus
Young Guns rookie card #498 in 2021-22 Series 2
Now in his fourth NHL season, Sillinger, who is still only 21 years old, has a pair of 30-plus point seasons.
The NHL Network identified Sillinger as one of their 2024-25 breakout players on their analytics special.
As a junior, he had 53 points in 48 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League before the league was shut down due to COVID-19. He played in the USHL for the Sioux Falls Stampede the next year and had 46 points in 31 games with 24 goals and 22 assists.
He began the season with a goal and two assists in five games.
Sillinger is the son of longtime NHLer Mike Sillinger. Cole was born in Columbus, as his father played for the Blue Jackets the year Cole was born.
