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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rangers rumors: New York ‘testing market' on top-4 defenseman
The post Rangers rumors: New York 'testing market' on top-4 defenseman appeared first on ClutchPoints. The New York Rangers are in the midst of a long, long offseason after going from winning the President's Trophy to missing the playoffs in a span of just a year. That cost Peter Laviolette his job, and Mike Sullivan taking over behind the bench might not be the only change coming in the Big Apple. Advertisement The Rangers are reportedly exploring the trade market for defenseman K'Andre Miller, who will be a restricted free agent on July 1, as Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on Wednesday's edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast. 'It's not a guarantee, but they are testing the market on Miller. They want to know what it is,' the hockey insider said. 'So, we'll see where it goes, but his name is definitely out there.' Miller has been a key piece of New York's blue line since being selected in the first round, No. 22 overall, in the 2018 NHL Draft. The 25-year-old played two seasons with the University of Wisconsin Badgers before breaking into the league full time in 2020-21. The Saint Paul, Minnesota native's best season came in 2022-23, when he managed 43 points over 79 games and established himself as an up-and-coming star on the blue line. Advertisement He's had a couple of down years since, managing 30 points in 80 games last year and following it up with 27 points in 74 games in 2024-25. But Miller's role has continued to grow after the departures of former captain Jacob Trouba, as well as Ryan Lindgren. Miller is in the final year of a two-year, $7.44 million contract, and will be due for a significant raise. The question is, will general manager Chris Drury give him one? Rangers are short on cap space The Rangers do not have a ton of salary cap space to work with this summer; the squad owns between approximately $8 and $11 million. It won't be easy to get Miller locked up, especially considering New York has a few other RFAs on the roster, including Arthur Kaliyev, Matt Rempe, Will Cuylle, Adam Edstrom, Matthew Robertson and Zac Jones. Advertisement A couple young players will also need new contracts after the 2025-26 campaign, most notably Braden Schneider, Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard. It isn't currently clear what kind of return the Rangers would be looking for in exchange for Miller, but draft capital is definitely somewhere New York could improve. In this window of contention — the Blueshirts have been to two Eastern Conference Finals in four years — they would be wise to start stocking the cupboards for the future. The big priority next offseason will be Artemi Panarin, who continues to be the best player on the roster but will be playing out the final season of his massive seven-year, $81.50 million contract in 2025-26. There will certainly be a couple of changes coming this summer, and Drury probably also wants to see if he can bring a free agent or two to New York this July. It'll be interesting to see if Miller is still a part of the team's plans for the long haul, or whether the front office moves on from the hulking blue liner this summer.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
SIMMONS: Beyond the Panthers and Oilers, who's better than the Toronto Maple Leafs?
A question to ask now that the noise has quieted, the president has lost his job and free agency of Mitch Marner and John Tavares remains but a month away: Which teams right now that are better than the Toronto Maple Leafs? You can start with the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers and then move to the Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers. But after that, who? The Carolina Hurricanes? No. The Washington Capitals? No. The Tampa Bay Lightning? No. The New Jersey Devils? No. The Ottawa Senators? No. The Montreal Canadiens? No. You move to the Western Conference and you can't feel good about how the Dallas Stars played against the Oilers. You can't feel good about the President's Trophy winning Winnipeg Jets or the ease with which Vegas lost to Edmonton in the second round of the playoffs. St. Louis proved to be a tough out and they were. But the Kings of Los Angeles imploded as their best two players head into their 18th and 20th seasons. With Marner and Tavares or without the duo — and assuming the replacements put in place by general manager Brad Treliving will be reasonable and not necessarily equal — where exactly are the Leafs heading into the draft, free agency, and what will certainly be a busy off-season? What hurt wasn't that the Leafs lost in seven games to the defending champioin Panthers. Tampa and Carolina lasted just five games apiece against Florida. There's no certainty Edmonton will take them to seven games again — although I'm picking the Oilers to win. What hurt was how the Leafs lost. How they lost themselves in Games 5 and 7 at home. How they didn't compete in any meaningful way. How they seemed incapable of matching the intensity of the Panthers. Even as Carolina went down in five games, they fought right to the end. They weren't trampled on. They weren't embarrassed. But still, they lost in 5. Two games fewer than the Maple Leafs managed to last. Perspective doesn't come easily when a season ends so drastically. Perspective comes from stepping away, gauging the accomplishments, gauging the history of the franchise and trying to take stock of who the Leafs are and where they might be heading. It is now a very long 58 years since the Leafs won a Stanley Cup — back when the NHL only had six teams and it took only eight playoff wins to celebrate. But ask yourself this, if you are anything resembling a Leafs historian — or even a long-time fan — has there been one Leafs team since 1967 that should have won a Cup? Was there a Leafs team good enough? The answer is no. Roger Neilson coached some impressive Toronto teams in the 1970s, led by Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald up front, with Tiger Williams fighting everyone, with Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull on defence and Mike Palmateer in goal. The most points they had in a season was 92 in 1978. They made it to the third round of the playoffs that year, being handled rather easily by the Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs finished sixth out of 18 teams in the league. They weren't legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. Pat Burns coached some impressive Toronto teams in the 1990s, led by Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk and Wendel Clark up front, with a defence that included Dave Ellett, Sylvain Lefebvre and Jamie Macoun, and with Felix Potvin in goal. Twice in a row the Leafs advanced to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The first time they went seven games and lost to Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings and, all these years later — 32 in fact — that loss still stings. The team, though, was thin when compared to the current Leafs. The club finished eighth overall in 1993, lost in the semifinals the following year in a rather upsetting one-sided series against Vancouver. Those were the highlight years for Burns. Close as they may have been, they were never the best team in hockey. In Pat Quinn's first year coaching the Leafs, the club made it to the Eastern Conference final and Toronto had the third-best record in the NHL. The team was led by Mats Sundin in 1999 with a rather ordinary group of forwards coming after him such as Steve Thomas, Sergei Berezin and Mike Johnson. The defence had character and characters such as Dmitri Yushkevich, Danny Markov, Sylvain Cote and Tomas Kaberle. Curtis Joseph was difference maker in goal. That team lost to a Buffalo Sabres team missing Dominik Hasek. That never should have happened. But it happened once again in Quinn's time coaching the Leafs. In 2002, the Leafs were deeper up front with Sundin, Alex Mogilny, Gary Roberts, Tie Domi, Darcy Tucker and Shayne Corson. It wasn't exactly a Stanley Cup-winning defence that included Jyrkki Lumme, Cory Cross and Karel Pilar — even with the Leafs having Kaberle and Bryan McCabe. Even with Joseph in goal, the Leafs couldn't overcome Paul Maurice's Carolina team in the Conference final. The two best Neilson teams, the two best Burns teams, the two best Quinn teams were all sound NHL competitors — just not teams ready or able to grab the Stanley Cup. The most points the Leafs have ever had in a season was 115 and that came with Sheldon Keefe coaching and Auston Matthews scoring 60 goals and winning the Hart Trophy. That was in 2022. That Leafs team lost Games 6 and 7 of the first round to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Keefe followed up the 115-point season with 111 in 2023. That year, the Leafs won first round against Tampa but lost rather quickly to Florida in five games. Now, here are the Leafs of Brad Treliving and Craig Berube. They have Matthews, William Nylander and Matthew Knies up front and who knows after that. They have the deepest blueline of the past half century, starting with Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe as a sound shut-down pairing. They have depth in goal with Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll, who may not individually compare to Joseph, Ed Belfour, Potvin or Palmateer, but they are sound as a pair, probably the best Toronto duo since Bernie Parent and Jacques Plante shared time in goal. A look at Brad Treliving's work two years into his tenure as Maple Leafs GM MAPLE LEAFS SNAP SHOTS: Brad Treliving, Craig Berube share new powers They have a coach Berube rather similar in style to Burns and similar in respect to Quinn. They have a 50-goal scorer, considering Matthews' average season, and a 40-goal scorer in Nylander — who in the East, other than Tampa, has anything to compare with that? No matter how the playoff series ended with Florida, this Leafs team had more elements than any of the previous squads of the past 58 years. Just how management turns the roster over with Marner likely leaving and Tavares growing one year older will be fascinating to observe. But they're not starting where Burns started or Quinn started, having to turn nothing into something. The booing happened at the end of Game 7 in Toronto. The firing of Brendan Shanahan happened not long after. The screaming from the bench and at the bench happened. The Maple Leafs unravelled on the ice, off the ice, at the worst of possible playoff moments and when opportunity was at its greatest. But when you look at the teams before them — coached by Neilson, Burns, Quinn and Keefe — this team still seems to have more. Right now, early June in today's NHL, we ask the question: Who is better than the Maple Leafs? The two teams who are playing for the Stanley Cup are better. After that, who else? ssimmons@
Winnipeg Free Press
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
A look at our passion for the Jets, now and then
Opinion This has been an unprecedented year for hockey passions at both international and local levels. In February, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's assault on Canada's sovereignty through his tariff war, the 4 Nations Face-Off, a midseason kind-of-international tourney (absent Russia), saw Canada win over the Americans in the championship match, igniting a wave of national euphoria. Closer to home, the Winnipeg Jets, who raced out of the gate in October to a 15-1 start, were en route to a first-ever President's Trophy, as the points leader in the NHL regular season. Expectations were high entering the playoffs that the Jets could exceed their 2017/2018 run, and make it all the way to the Stanley Cup final. Round 1 saw hockey fever rise and a Game 7 overtime win that defied the odds. Both the game-tying goal by Cole Perfetti, with less than two seconds left in regulation time, and the winning goal by Captain Adam Lowery, in double-overtime, are sporting moments for the ages when it comes to our city's rich sporting history. Round 2 against the Dallas Stars, saw the emotional rollercoaster continue. The Jets were strong at home and unable to win on the road. Passions were high throughout the city. I watched most games with my daughter and twin grandsons, and yes, we wore whiteout T-shirts. Game 6, a must-win for the Jets, in Dallas, began with the heartbreaking news that star centre Mark Scheifele's father Brad had passed away just hours before the game began. Scheifele played, and was the team's best forward, scoring the team's only goal. Ironically, he started the overtime period in the penalty box, having likely saved a goal late in the third period on a Dallas breakaway. The Stars scored, and the Jets 'season to remember' ended on a poignant note, with Scheifele the recipient of an outpouring of emotion from players on both teams. The Jets' season ended, but it would be hard to argue that the team did not ignite the passions of the community writ large It was a very different, but equally passionate scene, 30 years ago when the public campaign to save the Jets 1.0 franchise failed and the team left after the Spring 1996 playoffs for Phoenix, Ariz. The economics of professional hockey in the pre-salary cap era in a small city like Winnipeg with an aging arena, did not work. A monthslong public campaign spurred emotions, saw kids empty their piggy banks in support of a fundraising campaign, saw city council flounder, and ultimately, corporate Winnipeg refuse to put forward the necessary financial support, leading to a boisterous, messy and at times, divisive debate. This murkier chapter in the Jets history is well-documented in the book Thin Ice – Money, Politics, and the Demise of an NHL Franchise, by professor Jim Silver. Silver, and his University of Winnipeg colleague, Dr. Carl Ridd, were the face of the Thin Ice Coalition that openly questioned the propriety of a public bailout of the Jets at the behest of corporate Winnipeg interests. Silver, a hockey player in his youth and fan of the game, stated that the campaign to save the Jets was worthy; he wrote that the team was a 'valuable community asset … culturally and emotionally.' He also argued that the campaign to save the team went too far. Costs escalated so high he argued that it forced 'a consideration of fundamental questions that are not only political and economic, but also ethical.' Silver asked, 'Is it appropriate to spend tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars on professional sports when … children are lining up at food banks?' A wide array of noted writers spoke out on the conservative nature of the Winnipeg business community wanting to force public financing for a private venture they themselves would not support, including columnist John Robertson, writer Roy McGregor and Olympian and professor of physical and health education Bruce Kidd. Professor David Whitson, co-author (with Richard Gruneau) of the widely acclaimed book, Hockey Night in Canada: Sport, Identities and Cultural Politics, offered sage advice in the foreword he wrote to Silver's book where he said: '…we have to stop and think about what we mean when we say that professional sports teams benefit the whole community, for they do so very unequally. We also have to recognize that our interests as fans, however powerfully felt, may not coincide with our interests as citizens.' Three decades on, I celebrate the passion and power of the 2025 Jets run. As well, I remember the important lessons from Spring 1995. Paul Moist is a retired labour leader.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hole in one highlight of busy week at Taunton and Pickeridge Golf Club
Nearly 100 golfers travelled from Kent, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Dorset, and all corners of Somerset, to participate in Taunton & Pickeridge's Senior Men's Open Pairs Betterball Stableford, writes Richard Walsh. Played on Friday last week, there were some excellent scores posted but, undoubtedly, the highlight of the day was T&P member Bill Maginn's hole-in-one on the par three sixth hole. The winning members' teams were: Brian Trickey and Gary Wide (T&P/Vivary Park), 45 points. Graham Adams and Martin Hogan, 43 points. The winning visitors' teams were: Greg Hassel and David Lyscom (Sherborne), 43 points. David Harrop and James Herring (Weymouth), 40 points Back Nine. David Edmondson and Alan Clydesdale (Exminster/Tiverton), 40 points. Nearest the Pin: Sixth hole for visitors: Paul Beynon (Minchinhampton). Eighth hole for members: Andy Bond. Sixteenth hole for all players: Mike Collard (T&P). On Monday evening in the glorious sunshine, the T&P juniors played the second of three Pro Am Qualifiers. There were some outstanding scores, with Cooper Baker leading the field with a whopping 52 Stableford points after playing his best round to date. Second, with 42 points, was George Welsher, just beating Seb Childs, who finished third by one point. The juniors have a busy weekend ahead with a league match at Long Sutton and the junior championship club comp at Saltford GC. Our next Junior Club Night is Monday, May 19, playing an 18-hole medal for the President's Trophy. For information on how your junior can get involved, please contact the pro shop team on 01823 421790. Don't forget there's just over two weeks until entries for the T&P Junior Open close. To enter, please visit the Taunton Golf website and follow the link from the website to the Opens Page.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
An Argument About The Rangers' Hire Of Mike Sullivan
Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images If nothing else, the Rangers' Mike Sullivan hire is controversial, to say the least. Giving huge $ to a guy who missed the playoffs for three straight years – and one who's oh-for-six years when it comes to playoff series wins seems daffy to say the least. Yet there are others who believe that Sullivan is made for the Rangers; and that's that. One of those Sullivan supporters is my Florida buddy Al Greenberg. He states his case here; and, line by line, I disagree with him. Let me know who you think wins this argument. (We start with Al's points; each followed by my rebuttal:) EXCLUSIVE: A Ringing Endorsement of Mike Sullivan From A Penguins Reporter EXCLUSIVE: A Ringing Endorsement of Mike Sullivan From A Penguins Reporter The hire of Mike Sullivan as the latest Blueshirt coach has inspired all kinds of speculation in Rangerville. "Sullivan is an excellent coach with an excellent record. As with most new coaches to the team he will be a fresh voice and will help in the short term. A familiar pattern. He worked with superstars and fragile stars in Pittsburgh and knew how to handle them." (The Maven rebuts: Sully was a good coach when Sidney Crosby and Geno Malkin were in their prime. That's ancient history. He could coach a loaded team but when the Penguins slipped a bit, Sullivan fell on his nose.) "He will be fine with Mika & Co and he'll also use the youngsters better. Rempe will be taught and used correctly. Maybe he can even make a star out of Lafreniere, as should have happened years ago." (The Maven rebuts: "Mika was spoiled rotten by Peter Laviolette; for example, he was given power play time after Z failed over and over again. Sully won't have the nerve to limit Z to five minutes or punish him by not playing him until he waives his no-trade clause. I'll believe he'll make a better player out of Rempe – but only when I see it. And that goes for Lafrenière.) "The Rangers are not in a rebuild so Sullivan has his work cut out. The fans and bosses will want to see a winner right away." (The Maven rebuts: The Rangers don't know whether they're in a rebuild, or what they are in at the moment. Chris Drury heads a confused general staff. It would like to dump the core failures and that includes Kreider, and the rest of the malingerers who couldn't – or wouldn't – play for Laviolette. The "No-Trade" clause kills all hope of instant rebuild.) "Dolan and Drury like to dish out crazy money. These long term contracts never age well. Dunno the details of Lavvy or Gallant but they're probably still being paid. Money is no object to Dolan." (The Maven AGREES: Big Al has told me time and again that "long contracts never age well." So true! But if Moneybags Dolan doesn't care, then the same mistakes will continue to be made.) "Four of the last five Rangers' coaches were retreads. Alain Vigneault got them a President's Trophy and trip to the finals but was eventually sent on his way. "Gallant & Lavvy had momentary success but lost either the team or management. In Gallant's case I suspect it was the latter. And, Tortorella was, well, Tortorella! They need a younger voice who can relate better to young players. "The best example is Spencer Carbury in Washington. In two seasons he took the Caps from non-playoff to the playoffs to first in Conference, and he dealt with Ovechkin, the biggest superstar of all." (The Maven Rebuts: Drury had a young, successful stud in Kris Knoblauch who coached the Rangers' farm team in Hartford. He should have been the fresh face hired instead of tired Laviolette. It was a huge Drury mistake as Knoblauch is now proving with his Edmonton Oilers.) "I hope Drury can get Sullivan what he needs and no more very public acts of poor judgement such as the Goodrow, Trouba, Kreider moves." (The Maven Rebuts: Don't bet on it, Pal. "Poor Judgement" is part of the Blueshirts' culture!)
