Brad Shaw Swaps Philadelphia Flyers for Big Division Rival: Report
According to a report Wednesday, former Philadelphia Flyers interim head coach Brad Shaw has picked his next coaching destination in the NHL. And he's not going very far.
Per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Shaw, 61, has latched on with big Metropolitan Division rivals, the New Jersey Devils, replacing the recently fired Ryan McGill as part of Sheldon Keefe's coaching staff.
Keefe, who played for fired former Flyers head coach John Tortorella during his time in Tampa Bay, also played for Shaw early in his playing career. Shaw was Keefe's head coach on the Detroit Vipers in the 2000-01 season, and later coached Keefe as an assistant on the AHL Springfield Falcons the following year in 2001-02.
As someone who has played for and coached against Shaw, Keefe knows exactly what he's getting and what he wants from Shaw, and now it will be the Flyers' loss.
Flyers GM Danny Briere had told reporters during Friday's Rick Tocchet press conference that Shaw was a finalist for the head coach position in Philadelphia and was considered until the final moments.
Shaw, however, pulled out of the running to be an assistant on Tocchet's coaching staff, citing a lack of investment in the interview process.
If and when Shaw's hiring is officially confirmed by the Devils, he'll join a New Jersey organization that already boasts defense talents with NHL seasoning like Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey.
Plus, 2024 first-round pick Anton Silayev will be next to make the leap from that pipeline.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Why ‘special' Caleb Desnoyers is one of 2025 NHL Draft's top prospects
BUFFALO, N.Y. — In his time in hockey, first on the agency side and now as general manager of the Moncton Wildcats, Taylor MacDougall has seen and worked with his fair share of prospects. Ask him about Caleb Desnoyers, who just centered his team's top line to a QMJHL title and won the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the league's playoff MVP, and he tries not to get carried away. Advertisement Tries … 'He's a special kid, quite frankly. And a lot of that stuff gets thrown around with top prospects but I try not to and I try to hold those standards very high,' MacDougall said on a recent phone call. 'If you're an NHL organization and you have the opportunity to tie off to this kid for the next 15 years, oh my goodness, I would sleep soundly. There's so many variables that go into trying to win a championship, but you give him 15 cracks at it over the course of an NHL career, that kid's going to figure it out at some point.' Desnoyers is a potential top-five pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 QMJHL Entry Draft, the league's rookie of the year as a 16-year-old, and a QMJHL First All-Star this year after registering 35 goals and 84 points in 56 games, fifth in league scoring and second in points per game (1.50) to league scoring champ and 21-year-old overager Jonathan Fauchon. Between his MVP playoff run with the Wildcats and the Memorial Cup, he registered another 32 points in 23 games (for a combined regular season, playoff and Memorial Cup total of 45 goals and 116 points in 79 games). He also did it while playing through two wrist injuries. On Thursday morning, he told The Athletic that he'd been dealing with it since November. Before leaving for the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, he had an MRI. After the combine, he'll see a doctor about it and go over the results. 'I'll recover fast but might need to do some stuff,' he said. 'It has been a long season.' But it's not the points or big plays Desnoyers made that everybody talks about when they describe him as 'special.' Pekarcik caps off an insane setup by Desnoyers to score the very first goal of the Final! 🔥#QPlayoffs | @monctonwildcats — QMJHL (@QMJHL) May 10, 2025 He has those things. NHL Central Scouting's report talks about his hockey IQ, anticipation, two-way play, good offensive skills and vision. They call him a 'very good playmaker who also displays a scoring touch' and say he's a prospect 'who has a lot of transferable pro elements in his game.' Desnoyers describes himself as a 'competitive centerman who takes a lot of pride in all of the intangibles and the little details that people don't always recognize. Advertisement 'I'm just a versatile player (and) my main factor is that I make all of the players around me better and I'm a good leader, vocal leader,' Desnoyers said. Those who've worked closely with him will also talk about how he's one of only three players to have ever won triple gold at U17s, U18s and the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. They talk about how he finished plus-51 on the Wildcats, the best player on a winning team. MacDougall said 'he has some really elite gifts and genetic gifts,' but that it's everything else that makes Desnoyers a top pick in this class. 'He's so driven, he's so competitive, he's so passionate. The intangibles that he has are through the roof,' MacDougall said. 'You just don't see them that often.' At the combine, he's one of the prospects who has really impressed in his interviews with NHL clubs. Desnoyers said he's just being himself. 'I've always had good energy and just been an enthusiastic person,' he said. 'I'm not stressed going into these and I've just tried to be myself and be Caleb Desnoyers and good things will happen.' Gardiner MacDougall, Moncton's head coach who also coached Desnoyers at last year's U18 worlds, talks about his 'tremendous leadership values' and how 'he's in the very, very elite mindset' before he talks about the skill set. 'He's one guy that makes a difference for your team whenever he walks in the rink,' he said. 'He can come in the rink in the morning and the team changes. He has that special charisma to him, that special personality to him. He connects with people as a leader, but also connects as a teammate with them and then he just proceeds to grow that as he comes on the ice for practice or for games. He's got such a bright future in front of him and it has been a real privilege to coach him because he just finds ways to get better. He's an intelligent player about the game but he's very passionate. And when you've got a performance level that he has, with the talent that he has, the smarts that he has, and then the passion that he has, it's a powerful combination.' Pascal Trepanier has worn a few different hats in Desnoyers' hockey career. Peewee AAA coach. Skills coach. And for the last 10 years, stepdad. After an 18-year career of his own that included 229 NHL games with Anaheim, Colorado and Nashville, Trepanier moved back to the Montreal area, got into coaching, and has been working with Desnoyers in one way or another since 2015. Advertisement He knows him as a hockey nerd. When they used to watch games at home, Trepanier would pause it and say, 'What did you see?' When they were done with one game and Trepanier and Desnoyers' mom, Martine, a teacher, would want to watch something else, he'd get mad and go watch another game upstairs. That runs in the family. Desnoyers' dad, David, manages the Isatis Sport St-Hyacinthe Complex and is a former tough guy defenseman who played in the QMJHL and then in Quebec's senior and semi-pro levels. His uncle, Simon Laliberté, is a former captain of the Wildcats. His brother Elliot is a former captain of the Halifax Mooseheads who was signed by the Philadelphia Flyers. At the Wildcats' QMJHL championship celebration, they named Desnoyers captain of next year's team as well. He said 'No decision has been taken yet' on whether he's going back to Moncton next season, however. 'My main goal is to play in the NHL as soon as possible, and if not, I'll be at the place where I'm able to be in the NHL the year after, and Moncton's a great choice for that,' he said. Growing up, Caleb was the youngest of three boys and always the smallest. According to Elliot, he always had to compete for everything, whether they were playing games or sports. These days, though, the playing field has leveled. Now Caleb's taller (6 feet 1.5 to Elliot's 5 feet 11), and they've been able to skate and work out in the same groups. Elliot has cherished that. 'We just push each other so hard,' Elliot said of Caleb catching up to him. 'It has been quite fun to be honest. Especially recently.' They used to talk about Elliot around the QMJHL the way they talk about Caleb now. Trusted. Reliable. Consistent. A leader. Loved by coaches. A two-way center. Elliot says he and his little brother both think the game the same way, but play at different speeds (Caleb plays faster, he admits). Advertisement Trepanier says 'everything that Elliot does is really professional' and that that has rubbed off on Caleb, from his mentality to his eating and sleeping habits. He describes them as best friends who do everything together. They train and skate together. They fish and golf together. They watch and talk hockey together. But Elliot looks up to his little brother, too. Said Elliot: 'We always discuss about hockey and I want to see his point of view on stuff as well. I look up to him in the sense of what he's doing with all of the pressure and how he's really disciplined and always wants to be better. I really admire that in him.' Elliot also describes his brother as 'quite the character.' 'He just loves to chat, loves to mess around with people and always makes people feel really good,' Elliot said. 'He's a really easy-going guy, and he has been like that forever. And he's just always so competitive in every aspect of his life.' Caleb has always had an 'aura about him where he shows up at the rink and there's just something about him that lights up the room and gets people involved,' according to Trepanier. 'There's just something, even as a young kid, that's a little bit different,' Trepanier said. 'He makes everybody around him better, and I think that's a pretty decent quality. And there's a lot of stuff for the next level that he and we need to work on but he gets on the ice and he wants to win. If it's during a drill, he wants to be the best guy. If it's during the game, he wants to be the best. And if it's a championship, then he wants to win. He's really mature. He's got one goal and it's to play in the NHL and be the best. Pretty much everything in his life is driven by wanting to be the best.' Both Caleb and Elliot acknowledge they've talked about the Flyers picking at No. 6 and the potential that they could end up in the same organization, but Elliot thinks his brother will be gone by then. Yann Joseph and Maxim Noreau are new to working with Desnoyers. Noreau only retired from his 17-year pro career last March. He started working in player development in the Montreal area right away through his agency, Quartexx, running skates twice a week for them. He first met Desnoyers at one of those skates. They clicked right away, and Desnoyers started coming to Noreau's personal skates on the south shore of the city as well. Advertisement Joseph is a Montreal-area strength and conditioning coach who trains pros such as Anthony Beauvillier and Xavier Bourgault. Last May, the Desnoyers boys and Elliot's Lehigh Valley teammate Zayde Wisdom joined him at his gym for the offseason, switching personal trainers. Joseph worked with Desnoyers to fix some postural issues that he was compensating for on the ice. After a full offseason with him, he played pain-free in his draft year because of their work together (though he did play banged up in the playoffs and into the Memorial Cup). Even though Desnoyers turned 17 just a month before starting with him, Joseph decided to train Desnoyers with his older pro group because he wanted to see if he could follow them. Immediately, he brought an enthusiasm to the gym that transferred to all of the guys. But he performed better than they did in some exercises, too. 'Those guys were like 'Whoa, OK, kid,'' Joseph said. 'So that was fun. Even if they were older, they could watch him and learn. And at the same time, he was doing the same things as those guys and he saw that they're professionals for years and could see the way they managed the workout and the recovery and that was good for him also.' Though Desnoyers says he's 6-2 and 180 pounds, Joseph would poke fun at him and call him 'chicken legs.' But 'he's way stronger than he looks,' Joseph insisted. Ahead of the draft, a few NHL strength and conditioning coaches have asked Joseph to send them Desnoyers' data from the gym. According to Joseph, they've been impressed by his numbers. 'For his size, the way he pushes the bar and the speed with which he pushes the bar is really, really impressive, even with big weights,' Joseph said. 'And when you look at him, he's got like small legs on him right now at 17 years old, and you can see he's got room for growth. But his numbers don't tell the same thing because he's really strong and fast for the size of his legs. I'd ask him sometimes, 'How can you push all that weight with those legs?' and he would laugh.' When Noreau first skated Desnoyers, he wasn't up to date on any of the up-and-coming players. That first skate was focused on shooting (Noreau was known for his shot during his playing career). Desnoyers was a natural, listening intently and picking up on his tips quickly. Right away, Noreau was struck by how hardworking he was. Advertisement 'The big thing with Caleb that I think is even a little overlooked still is attitude-wise, you talk about being a complete player, about being a dog, about being an impact in the game, and some guys want to be that guy but when the big moments come and it's a stressful situation or you've got a lot of pressure to perform, I feel like Caleb is more the type of guy that wants to be there,' Noreau said. 'If a team goes to a shootout, he wants the shot. He knows that there's a big risk and reward to it but I think he knows that 'Hey, I want that. It's on me. And if anybody's going to fail, let it be me.' And that attitude is going to bring him a long way. And sometimes he's going to fail and he won't be perfect all the time, but just to have that attitude, and even in practice he's asking me a lot of questions and why guys do certain things, and just having that, regardless of all of the other attributes that he also has, I think that's huge.' A year after beginning their work together, Noreau now believes the sum of those things will make Desnoyers a player who is used in key situations and put in leadership roles in the NHL. 'You put him out late in a game or on the PK for a faceoff or whatever it is, he's smart enough to know what his job is at that time. It's not about 'I need to be Caleb leading in points,' it's 'Hey, I've got a job to do,'' Noreau said. 'I have a discussion about that with a lot of my top guys, and I always say, 'Do you think that people don't notice in the stands if you're not out there every game late in the game?' That goes a long way, being that guy. And he wants to be that guy.' — With reporting in London, Ont. (Top photo courtesy of Daniel St. Louis / CHL)
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Sami Kapanen on son Kasperi's Oilers surge and the ‘opportunity of a lifetime' to grow a family legacy
EDMONTON — Watching Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in the wee hours of the morning from his home in Finland, Sami Kapanen could hardly believe his eyes. He'd seen that stat line before. He'd seen that result before. It was exactly 23 years to the day, in fact, since the only other time someone carrying Finland's most famous hockey family's name had the chance to get it engraved in the rounded silver edges of the Cup. Advertisement 'Scary,' Sami told The Athletic on Thursday. 'It's scary how much is the same.' Consider that he was a 28-year-old forward playing for the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2002 Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings. That series began on June 4. He had a big hand in the Hurricanes' victory at Joe Louis Arena to open the best-of-seven. 'Game 1, we won in overtime,' he recalled. 'I had two assists.' On Wednesday, he watched from afar as his son Kasperi, a 28-year-old forward with the Edmonton Oilers, picked up two assists in an uplifting overtime victory over the Florida Panthers. History sometimes rhymes. The respective stat lines from their Stanley Cup debuts are eerily similar: Sami Kapanen, June 4, 2002: Two assists, two shots, 23 shifts, 21:22 ice time Kasperi Kapanen, June 4, 2025: Two assists, two shots, 26 shifts, 20:28 ice time Of course, both father and son hope the similarities end there. Sami's Hurricanes dropped the next four games to Detroit in 2002, and he still carries regrets about the experience. He picked up a gruesome injury that season when two six-inch pieces of fiberglass from a broken stick embedded in his palm just before the Olympic break. He never got his game on track during the playoffs that followed, scoring just once in 23 games following a 27-goal regular season. He was shouldering a heavy weight during what wound up being the only Cup Final appearance of a 12-year NHL career. 'I wish I could go back and just play,' Sami said Thursday. 'Just enjoy it. Don't worry about the numbers.' There are certainly some lessons to be found in there for Kasperi, a 2014 first-round pick who has twice been claimed off waivers during a twisting career in which he's never quite made good on his potential. That's how Kapanen arrived in Edmonton from the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 19, and he viewed the latest trip through the waiver wire as a potential make-or-break proposition on his NHL career. Advertisement To see the way he played Wednesday, you'd have trouble believing going on waivers was even possible. Kapanen used his speed to get in on the forecheck and disrupt the Panthers with some effective hits in Game 1 and split through defensemen Niko Mikkola and Seth Jones to create a partial breakaway in overtime before ringing a shot off the outside of the right post behind Sergei Bobrovsky. Couple that with his two assists, and it was about all you could ask for from a depth forward who spent nine games in the press box to open these playoffs for Edmonton. 'He's gaining more and more confidence by the period right now,' said Sami, adding that he doesn't think he's seen his son play this well since he was Evgeni Malkin's linemate in Pittsburgh during the 2021 season. Sami described Kasperi as an 'emotional player' who needs to feel the trust of his coach to perform at his best. Everything started to fall into place, he said, after the series-clinching overtime goal Kasperi scored to finish off the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2. 'He kind of showed himself that 'I've still got it,'' said Sami. 'When he feels good, good things happen.' Kapanen the younger has scored more than his share of massive goals, from the overtime winner in Helsinki to win Finland a gold at the 2016 World Juniors to a double-overtime playoff winner for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Washington as an NHL rookie in 2017 to his series-clincher against Vegas. The Oilers pursued Kapanen as a free agent last summer, when he chose instead to remain with the Blues on a one-year contract. When he arrived off waivers, he found an incredibly close team of committed professionals who helped him rediscover his love of the game. 'It was just an eye-opener,' Kapanen said. 'It lit a fire under me. Just my love for the game has just grown ever since I've come here.' Advertisement By pursuing a career in hockey, he essentially got into the family business. His grandfather, Hannu, played for Finland at the 1976 Olympics, and Kasperi counts time spent in the Philadelphia Flyers dressing room with Peter Forsberg, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter among his childhood memories because of Sami's 831-game NHL career. The Kapanen Clan — as they're known in Finnish — are the only hockey family in the world that have had five different members represent the national team at a major international tournament. They are heavily invested in possibly seeing that name etched into the Stanley Cup this summer. 'I come from a pretty big hockey family,' Kasperi said. 'So after games, it's usually mom, dad, uncle, grandma, grandpa, cousins who will text me. It's a little overwhelming at times. They're just happy that I'm finally here and I've got a chance to win.' Sami hasn't allowed himself to start dreaming about what a Stanley Cup party might look like back home in Kuopio if the Oilers manage to finish the job. He doesn't want to get ahead of himself. He plans to travel to Edmonton to watch Game 5 of this series from the stands at Rogers Place and will continue pulling all-nighters from Finland to watch the other games on TV in the meantime. 'I'm so excited,' Sami said. 'I can see it. His game is coming. It's getting better and better. There's so many things that are kind of clicking right now. 'It's the opportunity of a lifetime and that's the time that you want to perform.' (Top photos of Sami and Kasperi Kapanen: Elsa and Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- Washington Post
Panthers look to even the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers in Game 2
EDMONTON, Alberta — Trailing the Stanley Cup Final after losing the opener in overtime, the defending champion Florida Panthers look to even things up in Game 2 at the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night. Winning on the road has not been a problem for them so far, going 8-3 away from home, the third loss coming Wednesday on Leon Draisatl's power-play goal following a puck-over-the-glass penalty on Tomas Nosek. The task of going into a packed, loud arena is just another challenge the Panthers are embracing.
