Over the weekend, a report that Anton Frondell would play the 2025-26 season in Sweden after signing his ELC with the Chicago Blackhawks went viral in the hockey world. Overall, this is not a shocking piece of news.
The Blackhawks have been careful lately when it comes to calling players up to the NHL. They only want truly ready guys, if not a little more than ready. Not everybody can be Connor Bedard and make an impact at 18 years old.
Playing for Djurgårdens of the SHL for another year will be great for Frondell’s development. Djurgårdens is moving up a level in that league, so the competition will be stiffer, which is magnificent for Frondell as a young forward trying to enhance the two-way game.
Frondell will be joined on the team by one of his good friends in Victor Eklund, who the New York Islanders selected 16th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Eklund isn’t the only notable teammate of Frondell with Djurgårdens either. He will suit up with former Blackhawks forward Marcus Kruger. Kruger is a tremendous elder player to have surrounding a young talent like Frondell.
Was Kruger a key contributor offensively during Chicago’s dynasty years? No. As far as forwards go, they had Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, and Patrick Sharp for that. With that said, Kruger’s effort, character, and “do what I can for the team” attitude made him one of the best role players in NHL history.
Kruger was skilled enough to play for an excellent Swedish Olympic team in addition to being a key player on a championship-caliber NHL team. He accepted his role and executed it.
Having the countryman connection in addition to the Blackhawks connection should help Kruger pass some knowledge on to Frondell. When he comes to North America full-time for hockey, he will have learned his trade well.
Throughout his 520 NHL games, Kruger played all but 48 with the Blackhawks. Those 48 came with the Carolina Hurricanes. Kruger had 38 goals and 85 assists for 123 points. When he was on the ice, despite his low offensive totals, Kruger was an effective player. He was so good defensively that he even earned some Selke Trophy love a couple of times.
Frondell has infinitely more tools than Kruger did, but the mentality of being a good two-way hockey player is something that the elder can help the rookie with.
A view of The Battery at Truist Park in Atlanta, which is playing host to the MLB All-Star Game this week. (Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
In 2021, Times columnist Bill Plaschke incurred the wrath of Atlanta by blaspheming the entertainment district surrounding the Braves’ ballpark as a “sterile shopping mall.” The district, called The Battery, prefers the grand descriptor of “the South’s preeminent lifestyle destination.”
Let’s take a walk around The Battery, so you can understand why it could become one of the flash points in the coming holy war between owners and players.
If you leave the ballpark through the right-field gates, you are in The Battery. You’ll see a plaza in front of you, and around you places to ride a mechanical bull, go bowling, navigate an escape room or take in a concert.
You can eat, drink, shop, dance, stay in a hotel. You can live here, in apartments above the storefronts. You can work here, in office towers housing corporate giants.
“To create an environment where you can spend eight, nine hours at The Battery and the field, and still feel like you have all the time in the world, I think they’ve done a wonderful job building this place,” Dodgers and former Braves All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman said.
The Braves built all this, not only to lure fans to come early and stay late on game days but to make money from the property 365 days a year rather than 81. On that front, it is a spectacular success: Nine million people come here each year, and the Braves generated $67 million in revenue from The Battery last year.
This, according to major league officials, is the template for the modern team. The Angels had planned a ballpark village twice as large as The Battery. Imagine what the Dodgers could build, and how much revenue they could generate, on property twice as large as the Angel Stadium site.
And, speaking of revenue, Rob Manfred has something he likes to say to players about it. The MLB commissioner spoke at the Braves’ Investor Day last month and said he tells players that their share of the sport’s revenue has dropped from 63% in 2002 to 47% today.
Baseball is the only major sport in America without a salary cap system, in which owners agree to spend a designated percentage of revenue on player salaries.
“If we had made a deal 10 years ago to share 50-50, you would’ve made $2.5 billion more than you made,” Manfred said he has told players, in comments first reported by Sports Business Journal.
The players and their union rolled their collective eyes at those comments. It is no secret that many owners want a salary cap, and the cost certainty that comes with it.
“It’s all tactics,” Dodgers All-Star catcher Will Smith said. “It’s all early negotiating stuff.”
Said Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll: “Owners don’t want to put money in our pockets. For them to emphasize how we need this so much, there’s a reason for that.”
Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, said the revenue numbers the league shares with the union are not consistent with Manfred’s statements. And, when you consider a percentage of revenue, you have to define what counts as revenue: What goes into the pool to be shared with players?
Tony Clark, executive director of the MLB players' union. (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)
So let’s go back to The Battery, and to the revenue opportunities that such ballpark villages create for teams.
A report released in April by Klutch Sports, the Los Angeles-based agency, called such villages “the sports industry’s $100+ billion growth engine,” particularly as media revenue wanes. Within the pitch to team owners: Those villages “generate attractive financial returns that stand outside of league revenue sharing requirements.”
Translation: You can make all these millions without sharing any of it with the players.
The Braves are building here because the team plays here. That is the new issue looming over the next round of collective bargaining: If a team builds around its ballpark, should that revenue be shared with players?
“Oh yeah,” Athletics All-Star designated hitter Brent Rooker said. “Revenue is just any dollar that teams bring in that ultimately could be turned around and used to put a better product on the field. It’s got to include tickets, TV, concessions, all the things around the stadium. It’s got to include all of it.”
Is the money a team makes from renting office space outside the ballpark really relevant to the team?
Here’s what Braves president and chief executive Derek Schiller told ESPN about The Battery: “You've got a whole other set of revenues from the real estate development that can then be deployed for the baseball team.”
I asked Clark whether, if negotiations turn to the possibility of revenue sharing along the lines Manfred discussed, the money from ballpark villages needs to be part of the conversation.
“Yes,” Clark said.
He declined to elaborate. Understand this about Clark: He can filibuster a yes or no question into a 45-second monologue without actually answering yes or no. That he would say a clear “yes” and nothing else leaves no doubt about his position.
If the players do ask that owners share revenue from such ballpark villages, the response would be predictable: First, we share baseball revenue from baseball operations, and real estate developments are not baseball operations. Second, if you want to share in the revenue, you can share in the risk too, by helping to fund construction of the ballpark village, say, or by assuming some of the losses when a tenant drops its lease and leaves storefronts or office buildings unoccupied.
Said Carroll: “I think that’s a conversation that won’t need to happen, because it won’t get to that point. A salary cap is a nonstarter from the union’s perspective.”
Enjoy the All-Star Game Tuesday, because this summer is one of relative peace. The collective bargaining agreement expires after next season, which means the rhetoric between players and owners ought to be flying this time next year. If the owners insist on pushing a salary cap, a lockout almost certainly would follow.
And, if the owners push revenue sharing, The Battery could provide the push for the players’ pushback.
Warriors basketball soon is approaching, Dub Nation.
Golden State released its preseason schedule for the 2025-26 NBA campaign, with three of its five games at Chase Center.
Here is the full five-game schedule:
Oct. 5: Warriors vs. Lakers at Chase Center
Oct. 8 Warriors vs. Trail Blazers at Chase Center
Oct. 12: Warriors vs. Lakers at Crypto.com Arena
Oct. 14 Warriors vs. Trail Blazers at Moda Center
Oct. 17 Warriors vs. Clippers at Chase Center
Oct 5: Warriors-Lakers at Chase Center Oct 8: Warriors-Blazers at Chase Center Oct 12: Warriors-Lakers at Crypto Oct 14: Warriors-Blazers at Moda Center Oct 17: Warriors-Clippers at Chase Center
Warriors have three home preseason games and two on the road
Following a gutwrenching end to the 2024-25 NBA season, Golden State will look to bounce back in 2025-26 around its core of Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.
Rest of the squad unchanged for Old Trafford clash
Liam Dawson has been added to England’s squad for the fourth Test against India, ending an eight-year exile from the longest format in international cricket.
Last month the Hampshire all-rounder made a successful return to England’s T20 side after a three-year absence and, with Shoaib Bashir forced to pull out of the India series with a broken finger, he has finally been rewarded for his excellent red-ball form in recent seasons: 49 first-class wickets in 2023 followed by 54 in 2024, by a considerable margin his two most successful campaigns.
Brown, the Giants’ No. 5 prospect in 2023, according to MLB Pipeline, batted .248/.339/.286 with zero home runs, seven RBI and 14 stolen bases in 122 combined plate appearances across rookie-ball, High-A and Double-A levels this season.
The speedy 27-year-old outfielder, a 10th-round draft pick by the Giants in 2021, had a breakout 2022 minor league season, slashing .346/.437/.623 with 23 homers and 44 stolen bases across three levels. But he did not advance past the Double-A level in five minor-league seasons with San Francisco.
Pomares, signed by the Giants as an international free agent in 2018, batted .209/.268/.352 with nine home runs, 34 RBI and nine stolen bases in 299 plate appearances with Double-A Richmond this season.
Another member of the 2024 NBA champion Boston Celtics has left the team in free agency.
Forward Drew Peterson, who entered this offseason as a restricted free agent, has agreed to a two-way contract with the Charlotte Hornets, his agents confirmed to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Peterson spent the last two seasons on a two-way deal with the Celtics, appearing in just three games during the 2023-24 campaign while spending most of the season in the G League with the Maine Celtics. He saw more opportunity last season, however, playing in 25 games for Boston’s parent club and averaging 2.2 points over 7.4 minutes per game in those appearances.
The 25-year-old Peterson is an excellent 3-point shooter who has shot 42.1 percent from distance over 28 NBA games. He’ll reunite in Charlotte with former Celtics assistant Charles Lee, who took over as Hornets head coach last season.
While Peterson showed some promise in Boston, his departure seemed likely after the Celtics reportedly signed both of their second-round picks in the 2025 NBA Draft — big man Amari Williams and guard Max Shulga — to two-way deals. Forward Miles Norris also is on a two-way deal with Boston, meaning the team has no more open two-way slots.
Peterson joins Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet among the players leaving the Celtics this offseason, while veteran Al Horford is expected to depart in free agency as well. If Horford signs elsewhere, forward Torrey Craig would be Boston’s final unsigned free agent.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Every scout has a story about the time he went in to see one promising prospect and ended up blown away by a teammate. As the Giants prepared for the 2025 MLB Draft, they kept finding themselves drawn to teammates who were dominating at the same school in the Boston area.
The organization selected 16 players on the second day of the draft, and three came from Northeastern University, including sixth- and seventh-rounders Jordan Gottesman and Cameron Maldonado. Amateur scouting director Michael Holmes said his department was drawn to the standouts in part because of how successful the program was this year. Northeastern went 49-11 and reached the NCAA Regional.
“Obviously when you run guys in to see Northeastern, we’re scouting every guy on the field,” Holmes said. “Our area scout, Carmen Carcone, did an amazing job with his entire area this year, but especially with that Northeastern club. They were a really good team.”
Gottesman, a left-hander, was the staff ace, posting a 2.27 ERA and holding opponents to a .185 average.
“He’s a pitchability lefty with really solid velocity and he’s an excellent strike-thrower,” Holmes said. “He was able to eat a lot of innings this year, which lets you know there was a durability aspect to him. It was a really effective four-pitch mix with a really strong slider.”
Holmes said the Giants first were drawn to Maldonado, a right-handed-hitting outfielder, when they saw him in the Cape Cod League. He hit .351 last season with 15 homers and 29 stolen bases.
“He’s a really athletic kid,” Holmes said. “It’s a power-speed combo in center field.”
The final Northeastern pick came in the 18th round, when the Giants selected 6-foot-8 right-hander Cooper McGrath, who likely is to be a reliever as a professional. With their first selection Monday, the Giants took Stetson infielder Lorenzo Meola. In the 10th round, they took his teammate, Isaiah Barkett. Meola hit .304 in three seasons at Stetson.
“He has high contact skills and he showed power this year,” Holmes said. “You get a shortstop who touches the baseball, has some power, has the plus athleticism — we’re really lucky to have him.”
One of the most interesting picks Monday came in the 11th round, when the Giants selected Saddleback College catcher Rod Barajas Jr., the son of a catcher who played 14 big league seasons. The father played against Holmes in the minors and president of baseball operations Buster Posey in the big leagues, and also worked with special assistant Sam Geaney when the two were in San Diego’s front office. Barajas Jr. hit .329 last season.
“He’s a guy that all of our scouts, when they went in, they saw him and they liked him,” Holmes said. “We loved his bat potential, we loved his ability to swing it, we liked his (swing) path, we think there’s huge upside with the bat, we think the (defense) is on the come and there are skills about him to be an everyday guy.
“He’s a guy we definitely got excited about. He’s kind of one of those guys that your scouts keep reminding you all week, don’t forget about this guy, don’t forget about this guy.”
Pre-season trips to Asia may not be new for English clubs, but they remain a huge global engagement opportunity
Fifty years ago, Arsenal lost 2-0 to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, with jet-lagged players struggling to deal with frogs bouncing around the Merdeka Stadium pitch as well as the legendary local striker Mokhtar Dahari.
Since then, however, many aspects of Asian tours by English clubs have changed. They have become, mostly, slick affairs. This summer, Arsenal will visit neighbouring Singapore for games against Newcastle and Milan. Then to Hong Kong for an unusual north London derby against a Tottenham team that will also travel to South Korea to face Newcastle. Liverpool visit Japan and Hong Kong just weeks after Manchester United were in action there on a post-season tour, which they finished in Malaysia.
In the fevered environments within sporting arenas, anything that can help an official has to be a good thing
We are all suckers for a good story. And there was certainly a cracking two‑parter at Wimbledon this year. First came the news that 300 line judges had been replaced by artificial intelligence robots. Then, a few days later, it turned out there were some embarrassing gremlins in the machine. Not since Roger Federer hung up his Wilson racket has there been a sweeter spot hit during the Wimbledon fortnight.
Lakers guard Bronny James, right, shoots in front of Clippers rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser during the first half of the Clippers' 67-58 NBA Summer League win in Las Vegas on Monday night. (Garrett Ellwood / NBAE via Getty Images)
Even with all the sports dignitaries in attendance and even though they were watching a rivalry game of sorts between the Lakers and Clippers, the fans inside the Thomas & Mack Center still were mostly enamored with Bronny James.
James had one of his better NBA Summer League games, but it was the Clippers who came out on top in a 67-58 win Monday night at Nevada Las Vegas.
James had 17 points, five rebounds and five assists in 24 minutes and 17 seconds.
He was six for 10 from the field and three for five from three-point range.
And, yes, he was happy to have the support of his family and teammates.
“It definitely gave me a little boost, seeing them cheer for me and my teammates,” James said. “It’s great to get in the gym with them.”
The star of the night was Clippers forward Jordan Miller, his 19 points and seven rebounds a big reason why the Clippers are 3-0 in the summer league.
His three-pointer late in the fourth quarter gave the Clippers a lead they never lost. He scored nine of the Clippers’ last 11 points.
“We got it done,” said Clippers assistant coach Jeremy Castleberry, who is the team’s summer league coach. “We got it done. We did what we needed to do, the second night of a back-to-back. For a lot of those guys, it was the first back-to-back they played in a long time. So, happy we got it done.”
James started strong, shooting a three-pointer to open the scoring. He added a step-back three in the second quarter, those two shots being part of his 12 first-half points on four-for-four shooting.
He made a three-pointer in the fourth quarter that tied the score 51-51.
“Yeah, I can see growth, for sure,” James said. “Honestly, I just feel like my confidence is growing over the last year and a half or so. So, I’m just going to grow on that and keep my mind right.”
The Lakers shot 34.4% just from the field, 30% from three-point range and 38.5% from the free-throw line (five for 13). They also turned the ball over 19 times.
Lakers assistant coach Lindsey Harding said the team showed signs of “fatigue,” which she expected considering it was their sixth summer game (they played three games at the California Classic in San Francisco).
“It just seemed like we didn’t have much pop,” said Harding, the Lakers' summer league coach.
But not James. He seemed energized the entire game.
"Bronny came ready. He came ready. He had the spark," Harding said. "You want these guys, especially him in that position and who he’ll be with us with the Lakers, when you get your minutes, go hard. Play until exhaustion, we’ll take you out and then we’ll put you back in. I thought that he did that today.
"He did a great job, even on the offensive end in finding players, making reads on pick-and-rolls. I think they struggled guarding him and he did a great job on the defensive end.”
But James wasn’t the only one who got the fans excited.
Victor Wembanyama did not set foot on an NBA court after the All-Star Game, when he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. He missed enough games that he did not qualify for Defensive Player of the Year or other postseason honors that might have come his way.
"I'm officially cleared to return. It just happened — I got the green light from the Spurs' medical staff just a few hours ago [this was reported on July 11]. Phew, I'll finally be able to play a bit of basketball again!"
Wembanyama averaged 24.3 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.8 blocks per game when healthy last season (although he missed 36 games, he still led the league in total blocks). At age 21, he was named to his first All-Star team.
Considering the timing of this announcement, it's no surprise that Wembanyama is still ruled out of playing for France at EuroBasket 2025, which starts next month.
Talk to scouts and front office people around the league about who can challenge Oklahoma City's dominance in the West, for next year they usually say Denver and Houston, but talk about two or three years down the line and they fear San Antonio and what they will become with Wembanyama and a good core around him. He just needs to stay healthy.
And one of those tidbits was the suggestion that the Penguins may look to restricted free agency to capitalize on some opportunities to acquire young talent.
"I think the areas that you probably would see us spend more would be acquisition by trade, and then signing players that other teams might not be able to fit," Dubas said at the time. "I think the effect in free agency is probably going to be somewhat of a spike in salary, and so it’ll dry up the cap space rather quickly for us, and those players are mostly into that late 20-early 30 category.
"It could do two things. Number one, I think it's going to allow us to maybe trade for players that other teams can't afford that are restricted free agents, and then sign them longer range ourselves, using that cap space that way. You're signing a player that's 23-24 for seven or eight years versus going into free agency for someone who's 27 to 32 and getting them for seven years. So, I think that would be the more likely route.”
While it is only Jul. 14, and there is a lot of summer left - everyone should know by now about Dubas’s tendency to make a random higher-profile trade in the month of August - the Penguins, up to this point, haven’t given too much indication that they’re being active in the RFA market. There was some rumored interest in Utah Hockey Club forward Jack McBain before he signed a five-year contract at $4.25 million average annual value, but, other than that, it’s been pretty quiet.
In all fairness, Dubas and the rest of the Penguins’ organization keeps things pretty close to the vest. Oftentimes, moves happen out of nowhere - as was the case with both goaltending trades this summer involving Alex Nedeljkovic going to the San Jose Sharks and Arturs Silovs being acquired from the Vancouver Canucks - and there isn’t much that even the NHL’s most renowned insiders are aware of.
But, given the field of RFA targets remaining - players like McBain, Dallas Stars center Mavrik Bourque, and Buffalo Sabres left defenseman Bowen Byram are now off the board - it’s fair to wonder not only if Dubas will still dabble in the RFA market, but also if he should dabble in it.
When looking at the list of names left, there are definitely some higher-end targets, mostly at forward. Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi comes to mind, as does Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish and Winnipeg Jets center Gabriel Vilardi. There are also lower-profile players such as Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nicholas Robertson and Nashville Predators forward Luke Evangelista, both of whom could be more realistic, upside-potential targets for the Penguins that wouldn’t cost nearly as much.
The fact of the matter is, however, that there are a few factors that may or may not weigh into whether or not the RFA market is still a sensible avenue for Dubas and the Penguins.
For one, Dubas has made it clear that he is not particularly interested in offer sheets due to the rising cap. So any offer sheet-eligible RFA is, likely, not going to be acquired that way. Instead, it would probably happen in an RFA trade-then-sign scenario for rights acquisition. This could, conceivably, be part of a bigger return for one of the Penguins’ top trade candidates in Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, and Erik Karlsson.
But the Penguins need to be wary of overpayment. They’re not in any kind of organizational position right now to be overpaying for players - even if they are young players who will, presumably, be part of their future. The time to pay up would have been prior to the 2025 NHL Draft, when the Penguins were initially going into it with two first-round picks. And the reality of the rising salary cap is that player salaries are also rising, which could muddy the market a bit in terms of player value.
However, that’s not the only consideration. It is also worth noting that the Penguins already have 13 forwards listed on their active roster per Puckpedia - and it doesn’t include young players such as Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, both of whom made an impression in a small sample at the end of the 2024-25 season and should push for roster spots.
There is already a bit of a roster logjam at the forward position - especially after the signings of Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau and the decision to bring back RFAs Philip Tomasino and Connor Dewar - that would only get more complicated with the acquisition of another young forward. Of course, the Penguins could always ship out a forward in return, but there is such a thing as “too many” when it comes to trying to give some of your most promising young forwards the necessary space to develop.
Finally, there is this, too: There is the distinct possibility that Dubas might not want to try to make this roster any better at this point in time. WIth a consensus generational prospect waiting to, inevitably, be drafted first overall in 2026, Dubas might want to hold off on any moves that would markedly improve the roster and, possibly, take them out of real contention for the draft lottery.
Whether or not tanking is the right perspective is up for debate. But the fact of the matter is that the Penguins are still pretty weak on the blue line, their goaltending is a question mark, and their forward group is already better than it was heading into last season. Adding to that forward group even further may set them back just enough to miss out on the lottery but not enough to make the playoffs.
If the Penguins to look into the RFA market, perhaps dialing it back and targeting a lower-profile player is the right call right now. Regardless, all eyes will be on the Penguins for the rest of the summer to see if Dubas has anything else up his sleeve.
