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New York Times
12 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
For No. 3 goalies on Stanley Cup teams, the NHL's least glamorous job still ends in glory
When his moment of glory approached, Scott Wedgewood knew his role. As the Lightning began the decades-old NHL tradition of passing the Stanley Cup to one another in Sept. 2020, Wedgewood hung to the back of the celebration. The goaltender didn't want to steal a spotlight that wasn't his. Wedgewood wasn't on the ice when Tampa Bay won the championship that year, beating the Stars in six games. Nor was he the backup on the bench. He was the No. 3 throughout the 2019-20 playoffs, brought along to the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles just in case something went wrong with starter Andrei Vasilevskiy or backup Curtis McElhinney. Nothing did. Advertisement Which is why, as Wedgewood and his fellow scratches burst onto the ice to join the championship dogpile, a voice in his head asked whether he even belonged. 'I kind of didn't earn it, but I earned it,' he remembered thinking. He watched as the Cup moved among his teammates, first from captain Steven Stamkos to defenseman Victor Hedman, then down the depth chart from perennial All-Stars to valuable role players. Finally, after every other member of the roster had received a turn, forward Mathieu Joseph handed the trophy over to Wedgewood. He took the Cup for a small loop on the ice — long enough to make a cherished memory, short enough not to seem selfish about it — and lifted it over his head with a wide grin on his face. As he wrapped up his lap, Wedgewood skated to Stamkos with a question. Jon Cooper, one of the NHL's top coaches, still hadn't touched the Cup. The team captain, Wedgewood figured, should have a say in who presented it to him. 'Do you want to give it to Coop?' he asked. 'No!' a euphoric Stamkos responded. 'You f—ing do it!' And so it was that Wedgewood, despite never playing a single minute for Tampa Bay, first placed hockey's most hallowed piece of hardware in the hands of a coach who is likely bound for its Hall of Fame. 'That's kind of cool, too, to be the guy to do it,' said Wedgewood, now the backup for the Avalanche. 'Definitely a little humble pie in the back of the mind, too: 'Am I really doing this?'' No one focuses much, if at all, on the No. 3 goalies during the Stanley Cup Final. Barring an emergency, they don't dress for games, and most of the world doesn't see the work they do. Still, Panthers coach Paul Maurice calls third-stringers a 'critical part' of championship teams. But No. 3s are valued, even if the emotional payoff of a win might be different from what players who actually appear in games feel. They're on call whenever someone needs extra work, Cooper said, as though they have a beeper in the back pocket of their goalie pants. And often in recent years, they find themselves in Wedgewood's position: passing the Cup to the winning coach, someone who will be remembered far more as part of the championship journey. Advertisement Craig Berube spent more than 1,500 games on an NHL bench, either as a player, assistant or head coach, before the Blues beat Boston for the 2019 championship. He was handed the Cup by Ville Husso, who had yet to make his NHL debut. Then-prospect Justus Annunen gave it to Jared Bednar after Colorado completed its championship run in 2022, and Maurice took it from Spencer Knight with Florida last year. 'That's a really important idea at the end of the day: that the players are the most important,' Maurice said. 'They come first.' That means all of them — even the ones with the least glamorous job. A century ago, backup goalies — let alone third-stringers — weren't much of a thought. In the 1928 Stanley Cup Final, after Rangers goalie Lorne Chabot took a shot to the face and left with an eye injury, the lack of a No. 2 goalie on hand led to 44-year-old coach and general manager Lester Patrick putting on pads and finishing out a 2-1 overtime win between the pipes. The NHL didn't even require teams to dress two goalies until 1965-66, but nowadays teams tend to carry three on the roster during the playoffs: two in uniform and one in case of emergency. A variety of factors go into determining which No. 3 goalie to use. If its affiliate is still alive in the American Hockey League playoffs, an organization might choose to have its actual third-best goalie playing games in the minors. Annunen, for example, didn't travel with the 2022 Avalanche full time until the AHL Colorado Eagles were eliminated. This year, Florida's AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, is still playing, so ECHL goalie Evan Cormier has been with the club as the emergency backup. Kaapo Kähkönen would almost certainly come up from the Checkers if something happened to either Panthers starter Sergei Bobrovsky or backup Vítek Vaněček. Meanwhile, the Bakersfield Condors, the Oilers' AHL affiliate, didn't make the playoffs, so Olivier Rodrigue has been with the NHL club the entire time, even backing up a few games when Calvin Pickard got hurt. Advertisement On some teams, Cooper said, the No. 3 job can be good for a developing player. Rodrigue, who is 24 and one of the Oilers' top prospects, falls in that boat. Wedgewood did, too. He took it as an opportunity to get daily one-on-one feedback from Lightning goalie coach Frantz Jean. Annunen appreciated the chance to watch how the Avalanche's high-level roster prepared for big games. 'You want somebody who's going to learn,' Cooper said. 'You want somebody who's glue, you want somebody who's going to work: not necessarily content in their role but (who) understands their role.' Other teams turn to veterans to fill that role. Jonathan Quick was already a two-time champion as a starter with the Kings when the Golden Knights acquired him at the 2023 trade deadline, bringing a level of experience far different from that of someone like Wedgewood or Annunen. Quick never got in a playoff game for the Golden Knights, and only started regularly dressing as Adin Hill's backup after starter Laurent Brossoit suffered a hamstring injury in the second round. But coach Bruce Cassidy said that Quick had a calming effect on both Hill and Brossoit throughout the Golden Knights' road to the franchise's first Cup. 'If you have guys with a bad attitude in your locker room, typically you're not playing hockey at that time of the year,' Quick said. Like Quick, Wedgewood was very clear on his role entering the 2020 bubble, joking that he 'wasn't going to play unless Vasilevskiy died.' So he made himself available at all times instead, helping Lightning players get away from hockey while isolated from the outside world with games of pickleball and rounds on a golf simulator. The goalie also estimates that he spent some 100 hours on Xbox playing 'Call of Duty: Warzone' with teammates, including Ondřej Palát, Victor Hedman, Tyler Johnson and Anthony Cirelli, often on game days after the morning skate. 'The first group of guys that would play would play (Call of Duty) with me before they napped, then the second group would play with me after,' he said. Wedgewood's constant availability extended to on-ice situations as well. With Vasilevskiy sitting out some morning skate drills because of how much he was playing, Wedgewood was always happily ready to enter the net when the starter wanted a break. 'No one wants the third goalie to be moody and annoyed to be taking shots,' he said. Advertisement He regularly stayed late at skates throughout the playoffs too, helping the other scratches — including Stamkos, who was working to return from a lower-body injury while in the bubble — get extra work. In total, the Lightning stayed in the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles for a total of 65 days. Wedgewood said he was on the ice for all but three of them. Annunen similarly recalled his Avalanche teammates in 2022 using him to practice whatever they wanted after skates, whether breakaway practice, one timers or rebound games. As Maurice puts it, 'That's a lot of pucks, man.' The types of shots faced are also different. Whereas skaters might steer clear of shooting high when the starter is in the net, or a coach saves certain drills for when he leaves the ice, no such restrictions exist for the No. 3. 'I step on the ice, and there's a five-on-three or five-on-four power play set, and you've got Stamkos, Hedman, (Nikita) Kucherov teeing up,' Wedgewood said. 'You're not going to put any goalie other than me in that situation in case something goes (wrong).' In rare cases, No. 3s get called into action beyond just backing up. Injuries forced the Canucks to play three goalies in the 2024 playoffs, with the Penguins (2022), Avalanche (2020) and Canadiens (2014) among the others to do so in recent postseasons. The first postseason it happened was in 1928, when the Rangers had to use Patrick and then, with permission from the league, Joe Miller from the New York Americans, a fellow NHL club. Only one Cup winner since 1938, though, needed to use a No. 3 in the postseason: the 2016 Penguins. Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury were both hurt to start the playoffs that year, so Jeff Zatkoff played the first two games of the first round, going 1-1 with a .908 save percentage. The Penguins recognized his efforts: He got his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh fans made their appreciation clear, too. Late in Zatkoff's first playoff start, the only postseason win of his NHL career, he was serenaded with chants of his name: recognition of both the rarity of the situation and the importance of his performance. 'Definitely sent chills through me a little bit,' he told reporters then. For seven seconds last June, Maurice and Spencer Knight held the Stanley Cup together. The Panthers coach whispered a thank you into the No. 3 goalie's ear, then bowed over the trophy, almost as if in prayer. He had been behind NHL benches for nearly three decades and was now an undisputed champion. Advertisement On the other side of the trophy, Knight wondered whether he had achieved the same honor. 'People say I won the Cup,' Knight said later that summer. 'I think I just say I witnessed the team up close win the Cup.' When it comes to sharing in glory, No. 3 goalies on a championship team are put in inarguably odd positions. Each contributed in small ways despite, aside from Zatkoff and a few others in the 1920s and 1930s, not actually playing in the postseason. Some — including Knight, Wedgewood and Husso — couldn't even fall back on the validation of appearing in a regular-season game during the championship season. Do they truly feel like champions? 'I picture the ocean: You can be above the water for some categories and under the water for others,' Wedgewood said. 'That's kind of how it feels at certain times.' Annunen, who was traded to Nashville by Colorado, ironically for Wedgewood, said it felt amazing to lift the Stanley Cup. He later received a championship ring, presented at a private dinner for Avalanche players, and Colorado played him a 'welcome back' video on the jumbotron when he returned to Denver as a member of the Predators, ending with a picture of him holding the Stanley Cup. Reflecting on the experience, he thinks of his 2022 teammates, such as longtime veterans Jack Johnson and Erik Johnson, and can't imagine how they must have felt hoisting the trophy for the first time. 'You feel like you are part of the group, but it's a little different,' he said. 'I don't know how to explain it. Of course, if I would have been around more or played more it would feel even (more) different, for sure.' Last summer, Knight got a customary day with the Stanley Cup, but his name wasn't engraved on the outer ring with the other Panthers. Including Quick, four Vegas goalies — the three who dressed in the playoffs, plus Logan Thompson, who led the team in regular-season starts before injury derailed his season — got their names on the Cup in 2023. But Annunen and Christopher Gibson, the Lightning's No. 3 in 2021, did not. Neither did Wedgewood, though he remembers Alex Killorn and some teammates messaging the group text that his name deserved to make the cut. The gesture touched the goalie, who still got to participate in the parade and received a ring and a miniature Cup trophy. Advertisement Perhaps aided by how much time he spent with the Lightning in the bubbles, Wedgewood still views himself as part of the team. He never dressed for a game in the 2020 playoffs, save for an exhibition against the Panthers before the round robin to determine seeding, and spent most of the regular season in the AHL, never appearing in a game for the Lightning. But he compares lifting the Cup to hitting a hole-in-one in golf: The way the ball goes in, whether off a perfect shot or off a ricochet off a tree, doesn't really matter. Still, he knows his role wasn't the exact same as those who actually played. 'Does the reunion come up in 10 years? Am I invited? I don't know,' he said. 'That'll be something up to them to decide.' Wedgewood got plenty of validation in the moment. The night the Lightning won the championship, they left the rink and sat together in their team meal room in the hotel, sipping beers and reminiscing while passing the Cup around. While there, Frantz Jean, the goalie coach, made a point to walk over to Wedgewood. He had tears in his eyes as he thanked the goalie for all the work he'd done. His role, glamorless though it might have been, was appreciated.
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
How much prize money do NHL players earn in Stanley Cup playoffs
How much prize money do NHL players earn in Stanley Cup playoffs (Image Source: ESPN/X) Most people are curious if NHL players receive paychecks during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The quick answer is: not quite the same as during the regular season. NHL players cease their regular paychecks once the 82-game season concludes. They can continue to make money via playoff bonuses, though. Playoff bonuses are derived from a pool of money the league has allocated aside. The further a team advances in the playoffs, the higher its players' paychecks. NHL Prize Money for Playoff Winners All NHL players are compensated according to their contracts during the regular season. But that's over when the playoffs begin. Instead, a playoff bonus pool is paid out to the players. For the 2025 season, that pool totals $23 million. All 16 playoff teams share that money. The amount of the bonus varies depending on how far the team makes it. For instance: First-round losers receive $250,000 apiece. Second-round losers receive $500,000. Teams losing in the Conference Finals receive $1.25 million. The Stanley Cup loser receives $2.25 million. The Stanley Cup winner receives $3.75 million to split. In 2017, when the Pittsburgh Penguins were the Cup winners, they received more than $4.3 million in bonus money. For stars such as Steven Stamkos and others who earn $5–10 million annually, such bonuses are peanuts. But for a league-minimum earner like $775,000, a playoff bonus is worth 25–30% of their salary for the regular season. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like They Lost Their Money - Learn From Their Lesson Expertinspector Click Here Undo Also Read: Can The Trio Of Andrei Svechnikov, Sam Reinhart, And Frederik Andersen Win Game 1 Of The NHL Eastern Conference Final? No Salary Cap in NHL Stanley Cup playoffs sparks controversy especially with LTIR players Something key to be aware of is that the salary cap in the NHL is not in place in the playoffs. That's because players are no longer receiving their regular paychecks. This policy has caused a little controversy throughout the years. Four years back, the Tampa Bay Lightning placed star winger Nikita Kucherov on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) throughout the whole season. This allowed the team to save on salary cap space and bring in other players. Kucherov returned at the last moment for the playoffs when there wasn't any cap and assisted Tampa Bay in winning the Stanley Cup. At that time, the team's pay was $18 million above the regular-season cap. Most fans and teams were angry, but the action was entirely legal. Due to examples like this, some would like to see the NHL impose a playoff salary cap. Others believe that wise planning and shrewd action should pay off. For the time being, the rule stays the same. Teams are allowed to call back high-paid players during the playoffs without fear of cap constraints. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Free local broadcasts for Tampa Bay Lightning fans, an entirely new streaming experience, with Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy in action
Image Via Getty The Tampa Bay Lightning will enter a new paradigm of fan engagement during Season 2025-26. Shadowed by the conventional paywalls and cable barriers, local game broadcasts for the entire slate of local games, with the likes of Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy going to be made free for the regional fans. This transformation is thus going to take a step toward a bigger-scale democratization for proud supporters scattered all over Tampa Bay, in parallel with the shift we observe now in how professional teams deliver live content in modern times. Free TV and Digital Streaming until Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy can be more fully accessible — TBLightning (@TBLightning) Tampa Bay Lightning is moving its new multi-year partnership with Scripps Sports to broadcast WXPX-TV all preseason, regular season, and first-round playoff games that are not televised nationally, rebranded as "The Spot - Tampa Bay 66." The channel will be unveiled on July 1, 2025, and will show Lightning broadcasts along with news and entertainment programming. Such an arrangement makes it possible for every fan residing in the Tampa-St. Petersburg locale to witness local games of the team over the air, free of charge. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like AI guru Andrew Ng recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Around in 2025 Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo For the digitally inclined, the Lightning will work with ViewLift, so the team's official mobile app will provide the streamers with a greatly intuitive streaming environment. This digital solution will be made available all over the team's local broadcast territory and will include any games produced locally and behind-the-scenes content. The hybrid free TV & app-based streaming model means fans can watch Steven Stamkos captain the offense or Andrei Vasilevskiy perform another stellar effort away from home, be it at work or just out there on the go. Veteran broadcast stalwarts Dave Randorf, Brian Engblom, and Gabby Shirley will continue to be the familiar voices and faces of Lightning telecasts. In addition, the production team will be creating original, co-produced content with an even more personal and exclusive take on the players' stories and personalities in creating a more rewarding viewing experience. It is a win for the fans and, at the same time, pushes the team toward innovation and accessibility. In fact, with Scripps Sports also having similar NHL deals with teams like the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights, this could well be a model that fundamentally transforms regional sports broadcasting. Also Read: Mitch Marner's free agency drama: Playoff pressure, fan taunts and Toronto's tough contract decision By allying with Scripps Sports and ViewLift, the Tampa Bay Lightning is making a definitive statement in bringing superstars such as Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy nearer to the fans than ever before. It is a fresh chapter in the making, filled with unmatched accessibility and a superior viewing experience. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
New York Times
19-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Why, more than ever, any NHL team can win the Stanley Cup
The NHL's great flattening has been happening for a while, but it was especially evident in free agency last summer. Of the top 40 UFAs who changed teams, the vast majority were from teams that had made the playoffs that year. And nearly 60 percent of them ultimately signed with teams lower in the standings, with the Seattle Kraken, Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators snapping up a lot of the overpriced talent. Advertisement Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei to Nashville. Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson to Seattle. Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi and Alec Martinez (among others) to Chicago. Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg to San Jose. Sean Monahan to Columbus. You get the idea. They weren't the best players on their previous teams, but they were key contributors, depth-wise — the types of 25-goal scorers who boost second lines and top four defensemen who separate contending teams from the pack. Then you can add in two quality young players (Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway) from the ninth-place Edmonton Oilers signing offer sheets with the 16th-place St. Louis Blues. And 27th-ranked Utah HC pulling in two quality defensemen in Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino from Tampa Bay and New Jersey. And the Senators solved their goaltending woes, pulling in 2023 Vezina winner Linus Ullmark from Boston. Bit by bit, talent was sucked from the top of the league and redistributed, going to teams that were flush with cap space and hoping to improve. The impact of the NHL having just $8.5 million in salary-cap growth spread over six seasons due to the pandemic was punishing to a lot of teams' depth. Did it always work out for the teams on the bottom, overpaying for free agents? Hardly. In fact, most of the teams that spent big last summer ended up back at the bottom of the table, with only a worse cap sheet to show for it. But St. Louis improved and returned to the postseason. So did Ottawa, after a long absence. These days, the NHL's parity isn't evenly distributed, as we're seeing plenty of teams — hello, Buffalo — lose year after year due primarily to managerial incompetence. But what all this annual rebalancing has done is bunch the contenders closer together, increasing the level of parity at the top of the league to the point that the playoffs this year will be more closely matched than ever. Advertisement The standard deviation of the NHL's 16 playoff-bound teams' points percentage is the lowest it has ever been (0.045) in the salary-cap era. By our model's calculations, as shown in the graphic below, 10 teams have a 6 percent or better chance of winning the Stanley Cup — including nine who sit in a narrow band between 10 and 6 percent. That's a higher degree of parity at the top than we've had in our pre-playoff probabilities at The Athletic before, according to our stats man Dom Luszczyszyn. What does that all mean? Well, for one, good luck picking a favorite in this field. The Jets seem to have the best Stanley Cup odds going in thanks to Connor Hellebuyck, but they also have an extremely difficult path, with their first-round opponent — the Blues — posting the NHL's best record (19-4-3) since the 4 Nations Face-Off break in mid-February. Similarly, the Canadiens are the league's fourth-best team in that stretch (15-5-6) and the Senators are seventh (16-7-3). Even the supposed pushover teams are coming in hot, in other words, and likely to be a handful for the top teams. The postseason this year will likely be murder on your playoff brackets and fantasy pools, but it'll be fantastic theater. There are going to be major upsets, and there are going to be long overtime games and long series. If you're watching as a neutral party, enjoy the chaos. There have been debates in hockey circles ever since the salary cap came back in 2005 about whether the NHL has gone too far in terms of competitive balance. That, I think, depends on your perspective, as there were certainly competitiveness problems the other way for small-market teams given how the cap-less league functioned in the Dead Puck Era. The thing, too, is this sport is always going to have an extreme element of luck to it, with goalies getting hot, low-scoring games and random bounces deciding series. That's never going away. Advertisement But what's undeniable is there's nothing resembling a super team in the league anymore, with no roster particularly close to what the Blackhawks, Kings, Penguins and Lightning teams that strung together multiple Cups in earlier cap-era postseasons rolled out. Every roster this season has obvious holes and flaws. And even the game's superstars are often saddled with less than super linemates. MVP frontrunner Leon Draisaitl's most frequent linemate this season, for example, has been Vasily Podkolzin, who had all of eight goals and 24 points in 82 games for the Oilers. Our top-ranked powerhouse Winnipeg has 11-goal, 38-point man Vladislav Namestnikov as its second-line center. The Maple Leafs have a group of bottom-six forwards that have hardly scored this season and are set to lean heavily on a goalie in Anthony Stolarz who, at age 31, has never started a playoff game. The Lightning's third-highest minute defenseman is J.J. Moser, who most hockey fans wouldn't be able to name, let alone pick out of a lineup. The Hurricanes only had two players hit the 50-point mark and no one with more than 74. Florida is understandably beat up and diminished after two consecutive runs to the finals, with Matthew Tkachuk unlikely to be at full strength. Dallas, too, is likely to be significantly hampered by injuries to two of its best players, Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson. The Avalanche traded one of their top players, Mikko Rantanen, in midseason to avoid losing him for nothing in free agency and have struggled to get enough from their depth this season. And those eight clubs are the very best teams in the league. Don't mistake those various weaknesses as an indictment of the NHL's mediocrity, however. Most of the worst that the league has to offer has been weeded out after 1,312 regular-season games. The playoffs will feature most of the top players in the league going head-to-head, with a higher skill level than ever, and will be well worth watching. Advertisement Just don't expect to be able to easily separate the contenders from the pretenders among the final 16 because basically anyone that's made it this far has a chance. Even the experts are guessing when we make our picks. This is one year to take a chance on the underdogs. They've never had a better shot.
Fox Sports
15-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Stars come into matchup against the Predators on losing streak
Associated Press Dallas Stars (50-25-6, in the Central Division) vs. Nashville Predators (29-44-8, in the Central Division) Nashville, Tennessee; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EDT BOTTOM LINE: The Dallas Stars look to break a six-game skid with a win against the Nashville Predators. Nashville has an 11-12-2 record in Central Division play and a 29-44-8 record overall. The Predators have a -66 scoring differential, with 207 total goals scored and 273 allowed. Dallas has gone 50-25-6 overall with a 15-7-3 record against the Central Division. The Stars have a 22-10-3 record in games their opponents commit more penalties. The teams meet Wednesday for the fourth time this season. The Stars won 5-1 in the last matchup. TOP PERFORMERS: Filip Forsberg has 31 goals and 43 assists for the Predators. Steven Stamkos has four goals and three assists over the past 10 games. Matt Duchene has 30 goals and 51 assists for the Stars. Mikko Rantanen has three goals and nine assists over the past 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Predators: 2-8-0, averaging 2.6 goals, 4.5 assists, 3.4 penalties and 7.9 penalty minutes while giving up 4.1 goals per game. Stars: 4-4-2, averaging 3.5 goals, 6.3 assists, 3.6 penalties and 8.8 penalty minutes while giving up 3.2 goals per game. INJURIES: Predators: None listed. Stars: None listed. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
