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Former Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews to sign with Winnipeg Jets

Former Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews to sign with Winnipeg Jets

CBS News2 days ago

Former Chicago Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews will sign with the Winnipeg Jets after two years away from the National Hockey League.
In an Instagram post, the Winnipeg Jets confirmed that Toews, who is from Winnipeg, is "coming home." The team captioned their post, "The kid from St. Vital is coming home."
Toews is a three-time Stanley Cup champion and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2010.
In 2023, the Blackhawks announced they would not be bringing back team captain Toews. Months later, Toews announced on Instagram that, while he's taking next season off from hockey, he's not yet retiring from the NHL.
"I'd like to announce that I am not fully retiring, but I am taking time away from the game again this season. I cannot deny my love for the game of hockey and still feel the passion for competing at my highest level," Toews wrote on Instagram. "However, these last few seasons have been very difficult considering my health challenges. My focus is to give myself the time and space to fully heal and enjoy life to the fullest once again."

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Free Agency Nears For McDavid, Oilers May Not Be Able To Stop Him
Free Agency Nears For McDavid, Oilers May Not Be Able To Stop Him

Forbes

time41 minutes ago

  • Forbes

Free Agency Nears For McDavid, Oilers May Not Be Able To Stop Him

Connor McDavid is the NHL's best player by a wide margin. (Photo by) Connor McDavid controls the pace of nearly every game he plays with his speed, power and creativity on the ice. He is about to seize control of the way the game is played in the offseason as well. McDavid is about to enter the final season of an eight-year deal that has paid him $12.5 million per season with the Edmonton Oilers. He was the highest paid player in the NHL for the majority of that deal, but teammate Leon Draisaitl signed an extension that pays him $14 million per season. McDavid now has the fifth-most lucrative contract in the league. The Oilers are coming off their second Stanley Cup Finals loss in a row. After pushing the Florida Panthers to seven games in 2024, the Oilers lost to the two-time Stanley Cup champions in six games this time around. Once again, no Canadian team has waltzed around the ice with the Stanley Cup since 1993. That was the last Stanley Cup triumph by the Montral Canadiens and the nation that basically invented and perfected the sport has been shut out for 32 years. Which brings us to McDavid. He has played with the Oilers for 10 seasons and he has not been on the winning side in any year the Stanley Cup has been handed out. As he prepares for the final year of his contract, he is not committed to staying with the Oilers for any more than the upcoming 2025-26 season. This makes the Oilers and their fans uncomfortable. There are many observers who believe it will be just a matter of time before McDavid puts his signature on a new deal with Edmonton and he will stay there throughout his career. Is Stan Bowman capable of building a champion? EDMONTON, CANADA - DECEMBER 5: Stan Bowman presents Connor McDavid #97 of the Edmonton Oilers ... More with a Tiffany Crystal to celebrate his 1000th point prior to the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Rogers Place on December 5, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images) t may not be that way. More than anything else, Connor McDavid wants to win a Stanley Cup. He can start talking to Oilers general manager Stan Bowman about a new deal July 1. McDavid is not concerned or overwhelmed by the financial details. He wants to know that there is a plan for Edmonton winning the Stanley Cup -- and do it more than once. He wants to see a viable plan. McDavid is a very serious man. He has not regularly revealed his true nature in press conferences or one-on-ones with media members, but he exploded to his teammates a year ago when they fell behind 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing the opening two games in Sunrise, Florida. Cameras caught him demanding a greater effort from his teammates in explicit fashion. While they lost the next game, they rallied to tie the series at 3-3 before they succumbed in Game 7 a year ago. McDavid may not have overwhelming faith in his team, based on the confidence level he is currently at. 'I think so,' McDavid said. 'We still have a lot of confidence and belief. I don't think people thought we were going to make it this far. We believe and we came up just short again.' If Bowman goes into the upcoming negotiations with an aggressive plan to make McDavid the highest paid player in his sport, he will almost certainly lose McDavid. He wants to see a working plan of a man who has the job of bringing the Edmonton franchise multiple Stanley Cups. McDavid will not be bulldozed into signing a contract extension early. Draisaitl was in the same position last year, and he didn't sign his deal until September 3. Draisaitl is a superb scorer and he may be the No. 2 player in the league behind McDavid. But he is not McDavid's equal on the ice. McDavid wants Bowman to show him a worthwhile and sustainable plan that will allow the Oilers to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals and come out with the victory. Telling the world how good the Panthers are is not where McDavid wants to be next year. He wants the Stanley Cup. Bowman may not be up to the task. Going into the offseason, the Oilers will have $12 million in cap space at this point with 39 players under contract. They also have seven who are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents. Bowman is going to have to get very creative if he is going to bring the Stanley Cup to Edmonton. The son of record-setting Stanley Cup-winning head coach Scotty Bowman does not come across as creative or charismatic. His news conferences with the Oilers – and prior to that with the Chicago Blackhawks – are as ho-hum as they get. He is not going to ask McDavid to 'climb on his back' and drive the team to the Stanley Cup. That is not Bowman's style and it will be very difficult to convince McDavid that the Oilers are ever going to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals and raise Lord Stanley's chalice.

Could Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid start a new NHL trend of short-term deals?
Could Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid start a new NHL trend of short-term deals?

New York Times

timean hour ago

  • New York Times

Could Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid start a new NHL trend of short-term deals?

There's certainly a lot going on behind the scenes in NHL circles right now. Five days until the 2025 NHL Draft and nine until free agency opens, a lot of the 32 teams are scrambling. Pending free agents are getting signed left and right, thinning an already emaciated UFA pool, and teams such as the Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils are quickly dumping salary so they'll be ready to be part of the July 1 frenzy. Advertisement One of the things I'm hearing talked about a lot right now is: How does the NHL's new cap environment change the equation for everyone involved? The cap is set to rise from $88 million last season to $95.5 million in 2025-26, $104 million in 2026-27, and $113.5 million in 2027-28, uncharacteristically high year-over-year jumps of 8.5 percent, 8.9 percent and 9.1 percent. According to The Athletic's Chris Johnston, those figures could even be on the low end of what's coming, as the league's post-pandemic revenue rebound might eclipse those forecasts and shift the cap even higher. That's made negotiating new deals for both UFAs and RFAs more difficult right now, as teams and player agents have to agree on what the new normal is. If a player was making $7 million last season, are they now a $9 million player in two years? Is a $4 million depth player the new norm when it used to be $3 million? Or will the balance of the new money go to the superstars and not necessarily be shifted and shared, dollar for dollar, throughout the roster? And what does that all mean if you're signing, say, an eight-year deal, a contract that will end when Sidney Crosby is in his age 45 season and the cap will be who knows what in 2032-33? At this rate of growth, perhaps more than $150 million? 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For one, the rapidly rising cap creates a bigger financial incentive for this to shift. In Marner's case, he's a young man, having turned 28 only last month. If he signs a four-year deal in free agency, he would then still have teams lining up to give him a max-term commitment at big money under a much higher cap four years down the road. Here's what the math on that decision could look like, theoretically: Long-term in 2025 option Marner signs next week for seven years around $13 million, which equates to $91 million. He would be eligible for another contract in 2032, when he would be 35 and likely to command only a significant salary for another three or four years, tops. Let's call it another $40 million, for a total of $131 million. Short-term in 2025 option Marner signs next week for four years at around $13 million, which equates to $52 million. He would be eligible for another contract in 2029, when he would be 32 and able to sign a new eight-year deal under a cap that will then likely be around $125 million. At the same cap hit percentage as his highly plausible $13 million deal this season, that's $17 million a season, or another $136 million. Added to the $52 million, it's a total of $188 million, or nearly 50 percent more than our long-term scenario. All of this would be added to the roughly $70 million he's already made in his career. I ran those scenarios by several player agents over the past few days, and they agreed the math does line up well if players can hit free agency again in their early 30s. In the past, NHL stars have opted almost exclusively for the security and stability — both financial and in terms of living situation — of signing for seven or eight years where they want to be. 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And if the NHL's best players become willing to move around more than they have historically, that could create more chances to win by jumping from contender to contender as teams' contention windows opened and closed. That's something to keep an eye on and think about as we head toward the opening of free agency July 1, where the contracts — whether they're short- or long-term — are going to be setting new standards across the board this year. (Top photo of Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid: Leila Devlin / Getty Images)

2025 NHL Draft class superlatives: Ranking the best skaters, shooters, hands and more
2025 NHL Draft class superlatives: Ranking the best skaters, shooters, hands and more

New York Times

timean hour ago

  • New York Times

2025 NHL Draft class superlatives: Ranking the best skaters, shooters, hands and more

Welcome to my annual draft class superlatives. This year-end class project (pun intended) is like the 'best of' or 'most likely to' section of your high school yearbook, except the graduating class is each draft class. My final draft board and draft package ranking the top 100 prospects (plus 30 honorable mentions and 15 overagers) in the 2025 NHL Draft is already out. Today, I rank the prospects across several different categories: best skaters, best shooters, best hands, most competitive, smartest, most physical, most well-rounded forwards and strongest. The three 5-foot-7ish guys in this class can all absolutely fly, but the two best skaters in this class are Cullen Potter and Matthew Schaefer. Nobody can wind up like Potter (Cameron Schmidt, who I've seen pointed to as the top skater in the class, included), who is one of the fastest skaters I've scouted both in straight lines and rounding corners through his edges. And nobody flows north-south up and down the ice as effortlessly as Schaefer does. Reese Hamilton's edges also get high marks, and Radim Mrtka and Simon Wang aren't just good skaters for 6-foot-5-plus but good skaters by any measure. Advertisement 1. Cullen Potter 2. Matthew Schaefer 3. Cameron Schmidt 4. L.J. Mooney 5. Adam Benak 6. Ben Kevan 7. Reese Hamilton 8. James Hagens 9. Michael Misa 10. Sascha Boumedienne 11. Cameron Reid 12. Luca Romano 13. Haoxi 'Simon' Wang Honorable mentions: Radim Mrtka, Lasse Boelius, Jackson Smith, Viggo Nordlund, Tomas Galvas, Daniel Nieminen, Kieren Dervin, Arvid Drott, Malcolm Spence, Lirim Amidovski This draft class doesn't have any big-time shooters, and trying to find names for this category underscored that. Last year's class had snipers such as Cole Eiserman and Justin Poirier, and defensemen such as Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk who could really shoot it. Even Tij Iginla had a noteworthy shot. None of the players in this class have that kind of pop off the blade, with Schmidt maybe being the closest thing when he really rocks it back into his pocket and lets it rip. 1. Cameron Schmidt 2. Justin Carbonneau 3. Anton Frondell 4. Jakob Ihs-Wozniak 5. Kashawn Aitcheson 6. Jack Murtagh 7. Porter Martone 8. Bryce Pickford 9. Michael Misa Honorable mentions: Daniil Prokhorov, Emile Guite, Charlie Trethewey, Cooper Simpson, Brent Solomon, Brady Martin, Carter Bear They call Ryker Lee 'The Wizard,' and he lives up to the name, with the slickest hands and puck skill that I watched in this draft from an ankle-breaking/in-a-phone-booth/one-on-one perspective. Jake O'Brien is the next closest in terms of touch and feel on the puck. L.J. Mooney's hands are particularly impressive for how they blend in with his skating and agility, though, too. He finds his way out of trouble and through holes better than anyone in the class. There are a couple of big, strong wingers whose hands I wanted to draw attention to in Justin Carbonneau and Porter Martone as well. Those two love the toe drag and execute it very skillfully. Fondrk is a sneaky one, too. His teammates give his skill level a lot of love, and if he'd been healthy this year, I think it would have been more of a talking point. Advertisement 1. Ryker Lee 2. Jake O'Brien 3. L.J. Mooney 4. Justin Carbonneau 5. James Hagens 6. Porter Martone 7. Alexander Zharovsky 8. Michael Misa 9. Conrad Fondrk 10. Ivan Ryabkin Honorable mentions: Brady Martin, Benjamin Kindel, Cullen Potter, Adam Benak, Viktor Klingsell, Aidan Lane, Filip Ekberg, Philippe Veilleux, Benjamin Rautiainen, Roger McQueen, Caleb Desnoyers, Cole Reschny For what this class might lack in the shooters category, it makes up for with some high, high-end hockey IQ types. I think Adam Benak thinks it at the highest plane, but there are some very, very smart players in this group who really understand how to navigate the ice. You'll notice Martone appearing in some places you might not have expected (like here), too, and not in some others you might have thought (like most competitive and most physical). I think he has been miscast in the public sphere a little. People see the size, the penalty minute totals and that he dropped the gloves a few times this year and assume he's the ultra-competitive type. But scouts actually want him to be more consistently competitive and intense, and folks around the OHL laud him for his smarts and skill first. 1. Adam Benak 2. James Hagens 3. Jake O'Brien 4. Caleb Desnoyers 5. Benjamin Kindel 6. Michael Misa 7. L.J. Mooney 8. Matthew Schaefer 9. Cole Reschny 10. Cameron Reid 11. Porter Martone Honorable mentions: William Moore, Roger McQueen, Victor Eklund, Luka Radivojevic, Jack Ivankovic I think Brady Martin stands alone in this attribute in this class, with Kashawn Aitcheson and Victor Eklund in another class behind him. Martin's only got one mode, and it's all-out. He runs hot, he imposes his will on shifts and he never gives up on a puck. Aitcheson plays consistently hard and mean as well, but Martin has no let-up. And then Eklund's motor and stick-to-itiveness are really admirable for a sub-6-foot, sub-170-pound winger. Shoutout to the diminutive Mooney, who gets full marks for his effort level and compete at his size. I wanted to give him some flowers as well. Advertisement 1. Brady Martin 2. Kashawn Aitcheson 3. Victor Eklund 4. Carter Klippenstein 5. Milton Gastrin 6. Carter Bear 7. Malcolm Spence 8. Bill Zonnon 9. Caleb Desnoyers Honorable mentions: Theo Hallquisth, Cole Reschny, Jacob Kvasnicka, Eddie Genborg, Braeden Cootes, Travis Hayes, Malte Vass, Brendan McMorrow, Ethan Czata, Charlie Cerrato, L.J. Mooney, Shane Vansaghi, Tyler Hopkins, Tomas Pobezal Nobody in this class delivers hits harder or more often than Martin, though NTDPers Mace'o Phillips and William Belle sure can't help themselves (often to a fault) either. Physicality is also Swedish D Malte Vass' calling card. 1. Brady Martin 2. Kashawn Aitcheson 3. Mace'o Phillips 4. William Belle 5. Malte Vass 6. David Bedkowski Honorable mentions: Carter Bear, Jack Nesbitt, Peyton Kettles, Shane Vansaghi, Carter Klippenstein, Daniil Prokhorov Shane Vansaghi looks like a 30-year-old pro physically already, and, importantly, you can actually see it on the ice as well. He bullied mid-20s players in college hockey as a teenager this year, dominating some games on the forecheck and manhandling some guys below the goal line. He plays big-boy hockey the way a lot of bottom-six NHLers do. 1. Shane Vansaghi 2. Mace'o Phillips 3. William Belle 4. David Bedkowski 5. Charlie Trethewey Honorable mentions: Anton Frondell, Kashawn Aitcheson, Brady Martin, Cole McKinney, Porter Martone, Carter Klippenstein, William Horcoff, Sean Barnhill, Jack Murtagh, Daniil Prokhorov, David Bedkowski, Justin Carbonneau, Carter Amico, Hayden Paupanekis, Brady Peddle, Peyton Kettles I always like to finish with this, because I think it's important to highlight young players who understand both sides of the puck and the intangibles of the game, because they're the hardest attributes to find in teenagers. These are all very mature, complete players at an age where many play immature, incomplete games. Guys who understand the little things. Advertisement 1. Caleb Desnoyers 2. Milton Gastrin 3. Cole Reschny 4. Braeden Cootes 5. Cole McKinney 6. Victor Eklund 7. Malcolm Spence 8. Carter Bear Honorable mentions: Eric Nilson, Jake O'Brien, Anton Frondell, Michael Misa, Tyler Hopkins (Photo of Matthew Schaefer at the NHL Scouting Combine: Joe Hrycych / NHLI via Getty Images)

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