N’western’s Braun chosen for school’s ‘wellbeing’
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern promoted David Braun to its permanent football head coach in large part because of how he supported players after a tumultuous summer that put the team’s culture under intense scrutiny.
Braun, 38, was introduced as coach Thursday at the school’s indoor practice field, before many current players who applauded the man who has helped them to a 5-5 record as interim coach. Northwestern selected Braun, who joined the staff as defensive coordinator under former coach Pat Fitzgerald in January, and was named interim coach July 14, four days after the school fired Fitzgerald in the wake of hazing allegations within the program.
“I have been very clear that at Northwestern the well-being of our students comes first,” university president Michael Schill said. “It is only by prioritizing our students’ health, safety and well-being that we can enable excellence on the field, excellence in the classroom, that we can encourage the personal and intellectual growth that is fundamental to our mission as one of the greatest universities in the world. Anyone who has heard or talked with Coach Braun knows that he embodies these principles in just a short time since arriving at Northwestern.”
Schill said he met with Braun several times during the past few months and came away impressed with the coach’s commitment to the athletes. Northwestern is facing lawsuits from more than a dozen former football players, alleging hazing and other mistreatment while in the program. The university commissioned former U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch to conduct reviews of the athletic department’s culture and its accountability mechanisms, which likely won’t be complete until 2024. After firing Fitzgerald, Schill said the football program’s culture, “while incredible in some ways, was broken in others” by hazing activities. No current or former players have been identified in any of the lawsuits filed.
Braun had quickly gained popularity among the players, many of whom took to social media after last week’s win at Wisconsin and used the hashtag #removethetag, referring to the interim tag. Northwestern has more victories this season than in the past two combined, and needs to win one of its last two games to get bowl-eligible for the first time since finishing No. 10 nationally in 2020.
After connecting well with North Dakota State’s players as defensive coordinator from 2019 to 2022, Braun said he didn’t know what type of locker room he would enter at Northwestern.
“I immediately was blown away with the quality of young men that make up this program,” Braun said. “The relationships that you know you’ve allowed us to build is something that that I absolutely cherish. I’ll be very clear: The opportunity that exists for our family only exists because of you guys. Your willingness to buy in and galvanize and come together in really embody what this football program is all about.”
Braun, who had never worked at a power conference program before Northwestern, thanked those who led the school’s coaching search for their “willingness to see beyond maybe what a résumé says.” He wants Northwestern to “double-down” on becoming one of the nation’s top developmental programs, and emphasized the need to retain players, amid a landscape where the transfer portal and name, image and likeness carry increased importance.
Although Braun was eager to resume his preparation for Saturday’s game against Purdue, he addressed his vision for Northwestern’s future.
“The Big Ten is evolving, college football is evolving, so you better know who you are,” Braun said. “You better know who you are as a university, you better know who you are as an athletic department, you better know who we are as a football program. We will prioritize the student-athlete experience. In every decision we make, the question will be asked: How does this affect the young men that are part of our program?”
Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.
The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.
Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.
Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.
Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.
Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.
Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.
The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.
Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.
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Ryan S. Clark
Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.
Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.
There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.
Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.
Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.
Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.
For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.
He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.
Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.
Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.
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Ryan S. Clark
Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.
With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.
Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.
Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.
Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.
The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.
Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.
Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.
PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.
TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.
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