MIAMI — Xavier Edwards hit a tying two-run single in the ninth, then raced home with the winning run on Agustín Ramírez's chopper in front of the plate as the Marlins rallied to beat the New York Yankees 13-12 in front of an electric Miami crowd on Friday night.
Edwards' hit came off new Yankees reliever Camilo Doval (4-3) and he beat the attempted tag at home on Ramírez's fielder's choice grounder.
Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham hit three-run homers that helped the Yankees build a 9-4 lead before the Marlins stunned New York with a six-run seventh.
Kyle Stowers hit a grand slam off newly acquired Yankees reliever Jake Bird, and Javier Sanoja hit a solo shot off David Bednar, another new acquisition. Ramírez singled twice, including a leadoff base hit and a go-ahead single that put the Marlins up 10-9.
Anthony Volpe then tied it at 10 with a leadoff home run in the eighth, and Bednar pitched a scoreless inning before McMahon's single against Anthony Bender (3-5) in the ninth. Volpe, who had four hits, gave the Yankees a two-run cushion with a run-scoring double.
Yankees starter Carlos Rodón was lifted in the fifth after issuing his fifth walk. The left-hander shook his head as he left the mound, with his outing ending after striking out nine and allowing two walks and four runs.
Rodón held the Marlins without a hit before Eric Wagaman's leadoff single in the fifth. Sanoja launched an opposite field two-run shot off Rodón, and pinch-hitter Liam Hicks drove in two with a single off Jonathan Loáisiga that made it 6-4.
Jasson Dominguez also had three hits. Camilo Doval earned his 16th save
Junk went five innings and allowed six runs and six hits while striking out four.
The announced crowd at loanDepot park was a season-high 32,299.
José Caballero, pinch-running for Ben Rice, scored on McMahon's go-ahead single after stealing second.
Marlins pitchers had thrown 22 scoreless innings before Stanton's homer.
Yankees RHP Cam Schlittler (1-1, 4.91) goes against Marlins RHP Eury Pérez (3-3, 3.07) on Saturday.
PHILADELPHIA — Phillies slugger Bryce Harper was ejected in the seventh inning of Friday's game against Detroit for arguing a called third strike on a check swing.
The Phillies scored three runs in the seventh to tie the game 3-all and had two runners on base with two outs when Harper faced Tigers reliever Will Vest.
Harper tried to check his swing on a full-count changeup from Vest, but third base umpire Vic Carapazza rang up the Harper, who ripped his helmet off his head in a outburst and shouted as he waved his arms at Carapazza.
Harper was promptly tossed and kept his helmet with him as he walked into the dugout.
“I left the batter's box walking toward him, so I think it was warranted,” Harper said.
Harper said after the Phillies beat the Tigers 5-4 that he had yet to see the replay, which seemed to indicate he went around with his swing.
“Can't get thrown out in that situation, especially with the ninth inning possibly coming around and my at-bat coming up,” Harper said.
Ryan Helsley made his Mets debut on Friday night and premiered his signature walk-out from the bullpen to the Citi Field crowd.
Similar to Diaz's "Narcos" walk-out, the lights in the stadium go dark as the bell tolls throughout the stadium as AC/DC's "Hells Bells" begins to play as Helsley makes his way to the mound.
Of course, this is the song made famous by Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman but Helsley has made it his own over the years and has now brought it to Flushing.
But a killer walk-out entrance is nothing without the performance to back it up, and Helsley did. Pitching in a tied game in the ninth, Helsley allowed two hits but struck out three batters to get out of trouble. He became just the sixth Mets pitcher ever to strike out three batters in his debut inning. That performance gave his new team a chance to walk off the Giants. Unfortunately for the Mets, San Francisco would push across the ghost-runner in the 10th to take the 4-3 win.
Despite the result, Helsley's new manager and teammates were impressed with the right-hander.
"He was pretty good. 100 first pitch," Carlos Mendoza said with a smirk after the game. "Around the strikezone, it’s a really, really good fastball then you look at the breaking ball, the slider and some of those pitches, you keep the hitters guessing…. He’s a pretty tough at-bat. He’s a pretty elite arm right there."
Helsley was one of three relievers the Mets acquired before the trade deadline, along with the Giants' Tyler Rogers and the Orioles' Gregory Soto, days prior. All three hope to give the Mets a boost in the bullpen and depth for a deep postseason run.
"Lights out. He was all over it," David Peterson said of Helsley after the game. "We’re all excited for all the guys we brought over. Now that we’re passed [the trade deadline], this is our group and we’re ready to continue all the way to the end of the year."
The Yankees' group of trade acquisitions made a dreadful first impression on Friday night, as multiple leads were blown in a stunning and inexplicable 13-12 loss to the Marlins at LoanDepot Park.
Here are the takeaways...
-- There couldn't have been any legitimate complaints about the early pace of play, as both starting pitchers worked efficiently and held everyone hitless through the first three innings. Janson Junk, the former Yankees farmhand, induced four groundouts and three flyouts in his three perfect frames, while Carlos Rodón struck out four and allowed a walk during the same stretch. But the blemish-free outing didn't last long enough for Junk.
-- The Yankees' bats woke up in the fourth, as back-to-back singles from Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez disrupted Junk's rhythm. A flyout to right from Cody Bellinger allowed Grisham to advance to third, and after a steal of second from Dominguez with one out, Giancarlo Stanton ripped a three-run homer to left that broke the ice. The veteran slugger's ninth blast of the season had a scorching 116 mph exit velocity, and it was his first homer at LoanDepot Park since Sept. 28, 2017. At that time, Stanton was playing his final games with the Marlins.
-- While the no-hit bid remained alive for Rodón through four innings, the veteran southpaw had to circumvent a jam due to free passes. He allowed a leadoff walk to Agustin Ramirez, who ultimately reached third with stolen bases that followed strikeouts. With two outs and Ramirez just 90 feet away from home, Rodón walked another to set up runners on the corners, but he craftily left the mound unscathed by fanning Kyle Stowers.
-- Junk's woes continued in the fifth, as the Yankees posted another three-spot to increase their lead to a comfortable 6-0. The rally began with a one-out single from Anthony Volpe, who then stole second with two outs and reached home on an RBI single from Dominguez. A walk from Grisham and another stolen bag from Dominguez set up two in scoring position for Bellinger, who wound up driving in the pair with a single to right. It marked the Yankees' second lead of six-plus runs in as many games.
-- Rodón experienced hiccups of his own after the Yankees padded their cushion. He lost the no-hit bid by allowing a leadoff single to Eric Wagaman, and in the ensuing at-bat, he served up a two-run homer to Javier Sanoja that cleared the wall in right. Rodón recovered with a sweat-drenched uniform, striking out two with another walk sandwiched in between. But he couldn't complete the inning, as his fifth walk of the outing prompted manager Aaron Boone to leave the dugout and take the ball. Rodón threw 107 total pitches (61 for strikes) and punched out nine.
-- Despite using Jonathan Loaisiga as the closer in Thursday's win, the Yankees turned to the right-hander as Rodón's replacement with two outs in the fifth. The strategy quickly backfired, as Loaisiga plunked Otto Lopez to load the bases and then allowed a two-run bloop single to Liam Hicks that cut the Yankees' lead to 6-4. But the inning could've been far worse, as Ryan McMahon stopped the bleeding with a slick snag at third that robbed Stowers of a knock and the Marlins of more runs. In the end, Rodón was charged with four earned runs -- his season ERA is now 3.34.
-- The Yankees didn't take kindly to the Marlins' round of punches. After a quiet sixth inning against reliever Valente Bellozo, they rapidly produced another three runs in the seventh, as singles from Volpe and Austin Wells preceded a towering three-run homer to right from Grisham. It was a milestone dinger off the foul pole for Grisham, who now has a career-high 19 homers on the year.
-- The seventh inning was a nightmare for the Yankees' newly acquired relievers. Jake Bird made his debut first, and after loading the bases via a single, double, and walk, he served up a one-out grand slam to Stowers that suddenly cut the Yankees' lead to 9-8. David Bednar then took the mound, and after recording the second out, he allowed a game-tying blast to Sanoja that sent the crowd into a frenzy. In the blink of an eye, Bednar gave up three more hits, and the stunning six-run rally from the Marlins put them ahead, 10-9.
-- Somehow, the Yankees' seventh-inning stench wasn't as strong as the game's drunken breath. Just four pitches into the eighth, Volpe knotted the score at 10-10 with a mammoth solo homer to left off Lake Bachar. In spite of his incessant defensive blunders at shortstop, Volpe now has 17 homers this season, and he's hit .438 (7-for-16) over his last four games. Bednar returned for a second inning of work and kept the game tied by retiring the Marlins in order with two strikeouts.
-- While the Yankees' newest relievers failed to impress, their newest third baseman and utilityman stepped up when it mattered most. After a two-out single from Ben Rice off reliever Anthony Bender, speedster Jose Caballero entered as a pinch-runner and managed to steal second. The hustle from Caballero paid off, as McMahon stepped up to the plate and delivered a go-ahead RBI single to center. Then, six pitches later, Volpe delivered an insurance run, crushing a double to deep center that increased the Yankees' lead to 12-10.
-- Camilo Doval was tasked with closing out the ninth, and his Yankees debut also brought misery. He blew the save in brutal fashion, as Sonoja and Jakob Marsee scored the game-tying runs with one out when a single to right from Xavier Edwards trickled past Caballero's glove. Then, moments later, Ramirez nubbed a ball in front of the plate that forced Wells chasing and allowed Edwards to slide in head-first for the winning run. A stunning collapse for the Yankees, and their worst loss in recent memory.
Game MVP: Javier Sanoja
The second-year infielder found himself in the middle of several Marlins rallies, and finished the night 3-for-5 with a home run and three runs scored.
British No 1 beaten 6-2, 6-1 in Montreal third round
Anisimova lines up meeting with Elina Svitolina
Emma Raducanu has crashed out of the Canadian Open in straight sets, going down 6-2, 6-1 to the American fifth seed Amanda Anisimova in the third round.
Raducanu had won both of their previous meetings but rarely looked like extending that run as she held her serve just once in either set in Montreal.
The Buffalo Sabres desperately need to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs next season. And while the Philadelphia Flyers aren't quite as desperate as the Sabres are to do so, Philadelphia GM Daniel Briere wouldn't object at all if the Flyers surprised people and got into the post-season this coming year.
Could Philadelpha get in the way of Buffalo as both teams likely pursue a wild-card playoff berth next season? That's what we're getting at in this THN.com Sabres site series. Below, you'll see how Buffalo fared against the Flyers last year, what dates the two teams will play against each other in the nex season, and more. Let's get to it.
BUFFALO SABRES VS. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
NEW FLYERS PLAYERS: Trevor Zegras, C; Christian Dvorak, C; Noah Juulsen, D ; Dennis Gilbert, D; Dan Vladar, G
2024-25 SERIES: Sabres 1-2-0, Flyers 2-1-0
2025-26 GAMES AGAINST EACH OTHER: December 3 at Philadelphia; December 18 at Buffalo; January 14 at Buffalo
CAN THE SABRES BEAT THIS TEAM? The Sabres and Flyers squared off against one another deep into the regular-season last year, with both teams playing their last game of the season against each other. Philadelphia beat Buffalo in a meaningless final game, but there's always been a solid-rivalry energy when the Sabres and Flyers go head-to-head.
This time around, the Sabres and Flyers will play each other three times within a six-week span starting in early December and lasting until mid-January. And if Buffalo continues being a strong team at home this coming season, they have an excellent opportunity to put some standings space in-between them and the Flyers.
That said, the Flyers make some understandable gambles -- and some curious ones -- in the current off-season. Zegras was no longer a good fit in Anaheim, and the Flyers need some of the scoring power Zegras has been able to bring early in his NHL career. Dvorak was given a one-year, $5.4-million contract at a time where teams value the third-line center position Dvorak is pretty solid at.
And given that the Flyers had the league's fifth-worst goals-against average (3.45) last season, getting a veteran goalie -- in this case, former Calgary Flames netminder Dan Vladar, who signed a two-year deal at $3.35-million per season -- was paramount for the Flyers to even hope to be playing meaningful hockey down the stretch.
If there was an X-factor that could be at play in the three games the Flyers and Sabres play next year, it could prove to be new Flyers coach Rick Tocchet. If the Jack Adams Award-winner as the NHL's best bench boss in 2024 with the Vancouver Canucks can drop into that Philadelphia room and instill a sense of confidence in his players, the Flyers can look to fast-track their development and contend for a playoff berth sooner than later.
Still, if we're talking about how the Sabres and Flyers will do against each other, we feel good about Buffalo's chances of winning at least two of the three games they'll play next season. Buffalo's defense is clearly better than Philadelphia's, and the same goes for the Sabres' depth of high-end talent at forward. Buffalo has more upper-tier talent at all positions, so a Sabres sweep wouldn't and shouldn't be out of the question next year.
The big question with this rivalry may be about the two teams' goaltending. Vladar doesn't have to be a superstar to do the job in Philadelphia. He just has to keep the Flyers within a one-or-two-goal distance from their opponent, and let Philly's offence win the game for them. And in Buffalo, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi and Alex Lyon are a better trio than Vladar, Ivan Fedotov and Samuel Ersson.
You can see, then, why there are bigger expectations for the Sabres than there are for the Flyers right now. Philadelphia is still in the early stages of a proper rebuild. Buffalo is well beyond the honeymoon stage of their core talent coming up and settling in. So Sabres coach Lindy Ruff will be under enormous pressure to use Buffalo's superior depth to their advantage.
It's difficult to envision both the Flyers and Sabres being playoff teams next season. But it also feels like it will be unlikely that Philadelphia and Buffalo both fail to make the playoffs next year. There's lots to like on both teams, but the Sabres should have an urgency to their game that we doubt the Flyers can match. .
Dom Smith beat his former team Friday night, smacking an RBI single in the 10th inning off Edwin Díaz to lift the San Francisco Giants to a 4-3 victory over the Mets in front of a sellout crowd of 42,777 at Citi Field.
The Mets had a late chance with the Fab Four coming up in their half of the 10th inning. The top of the order had started a rally in the eighth inning, but couldn’t do it again. The Mets left the bases loaded in the 10th inning when Ronny Mauricio struck out for the final out against Giants closer Randy Rodriguez.
It was the fourth straight loss for the Mets, who fell to 62-48.
Here are the takeaways...
-The Mets rallied for two runs in the eighth inning, thanks to the top of their lineup. With one out, Brandon Nimmo walked and Francisco Lindor lined a single to right. Juan Soto hit a ball off the foot of Giants reliever Joey Lucchesi, the former Met, and the ball bounded into left field for an RBI single. Pete Alonso followed with a sac fly to center off Jose Butto – his Mets teammate as recently as two days ago – to knot the score at 3-3. Lindor had been in a 0-for-13 slide before his hit and Soto had been 0-for-8.
-With the Mets trailing, 3-0, in the seventh, Pete Alonso led off with a rocket over the fence in right-center, his 23rd home run of the season. It was also the 249th of his career, bringing him within three home runs of tying Darryl Strawberry’s franchise record of 252. Before the homer, which traveled 414 feet and had an exit velocity of 110.1 miles per hour, according to Statcast, Alonso had been mired in a 0-for-19 skid. It was Alonso’s second homer since July 10.
-In his first inning of work as a Met, Ryan Helsley, acquired from the Cardinals this week, allowed two singles but struck out three in a scoreless ninth with the score tied. His high-octane fastball, which got as high as 101.4 miles per hour, finished off one strikeout and his slider ended the other two. Fans seemed entertained.
-David Peterson, perhaps predictably, pitched well yet again and provided the Mets some length. He gave up two runs and four hits over six innings and has now thrown at least six innings 14 times this season. Except for a slight wobble in the second inning, Peterson did not give the Giants much. In that frame, he walked the leadoff man, Matt Chapman, and then gave up a single to Wilmer Flores and then an RBI double to Casey Schmitt. The second Giant run scored on Jung Hoo Lee’s RBI grounder and broke Peterson’s streak of four straight starts allowing one earned run or fewer. Friday’s start was Peterson’s 21st of the season, matching his career high set in each of the previous two seasons. He also achieved a new career-best for innings pitched in a single season with 127. He started the night with 121 innings, the exact number he set as a personal best last year.
-Friday was the first time all season the Mets had lost a home start by Peterson. They had won the first 10. It is the second-longest such streak in club history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In 1989, the Mets won the first 11 games started by David Cone.
-Mark Vientos extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single to center with one out in the fifth. It was the Mets’ first hit of the game off Ray. One out later, Luis Torrens singled up the middle to give the Mets two baserunners, by Tyrone Taylor grounded out to end the inning.
-In the sixth inning, Alonso missed a foul pop-up by Flores and was charged with an error. It was harmless, though, as Flores flew to right shortly thereafter and the Mets escaped the inning unscathed.
-Giants lefty Robbie Ray, who lost to the Mets last Saturday in San Francisco, threw seven sharp innings, allowing only one run and four hits. Ray struck out six and walked one and lowered his ERA to 2.85.
Game MVP: Dom Smith
Smith played for the Mets from 2017-22. His clutch pinch-hit extended his hitting streak to six games and made him 11-for-his-last-33 (.333).
Freddie Freeman hits a two-RBI double during the first inning of the Dodgers' 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. (Jason Behnken / Associated Press)
Then, in a serendipitous twist, it gave him a lightning-bulb epiphany about his recently ailing swing.
At the end of a long day during last week’s homestand — when Freeman was hit by a pitch on July 20, immediately removed from the game to get an X-ray, then informed he somehow hadn’t sustained serious injury — the first baseman received a comical video edit on Instagram from a friend. A light reprieve at the end of a stressful afternoon.
Freeman got a chuckle out of the clip in which the couple who were infamously shown at a recent Coldplay concert are edited to look like they are instead reacting to his iconic slam.
But, while rewatching his Fall Classic moment, Freeman also drew an observation from something in his batting stance.
“I’m more in my front ankle,” Freeman said of his stance during the at-bat.
It was a subtle, but profound, contrast to how he had been swinging amid his recent two-month cold spell — reminding him to reincorporate his legs more into his mechanics and not lean as far back in his setup at the plate.
So, for the rest of that evening, Freeman thought about the difference (which, he joked, kept him up for much of the night). The next afternoon, he went straight into the Dodgers’ batting cages, focused on driving into his front ankle in an attempt to get his swing realigned.
“It’s a different thought of being in your legs when you’re hitting,” said Freeman, who had started the season batting .371 over his first 38 games, before slumping to a .232 mark over his next 49 contests. “It’s just more [about leaning] into my front ankle. It’s helping me be on time and on top [of the ball].”
“We’ll see,” he added with a chuckle, “how it goes in the game.”
Ten games later, it seems to be going pretty well.
Since making the tweak on July 21, Freeman is 14 for 39 (.359 average) with two home runs, four extra base hits, 10 RBIs and (most importantly) a renewed confidence at the plate.
After collecting his first three-hit game in a month Tuesday in Cincinnati, then his first home run in all of July the next day against the Reds, he stayed hot in the Dodgers’ series-opening 5-0 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, whacking a two-run double in the first inning and a solo home run in the fifth in front of a crowd of 10,046 at Steinbrenner Field (the New York Yankees’ spring training park serving as the Rays’ temporary home).
“That visual helped him kind of tap into something,” manager Dave Roberts said recently of Freeman’s post-meme swing adjustment. “He is early, for a change. Versus being late, chasing.”
On Friday, Freeman said he is no longer thinking about the ankle cue.
“I’m just getting in the box and swinging now,” he said. “I've been taking some pitches, working a couple of walks, getting deeper in counts, hitting the pitches I need to hit. ... It's just been, [get] in the box and [be] on time.”
Still, he acknowledged, the meme-inspired swing thought might have served as a helpful reset.
“I feel like I've been grinding for six, seven weeks ... but obviously I'm trending in a great direction right now,” he said. “I just try and ride it. I know my work is usually going to end up working at some point.”
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers during a 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday. (Jason Behnken / Associated Press)
Indeed, Freeman’s turnaround is something the Dodgers — who also got six scoreless innings out of Clayton Kershaw on Friday, lowering his season earned-run average to 3.29 in 13 starts — are expecting out of several superstar sluggers over the final two months of the regular season.
During Thursday’s trade deadline, the team didn’t splurge on big-name acquisitions. The only addition they made to their recently slumping lineup (which ranked 28th in the majors in scoring during July) was versatile outfielder Alex Call from the Washington Nationals.
Instead, both Roberts and club executives have preached of late, the team is banking on players like Mookie Betts (who is batting .237), Teoscar Hernández (who has hit .217 since returning from an adductor strain in May), Tommy Edman (who has hit .211 since returning from an ankle injury in May) and even Shohei Ohtani (who leads the National League in home runs, but is batting only .221 since resuming pitching duties in June) to play up to their typical, potent standards.
“I think if you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently,” Roberts said. “That’s something that we’re all counting on.”
For much of the summer, Freeman had been squarely in that group of underperforming veteran stars.
But his recent rebound (regardless of what triggered it) is providing a template for the rest of the lineup to follow — the start, the Dodgers continue to hope, of more roster-wide improvements over the stretch run.
“Five or six months ago in spring training, we were talking about how great of a team we have,” Freeman said. “We still have that great of a team. Obviously, some of us haven't played as well, so it's on us to get going. And a few of us are getting going right now. I think we're going to be just fine going forward.”
He’d had to wake up in the wee hours to catch a flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia. And once he arrived, the Phillies’ new closer didn’t have much chance at a peaceful hotel snooze.
“I’m not sleeping because my little boy, he’s got a lot of energy,” Duran said.
At Citizens Bank Park, all was well on the energy front.
Duran made his elaborate entrance, locked down a 5-4 win over the Tigers in four pitches and enjoyed his first post-trade deadline taste of Phillies fans’ passion.
“I can see they love baseball,” he said. “They do everything for baseball, so I love that.”
Duran spent his first four MLB seasons in Minnesota, where he saved 74 games and compiled a 2.47 ERA. By many metrics, he’s been elite this year. According to Baseball Savant, Duran ranks in the 99th percentile in off-speed run value, barrel percentage and ground ball percentage. Duran has allowed a single home run. His four-seam fastball’s averaged 100.2 mph.
New Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader saw Duran’s Twins dominance firsthand.
“Plain and simple, he has close-the-door stuff,” Bader said pregame. ”That’s the best way to describe it. … Baseball happens, maybe he puts runners on, he’s got strikeout stuff to go and strike out three in a row.”
The Phillies did their best to make Duran feel at home in his debut.
The flashing lights and pulsating music and virtual flames were ready to roll as he jogged out for the ninth inning. Duran did so wearing No. 59 because Phillies manager Rob Thomson offered it up.
“He was very respectful,” Thomson said. “I called him and we were chit-chatting. I just said, ‘Hey look, the number really doesn’t mean much to me, but if it makes you feel better, I’m all-in.’ He said, ‘Well, you know, yeah …’ And I said, ‘Then it’s yours.’
“The only one that’s upset at this point is my wife because all her merchandise has 59 on it. Now we’ve got to go find her new stuff.”
Thomson’s switched to No. 49, which he said is to honor Yankees great and friend Ron Guidry.
Following the Phils’ three-run seventh inning and two-run eighth, the night culminated in Duran’s ninth.
“It looked good from my locker,” Bryce Harper quipped after his seventh-inning ejection. “We all know what it was like in Minnesota when he came into the game. Lights-out stuff.”
Thomson described Duran as “electric.”
“Four pitches. The first pitch was a 98 mph split,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen that before. He threw strikes. He was calm, cool. It was great.”
Duran’s first pitch was technically his splinker, a go-to splitter-sinker hybrid. In fact, so were his second, third and fourth pitches.
After he grabs some shut-eye, there’s a lot left to show.
The Hockey Show is back with a new episode, and this week we’re welcoming a three-time Stanley Cup champion!
Joining hosts Roy Bellamy and David Dwork on this week’s show is former New Jersey Devils great and current team analyst Ken Daneyko.
At the moment, Daneyko is coaching in the summer 3ICE league which is taking place in South Florida at the Baptist Health IcePlex, which is the Florida Panthers new practice facility.
The former Cup winner discussed what it was like building a champion with the Devils, comparing that team with the current Florida Panthers and how they play the game and how he milked every single minute out of his 24 hours with the Cup after the Devils’ three wins.
Roy and Dave also ranked NHL logo changes, they got into the latest with the Florida Panthers and their Stanley Cup summer and looked at how some of the team’s contracts are being viewed.
This week’s wins and fails included the ageless Jaromir Jagr, an insane ending to a roller hockey championship game and some jarring axe throwing by a well-known NHL mascot.
Charlie Woods dropped into a tie for ninth on the final day of the Junior PGA Championship, which took him out of the running for a qualifying spot for the US Junior Ryder Cup team on Friday.
The 16-year-old son of Tiger Woods shot back-to-back 66s in the second and third rounds at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind., and was tied for second place entering the final round.
The Detroit Red Wings have been active so far in the 2025 offseason with respect to player movement.
Not only did they trade Vladimir Tarasenko and his $4.75 million cap hit to the Minnesota Wild, but they also signed a multitude of free agents, including forwards James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton along with defensemen Jacob Bernard-Docker and Ian Mitchell.
Jonatan Berggren and Albert Johansson, both of whom were restricted free agents, agreed to new contracts.
Additionally, they shored up the crease by acquiring veteran goaltender John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Petr Mrazek.
However, Red Wings fans are still hoping that GM Steve Yzerman is lying in wait to soon pounce and make what could be considered a major splash of an acquisition.
There are few executives in professional sports today who keep their cards closer to the vest than Yzerman, though he did say he was open to making a major move during his end-of-season press conference.
Unfortunately, opportunities to acquire some of the more notable names in free agency didn't present themselves.
Mitch Marner was dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights in a major sign-and-trade, while the Florida Panthers somehow managed to re-sign Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Brad Marchand before they hit the open market.
Reports surfaced that former Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who signed with the Carolina Hurricanes, wasn't interested in even discussing a contract with Detroit. Goal scoring forward Brock Boeser re-signed with the Vancouver Canucks, while former New York Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller was traded to the Hurricanes and subsequently signed an eight-year extension.
For Yzerman, he said there wasn't much he could do in this situation and that it wasn't exactly a surprise that they weren't able to so much as sit down with some of the more notable names.
"We were were certainly open to it," Yzerman said. "The guys that we were hoping to talk to all signed before free agency with their clubs, or got traded. In the case of Mitch Marner, we didn't even get an opportunity to talk to these guys. There's not much you can do about that.
"Going into free agency, I think we all recognize that it was going to be difficult all around the league. There weren’t as many as what we would all consider high-end free agents available this year. So it wasn't really a shock to us that we weren't able to get anything done with any of the bigger name guys."
That being said, there is still plenty of time between now and the start of Training Camp in mid-September for a trade.
Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars, who has ties to Michigan and scored 35 goals this past season, remains a talked-about name in trade rumors. Additionally, goal scoring forwards Bryan Rust (Pontiac, MI native) and Rickard Rakell of the Pittsburgh Penguins have been linked to the Red Wings as potential acquisitions.
On the back end, Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson and Jack Roslovic, who played last season for the Hurricanes, are possibilities for Yzerman to consider.
While Yzerman expressed hope that the players currently on Detroit's roster take another step in the upcoming campaign, there still remains the potential of a major pickup via the trade market.
The opportunity is still there, and Yzerman could choose to make that leap at any moment.
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Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy is a player to keep an eye on. The right-shot blueliner is entering the final season of his contract, so he certainly stands out as a potential trade chip for the rebuilding Blackhawks. This is especially so when NHL teams are often willing to pay more for big, right-shot defenseman.
Due to this, let’s look at three teams who could target Murphy if he is made available by the Blackhawks.
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings could make a lot of sense as a landing spot for Murphy, as it is clear that the right side of their defense could use improvement. If the Red Wings acquired Murphy, he could slot nicely on their second pairing with Simon Edvinsson and would also be a clear option for their penalty kill.
Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars’ biggest weakness currently is the right side of their defense. Because of this, it would not be surprising in the slightest if they made a push to acquire Murphy, whether that is this summer or during the season. If the Stars acquired him, he would provide them with a clear upgrade over Ilya Lyubushkin in their top four. Therefore, there could be a good match here.
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes could also be an intriguing landing spot for Murphy. When looking at their roster, it is fair to argue that they could use another experienced blueliner on their right side. If the Hurricanes acquired Murphy, he could be a good fit on their bottom pairing with offensive defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere.
