The Montreal Canadiens are in a good spot right now. At the time of this writing, they sport a 32-17-8 record and are second in the Atlantic Division with 72 points. With this, they are setting themselves up to be buyers ahead of the 2026 NHL trade deadline.
One of the Canadiens' top needs is another highly skilled center, and they are being connected to one of the NHL's most notable trade candidates because of it.
In part four of The Athletic's NHL trade matchmaker series, NHL insider Chris Johnston predicted that the Canadiens will be the team that acquires Calgary Flames star forward Nazem Kadri.
"Kadri is a competitor who would immediately raise the ceiling in Montreal. While there’s legitimate concern around how well his contract will age, with another three seasons remaining after this one, the fact he would be in favor of a move to the Habs, according to league sources, should bring a measure of comfort. Kadri has a 13-team no-trade list, and Montreal isn’t on it," Johnston wrote.
This is not the first time that the Canadiens have been viewed as a potential landing spot for Kadri, and it is easy to understand why. The Canadiens could use another top-six center, and acquiring Kadri would undoubtedly provide them with just that.
Kadri would also give a rising Canadiens club another good veteran to help mentor their younger players. This could come in handy for the Canadiens, and this is especially so when noting that he has won the Stanley Cup before.
With Kadri having multiple years on his contract, there is no question that he has good trade value. Thus, the Canadiens would need to offer a significant trade package to land him, but it would be worth it if he helps them take that next step as true contenders.
In 56 games this season with the Flames, Kadri has recorded 10 goals, 29 assists, and 39 points.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JUNE 13: A detail view of Oakland Athletics hats in the dugout against the Minnesota Twins on June 13, 2024 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) | Getty Images
*In an effort to make the nomination voting easier for everyone, I will comment, “NOMINATIONS”, and you may reply to that with your picks and upvote the player you’d like to see on the next nominee list.
Our CPL is rolling right along as we now have the top 14 prospects according to the fans. Right-hander Zane Taylor came away on top this time around as A’s fans like the potential that the 23-year-old offers. Last year’s fifth-round pick, Taylor only appeared in one professional game this past season at the Triple-A level and pitched just two innings. That said he’s been a popular sleeper pick by lots of the fanbase because he showed elite control during his college days at North Carolina. Having pitched four years there many scouts believe he will be a fast riser through the system. In spite of his lone start being at Triple-A he’s expected to begin the season in Double-A but a promotion could come quick.
Taking his spot among the nominees for the next round will be another righty in Kade Morris. A former third-round pick by the Mets, the A’s brought him into the fold in exchange for former All-Star Paul Blackburn. While Blackburn has struggled since the trade, Morris has made the acquisition look great for the A’s. He dominated Double-A this past year and earned a promotion to Triple-A for his first extended look at that level. The righty predictably ran into some growing pains against stiffer competition so the A’s will give him plenty of time to work on his craft at that level for the time being. If he progresses fast enough though who knows, we could be seeing him donning the Green & Gold as soon as this summer.
The process for this public vote is explained below. Please take a moment to read this before participating:
Please only vote for one. The player with the most votes at the end of voting will win the ranked spot. The remaining four players move on to the next ballot where they are joined by a new nominee.
In the comments, below the official voting, the community will nominate players to be put onto the ballot for the next round. The format for your comment should be “Nomination: Player Name”.
If a prospect is traded, his name will be crossed out, and all other players will be moved up a space. If a prospect is acquired, a special vote will be put up to determine where that player should rank.
The voting continues! Who will A’s fans pick as the 15th-best prospect in the system today? Here’s a quick rundown on each nominee— the scouting grades (on a 20-to-80 scale) and scouting reports come from MLB Pipeline.
Morris runs up his four-seam fastball to about 95-96 mph and also throws a sinker with good arm-side run in the 92-95 range. His mid-80s slider has developed into an above-average secondary offering. His mid-70s curveball provides a good variation of pitch speeds, though he is still working to make it a more consistent pitch, along with his improving upper-80s changeup.
Morris is athletic with his 6-foot-3 frame. His competitive drive stands out whenever he takes the mound. Discovering the right arm slot that allows for the most consistency is the next big step in his development. How that pans out as he moves through the system will likely determine his long-term role, though he profiles as a back-end starter given his overall pitch mix and solid control.
At the plate, Morii features a smooth left-handed swing with tremendous balance. His power stands out, as he clubbed 45 home runs as a high schooler. He is considered an advanced hitter with good barrel control. On the mound, his fastball has been clocked as high as 95 mph and sits around 92-93. He also brings a splitter with nasty movement, a true 12-to-6 curveball and a tighter slider with solid bite and depth, though that offering will probably require some fine-tuning. Having only been pitching with regularity for less than two years, Morii’s arm is relatively fresh as he enters the organization.
Morii’s high-octane throwing arm plays well at shortstop, but some evaluators see a possibility of moving to third base as his 6-foot-1 frame fills out. While scouts see Morii’s long-term future in the batter’s box, the A’s plan on giving him every opportunity to succeed as a two-way player, with excitement already building over his impressive physical traits and desire to become one of the next great players out of Japan.
Per Billy Owens, Athletics director of player personnel and assistant GM: “Perez is a live-bodied specimen with high-caliber tools. His range and athleticism stand out defensively. Offensively, he can be streaky, but he has displayed plus bat speed, patience and real power. Solid package. Development is not linear. Patience will be required to realize his significant potential.”
Though Hoglund may never get back the electric stuff he possessed earlier in his career, the A’s were encouraged to see his fastball velocity tick back up to the low-90s. He has also experimented with adding a two-seamer and cutter. His low-80s slider now features more sweeping action and works as his main secondary pitch. He has also improved his low-80s changeup, creating a solid three-pitch mix that is enhanced by a strong ability to consistently throw strikes.
Now three years removed from Tommy John, the A’s are hopeful that Hoglund can develop into a solid back-end rotation piece, especially if he can successfully develop a fourth pitch. The Florida native was regularly going deep into starts in his big league cameo (6.40 ERA with 23 strikeouts to 11 walks across 32 1/3 innings) before going down with the injury and is expected to make a full recovery before the 2026 season.
The A’s were working on some mechanical adjustments with Miller prior to his injury. His electric fastball ticked up to 96 mph in high school and displayed excellent movement down in the zone. The mid-80s slider is a hard breaker and was showing signs of improvement. His low-80s changeup showed some potential as an average third pitch.
There was real excitement within the organization for Miller’s professional debut. His three-pitch mix and large 6-foot-6 frame give off the potential of a workhorse-type starting pitcher in the big leagues. The A’s also loved the competitiveness they saw from him on the mound while scouting him. After an unfortunate delay, he finally got his first opportunity to make an impression this summer.
* * *
Programming Note: Each CPL vote will run for around 48 hours, so don’t delay in making your vote!
Whitecaps' Roberto Campos runs to first base after a hit against the Lugnuts in the first inning on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at Jackson Field in Lansing. 230411 Lugnuts Whitecaps Baseball 064a
When the Tigers signed the Cuban outfielder Roberto Campos back in 2019, he was the most expensive international free agent the club had ever inked to a deal. Early on he showed the good power potential and solid hitting ability that was projected on signing day, but his progress has been slow since breaking into A-ball back in 2022 at age 19. Campos made the leap to the Double-A last year, and he really took his lumps for much of the summer before coming on late in the year. The fact that Campos didn’t develop into a high end prospect has been a disappointment for the Tigers, but the now 22-year-old right-handed hitting outfielder still has some potential if he can take the next step in 2026.
Campos has turned himself into a solid outfielder, but his speed has dipped to average levels as he’s filled out. He’s balanced that out by maturing in his jumps and routes over the past two seasons. Though still splitting time between center and right field, the latter looks like his long-term defensive home. He doesn’t exactly have a cannon out there, but it’s above average arm strength and his throwing accuracy has improved considerably.
As you’d expect, the issue is his bat. Campos has a pretty good eye for the zone, and generally swings at the right pitches. He takes his walks and has the ability to line pitches the other way, but that’s partly the result of one of the root causes of his contact issues. Not only is his swing fairly grooved, but his relatively flat path and inside out mechanics are really built to drive the ball to right center field on a line and on the ground. He’s worked on making adjustments and finding more pitches to pull, but he still struggles to be on time to create good angles on pitches down and in that he should crush. He doesn’t pop the ball up much, but most of his fly balls tend to be 350 footers to center and right center field, where it’s hard to cash in and do damage.
He didn’t actually strike out much more in 2025 despite the big jump in competition, but the quality of contact dipped during the middle of the season until he finally started to turn things around late in the year. Most of his hard hit balls were on a line or on the ground, and this has been his pattern for several years, but in 2025 at High-A he had started to make good progress in driving more balls in the air, particularly to the pull field. Better velocity and breaking stuff at the Double-A level set him back to a more defensive approach. Waiting pitchers out worked for him in West Michigan, but against better pitchers much more willing and able to attack the zone, he often got behind in counts and was trying to dig his way out of holes most of the summer.
Campos has made some minor adjustments in his pre-pitch setup, keeping his hands quieter and actively trying to get his front foot down earlier. He’s also worked to build more batspeed. This hasn’t paid enough dividends yet, and Campos still isn’t on time enough to catch many balls out front and crank them to left center and left field. After a really brutal stretch in June and July last summer, the work to adapt started to pay off, and he got back to driving the ball up the gaps. Still, without tapping into his power a lot more effectively he’s not going to get much farther. His production in August and September improved signficantly, those signs that he was settling in encouraged us not to drop him too drastically. A down year after a minor breakout the year prior isn’t unusual, but things need to break the right way for Campos pretty quickly.
He has enough chops to be a solid outfielder who hits left-handed pitching well, and that pathway to at least a bench role is still ahead of him. But while we’ve seen players like Parker Meadows and Wenceel Pérez, and more recently Izaac Pacheco, struggle repeatedly in A-ball before finally benefiting from batspeed training and trying to get shorter to the ball without sacrificing power, Campos has yet to see those dividends. He’s approaching the age where if it doesn’t start to show up soon, it just never will. Few will be betting on a major turnaround in his fortunes at this point.
For now, the saving grace for Campos is that he’s still a little young for the upper minors. There have never been any questions about his makeup, and his coaches have routinely praised him for being a team leader and setting an example in terms of work ethic as well. Hopefully that ultimately pays off. International free agents get rushed to a degree college players and even prep picks do not, and it’s worth remembering the added demands on them as they’re hurried stateside and exposed to the Rule 5 draft at much earlier ages, all while adapting to living in the States. We’ve been writing about Campos for so long it’s easy to forget he’s only 22 years old, the age of a 2025 college pick. It’s reasonable to give him another year, but a lot is going to have to go right.
Campos did get essentially late second round money, and it’s not looking like a great investment at this point. 2019 was a long time ago in terms of how the Tigers operate, and who operates them, but unfortunately the long dry spell in the international free agent market won’t be broken by Roberto Campos. Realistically, his upside now is a platoon outfield role. It would do wonders for the Tigers ability to compete long-term, at least in the AL Central, if they could finally find a really good player out of their international classes. Willy Adames and Eugenio Suarez were 15 years ago. With new leadership on the international side as longtime director Tom Moore moves to an advisory role, the Tigers really need to do better in this aspect of player acquisition.
Campos will need a big season at Erie to get him to Triple-A Toledo this summer, but that has to be the goal. If he doesn’t unlock something in the power department this year, there’s just too much swing and miss to project him developing into a part-time major league player. After a modest breakout in 2024, hopes were rekindled for Campos last year. Instead, he struggled to adapt to Double-A pitching and really needs a big season to keep hope alive beyond 2026.
Inglewood, CA - February 14: Jaxson Hayes of the Los Angeles Lakers during the Slam Dunk competition during NBA All-Star Saturday at Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Saturday, February 14, 2026. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) | MediaNews Group via Getty Images
The 2026 NBA Slam Dunk contest wasn’t just bad — it was pathetic. The decline of the dunk contest has been well documented, but Saturday night was the competition’s rock bottom. Serving as proof the NBA needs to cancel the event and replace it with something else, rather than watch it fade into irrelevancy like Chris Paul.
Every single facet of the event sucked. Keshad Johnson of the Miami Heat won with a dunk that barely would have made it out of the first round a decade ago. Even the NBA’s hype tweet felt sad and forced.
Still, this was somehow the best dunk of the night. The only other remotely impressive thing was Johnson jumping over rapper E-40 — which was fine, but not mind-blowing. E-40 is 6’1, and this is a competition where dunkers have jumped over Shaq, a car, and hell, Aaron Gordon went over the Magic mascot and under both legs, while the mascot stood on a hoverboard.
While Johnson was the best of a horrible group, he should have been disqualified for his dancing. Before every dunk, during every dunk, after every dunk, there was this pathetic, manufactured dancing that Johnson did that seemed to be less about any genuine enthusiasm about the event, and more because someone told him it would be good for his brand if he became the “dancing guy” during the dunk contest.
We also had Jase Richardson almost knock himself out.
The only thing worse than the dunks was the judging. The NBA used a panel of notable dunkers: Dominique Wilkins, Dwight Howard, Corey Maggette, and Brent Barry — a good group, except they were given an absolutely nonsensical rubric that nobody could score less than a 40, out of 50. It was clearly only put in place to make sure nobody’s feelings were hurt, because getting to say “I scored 42 out of 50” sounds a lot better than “2 out of 10.”
If the scoring format wasn’t bad enough we had Dwight Howard handing out 50s like candy for the crappiest dunks imaginable. Don’t believe me? This was a 50 in Howard’s book.
A windmill jam from barely past the dotted line that Johnson couldn’t even manage to dribble for. At least he did his dancing afterwards.
There’s a simple reality that basketball has changed. In the 90s and 00s kids would practice dunks like Michael Jordan or Vince Carter on Nerf hoops attached to their bedroom doors — now they’re trying to shoot from deep like Steph. Interior defense is more refined, giving less obvious lanes to the rim for in-game dunks. Euro steps, step-throughs, and floaters are now the in-lane currency of the NBA, rather than trying to power through everyone with dunks. There’s ample reason why dunking isn’t as flashy as it once was, but there is no excuse for the absence of creativity. There have never been more resources to imagine new dunks or learn from the greats of the past to push the limits of athleticism. Instead, we’ve seen unbelievable regression as players struggle to do anything past the most rudimentary of dunks. There’s no pride, no desire to put on a show — and the NBA is shielding feelings by making sure nobody can score lower than a 40. The stars of the past would never.
There’s an entire generation of basketball fans who are too young to remember how great the NBA Slam Dunk Contest was. Relegated to watching retrospectives on YouTube, they’ll never understand the excitement that led up to seeing some of the biggest stars in basketball show off their athleticism, creativity, and pride in being known as the best dunker in the NBA. There was palpable excitement as we wondered how players could go bigger and better. That’s gone now.
Nobody wanted Old Yeller to die. He was a beloved member of the family until that old dog got rabies and was destined to descent to madness. The NBA Slam Dunk Contest is past that point, and we need to save its legacy from itself by killing the contest all together and inventing something else — because this is too sad to continue in its current form.
A 34-point game and some kind words from the head coach are enough to be optimistic about Thomas’ immediate future with the Bucks, right? Probably — a change of scenery and a track record as a high-volume scorer certainly helps. How much Thomas plays on a nightly basis could be tricky, however, given that Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins are commanding fairly big minutes in the starting backcourt. He’ll have to make the most of his opportunities off the bench, which he did against the recent back-to-back against the Magic. Otherwise, there could be some unspectacular final stat lines. The upside may be worth the risk, though.
Kris Dunn — PG/SG, Clippers
With James Harden departed and two more big-name guards, Darius Garland and Bennedict Mathurin, added, the minutes allocation suddenly felt concerning for Dunn, who’s spent the majority of his tenure with the Clippers as a starter, logging heavy minutes. Those concerns still remain, but with Garland yet to debut, Dunn has essentially functioned as the team’s point guard of late. As a result, he’s tallied at least five assists in each of L.A.’s last six games, while making his usual impact as a defender. He also made four three-pointers in the most recent win over the Rockets after producing four steals the game prior. It’s rare that everything clicks for Dunn on the same night from a statistical standpoint, but he’s been productive and could be considered a useful streaming option while the Clippers wait on Garland, perhaps even after.
Jarrett Allen — C, Cavaliers
We can all make an educated guess that Allen is enjoying the James Harden experience thus far. In three games, he’s scored over 20 points in each and been the beneficiary of several of Harden’s passes from downhill attacks. Others have also gotten him involved, and Allen has done a nice job of cleaning up the offensive glass for second-chance points. Yet, he’s having one of his most productive stretches of the season, all coming shortly after a recent 40-point game before Cleveland’s big trade. His stock is most certainly up, and could realistically keep improving as reps build with Harden.
This designation is by no means a reflection of what Markkanen has done or will continue to do when on the court — he’s having one of the best statistical seasons of his career. Rather, this has to do with his usage going forward. Is he healthy? How much will he play each night? The Jazz were recently fined for the “management of their roster,” with Markkanen among multiple players who were notably not playing in fourth quarters over consecutive games despite the games being competitive. Whether the reasons are valid or not, he’s played fewer than 30 minutes in Utah’s last five games, and that should be a concern for fantasy managers, despite Markkanen’s production in his limited time. It’ll be interesting to see what his playing time looks like after the All-Star break.
Ivica Zubac — C, Pacers
Zubac was traded from Los Angeles to Indiana on the day of the trade deadline, but has yet to suit up for the Pacers. Apparently, he played through an ankle injury with the Clippers and may not see the floor for a while with his new team. His potential return this season will be to a Pacers team lacking the table-setting that James Harden provided in L.A. — in the two games prior to the trade that Harden missed, Zubac combined for 8 total shot attempts. He’s still a difference maker on defense and will be great on the boards, but I wouldn’t expect his fantasy production to improve, or even remain the same, until playing alongside Tyrese Haliburton next season. I’d love to be wrong, though!
Paolo Banchero — PF, C, Magic
It’s been an interesting season for the Magic, who are currently the No. 7 seed out East. Banchero, the team’s franchise player, has been a bit more inconsistent as a scorer this season, especially of late. The former first-overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft has shot sub-40-percent from the field in four of the six game’s appeared in during February and has failed to tally 20 points in all but two games during that same period. Add on top of the shooting struggles his lower production on the glass and continued lack of stocks on the defensive end, and you get a player who’s having a down season as far as fantasy basketball impact is concerned.
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium for Duke's 101-64 blowout win over Syracuse, and sparked buzz about his interaction with Blue Devils women's center Adrianna Roberson on Monday.
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium for Duke’s 101-64 blowout win over Syracuse Monday, and sparked buzz about his interaction with the woman sitting to his right.
Flagg, who led Duke to the Final Four last March before Dallas took him first overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, and Duke women’s basketball center Adrianna Roberson took in the action while seated next to each other, as seen in videos online.
Many were buzzing about the pair, while others noted that Roberson, the 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman, is the younger sister of former Oklahoma City Thunder forward Andre Roberson.
At one point, Flagg and Roberson were seen discussing a stat sheet and chatting together.
Roberson exited the court with Flagg and his former Duke teammates, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, as seen in another video.
Flagg, Maluach and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Tyrese Proctor previously attended Duke’s 67-54 win over the No. 20 Clemson Tigers in Durham on Saturday.
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg and Blue Devils women’s center Adrianna Roberson seated next to each other at Cameron Indoor Stadium during Duke’s 101-64 blowout win over Syracuse on Monday, February 16, 2026. ESPN/FaceBookArianna Roberson #21 of the Duke Blue Devils prepares to shoot a free throw against the LSU Tigers at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 4, 2025 in Durham, North Carolina. Getty Images
Flagg, who’s reportedly dealing with a mild foot sprain, wore a walking boot on his left leg for both games at this Alma Mater.
The 6-foot-9 Flagg suffered the injury during Dallas’ 138-125 loss to the San Antonio Spurs before the All-Star break on Feb. 7.
The Mavericks play next against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 20.
Dope to see Arianna Roberson in the building too. The Duke women are playing some elite hoops too. https://t.co/MTb5DfKqT4
Flagg is averaging 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per contest across 49 games, while shooting 48.2 percent from the floor and 30.2 percent from 3.
No. 3 Duke (24-2) travels to Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., for a non-conference clash with No. 1 Michigan (24-1) on Saturday.
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 09: Alec Bohm #28 of the Philadelphia Phillies prepares to take batting practice prior to Game Four of the National League Division Series presented by Booking.com between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, October 9, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
When the big stars arrive in camp, there is a rush to get their first on camera interview of the season out of the way. As the biggest of stars in Clearwater, whenever Bryce Harper makes his first appearance, one knows it is going to be news worthy. His interview touched on a myriad of topics like the spending of the Dodgers, the comments made this winter by Dave Dombrowski, but then it got into lineup order.
One of the things the team is going to have figure out is who is hitting fourth in the cleanup position behind Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. One would assume that those three are going to be the initial trio in any game they play this season, making the cleanup spot rather important. Harper was not very subtle with his thoughts about last year’s cleanup spot production.
“I think it’s a huge impact in the four spot,” Harper said. “I mean, I think anybody. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or (Kyle Schwarber). Because if Schwarbs is hitting there, same things are going to happen, right? So I think four spot’s a huge impact. I think the numbers in the four spot weren’t very good last year for our whole team. Whoever is in that four spot is going to have a big job to do, depending on who’s hitting three.”
There are not potshots taken at anyone in particular. These kinds of comments should be seen as a realistic look at where they are at with their roster. There is no secret that the team does not have the prototypical cleanup hitter on the roster right now that is also right handed, which makes achieving the desired balance the team is looking for difficult. While Schwarber has always felt like he is best suited for that role, it seems pretty obvious that the lineup works well with him among the first three, so maybe that is where he needs to slotted most often.
That makes it imperative the team finds a cleanup hitter that works. Rob Thomson has already talked about what he is looking for from that position in the lineup.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson says Bryce Harper came to spring training in great shape. Bryce looks great.
Rob says he is looking at a righthanded bat for the cleanup spot: Alec Bohm, JT Realmuto or Adolis Garcia 📸 Phillies pic.twitter.com/uZAyoRTjJ2
Using Alec Bohm there is something Thomson has done frequently in the past, citing his contact ability as a plus for the job as something that he likes. His 2025 season in the cleanup spot (.216/.262/.309) are not ones that would leap out as the best choice to hit behind the first three. It could have been something of a bad season though as his 2024 numbers (.283/.330/.440) and 2023 numbers (.253/.318/.392) were markedly better, yet still fall short of what one would expect from a hitter in that spot in the lineup.
The problem is that they may not have much of a choice. The other two options mentioned, Adolis Garcia and J.T. Realmuto, aren’t exactly shining beacons of offensive production either. Realmuto had 180 plate appearances out of the cleanup spot last year with almost this very same lineup and hit .238/.302/.381. Garcia, down with the Rangers, had 320 plate appearances out of the cleanup spot and was barely much better, hitting .224/.263/.399. From both of these options, a bright light of hope does not seem to be appearing.
The issue of which player is best suited as a cleanup hitter is going to be something the team has to be trying out in spring training. Making any kind of long term decisions during spring at bats might be a bit of fool’s errand with all of the different arms that are going to be used in opposition to the Phillies’ lineup. We don’t want to base any critical roster decisions on how well Adolis Garcia does facing arms that will eventually begin the season in Single-A levels. Yet how each one appears will be another data point that can be used in the decision making.
The real test will be convincing the clubhouse that things should be tried early and often in the beginning of the season to determine what is the best fit. If Thomson needs to try out different combinations of lineups to best figure out which one to use moving forward, there has to be real conversation with the players about that. The ultimate goal of the lineup is to score runs and if doing so in the best manner means that some players are hitting in roles they haven’t really been in for some time, so be it. Maybe the best option for a lineup is have Trea Turner-Bryce Harper-Alec Bohm-Kyle Schwarber be the first four to face the opposition, maybe it isn’t. Maybe one of these three right handed hitters that Thomson has talked about takes a step forward and produces like many believe a cleanup hitter should.
The real cleanup hitter will be determined as the season progresses. It’s possible that the player with the most plate appearances there hasn’t been identified yet. That is what the coaching staff should be figuring out this spring, not worrying about the handedness just yet.
If the Boston Red Sox return to the postseason in 2026, their pitching staff will lead the way.
Boston revamped its starting rotation with significant upgrades this offseason. After acquiring right-handers Johan Oviedo and Sonny Gray in trades with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals, the Red Sox signed one of the top free-agent starters in ex-Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez.
Suarez will form a strong 1-2 punch with 2025 American League Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet. Oviedo and Gray, alongside returnee Brayan Bello, are expected to shore up a rotation that is projected to be among baseball’s best.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow believes run prevention will be the club’s key to success this upcoming season.
“I don’t think there’s a question anymore that the identity of our team and the strength of our team is going to be our pitching and our ability to prevent runs,” Breslow said last month, per MassLive.com.
“I think the improvements we made on the pitching side are significant,” he added. “It can be difficult at times to fully appreciate the impact of having dominant starting pitching. But going into a game feeling like we can just play our game offensively and on the bases because our pitching is going to keep us in the game is such a huge advantage for the team. I think no matter who we’re playing on any given day, we’re going to feel like we’ve got a chance to win.”
Beyond their projected five-man rotation, the Red Sox have a handful of depth pieces who can step up if injuries become a factor. Here’s a closer look at Boston’s starting pitchers for the 2026 campaign:
1. Garrett Crochet, LHP
2025 stats: 18-5, 2.59 ERA, 1.028 WHIP, 255 SO, 46 BB, 205.1 IP (32 starts)
David Butler II-Imagn Images
Garrett Crochet is a popular pick to win the AL Cy Young award after finishing as the runner-up last season.
Cora stated the obvious, as there was never any doubt that Crochet would get the Opening Day nod. The 26-year-old southpaw arrived in Boston last offseason with lofty expectations and exceeded them, establishing himself as the club’s unquestioned ace and finishing his first year with the team as the American League Cy Young runner-up.
Crochet led the majors in strikeouts (255) while pacing the AL in innings pitched (205.1) and SO/9 (11.2). If there’s one part of his game he could improve on in 2026, it’s the home runs allowed. He let up a career-high 24 long balls last season.
One interesting development could make Crochet even more dominant in 2026. According to Tim Healey of The Boston Globe, Crochet’s changeup (used only 4 percent of the time last season) is now more of a splitter because of a new grip he learned over the offseason. If he turns that into another putaway pitch, it isn’t far-fetched to say he could be the first pitcher since Justin Verlander in 2019 to join the 300-strikeout club.
Chris Sale (308 in 2017) was the last Sox pitcher to notch 300 Ks in a single season.
Ranger Suarez will form a stellar 1-2 punch atop the Red Sox rotation with Garrett Crochet.
The Red Sox signed Suarez to a five-year, $130 million contract in January, officially ending the 30-year-old’s eight-year tenure with the Philadelphia Phillies. The move solidified Boston’s rotation as one of MLB’s best heading into 2026.
While Suarez and Crochet are both left-handed, that’s where the similarities between the two end. Suarez isn’t going to wow anyone with his fastball, which sits in the low 90s. He also isn’t going to strike a ton of guys out, as he tallied 151 strikeouts in 157.1 innings (8.6 SO/9) and ranked in the 24th percentile in K rate last season.
Where Suarez excels is in limiting hard contact. He ranked in the 95th percentile in average exit velocity (86.5) and 98th percentile in hard-hit percentage (31.1) in 2025. He induced ground balls 48 percent of the time (76th percentile).
Suarez also doesn’t walk many batters. His walk totals have decreased each season since he converted to a full-time starter in 2022.
As a ground-ball pitcher, Suarez will need the Red Sox’ infield defense to be more consistent in 2026. Boston made moves to improve in that department by trading for first baseman Willson Contreras and second baseman/third baseman Caleb Durbin. Former top prospect Marcelo Mayer should also provide a defensive upgrade after impressing at second and third base last season.
3. Sonny Gray, RHP
2025 stats: 14-8, 4.28 ERA, 1.234 WHIP, 201 SO, 38 BB, 180.2 IP (32 starts)
Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
Sonny Gray was the American League Cy Young runner-up in 2023.
Boston traded right-hander Richard Fitts and left-handed prospect Brandon Clarke to the Cardinals in exchange for Gray in November. It was a surprising deal at the time, but it makes more sense now that the veteran righty won’t be relied on to be the club’s No. 2 starter.
Gray’s track record speaks for itself. The 36-year-old is a three-time All-Star who finished as the AL Cy Young runner-up with the Minnesota Twins in 2023. While his 2025 numbers indicate a possible decline, a closer look under the hood shows he still has plenty left in the tank heading into Year 14 of his career.
Gray’s FIP last season was a respectable 3.39, so his bloated 4.28 ERA can largely be chalked up to bad luck. He had the fourth-largest FIP/ERA gap among qualified right-handed starters in 2025.
Gray also tallied 201 strikeouts with only 38 walks over 32 starts last season, giving him the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the National League and the fourth-best in MLB, trailing only Tarik Skubal, Crochet, and Bryan Woo.
Those expecting Gray to show his age in 2026 will likely be pleasantly surprised. There aren’t many better No. 3 starters in the game.
4. Brayan Bello, RHP
2025 stats: 11-9, 3.35 ERA, 1.236 WHIP, 124 SO, 59 BB, 166.2 IP (29 games, 28 starts)
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Brayan Bello is coming off the best season of his four-year career.
Brayan Bello stepped up as a solid No. 2 Red Sox starter last season — the most productive of the 26-year-old’s young career. He’ll look to build off that success with less pressure on him to do so as Boston’s No. 4.
Bello should benefit from Suarez’s presence in 2026. Both pitchers rely on inducing ground balls and soft contact to get outs. According to Lauren Campbell of MassLive.com, Bello has been working with Suarez in Fort Myers on his curveball and a new grip for his changeup. Improvements to those pitches could help Bello take another step forward next season, as he has relied heavily on his sinker and sweeper.
If Bello can pick up where he left off in the second half of 2025, it’ll help the Red Sox’ rotation establish itself as arguably MLB’s best. From mid-June through August, he posted a 2.42 ERA while striking out 71 batters and walking 22 over 14 starts.
5. Johan Oviedo, RHP
2025 stats: 2-1, 3.57 ERA, 1.215 WHIP, 42 SO, 23 BB, 40.1 IP (nine starts)
Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
Johan Oviedo offers high upside heading into his first full season post-Tommy John surgery.
Oviedo is the frontrunner for the No. 5 spot in the rotation after arriving via a December trade with the Pirates. The soon-to-be 28-year-old is a bit of a wild card heading into his first full season post-Tommy John surgery, but he offers high upside with elite extension, an upper-90s fastball, and a wipeout slider.
Last season with Pittsburgh, Oviedo allowed more than two earned runs only once over his first nine starts back from injury. In 2023, his last full season, he had a 4.31 ERA and 1.373 WHIP with 158 strikeouts in 32 starts.
The biggest concern with Oviedo is his command. He had 5.1 walks per nine innings in 2025 and 4.2 BB/9 in 2023, when he also had an NL-leading 13 hit-by-pitches.
If his command improves, Oviedo should emerge as a rock-solid No. 5 for Boston next season. If control remains an issue, he’ll likely revert to a bullpen role while one of the following options takes over as the club’s No. 5 starter.
Other options: Patrick Sandoval, Kutter Crawford, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
Connelly Early impressed in his brief MLB stint last season.
The Red Sox parted ways with a handful of pitching depth options in offseason trades, so it’s down to four starters who will compete with Oviedo for a spot in the rotation.
Patrick Sandoval is working his way back from Tommy John surgery, which forced him to miss all of 2025. The left-hander had flashes of brilliance during his time with the Los Angeles Angels, but he seems like a long shot to begin 2026 in Boston’s rotation. Assuming he’s healthy, he’d fit well in a Red Sox bullpen that lacks left-handed arms.
Kutter Crawford also missed the entire 2025 campaign with knee and wrist issues. He was solid as a starter for Boston in 2023 and 2024, but he seems more fit for a bullpen/spot-starter role this upcoming season.
Oviedo’s biggest competition for the No. 5 slot could be the team’s top two pitching prospects, Payton Tolle and Connelly Early. Tolle, a left-handed power arm, started 2025 in Single-A and finished the year with the big-league club. Although he experienced growing pains in the majors, he still has the stuff to be a key contributor at some point this year, even if he doesn’t make the Opening Day roster.
While Tolle struggled to find his footing in the majors, Early thrived. He posted a 2.33 ERA across his first four MLB starts and was given the starting nod for Game 3 of the Wild Card Series vs. the New York Yankees. He earned the loss in that one, but the fact that he was counted on in the biggest game of the year shows that the club is already supremely confident in the 23-year-old.
Of the four depth options, Early seems like the most likely candidate to edge out Oviedo for a spot in the rotation.
DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 21: Atlanta Braves pitcher Pierce Johnson (38) pitches in the sixth inning during the game between the Detroit Tigers versus the Atlanta Braves on Sunday September 21, 2025 at Comerica Park in Detroit, MI. (Photo by Steven King/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Scott Barlow and Brent Suter combined to throw some 136.0 IP for the Cincinnati Reds last season, and both have since moved on and signed elsewhere in free agency this offseason. Nick Martinez, now a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, chipped in with 20.2 IP of work as a reliever in a swingman role, with Chase Burns checking in for a handful of appearances down the stretch in a similar vein.
Gone from the bullpen mix in 2026 are all of them, the first trio on new teams via free agency and Burns, the prize of the Cincinnati farm as recently as last season, having the inside track to the fifth spot in the Reds starting rotation to begin the season. Gone, too, are Ian Gibaut and Taylor Rogers since the trade deadline August, and it’s clear that the void left by that cadre of relievers was a priority to address this offseason by the Reds front office.
In came Brock Burke in a three-team deal that saw Gavin Lux dealt to the Rays.
Signed was Pierce Johnson as a free agent after an enviable three-season run with Atlanta.
Inked was lefty Caleb Ferguson, fresh off a 2025 season solid enough that the Seattle Mariners acquired him at the trade deadline to bolster their playoff push.
It’s been an offseason flush with good moves on paper for the bullpen, but how the roles shake out to begin the season remain to be seen. Tony Santillan is back and poised to claim a top setup role, while Emilio Pagán re-signed and has the inside track to being the team’s closer after hammering down 32 saves in 2025. Graham Ashcraft’s arsenal seems destined to get another prominent shot despite it still not working as well as it looks like it should. Still, there seem to be few guarantees beyond that, with the likes of Connor Phillips, Luis Mey, Zach Maxwell, Lyon Richardson, and Sam Moll all looking for their own angle.
How do you think this Reds bullpen shakes out in 2026? Who leads them in appearances, in innings, and even in saves?
Do you think it will be a strength of the club, or perhaps its weakness after so much overhaul?
A recap of the Tigers’ eventful 3-game set down in Florida
Missouri leaves Fort Myers 2-1 in its clash against Mount Saint Mary’s from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and if the opening series felt a little bit chaotic, that’s because it is. Sometimes, February baseball is similar to a pilot episode of a show, you’re figuring out who the main characters are, who has the bigger roles, and what kind of tone the season will take.
In one game, the sky is falling. The next can feel like a breakout montage straight out of a Rocky movie.
The past weekend brought a variety of outcomes for Missouri baseball, in which ultimately the Tigers took 2-of-3 from Mount Saint Mary’s. How the Tigers got there matters more than the fact they simply did.
Opening Day Scare: The Tigers a Victim of a Come-From-Behind Victory
The season opener could have brought concern for Tiger fans. After the Tigers scored five runs on eight hits, through the opening five innings, opening day seemed to be smooth sailing. After missing all of his 2025 regular season due to Tommy John surgery, Javyn Pimental went five innings, allowing just one run and keeping Missouri in position to win.
Then Saint Mary’s broke it open in the sixth and seventh innings against the Missouri bullpen. The Tigers went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base. The chances were there. The victory couldn’t be obtained.
The Tigers 5-4 victory, its first of the season came one day later. Seven hits and a 2-for-7 clip with runners in scoring position was just enough to earn a hard fought victory for the Tigers, which ended on a 2-4, 3-2 double play and a Jase Woita throw to Mateo Serna at home plate to end the game.
As said repeatedly, even a chaotic double play, with runners at the corners in the bottom of the ninth, doesn’t single handedely decide a ballgame. Starter Josh McDevitt’s five shutout innings gave Missouri room to breathe, and the bullpen, including Ian Lohse in the ninth, did just enough to close it out.
Then came Sunday. Brady Kehlenbrink’s six strikeouts in five innings of work were just the appetizer to the full meal: the Mizzou offense.
Offensive Progression: From Missed Opportunities to Historic Output
Missouri erupted for 34 runs on 26 hits in a 34-3 win that completely flipped the tone of the weekend. The Tigers went 18-for-27 with runners in scoring position, drew 14 walks, and committed zero errors. Twelve different players reached base safely.
Leadoff batter Tyler Macon finished 6-for-6 with eight RBI. Jase Woita added four hits and eight RBI of his own. Missouri drove in 32 runs and piled up 18 two-out RBI. It wasn’t just a blowout. It was sustained, relentless pressure inning after inning.
Adding the cherry on top of the series was Sam Parker, coming in to pinch hit for Cameron Benson, who added a 3-run homer, the third hardest hit ball of the series at 105 mph, and making the score 33-3 in the eighth inning.
Sunday inflated the Mizzou offensive numbers to say the least, some individual program ones in a record-breaking way. As pointed out in the MU athletics article, 34 runs is the second-most in program history, one short of the 35-run performance back in 1902. 32 RBI, however, is a program best alongside 26 hits in the contest.
Ultimately, this series had all of the chaotic energy. The Tigers had their frustrating opener when their late lead slipped away, the hard-fought bounce-back performance, and the kind of offensive explosion that a gamer has when playing MLB The Show on rookie mode.
The 34-run outburst won’t be the norm, and the tighter and tougher games are still very much on the cards. If this weekend was a trailer for the identity of the Missouri baseball team. Offensive power and just maybe a slightly more stable pitching staff that isn’t quite yet feeling a massive injury bug.
Nov 3, 2025; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages acknowledges the crowd during the World Series championship parade at downtown Los Angeles. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
The Dodgers lineup is formidable and deep, but is also aging. Kyle Tucker was the final piece of the puzzle added this offseason, notable both for his production (and contract, of course) and that he gives Los Angeles another hitter in his 20s, at least for 2026.
The only other Dodgers regular on the right side of 30 is Andy Pages, who just turned 25 in December and still has room to grow.
The struggles at the plate in October marred what was a promising season overall for the outfielder. He hit .285/.325/.479 with 27 home runs and a 113 wRC+ on the season, though that included a 128 wRC+ through the end of June and a 97 wRC+ from July through September. On the season, his power went up (.159 isolated power as a rookie to .189 in 2025) and his strikeout rate decreased (24.4 percent to 21.6 percent).
Pages has pretty much been a fixture in the Dodgers lineup since making his major league debut on April 16, 2024, starting 256 of 305 games. Only Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Teoscar Hernández have started more games on the Dodgers since Pages’ arrival.
Since 2000, Pages is one of only five Dodgers to bat at least 400 times in each of his first two seasons in the majors, along with Andre Ethier (2006-07), Russell Martin (2006-07), Yasiel Puig (2013-14) and Cody Bellinger (2017-18). If we include players who had cup-of-coffee debuts and expand our subset to a first three seasons, Joc Pederson (2005-16) and Corey Seager (2016-17) were lineup regulars in their first two full major league seasons as well.
So what should we expect from Pages at age 25 this year?
Today’s question is what do you expect out of Andy Pages in 2026? Give us any predictions you want — stats, playing time, whether he’ll stick in center field, or anything else that comes to mind.
JUPITER, FL - FEBRUARY 12: James Wood #29 of the Washington Nationals throws the ball during Spring Training workout day at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium on Thursday, February 12, 2026 in Jupiter, Florida. (Photo by Lucas Casel/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
If you have followed the Nats at all over the past couple years, you would know that James Wood is not the most emotional guy. He is not one of those players that wear their heart on their sleeves. Wood is what you would call a slow heartbeat guy. However, Wood wants to make it clear that he still has a fire that burns bright inside of him.
We are only a couple days into the spring, but it is obvious that is the message he wants to convey. After a breathtaking first half and a disappointing second half, Wood is far from satisfied. The Baltimore Banner just started Nats coverage after the collapse of the Washington Post, and their first story was about Wood’s internal fire.
Don’t let James Wood’s demeanor fool you. There’s a fire burning inside the Nationals star.
“He’s not close to being done in terms of achieving his ceiling."
I love that Wood wants to make it known that he is a true competitor. There are times when you watch him play where he can look lackadaisical and lower energy. However, that is just his style of play rather than a lack of competitiveness. He is going to have to turn up the dial sometimes, and I think he understands that. You are never going to see the chest pumping intensity from Wood that you saw from guys like Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer.
Despite that, Wood is making it clear that he wants it just as bad as those guys. I was on a zoom call with him yesterday, and you can tell he wants to bounce back from that rough second half. Wood still has that casual, nonchalant demeanor, but he feels more present as well. The zoom call was with Wood and manager Blake Butera. Wood being the only player on the call tells me he wants to be heard, which is encouraging.
He got asked plenty of interesting questions including one about his offseason plan. Wood emphasized that he wanted his offseason to be a bit more organized this year after wearing down in the second half.
I got the chance to ask Wood a question about his approach at the plate and whether he wants to pull the ball in the air more. He gave me an interesting answer where he talked about how he is more comfortable letting the ball travel and taking that extra beat to make decisions. While Wood said he might make pulling the ball a bigger part of his game at some point, he has enough power to hit the ball out to any part of the park.
James Wood gave me an interesting and insightful answer about his hitting approach and whether he aims to pull the ball in the air more. My question starts at around 13:35 and his answer begins at around 13:50 https://t.co/jRWaycsjIz
Despite wanting to be seen as more of a competitor, Wood is not going to totally change who he is as a person. He is still just a 23 year old with crazy athletic gifts and a side of dry humor. Wood told us he has confused coaches for players a couple times already this spring.
On the field, the biggest key for Wood is keeping that strikeout rate under control. Due to his long levers and big strike zone, Wood will always strike out a decent amount, and that is okay. It is all about keeping that number in check though. In April, May and June, his K rate was consistently between 26 and 27%. That should be where he lives.
Wood was also walking around 14% of the time in the first half, which helped offset some of the strikeouts. Another thing that makes up for the whiffs is just how hard he hits the ball. Due to his 98th percentile hard hit rate, Wood’s batting average on balls in play will always be high. That is why he still hit a respectable .256 despite a 32.1% strikeout rate.
In his prime, I actually believe Wood has a chance to be a .300 hitter. It is similar to players like Judge and Ohtani. Both of them whiff a good amount, but hit the ball so hard their batting averages are high. Wood has that kind of horse power if he can put it all together.
We are already seeing some clips of Wood showing his power early this spring. He absolutely torched a ball off of Cole Henry yesterday. The ball just comes off his bat a little differently compared to most guys in the league. I got a reminder of that when I saw that video yesterday.
James Wood tagged Cole Henry in Live BP for what would surely be extra bases. pic.twitter.com/tS6pG1kMHC
As disappointing as his second half was, we cannot forget about the ceiling Wood has. He is still only 23 years old and has so much room for growth. A lot of these bigger players take a bit longer to establish themselves, but Wood was already an All-Star at 22. By contrast, Aaron Judge did not truly break out until he was 25 years old. Wood still has so much time ahead of him.
There is a lot of doom and gloom in Nats land, and it is understandable. However, Wood has a chance to be a true star player. The goal for Wood in 2026 is to prove he is a player worth building around. If he can do that, it will be on Paul Toboni and Mark Lerner to build a contender around their super sized star.
LA 2028 committee voted last week to keep Wasserman
Emails with Ghislaine Maxwell were revealed in files
Pressure is building on Casey Wasserman, the head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing team, after the city’s mayor urged him to leave over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend.
LA mayor Karen Bass told CNN late on Monday that “my opinion is that he should step down” despite Wasserman getting support last week from the LA 2028 organizing board to stay.
“That was probably the best team I played on in my time in the NHL.”
As the words flowed from Chris Kelly’s mouth, a measured perspective was offered with a smile, then a pause. It lasted only a brief moment, but to anyone watching, it was easy to see a flood of memories wash over the Boston Bruins’ assistant coach.
It was high praise from a well-respected veteran who went to three finals and won a Stanley Cup.
The Ottawa Senators of the late 1990s and early 2000s were characterized by strong two-way play. Strong two-way play and heartbreak. The kind of unmistakable, soul-sucking anguish that left fans questioning whether their faith in sport will ever be rewarded.
THN's Steve Warne and Gregg Kennedy discuss how the Olympic hockey tournament format could use some work.
The 2005-06 iteration was no different.
Twenty years later, with the Olympic Winter Games ironically being held in Italy again, this is the story of the 2005-06 Ottawa Senators, one of the deepest and most talented teams in franchise history that ultimately fell short of winning hockey’s ultimate prize.
The groundwork for the Senators’ emergence as an Eastern Conference power was laid over the better part of the previous decade. Strong amateur scouting and player development were the hallmarks of a small-market team that had to allocate its limited resources efficiently.
The Senators could not spend at the level of a Detroit, a Toronto, or the New York Rangers to bring in established, expensive, high-end talent, so they relied exclusively on mechanisms to acquire young, cheap talent who also offered the organization years of team control.
Under the tutelage of Jacques Martin, an excellent ‘X’s and O’s’ coach, the Senators' head coach ushered in an era of structure and defensive accountability, preaching a message of taking care of your own end first before creating offence off of it.
Between clinching their first playoff spot in the 82nd game of the 1996-97 season and winning the Presidents' Trophy with 113 points in 2002-03, it always felt like the organization was naturally building towards a championship.
Unfortunately, three agonizing defeats to the provincial rival Maple Leafs were interspersed in between those seven seasons, so that when the heavily favoured Senators bowed out to Toronto in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal, changes had to be made.
The sale of the Senators out of bankruptcy to Eugene Melnyk was finalized in August 2023, and with it brought about a confidence and swagger the organization had never known.
With promises to spend and a penchant for taking public shots at the Toronto market, no owner in Senators history conducted themselves the way that Eugene Melnyk did. Thanks to the sensitivities that naturally form when a city is wedged between two major Canadian markets like Ottawa is, the owner’s bravado and brashness were a welcome change.
A fourth consecutive postseason defeat, though, was unacceptable to Ottawa’s new Toronto-based owner.
The first order of business was to fire Jacques Martin in April. Two months later, they replaced him with Shawville’s Bryan Murray, who resigned from his general manager’s role in Anaheim to come home.
"I wanted very badly to come back to coach," Murray told reporters at the press conference to announce his hiring. "I wanted to come back to a hockey country where hockey meant something. I'm very, very excited.
"Today, there are 10 or 12 teams that think they have a chance to win the Stanley Cup. We have to be one of them. The core is here.”
The core was there, but the hockey was not.
Following the expiration of the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement on September 14, 2004, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced two days later that the start of the season would not proceed, pointing to a stalemate in negotiations with the NHLPA.
On February 16, 2005, he announced that the season was formally cancelled.
At the heart of the issue was a dispute between the owners and players regarding how much money the owners were losing and how a large share of the league’s gross revenues was tied to paying player salaries. To address those problems, the owners adamantly demanded the introduction of a hard salary cap, which aligned with their goal of employing a mechanism linking league revenues to player salaries.
Five months later, a new CBA was ratified in late July, announcing the return of NHL hockey. As part of the new agreement, a hard cap was established, with lower and upper limits that teams had to abide by.
Heading into the labour stoppage, fewer teams in the league needed a salary cap more than the Ottawa Senators. The irony is that the introduction of the $39-million cap ceiling may have inadvertently cost the organization its first Stanley Cup.
Few teams in the league boasted as much talent as the Ottawa Senators had, and at least in the first few formative years of Eugene Melnyk’s stewardship of the franchise, there was a willingness and ability to spend on the roster.
The first casualty of the new cap system was Marian Hossa.
The Senators were put into a difficult spot with the talented forward.
“We realized you can only keep so many people with a hard cap,” stated Roy Mlakar, former president and CEO of the Ottawa Senators. “We had so many good young players that were coming to the point where we're going to have to plan for the future, and John Muckler was no rookie, as far as being the general manager was concerned, and having the ability to work alongside Peter Chiarelli, who had tremendous knowledge of the CBA and of the way it was going to work, we knew we had to make some hard decisions.”
During the 2003-04 season, the Senators had a payroll of $39.5 million. Even with the NHL and NHLPA agreeing to a 24 percent salary rollback, which was applied to all existing player contracts for the 2005-06 season, it would still be challenging to fit in more expensive contracts.
As a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, the winger tallied 36 goals and a career-high 82 points during his 2003-04 season while providing strong two-way play.
Marian Hossa was going to get paid.
Hours before Hossa’s arbitration hearing was scheduled to begin, general manager John Muckler signed the winger to a three-year, $18 million contract. A few short hours later, Muckler traded Hossa with defenceman Greg de Vries to the Atlanta Thrashers for Dany Heatley. As part of the trade, the Senators announced that Heatley had inked a three-year, $13.5 million contract of his own.
It was a back-pocket deal that devastated an unsuspecting Hossa.
“The fact of the matter is, Don (Waddell), the general manager of Atlanta was in that hotel (where Hossa’s arbitration hearing was taking place),” explained Mlakar. “He had talked about a (Hossa contract) with John under the terms and conditions that Donnie could deliver Dany Heatley. He agreed to pay the money that John negotiated. We knew the term and Don Waddell accepted it, and when the contract was signed by Hossa, we had a deal. In (Hossa’s) defence, he thought he was coming back to Ottawa on a new deal. But, John Muckler had him traded for Heatley if he could agree to the contract.”
Jan 26, 2008; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Thrashers forward Marian Hossa (18) takes a shot during the accuracy shooting event of the NHL all star skills competition at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
For Heatley, Ottawa represented a blank slate.
“It was just a fresh start for me, personally,” admitted Heatley. “I had a lot to prove coming off my situation.”
Weeks earlier, the 24-year-old requested a trade through his agent, Stacey McAlpine. Two years earlier, he was sentenced to three years probation for his involvement in a car accident in September 2003, which claimed the life of teammate Dan Snyder. Heatley suffered an ACL, MCL and meniscus tear to his knee from that accident.
During the lockout, the winger was struck in the face with a puck while playing for HC Bern in the Swiss League. The impact broke an orbital bone in his face, necessitating surgery and ultimately leaving Heatley with a permanently dilated eye.
“There was pressure coming off some injuries that people were questioning,” said Heatley, explaining how he felt pressure to perform upon arriving in Ottawa. “Of course, you're in a Canadian hockey market. You're traded for a pretty good player who did a really good job in Ottawa before he left. There were huge expectations. I had a lot to prove.”
It was the kind of trade that could send shockwaves through a dressing room, but if the lockout had an unanticipated positive impact, it might have mitigated any possible feelings felt by Hossa’s teammates.
“I think the trade was made a little bit easier by the fact that we were coming out of a lockout,” Chris Phillips stated while describing the impacts the trade had on the team. “Some of us were not in the city, and the league wasn't going on. We hadn't played in months, and we weren’t going to play for another few months. So it was not the normal course of business when it happens in-season or during the offseason, when you are connected and know everything that's going on.”
Jan. 1, 2008; Washington, DC, USA; Ottawa Senators left wing Dany Heatley (15) and Washington Capitals left wing Alexander Ovechkin (8) share a moment during the Capitals 6-3 win at Verizon Center in Washington, DC. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Heatley was not the only significant change to the roster. The other was in goal.
During the 2004 offseason, the Senators signed Dominik Hasek to a one-year, $2-million deal that included an option. Ottawa’s underlying talent allured the goaltender.
“I was motivated, above all, by how good that team was in Ottawa,” Hasek explained. “I also felt that with my performances, I could help them win the Stanley Cup.”
The then 39-year-old had already amassed a Hall of Fame resume, winning a Stanley Cup, the Hart Trophy and six Vezina Trophies.
Ottawa also represented an opportunity to reunite with John Muckler, the former general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, with whom Hasek enjoyed success during his tenure there.
“Of course, he played a big role,” stated Hasek. “(Muckler) knew me very well, not only as a goalie, but also as a person. We had a very good relationship from our time in Buffalo.”
Although the lockout meant that Hasek would return to play as a 40-year-old, together with Dany Heatley, the pair of newcomers brought something observers believed the Senators lacked.
Swagger.
“It was pretty awesome when (Hasek) came to town,” said Wade Redden, recalling the excitement he had at the time. “Everyone was so excited and pumped. Obviously, we'd seen lots of him from his days in Buffalo and been on the wrong side of his games. But it was exciting. We had a really good team, and then to add a guy like that. It was like, ‘Okay, let's do this. Let's go!’”
“If you actually think about it, who are you going to get for Marian Hossa?” asked veteran centre Bryan Smolinski. “You get Dany Heatley, an unbelievable personality who came into the room and walked with swagger coming from Atlanta, because he was a goal scorer. He walked in and made his presence known just by how he worked, how he practiced, and his love of being with the guys.”
“(Heatley) had a confidence to him that I think was good for our group,” stated Redden. “He just had a swagger, and he was a perfect fit to play with Spez, too, who loved passing, and Heater loved shooting everything. I can’t remember if it was early in the year or at the end of training camp, but a Toronto fan came up to him at the bar and bought him a drink. He mentioned something about the Leafs, and Heatley took it and threw it in the corner, and said, ‘We’re going to go 8 and 0 against them.’ That was a funny story, but he just had that confidence and swagger that fit in great with our group. He was a big piece for us.”
“Yeah, I won't deny that,” Heatley responded. “But, I'm not going to comment further.”
The Senators would only win seven of their eight games against the Leafs that season, but that confidence bled into the group.
“I think we had more of a group swagger or confidence than any individual,” stated Heatley, while downplaying the confidence he brought to the group. “We fed off each other. We fed off each other's confidence more than we did our own. That's how I felt. I felt confident being on the ice with anybody. You felt confident that those guys were going to do their job, and they were confident players as well.
“It was more of a group confidence in swagger. We were a tight group. When we were on the road, we'd all go to dinner together a lot. It was fun to be a part of. There were times when you'd be driving to the rink, and as a scorer, you know you're going to get, like, four or five good looks. That doesn't happen very often with teams.”
When the 2005-06 Senators arrived at the rink, it was never a question of whether they could win; it was a matter of asking by how much.
But, to get to that point, the Senators needed the right person pulling the strings, and that individual was Bryan Murray.
The 63-year-old Shawville native was overseas at the World Championships in Prague when he learned from the Disney Company, owners of the Ducks, that the Ottawa Senators had called wanting permission to talk to Murray about their vacant head coaching position.
When he debated the merits of the job, he obviously understood how talented the assembled group in Ottawa was.
The core of the 2002-03 Presidents' Trophy team was still in place, and strong amateur scouting had put the team in a great position. The draft produced 15 players who appeared in 30 or more games for the Senators in 2005-06, including seven first-round picks.
Several other first-round selections like Alexei Yashin, Marian Hossa, and Jakub Klepis were used as trade capital to land Jason Spezza and Zdeno Chara, Dany Heatley, and Vaclav Varada, respectively. Coupled with the fact that the lockout allowed the Senators to play and develop many prospects during the work stoppage, who they had designs on being NHL regulars at the resumption of NHL play, it put the organization in a really advantageous spot.
Talent notwithstanding, the Senators’ head coaching position offered an unmistakable element that could not be addressed elsewhere.
“There’s a sense of pride,” Murray told Chris Stevenson, author of 100 Things Senators Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. “I’m the coach of the local NHL team. I know there will be days when you don’t win a hockey game, when you will be analyzed and criticized. That’s part of our game. There’s a chance here for a real sense of pride for the whole area if this team could ever be a champion.”
It certainly helped that Murray had a strong resume to call on.
Before arriving in Ottawa, Murray was the seventh-winningest head coach in NHL history.
“He was just a great human being,” described Heatley. “Bryan was an old school guy, and obviously a local Ottawa guy. He knew a lot of things about the league and the game, but he was definitely a player's coach, an old school players' coach. He would jump, and he'd make fun, but he was serious about winning and hockey, and I really enjoyed it.
"He treated you like a man. He treated the team like men and just let us do our thing. If something needed to be said, he would say it, but for the most part, he knew how to manage our group. We had some guys that obviously accomplished things, some veterans and some young guys, but he managed us really well.”
The contrast between Jacques Martin and Murray was readily apparent.
“Bryan was different, definitely compared to Jacques,” emphasized Martin Havlat. “He would give his offensive players more freedom. When he got to the team (after the lockout), we had so many great players. It was so much fun for him.”
“It was two different styles,” echoed Chris Neil. “Bryan inherited a team that was well-structured and well-coached on the defensive side of the puck, and Bryan gave us a little more leeway to be more offensive, with a harder forecheck, which paid dividends for me and my game. I love being physical, getting in on the forecheck. Bryan loved it. They'd flush guys out behind the net, and I could catch them in the trolley tracks. He opened up for the offensive horses, but we still had that defensive mindset in our own end, which Bryan inherited from Jacques.
One of the best decisions Murray made occurred in the preseason.
After scoring six goals in seven preseason games, the unheralded Brandon Bochenski was making a name for himself. Born in Blaine, Minnesota, Bochenski was Ottawa’s seventh-round pick (223rd overall) from the 2001 NHL Draft. He followed up an impressive three-year collegiate career at the University of North Dakota by recording 34 goals and 70 points in his first professional season during the lockout in Binghamton.
Bochenski was one of eight Binghamton products who were looking to make the jump from the AHL to Ottawa’s lineup as regulars. During the preseason, he looked comfortable riding shotgun on a line with Heatley and Spezza. Bochenski benefited directly from the organization's effort to build chemistry between Spezza and Heatley by playing them together as much as possible.
Spezza (3 goals, 16 points) and Heatley (six goals, 15 points) finished the preseason as the first and second-highest scorers. Bochenski would open the season on the Senators' roster, but it was Murray’s decision to use Alfredsson in certain situations during the preseason that would pay dividends.
In the season opener and his team trailing in the third period, Alfredsson replaced Bochenski on the team’s top line and scored twice in the final frame, with Heatley assisting on Alfredsson's second goal, to send the game to overtime. Overtime failed to produce a goal, so the game proceeded to the first shootout in NHL history, where Alfredsson recorded the first goal, and Heatley got the shootout winner.
That initial success carried over to the next few games, leading to the infamous ‘Pizza Line’ moniker.
At the time, the Senators had a sponsorship deal with Pizza Pizza wherein if the Senators scored five or more goals in a home game during the regular season, ticket holders would be entitled to a free slice of pizza. After the Senators surpassed that threshold in each of the team’s first three home games, the pizza chain moved quickly to alter the conditions of the giveaway, raising the required goal total from five to six.
From the preseason to the regular season, the goals and points kept coming for Heatley.
Heatley would put up 17 goals and 38 points in the Senators’ first 22 games. It represented the second-longest point streak to begin a career with a new team in NHL history, trailing only Wayne Gretzky’s 23-game mark with the Los Angeles Kings.
It was a stretch of greatness that we may never witness again.
The Senators’ record during Heatley’s 22-game point streak was a resounding 19-3-0. It still stands as the greatest start to a season in franchise history.
During this span, Jason Spezza led the NHL in scoring with 11 goals and 41 points, while Daniel Alfredsson was second with 20 goals and 40 points. As a team, the Senators scored 102 goals while allowing 45, averaging 4.64 goals and 2.05 goals against per game.
They were a wagon.
Nov 8, 2006; Atlanta, GA, USA; Ottawa Senators forward (19) Jason Spezza forward (15) Dany Heatley and forward (11) Daniel Alfredsson have a discussion prior to a face off against the Atlanta Thrashers in the first period at Philips Arena. The Thrashers defeated the Senators 5 to 4. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Dale Zanine Imagn Images Copyright (c) 2006 Dale Zanine
“We never talked about how well we were playing,” Spezza recalled. “One of the things that I liked, that Bryan Murray always talked to me about, was that as long as the three of us were going to play together, we could never complain about secondary scoring or worry about getting help from the lineup. If we were going to play together, we had to produce. And if we were going to be a line, then we had to drive the offence.
"I thought it was a great coaching job by him, because often you hear when teams go through struggles, they lean on secondary scoring. He right away, kind of squashed that and said, ‘All right, if we're going to play you guys together, you have to carry the load of it.’ It put a good pressure on us and also an expectation that we were fortunate to get a chance to play together. We never talked about it, but we knew our roles and responsibilities. If we didn't win our matchups every night, we probably wouldn't win games. And we went into every game thinking we had to win our matchup with whoever we were playing against.”
The ‘Pizza Line’ never had to worry about secondary scoring because it showed up in droves.
The Senators' offence was bolstered by the combination of Peter Schaefer, Bryan Smolinski and Martin Havlat. Mike Fisher and Chris Neil provided a mix of physicality and secondary scoring, while Antoine Vermette immediately brought speed and two-way aptitude to the group. The fourth line of Vaclav Varada, Chris Kelly and Brian McGrattan played reliably while offering a layer of physicality and pugilism that head coach Bryan Murray believed in.
It is not often that a rookie centre tallies 10 goals and 30 points while playing exclusively in a fourth line capacity, but that was exactly what happened to Chris Kelly.
“I think a lot of times, because we got up so much, that I probably got more ice time than most fourth line guys normally do,” said Kelly as he described reasons for his unlikely production. “We played Toronto eight times that year, and my first NHL goal was in Toronto. I think it was our seventh goal, and I couldn't even celebrate it. But it was fun being on that team. I got more ice time than most fourth line guys would have because of our offence.”
Ten players on the Senators scored 15-plus goals that season and likely would have had more had Martin Havlat not been suspended for kicking Hal Gill during the October 15th game against Boston. In the second period with Havlat below the goal line, the Bruins defenceman pinned the Senators forward’s back to the Boston goal.
“Kicking was the only option I had left,” Havlat explained. “I was trying to defend myself. The only part of me that was free was my foot that was hanging there. I wasn’t penalized on the play, but I got suspended, and nobody was really happy about that. I got a five-game suspension, actually, because it wasn't the first time.”
In his return game, Havlat popped off, recording a four-goal performance against the Buffalo Sabres. The only thing more impressive than ‘Mach-9’s’ offence was captain Daniel Alfredsson’s third period hat trick that allowed him to finish with four goals and six points in the Senators’ 10-4 win.
“Alfie had to catch up in the last period,” recalled Havlat while laughing about his team’s performance. “He stole the show at the end, but we scored 10 goals. It was a special night for me, after the suspension, and I was so serious that game. Everything I touched went in, but then I got hurt against Montreal, and everything changed.”
In that November 29th game against the Canadiens, Havlat suffered a separated shoulder. It was an injury that would require surgery, putting the rest of his season in doubt.
After scoring 31 goals and 68 points, Havlat was expected to shoulder that secondary scoring burden, but his injury afforded the organization the opportunity to elevate another rookie, Patrick Eaves, to absorb some of Havlat’s minutes. The winger would go on to become the fourth player in franchise history to record 20-plus goals as a rookie.
“It was at the point as a franchise that is hard to get to,” said Spezza, the team’s number one centre. “We had a young fourth line. And our third and fourth line guys had the capability to be more, and they all became more. Antoine Vermette became more. (Kelly) became more.
"Our depth was just incredible. It was a four-line team playing in an era where not as many teams were that deep. We definitely felt going into every game that we were going to win. To get that kind of swagger, you have to earn it, but by being a young team, we were probably a little bit naive about things, and it worked in our favour.”
“We had very high swagger,” Bryan Smolinksi acknowledged. “We knew in our locker room; I don't think many others realized that we had four lines. We had a very good (blue line), and we played a heavy game, like we weren't going to get pushed around. We had a legit heavyweight in Brian McGrattan, but we had team toughness. And I think everyone realized that, you know, throughout the year. And that was one thing that we really took to heart. The knock was that Ottawa was easy to push around. If you just beat us up a little bit, we were going to cave. We took that perception and tried to be really tough throughout the year with physicality and speed. There were not a lot of teams that could play with us.”
The Senators strived towards team toughness, but it was a game in late October that helped set the tone.
Senators rookie Brian McGrattan was nine games into his NHL career when he faced the Maple Leafs on October 29th. It was the third meeting of the season between the Senators and Maple Leafs, with the first two decided by shootout. The scores in those games were too close for there to be much on-ice acrimony, but with Ottawa staked to a 4-0 lead in the early stages of the second period, an aging Tie Domi challenged the young McGrattan to fight.
One right hand and Gene Simmons-like tongue protrusion later, McGrattan single-handedly let everyone know there was a changing of the guard in the Battle of Ontario. After those years of bullying, it was like a weight had been lifted. All of Ottawa channelled years of frustration through McGrattan’s one haymaker into a moment of pure cathartic bliss.
“It was another defining moment,” said Wade Redden, while recalling the fight. “It was a key moment, organically, that you look back on that kind of gives everyone a sense of belief of, ‘Here we are.’”
“At the time, I was still living at the hotel,” McGrattan told the hosts of the Coming in Hot Podcast. “That fight was somewhere within my first 10 games, and that's the moment that maybe cemented my role. With the rivalry that the teams had leading up to that, the team they had in Toronto, and how soft those Sens teams were. The Sens teams were better, but they were way softer. Just beating Tie there, and it was a pretty decisive win on the scoresheet, too. We beat them either seven or eight to nothing, and then I beat Tie.
"I grew up a die hard Leaf fan, and Tie Domi was one of my favourite Leafs. Being able to fight him and Toronto being my childhood team, and it was a pretty decisive win, which made it better. Fighting is not all about winning or losing, but when you beat a guy of Tie’s stature and the history he's had, it's a pretty big moment for our team and the Ottawa organization, knowing that they were not going to get pushed around.”
The Senators were not pushed around through their first 56 games, cruising to a 37-14-5 record. Not only were they the league's highest-scoring team with 221 goals, but they also allowed the fewest with 133.
A microcosm of the Senators’ dominance was a game in late January against the Montreal Canadiens. Ottawa dictated the play for the entire night, but their puck possession in the second period led to five consecutive penalties to the Canadiens. The Senators’ power play made them pay, with Daniel Alfredsson scoring two goals on the man advantage. By the time the final horn sounded, the Senators held a massive advantage in shots on goal, directing 40 shots at Cristobal Huet, to the Canadiens’ 12.
That mark still stands as a Canadiens' record for fewest shots in a game.
“What can I say about tonight’s shutout?” Dominik Hasek quipped after the game. “It was the easiest shutout I’ve ever had in the NHL. I think I’m embarrassed to get a shutout like that.”
It was the kind of moxie and swagger that the Senators were looking to cultivate, but one month later, that positivity hit a speed bump when Hasek got injured at the Olympics in Turin, Italy...
Coming soon: Part two of The Rise And Fall Of One Of The Greatest Teams In Senators History
Tony Clark’s Exit Comes at the Worst Time for Baseball
Clark’s abrupt resignation as MLBPA Executive Director could threaten the sport’s momentum amid salary cap battles, payroll disparities, and even a potential lockout.
Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark is reportedly resigning, multiple reports said Tuesday morning, an unexpected bombshell as the players' union gets set to begin negotiations with MLB owners that will determine the future of the sport.
Clark, who's led the union since 2013, has been in an ongoing legal battle in the Eastern District of New York alleging he and MLBPA officials illegally enriched themselves as co-founders of OneTeam Partners, a joint venture among multiple players unions that wisely joined forces to enhance player leverage in name, image, and likeness deals for licensing, content, and sponsorship initiatives. The 53-year-old was reportedly expected to begin his annual tour of Spring Training team sites on Tuesday, a vital initiative to hear from every player on the issues most important to them going into the new season. That tour is even more vital this year, as owners get ready to push for a salary cap harder than they have since the players went on strike in 1994 in opposition to the measure, ultimately leading to the cancellation of the World Series for the first time ever.
"We still need to discuss with players why," New York Mets infielder Marcus Semien, one of the eight members of the MLBPA's executive subcommittee, toldThe Athletic regarding Clark's resignation, which he apparently did not see coming. "You definitely don’t want things to be a distraction going into December.”
The union is expected to name an interim executive director who will team with longtime deputy and litigator Bruce Meyer to negotiate the next CBA on the players' behalf. The current MLB CBA expires on Dec. 1, and owners are expected to lock out players as they seek to curtail spending by teams like the Mets and the two-time defending World Series championLos Angeles Dodgers. My first 2026 sports business prediction was that there will be an MLB lockout, and both owners and players appear dug in and resolute on not ceding any ground on this issue.
As players reported to Spring Training last week, some of the biggest names in the game have publicly come out in support of the sport's biggest spenders, even if it comes at the expense of their own teams.
“I love what the Dodgers do, obviously,” Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper told reporters over the weekend. “They pay the money, they spend the money. They run their team like a business, and they run it the right way. They understand where they need to put their money into.”
Payroll disparities have only grown over the last few years, with the Miami Marlins spending just $20 million on four free agents the entire offseason.
“Every team has the ability to do it," San Diego Padres All-Star Manny Machado told reporters about the Dodgers' spending, "so I hope all 30 teams could learn from that.”
Bryce Harper: “I love what the Dodgers do, obviously.”
Owners contend that creating a cap over time will limit the advantage teams like the Dodgers, Mets,New York Yankees, and Toronto Blue Jays currently wield, while a floor would force teams like the Marlins, Athletics, and Cleveland Guardians to increase spending and parity. The players' union, led by Clark until this week, vehemently disagrees with the idea that a salary cap enhances competitive balance.
"We don’t believe salary caps are good for players or are good for the game,” Clark told me in July. “We believe salary caps are actually anti-competition.”
While other issues on the table include an international draft, revenue sharing from an expanded playoff round, the qualifying offer, and other rules, the salary cap is the sticking point that has the baseball world on edge. These negotiations and the risk of a potential lockout could completely halt the momentum MLB has generated over the last few years. Rules changes have sped up the game, leading to improved attendance and television ratings, including a Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series Game 7 that was the most-watched baseball game since 1992.
An MLB work stoppage in 2027 is a distinct possibility as both sides dig in for a contentious nine months of negotiations. Now, one side's leader just left as it begins its most pivotal period in decades. How the MLBPA responds to, and pivots from, Clark's shocking departure could determine baseball's short- and long-term future.
Raphielle Johnson
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Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
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