NHL trade grades: Report cards on Marner, Gibson, Dobson, more
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Ryan S. Clark
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Kristen Shilton
The NHL’s offseason is off and running, and the trades have been piling up since the Florida Panthers raised the Stanley Cup for a second straight season.
That includes Chris Kreider heading to the Anaheim Ducks, Trevor Zegras joining the Philadelphia Flyers and Noah Dobson being traded to the Montreal Canadiens. During Day 2 of the draft, John Gibson was traded to the Detroit Red Wings.
This page will be your home for report cards from Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton on every major trade this offseason, with the most recent deals first.
June 30: Marner to the Golden Knights
Mitch Marner has been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
The trade came on the eve of the free agent market opening and takes the top available target off the board. But how did both front offices do to get value in this swap?
This is a sizeable investment by Vegas on one of the NHL’s elite wingers. And the $12 million per year price tag wasn’t likely to be on the table at all if the NHL salary cap wasn’t going up to the extent it is in the coming years. The Golden Knights are taking advantage and paying extra to corral Marner before anyone else had a chance. Good move.
It’s no secret what Vegas is getting in Marner and why the long-term, big-money commitment makes sense. Marner has 221 goals and 741 points in 657 career regular-season games. He’s an elite playmaker, elevates his teammates and can navigate a puck through traffic in the slot area better than almost any skater in the league. Marner is also excellent on the power play and a superb penalty killer, giving him a covetable all-around game that should pair well with anyone with whom he plays in Vegas.
Where Marner consistently falters is the postseason. The play-driving, puck-shooting, defensive-minded forward from the other 82 games of the season seems to evaporate on the biggest stages and at the most critical moments. He has scored just 13 goals in 70 playoff games. And Marner has never had a worse series — at least in the end — than when Toronto flamed out in the second round against the Cup champion Florida Panthers.
The Leafs had a 2-0 series edge and then went into a free fall, culminating in a brutal Game 7 defeat. Marner registered one assist in that series’ final four games and had three shots on goal in the last five. He had a single takeaway through seven games. The reality is Marner hasn’t ever been a postseason game-changer. Vegas has to hope that won’t be the case in his new surroundings.
Giving Roy up in this process was a necessary evil for the Golden Knights, given he was the player Toronto most coveted. All Vegas can do now is hope their gamble for Marner turns out to be like hitting the jackpot.
This was the deal Toronto had to make.
Allowing Marner to walk away in free agency for no return would have been atrocious management by the Leafs. Because the writing was on the wall for well over a year that Marner wasn’t likely to be back in Toronto. Chalk it up to whatever reasoning you want — the piping hot spotlight of being a hometown kid starring in a hockey-obsessed town, the desire to land a richer contract than Toronto was willing (or able) to offer or frankly just a desire to roll the dice somewhere else and see if he could chase down a championship.
If Marner had wanted to remain a Maple Leaf, he could have made that happen long ago. Now, both sides turn the page.
The Leafs are getting a player they wanted in Nic Roy. Toronto struggled with its center depth down the stretch and into the playoffs last season despite acquiring Scott Laughton at the deadline. It took the veteran time to acclimate to his new surroundings, and coach Craig Berube didn’t much like sliding Max Domi over or elevating David Kampf up the lineup. Roy gives the Leafs some insurance as a third-line option, either at center or on the wing.
He has size (at 6-foot-4) and while he won’t be winning any footraces, he’s smart with the puck, plays hard and is good in transition. And there’s reasonable upside to Roy’s offensive game. (He collected 15 goals and 31 points in 71 games last season.) There’s good reason to believe he’ll be a great fit in Berube’s north-south system. — Shilton
June 29: Hague to Predators
Sunday night saw a late trade involving the Vegas Golden Knights. Just not that particular trade we have heard so many rumors about.
The Golden Knights moved defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators in exchange for forward Colton Sissons and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon, with Hague also signing a four-year extension worth $5.5 million annually.
Let’s take a look at how both sides performed.
What does it mean for the Golden Knights? What impact does this have on the reports that they are talking to the Toronto Maple Leafs about possibly trading for pending UFA forward Mitch Marner?
Re-signing Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith left the Golden Knights with just $5.615 million in cap space. It was enough to re-sign Hague, who was a pending restricted free agent, but not enough to address other areas without clearing space elsewhere.
So Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon found another way to use that cap space. Trading Hague saw them take on two players who cost a combined $4.86 million in cap space. That’s still less than what it cost for the Preds to sign Hague at $5.615 million annually.
PuckPedia projects the trade leaves the Golden Knights with only $757,857 in cap space. But the allocation of that space gives them another bottom-six forward in Sissons, while Lauzon could be a third pairing option, with The Fourth Period reporting Sunday that Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo will undergo surgery and miss the entire 2025-26 season.
How does it impact a potential Marner deal? The Knights need to create much more cap space. Should Pietrangelo miss next season, it would hypothetically allow the Golden Knights to send him to LTIR, freeing up some room (Pietrangelo would earn $8.8 million next season).
The Golden Knights would still likely need to create more cap space to facilitate a trade for Marner, while also re-signing pending RFA winger Alexander Holtz and addressing other needs.
One of the questions facing the Predators entering free agency was whether they had enough depth beyond Roman Josi and Brady Skjei. Lauzon played only 28 games last season and reached 60 in a season only twice in his career.
The rest of the defensemen under contract for the Predators share a similar story. Andreas Englund played more than 70 games in a season only once. Jordan Oesterle hasn’t done it since 2018-19, while Justin Barron and Nick Blankenburg did it for the first time in 2024-25.
Hague, however, has played in more than 68 games in each of the past three seasons while also having an instrumental role alongside Zach Whitecloud in the Golden Knights’ championship back in 2023.
The question is whether Predators GM Barry Trotz paid too much for someone who has largely served as a third-pairing option, and whether he can consistently handle the demands of a top-four role.
It presents even more questions upon looking at Hague’s usage.
In Hague’s third season (2021-22), he averaged more than 18 minutes per game — something he would do again in 2022-23 and 2023-24. He was fifth in 5-on-5 minutes in 2021-22, but injuries led to him earning a greater role at times. As a result, he finished second in 5-on-5 minutes in 2022-23 and again in 2023-24, according to Natural Stat Trick.
An injury in November along with an illness later in the season limited Hague to just 68 games, and he ranked sixth in 5-on-5 ice time among Golden Knights defensemen.
Natural Stat Trick’s metrics also show that Hague had the second-lowest shot-share among Golden Knights defensemen who’ve logged more than 1,000 minutes in 5-on-5 play over the past three seasons.
But how will it work in Nashville knowing that he’ll likely consistently play on the second pairing while being asked to provide stability to a penalty kill that had 12 players log more than 69 minutes?
PuckPedia projects the Preds still have a little more than $13.519 million in cap space, which means Trotz could elect to add more defensive help through another trade or in free agency. — Clark
June 28: Gibson to the Red Wings
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John Gibson reaches back for incredible save
John Gibson reaches back for the swatting glove save to keep the Canucks off the board.
No, this is not a drill. After years of speculation, the Anaheim Ducks finally traded goaltender John Gibson.
The Detroit Red Wings landed Gibson, who was with the Ducks for more than a decade, in exchange for goalie Petr Mrazek, a 2027 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick.
Here’s a look at what the deal means for each side.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman had plenty of questions to answer this offseason after the club had missed the postseason for nine seasons. One of them is what he and his front office staff would do about their goaltending situation.
They tried different solutions in recent seasons. Ville Husso went from winning 26 games in his first season with the club (2022-23) to being traded to the Ducks during 2024-25. A tandem of Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot combined for a 0.899 save percentage, which is why the Wings traded for Mrazek before the deadline; he had a .902 save percentage in five games.
Lyon is an unrestricted free agent, whereas Mrazek and Talbot both had a year left on their contracts. It presented the possibly they could turn to Sebastian Cossa, their first-round pick from 2021, who finished with a .911 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average in the AHL. Some believe he could use another year of development as the Red Wings seek to avoid a 10th consecutive season without the playoffs.
Acquiring Gibson now provides them with a chance to have the stability that has eluded them. Injuries — along with the growth of Lukas Dostal — played a role in why Gibson was limited to 28 starts last season. But in that time, he won 11 games while registering a .912 save percentage — a strong figure compared to what the Red Wings experienced with their options in 2024-25.
The Red Wings could use Gibson and Talbot as a tandem while letting Lyon walk in free agency. The 31-year-old has two years left on his contract at $6.4 million annually, which also gives the Red Wings more time to develop Cossa in the AHL.
Per PuckPedia, Detroit now has $18.411 million in cap space to address a roster that has decisions to make regarding UFAs such as Patrick Kane and a three-player restricted free agent class that includes Jonatan Berggren.
Ducks GM Pat Verbeek had to eventually deal with the dynamic surrounding Dostal and Gibson. Building through the draft has been a significant aspect of the Ducks’ rebuild, and Dostal is one of the players who has embodied that movement.
In the past two seasons, Dostal grew from promising prospect to full-time NHL goaltender, with the 2024-25 season showing he could handle the demands of being a No. 1. The 25-year-old finished the season with 23 wins, posting a .903 save percentage in 54 games playing behind a promising but still mostly youthful defense that does include veterans Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba.
Dostal’s age, usage and his performances are all factors that make him vital to the Ducks’ present and future. They will also play a role in what his next contract could look like, given he is an RFA this summer.
It isn’t that the Ducks don’t have cap space. They most certainly do, and a lot of it, which is why they appear to be in play for every major name in free agency. But they also have three RFAs to sign in Drew Helleson, Mason McTavish and Dostal.
The same applies next offseason, when Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger will all be due for new contracts as RFAs still under team control.
Even with the cap space the Ducks possessed at the start of the offseason, they had a chance to create more. That’s part of the reason why they traded Trevor Zegras earlier this week. Trading Gibson, and the last two years of his deal, now pushes their cap space to $38.188 million, per PuckPedia, which is the second most in the league behind the San Jose Sharks. — Clark
June 27: Coyle to the Blue Jackets
In need of salary cap space, the Colorado Avalanche created some Friday by trading Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
In return, the Blue Jackets traded prospect forward Gavin Brindley, a 2025 third-round pick, and a conditional 2027 second-round pick to Colorado.
Let’s take a quick glance at what it all means for both teams.
The Avs secured a second-line center by signing Brock Nelson — added at the trade deadline — to a three-year contract extension worth $7.5 million annually. But that resulted in the Avs having just $1.2 million in cap space entering Friday, per PuckPedia. Given that the Avs have a six-player unrestricted free agent class — led by Ryan Lindgren — and it meant they needed to do something.
Coyle was one of the strongest candidates for a trade. His arrival at the trade deadline gave the Avs one of the best top-nine center dynamics in the NHL, behind Nathan MacKinnon and Nelson. But when a team is facing a cap crisis, does it make sense to pay a third-line center $5.25 million average annual value when there are more team-friendly options available?
Wood was another potential trade candidate, given he has four years left at $2.5 million AAV. Injuries and inconsistencies led to his scoring only 13 goals the past two seasons with the Avs — the same amount he had in his final full season with the New Jersey Devils.
But that also leaves the Avs needing to address their bottom-six forwards — in addition to possibly retaining Lindgren — along with anything else they seek to accomplish in free agency.
It’s possible Brindley could help with that at some point in the future. The 20-year-old was one of the top prospects in the Blue Jackets’ farm system, which is one of the strongest in the NHL. A second-round pick in 2023, Brindley scored six goals and 17 points in 52 games while playing his first professional season in the AHL. Before that, Brindley starred at Michigan, where he scored 25 goals and 53 points as a sophomore during the 2023-24 season.
At this point, the Blue Jackets have so much cap space that they can pick and choose what deals make sense. Especially if it involves working with a team that needs to create cap space like the Avs.
Coyle and Wood were a luxury in Colorado, but in Columbus they’ll strengthen the bottom six while allowing the front office to focus elsewhere in free agency.
Entering Friday, the Blue Jackets had six unrestricted free agent forwards, while Dmitri Voronkov is a restricted free agent. Adding Coyle gives them a third-line center with Sean Monahan and Adam Fantilli on the top two lines. Wood gives them a winger who can be used on the fourth line (or potentially higher); altogether, the Jackets now have 13 forwards who are either under contract or under team control as an RFA.
They also have more than $30 million in cap space, with the idea that some of that could be used on extensions for Dante Fabbro and Ivan Provorov.
Brinkley was one of their best prospects, but the Blue Jackets still have promising forwards in their system, including Cayden Lindstrom, Jordan Dumais and Luca Del Bel Belluz. — Clark
June 27: Dobson to the Canadiens
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Noah Dobson capitalizes on the power play
Noah Dobson capitalizes on the power play
Defenseman Noah Dobson was at the center of a trade Friday between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders with the idea that both franchises are heading in different directions.
The Canadiens got Dobson after he had signed an eight-year contract extension worth $9.5 million annually with the Islanders on Friday. New York got forward Emil Heineman and both of the Canadiens’ 2025 first-round picks, No. 16 and No. 17.
Here’s how both front offices performed and what it means for each side going forward.
If there’s an opportunity to get a 25-year-old, right-handed-shooting, top-pairing, puck-moving defenseman who can play in every scenario — who is also packaged in a 6-foot-4 frame — that’s a move a GM should make.
But, it’s done with the full understanding that it’s going to cost quite a bit, and that’s what makes the decision by Canadiens GM Kent Hughes one that’s rather emphatic because of what it signals about his team.
Specifically, Montreal is serious about making its 2025 playoff appearance a regular occurrence, with the goal of winning a Stanley Cup in the near future.
Future. That’s the word at the heart of what this trade represented for the Canadiens. Having two first-round picks is a benefit. For teams in a rebuild, it’s a chance to build toward what they believe is a stronger future, while playoff teams — or those on the cusp — use them as trade chips to acquire someone who can make them better now.
Hughes took the latter option with this deal, and it provides Montreal with what appears to be one of the more enticing young defensive setups in the NHL.
Dobson, who has scored 10 or more goals in four straight seasons, adds to a group of young Canadiens defensemen that includes reigning Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle and Jayden Struble. The Habs also have recent first-round picks Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher in their system.
That’s six defensemen all younger than 25. Four of them are first-round picks, while the remainder were second-round selections (including Hutson). This is what’s called a problem. Or rather, it has the potential to create a problem because of what that collection could achieve over time.
But then there’s the actual “problem” facing Hughes now that he has Dobson under contract, in that the Habs are now $3.394 million over the salary cap (per PuckPedia), while having seven defensemen under contract or team control for 2025-26.
It’s going to force Hughes to decide which defenseman Montreal moves on from to clear cap space, while also having the necessary group to make the aforementioned playoff push. Veteran Mike Matheson has one year left on his contract at $4.88 million before he becomes an unrestricted free agent, while Alexandre Carrier has two years remaining at $3.75 million annually before he hits the open market.
Getting that situation handled sooner rather than later allows the Habs to gain more financial flexibility should they want to do more, although they also have a pair of RFAs in Struble and Jakub Dobes who are in need of new deals.
New Islanders GM Mathieu Darche spent six seasons in the Tampa Bay Lightning‘s front office, allowing him to appreciate the value of certain items. One of them is the value of building a long-term winner through the draft.
GMs running lottery teams need to have a level of honesty and understanding about the direction of their franchise. That’s what makes anything the Islanders do in Darche’s first offseason even more critical.
That’s not to say that Dobson couldn’t have been part of those long-term plans on Long Island. But there’s also something to be said for identifying the strongest possible value a player has for your franchise, and determining that this value is greater with a return like one that Darche got here.
What Darche received in exchange for a top-pairing defenseman in Dobson will play a significant role in shaping the Islanders for the next decade, if not longer.
Having the No. 1 pick was a starting point toward that future — and it’s likely he’ll add talented defenseman Matthew Schaefer with that pick. But by now adding two more first-round picks, he has even more options.
Darche and his staff might decide they want to keep both picks they acquired from the Canadiens, and draft three players. After all, they would be adding more to a system that, despite having 2024 first-rounder Cole Eiserman, is in distinct need of talent. Part of the reason for that is that the Isles have had four draft classes since 2018 (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) in which they did not have a first-round pick.
Or will Darche look to repackage one or both of those picks in another trade, with the hope of doing something else he and his staff believe can set them up for even greater success over the long term?
Although the future is in focus, there’s also something to be said about the present and what it means now that Dobson is gone. The Islanders now have five defensemen under contract, and seven who are under team control, with a pair of pending RFAs in Scott Perunovich and Alexander Romanov. Tony DeAngelo and Mike Reilly are UFAs from the 2024-25 roster.
The Islanders have $20.934 million in cap space (per PuckPedia), which can be used to address their defensive needs along with whatever else they need to handle this summer; that includes re-signing Heineman, who is an RFA after scoring 10 goals and 18 points in 62 games during his first full NHL season. — Clark
June 26: Peterka to the Mammoth
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JJ Peterka lights the lamp for Sabres
JJ Peterka lights the lamp for Sabres
Two of the storylines to watch this NHL offseason were whether the Utah Mammoth could add at least one top-six forward to their roster, and if the Buffalo Sabres would part ways with restricted free agent JJ Peterka.
Wednesday night or early Thursday, depending upon the time zone, those narratives collided, with the Mammoth acquiring Peterka in a trade with the Sabres, with forward Josh Doan and defenseman Michael Kesselring going to western New York.
Let’s look at how both front offices performed in this swap, as well as what it means for each franchise moving forward.
In 2024-25, the Utah Hockey Club was a top-10 team in terms of shot share, shots per 60 minutes rate, and scoring chances per 60 — but finished 16th in goals per game. So there was a disconnect. With $20.357 million in salary cap space, a solution needed to be found for that problem.
And so the latest significant move for Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong? Landing Peterka in trade, then immediately signing him to a five-year extension worth $7.7 million annually.
Since Ryan and Ashley Smith purchased the franchise and moved the team to Salt Lake City, the Mammoth have taken a strategic yet aggressive approach. It started last year when they traded for a legitimate No. 1 defenseman in Mikhail Sergachev along with John Marino as part of a plan to revamp their blue line.
Peterka is a continuation of that need to take another big swing. In doing so, the Mammoth add a 23-year-old proven goal scorer who not only addresses their need for more goals but also fits into their long-term plans. After scoring 28 goals and what was then a career-high 50 points in 2023-24, Peterka responded with 27 goals and 68 points in 77 games in what would be his final season in Buffalo.
Trades can often be about creating more options for a team, and Peterka gives the Mammoth quite a few. They now have a top-six winger group that also includes Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, and Nick Schmaltz. That amounts to a quartet of 20-goal scorers to play with centers Logan Cooley and Barrett Hayton, who also scored more than 20 goals last season, anchoring those top two lines.
Armed with what’s considered to be one of the strongest farm systems in the NHL, the Mammoth didn’t have to part ways with any of their top prospects to get Peterka. They still have Matias Maccelli — who they could seek to move one from in another trade — and still have $14.982 million in cap space, per PuckPedia.
Nick Bjugstad and Michael Carcone are their most prominent unrestricted free agents, while Jack McBain remains their lone restricted free agent. After landing a difference-maker at No. 4 overall in the draft on Friday — or using that pick to acquire another NHL-ready player instead — they’ll be able to use the majority of that remaining cap space to be active in free agency on July 1.
The most apt word one could use to describe what Sabres GM Kevyn Adams received in return for Peterka? Complicated.
Generally, a 23-year-old top-six forward who remains under team control is going to hypothetically attract a certain price. In some ways, the Sabres were able to get that by receiving a pair of NHL players in Doan and Kesselring. But there’s an argument to be made that the Sabres didn’t receive enough.
Missing the playoffs for the past 14 seasons has left the Sabres in the space between trying to end that drought, while having one eye on the future in case plans need to change (again). Although the Sabres do have one of the stronger farm systems, the Peterka trade presented an opportunity for them to add more — whether it be through draft capital or prospects.
That’s especially true when the player at the center of the deal was so important to the Sabres, given he was second on the team in points, third in goals, third in power-play points and third in ice time among forwards with more than 70 games.
It’s not like Adams walked away with nothing. Doan could carve a place as a top-nine forward. Joining the Sabres is a chance for Doan to find the consistency that eluded him in Utah. He played 28 games in the AHL last season in addition to the 51 games he played for the Hockey Club.
Kesselring gives the Sabres a third right-shot defenseman on their roster. He finished with more than 20 points, while logging more than 70 games, in consecutive seasons. He was also sixth among Mammoth defensemen in average ice time; like Doan, he could see a greater role in Buffalo.
Doan and Kesselring give the Sabres depth. They are also going to cost the club a combined $2.325 million in cap space, with both players having a year left on their respective contracts before restricted free agency. The Sabres now have $20.881 million in cap space, per PuckPedia.
Yet it still results in this question: Was a bottom-six/middle-six forward and a middle-pairing (at best) defenseman enough of a return for a top-six forward? Or should Adams have gotten more for a player that is addressing one of the Mammoth’s biggest needs, while leaving themselves in need of filling a sizable hole in the roster? — Clark
June 23: Zegras to the Flyers
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The highlight reel Trevor Zegras is taking to Philadelphia
With Trevor Zegras being shipped to the Flyers, relive some of his top plays from his last season with the Ducks.
Rumor finally became reality Monday with the Anaheim Ducks trading forward Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Ducks moved Zegras, who has long been discussed as a potential trade target, to the Flyers for forward Ryan Poehling, a 2025 second-round pick (originally belonging to the Columbus Blue Jackets) and a 2026 fourth-round pick.
What does it all mean, and how did both front offices fare?
“Potential” is the word that’s going to be used the most to describe this trade.
It starts with the fact that Zegras gives the Flyers another top-nine center in addition to what they already have with Sean Couturier and Noah Cates, with the idea that Zegras has the potential to become their top-line center.
Zegras is a two-time 20-goal scorer who has also authored a pair of consecutive 60-point seasons. That could give the Flyers, who finished 24th in goals per game, another player who can score while creating opportunities for those around him.
At 24, he also potentially fits within the Flyers’ long-term plans. The Flyers were the NHL’s youngest team in 2024-25, with an average age of 26.09 years, according to Elite Prospects.
Again, the key word here is potentially.
Injuries and inconsistencies over the past two seasons created questions as to whether Zegras could return to becoming the player who had those consecutive 60-point seasons back in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Further, they led to inquiries about whether he’d return to or surpass those totals while remaining the Ducks.
Surrounding Zegras with wingers such as Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov and/or Owen Tippett could get him back on track. After all, at one point Zegras was among the league’s breakout stars and looked as if he was going to become one of the future faces of the NHL. He was chosen as the cover athlete for NHL 23.
Then there’s the added incentive that Zegras is in the final season of a three-year contract worth $5.75 million annually. He will remain under team control as a restricted free agent for the next two seasons before becoming an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2027-28 campaign.
Even after taking on Zegras’ salary, the Flyers will still have $15.141 million in cap space, per PuckPedia.
For all the questions the Ducks faced about holding on to Zegras, there appeared to be a rather large one looming:
Is it prudent to pay a third-line center more than $5 million annually when there are cheaper options available and other roster holes to fill?
Leo Carlsson — the No. 2 overall pick from 2023 — showed he could handle the demands of being a full-time, top-line center. He scored 20 goals and 45 points last season, giving the Ducks a two-way center packaged inside a 6-3, 205-pound frame.
Follow that with Mason McTavish, who was the No. 3 draft pick in 2021, scoring 22 goals and a career-high 52 points in a second-line center role.
McTavish led the Ducks in goals last season and finished second in points. Carlsson was third on the team in points. Getting that sort of production out of their top two centers made Zegras expendable for Anaheim.
Then there are the financial ramifications. Anaheim is projected to have a little more than $36 million in cap space this season, which appears to be quite a bit, and it is — until one looks at the future and how GM Pat Verbreek must tread carefully. Lukas Dostal, Drew Helleson and McTavish are restricted free agents in need of new contracts this offseason. Those deals will likely shape what necessary funds the Ducks possess to be active in unrestricted free agency starting July 1.
Looking at what they could do next offseason, however, is what made the trade more enticing. Zegras was slated to be part of a six-player RFA class that includes Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Pavel Mintyukov, Jackson LaCombe and Olen Zellweger, while Jacob Trouba will be an unrestricted free agent then.
That five-player RFA class and Trouba remain in place, so those decisions will have to be made. But instead of having to worry about what to pay Zegras, the Ducks could have a much lower price point to deal with when it comes to Poehling, a 26-year-old who scored 12 goals and 31 points in 2024-25. He has one year remaining on his contract worth $1.9 million before he becomes a UFA next summer. — Clark
June 12: Kreider to the Ducks
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Chris Kreider traded to the Ducks
Take a look at the stats and notes to know after the Rangers dealt Chris Kreider to the Ducks.
Could this be the start of something more?
That question could be asked of both the Anaheim Ducks and the New York Rangers after the first major trade this offseason. On Thursday, the Rangers sent Chris Kreider and a 2025 fourth-round pick (Anaheim’s own, previously acquired in the December 2024 Jacob Trouba trade) to the Ducks for center prospect Carey Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick (Toronto’s, acquired in the Feb. 2024 Ilya Lyubushkin trade).
Here’s a glance at what this means for both franchises along how they each performed.
There was a need to create salary cap space. There were the questions about production. There was also the fact that the Rangers could find a replacement elsewhere.
All told, there were many reasons that influenced the Rangers’ decision to move on from Chris Kreider.
Kreider scored 20 or more goals for the seventh straight season and for the 10th time in his career. That consistency is what came to define Kreider, but it became one of the reasons a move out of New York seemed likely.
Kreider turned 34 in late April, at the end of a season in which he scored 22 goals; however, that was a decline from what he had done the past three years. He scored 36 or more goals in each of the last three seasons, while averaging 69 points per campaign in that time. He finished with 30 points in 68 games this season, for a 0.44 points-per-game average.
With two years left on his contract worth $6.5 million annually, it became a numbers game for the Rangers.
Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin signed a new contract that starts in 2025-26 that ramps up his annual salary from $5.67 million to $11.50 million. There were also the series of in-season trades that Rangers GM Chris Drury made to get Will Borgen and J.T. Miller that led to them taking on an additional $12.1 million per year; Borgen signed a five-year extension worth $4.1 million annually, and Miller is entering the second of a seven-year pact in which he’ll earn $8 million annually.
This left the Rangers needing to find solutions to address a seven-player restricted free agent class led by K’Andre Miller, Zac Jones, Matthew Robertson, and Will Cuylle.
That’s not to say there aren’t questions about how they’ll replace Kreider’s production.
It’s what made the spring signing of Boston College star winger Gabe Perreault important, because it gives the Rangers a potential top-six option on a team-friendly deal, while allowing them to create the necessary space to address that RFA class — on top of everything else they may seek to achieve this offseason.
The Rangers now have $14.922 million in cap space after shedding Kreider’s contract, per PuckPedia. That provides the front office with more financial flexibility than it initially possessed, with the notion it might not be done.
Adding Terrance, who signed with the Ducks in April, brings a center prospect to a system that appeared to need one. Their strongest prospect down the middle, Noah Laba, signed with the club after three seasons at Colorado College, while Dylan Roobroeck’s first full professional campaign included 20 goals in the AHL.
Terrance, who was a second-round pick in 2023, had his third straight 20-goal season for the OHL’s Erie Otters; overall, he finished with 39 points in 45 games. He also represented Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championships, where he had two goals in seven games before sustaining an injury.
Rebuilds are all about ending up in a better place, with the notion that all of them take a different path to reach that desired destination. The Kreider trade is a signal that the Ducks are remaining steadfast in an approach that has served them well so far, with the belief it could lead to them either reaching the playoffs or at least be in the wild-card discussion in 2025-26.
For all the conversations about how they have drafted and developed, the Ducks have also made a concerted effort to insulate that homegrown young core with respected veterans. It’s a veteran group that includes Radko Gudas, Alex Killorn, Frank Vatrano, and Krieder’s former Rangers teammate Jacob Trouba.
So what does this mean for the Ducks’ top-nine winger setup? Kreider adds to a group that has Sam Colangelo, Cutter Gauthier, Troy Terry, Killorn, and Vatrano. Not only does it provide the Ducks with goal scorers in general, but also with players who can grab those goals in a variety of ways.
And this is what makes the Ducks either fascinating — or terrifying — depending upon the perspective. Ducks GM Pat Verbeek just took on a forward with a $6.5 million cap hit, and PuckPedia projects he still has more than $32.188 million in available space.
This is what could make Katella Avenue a destination come free agency on July 1.
Of course, Verbeek must act responsibly. Lukas Dostal, Drew Helleson and Mason McTavish, who are part of the Ducks’ young core, are each pending RFAs that need a new contract. Then there’s what lies ahead next offseason, when Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, Trevor Zegras, Olen Zellweger, and Gauthier will all need new deals at the same time.
Possessing that much young talent on cheap contracts creates financial flexibility. It’s why they were able to add Kreider for the price of a draft pick and a prospect in Terrance, who was expendable because of their center situation in the NHL and Lucas Pettersson, their second-round pick in 2024, in the system.
Ever since their rebuild started, the Ducks have been a franchise that’s been about trying to make progress by any means necessary. They’ve developed one of the NHL’s most promising farm systems in that time, and cultivated an expectation for their prospects. All the while, they’ve known when to make the moves like the one that got them Kreider.
Now what?
Finishing with 80 points for the first time since the 2018-19 season has them at a critical point. It’s part of the reason why they moved on from head coach Greg Cronin after two seasons to hire Joel Quenneville with the premise that they feel they can go further.
Because that’s what it means to play in the gauntlet that has become the Western Conference. For all the established contenders like the Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche, there are still other teams that can carve a path.
The Seattle Kraken did it in their second season back in 2022-23. A year later, the Vancouver Canucks did it in their first full season under Rick Tocchet in 2023-24. This season saw the St. Louis Blues return to the playoffs, while the Calgary Flames and Utah Hockey Club pushed until the latter stages of the regular season.
Anaheim finished 16 points out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot. But the gradual improvement the Ducks have shown — along with the fact they have made two of the bigger moves this offseason, believing they could do more — could see them knocking on the door to the postseason, or kicking right through it. — Clark
As we approach the one-month mark of the 2025 college football season, the state of quarterback play among the contenders (and pretenders) across the country is becoming clearer.
LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Texas’ Arch Manning — all for different reasons — have followed hefty preseason hype with relatively slow starts this fall. Elsewhere, Josh Hoover (TCU), Haynes King (Georgia Tech) and Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) are looking very much as expected, and some of the nation’s biggest offseason question marks, including Oregon’s Dante Moore and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed, have emerged as surprise stars.
Week 4 was a big one for transfer passers as Joey Aguilar (Tennessee), Carson Beck (Miami), John Mateer (Oklahoma), Fernando Mendoza (Indiana) and Beau Pribula (Missouri) all built on impressive starts with their new programs. Meanwhile, fellow portal quarterbacks Jackson Arnold (Auburn), Devon Dampier (Utah) and Jake Retzlaff (Tulane) experienced their first stumbles in their new uniforms Saturday.
With four full weeks of college football in the books, here’s our take on the Top 25 and how early-season quarterback situations are developing across the country. — Eli Lederman
Previous ranking: 1
Freshman Julian Sayin is off to a terrific start through three games, having replaced national championship-winning quarterback Will Howard. Sayin ranks 29th nationally in QBR (77.2) and is completing almost 79% of his throws. Sayin didn’t put up big numbers in Ohio State’s season-opening 14-7 victory over then-top-ranked Texas. But he was accurate and avoided any big mistakes (sacks or turnovers), which allowed the Ohio State defense to salt away the win. In Week 2’s 70-0 victory, Sayin set a school record with 16 straight completions to begin the game. Then, in Week 3, he passed for 347 yards as the offense got rolling against Ohio in the second half after a slow start. Some big tests loom ahead, most notably on Nov. 1 against Penn State and in the regular-season finale at Michigan. But Sayin has impressed so far with his poise and precision. — Jake Trotter
Previous ranking: 3
Carson Beck has helped lead the Hurricanes to a 4-0 start following a 26-7 win over Florida on Saturday. Though his performance against the Gators was not up to his standard — Beck went 17-of-30 for 160 yards with one interception — he is still completing 73% of his passes on the season and has helped position Miami in the top five as a CFP contender. Beck has shown an ability to make big plays in the passing game with his receivers, who are skilled at going up and making acrobatic catches or coming down with jump balls. Following an open date, Miami plays Florida State in Tallahassee, and Beck said he is looking forward to playing in Doak Campbell Stadium for the first time. — Andrea Adelson
Previous ranking: 2
The Ducks continue to boast one of the most balanced offenses in the country as they totaled 305 passing yards and 280 rushing yards in their 41-7 win over rivals Oregon State Saturday. One slight difference about this week’s performance, however, was that they let quarterback Dante Moore loosen his arm a bit more. Whether it was by design or not, it worked; Moore threw 31 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns, all season highs. It was another reminder that no matter how good the Ducks have been this season, Moore still has more in the tank. Even if he doesn’t have the kind of off-the-charts pop that others at his position might boast, the sophomore has proved he can be efficient, explosive when needed and, most importantly, capable of managing Oregon’s offense to perfection so far. — Paolo Uggetti
Previous ranking: 4
After a slow start to the season due to a torso injury, Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier again looked like one of the best passers in the FBS on Saturday, albeit against FCS program Southeastern Louisiana. And with a trip to Ole Miss coming up next, it couldn’t have come at a better time for LSU. Nussmeier completed 25 of 31 passes for 273 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in 2½ quarters of action against the Lions. It was the first game in which he threw for more than 250 yards this season. “This week was big about trying to find our rhythm and getting in stride heading into SEC play,” Nussmeier said. LSU coach Brian Kelly thought Nussmeier did a better job seeing the field and throwing in rhythm. — Mark Schlabach
Previous ranking: 7
Veteran Drew Allar is off to a bit of a slow start statistically. He ranks 111th in QBR (38.4) and has thrown just four touchdowns over three games. But the Nittany Lions have yet to be pressed, as they coasted past Nevada (46-11), Florida International (34-0) and Villanova (52-6). The spotlight, however, will be on Allar and Penn State next weekend when Oregon visits for a prime-time, “White Out” showdown. Allar admitted over the summer that the time has come for the Nittany Lions “to get over that hump” against big-time opponents. Under coach James Franklin, Penn State is 4-20 against teams ranked in the AP top 10 — and Allar has only one career top-10 win (Boise State last year) as Penn State’s starting quarterback. Beating the Ducks this time around would be a huge statement for Allar and the Nittany Lions. — Trotter
Previous ranking: 5
Any lingering quarterback concerns that Georgia fans had about Gunner Stockton were probably put to rest after his performance in a 44-41 overtime victory at Tennessee on Sept. 13. The sophomore completed 23 of 31 passes for 304 yards with two touchdowns and ran 13 times for 38 yards with another score. It was a much better performance for Stockton, who struggled to get the ball down the field in a 28-6 victory against Austin Peay the week before. He led the Bulldogs on four touchdown drives of 72 yards or longer, including one near the end of regulation that resulted in his 28-yard scoring pass to London Humphreys on fourth down. Georgia’s offensive line needs to get better, and Stockton needs to improve at keeping his eyes down the field while scrambling. — Schlabach
Previous ranking: 8
So far, things could not have gone better for the Seminoles with transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos, who has been a perfect fit for the offense and the team in general. Castellanos has thrown for 594 yards and three touchdowns this season, completing 71% of his passes, while adding 139 yards rushing and three scores. Florida State has not had to rely on the passing game just yet, as the Seminoles have steamrolled their opponents on the ground. Castellanos did have a bit of a scare in a 66-10 win over Kent State when his leg got rolled up on, but he said afterward he was “all good.” — Adelson
Previous ranking: 9
Washington State transfer John Mateer has delivered on the hype that followed his offseason arrival in Norman. Through four games, he has already taken care of his principal objective: stabilizing a Sooners offense that finished 113th in total offense a year ago. But Mateer has also brought with him a brand of playmaking ability Oklahoma hasn’t had at the quarterback position since Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts rolled through the program in the late 2010s. Following Saturday’s 24-17 win over then-No. 22 Auburn, Mateer ranks sixth nationally in passing yards (1,215) and tied for second among Power 4 quarterbacks in rushing scores (five). He was far from perfect facing an SEC defense for the first time, and Mateer’s turnover tally (four) and propensity for working himself into trouble are worth keeping an eye on as Oklahoma stares down ranked matchups in six of its final eight games of the season. But there’s no doubt that Mateer has significantly raised the floor for the Sooners’ offense. The question now is just how high the ceiling can be this fall. — Lederman
Previous ranking: 6
The Aggies had a bye week, a fortuitous break after an emotional trip to Notre Dame where they won on a fourth-down touchdown with 13 seconds left. It was A&M’s first road nonconference win against a ranked team since 1979 and first road win against any ranked team at all since 2014. Marcel Reed was just 17-of-37 in that game but threw for 360 yards, and KC Concepcion and Mario Craver have provided the 3-0 Aggies with the big-play threats they lacked last season. Last year, A&M got off to a hot start, beginning 7-1, including a win over No. 8 LSU. Then, a slide started, beginning with a road loss to South Carolina followed by a 43-41 triple-overtime loss to Auburn. The Aggies get the Tigers at home next week, who are coming off a road loss to Oklahoma, to try to keep this year’s momentum rolling. — Dave Wilson
Previous ranking: 20
Although Indiana retained many of its top players from its 2024 CFP team, it needed to replace standout quarterback Kurtis Rourke. The team plucked one of the top available transfers in Cal‘s Fernando Mendoza, who joined his younger brother and fellow quarterback Alberto Mendoza at IU. How would Mendoza adjust? The answer came Saturday with a near-flawless performance, as Mendoza had three more touchdown passes (five) than incompletions (two), finishing with 267 passing yards and finding four different teammates for scores. He became the second FBS player with five passing touchdowns and 90% completions against an AP ranked opponent in the past 30 years, joining Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud in 2021 against Michigan State. Mendoza could end up being an upgrade from Rourke. — Adam Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 12
After four games, Rebels coach Lane Kiffin has a good problem on his hands. Ole Miss has two quarterbacks who are more than capable of running the offense. Starter Austin Simmons won the job in camp and has thrown for 580 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions. Simmons injured his ankle in the fourth quarter of a 30-23 win at Kentucky on Sept. 6, and backup Trinidad Chambliss has played even better in his absence. In Saturday’s 45-10 rout of Tulane, Chambliss passed for 307 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 112 yards on 14 attempts. In the past two wins over Arkansas and Tulane, Chambliss threw for 660 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions, while running for 174 with two scores. With LSU going to Oxford, Mississippi, next week, Kiffin faces a difficult decision. “I’m not saying he’s Russell Wilson, don’t get me wrong, but there’s some similarities in that kind of in the ‘it factor’ and how he moves and holds himself, you know, that I’ve kind of said that since he’s gotten here,” Kiffin said of Chambliss, who won two Division II national championships at Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan. — Schlabach
Previous ranking: 17
Behren Morton took some rough hits on Saturday, including a hit to the head that knocked him out of the Red Raiders’ road test at Utah. But Texas Tech did not miss a beat when backup Will Hammond stepped in to replace him. The redshirt freshman threw for 169 yards, rushed for 61 yards and led a 21-0 scoring run in the fourth quarter for a massive 34-10 victory against then No. 16 Utah. Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said Morton will be fine, and a bye week is arriving at a good time for this team. But Hammond, who put up the second-best QBR (96.3) in FBS during Week 4, has done more than enough to prove he’s ready to help this team win if called upon. — Max Olson
Previous ranking: 10
A tuneup against 0-4 Sam Houston might have been what the doctor ordered for several scuffling Longhorns who had yet to find their stride this season. Arch Manning accounted for five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing — and completed 14 passes in a row a week after the Longhorns’ offense got booed after 10 straight incompletions against UTEP. Saturday, Manning finished 18-of-21 for 309 yards, including two touchdown passes of 53 and 13 yards to Ryan Wingo, who had just nine catches and one touchdown in the first three games, and edge rushing star Colin Simmons recorded his first solo sack of the year. The Longhorns head to Florida on Saturday hoping to keep building momentum in their SEC opener against the 1-3 Gators before facing Oklahoma, which beat Auburn to move to 4-0, in Dallas the following week. — Wilson
Previous ranking: 16
Joey Aguilar and Tennessee faced a unique test this week, needing to get back on track after a devastating loss to Georgia last week. Safe to say, they passed it. Aguilar threw for 218 yards and three touchdowns and needed to play only one drive in the second half as the Vols broke out to a 42-7 halftime lead and cruised 56-24 over UAB. The Vols are averaging 53.5 points per game through four games, and Aguilar has 1,124 passing yards and 12 touchdowns. They have an explosiveness that they lacked with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback last season, and the defense has been fine against teams not named Georgia. Starting next week at Mississippi State, however, the Vols embark on a run of three road trips in four games. We’ll see if Aguilar’s solid early form travels. — Bill Connelly
Previous ranking: 13
The Cyclones were idle this week ahead of next week’s home game against surging Arizona. At 4-0, Iowa State is off to a promising start, but it has to turn in a comprehensive win against an FBS opponent as all three such wins have come by one score. Quarterback Rocco Becht is finding a way to help pull these games out, but Iowa State needs more explosive plays from its offense if it expects to seriously compete for the Big 12 title. — Kyle Bonagura
Previous ranking: 15
Ty Simpson had to wait years to win Alabama’s starting job, and his tenure began as inauspiciously as possible with a dire loss at Florida State. Simpson has been almost perfect since, however, completing 41 of 46 passes for 608 yards and seven TDs against UL Monroe and Wisconsin. The Tide rolled in both games, setting the table nicely for an enormous and potentially season-defining trip to Georgia next Saturday. If Simpson looks good in a Tide win, he enters the Heisman discussion and Alabama’s CFP bona fides get a nice boost. If he struggles and Bama loses, the CFP starts to seem like a pipe dream. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 19
Beau Pribula has had it pretty easy early in his tenure as Mizzou’s starting quarterback. He has completed 72% of his passes with an 8-to-2 INT-to-TD ratio, he has been a solid scrambling weapon at times, and he has been able to turn around and hand the ball off to Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts. They’ve taken it from there. The running back duo rushed 35 times for 214 yards and two touchdowns in Mizzou’s 29-20 win over South Carolina on Saturday night. Despite missing left tackle Cayden Green, Mizzou had 285 yards rushing, Pribula took only one sack and Mizzou went 7-for-13 on third downs. Only some third-down brilliance from the Gamecocks’ LaNorris Sellers kept this one competitive, but the Tigers moved to 4-0 by finishing the game on an 11-0 run. With a buy game against UMass and a bye week coming up, it looks like Pribula will lead an unbeaten team against Alabama in Columbia in a couple of weeks. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 18
Saturday’s win over Temple wasn’t exactly pretty, but then again, things rarely are for the Yellow Jackets. QB Haynes King likes it that way. Few quarterbacks in the country have proved their toughness more than King, who added three touchdowns in Week 4’s 45-24 win over the Owls. King’s ability to make plays with his legs is what sets him apart, but he has also been stellar as a passer — a big question coming off last season’s shoulder injury. Georgia Tech’s next two games are against Wake Forest and Virginia Tech — two of the ACC’s bottom-feeders — meaning he’ll have a shot to pad his stat line even more before a showdown at Duke on Oct. 18. — David Hale
Previous ranking: 21
Freshman phenom Bryce Underwood earned his first Big Ten road victory on Saturday with a 30-27 win at Nebraska. He didn’t put up crazy stats on the day — 105 passing yards, 61 rushing yards, one TD — but didn’t need to while the Wolverines’ run game overwhelmed a top-10 scoring defense with 292 rushing yards on 9.1 yards per carry (excluding sacks). Interim coach Biff Poggi loved the poise Underwood brought to the sideline and huddle that gave his team no doubt it’d win. The young QB’s developmental trajectory through four games remains extremely exciting to watch. — Olson
Previous ranking: 22
Diego Pavia fought for an extra year of eligibility in 2025 and is absolutely making the most of it. The sixth-year senior avenged last year’s upset loss to Georgia State with a 70-21 rout on Saturday night that has Vanderbilt off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2008. Pavia has dramatically raised his completion percentage from 59.4% last season to an SEC-best 73.9%, ranks among the top 10 in QBR (85.7) and is powering a top-10 scoring offense that’s putting up 47.5 points per game. The Commodores have one more nonconference tuneup against Utah State before an epic October schedule against four of the SEC’s best in Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas. — Olson
Previous ranking: 25
The Horned Frogs played a bit sloppy but never panicked against SMU in a 35-24 win, the last iteration of a rivalry that dates back to 2015. Josh Hoover threw for 379 yards and a career-high five touchdowns, and a stacked receiving room saw Eric McAlister become this week’s star, with eight catches for 254 yards (second best in school history) and three touchdowns, narrowly missing two more, one on an interception that was wrestled away from him and another on a possible TD catch that was ruled incomplete and wasn’t reviewed by officials. The defense held SMU to 384 yards, 4-of-13 on third down and the Mustangs’ fewest points all season. The Frogs, who snuck into the AP Top 25 at No. 24 this week, head to Tempe to take on defending Big 12 champs Arizona State on Friday night, a test that could start to reveal if TCU is back on its 2022 trajectory. — Wilson
Previous ranking: NR
If there wasn’t much talk about Jayden Maiava‘s season so far, then let the chatter begin. The Trojans’ quarterback was impressive against Michigan State in a 45-31 win, looking as comfortable as ever in Lincoln Riley’s offense. Maiva completed 20 of 26 passes for 234 yards (and crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the season) while adding three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns too. It’s not clear yet just how good USC is and can be in the Big Ten and beyond this season, but through four contests, there’s no doubt that the explosive offense the sport has come to expect when Riley has a dynamic quarterback in tow is alive and well with Maiava under center. In fact, after putting up 517 yards of offense against the Spartans, the Trojans’ average yards per game for the year (604 per game, tops in the country) will go down. At the center of it all has been Maiava. — Uggetti
Previous ranking: 24
When the season opened, the biggest question looming over Notre Dame was at quarterback. It took until late in fall camp before CJ Carr won the job, and the Irish — fresh off a trip to the national championship game — might’ve reasonably been concerned about putting their fate in the hands of a QB with no starting experience. Turns out, Carr has been fine — throwing for 223 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-30 win over Purdue on Saturday — and Notre Dame’s Achilles’ heel has been the area the Irish might’ve felt best about: the secondary. Purdue threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns Saturday, and the battered and struggling defensive backs in South Bend showed little ability to adjust. Notre Dame might have its QB1, but the job now is stopping the other team’s quarterback. — Hale
Previous ranking: 11
When the Illini slogged through the first half Sept. 6 against Duke, struggling along the line of scrimmage, quarterback Luke Altmyer kept the team on track, avoiding major mistakes and buying enough time for a second-half surge. But Altmyer had no chance to be a hero at Indiana, which swarmed him all night, recording five sacks in the first half and seven in the game. Other than a 59-yard touchdown pass to Collin Dixon, Altmyer was limited to 87 passing yards on 13 completions and constantly faced pressure. He certainly can play better and will need to beginning this week against USC. But Altmyer was far from Illinois’ biggest problem in the Indiana debacle. He has given the Illini a veteran presence who, when given time, can pick apart defenses. — Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 14
The celebration in Utah about a revived Utes offense was premature, it turns out. Utah and Texas Tech were locked in a defensive tussle for much of Saturday’s 34-10 Texas Tech win before the Red Raiders finished the game with a flurry of touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The Utes struggled in both phases on offense, managing just 101 yards rushing on 31 carries (3.3 yards per carry) and only 162 yards through the air. The ineffectiveness of the offense was compounded by four turnovers that served as an unpleasant reminder of the past two seasons. — Bonagura
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Alyssa Roenigk
LITTLE FALLS, N.J. — Yogi would have loved this.
Hundreds of people, young, old and wearing matching commemorative T-shirts, just finished dancing the “YMCA” on the field at Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair State University. Little League teams, former MLB players and local politicians laugh and clutch their gloves as volunteers hand out souvenir baseballs. Yankees organist Ed Alstrom plays “Charge!” from a stage in center field, and the crowd responds on cue.
“Yogi loved bringing people together,” says Yankees great Willie Randolph, who played for Berra from 1976 to 1988 and later coached the Yankees and managed the Mets. “He made everyone feel like they’re family. He would have been ecstatic. I think he’s looking down on this field and is so proud.”
They have all come here on a Sunday afternoon, from as far away as California and Florida, to celebrate a man who treated every interaction much like a game of catch. Berra cared as much about what he tossed into a conversation as how he received what was thrown his way. So, what better way to honor him than by playing the biggest game of catch? Ever.
The current record is 972 pairs, set eight years ago in Illinois. On its face, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest game of catch sounds simple: Gather a couple thousand people, pair them up and ask them to toss baseballs back and forth for five minutes. Doing it, however, is anything but easy.
When Eve Schaenen, the executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center at Montclair State, approached Guinness with the idea, adjudicator Michael Empric, who is overseeing the day’s process, told her that many mass-attendance record attempts fail.
“That’s part of why we wanted to do this,” Schaenen says. “There are stakes. Yogi played a game where you could strike out. You could lose. That doesn’t mean you don’t try. He was told he couldn’t so many times and look at what remarkable things he did with his life.”
Berra was born 100 years ago and died before many of the kids gathered here were born. He made his MLB debut in 1946, retired as a player in 1965 and stopped coaching in 1989. Yet, everyone here on this day has a story about a time they were touched by his life. Berra connected deeply with people. It didn’t matter if he was talking to a teammate, a waiter, the president or his postman. With Berra, everyone got the same guy.
That this record attempt is taking place one day before the anniversary of his death (and his MLB debut) on Sept. 22 might have elicited him to create one of his popular Yogi-isms. “Well,” he might have said, “we’re a day early, but right on time.”
TO BASEBALL FANS, Yogi Berra is a legend. An MLB Hall of Famer. A man who played in 75 World Series games and won 10 rings — both records unlikely to be broken — and was one of the best “bad ball” hitters in history. The image of Berra leaping into the arms of Yankees pitcher Don Larsen after calling the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956 is indelible in the minds of baseball fans.
“All Yankees fans are Yogi fans,” says Paul Semendinger, a retired principal and adjunct professor at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. He is wearing a replica 1939 Lou Gehrig Yankees jersey. “But you can be a Yogi fan without being a Yankees fan.”
Case in point: Semendinger, 57, is here with his 26-year-old son, Ethan, and 87-year-old dad, Paul Sr., “the world’s biggest Ted Williams fan.” (Paul Sr. is wearing a Red Sox jersey.) “You could root for Yogi even if you’re not a fan of his team,” Paul Sr. says, “because he was a good person.”
Semendinger and his son run a Yankees blog and play on a softball team together. He and his dad still meet up a few times a year to play catch in the backyard. “For 87, he still throws a pretty good knuckleball,” Semendinger says.
When Josh Rawitch, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was 10, he sent Berra a baseball card from his home in Los Angeles and asked him to sign it. “It came back with his signature in this perfect penmanship,” Rawitch says. “I was a big fan of baseball history and although I was a Dodgers fan, he was Yogi Berra.” Over the years, Rawitch met Berra multiple times and became a fan of him as a man. “For someone with 10 rings, he never took himself too seriously,” he says. “He had such humility.”
Rawitch is here to display Berra’s Hall of Fame plaque, which a museum employee drove nearly 200 miles from Cooperstown, New York, to Little Falls on Saturday. It’s the first time the plaque has left the Hall since Berra was inducted in 1972.
“It’s rare that we do this,” Rawitch says. “But we knew we wanted to be a part of something so special.”
Anthony “Uncle Tony” Stinger turned 90 this year. He was in the right-field grandstands at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 22, 1946, when Berra made his MLB debut. “It was a Sunday, the second game of a doubleheader against Philadelphia,” Stinger says. “I took the 4 train from Harlem to the stadium, and the Yankees called Yogi up that day. He could hit anything, even a ball a foot off the ground. They didn’t know how to pitch to him.”
Stinger has lived in the Bronx for 53 years and came here with his nieces. Although he’s only spectating, he says he wouldn’t have missed this event for the world. “Yogi would be amazed,” he says, looking around the stadium.
TO MANY, BERRA was a war hero. The St. Louis native signed with the Yankees in 1943 but delayed his MLB career to enlist in the Navy on his 18th birthday and served as a gunner’s mate in World War II. He provided cover from a rocket boat for the troops who landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He was wounded by enemy fire and earned a Purple Heart, although he famously never received the medal because he didn’t fill out the paperwork. He didn’t want his mother to worry.
Daniel Joseph Clair joined the Marines in 1966 and earned a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam. He’s here to play catch with his wife, a lifelong Yankees fan. “I met Yogi outside the stadium once,” Clair says. “He took the time to talk to me before he got on the bus.”
To many of the players he coached, Berra was a lifetime friend and confidant.
“I’m getting goose bumps talking about him,” Randolph says, rubbing his arms. “Some of my best memories as a young manager are sitting in my office before games and talking baseball with Yogi. When I think about being the first African American manager in New York history, which I am very proud of, Yogi was very instrumental in that. He taught me so much. I miss him every day.”
Two months after his death, Berra was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his military service as well as his civil rights and educational activism, although he would balk at being called an activist. He would say he was just treating people equally, as he would want to be treated.
Berra grew up on The Hill, a heavily Italian area of St. Louis, and later faced prejudice and ridicule for being Italian and not looking like a typical ballplayer. Throughout his life, whether by crossing racial lines or through his work with Athlete Ally on LGBTQ equality — an organization he joined in his 80s — he wasn’t trying to set an example, yet time and again, he did.
Berra befriended Jackie Robinson in 1946 when they played on opposing teams in the International League. The next year, Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier. Before games, Berra would walk across the field at Yankee Stadium to find Robinson and chat with his friend. “I don’t think he was doing it to make a statement, but 60,000 people saw him talking to Jackie,” Berra’s eldest granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, says. “This was 18 years before the Civil Rights Act. He was making a comment, whether he knew it or not.”
When Elston Howard became the Yankees’ first Black player in 1955, Berra began grooming him as his replacement behind the plate. During spring training in segregated Florida, Howard couldn’t ride on the same bus, eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as his white teammates. So, Berra often joined him at his.
TO PEOPLE WHO never watched baseball, Berra was a cultural phenomenon, a “Jeopardy!” answer, a man they quoted sometimes without knowing who they were quoting.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
It’s déjà vu all over again.
You can observe a lot by watching.
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
Berra was the personification of a cartoon bear, a Yoo-hoo pitchman and, as Wynton Marsalis once said while touring the museum, “the Thelonious Monk of baseball.” He was world famous and as recognizable as any figure in sports, yet he was also the guy his three sons would find downstairs in the mornings having coffee with the postman, garbage man and a few of Montclair’s finest.
Tommy Corizzi is too young to have seen Berra play or coach. In fact, he was born just one year before Berra died. He’s here with his “pop pop,” Tom Corizzi, who loved the idea of spending a Sunday afternoon connecting with his grandson and his favorite team. “Yogi was cool,” Tommy, 11, says. “I want to be in the world record book with him.”
Thirteen-year-old Jake Esarey Elmgart is here with his baseball team. He donated the $2,500 he raised for his bar mitzvah project to this event to help pay for kids with special needs to attend.
Just last week, a local woman handed Lindsay a letter she said she found in a drawer recently. The woman’s son, now in his 30s, wrote the letter to Berra in 2000 — 35 years after he retired — but never sent it. “You were in your car and while you were driving, you pointed at me and put your thumb up,” Justin LaMarca, then 8, wrote in pencil and in cursive. “I yelled to you and said you are my favorite player in the world.”
TO ME, BERRA was my best friend’s grandpa.
I met Lindsay in 2002 when I joined the staff at ESPN The Magazine in New York City, where she worked at the time. We became fast friends. Her family became mine in the way that happens when you live far from your own. Grammy Carmen was chic and sentimental. Grampa Yogi was funny and grumpy and warm and honest, and I think of them every Christmas when I hang the oversized red ceramic ornament they bought for me at New York’s 21 Club. Or at Halloween, because they always answered the door for trick-or-treaters in the same costumes: Grammy Carmen as an adorable witch and Grampa Yogi as Yogi Berra.
A half hour before the record attempt, I’m standing outside the museum with my dad, Fred. We came here in May 2012 to celebrate Berra’s 87th birthday. We toured the museum and watched the Yankees beat the Mariners from a party suite at Yankee Stadium. My dad remembers watching Grampa Yogi interact with fans and former players, singing him “Happy Birthday” and eating pieces of a pinstriped cake.
The previous night, my dad watched a few innings of a game with him in Berra’s living room. “Here’s your chance to ask him anything,” I told him.
My dad was 12 when Berra retired as a player. He grew up on a Belgian horse farm outside of Pittsburgh and never had the chance to see him play in person. He had few opportunities to watch him play on TV because the networks carried only local games back then, plus the Game of the Week on Saturdays. He does, however, remember watching the Pirates beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. “I was 7,” he says. “I’m not sure if I remember it as much as I remember the photo of Yogi standing in left field watching Bill Mazeroski’s homer go over the fence. That’s an iconic Pittsburgh picture.”
At the top of the ninth inning in that shocking game (if you’re a Yankees fan), Berra hit a grounder to tie the score 9-9. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Mazeroski hit a walk-off homer to seal the series for the Pirates. “Yogi said the worst day of his life was watching the ball go over the fence at Forbes Field,” my dad says. (I did tell him to ask the man anything.) “Imagine all he’d experienced in his life, and he said that was his worst day.”
Grampa Yogi died three years after that visit. That weekend was one of many times I watched my best friend share her grandpa with the world. Lindsay had watched her grandmother do so graciously throughout her life, listening with care as people told her how much they loved her husband. But Lindsay didn’t understand how people who had met her grandfather for only a moment, if at all, could feel the same kind of love toward him that she did. After his death, as tributes poured in from around the world, she realized that though their love might not be the same as hers, it is just as real. And it is flowing through this stadium now.
I’M STANDING ON the field precisely 3 meters across from my dad, a baseball glove on my left hand. My dad tosses a baseball my way. I catch it and look around. Baseballs are flying everywhere. People are laughing and dancing and dropping balls. We’re all singing along to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.”
There’s a mystical quality to the relationship that develops between the two people on either end of a game of catch, and it’s happening for all of us now. Maybe it’s how attuned we’ve become to each other, to subtle shifts in our partner’s body position and the message those movements communicate. I’m ready. Send it my way. Maybe it’s the meditative rhythm of the back-and-forth and how quickly the world narrows to the space between us. Or maybe it’s as simple as the eye contact and focus the act requires.
My dad doesn’t remember the first time we played catch together. I don’t, either. But being here on this day, tossing a baseball methodically with him, I’m transported to a Little League field in Cape Coral, Florida. I am 11, wearing an oversized blue Expos jersey and stirrup socks, and warming up with him before a playoff game. The last time we played catch, I was likely in high school and playing shortstop for the CCHS Seahawks.
Lindsay is playing catch with her boyfriend, Peter, surrounded by her family. She remembers the first time she played catch with her grandpa. “My earliest memories are playing wiffle ball in the front yard at holidays,” she says. “Uncle Dale had broken a window at a neighbor’s house, so we played with something safer.” The real baseballs came out when her grandfather was asked to throw out a first pitch. “He’d call each of the grandkids until someone was available to come up to the house and play catch with him,” Lindsay says. “He didn’t want to embarrass himself on the mound.”
When Berra’s boys were young, he was coaching and away from home during baseball season, so they never had the chance to play catch with their dad. Dale says that while Berra loved to toss the football or shoot baskets with him and his brothers, he believes his dad never wanted them to feel pressure to play baseball. “When I signed with the Mets in 1972, I warmed up with him during spring training,” Larry says. “That’s the only memory I have of playing catch with my dad. But I feel him today.”
Larry is playing catch with his son, Andrew. While Empric watches from the stage, volunteers walk the neatly spaced rows of participants looking for rule breakers: people who are on their phones, rolling the ball rather than throwing it or too young to meet the cutoff (age 7). When the five-minute clock runs out, everyone hoots and cheers and high-fives.
“If Dad were here, he’d probably ask, ‘Why would all these people do this? They don’t have to be here,'” Larry says. “He never understood the impact he had on people just by saying hello, by waving, by inviting them in for coffee. He always said, ‘I just played baseball.’ He never understood the aura he created.”
After several excruciating minutes, Empric walks to the podium to deliver the result. “I can now announce that today … in Little Falls … New Jersey … USA … you had a total of … 1,179 pairs,” he says, and hands Schaenen an oversized plaque, which she thrusts into the air. The crowd erupts. “It’s a new Guinness World Record,” Empric says. “Congratulations! You are officially amazing.”
For a while, no one moves. For nearly an hour, many people stay on the field and soak up the magic flowing between the baselines. Some continue to play catch, others chat with the people they stood next to during the attempt. This is what today was all about. Yogi was many things to many people, and today, he brought us all together.
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