The Flyers never replaced defenseman Matt Niskanen after his surprising retirement in Oct. 2020 and they suffered for it. Not just in the defensive end of the ice, but for losing someone who can move the puck too. Ellis is a much better version of that defenseman, and despite the fact he’s turning 31 next January, he’s a fantastic acquisition for the Flyers.
In a typical season, Ellis is good for over 23 minutes of ice time per game, over 30 points per season and helps his team at 5-on-5 and on the penalty kill. He’s going to be able to anchor whatever defensive pairing on which he plays. He’s coming off a rough season, but his previous three seasons saw him stealthily emerge as one of the NHL’s better defensemen, and an analytics darling, driving offensive play for the Predators.
Every trade made under a flat salary cap needs to be scrutinized financially, and Ellis gives the Flyers cost certainty through 2026-27 at $6.25 million against the salary cap. Granted, that takes him into his later 30s, but for now it’s a great defenseman at a great cap hit, and the Flyers are certainly looking at the now given the makeup of this roster.
The cost was potentially high. The Flyers liked Myers, 24, and Patrick still has a world of promise despite never coming close to fulfilling the lofty expectations of his second overall draft position in 2017. (But more on that in the Vegas section.)
“I don’t think we gave up on Nolan. We acquired one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League,” said GM Chuck Fletcher on Saturday. “He’s what we need at this time.”
GM David Poile wanted to get younger. Myers and Glass makes him younger; and in Myers’ case bigger, as they add a 6-foot-5 defenseman to their back end.
He clearly wanted more cap flexibility and shipping out a contract he was tied to through 202627. In fact, Nashville trading away Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson, who went to the Los Angeles Kings earlier in the month, has cleared $10.5 million in cap space.
“We felt it was time for a change to our core this offseason,” said Poile.
One assumes the changes won’t end here.
Make no mistake: Ryan Ellis is an outstanding defenseman when healthy. There were times in recent memory when he was the hipster pick for best defenseman on the Predators, a team with a Norris Trophy winner in Roman Josi. But the Predators are clearly looking to reshape their roster after diminishing recent returns, acknowledging that they need to enter the next phase of the team after their contending window may have closed with the current core.
Financial flexibility and younger players are a good step forward — and getting Glass for Patrick is a nice bit of business, not only for the 22-year-old center’s potential, but because he’s exempt from the expansion draft.
The Golden Knights told us everything we needed to know about where Glass fit on their roster when he spent the entire playoffs in street clothes, even when the team was desperate for offense against the Montreal Canadiens — including on the power play. If that didn’t mean they were done with him, it certainly meant they would sacrifice him in a millisecond in the right trade.
And GM Kelly McCrimmon getting a chance to acquire a former second-overall pick from the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League — the junior team he owned — is clearly the right trade in the Knights’ eyes.
The grade here is mostly for who Nolan Patrick is, rather than what the Knights believe he can become. He has 70 points in 197 NHL games. He was a bottom-six forward for the Flyers after returning from a migraine disorder that kept him out from April 2019 through January 2021. His coach clearly didn’t give him a sporting chance to develop into a top-flight offensive center. His current general manager wasn’t there when the Flyers drafted him, and just shipped him out for a 30-year-old defenseman.
He’s a player in need of a fresh start. He’ll get one, potentially with Mark Stone on his right side. He’s a player in need of support from his team, and he’ll get that with McCrimmon at the helm.
Again, we can’t go too high here because Nolan Patrick is what Nolan Patrick is at this time, and there have been health concerns for him in his career. But there was a time when another No. 2 overall pick was traded from an Eastern Conference team to a Western Conference team, and soon found himself among the NHL’s All-Stars. Granted, Tyler Seguin had already had more offensive impact than has Patrick in his first three seasons. But it’s just a reminder what the right fit can do to unlock potential.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Cindric celebrated his first win of the season by wearing Talladega’s Superspeedway traditional victory wreath all around the track.
A wreath like he just won the Indianapolis 500.
He thought so, too.
“Feels like I just won the Indy 500,” he said of Sunday’s NASCAR race. “I’m trying to walk on the plane with this.”
Cindric wasn’t even concerned how such a gesture might be received by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who raged on his radio after the second stage when Cindric didn’t push him and it allowed Bubba Wallace in a Toyota to win the segment and its valuable bonus points.
“Way to go Austin,” seethed Logano, who used multiple expletives in his anger over his Penske radio. “You just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go … put that in the book.”
Cindric was unconcerned by the idea Logano might take issue with the wreath on the Penske plane.
“I think that would be very immature,” Cindric said. “I don’t see him doing that. We’ll see.”
It was a celebratory day for Cindric, who gave Team Penske its first NASCAR victory of the season by holding off a huge pack of challengers over the closing lap in a rare drama-free day at Talladega Superspeedway.
“Rock on, guys,” Cindric said over his radio. “Rock and roll. Let’s go!”
Ford drivers went 1-2, with Ryan Preece finishing second. But Preece and Logano were disqualified following postrace inspections because of spoiler infractions. Logano had crossed the finish line in fifth.
After the DQ’s, Kyle Larson moved up to second and William Byron third for Hendrick Motorsports. The two Chevrolet drivers pushed Cindric and Preece from the second row rather than pull out of line on the final lap and make a third lane in an attempt to win.
It was Larson’s best career finish at Talladega, where drafting and pack racing is required and neither suits his style. He said he wanted to make a move to try to take the win from Cindric but there was never any room.
“I wanted to take it but I felt like the gap was too big,” Larson said. “I was just stuck inside and just doing everything I could to advance our lane and maybe open it up to where I then could get to the outside. But we were all just pushing so equally that it kept the lanes jammed up.”
Noah Gragson ended up fourth in a Ford, while Hendrick driver Chase Elliott was fifth – two spots ahead of teammate Alex Bowman, with Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports sandwiched in between them. Wallace was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in eighth.
Cindric led five times but for only seven of the 188 laps in an unusually calm race for chaotic Talladega. The track last fall recorded the largest crash in the NASCAR history when 28 cars were collected in a demolition derby with four laps remaining.
On Sunday, there were only four cautions — two for stage breaks — totaling 22 laps. It was the fourth consecutive Talladega race with only four cautions, the two for stage breaks and the two for natural cautions.
But, Sunday featured season-highs in lead changes (67) among different drivers (23). Only five cars failed to finish from the 40-car field, and a whopping 30 drivers finished on the lead lap.
Cindric marked the 10th consecutive different winner at Talladega, extending the track record of no repeat winners. And, by the time it was over, Logano seemed to have calmed down.
“About time one of us wins these things,” Logano said of the Penske trio. “When you think about the amount of laps led by Team Penske and Ford in general, just haven’t been able to close. To see a couple of Fords on the front row duking it out, I wish one of them was me, in a selfish way. But it’s good to see those guys running up there and being able to click one off.”
Larson sets NASCAR record for stage wins
When he won the first stage at Talladega, it was the 67th of Larson’s career and made him NASCAR’s all-time stage winner. He broke a tie with Martin Truex Jr. with the stage win.
Stages were introduced in 2017 as a way to ensure natural breaks during races that allowed fans to rush to the bathroom or concession stand without missing any action. Cars typically make a pit stop during a stage break.
Teammate-on-teammate collision
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, who combined to win five of the first nine races this season, had a collision on a restart that ensured Bell would not win his fourth race of the season.
It happened in the first stage of the race with Bell on the front row next to Chris Buescher on his inside, and with Hamlin behind him. As the cars revved to get up to speed at the green flag, Hamlin ran into the back of Bell, which caused him to turn into Buescher and create the second caution of the race.
Bell went to the garage, where he joined Ryan Blaney, Buescher and Brad Keselowski, all betting favorites who were done for the day before the end of the first stage.
“What in the hell? Man, apologies if that’s on me,” Hamlin radioed. “We weren’t even up to speed yet. I don’t know why that would have wrecked him. When he shot down to the bottom, I wasn’t even sure I was actually on him.”
Up Next
NASCAR races next week at Texas Motor Speedway, where Elliott scored his only win of the 2024 season last April.
However, Duran said Sunday that a fan in the front row near the Red Sox dugout in Cleveland said “something inappropriate” to him after the All-Star left fielder flied out in the seventh inning of a 13-3 victory over the Guardians.
Duran stayed on the top step of the dugout and glared at the fan as the inning played out. During the seventh-inning stretch, before the singing of “God Bless America,” Red Sox teammates and coaches kept Duran away from the area as umpires and Progressive Field security personnel gathered to handle the situation.
The fan tried to run up the aisle but was caught by security and taken out of the stadium.
“The fan just said something inappropriate. I’m just happy that the security handled it and the umpires were aware of it and they took care of it for me,” Duran said.
After the game, the Guardians released a statement apologizing to the Red Sox and Duran. The team said it had identified the fan and was working with Major League Baseball on next steps.
Duran said it was the first time he was taunted by a fan about his suicide attempt and mental health struggles since the Netflix series “The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox” was released April 8.
“When you open yourself up like that, you also open yourself up to the enemies. But I have a good support staff around me, teammates, coaches. There were fans that were supporting me, so that was awesome,” he said.
Boston manager Alex Cora was in the opposite corner of the Red Sox dugout but lauded security for how the incident was handled.
Cora was even prouder of Duran’s restraint. Duran was suspended for two games last season when he directed an anti-gay slur at a heckling fan at Fenway Park when the fan shouted that Duran needed a tennis racket to hit.
“There’s a two-way street. That’s something I said last year. We made a mistake last year, and we learned from it. We grew up, you know, as an individual and as a group,” Cora said.
Sunday’s incident dampened what had been a solid game and series for Duran. He went 4-for-6 with an RBI and had at least three hits in consecutive games for the second time in his career.
In Saturday’s doubleheader nightcap, Duran had Boston’s first straight steal of home plate in 16 years.
Duran went 7-for-15 with three RBIs as Boston took two of three games in the weekend series. Six of his hits in the series came against lefties after Duran was just 3-for-31 against southpaws coming into the weekend.
“I’ve been getting some good swings on lefties lately, just hitting it right at guys. I’m trying to stay with my process, and it just happened to work good for me this series. So, I’m just going to keep at it,” said Duran, who has hit safely in 13 of his past 14 games and is batting .323 (20-for-62) with eight extra-base hits, including a home run, and six RBIs during that span.
Tkachuk’s hit, in the third period of his team’s 5-1 loss, received a five-minute major. According to sources, the NHL Department of Player Safety determined that was enough, considering Guentzel had recently touched the puck and Tkachuk didn’t make contact with Guentzel’s head.
The department also believed that the force in which Tkachuk hit Guentzel was far lesser than the hit Tampa’s Brandon Hagel made on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2, which earned Hagel a one game suspension.
The plays led both coaches to trade jabs in the media. After Barkov went down in Game 2, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice said: “The only players we hit are the one with pucks.”
Barkov missed the end of the third period, but played in Game 3. Game 4 is Monday at Amerant Bank Arena.
At his postgame press conference, following Tkachuk’s hit on Guentzel, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper deadpanned the exact same line as Maurice.
Tkachuk leads the series in scoring with three goals and an assist through three games. Guentzel has two goals and two assists for Tampa Bay.
The Battle of Florida is living up to the billing as one of the most contentious rivalries in hockey; either Tampa or Florida has made it to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last five seasons.