NHL Draft 2025 live updates: Start time, latest mock draft, predictions, news and analysis
What was even more impressive this season compared to previous ones was the edge he added to his play. McQueen was at times tentative before with a razor-thin frame, but this year, even after returning from a serious injury, he was highly physical and scrappy. He has a knack for getting to high-danger scoring areas and consistently demonstrates excellent puck skill and vision. He has the potential to be a first-line center in the NHL.
'Players with his skill set are top-five picks all day long,' one NHL scout said. Another scout was even more explicit about McQueen's value, stating, 'On pure talent, he's a top-three pick. He does what Anton Frondell does while being four inches taller.'
However, the optimism surrounding McQueen comes with significant medical uncertainty. His most recent season was marred by a back injury, forcing him to miss extended time during the regular season. After returning briefly, he suffered another setback during the playoffs for Brandon, causing further concern among NHL evaluators.
GO FURTHER
Why Roger McQueen is the 2025 NHL Draft's most fascinating top prospect
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
10 minutes ago
- New York Times
Inside Alex Cobb's battle to rewrite the final chapter of his MLB career
DETROIT — It was still June when Alex Cobb had to recalibrate once more. Since February, he had been plotting his return to the major leagues. But pain in his hips kept flaring up. That date got pushed back. Again. And again. And again. 'I've done that probably 20 times now,' he said. 'I circled Opening Day when I first signed. I remember when I first heard I was going to miss a few weeks in the offseason. I was shocked. And now, obviously, we're here.' Advertisement Now that it is August, 'here' is a strange situation. The Detroit Tigers gave Cobb a one-year, $15 million deal this winter entering his age-37 season despite a checkered injury history. Among other things, he's had issues with his left hip and his right hip. There have been blisters, turf toe, a hamstring strain, a UCL reconstruction and thoracic outlet syndrome that once resulted in him keeping a rib in a jar. On the first day of spring training, the Tigers announced Cobb was again battling inflammation in his right hip — a different hip than the one he spent most of last year rehabbing after surgery. But right hip issues were nothing new. He had surgery for an impingement there in 2019. Back in February, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris stood in front of reporters on a dewy Florida morning. He proclaimed optimism for Cobb's recovery but still said, 'I didn't really think he was going to pitch 175 to 200 innings coming off last year, anyway.' One year after throwing only 16 1/3 innings in the regular season, Cobb's rehab from his latest issue has gone anything but smoothly. And it has led to this awkward crossroad. It's plenty fair to question the Tigers' signing of Cobb in the first place. His inability to pitch this season serves as at least part of the reason the Tigers had to get pitching reinforcements such as Chris Paddack and 41-year-old Charlie Morton at the trade deadline. Cobb himself, though, is still trying to work his way back. Still fighting time and his own body. Still clinging to pride and a competitive spirit in hopes this year will not be a waste. 'I've never been on a team with this type of potential,' Cobb said last week. 'I've never been in first place at the trade deadline or nine games up, whatever we are, and obviously we have a real chance to do something really special. If I was ever on a team and we were the last team standing and we got a nice little trophy and a ring, I'd want to stare at that ring and feel like I did everything I could to contribute, even if it's just a little bit. Advertisement 'I'd feel a lot more pride in that if I could stare at that ring and know that, even if it wasn't the expectation I had for my season, I contributed in some sort of way.' Few will feel sorry for the guy cashing a $15 million check to collect dust on the injured list. But Cobb has a sterling reputation across the league. His absence this season has not been for lack of trying. He has started rehab assignments and looked painfully stiff on the mound. His ability to move and cover first base has been arguably a greater concern than the stuff coming out of his hand. As he worked his way back from the right hip issue, a problem in the left hip flared up once again. He started receiving injections, too many to count, a number so large he doesn't exactly want it published. Cobb said he's been assured these injections aren't coming with a risk to his long-term health. 'I'm not just shoving drugs into my system,' Cobb said. 'I'm doing a lot of biologic injections, which come from my own blood, my own body. I feel a lot more comfortable with that. I know it looks a little questionable on paper. Those injections that I've had have given me hope.' Cobb seems to understand his hip condition could signal the end of his career. Even before the Tigers and other teams called this offseason, Cobb had wondered if he might be done. But he would prefer not to go out this way. Not like this. 'As the diagnosis has come in and the pain sets in and you realize the challenges that are in front of you, I think realizing where you are at in your career and the possibility of things being over, final, to think about never stepping on a big-league mound again … I think it hits you pretty hard and gives you a motivation to want to have that feeling again, to compete against the best,' Cobb said. 'Once you're done, you're done. Your childhood dream is over, and I don't want to have that feeling.' Advertisement Whatever happens, Cobb said he will eventually need a hip procedure to ensure he can live a normal, mobile life. But for now, he's still focused on pitching. In a rehab outing Sunday at High-A West Michigan, Cobb pitched two innings, striking out two batters, allowing two hits, one walk and one unearned run. Harris recently listed Cobb among the pitchers who could help the Tigers down the stretch. So perhaps the organization is still holding out hope of its own. Manager A.J. Hinch, though, has included the word 'if' in most of his recent comments about Cobb. If he can get healthy. If his stuff can measure up at the highest level. 'You guys don't even really know Alex Cobb,' Hinch told reporters. 'And that's unfortunate for a lot of reasons. I think the same with our fan base. He's like this mysterious guy who hasn't done anything yet.' Hinch has watched Cobb fight to get back on the field. He has checked in with Cobb after bullpens and rehab starts, seen the optimism on his face and then watched as those hopes have been dashed. The effort has been admirable, even if the desired result has not yet arrived. 'I feel for him,' Hinch said, 'because I know, competitively, where his mind is.' As the margin for error grows thinner, Cobb said he has accepted he will have to pitch through pain if he wants to get back this season. He is still pushing forward. He has dealt with the uncertainty, the guilt, the reality that the end of his career might be near. But for a bit longer, he is still working his way back. If this were a multiyear deal, he admitted, perhaps he would have thrown in the towel on the season and aimed to return next year. This time, next year is not promised. So Cobb is doing all he can, yearning for a better ending. 'What dictates success at the end of the year is me knowing I did everything I could,' Cobb said. 'If that means pitching scoreless innings late in September and into October, great. I'll be very thrilled with that. (But) I'll be able to lay down peacefully at night if I know that I gave everything I had.'
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What's next for Cincinnati Reds pitching staff after Nick Lodolo blister
CHICAGO – The Cincinnati Reds figure to get an updated measure of their pitching depth when they make some moves to help a stretched-thin bullpen crew after a second straight bullpen game Monday, Aug. 4, created by starter Nick Lodolo's early exit because of a sudden finger blister. Lodolo, who spent two weeks on the injured list last year because of a finger blister, appeared likely headed there again after Reds front office officials met after the game with manager Terry Francona, who said they had more details yet to talk through. 'He's already better, which is good. I certainly think we're going to err on the side of caution,' Francona said, 'because he's dealt with this before. And you don't ever want this to turn into something else, like arm-wise or something like that. We'll do the right thing. 'You can't just do the right thing when it's convenient.' Lodolo, who said he was fine through the first five batters he faced until the blister presented after he threw a first-pitch breaking ball to Justin Turner with two out in the second. He immediately motioned to the dugout and moments later exited with the trainer. 'We got 2 2/3 innings out of our starters the last two games,' Francona said, referring also to a one-inning start for Chase Burns before heavy rain suspended the Speedway Classic game in Tennessee over the weekend. 'That's tough.' It's especially tough given the rising stakes on the season as the Reds chase a playoff berth following the addition last week of three players at the trade deadline. 'He's been one of the best pitchers in baseball his last 4 or 5 starts,' said closer Emilio Pagán of what's actually a seven-start streak for Lodolo in which he's 3-1 with a 1.81 ERA. But the timing isn't as bad as it could be either. One of the players acquired at the deadline, Zack Littell, makes his first start for the Reds on Tuesday, Aug. 5, against the Cubs. His arrival shifted Nick Martinez's role from the rotation to the bullpen, where he became a key to Monday's impromptu bullpen-game win by taking over for Lodolo and pitching 2 1/3 innings – the day after warming up twice to enter a game in Tennessee that he never got in. 'We've said it about Martinez all year long: This guy's incredible,' Pagán said. 'What he means to this team, to this organization − it's not an ideal situation for him, especially after being hot two times. To go out there and give us what he did (Monday) speaks to the human and just a super talented player.' Martinez said he hadn't heard anything specific about what might be coming for him if the anticipated Lodolo IL move is made. But he is the obvious candidate to move right back into that role – which would presumably come for Lodolo's next scheduled turn, Saturday, Aug. 9, at Pittsburgh. 'I'm prepared to do whatever we need to do to win,' he said, 'whatever the team asks of me.' The Reds were working Monday night on what fresh pitching they'll add for the bullpen from Triple-A Louisville. That could be a corresponding move for Lodolo. Meanwhile, Opening Day starter Hunter Greene (groin) was to have one more minor-league rehab start, Friday, Aug. 8, before being evaluated for a possible return from the IL. He threw 66 pitches for Louisville Sunday and fared well. As for whatever might come next, nobody in the clubhouse flinched. Workhorse reliever Scott Barlow even talked about his group having a mindset of 'bring it on.' And Pagán said of the team, 'We talked about it as we're not going to have any excuses moving forward.' This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What's next for Cincinnati Reds staff after Nick Lodolo blister
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Victoria Mboko: The Canadian tennis talent who can't stop winning arrives at her home event
Ripping a backhand past a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist to clinch a first Grand Slam win on the opening day of the French Open is a pretty good way to make tennis fans stand up and take notice. Or maybe Victoria Mboko, the 18-year-old, American-born, Canadian-raised daughter of Congolese parents, has been announcing herself for months now. Maybe folks just weren't listening closely enough. Advertisement Everyone is now, as she backs up her run to the French Open third round with a last-four place at the WTA 1,000 Canadian Open in Montreal, one rung below a Grand Slam. As her Roland-Garros debut approached, Mboko played the same brain game she has been playing through a startling climb up the tennis biosphere. She tells herself that what is happening isn't actually happening. 'Kind of just play it down,' she said during an interview after her 6-1, 7-6(4) win over Lulu Sun of New Zealand on a Sunday May. Three days later, she knocked out rising German Eva Lys 6-4, 6-4, to move into the third round at her first major. Her run ended there in a defeat to Zheng Qinwen, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist, but Mboko had shown everyone who had missed her rise that they should have been paying more attention. 'Pretend like you're playing somewhere else, that you're not at a Grand Slam,' she said of her strategy there. It's another clay-court tournament. That way, I don't put as much pressure on myself and the points. I let loose and I kind of go for my shots a little bit more,' she said. If playing make-believe before walking onto the biggest stages in tennis could lead to Mboko taking a spot next to Bianca Andreescu, Leylah Fernandez, Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Milos Raonic and others in the Canadian tennis firmament, then Mboko probably ought to keep doing it. Her performance in Paris, and then in Montreal, where she has knocked out two-time major champion Coco Gauff and surged into the top 50 of the WTA rankings, showed every bit of what has generated all the buzz about Mboko becoming the latest in a string of Canadians from immigrant families who have made it to the top of the sport. 'We know Canada is a very multicultural country and we are very accepting of everyone,' Andreescu, who has become a mentor to Mboko, said during an interview in Rome. Advertisement 'I think it's a beautiful thing that we're all from different different cultures, different backgrounds, but at the end of the day Tennis Canada really has built this program in the acceptance of everybody, no matter who you are.' The youngest by seven years of four tennis-playing siblings, Mboko has been winning more than just about anyone in professional women's tennis since the start of the year. She finished last year ranked 350th, with her coaches believing fully in her potential but also wanting her to take it slow, given her struggles with knee injuries in recent years. Now they have another problem on their hands. Mboko has won so many matches that she has already played more than she has ever played before. She started the year winning 22 in a row on the ITF World Tennis Tour, two rungs below the WTA Tour. She lost one, then won another five, this time at a WTA 125 event, the next rung up, in Porto. She has won matches in Rome, Ga. and Rome, Italy at the Italian Open. Her record on the year is 49-9, as she prepares to face 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in Montreal. 'I have been doing exactly the same thing I've been doing every other day. I like to keep the same routine when I'm in a tournament,' she said after her win over Gauff, who had beaten her in three sets at the Italian Open. 'I think I'm a little bit superstitious in that way, in that sense, but I just like to keep everything super simple. I like to do the exact same thing every day in a tournament.' 'That's a lot,' Marko Strillic, one of three coaches she works with at the Canadian Tennis Federation, said during an interview at the Italian Open. 'If she keeps winning, you have to figure out a way to manage the schedule so that she doesn't get hurt. This is for the long term.' That was before Mboko cruised through French Open qualifying to earn her main draw debut, and then knocked through Sun as though she knew she would all along. Mboko was all business again against Lys, but for a couple of service breaks she quickly recovered from. Advertisement Her brother Kevin, 27 and a tennis coach in suburban Toronto, said that from the moment she woke up, she set her mind on only one thing: winning. 'She looked at us and said, 'I got to win today,'' he said in an interview after she did just that. 'We were trying to bring her down a little bit, telling her that it's all right, to just go out there and have fun, enjoy the experience. 'She was like 'No, I got to win.' That's how she was during her hit before walking onto the court, and it's how she was through the 79-minute match. Rain, wind, muddy balls, nothing really budged her off her game. 'It's been really calm between the days,' she said. 'That's how my coach wanted it to be.' She woke at a quarter to seven ahead of her match against Lys, ready to roll. There was quick breakfast, a ride to Roland Garros, a physical warm-up and then a 30-minute hit at 9:30 a.m. 'Then I just chilled in the locker room until my match,' she said. All week, all month, really, there has been a 'no big deal' sensibility to Mboko. She credited the presence of her sister and brother for that. 'There is so much happening even behind the scenes,' she said. 'I feel like my family has been doing a good job of keeping me, I guess, isolated from it all. I have just been enjoying the moment. I have been enjoying time with my sister and my brother. I don't have so many people around me, and it's kept me very calm and very comfortable.' At some point, this is going to get complicated, but for Kevin and everyone else closest to Mboko, this rocket ride both is and is not surprising. Her oldest sister Gracia, 28, who has been courtside all event, played tennis for the University of Denver. She said that she and her brothers always knew that their baby sister had something they did not. Gracia recalled a local women's tournament at their home club in Burlington, a city in the Greater Toronto area of Ontario, that she played in when she was 17. Advertisement At the last minute, another slot opened up, and a pro at the club asked Victoria, who was just 9 and had come to watch, if she wanted to play. Victoria jumped at the opportunity and eventually faced her sister. Gracia won, 6-0, 6-0, but the way Victoria behaved, it was as though she had expected the results to go the other way. 'It's that belief in yourself that the very top of the one percent have,' Gracia, a consultant in private equity, said Sunday after watching her sister win. 'It's: 'not only should I win this match, I'm going to go do it.' And then she does it.' At least she does now. For the past couple of years, a knee injury caused by both rapid growth and a bad fall on a tennis court has made that difficult. She spent much of last year based in Belgium at the academy of Justine Henin, the former world No. 1 and four-time French Open champion. She played little for the first six months of the year. Getting healthy was the priority. Even then, she ended the year losing more than she won, dropping three of her last four matches. 'Last year ended very poorly,' said Kevin. 'I didn't see any of this coming. No one did.' Their father, Cyprien, a retired mechanical engineer who worked nights in part so that he could drive his children to their tennis obligations, was there too. Victoria's mother, Godée, an accountant, was back home, dealing with a heavy end-of-the-month workload, as was her other brother, David, a 25-year-old data scientist. The Mbokos moved from the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly three decades ago, to escape the First and Second Congo Wars of the mid-1990s. Visa issues kept the family separated, with Godée in Montreal and Cyprien in North Carolina. Godée then moved to N.C., where the family lived for several years and where Victoria was born, before all moving to Toronto when she was still a baby. Advertisement Victoria didn't let the losses in the final months of 2024 get to her. 'I just thought new year, new me,' she said during an interview in Rome. She decided to play like the version of herself that she has long believed in: an aggressive, athletic player who likes to take control of points and dictate the action. In Miami, she beat Camila Osorio, a 23-year-old tour mainstay, and pushed Paula Badosa, the No. 10 seed at Roland-Garros, to a third-set tiebreak. Mboko has also showed off a precocious variety, mixing in drop shots and slices, including a hard, slicing forehand. Her coach is Nathalie Tauziat, who got to No. 3 in the world with a game moulded around variety. But Mboko can also crack her serve at 120 mph. Not surprisingly, she grew up worshipping Serena Williams. In Rome, she cruised through the first set in her second-round match against Gauff, lacing backhands and forehands through the court on the Campo Centrale like a seasoned veteran. Gauff turned the match into one of her long-distance track races, getting so many balls back that Mboko was huffing and puffing between every point. But the world No. 2 came away seriously impressed. She 'felt like playing myself,' Gauff said in a huddle after the match, especially with how well Mboko covered the court. 'On the movement, I would say she's up there with me on that,' Gauff, probably the best mover in the sport, said. Gracia Mboko said her sister came away from that loss both devastated and determined. 'She told me she was so out of steam, that she couldn't believe how Coco was getting every ball back,' she said Sunday. 'She kept saying, 'I got to get in shape.' It motivated her.' It certainly did. When she faced a double-fault-stricken version of Gauff in Montreal, she kept her foot on the accelerator after winning the first set 6-1. She knew that Gauff would raise her level, try to make her nervous, try to impose her experience on the match. Mboko didn't let her. She stayed even until 5-4, then broke Gauff to win the second set and the match. Advertisement Mboko learned plenty from that first loss to Gauff. She knew she had let the world No. 2's grit frustrate her, thinking about the last point when she was supposed to be thinking about the next one. Her coaches are onto this. 'They'll start to snap me right back into it,' she said. 'They'll actually say: 'stay present, stay focused, or close it right here.'' With 49 wins in a year, Mboko isn't exactly unfamiliar with closing it. Now she is doing it on the biggest stage in the sport.
