Ice hockey: the main stories of 08.09.2026

Jean-Sébastien Dea has stopped playing at 32, an age at which most forwards of his standing are still filing contracts rather than closing the file on them. The Quebec forward's career ran through both the NHL and the KHL, and the news came from TVA Sports journalist Renaud Lavoie rather than from any club statement. Three outlets have carried it. Retirements at that age are usually settled by the body before the head, and nothing in the reports suggests a return is being held open. Dea's exit closes a career that never quite found a permanent address on either continent.

SKA beat Dinamo Moscow 5:3 in Fonbet KHL play, and Nikolai Goldobin finished with 4 (0+4) — an assist-only night that his coach Igor Larionov chose to explain through the forward's moustache. Goldobin himself contrasted it with the earlier fixture against Lada: too many passes backwards then, the puck moving forward this time. Goldobin's four assists came a day after this desk covered the same result from the SKA side. Lokomotiv, meanwhile, made it two wins from two, seeing off Shanghai Dragons 3:1 in a match that doubled as Alexander Radulov's 800th KHL game; Yegor Surin put up 2 (1+1) and coach Dmitry Kvartalnov called the 40-year-old a leader without qualification.

Yegor Sokolov's move, first flagged here on 7 September as a three-way piece of business, has now closed: one outlet reports that Torpedo traded him to Dinamo Minsk, and Ak Bars took him on from there along with the rights to Vladislav Kolyachonok, sending Vladimir Alistrov the other way. Sokolov, by his own account to the same report, sees himself as a net-front forward who can shield the puck in the corners. Two other unconfirmed reports concern goalkeepers and contracts: Ilya Samsonov is said to have signed a one-year two-way deal in San Jose after 14 appearances last season, while Sidney Crosby, whose $8.7m cap hit expires at the end of the campaign, told reporters his agent is talking to Kyle Dubas and that he would like a few more years.

• One outlet reports Fraser Minten has signed a seven-year extension in Boston at $7.2m a year, on the back of 35 points in 82 games.
• Simon Edvinsson is said to be reporting to Detroit's camp without a contract, waiting on a new general manager — a post Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg has reportedly turned down.
• Thomas Chabot on Brady Tkachuk's June trade to Florida: no hard feelings, by his account; Tim Stützle, for his part, dismissed Brad Marchand's remarks on the vacant captaincy.
• Yevgeny Kuznetsov argued a disallowed goal with the officials in Sibir's 3:4 shoot-out defeat at Ak Bars on 5 September, citing a $1,000 goal bonus.
• Metallurg edged Amur 2:1 in overtime; Alexander Andrievsky put it down to eight minutes of penalties taken in the attacking zone.
• Neftekhimik beat Sochi 5:1 after a 5-minute major to Cameron Lee on 27 minutes; Severstal took a first win of the season, 1:0 over Lada.
• Mikhail Kravets on Barys's target: winning, not merely belonging in the KHL.
• Dan Milstein says Ivan Demidov took less on his eight-year, $9.15m deal to leave Montreal cap room.
• Alex Galchenyuk compared Spartak's 3:2 over CSKA to Toronto–Montreal.
• Maxim Letunov on NCAA hockey as a route to the NHL.
• Sheldon Rempal reportedly triggered a 20m rouble bonus with one regular-season point for Salavat Yulaev, per Business Online.
• The KHL rescinded Vladimir Tkachev's diving penalty from Metallurg's 4:2 win over Amur; Luc Tardif was named to the IIHF Hall of Fame.
• Attendance at the first match at the Volga Arena in Nizhny Novgorod was 3,500, with only the lower tier open.