Less than a week ago, Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams spoke with the media at the opening of training camp at LECOM Harborcenter with news about the injury status of goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen that was so uncertain that the club opted to sign veteran goalie Alexandar Georgiev as an insurance policy, but following the Sabres intersquad scrimmage, head coach Lindy Ruff had encouraging news regarding his starting goalie.
"(Luukkonen) is really feeling pretty good,” Ruff said. Whether he's ready to participate (in practice) on Monday or not, we'll see, but (there have been) a couple of really good reports on how he's progressing."
Adams indicated last week that the 26-year-old goalie had a lower-body injury that he was having issues with. While the Sabres GM did not want to sound alarm bells, he determined that it was out of an abundance of caution to sign Georgiev, who started for Colorado and San Jose last season to a one-year, $825,000 one-way contract.
The news was also positive on winger Alex Tuch, who missed the start of training camp with a minor lower-body injury. The 29-year-old tied a career-high with 36 goals last season and will be depended on to be a primary offensive contributor with the departure of second-leading scorer JJ Peterka calling into question whether the Sabres can generate enough goals to stay competitive in the Eastern Conference playoff race this season.
"We'll get him to skate in on Monday and in all likelihood, if (he) doesn't come into the lineup Monday or Tuesday, it's only because he missed this amount of time,” Ruff said. “We'd like him to skate a little bit more. He would have loved to play in the scrimmage, but I thought he skated great this morning.”
The Sabres open their exhibition schedule in Columbus on Monday, and will face the Blue Jackets at KeyBank Center on Tuesday night.
Penn State, which had been No. 2 since the preseason, was idle and slipped to No. 3. LSU fell one spot to No. 4 after an easy win over Southeastern Louisiana of the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision.
The annual Detroit Red Wings Red & White game, which is typically played at Center I.C.E. Arena in Traverse City, Mich., was moved to Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich. for the first time since 2011.
The event, comprised of Red Wings players split into two groups, was announced as a full sellout at the venue that serves as the home of the American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins.
Team White pulled out a 3-2 victory thanks to a pair of goals from Elmer Söderblom as well as another goal from Alex DeBrincat; Jonatan Berggren and Emmitt Finnie scored for Team Red.
Right from the get-go, the fans were energized, engaged, and loud.
Afterward, Red Wings team captain Dylan Larkin had nothing but great things to say about the fans who packed the building to cheer them on in their final tune-up before the pre-season begins on Tuesday.
"Unbelievable atmosphere," Larkin said. "I'm not surprised, knowing the hockey fans here in Grand Rapids. I'm sure there are people who drove from all over the west side of the state to come and watch and cheer us on, and show us some support today. That was really special, and it's something I'll always remember."
Like the rest of his teammates, Larkin is chomping at the bit to get into the pre-season against non-Detroit opponents.
"It was a productive game and was good to get back on an NHL ice surface and something we're more familiar with," he said. "I thought it was productive and I think we're tired of playing against each other. We're ready to get into the pre-season games here."
The Red Wings have eight pre-season games scheduled in the next few weeks, beginning with a matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday evening at Little Caesars Arena.
As they did in the Red & White game, young Red Wings prospects like Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård will be getting plenty of playing time.
"A lot of them looked really good," Larkin said of Detroit's young prospects. "You see speed, you see skill. I think they all have very good attributes, whether it's a shot or skating or a brain. But they all seem eager to want to learn and they've really been impressive with their work ethic on and off the ice."
Tuesday's game at Little Caesars Arena, which will be the first unofficial game of former Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill behind the bench of the Blackhawks in the same role, is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET.
The Red River Rivalry would be played a second time this season with Oklahoma hosting Texas in the first round of the College Football Playoff if the bracket were based on The Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday.
Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers during a 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Half-filled duffle bags littered the floor of the Dodgers' clubhouse Sunday afternoon while a jumble of suitcases stood inside the locker room door.
Sunday’s 3-1 matinee loss to the San Francisco Giants, a game which featured another late-inning bullpen meltdown, was the last chance to see the Dodgers at home during the regular season and 46,601 people brought tickets to mark the occasion, pushing the team’s attendance above 4 million for the first time.
But the vibe wasn’t so much “goodbye” and it was “we’ll be right back,” since the team and its fans are expecting to return to Dodger Stadium to open the National League playoffs next week. Even the retiring Clayton Kershaw made that point when he briefly addressed the crowd before the game.
“Remember, we’ve got another month left,” he said. “So we'll see you at the end of October.”
That may be a bit ambitious. But barring disaster — never count out the Dodgers’ bullpen — the team is guaranteed at least two more games at home this season. The Dodgers will hit the road Monday for their final six games of the regular season with a magic number at three, meaning any combination of Dodger wins and Padres losses totaling three will give the team its 12th West Division title in 13 years — and the Dodger Stadium playoff dates that go with it.
“Our head right now, to be honest, is on winning this division and going forward,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I just want to win the division and get to the postseason.”
The team missed a chance to move a big step closer to that goal Sunday when it wasted another brilliant performance from right-hander Emmet Sheehan, who held the Giants to a hit over seven innings, retiring 15 in a row at one point.
Sheehan, who didn’t allow a runner after hitting Andrew Knizner to open the third, matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts. But for the third time in four appearances that wasn’t good enough to get the win after reliever Blake Treinen gave up three eighth-inning runs to turn a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 loss.
And that left Roberts to once again profess his faith in a pitcher who has taken the loss in four of his last five appearances and given up 11 earned runs in his last 5 1/3 innings.
“I've got to trust what I'm seeing, and not solely bet on the person or track record,” Roberts said of Treinen, who is 0-5 with a 11.57 ERA in seven innings this month. “We all need to see a couple good outings but most importantly, I want to see his confidence up. And to be quite honest, I think that right now he's just not as confident in himself as I am in him.
“The main thing is that we got to get that confidence back.”
That didn’t happen Sunday when his brief appearance turned a pitchers’ duel into batting practice.
Giants’ starter Trevor McDonald, who was making his first big-league start, nearly matched Sheehan through six innings before tiring in the seventh. Max Muncy opened the inning with a walk — the only one McDonald issued — and moved to second on a two-strike single to right by Andy Pages. Michael Conforto then looped the first pitch he saw into left field to score Muncy and end McDonald’s day after 89 pitches.
The Dodgers could get no more, however, with pinch-hitter Tommy Edman lining into a double play to end the inning. And that proved costly when Treinen (1-7) came out of the bullpen to give up three consecutive hits, the last a run-scoring double from pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey.
Three batters later, Willy Adames drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Giants the lead, an advantage they extended to 3-1 on Matt Chapman’s soft grounder to short.
Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen, right, speaks with pitching coach Mark Prior and catcher Dalton Rushing after giving up a bases-loaded walk Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers went quietly after that, with a pair of Giant relievers holding them to just a hit over the two innings, spoiling the day for a sun-splashed crowd that made history by pushing the Dodgers’ home attendance to a franchise-record 4,012,470.
The Dodgers, who averaged 49,537 fans a game in 2025, have led the majors in attendance the last 12 years — excluding 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced teams to play behind closed doors. But the most they had drawn in a season previously was 3,974,309 in 2019.
The Dodgers are the fifth team to top 4 million, joining the Blue Jays, Rockies, Mets and Yankees, but the first to do so since 2008, when both New York teams did it. Colorado holds the major league record having sold 4,483,350 tickets during it inaugural season in 1993, when it played at an 80,000-seat football stadium.
“Like every season it's been up and down, an emotional year. And for these fans to show up every day, it's incredible,” Roberts said. “There's a reason why I feel that we have the best fans in sports, and the numbers speak to it.”
The Dodgers rewarded that loyalty, with their 52 wins at home this season ranking second in the majors. What they weren’t able to do was clinch the division title in front of their fans.
But if they can do that on the road this week, they’ll be right back home for at least two more games at Dodger Stadium in the playoffs.
Notes
Right-handers Brock Stewart and Roki Sasaki both pitched scoreless innings in relief for triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday in their final rehab appearances before the postseason roster is set. Stewart struck out one and gave up a hit, throwing nine of his 15 pitches for strikes. Sasaki did not allow a runner, striking out one of the three batters he faced and getting strikes on five of his eight pitches.
Both pitchers will join the team at the start of the road trip in Arizona, as will right-hander Brusdar Graterol, who threw a bullpen Sunday. It’s a sign of just how uncertain the Dodger reliever corps is that Graterol, who hasn’t pitched all season, is still a possibility for the postseason roster spot. Graterol made just seven regular-season appearances last year but pitched three times in the World Series.
The Flyers won their preseason opener Sunday night with a 3-2 shootout decision over the Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Matvei Michkov, Noah Cates, Rodrigo Abols and Emil Andrae all scored for the Flyers in the skills competition. Andrae’s tally was the winner in the 11th round.
Michkov and Abols provided the Flyers’ goals in regulation. Michkov’s marker came with 1:18 minutes left as the Flyers emptied their net and forced overtime.
The Flyers didn’t play five of their top six scorers from last season. They also sat three of their top defensemen in Travis Sanheim, Cam York and Nick Seeler, as well as their goaltending tandem of Samuel Ersson and Dan Vladar.
“These are teachable moments and it’s good to have my staff on the bench, how we work, that’s an important thing, too,” Tocchet said Sunday morning. “We haven’t been together ourselves.”
• So much has been made of young roster hopefuls like Alex Bump, Nikita Grebenkin and Jett Luchanko.
But there hasn’t been much noise about Abols, a big 29-year-old forward who played 22 games for the Flyers last season.
Abols has a legit chance to crack the club’s season-opening lineup in the bottom six. He can play center or winger and does a lot of the little things. He also moves well for his size.
The 6-foot-4 Latvian scored on a nice shot only 2:42 minutes into the action off a pass from 2025 first-rounder Jack Nesbitt.
• Aleksei Kolosov was pretty solid in net through two periods. The 23-year-old stopped 15 of 17 shots.
The Islanders tied the game at 1-1 in the second period when Kyle Palmieri flushed a big rebound after Kolosov converted a save on 2025 first overall pick Matthew Schaefer.
But later in the period, Kolosov made a pair of athletic saves. The second came with New York on a 2-on-1 rush at shorthanded.
Kolosov then faced another 2-on-1 rush in the middle stanza but couldn’t deny this one as Marshall Warren put the Islanders ahead.
The 20-year-old Carson Bjarnason took over at the start of the third period and turned away all 17 shots that he faced.
• Trevor Zegras centered a line with Michkov and Grebenkin. The trio did some good things offensively.
“He plays with a ton of bite,” AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley head coach John Snowden said last weekend. “He’s a highly skilled player, but he is not easy to play against at all. He’s going to whack you when you come off the bench, he’s going to crosscheck you, he’s going to stick his nose in there.”
The 22-year-old winger had a goal and two assists over the pair of rookie games. He also set up a goal in the 3-on-3 portion of Saturday’s scrimmage.
Nikita Grebenkin shows some of his skill in 3-on-3, Jack Nesbitt finishes with the goal. pic.twitter.com/N6DhOfIphd
• Lane Pederson suffered an upper-body injury toward the end of the first period and did not return to the game.
The 28-year-old center signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Flyers on July 1 and is projected to open the season with the Phantoms.
• The Flyers are off Monday before resuming training camp and game action Tuesday. After taking the ice in the morning, the club will head to Montreal for an exhibition matchup against the Canadiens (7 p.m. ET).
BALTIMORE (AP) — Ben Rice’s tiebreaking grand slam in the top of the 10th inning lifted the New York Yankees to a 7-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, keeping the pressure on first-place Toronto in the AL East.
New York remained two games behind the Blue Jays — who won at Kansas City — thanks to Rice, who had four hits and drove in five runs. His shot to right-center in the 10th off Keegan Akin broke a 1-all tie. Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a solo homer and Anthony Volpe an RBI single before the inning was over.
Kade Strowd (0-1) took the loss after striking out the side in the ninth and walking Aaron Judge to start the 10th.
David Bednar (6-5), one of six relievers used by New York, got the win.
Samuel Basallo homered in the fifth for the Orioles, and Rice answered with an RBI single the following inning.
Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish allowed a run and two hits in six innings with nine strikeouts and two walks.
New York rookie Cam Schlittler permitted a run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Key moment
Immediately before the grand slam, Rice hit a dribbler toward third base that rolled just foul. That would have scored one run had it stayed fair, but it would have also been an easy force play at third for the Orioles. Given another chance, Rice cleared the bases.
Key stat
It was the ninth grand slam of the year for the Yankees, tying Arizona for the major league lead.
Up next
Both teams are off Monday. The Yankees send Luis Gil (4-1) to the mound Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox. Baltimore begins a home series against Tampa Bay.
With the NHL pre-season having kicked off,
there are already a number of big-name young players stuck in limbo. The New Jersey Devils’
Luke Hughes, Anaheim Ducks’ Mason McTavish and Nashville Predators’
Luke Evangelista are the three notable restricted free agents left without an
NHL deal as training camp is well underway, with former first rounders
Alexander Holtz and Rasmus Kupari being the other two.
Many fans and pundits have questioned the
cost-benefit analysis of teams dragging out negotiations past training camp, as
it feels as though a trend has formed over the past number of years where
players would miss camp and even at times part of the season due to
negotiations, only to underperform that season after they’ve signed.
Before the 2004-05 lockout and subsequently
the sweeping changes to the NHL’s handling of player salaries and rights,
unrestricted free agency wasn’t really a thing for most players, as they were
mostly bound to their teams. As such, many players had longstanding holdouts.
Furthermore, teams were seemingly much more willing to play ‘hard-ball’ when
facing tough negotiations.
Chris
Kontos
Chris Kontos wasn’t a star, per se, but it
wasn’t because he lacked the skill. Once taken 15th overall in the 1982 draft
by the New York Rangers, Kontos would bounce around,
playing here, there and just about everywhere.
“I'd get called up, do my best, if the numbers
or the politics weren't right, I'd get sent down,” he said in an article for The Score in 2018.
“If the contract wasn't right, I'd go to Europe and play, and then come back
because somebody else was giving me a shot.
Ottawa
Senators’ then captain Alexei Yashin missed a full season thanks to
a contract dispute after what would be a career-high 94-point campaign in
1998-99. He would hardly miss a step, scoring 40 goals once again and notching
88 points in 2000-01, however, the damage was done, and the team ended up
flipping him to the New York Islanders for the second-overall
pick, which would become Jason Spezza, Zdeno Chara and NHL depth player Bill
Muckalt.
Yashin remained a prolific producer, but
struggled to maintain the production he had in Ottawa with the Islanders.
However, Yashin’s case study serves as a deafening reminder that even when
things eventually pan out between team and player, these hold-outs burn bridges
that continue to burn well after the ink dries on the dotted line.
Nikolai
Khabibulin
Nikolai Khabibulin’s tale was even messier on
the team's side. ‘The Bulin wall’ dominated in 1998-99, posting a .923 save
percentage through 63 games with the then Phoenix Coyotes before the dispute.
He then proceeded to miss nearly two full seasons due to a rift between himself
and the Coyotes. In 1999-00, Khabibulin was able to sign in the IHL, a minor
league at the time, where he won goaltender of the year, but he ended up
sitting out the 2000-01 season until his rights were dealt to the Tampa Bay
Lightning.
Ahead of the dispute, Khabibulin was coming
off a breakthrough season, fully legitimizing himself as an elite goalie talent,
and after that, the results speak for themselves. He added two All-Star game
appearances, won best goaltender at the 2002 Olympics, and in 2004, he backstopped
the Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup championship.
Michael
Peca
Michael Peca’s restricted free agency story is
yet another that ends with an eventual trade after missing a full season,
however there remain a few notable details. The Sabres’ captain was fresh off
finishing fifth in votes for the Frank J. Selke trophy at the time, with a
41-point season for the fourth highest on the team. The
tensions would eventually hit a breaking point with Peca lobbing
accusations at the NHL and the Buffalo Sabres of collusion to make an example
out of him to other star players looking to get paid – accusations that
both the team and league denied.
After plenty of posturing from the Sabres,
they’d eventually trade him to the New York Islanders, who would win big as
Peca would hit an all-time high in points with the team, with 60 in his return
to the ice in 2001-02, winning his second Selke and even finishing tenth in
Hart voting. He marks one of the few cases of players having a better season
after missing plenty of time due to holdouts.
Apart from Kontos, all of these players would
get a full training camp to get back into shape for the next season. While
missing a full season of hockey would be a tough hurdle to overcome for anyone,
these players had the runway to get themselves acclimated to the league again.
Compared to players now, who tend to only hold
out until mid-season, thanks to the Dec. 1 deadline, they aren’t afforded that
luxury. In the next piece of this two-part series, we’ll take a look at more
contemporary examples and whether they were able to thrive after missing the
start of their seasons.
The Ottawa Senators began their 2025 NHL preseason schedule on Sunday afternoon the same way they ended last season: falling behind 3-0, then losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto scored three goals in the first period, then held on for a 4-3 victory at Canadian Tire Centre.
The biggest storyline emerging from this one might end up being the health of Tyler Kleven. In the third period, he went into the end boards awkwardly, skates first, and eventually made his way down the tunnel and called it a night. It looked initially like it might be a knee or ankle injury, but the TV cameras caught him on the bench, looking uncomfortable and favouring his right shoulder.
The Sens said after the game there was no update yet on his condition.
The results of the NHL preseason schedule mean nothing, but if there’s one exhibition game this year the Senators would prefer to win most, it was this one.
For starters, this game was the only one scheduled for the Canadian Tire Centre, so the organization wanted to put on a good show for their fans. The Sens also dressed the bulk of their top players, while Toronto went with a far less experienced crew that should have been overmatched. And of course, the opponent on Sunday was the Leafs, the Sens' biggest rival, who ended their season with a six-game triumph back in April.
Ridly Greig, Arthur Kaliyev, and Olle Lycksell scored for the Senators. Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk each had two assists. Calle Jarnkrok, Nicholas Robertson, William Villeneuve, and Matthew Barbolini scored for Toronto.
Linus Ullmark allowed three goals on eight shots in the first period before Mads Sogaard took over, making 11 saves on 12 shots. Ullmark says he was always scheduled to play just the first 20 minutes.
Head coach Travis Green took some positives from the game.
"We did a lot of good things," Green said. "I thought the first period our execution with the puck wasn't quite where we wanted it to be. I like that we stayed with the game, even though we're down 3-0. And we had a lot of chances to score a lot more goals than we did. It was a pretty good game."
These same two teams will meet again on Tuesday, this time in Toronto.
By losing again Sunday and dropping their crucial three-game series to the lowly Washington Nationals, the Mets now find themselves in a tough spot with six games left to play in the regular season.
They are currently tied with the Cincinnati Reds, who completed a four-game sweep of Chicago Cubs on Sunday, for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League. But the Reds hold the tiebreaker over the Mets by winning the regular season series and would make the playoffs if the two teams finished with the same record.
Knowing what's at stake in the coming week, Carlos Mendoza said the club needs to do everything it can during this final stretch.
"We got to keep going," Mendoza said. "We got six more and a lot can happen. That's where we're at."
The manager is still confident in his players, believing they are often "one hit away" and adding that anything "could happen."
"You look at the talent there, we're one hit away, making one play, making one pitch. We're close," Mendoza said. "We just haven't be able to get that last hit like I said, to make that play when we need to, or to execute a pitch. It could happen."
Sean Manaea added: "Just looking around at everyone in the room, I feel like the veteran guys have been in this situation before. Maybe not the exact situation, but we've been in some precarious situations before. The young guys have been stepping up. I think combination of that is good. I think if anyone can do it, it's us."
Acknowledging that where the team is in the standings is on them, Francisco Lindor said it's their responsibility to figure out a way to win.
"It comes down to winning," Lindor said. "We've put ourselves in this position, so we've got to find a way to get out of it. And that comes down to winning. We just got to win ballgames."
Brandon Nimmo shared a similar message about the position the team is in, saying they need to "pick ourselves back up" and "put it all together."
"It's been happening right in front of our eyes, so yeah, I can definitely believe it," Nimmo said. "We're down to the last week of the season and our playoff hopes are in front of us. We've got to play winning baseball and put it all together.
"It's come and gone during the season, so we just need to pick ourselves back up and win some games down the stretch here."
The Mets are off Monday and then begin a three-game series with the Cubs on Tuesday and then finish the regular season in Miami against the Marlins over the weekend. Their odds to make the postseason are currently at 63.2 percent, with the Reds at 31.5 percent, per ESPN.
The NHL’s 2025-26 regular season is nearly here, and here on THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we’re approaching the end of our player-by-player series in which we break down expectations for each Sabres player this coming season.
We’ve worked our way through Buffalo’s starters, including goalies, blueliners, and forwards. And in this file, we’re looking at the expectations for depth defenseman Zac Jones. The 24-year-old came to the Sabres after the New York Rangers cut him loose, but he could play a more important role in Buffalo.
That said, let’s move on to our breakdown of Jones and what’s reasonable to expect this season:
Player Name: Zac Jones
Position: Defenseman
Age: 24
2024-25 Key Statistics: 46 games, 10 assists, 11 points, 17:15 average time on ice
2025-26 Expectations: For the past five seasons, Jones was a spare part with the New York Rangers, appearing in approximately half the season in Manhattan last year while being a healthy scratch for most of the other games. The Rangers cut him loose in the spring, and the Sabres swooped in and signed the 24-year-old to a one-year, two-way contract.
Nothing has changed for Jones in that he’s coming into the season with no guarantee about playing time at the NHL level. The Sabres have other, more experienced hands to fill out their top-six defensemen spots, so unless Jones has a terrific pre-season and one of Buffalo’s aforementioned veteran blueliners is injured or an under-performer, Jones is going to see the inside of the press box more often than not.
Jones has shown some promise as an undersized blueliner who can pile up assists. In 2022-23, playing for the American League’s Hartford Wolf Pack, Jones generated 23 assists and 31 points in 54 games, and the season before that, he had 26 assists and 35 points in 52 games. Jones has 115 games of NHL experience to his credit, but he only put up 24 assists and 28 points in those games. So you can see why the Rangers chose not to qualify him contractually and part ways with him.
At 24, Jones’ NHL career is not likely to be at an end. Some team is going to give him a chance to contribute in hockey’s top league, and the question is whether that team is the Sabres, or whether Western New York is but a pit stop for Jones as he bounces to another team. Given that he’s earning less than a million dollars, Jones will fit in as a depth player in many markets, so Sabres GM Kevyn Adams could hear from other teams trying to add Jones to their mix as insurance on the back end.
But that fate won’t befall Jones sooner than later. Right now, he’s got to show he can do more than he did in Manhattan. And if he can’t do that, Jones will have a ticket to Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester, N.Y..
Jones could ultimately wind up being a tweener – too good for the AHL, and not good enough for the NHL – but he’s still got time to salvage his NHL career by being a good citizen in Buffalo and a solid influence on offense.
More patience may be what this player needs to solidify himself as a day-in, day-out NHLer. But the pressure is squarely on Jones to show he was worth Adams’ investment.
Texas Tech and Indiana dominate in impressive fashion. Oklahoma survives a big test against Auburn. Oklahoma State, Clemson & North Carolina continue to struggle. The American Conference put the country on notice.
Aatu Räty forced the Vancouver Canucks’ hands last year. He performed so well during the Canucks’ 2024 Training Camp that he earned himself a spot on the roster on opening night, and ultimately turned that into an impressive 33-game season in which he scored seven goals and four assists. He managed to do so despite the Canucks already having four centres slotted into their lineup.
This year looks like it may be different.
Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil, and Teddy Blueger look primed to fill their respective roles as first, second, and a bottom-six centre. While that final spot in the lineup could be anyone’s, many believe that position is now Räty’s to lose. It's an interesting twist from the position he held the year prior, but not something that he'll let take over his mind as the team enters the pre-season.
Räty's 2024-25 season was impressive, though he unfortunately wasn't able to build on this in AHL postseason play. The 22-year-old is currently coming off an unfortunate string of charley horse injuries that limited his Calder Cup Playoff stretch to only six games.
“Even though we won, winning is hard,” Räty told The Hockey News on the final day of Canucks Training Camp. “There’s so many guys playing hurt, I got hurt too, but just the grind that it is. It’s a long time to be playing games or the opponent’s trying to hurt you every shift, and you’re trying to do the same thing. It’s just a battle but it’s so hard to win them, and so many guys from that team just absolutely banged up after, even injured or barely playing after that final game. So it definitely takes a toll to win those playoff games.”
The injury bug may have caught him, but it hasn’t seemed to hinder his shot at a full-time NHL role. Pius Suter’s departure in free agency dropped the organization’s centre depth substantially, though the fact that the team didn’t make the move to remedy that works heavily in Räty’s favour. It indicates to both the players — and the fans — that their faith currently rests in the players already within the organization.
With a roster spot in mind, Räty put himself to work during the off-season.
“I was up and running almost right away,” he said of when he resumed his training. “I thought I had a good summer. And I think that injury also taught me a lot too.”
The forward worked through a few things during the off-season to help further his case at a full-time roster spot. One of the things he picked out in particular was his skating, which Räty believes he has improved on since the end of the 2024–25 season.
“I’m always trying to better everything in my game, but especially skating. I think that’s one thing that in today’s hockey you’ve just got to be good at. And I’m trying to feel like bit by bit, I’m getting better each and every day. So I think that improved this summer, and I’m excited to kind of get playing again and see how my speed is. But I think my skating definitely got better.”
As it stands, Räty has the edge on some of the other younger centres in the Canucks organization based on his audition from the season before. Faceoffs were a notable positive from the forward’s 2024–25 season, during which he placed first on the team in faceoff win percentage of all of the Canucks’ active natural centres with 57.36%. All signs should point to Räty — but at the end of the day, the forward knows the decision is up to management.
“Just do my best — nothing more I can do. I think I’ve worked hard for so long. I think I do my best every skate, so that’s all I can do, and just see if that’s enough.”
Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.
What a cool request! Trout had already agreed to give Alberto — who attended the game with his wife and two children — three signed bats and two signed baseballs in exchange for the ball he crushed.
While Trout signed the balls and bats in the dugout long after the game had ended, Alberto politely asked him while making a throwing motion with his right arm, "You mind if we play catch with a ball on the field?" the three-time American League Most Valuable Player didn't hesitate, saying, "Yeah, you want to do it?" Alberto grabbed his glove.
The fan who caught and returned Mike Trout's 400th home run ball had one small request from the 3-time MVP.
A post on the MLB.com X account shows Alberto tossing the ball back and forth to Trout, who catches it with his bare hands while wearing his cap backward. At one point, Trout says something to Alberto's young son, who is watching in awe.
And no wonder. Shortly before Trout hit No. 400, Alberto told Trout he'd turned to his son and said, "He's got a lot of power." No kidding, enough to drive the ball deep into the left-center field stands. Alberto caught the blast with his bare hands.
It was Trout's third home run of at least 485 feet since Statcast began tracking long balls in 2015, the most of any player. The 34-year old outfielder in his 15th season became the 59th MLB player to reach 400 homers and the 20th to hit them all with one franchise.
The No. 400 ball clearly had more monetary value than the signed balls and bats, but nowhere near the value of a career 500 home run ball or, say, the home run the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman hit to win Game 1 of the 2024 World Series — which was sold at auction for $1.56 million.
The home run was meaningful to Trout, who admitted to feeling pressure as he approached the milestone. It was only his second long ball since Aug. 7.
He also recognized that catching the ball and returning it to the player who belted it was meaningful to Alberto, who likely has already done what dads do — play catch with his children.
"Once they get older and realize, that'll be an awesome memory for the dad to tell the kids, to experience that," Trout told reporters. "I know how I felt when I went to a ballgame with my dad."
Clemson's disastrous season can (and should) impact the way voters view LSU now. The latest AP poll reflects a market correction taking place for certain teams, like the Tigers.
