McDavid: Attention is on Panthers, not my legacy
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
SUNRISE, Fla. — Connor McDavid said he’s not thinking about his legacy as the Stanley Cup Final begins.
But as he answered questions at media day Friday, the Stanley Cup was all around him.
The actual Cup was glistening on a table about 50 feet away. To McDavid’s right was a large poster of Carolina‘s Rod Brind’Amour lifting it in 2006, the last time the Edmonton Oilers made the Final. In front of him was another poster, of Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby celebrating one of his three championships.
McDavid is considered the best player in the world but has yet to win the Stanley Cup. How a championship would validate his NHL career achievements isn’t paramount in his mind ahead of Saturday’s Game 1 against the Florida Panthers.
“It’s like what I said this last series about Dallas, I’ll say it again about Florida: They’re a great team and they require your full attention,” he said. “You’ve got to stay in the moment. You can only take what’s in front of you. And for us, that’s getting ready to go for tomorrow. Showing up and playing all of Game 1.”
McDavid leads the postseason with 31 points in 18 games. While he only has five goals, his 26 assists have him in range of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL single-postseason record of 31 set in 1988.
“There’s certain things in certain moments where there’s only one player in the world that can make that happen. And I think we can all agree on that,” teammate Leon Draisaitl said of McDavid.
Game 1 is a full-circle moment for McDavid when it comes to the Panthers arena: It’s where he walked on stage to accept an Oilers jersey as the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NHL draft.
“It’s kind of funny how it’s worked out,” McDavid said. “Honestly, it feels like it was yesterday that that night was happening, and here we are nine years later, it feels like it’s going back around.”
Before he was drafted, McDavid said he used to watch the Stanley Cup Final as a young fan.
“I just remember how exciting it was,” he said. “I think any time you would see the Stanley Cup on TV, it was always a special thing. Obviously as I’ve been in the league, I think I watched less. I mean, I’d still watch here and there, but when you’re as competitive as everyone is, it’s not always easy to see the Cup passed around.”
McDavid hadn’t been born the last time the Oilers won the Stanley Cup. It was 1990, after Gretzky left for Los Angeles but still considered part of the Edmonton dynasty of five Cups in seven seasons.
Paul Coffey was a defenseman for three of those winners. The Hockey Hall of Famer is now an assistant coach for the Oilers, and McDavid said their conversations have given him context on what it takes to win.
“As somebody that was not alive for that period of time, you feel like it was always just easy for them, but they went through a lot of adversity and a lot of heartbreak to get to where they got to as a team,” he said. “That certainly resonates with our group. We’ve gone through a lot to get to this point.”
That included a 3-9-1 start that necessitated a coaching change and had many wondering whether Edmonton would even be a playoff team.
“When you’re going through it, obviously it sucks,” he said. “But I think our group always believed that we were a good team. Even when things weren’t going well, I think we always believed that if we just stuck with it, things were going to turn around. I think we showed that we can go through adversity together and come out the other side.”
The Carolina Hurricanes have reached a three-year, $9.5 million extension with forward Taylor Hall through the 2027-28 season.
The team announced the signing Wednesday, a day after the Hurricanes closed out the New Jersey Devils in their first-round playoff series. It marked the seventh straight year that Carolina has won at least one postseason series.
Hall, 33, acquired in a blockbuster January deal that included Mikko Rantanen‘s arrival, scored the first of Carolina’s four second-period goals that helped it erase a 3-0 deficit before winning in double overtime. He’s a 15-year veteran who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP in the 2017-18 season.
“Taylor has proven to be an outstanding fit for our team, and we are thrilled that he is excited to make Raleigh his home for another three seasons,” general manager Eric Tulsky said in a statement. “He’s been a solid veteran presence in the locker room and a difference maker on the ice.”
Hall had 18 goals and 24 assists in 77 regular-season games between Chicago and Carolina, and also had two assists in the five-game series win against New Jersey. He had missed most of the previous season due to knee surgery and was making $6 million this year with free agency looming, then led Carolina skaters with four power-play goals in the regular season after his arrival.
The Hurricanes acquired the 2010 No. 1 overall draft pick on Jan. 24 in the three-team deal that snagged Rantanen from Colorado, though they later sent Rantanen to Dallas with forward Logan Stankoven as the primary trade-deadline return when it became clear Rantanen was unlikely to sign long-term to stay with Carolina.
Hall and Tulsky are scheduled to address reporters by Zoom later Wednesday.
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Greg Wyshynski
Utah Hockey Club officials wouldn’t confirm whether “Mammoth” was their new name after it allegedly leaked on the team’s official YouTube channel Tuesday night.
Fans and media noticed that the channel’s handle was changed from “@UtahHockeyClub” to “@UtahMammoth,” on both its landing page and URL. The channel was soon deactivated and remained so on Wednesday morning, but not before screenshots of the name change went viral.
Utah Mammoth was one of three finalists featured in a fan vote at Delta Center to help determine the permanent name of the team, which played its inaugural season in 2024-25 after SEG purchased and relocated the former Arizona Coyotes franchise. Fans voted with iPads located at stations around the arena that featured the names, logos and potential branding for each option.
Originally, the three names voted on were Utah Mammoth, Utah Hockey Club and Utah Wasatch, which was quickly swapped out for Utah Outlaws after the team saw early vote returns.
Mammoth made the final four in the initial fan vote last year.
Utah HC executives wouldn’t confirm or deny that Mammoth will be the team’s new nickname.
Mike Maughan, an executive with Utah HC owner Smith Entertainment Group, said on Wednesday that “progress continues on exploring all three of the name options that were chosen as finalists by our fans. We’re fully on track to announce a permanent name and identity ahead of the 25-26 NHL season and look forward to sharing that with our fans when we do.”
When pressed for an explanation on the alleged YouTube leak, Maughan would only say, “We’re fully on track to announce a permanent name and identity ahead of the 25-26 NHL season.”
One NHL source told ESPN that the revelation for the team’s new name and logo could come before the NHL draft in late June. This year’s draft is a “decentralized” event, meaning that teams will be making selections from their own sites rather than in one central location. That opens the door for Utah to have an event in Salt Lake City with team officials around the draft.
In other Utah HC news, the team announced Wednesday that Delta Center, home to Utah HC and the Utah Jazz, will be undergoing a renovation to optimize hockey sightlines while maintaining the proximity of basketball fans to the court using a state-of-the-art retractable seating system. It’s a multiyear project that will also create a new main entrance and outdoor plaza.
The first-of-its-kind seating system accommodates a nearly 12-foot variance in elevation between rink and court endlines to offer optimal sightlines for both the NBA and NHL. Every seat in the lower bowl will have a complete view of the ice at the start of next season — the team estimates that 400 seats currently can only see one goal net during games.
The new hockey configuration adds capacity behind the goals and above and around the event tunnels on the north and south side of the lower bowl and improves access to seating behind the boards.
When all renovations are complete, seating capacity for hockey will increase from 11,131 to approximately 17,000 — with every seat in the upper and lower bowls having full views of both goals — and capacity for basketball will increase from 18,206 to nearly 19,000 seats.
“Delta Center was built for basketball. When you come and put the size of an ice sheet in that venue with those sight lines, the geometry just doesn’t work. So that’s where you come up with the riser system configuration. You come up with raising the floor 2 feet,” said Jim Olson, president of the Jazz and executive representing SEG on all facilities projects.
“We are absolutely protecting the basketball experience, but then also creating a great hockey experience where all the seats can see all the ice,” he said.
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