Jacory Patterson leads world in 400m sprinting while working overnights
Patterson, 25, notched the biggest race win of his life at Grand Slam Track Miami — taking Saturday's 400m in 43.98 seconds, a personal best and the world's best time since last August.
He finished second overall in the men's 200m-400m sprints group in Miami, having also placed sixth in Friday's 200m. So he earned $50,000 for the meet.
Both races took place in the early evening around times when Patterson, when he's home, is often sleeping in between training and loading.
'The goal was to come out here and make some money so I can just focus on training and quit that job,' he said of working for UPS near his base of Columbia, South Carolina, where he's coached by three-time Grenada Olympian Alleyne Francique.
Patterson, a 2023 University of Florida graduate, wakes up around 8:30 on a typical morning training as a professional sprinter. He sleeps later in the day, gets up again at 9:45 p.m., starts his truck-loading job at 10:45 and works that until 4 or 4:30 a.m.
On the track, he lowered his personal best in the 400m from 44.81 (from 2021) to 43.98 over the last three weeks. He went from ranking outside the top 100 fastest men in U.S. history to becoming the 15th American to ever break 44 seconds.
In days leading up to races, Patterson scales back the overnight shifts to adjust his body.
"(Working two jobs) just helps my mental a lot because it just lets me know I can do it,' he said. 'Can't nobody tell me different.'
Patterson hopes the recent success is enough to earn another invite to a future Grand Slam Track meet. The series concludes its 2025 season in Philadelphia (May 30-June 1) and Los Angeles (June 27-29), both live on Peacock. Group winners at each meet receive $100,000.
He joked Saturday about one day leaving the UPS job, but didn't announce a definitive decision.
'I'm going to celebrate this for today,' Patterson said. 'Then when I get back to Columbia on Tuesday, it's back to work.'
Nick Zaccardi,
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Whatever you thought those two would turn into at the time likely doesn't come even come close to how good they ended up being in their first season in St. Louis. Holloway looked like a legit top-line winger while Broberg proved he was a legit top-four defenseman. Both were game-changers and the Blues front office deserves a lot of credit for pulling it off. The second big move was hiring Jim Montgomery. The team made it clear Montgomery's ability as a coach was simply too strong to pass up and he almost immediately made good on that promise. St. Louis' underlying numbers took a massive step forward right off the bat under the new coach, and soon after the results followed. Acquiring Cam Fowler — an incredibly shrewd addition — along the way certainly helped, but it was Montgomery who had the team running like a well-oiled machine. There are still some moves from the past that sting — especially losing Alex Pietrangelo and every subsequent move to fill his shoes. But it's hard not to be confident in St. Louis' front office after last season. It made all the right moves and the Blues went back to the playoffs because of it. 2024 ranking: 22 'Staios et al have done an amazing job dealing with the mess the last management team left them regarding cap space and a very bare prospect cupboard. Have addressed major areas of weakness (goaltending, defence), and improved the forward ranks (though they could use one more top six scoring winger).' Advertisement 'Yes, they have been hamstrung by the mess they inherited. But there haven't been any trades, drafts, signings, cap decisions that give any indication that they are, or aren't, competent.' Senators fans, your patience has been rewarded. After a long time languishing outside the playoffs thanks to inept management, the Senators finally earned a well-deserved berth last season. The future is bright and that's thanks in large part to the current brain trust (though the two sweetheart deals for Tim Stützle and Jake Sanderson signed by the previous regime certainly help). The big move from last summer paid off as Linus Ullmark ended up being one of the key reasons the Senators made the playoffs. That was a huge win for Steve Staios and he's since added some small wins with Fabian Zetterlund and Jordan Spence. Getting a hometown discount for Claude Giroux was great too. There are other teams doing things better, which currently keeps Ottawa out of the top 10. But make no mistake, the Senators are a team on the rise — one that's making more good decisions than bad of late. 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That creates a baseline for success that affords the Devils a strong future towards contention. Unearthing diamond-in-the-rough defensive defenders Jonas Siegenthaler and Johnathan Kovacevic has also been notable. In a league where finding true top-four defensemen is generally very difficult, the Devils having two for cheap is massive. Despite that, there are still gripes. Ondrej Palat's deal is obviously the big one, but there's also New Jersey's drafting and development. While the public views it highly as the league's sixth best, the team's fan base isn't convinced, ranking it 23rd. The Alexander Holtz debacle probably colors that, but not seeing much progress (yet) out of 2022 No. 2 pick Simon Nemec also hurts. The Devils are still early in their timeline and a quality season can push the team back into the top 10. But for now, they need to prove to their fans that they're building a legitimate contender. The Devils aren't there yet. 2024 ranking: 9 'I'm slowly losing confidence following the Cup win. They haven't had any true A+ moves from my perspective to surround Mac(K)innon and Makar with young players on good contracts. The flat cap hurt them as much as anybody but at some point you need to develop/acquire some good young players as your core becomes contract-inefficient and ages out.' 'I appreciate that they have a clear vision for building a cup-contending team, and I love the aggression. But their drafting and developing is hugely lacking, and they aren't 'winning' trades like they seemingly used to. Have spent a lot of resources on middling players that didn't help in the long run.' To say I'm shocked with where the Avalanche landed would be an understatement. They remain one of the league's top forces year after year and clearly still have the sauce with some of their recent moves. They got a massive haul for Charlie Coyle that included dumping Miles Wood's contract. They shored up the blue line with Brent Burns at a cheap cost. The trade and extension for Mackenzie Blackwood was terrific. And they finally solved their longstanding 2C issues with Brock Nelson, though perhaps at a rather expensive price. Advertisement The elephant in the room, though, is obviously the Mikko Rantanen trade. While the Avalanche got a good player who fits their style back in Martin Necas, it was still a move that appeared to lower the team's immediate ceiling. That they lost to Rantanen's Stars in the first round only added insult to injury. Perhaps that paints things in a negative light at the moment in Colorado. The team's drafting record during this era not being great also doesn't help. But it's still a shock to see Colorado's front office land outside the top 10 for the first time since they became a playoff team, with the fan base itself harshly putting the group 18th. Whether they're right or wrong to lose confidence will be decided during this upcoming season. Either way, it's clear the front office has to earn some trust back in the eyes of the fans. Expectations are extremely high in the Mile High City and faith isn't unshakable after trading away a franchise piece. 2024 rank: 32 'The change from Lamoriello to Darche brought the single biggest swing in my outlook in years. Under Lou I had lost faith, and honestly was even beginning to lose interest. Now, I'm following every transaction again, and excited about the future. I'm even willing to accept a non-playoff year or two, because I believe in the multi-year process to come and would enjoy watching younger players learn at the NHL level.' 'The Islanders went from the Flintstones to the Jetsons when they hired Darche and moved on from Lou. The buzz around this team is something I haven't seen in a very long time and winning the lottery accelerated things for them.' At long last, the Lou Lamoriello era is over. He did some great things to change the team's culture, but as was made clear by last year's 32nd ranking and the team's disappointing season right after, it was time for a change. Enter Mathieu Darche, who has seemingly made all the right moves so far. Advertisement There's a palpable jolt of optimism on Long Island that started at the draft. It helps to have the No. 1 selection, but the Islanders also made good on the picks acquired in exchange for Noah Dobson that helped bolster the team's pipeline. In one fell swoop, the team's cupboards feel significantly more stocked than they've been in years. There's some fear that moving Dobson could bite the team in the future (though mostly joy given his play last year), but for the most part the fan base is more than happy with the team's current direction. Adding Jonathan Drouin at a modest price was a tidy piece of business. There's still work to be done to clean up Lamoriello's mess, but so far Islanders fans don't have many complaints about the start of the Darche era. There's cautious optimism in the air, and at the very least, fans know they're in better hands for the next era with 97 percent of fans feeling more confident than they did a year ago. Only one other team (Ottawa, at 90 percent) was above 80 percent. 2024 ranking: 28 'They over promised and under delivered this offseason. The extra cap space they had wasn't the lure they thought it would be, and top free agents have traditionally stayed away from this market. Overpayments to Severson (previous regime) and Provorov (current one) illustrate the difficulty luring players here.' 'There still aren't enough data points to truly judge this front office yet. They've mainly played at the edges of the roster. Success will most be defined by how much of the young core they'll be able to lock up long term, while adding around them.' Things are really looking up in Columbus and a lot of that started with the team hiring Dean Evason last year. A legit coach can make all the difference and it showed with the leaps many of the team's young players took. Columbus' young core is finally taking shape and Evason has done well to get much more out of them. Advertisement It's also on some great decisions made by Don Waddell, particularly in adding Sean Monahan, who was excellent as the team's top center, and claiming Dante Fabbro, a perfect addition to the top four, off waivers. Columbus' rise last season has been rewarded with a move up to 16, but it's not without hesitation. The Ivan Provorov contract situation did not play out well for the Blue Jackets and they paid an exorbitant price to acquire Charlie Coyle. Things are getting better, but those are two tough blunders to look past. 2024 ranking: 24 'Bill Guerin will be judged on how the Wild perform post-buyouts, so it still feels too early to rate him accurately. But by saddling Wild fans with four years of mediocrity, our patience is running very thin to produce a contender.' 'I see the vision, and understand the need for patience, but boy am I tired of being a middling team that always makes the playoffs but fails to show up when the time really matters. But then again, I choose to live in Minnesota and that comes with the territory.' It's not a true ranking unless the Wild are somewhere in the middle of it. The fans, though, are seemingly tired of that placement and in relative terms are much harsher than the public on the current state of the front office. While the Wild have done well in a few areas — the buyouts, the Matt Boldy contract, the Brock Faber trade — the first-round stagnation is getting to the fans. They don't like the amount of no-move clauses handed out, feel confused about the high price paid for David Jiricek and are getting antsy regarding the current Marco Rossi situation. With the big buyout penalties finally off the books, ample cap space and a lot of young talent on the horizon, the Wild are in a good spot. But until the front office proves it can maximize that position, Wild fans remain skeptical it'll lead to anything more than the current situation. Advertisement 2024 ranking: 18 'Drafting has improved but the Flames appear chronically unable to commit to a rebuild and still lack elite talent. I have low confidence that keeping many veteran players will deliver anything but mediocrity.' 'Understand direction may be coming from above the GM, but it feels like team has no direction. Did not utilize cap space to take on a short term bad contract to acquire picks, did not trade away Rasmus Anderson if contract talks were not close. Are we rebuilding? Are we pushing for playoffs? Are we trying to get top 10 picks? Who knows.' One of the big questions in Calgary at the moment regards the team's direction. Are the Flames rebuilding? Are they retooling? Are they tanking? Are they trying to be competitive? It's difficult to say after last year's surprise season and this summer's lack of activity. The Flames have a team of players who want to be there and some exciting prospects on the horizon, but are they on a contending trajectory? Fans love the team's drafting ethos of betting on high skill and ceiling, and are particularly enamored by Zayne Parekh. But a clearer commitment towards rebuilding might be needed after last season. It's important not to lose sight of the ultimate goal where a championship-caliber core is built from franchise pieces normally selected high in the draft. The goal should be to build around Dustin Wolf, who looks like an absolute star in the making. Goaltending can be tricky, but the Flames deserve top marks for developing him into a future stud. He's the main reason for optimism, but there's still a lot of work left to build a proper team in front of him. Having a clearer direction would help with that. 2024 rank: 20 'Many fans are impatient, and rightfully so — but Danny B's measured, patient approach to rebuilding this team slowly but surely is starting to yield results. He inherited a cap disaster and, by and large, most of the trades he's made have worked out well. Time will tell, of course, but I'm more optimistic now than I've been in a decade.' Advertisement 'I understand they had a lot to get out from under after Fletcher but was hoping the young players would have developed more last year. I have been pretty underwhelmed on their ability to get value in trades and improve through free agency. If they cannot make some positive steps forward this year, I think it could be another 5-7 years before they get good again.' The new era of orange is slow and steady, but fans have grown a lot more confident over the last year. Drafting Matvei Michkov and actually seeing him excel as a rookie is a big part of it, and many loved the Porter Martone pick as the next piece of the puzzle. With the need for centers still present, many fans liked the team's upside bet on Trevor Zegras's talent. He's a reclamation project, but a worthy one. As things start to mold into place, it's not all peachy. Many questioned not taking Zeev Buium after the draft last summer and those questions have only heightened after his D+1 season. There's also a lack of long-term pieces acquired compared to the current stop-gap solutions that have some fans worried. The best way I can describe Philadelphia's current management situation is that it's fine. It's not deplorable, but it's hardly inspiring either. A bunch of Cs on the report card feels right for now. 2024 ranking: 29 'The first year was tough swinging for the fences with Graves and EK, those two deals blew up in GMKD's face. Jarry I give a pass because there hasnt been much in terms of goalie market the last two or three years (the devil you know situation), but since the rebuild has started in earnest, GMKD has made good decisions and really restocked the prospect pool.' 'Patching holes in the roster to keep the team competitive hasn't worked, so it's good to see Dubas publicly acknowledging that the team needs a rebuild and stockpiling young talent to improve from within. It's about time we recognize it's not 2018 and the team is more than one roster move away from competing for another Cup.' Advertisement There is no larger discrepancy in perception between the public and the team's fans than with Pittsburgh's front office. The public views Kyle Dubas' work as near bottom-five, while his own fan base is significantly happier with what he's accomplished so far. Things got off on the wrong foot when Dubas started his tenure with a summer to forget. The Tristan Jarry deal was a big mistake, the Ryan Graves deal turned out horrible and even an Erik Karlsson trade hasn't pan out as expected. The goal was one last hurrah of competitiveness and Dubas' work towards that goal was not good enough. His work since, though, is what's caught the fan base's eye. The big thing is the team accepted its fate as a rebuilding club and their work towards that goal has given the fans a sense of hope. The Penguins have leveraged cap space for picks well and they've done a good job restocking the prospect pipeline, too. There's a clearer vision of a post-Crosby future and that's provided some optimism. Still, while the team may be one of the few trying to actually tear things down, there's a lot more work to be done (Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Karlsson) to make the Penguins a true Gavin McKenna contender. While the public isn't convinced in the current direction and the man at the helm, Penguins fans seem pretty confident that Dubas can get it done and kick-start a new era. 2024 ranking: 25 'Letting Broberg, but especially Holloway, walk for, let's be honest, nothing in return was a huge blunder, which set us back. Not sure what the vision was making the team older, smaller, slower after the last cup loss to Florida. To lose back-to-back was devastating, especially when this past year wasn't close.' 'I just can't trust the Oilers because they are so Jekyll and Hyde. Two steps forward, then four steps back. Infuriating how they can't seem to claw their way out of certain holes. If they can get a goalie and trade Nurse this might land Stanley in Edmonton. Otherwise … ugh.' Advertisement After back-to-back Stanley Cup Final berths, the Oilers have moved from 25th in front office confidence to 21st. Tough crowd. Expectations are sky-high given the team's starting point with two of the best players in the world — and without a championship, it's safe to say Edmonton's brass has not met them. While the Oilers have made some good moves in the past, they've made enough poor ones to keep them away from ultimate glory. Last year's offer-sheet debacle has turned into a full-blown disaster with the leaps Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg took with the Blues. It's fair to wonder whether the Oilers might've won it all with both on their roster and while it was understandable for the team to let Broberg go at that price, it remains unbelievable that the team didn't match Holloway's paltry cap hit. Beyond that, the Trent Frederic deal doesn't inspire confidence and the team's continuing goaltending issues are also a sore spot. With the best player in the world, the Oilers should have been champions by now. An upper-half management team probably could've made that happen. Close isn't close enough anymore. 2024 ranking: 16 'A lot of the young players seem to predate Verbeek or at least Verbeek's vision for the team. So there's some talented round pegs being slammed into square holes. Eager to see if Quenneville provides a more clear understanding for how on-ice execution aligns with roster building.' 'There was a lot of optimism about Pat Verbeek once he took over from Bob Murray, but that optimism has seemed to dissipate. The current stalemate with Mason McTavish is a microcosm of his tenure. He allegedly is playing hardball with player who wants to remain long-term in Anaheim — so what is the issue? Top free agents aren't choosing Anaheim as a destination of choice, so not securing homegrown talent seems counterintuitive.' Advertisement The Ducks are this year's biggest 'wait-and-see' team given their coaching change. With Joel Quenneville behind the bench, it's possible a lot of budding potential is finally realized this season, leading to a much rosier view of the front office. The team's definitive future between the pipes, with the big bet on the underrated Lukas Dostal, was also viewed as a plus. Still, it does feel like the current build is stagnant with question marks surrounding the team's ultimate upside. Are there enough franchise pieces here? In that vein, was it wise to trade a player with Trevor Zegras' talent before seeing what he could do under a new coach? There's also some concern with how Anaheim has tackled free agency. Yes, it's difficult to attract players to a bad team, but overpayments on older flawed players like Alex Killorn and Ryan Strome are part of what's kept the team stuck. The same may end up true with Mikael Granlund, pointing to questions about the team's pro scouting. Taking on the full flight of Jacob Trouba's deal without a sweetener only adds to that. The Ducks look ready to take the next step, but the current regime may not be the best ones for the job. 2024 ranking: 21 'I am having trouble seeing the vision. For teams to get better you can't just hit on your first round picks. You need some solid acquisitions from FA, trades, waiver pickups. Other than drafting, I don't see the Wings doing well in any of those areas (DeBrincat trade aside) and I can't help but feel we are going to be stuck in the 9-15 range for the upcoming years.' 'I see the vision, and I kinda get it, but it's just not working. Still dealing with stopgaps like the Chiarot deal while we wait for prospects to improve. And if they don't improve enough, then it's more stopgaps and see if they get better next year. Meanwhile Larkin only gets older.' Advertisement Confidence in the Yzerplan continues to dwindle with each passing year as the Red Wings once again did not have the results to show for it. While there's still some patience within the fan base after some large strides from the young core last season, it is beginning to wear thin. This season will be a massive one for understanding where this team's ultimate ceiling lies. To Steve Yzerman's credit, the deals he signed for Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider last year have aged phenomenally. The two have grown into cornerstone pieces and are priced at a bargain rate, creating some confidence for the future. The question is whether they will line up with Dylan Larkin's timeline as he approaches his 30s. As much as fans believe in the team's drafting and (slow) developing, some tangible results need to start appearing soon, especially as some stopgap free agents start getting pushed out. In that regard, there's still not a lot of confidence in Detroit's ability to navigate that field given recent failures in the area. The one major slight that really puts a significant damper on things was the Jake Walman trade. That the Red Wings needed to attach a second-round pick to offload his money last summer was baffling at the time and looks even worse now. He was an immediate difference-maker for the Sharks, netted a first at the deadline and looked fantastic for the Oilers. That's a lot of needless value lost that limits confidence in future trades. 2024 ranking: 30 'I have concerns about the Leafs turning into a retirement home — the Leafs need to focus on a path of sustainable strength rather than burn assets on deadline moves constantly. We need a mix of young and old, similar to what Dallas has been able to achieve through strong drafting.' 'I think Treliving has improved the team depth, giving himself flexibility to get another impact forward during the season (shedding some bottom-six guys and replacing much of Marner's offence). But his dubious track record with trades in Calgary makes me wary.' Advertisement The Leafs get top marks for how they've retooled their goaltending, both in signing Anthony Stolarz and the bet on Joseph Woll's potential. The deals for John Tavares and Matthew Knies were great too. But while it's enough to get out of the league's bottom three, it's not enough to be viewed as an above-average front office. There's two key reasons for that. The obvious one is how the Mitch Marner saga ultimately played out. The Leafs got Nicolas Roy out of a sign-and-trade, which is something but also nowhere close to Marner's on-ice value. Fault can be attributed to the previous regime, the current regime and the player himself — but it's hard to look at the end result with any sense of confidence. Getting to that point and ending the way it did was a massive organizational failure. The other reason is how much the Leafs have overpaid for marginal players. David Kämpf's now-immovable contract is a prime example. But the Leafs also paid exorbitant prices at the deadline for Scott Laughton, a bottom-six center, and Brandon Carlo, a defensive No. 4/5. When your primary competition is paying similar prices (or less) for impact players like Brad Marchand and Seth Jones, that's a problem. Most of all, though, it's the frustration that the Leafs are still here, almost a decade into the Auston Matthews era, without even a conference final berth to show for it. With how the Atlantic is sizing up, confidence is dwindling in regards to how far this team can go. Right now, because of mistakes from the past regime, aided by some missteps from the current one, it feels like an era wasted. 2024 ranking: 12 'The Blackhawks decision to rely on all the younger talent they have drafted and developed over the last couple years will be the clearest identifier of Kyle Davidson is on the right path, which I am happy to see on display, good or bad. At least we will know if we are in deeper trouble or there is light at the end of the tunnel.' 'The failure to add real talent is disheartening and detrimental to the progress of all of the draft picks that had been hoarded the past few years. The methodology with their young draftees is akin to throwing your kids into the water to teach them how to swim.' Advertisement The teardown is the easy part. What's next is the real challenge, and we're seeing that play out with the Blackhawks, who are having a very hard time coming out of their scorched-earth rebuild. It's an important reminder when it comes to grading rebuilding teams for this exercise: too often they get a free pass because they have the hope that comes with unrealized potential, but potential doesn't always pay off. For Chicago specifically, last year's big free-agency misses (and overspending in general) weren't viewed favorably. While there's excitement this year towards seeing how some of the prospects perform in the majors, there's also trepidation given the environment they're being thrown into. Skepticism regarding who they've picked (or haven't, in the case of Ivan Demidov) is also present throughout the fan base. While the Blackhawks did well trading away Seth Jones for Spencer Knight and a first, plus accumulating some other picks elsewhere, there's still a sense of unease regarding where this train is going. Many fans still hold a lot of hope and Connor Bedard is an excellent starting point. But there's still unfortunately a lot of work to do and some growing distrust with the current brain trust's ability to do it. 2024 ranking: 5 'Last year, I was quite confident in management, but after a handful of moves like trading for Evander Kane, handling Brock Boeser's extension, handling the Miller fallout prior to the trade and failing to make future-oriented moves at the trade deadline, I'm less optimistic about the outlook. I'm inclined to believe that's more a reflection of ownership than management, however.' 'When they came on board, I thought it was a step in the right direction. But now Im not so sure. Seems to be more of the same short term vision. I have no idea what the plan is here. We had a problem on defense and yes they fixed it, but now we don't have enough quality forwards. They just rearranged the deck chairs it seems.' After an extremely turbulent season, it's no shock the Canucks dropped further in these rankings than any other team, going from the top five to just outside the bottom five. Advertisement The big error in many fans' eyes was how the franchise handled the Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller feud. It's not often that a spat like that becomes public to such a high degree midseason, and it created a sideshow that distracted an on-the-rise team toward missing the playoffs. The end result — trading Miller — is also a reminder that this management group effectively chose Miller over Bo Horvat two years earlier, only to see the team move both. While the Canucks ended up with one of the league's best back ends as a result, it was at the expense of the center depth, which now looks like a major weakness. The peculiar departure of Pius Suter, given the cost, only adds to that. While fans remain more hopeful than the public, it's tough to see a path forward toward contention for a once promising group. The Quinn Hughes situation also looms large, and in order to have him stick around, the team needs to start looking a lot closer to the 2023-24 version than last year's. 2024 ranking: 31 'A lot of Kings fans, myself included, had started to question Rob Blake's moves, and felt time had come for a change. Ken Holland steps up and says, 'hold my beer,' and now we're wishing Blake was still in charge. Worst free agency period I've seen from my Kings in a long time.' 'Big question mark on the direction this team goes under Ken Holland. On paper, can't say I've liked the moves so far but will have to see how the team actually plays and jells under his direction. Can't say I'm optimistic so far; it's improved but time will tell.' Kings fans learned a painful lesson this summer: the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Ken Holland put his fingerprints all over the team this summer and the result wasn't pretty. The Kings lost Vladislav Gavrikov to free agency, spent that money inefficiently on Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin, and then gave up Jordan Spence for good measure. The end result is a markedly different defense group, and one that looks very likely to be worse. Advertisement Holland did well to re-sign Andrei Kuzmenko and Alex Laferriere to reasonable deals, and there's still time to turn things around. But the first few moves have not offered a lot of confidence that the Kings are on the right track towards winning the Stanley Cup. In fact, it feels the opposite, and that's never a good sign. This team feels further from contention than it did just a few months ago. 2024 ranking: 17 'Drury's ability to wipe away mistakes has been impressive, but the bottom line is that there have been too many mistakes that needed to be wiped away. The lack of development from the teams tops prospects has been infuriating. We're wasting Igor and Fox's prime/healthy years. The Trouba trade is emblematic of what's right and wrong with this team. Even when they do something that's ultimately good for the team in the long run, they manage to fumble it.' 'Chris Drury and the Rangers squandered a lot of talent from the rebuild. Now the team is stuck in the mushy middle. I don't think the team has enough firepower up front, and I don't have much faith in the D-corps. Too much talent to be in the lottery. Not talented enough to compete for the Cup.' Few teams are more active than the Rangers, but that's not always a good thing when the fans don't trust how the team operates. While there have been some good recent moves made, like hiring Mike Sullivan and landing Vladislav Gavrikov, it's not enough to make up for the last year of frustration. The continued lack of homegrown development remains a sore spot as shown by the team's 32nd-ranked draft and development. That the Rangers cut ties with disappointing No. 2 pick Kaapo Kakko is a brutal reminder of New York's inability to get the most out of budding young talent. The fact he immediately started scoring at a career-high pace with the Kraken feels telling. Alexis Lafrenière failing to take a step forward last year is another sign of where things are at. There's also the way the team handled its veterans last year. Pulling the plug on Jacob Trouba was the right thing to do given his decline in performance and cost, but the way the team went about it left a sour taste in a lot of fans' mouths, especially after the Barclay Goodrow fiasco. The right moves done the wrong way is not going to be great for team morale. Advertisement Winning can cure all, but it's hard to be confident that what Chris Drury and company have built can pull it off. Not enough to win a Stanley Cup, anyways. 2024 ranking: 27 'I don't understand how a team that invests so much in talented analytics people can so consistently sign awful free agent contracts. Drafting and trades have been consistently solid, but free agency has been a wasteland of negative value. I want to read their analytics group's internal assessments of these players. Also we hear the Kraken are 'in' on most major trades, but aren't the ones closing those deals. When will the Kraken go all-in on an impact player?' 'The drafting has been great. Development is still a question mark. I like the players they've brought in via free agency, but the contracts to get them? YEESH! They do pretty well with trades, I just wish they would take some bigger swings. Maybe they are and just can't close the deal.' Personally, I'm shocked the Kraken rank this high. Seattle currently feels like one of the most bland and directionless teams and that shows with how the club is regarded across most categories. Free agency and cap management is an especially large blight on the franchise, where seemingly every UFA deal the team signs looks immediately poor from the jump. Chandler Stephenson's and Philipp Grubauer's deals are especially weak. What saves the Kraken is their drafting ability, an area that holds a lot of weight in this survey and one the fan base is still fairly confident with — relatively speaking. Seattle has some exciting young pieces on the roster and some intriguing talent in the pipeline, enough to keep the Kraken away from the bottom three. They've also made some decent trades of late for Kaapo Kakko and Mason Marchment. But overall, it's just not enough to overlook everything else wrong with a front office seemingly devoid of a competitive vision. What exactly is the plan here? 2024 ranking: 14 'Curious choices on the UFA signings this year. Lots of bottom six but the team is lacking top 6 talent. Elias Lindholm's contract does not look like it will age well and the same can be said about Tanner Jeannot. Tough pill to swallow after setting records a few years ago.' 'The last two offseasons' free agent signings have been very disappointing. I can see desperation leading to an overpay with Lindholm, but how many tough guys do we need when Pastrnak is the only sure bet to score 25 goals?' Advertisement Historically, Bruins fans are far more harsh on their front office than the public. They're a proud group that holds management to a high standard. Even when things were good enough for the public, things still could've been better in the eyes of the Bruins faithful. That's changed this year as public opinion of the Bruins' front office has sunk just as quickly as the team did on the ice during the 2024-25 season. Now there's no denying what the fan base has feared even during the successful seasons: the current regime just isn't up to par. Only two teams, Nashville and Vancouver, lost more confidence in the eyes of the public than Boston. The main reason for that is easily the past two summers. Last offseason the team overpaid for both Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, only to see both fail to meet the standards of their contracts in Year 1. This offseason the Bruins upped the ante with Tanner Jeannot, one of the strangest contracts in recent memory. It's hard to have faith in what the team is building, the money it is spending to do so and the overall vision under those circumstances. In between were two other tough decisions on Jim Montgomery and Brad Marchand. The first arguably showed a lack of patience, and we saw just how good of a coach Montgomery still is in St. Louis. The latter arguably showed a lack of loyalty (especially given how the Bruins subsequently spent that money) but was more defensible considering it signaled the Bruins going in a new direction. The deadline sell-off in general was viewed as a step in the right direction. But there's a sense of unease within the fan base regarding whether the current front office can pull off a rebuild. 2024 ranking: 10 'I love Barry Trotz personally and what he means to Nashville hockey. But aside from last year's free agency, which I was excited about in the moment but just hadn't worked, I've had real doubts about the underlying plan, and the results seem to bear that out.' 'Barry Trotz was saying all the right things before and at the beginning of his role as GM, but there's no discernible vision when looking at all the moves in aggregate. I was very excited to have a new GM after two decades of David Poile (who I think did a great job until his last few years) and now two years into it, all of that excitement has been whittled away and apathy is taking its place.' Advertisement When asked for the best recent decision Nashville's front office has made, one fan wrote: 'Annunen for Wedgewood, I guess?' Not a good start. The 2024-25 campaign was a season from hell for the Predators, where everything that could go wrong did. What started incredibly hopeful turned incredibly sour quickly, leaving 92 percent of fans less confident than they were one year ago. No other fan base is above 80 percent. Barry Trotz has his work cut out for him to regain the fan base's trust given the current state of the roster. Every free-agent deal signed a year ago looks like an immediate lemon and the decision to extend Juuse Saros instead of turn to Yaroslav Askarov doesn't look great either. The Predators are in a very bad spot, and while a bounce-back next season feels likely, the team's long-term forecast looks fairly dire. 2024 ranking: 26 'This front office has been hampered by ownership, which has not provided the resources needed to compete. This has contributed to years of losing, making a small market franchise a less desirable destination for players than it already was.' 'They are just in over their head. Not able to develop players. Not able to retain players. Poor culture. Leaks from the front office. Budget conscious. Reckless with big contracts. Scared to trade away prospects. But most importantly, they have no vision or sense of what roster they want.' 'Can we start calling them the bottom office because that's where the team is year after year.' There is no fan base in hockey more frustrated than Buffalo's, and rightfully so given the franchise's abhorrent streak of futility. Over a decade without making the playoffs is not something that's easily forgivable, especially when it doesn't feel like there's an end in sight. While I do believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel and that this front office has made some good decisions in recent years towards that goal, it hasn't been close to good enough. There have been plenty of missteps and blunders along the way that make it extremely difficult to feel any shred of confidence that Buffalo's future is anywhere near as bright as it felt two or three years ago. Deals for Jordan Greenway and Mattias Samuelsson aren't looked upon fondly by fans, nor is the Dylan Cozens trade. Even trading a second-round pick for Beck Malenstyn felt like a 'what the hell are we doing' moment. Advertisement There's also lingering resentment that past pillars Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart have been able to reach the promised land while the Sabres languish below league average year after year after year. Things are very bleak in Buffalo right now. It doesn't help that during this time when the team has felt close to taking the next step, the Sabres have left a lot of money unused to get there. It's not just management that's drawing the ire of the fans — it's also the team's owner failing to set the team up for success. This is a top-down shipwreck that touches every part of a losing franchise. The night is always darkest before the dawn, but 15 years is a long time to wait for the sun to rise. At this point, it's hard to trust those in charge can ever make it happen. (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; IconSportswire / Getty, Dave Sandford / Getty, Bruce Bennett / Getty) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
