Category: Sports News

Playing 16 seasons in the NHL is no small feat. But when you’ve had a career like longtime Washington Capitals star right winger T.J. Oshie, you’re especially fortunate – and you’ve done more than enough to assure you of a prominent place in the history of hockey’s top league. 

Oshie announced his retirement in a special event in Washington D.C. on Monday. A retrospective of his on-ice days underscores the impact he had, not only as a Stanley Cup champion but on the international stage as well.

The 38-year-old Oshie spent his first seven years with the St. Louis Blues, which drafted him 24th overall in 2005. He established himself as a dangerous scorer and a shootout specialist in particular. In six of his seven years with St. Louis, Oshie posted at least 34 points, and the one season he didn’t, it was because injuries limited him to only 30 games. When the Capitals traded for him in 2015, they knew they were getting a player who could produce.

Capitals Forward T.J. Oshie Announces Retirement After 16 NHL SeasonsWASHINGTON — After 16 historic seasons in the NHL, Washington Capitals winger T.J. Oshie is hanging up the skates.

Oshie also proved to be a clutch performer, particularly in his international career. 

At the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, in a round-robin game against Russia, Oshie was used five straight times in the shootout and six times in total, scoring four times and potting the game-winner in the eighth round to give Team USA a 3-2 win. 

Oshie represented America six times – once at the world juniors, three times at the men’s World Championship, once at the Olympics and once at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. He was never held off the scoresheet in any of those tournaments, posting eight goals and 15 points in 28 senior Team USA games.

Meanwhile, Oshie was an instant hit in Washington, posting a then-career-high 26 goals and 51 points in his first season with the Capitals. For four of the next five years, he posted at least 22 goals – and in 2016-17, he had a career-high 33 goals and 56 points in only 68 games.

But his most clutch performance came in the Capitals’ Stanley Cup-championship run of 2017-18, when he amassed eight goals and 21 points in 24 playoff games to help steer the Caps to their first-ever Cup victory.

Immediately after the Cup win, Oshie memorably referred to his father, Tim Oshie, who had been afflicted with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. 

“My dad’s here in the crowd,” Oshie said of his father, who passed away in 2021. “He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and he doesn’t remember a lot of stuff. But…you bet your ass he’s going to remember this one.”

Oshie frequently honors his father by supporting Alzheimer fundraising and awareness initiatives. The Capitals and Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation presented him with a $10,000 donation to the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation on Monday as a result.

The other highlight of the Capitals’ Cup run was Oshie and some of his teammates diving into Washington Harbour’s fountain, taking the Cup into the fountain with them. So it was only fitting that Oshie’s retirement announcement Monday took place at that same spot. It was a moment that will live in the minds of Caps fans forever, and Oshie earned a key place in that memory.

In 1,010 career regular-season NHL games, Oshie put up 302 goals and 695 points. In 106 career NHL playoff games, he posted 34 goals and 69 points. And as a player with Ojibwe roots, his accomplishments are something Indigenous peoples can aspire to follow. 

In the end, injuries took their toll on Oshie, as he was limited to 207 games in his final four NHL seasons. But his heart and persistence carved out a special place for him in hockey history, and his incredible moments are bound to stand the test of time.

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The 2025 NHL Draft is coming up soon and the New York Rangers have to decide if they want to keep the 12th overall selection in the first round. 

As part of the trade for J.T. Miller, the Rangers either have to give up their 2025 first-round pick or 2026 first-round pick.

In The Athletic’s most recent NHL Mock Draft, Scott Wheeler has the Rangers selecting defenseman Jackson Smith. 

Smith is a 6-foot-3 defenseman who’s coming off of an impressive year with the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League where he recorded 11 goals, 43 assists, 54 points in 68 games. 

The 18-year-old is ranked  No. 9 on NHL Central Scouting's midterm ranking of North American skaters eligible for the 2025 NHL Draft.

“Smith’s a big, strong, powerful left-shot defenseman who plays hard and can impact play in a variety of ways,” Wheeler wrote. “He’s strong through his pushes as a skater, regularly beating the first layer of pressure laterally.”

On top of his impressive defensive abilities, he’s known for his blazing speed on the ice, which translates offensively. 

“Smith is an excellent skater,” Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala wrote. “He has the legs to escape pressure and lead the rush on his own, plus the agility to walk the offensive blue line to open up shooting and passing lanes.”

The NHL Draft is set to take place from June 27-28 in Los Angeles, California. 

The Philadelphia Flyers still hold the sixth pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, but this expert's latest mock draft says that's not such a bad thing after all.

Much of the dialogue to this point has centered around which players the Flyers are interested in, where those players will fall in the draft, and which teams are jockeying for their services.

Philadelphia figures to be one of the teams most locked onto a center, even despite their public comments regarding their willingness to take a winger or a defender.

Fortunately for the Flyers, momentum is starting to pick up around the fall of one of the very best centers in the draft class in James Hagens.

In his latest mock draft for The Athletic, prospects expert Scott Wheeler predicts Hagens will fall right into the Flyers' laps at No. 6, with Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, Anton Frondell, Caleb Desnoyers, and Porter Martone getting drafted ahead of him.

"If Hagens gets here, I think the Flyers like him and would consider taking him. Same goes for Desnoyers, whose well-rounded game and smarts could really support and complement Matvei Michkov. But Desnoyers isn't going to be there," Wheeler wrote. "If Hagens isn't, I think they lean [Brady Martin] over Jake O'Brien here in terms of the other centers (though they did take O'Brien to dinner in Buffalo). The pull of a center, and a player like Martin, is real in this range."

The Utah Mammoth, who pick fourth, are said to be high on Martin as well and could consider taking him inside the top five. Perhaps Utah and Philadelphia are playing a game of chicken with the draft's most violent forward prospect.

NHL Scouting Combine: Flyers Draft Board, Targets Taking ShapeThe Philadelphia Flyers, as expected, had a hectic week meeting with various top prospects at the NHL Scouting Combine. Such is life as a team with three first-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft.

That said, Hagens is an undeniable talent who continues to draw comparisons to New Jersey Devils superstar Jack Hughes, who's already come within one point of a 100-point season early in his NHL career.

Pairing the 18-year-old Boston College talisman with Matvei Michkov will set the Flyers up for offensive success for two decades, and the remainder of the grueling rebuild would then center on adding cornerstone pieces around those two.

Defenseman Jackson Smith, a potential top-10 pick, could be a trade-up candidate for the Flyers if management and scouts think he can be one of those pieces. On the right side of the defense, the Flyers have Jamie Drysdale, Oliver Bonk, Spencer Gill, and Helge Grans, so they have no need to force an early pick at this position.

Plus, who knows what the future holds for Rasmus Ristolainen?

Wheeler had other surprises in store for the Flyers in his latest mock draft (be sure to check those out), but landing Hagens would assuredly be the best-case scenario for the Flyers, who finished higher in the standings than many fans would have liked on the heels of that dreary ending to the 2024-25 season.

And that dream scenario seems to be gaining real momentum with the 2025 NHL Draft less than three weeks away.

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For 15 years, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane formed one of the most lethal duos in the NHL. 

As part of the Chicago Blackhawks’ modern-day dynasty, Toews and Kane won three Stanley Cup championships, assuring them of an eventual place in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Although time and health have separated them in recent years, Kane and Toews might just decide to end their careers with the same team.

Toews has been out of the NHL since 2022-23, dealing with long-term health issues that limited him to only 53 games that season. But now, at age 37, Toews is intent on making a comeback. 

The 36-year-old Kane moved on from the Hawks around the 2023 trade deadline to play with the New York Rangers and the next two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. 

Toews and Kane are now UFAs looking to continue their on-ice careers. Wouldn’t it be something if they picked the same team to sign with this summer?

Maybe that possibility comes in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs are looking for a third-line center like Toews and a veteran scoring winger like Kane. 

Maybe it comes with the Red Wings, which are desperate to make the playoffs and could get Kane and fellow former Blackhawks player Alex DeBrincat to help recruit his former Chicago teammate to the Motor City. 

Maybe it comes with the Dallas Stars, which are close to being a Cup front-runner and could use the championship pedigree the duo could provide. Or maybe it comes with the Rangers, which intend on having a bounce-back season and could re-recruit Kane while adding Toews to give the Blueshirts first-rate depth.

The possibilities are many, and that’s what’s so intriguing about them right now.

The exciting part – the part that makes them a distinct possibility to be brought in together – is that Toews and Kane many not break the bank on what could be their final NHL contract. 

Kane did have a solid season this year with Detroit, posting 21 goals and 59 points while earning $4 million, while Toews’ most recent salary was $10.5 million, when he posted 15 goals and 31 points for Chicago. They’ve become very rich men very early in their lives, and so their main motivation now is likely more about the chance to win another Cup than anything else. So while there may be a bidding war for their services this summer, a team could probably pick them up together for something in the area of a combined $6 million or $7 million.

Adding one of Kane or Toews would certainly help any team, but two of them as a package deal? Well, that could prove to be the piece that elevates a team from a fringe playoff team to a legitimate Cup contender. The line that separates elite teams is thinner than ever, after all.

Who knows – perhaps Kane and Toews go their separate ways. But maybe there’s a GM out there who recognizes an exciting opportunity when they see one and sells both veterans on the value of playing together once again. 

You don’t often get the chance to acquire potential Hall of Famers in hockey’s top league, but the chance to acquire two of them in one fell swoop has to be exceedingly tempting.

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