Greg Millen, a longtime NHL goaltender and hockey analyst, died on Monday. He was 67.

The NHL Alumni Association didn’t provide a cause in announcing his death on social media.

Millen suited up in 14 NHL seasons with six different teams — the Pittsburgh Penguins, Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, Quebec Nordiques, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. He finished his career 215-284-89 with a 3.88 goals-against average. He also had 17 shutouts.

After his playing career, Millen immediately slid over into broadcasting. He was with the Ottawa Senators during their inaugural season in 1992-93.

Over his broadcasting career, Millen was part of CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” and the NHL on Sportsnet. He covered three Olympic Games, two World Cups of Hockey, 12 Stanley Cup finals and 12 NHL All-Star games.

The NHL is saddened by the passing of Greg Millen, a veteran of 14 NHL seasons as a goaltender and more than three decades as a broadcaster. Millen will be missed as a respected TV analyst on Hockey Night in Canada and with Sportsnet. Our thoughts are with his family, his… pic.twitter.com/JpKfRNbSWi

— NHL Public Relations (@NHLPR) April 8, 2025

“The Pittsburgh Penguins extend their heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of former Penguins goaltender and NHL broadcaster, Greg Millen,” the team wrote in a statement on social media. Millen was a sixth-round pick of the Penguins in 1977.

The Blues echoed those sentiments on social media. Millen spent parts of six seasons with St. Louis.

Chris Pronger, a Hall of Fame defenseman, posted on social media: “Sad day learning of Greg Millen’s passing. He was one of the first NHL players I got to interact with when I was in Peterborough. He was in between NHL jobs and wanted to get some shots. Generous with his time and talking about the game. Lost a great man today. RIP Millsy.”

In a statement, Sportsnet said Millen was a “trusted and familiar voice in the homes of millions of Canadians for more than 30 years.” The network added: “As both a player and broadcaster, Greg left an indelible mark on the sport, as well as everyone who had the pleasure to know him, watch him, and listen to him.”

A FaceTime call came in last Monday morning to Freddie Vargas, CEO of Tater Baseball.

On the other end: New York Mets outfielder Starling Marte. Like everyone around baseball, Marte had seen the New York Yankees score 36 runs and bash 15 home runs in a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, with five of the Yankees’ regulars using bats shaped like bowling pins that immediately caught the attention of fans, announcers and other players.

Marte, who has used Tater bats since 2018, was one of many MLB players who inquired about the bat — now known as a torpedo bat — as the craze took baseball by storm. He wanted to place an order with Tater for some new torpedo bats to use (at least initially) in batting practice.

“Well, they’re trending right now,” Marte said this weekend. “Let’s see what happens when I use it. I have to give it a try.”

Freddie and his younger brother Jeremiah, who started Tater Baseball in 2015 along with their father, Fred Sr., had Marte text them a data plot of his contact points on his barrel. They design the specifications for a new torpedo bat that would best suit Marte — a process similar to creating a traditional bat. By the end of the day, four new bats were ready to be shipped to Citi Field, awaiting Marte when the Mets returned home from their series in Miami.

Torpedo-shaped bats are not new for Tater Baseball, a small family business operating out of an industrial park in Cheshire, Connecticut. The brothers played baseball growing up and eventually both played in college, but Jeremiah was still a senior in high school when the family had the idea to develop a training bat. Freddie became CEO/Founder with Jeremiah as Co-Founder and COO.

Training bats are usually a little lighter, helping a player develop bat speed while focusing on the sweet spot of the barrel, and can be used for tee work, soft toss or batting practice. Fred Sr. had an engineering background — he still works for a plastics molding company, helping at Tater mostly on weekends — but none had woodworking experience. They ventured into business anyway.

“I told them, ‘We’re not going to do it half-ass,'” Fred Sr. said. “What’s going to differentiate us?”

They started with four models, making premium bats by hand in a shed in their backyard and focusing on the training bats. One of their early models in 2015 was a torpedo-shaped game bat — but it was for softball, not baseball. Three months later, they purchased their first CNC lathe, a sophisticated machine that uses computer-controlled automation to create the desired shape of the bat (the company is now on its second one).

Operations soon moved to the garage and eventually the shop in Cheshire — and Tater is up to 800 or 900 models. The front is a retail store, selling not just the various training bats and game models for baseball and softball, but other equipment with the Tater logo — batting gloves, sliding mitts, fielding gloves, apparel and foam balls also used for training.

Jeremiah laid out a bunch of bats on a table. He pointed to one.

“We make what we call an underload trainer that is shaped like a torpedo. It’s really for sweet-spot training, but also to train underload for bat speed,” he said. “It mimics the torpedo shape, so we enlarge the sweet spot here, taper it off at the end so players have a visual representation of where to hit the ball. Players wanted a sweet spot where they typically impact it, and that’s what we kind of came up with.”

Tater made its first underload trainer in 2018 and started shifting to the torpedo style around 2021 — and it has become the company staple since it was introduced. Jeremiah said 22 of the 30 major league teams use their training bats at the major league level and several others use them across their minor league organizations, with the company working with players or minor league hitting coordinators and major league hitting coaches.

The world of major league game bats is a competitive field to break into — Freddie referred to it as “cutthroat.” MLB must approve any bat-making company and though 41 companies have been approved, Marucci and Victus dominate the market with an estimated 60% of the bats used in the majors — and Marucci owns Victus. Only a handful of companies sell even more than a few dozen bats to major leaguers, according to Freddie. Tater broke into the majors in 2018.

Jeremiah estimated that Tater ranked about seventh or eighth last season, with Marte and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez their most prominent players. Others using Tater bats include Chicago White Sox infielder Brooks Baldwin, plus Travis Bazzana, the top pick in the 2024 MLB draft, and Nick Kurtz, the Athletics’ first-round pick last summer. Freddie said about 150 professional players are using Tater game bats at least part of the time.

Marte holds a special place for the Vargas family, however. He was their first major league client, coming to Tater via a stroke of good fortune. A family friend named Ruben Sosa, who used Tater bats, was a teammate of Marte’s in the Dominican Winter League in December 2017. Jeremiah tells the story: “Marte was in a little bit of a slump, picked up Sosa’s bat, got a couple hits, and then here we are.” Marte has been using Tater bats ever since.

Gregory Polanco, Yan Gomes and Carlos Correa joined Marte as early clients.

“Really, it was just bootstrapped word of mouth and making a good product and providing a good service,” Jeremiah said. “We like to say we have a relentless pursuit on making the best bat in the game.”

The brothers are friendly and clearly love talking baseball and baseball bats — everything from grain deviation and max barrel diameter to discussing what kind of bat to use in specific situations.

“I love seeing the evolution of baseball bats,” Jeremiah said. “It’s great to see it being used in games and see the transition to help hitters be a little more competitive at the plate or give them a little bit more of an edge.”

The process of making a torpedo bat is no different from a regular bat.

After Marte sent in his contact data, an analysis was made on a shape best suited for him. This is the most time-consuming part of the process. The overlay of Marte’s traditional bat compared with his new torpedo bat showed the traditional bat had a sweet spot 22.4 inches from the knob, while the torpedo bat had a sweet spot 21.8 inches from it.

“A small difference, but a big difference,” Fred Sr. said.

With the sweet spot closer to the hitter’s hands, the bat will have less flex — which means it will lead to a little better contact on balls hit closer to the hands. This was the reason some of the Yankees players, like Anthony Volpe, made the change to the torpedo shape, with data showing his sweet spot was closer to his hands.

“We recommend players to use a little bit of a heavier game bat weight for their torpedo compared to the regular bat,” Jeremiah said. “The reason being, when you do fatten out the barrel slightly at the sweet spot, it changes the density a little bit. The easiest way to describe it is more density, more pop; less density, less pop.”

Marte typically uses a 33.5-inch, 30.5-ounce bat. After a conversion to lock in the specifics, it was decided that his torpedo bat would be an ounce heavier at 31.5 ounces and the process of physically making the bat began.

The wood — birch or maple — is sourced from Canada, where the colder weather makes the wood fibers harder. And, yes, the new tariffs will increase costs.

“Tariff-based wood is a tricky game right now that we’re navigating,” Jeremiah said, adding that they’re seeing a 25% increase in raw material costs, not including freight costs to ship it across the border.

The wood is delivered in precut, rectangular slabs that are about the length of a bat. Each slab is weighed and marked (the more dense, the more performance on impact). Then, it goes to the lathe. You might envision a craftsman with decades of experience at work, but Kyle Green, who works the machine, is 20 years old and has been working at Tater since he was 16.

After the bat is cut on the lathe, it is hand-sanded, which takes about two minutes, and then cupped, the end hollowed out (a maximum of an inch and a quarter). The process takes about six minutes — on a busy day, Tater might make around 150 bats. Finally, the bats are painted with a special lacquer. There are rules here as well, Jeremiah explained, as MLB approves only certain colors for game bats.

Players, of course, love to show off a little swag whenever they can, so Tater has designed unique colors to use in batting practice. They created a glacier-colored bat for Marte and also made a special design for Hernandez to use in last year’s Home Run Derby.

Hernandez’s nickname is “Mr. Seeds,” so they replicated the David sunflower seeds logo, but replaced David with Tater, and instead of saying America’s favorite seed brand, it said Teoscar’s favorite seed brand. Because the Tater name appeared twice on the bat, however, an MLB official prevented Hernandez from using it.

When Hernandez used the bat in the All-Star Game, Freddie said MLB fined the company “a couple hundred dollars.”

For now, the Tater Baseball crew will continue to work 12- and 13-hour days, as Freddie and Jeremiah field calls about torpedo bats and churn them out for all their clients, just like they did for Marte.

“My gut tells me that there will be a place for torpedo bats and there will still be a place for regular game bats,” Jeremiah said. “But I think there’s going to be a significant uptick in the guys using the torpedo bats.”

A week has passed since torpedo bats burst onto the scene as the talk of the 2025 MLB season, and the hitting innovation is still buzzing through the industry.

We asked our MLB reporters to talk to players and coaches to see if they think the bowling pin-shaped bat trend is here to stay, how much it really helps hitters — and if they believe it should be allowed in the majors.

Here’s what those around baseball had to say about the trend taking the sport by storm.

When did you first hear about torpedo bats?

Andrew Benintendi, OF, Chicago White Sox: I had never heard of it. I’ve used the same bat for nine years so I think I’ll stick with that. It’s pretty interesting. It makes sense. If it works for a guy, good for him. If it doesn’t, stick with what you got.

Robert Van Scoyoc, hitting coach, Los Angeles Dodgers: I’ve heard about bat fitting. We do bat fitting and all that. I just haven’t heard about this specifically. When I first heard about [torpedo bats specifically] was when everyone else kind of knew about it.

Ryan O’Hearn, first baseman, Baltimore Orioles: (Orioles assistant GM and former NASA engineer) Sig Mejdal deserves credit. Sig has been on the torpedo bat for a long time. He’s been trying to get guys to experiment with it, use it. He’ll send them out, send us everybody. He sent some in the offseason. He sent me the traditional torpedo bat and then he sent me a special model that, based off of my batted ball data, would fit better. He’s been all over it. I think I first heard about it in maybe the end of ’23 from Sig. And then he made them available. I took BP with it. I was unsure because it does feel a little different. Not in a bad way, just different. I feel like I was hitting balls and kind of feeling the vibrations on the end, which I didn’t really like.

Dansby Swanson, SS, Chicago Cubs: This offseason. It’s just caught on. People have used it before. It’s not that new.

Adam Ottavino, veteran reliever: I noticed last year that there were some guys with different shaped bats. I think [Francisco] Lindor had one. And, honestly, I didn’t think too much of it because there’s always been a lot of tinkering with bat models since I’ve been in the big leagues. There’s so many bat models. Even like custom handles like big knobs. Some hockey puck knobs. And there’s like those triangular knobs. So I didn’t really think too much of it. I didn’t maybe understand what they were going for.

Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Los Angeles Angels: I heard about it in spring training this year. Chuckie Robinson had a bat. We kind of weren’t serious about it, you know? He pulled it out and we were like, “Uh, that’s kind of strange.” But the science behind it makes total sense. I didn’t really think about that from that standpoint at all until the science came up for it and said why it would benefit certain people’s swings.

[Robinson] never used it … I don’t know if he had it the year prior, but for some reason he had one. And we were just like, “That’s a weird-looking bat.” I didn’t think anything of it until come Opening Day, you see all these guys swinging it in the regular season.

Martin Maldonado, C, San Diego Padres: I don’t know anything about it other than what I read on Twitter.

Have you used a torpedo bat before and if not, are you planning to try it now? If so, how did it feel?

Max Muncy, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers: It felt good. The swing felt good. But after the Dylan Lee at-bat (in which Muncy struck out in the sixth inning last Wednesday), I felt like the bat was causing me to be a little bit off-plane, a little bit in and out of the zone. My swings felt really, really good tonight but just a little bit off. So the last at-bat I decided just to go back to my regular bat.

Matt Shaw, 3B, Chicago Cubs: I’ve used it in batting practice. I wasn’t a big fan. The weight felt a little heavier. The ball feedback wasn’t as good. But we’ll see.

Swanson: It’s not the perfect product. There are so many nuances involved. I’ve committed to using it enough to get a good sample size. There is definitely validity in everything, but it just has its media craze right now.

Jed Hoyer, president of baseball operations, Chicago Cubs: I talked to [Swanson] a lot this winter about it. He was very open-minded. It’s a process. That’s why we wanted to have guys use them in spring training. The more the veteran guys do it, hopefully that has a carry-over effect.

Michael A. Taylor, OF, Chicago White Sox: I would love to try one. I’m sure everyone is trying to order one right now. It’s interesting. I’m not too educated on the science behind it, but it seems pretty straightforward. I tried the axe bat then the puck bat so the torpedo bat is the latest thing. I want to try it.

Byron Buxton, OF, Minnesota Twins: I haven’t tried it. Not going to try it either. I’ve been doing perfectly fine with my bats. No point in trying to switch it up now. People blowing up the Yankees about all the homers they hit. Same guys that hit homers are the same guys that hit homers last year. It’s not that big of a deal.

O’Hearn: I’ve used a torpedo bat for one major league at-bat. I struck out. And then I threw it in the trash. Didn’t even make contact. I’m weird, man. I just remember guys laughing at me, being like, you’re done with it already?

Salvador Perez, catcher, Kansas City Royals: No, but it’s interesting. I’m going to talk to Davy (Royals VP of major league team operations Jeff Davenport) about that. Are we going to put in some orders for that bat? I talked to Gary Sanchez yesterday. He used the bat yesterday. The first time that I saw that bat, I grabbed it. Big barrel. I think if it helps, why not? Why not just try it out and see what happens?”

Mark Canha, outfielder, Kansas City Royals: It wasn’t anything I was aware of during spring until that half of the first week. I’m using kind of a modified one right now. It’s torpedo-esque. It’s not as drastic. I didn’t even know what I was ordering. Pete Alonso told me to get that model. It’s great. And usually he knows a lot. He’s really likes stuff like that. So I kind of just trusted him, and it’s been working. I like it. But I do like that there’s more barrel, a little lower than I’m used to swinging. It feels a little different. It’s not as ringy when I get it closer to the label, which I like.

Schanuel: I mostly miss [the ball] on the inner side of the barrel, so if I miss the barrel, I get jammed the most. If I were to get a torpedo bat … I think it would help me out a lot, especially my bat path and seeing the ball deep. I’d be more than willing to try it yet.

Nicky Lopez, 2B, Los Angeles Angels: I gave it a little bit of a test run in spring training because that’s what everyone was kind of doing. But it takes a little bit of getting used to.

Your whole career you’ve been using a bat that you know, and you know where the sweet spot is, and it’s one kind of length. You have the specifications of it and you kind of feel where that barrel is, and now when you move that barrel down a little bit, you have to refine where that sweet spot is. It takes a little bit to get used to. I used it a little bit in BP and I’m going to continue to use it and just see where it’s at.

Nico Hoerner, 2B, Chicago Cubs: I’ve used it since mid-spring training. Every AB I’ve taken this year has been with some version of the reverse taper barrel (which is what the Cubs call the torpedo bat). Still in the process of figuring that out, but I like it. It’s not something I’m thinking of when I go to the plate. A misconception I’ve heard is guys are not changing what they do to fit the bat. It’s kind of the opposite.

What do you make of the way the topic has blown up across the sport?

Ottavino: I mean, listen, first of all, it’s the Yankees and they scored a million runs in the first few games and it’s cool to hate the Yankees and it’s cool to look for the boogeyman and that’s what some people are going to do and can’t really stop that. But there’s also a lot of misinformation and noneducation on it too.

I was in Boston this spring and there were a bunch of guys using those types of bats over there too. So, they’re all over the place. It’s not unique to this organization. Maybe it originated in [the Yankees clubhouse], but I mean, there’s no secrets in baseball. Everybody’s going to be using what they think’s going to give them the best result. So I don’t really make too much of people complaining about it, honestly.

Schanuel: I think it’ll help out, especially to boost offensive performances. I think it’s good for MLB itself. Fans would like to see it. Everyone loves homers. Everyone loves when guys get on base. I think it’ll help out a lot. I mean it’s just exciting talking about it.

Mark Leiter, reliever, New York Yankees: I wouldn’t say I’m surprised just because I think there’s a level of it’s something to talk about in a big market. I mean, just the fact that it’s within the rules and stuff, I just think it’s more surprising that it took this long for somebody to do this. Just because you know about customizing golf clubs and stuff like that. Like, it makes a lot of sense.

Buxton: Everyone is blowing up the Yankees about all the homers they hit. Same guys you see hit homers, are the same guys that hit homers last year. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s like when the sweeper came around. We were like, “What’s a sweeper?” We had never heard of sweepers. And now we’ve never heard of torpedo bats and now they pop.

Shaw: The Yankees hitting a bunch of home runs made it blow up. Aaron Judge not using the torpedo bat is funny to me. It blew up with the Yankees, but he doesn’t swing it. You can clearly see both sides. They might work, but the old bats work too. The difference might be very small.

Do you think it should be allowed in the sport to use torpedo bats?

Canha: Yes. I do feel like we need all the help we can get. These guys are throwing so hard now. But it’s not a cheat code. We’ll see how it plays out over a little bigger sample size.

Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers: I do not look down on anybody. If it’s legal, you can do whatever you want. I swung the same bat for 16 years. I will not be changing to a torpedo bat. I’ve swung the same length, ounces, everything. If it works for the guys, go for it. I know some of our guys are getting them, so, we’ll see. I will not be swinging them.

Jake Cronenworth, 2B, San Diego Padres: [Torpedo bats] give everyone something to talk about. If any team hit 15 home runs, you’d be like, “What bats are they using? Are they legal?” And they are.

Are torpedo bats a trend based on this week’s buzz or something that is here to stay?

Lopez: I think so, yeah. I really do. I think this can be a good thing for a lot of hitters.

Van Scoyoc: I’m sure some guys will try it out. Someone gets hot, then you’ll probably see more guys going to it. I think it’s good. In pitching they have Trackman. In hitting we do, too. But we don’t capture the bat, which is essentially our same equipment. That’s why I think hitting is behind — because they just get more information that’s useful a lot faster.

O’Hearn: It’s kind of like the axe handle or puck knob. I think just because the Yankees went bananas for two games, it’s going to blow up. And I honestly felt bad for Sig when it went crazy because I was like, I don’t know if he was the first one on it, but I feel like he’s sitting around somewhere, like, ‘I wish the Orioles would’ve done this.’

Freeman: I promise you I have not read a thing about it. I only know there’s a torpedo bat and it looks kind of like the barrel’s shorter or lower down. That’s all I’ve got. Nor will I read into it. That’s just me. I’m not the right guy to ask those kind of questions. I swing the same bat every day.

Muncy: Baseball is not a one-size-fits-all sport, going from socks to batting gloves to shoes to pants. It’s not a one size fits all for anyone in this game. So, everyone swings different. Everyone likes their bat different. There’s some guys I think it could be a real benefit for, and there’s some guys it might be a detriment. I still don’t know where I’m at on that scale.

Hoerner: I think [it’s a trend]. There was the axe handle. A lot of guys with the Red Sox had success with that. Then in 2021, there was the big puck knob trend. You still see some of those. This is a little different when you’re changing where you impact the ball with. The jury is still out. I don’t look at that Yankees series and think it would have been a totally different series without the bats. It’s about marginal differences over the course of 600 ABs. That really matters.

Hoyer: This isn’t the kind of thing, one team did it and everyone copied. There were a number of teams on this. There is a lot of attention because of the size of the market and [the Yankees] scored 20. Guys were hitting in the cage with them last year. Pete [Crow-Armstrong] used it in a game last year in September (he flew out). It’s new, but it’s not like it started game two last weekend and everyone copied it quickly.