Who are the top candidates for NHL coach, GM jobs?
When we compiled a list two years ago of up-and-coming NHL coach and general manager candidates, we noted how familial the hiring practices could be. Since the 2005-06 season, nearly 60% of the coaches hired were what the industry calls “retreads,” and it was rare to see an outside-the-box candidate take over the general manager role. More glaringly, the positions had almost exclusively gone to white men.
In the past year, there has been a sea of change across hockey. San Jose hired Mike Grier, making him the league’s first Black GM. A historic offseason included six women being promoted to NHL assistant general manager positions; prior to 2022 only one woman held that title in league history. One of the new assistant GMs, Alexandra Mandrycky in Seattle, became the first woman elevated to that position to specialize in analytics. Jessica Campbell was named an assistant coach in Coachella Valley, making her the first woman behind the bench in the AHL. And in the ECHL, Joel Martin was hired in Kalamazoo, joining Jason Payne (Cincinnati Cyclones) as the only Black head coaches in North American professional hockey. Patrik Allvin, who is Swedish, was also hired as GM in Vancouver, giving the NHL two European general managers.
We’re starting to see leaders in hockey become more diverse, including diversity in thought process. But for all the progress, it will likely take more time to see some of them in the highest positions, as they continue to rise the ranks.
There are plenty of bright hockey minds working their way up in the sport, and some are more seasoned and ready for an opportunity now. ESPN polled 24 people in and around the NHL — agents, front-office executives, league officials — and asked two questions. Who is up next? And who should we be keeping an eye on? We combined that data with input on the politics of hiring cycles, understanding what ownership and people in hiring positions are looking for and which candidates might have backing around the league that elevates them to the top of shortlists. Here are the results.
Ready right now
These are coaches who have put in the work and could step in and lead a team right now.
Andrew Brunette, New Jersey Devils assistant coach
The Florida Panthers changed course to hire Paul Maurice instead of promoting Brunette — who as an interim coach following Joel Quenneville’s forced resignation last season ushered the franchise to its first Presidents Trophy. Brunette took an assistant job in New Jersey and could be next in line to succeed 63-year-old Lindy Ruff, unless another organization scoops him first. Said one player who has been coached by Brunette: “He has a way of connecting with guys. He’s a really fun guy but is definitely serious when he needs to. I like his communication style.”
Spencer Carbery, Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach
The 41-year-old is one of the buzziest names on the coaching circuit — and that’s even before he landed in Toronto, center of the hockey media universe. A few respondents said to monitor Carbery as an option for the Capitals should they make a change. Carbery is thought highly of in the Caps organization after three years leading its top minor league affiliate, the Hershey Bears. He has been a quick riser after winning ECHL Coach of the Year (2014) and AHL Coach of the Year (2021). Washington wanted to keep him on, but Carbery took an assistant job with the Maple Leafs in 2021. Since Carbery took over running the power play, Toronto has the league’s second-best man-up unit (behind Edmonton).
Jay Leach, Seattle Kraken assistant coach
After four years as the head coach of the AHL Providence Bruins, Leach was hired as one of the inaugural assistant coaches with the Seattle Kraken prior to the 2021-22 season. He was in consideration for the Bruins’ head coaching job this past summer after Bruce Cassidy was fired, with the B’s picking Jim Montgomery. Leach was described by one former colleague as “warm and engaging.”
“If you spend 15 minutes in conversation with him, you’ll realize he has that ‘it’ factor,” the former colleague said. “Like, this guy is a leader of men. Someone you’d have no problem being front-facing for your organization.”
Marco Sturm, AHL Ontario Reign head coach
One respondent put it bluntly: “Nobody would be surprised if he takes over for Todd McLellan as the coach of the Los Angeles Kings one day.” McLellan and the Kings are invested in the development of Sturm, the former NHL forward who had a strong run as the GM of Germany’s national team. The Kings essentially handpicked Sturm for the role of Reign head coach, not interviewing anyone else. “McLellan respects Sturm a lot,” one respondent said. “Instead of staying on as an assistant for another season, [McLellan] told [Sturm] to go to the AHL to get head coaching experience, which was a smart move for his development.”
Ryan Warsofsky, San Jose Sharks assistant coach
The Massachusetts native came up through the Washington Capitals farm system, serving as coach and director of hockey operations for the ECHL’s South Carolina StingRays.
Warsofsky won two Calder Cups as a coach in the Carolina Hurricanes system. The first came as an assistant with the Charlotte Checkers, which one respondent mentioned was especially impressive since “the team was on a shoestring budget.” The second was as the head coach of the Chicago Wolves after the Canes switched affiliates. While coaching Chicago, Warsofsky was the youngest head coach in the AHL at age 34. He joined David Quinn’s bench in San Jose this season, where he’s in charge of the Sharks’ penalty kill, a top-five unit in the league. “Good young mind who knows how to hold people accountable,” one respondent said. “And he’s won. You can never discount that.”
Pascal Vincent, Columbus Blue Jackets associate coach
If Columbus makes a change this summer, Vincent would be one of the leading candidates to take over the job. Vincent, who is bilingual (English and French), has been successful at every level, including being named the QMJHL Coach of the Year in 2008 and the AHL’s most outstanding coach in 2018. He was a longtime Winnipeg Jets assistant coach but decided to take the job leading their AHL affiliate so he could get more head coaching experience.
Vincent was described as being “extremely intelligent, truly hardworking and well spoken” by one respondent, who noted that he has a track record for connecting with players.
Next wave
These are coaches who need a bit more time and seasoning but are on an NHL coaching track. Keep an eye on these names over the next few seasons.
Jessica Campbell, AHL Coachella Firebirds assistant coach
Campbell, 30, is the first woman behind a bench in the AHL, coaching for Seattle’s top minor league affiliate. The former Cornell and Canadian national team forward has a ton of supporters, especially players whom she has worked with. Campbell began her own business during the pandemic, running skating sessions in Kelowna, British Columbia, for 20 NHL players, including Mat Barzal, Luke Schenn and Brent Seabrook. She then went to coach in Germany, where Moritz Seider and Tim Stutzle also became fans. Campbell has a way of connecting with players through positivity, empowering them to be part of the process. With the Coachella Valley Firebirds, head coach Dan Bylsma empowered Campbell to run the power play from day one and it’s been a top-10 unit in the league all season.
Korie Chevrie, Canada women’s national team assistant coach
Chevrie, 35, has been a star of the NHLCA Female Coaches Development Program. The former CWHL player began tracking to coach in men’s hockey when she took a job as an assistant for Ryerson in 2016, becoming the first woman behind the bench in Canadian men’s college hockey. Opportunities opened from there, including interviewing with the Kraken organization this past summer and coaching at Coyotes rookie development camp in July.
Chevrie toggles between coaching in the women’s game and the men’s game, but has star power because, as one respondent said: “She’s just someone that exudes confidence. That’s something you can’t teach.”
Joel Martin, ECHL Kalamazoo Wings head coach
The 40-year-old Martin is in just his first year as a head coach in the ECHL — following three years as an assistant — but was described as a future “fast riser” in the coaching ranks. The former minor league goaltender has been active in the NHL Coaches Association BIPOC programs, which will only give him more exposure. Martin, who has been mentored by Jason Payne, isn’t in a rush to get to the top. Consider Martin more of a long-term play.
Steve McCarthy, Columbus Blue Jackets assistant coach
McCarthy, a 1999 draft pick of the Blackhawks, hung up the skates in 2016 after a pro career spanning six different leagues. Since then, he has been on the fast track as a coach. McCarthy immediately took a job as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Monsters in the AHL, the last team he played for. He was poised to be the head coach of the Monsters but decided to take the opportunity for NHL bench experience.
McCarthy coaches the D in Columbus, where one of his players said: “He’s relatable as a coach. I love the way he sees the game, and he has a way of connecting with the young guys and getting the most out of them.”
Paul McFarland, Seattle Kraken assistant coach
The Kraken have a strong development pool, including the 37-year-old McFarland, who was described by a respondent as a “progressive thinker.” McFarland got his start in the NHL as an assistant with the Maple Leafs.
“Mike Babcock found McFarland super impressive in Toronto,” the respondent said. “That’s why he hired him.” Toronto wanted to keep McFarland, but he decided to get leadership experience in the OHL — where he took the head coach and general manager job for the Kingston Frontenacs, in part also for the experience to work with Shane Wright. That didn’t quite happen in the pandemic-affected season, so McFarland found himself back behind an NHL bench in Seattle.
Matt McIlvane, EC Red Bull Salzburg head coach
The 37-year-old McIlvane, an Illinois native and former Ohio State captain, began his coaching career in the FHL and ECHL before moving to Europe, where he has been since 2013. McIlvane has coached in both Germany and Austria (where he is currently) and has also been tapped as an assistant for German national teams. McIlvane’s name is starting to circulate in hockey circles, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him come back to North America next season, likely in the AHL as his first stop.
Jason Payne, ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones head coach
As one respondent said, “Jason Payne is starting to get notoriety in the industry. He’s squarely on people’s radar.”
When Payne was hired in Cincinnati, he was the only Black head coach in North American professional hockey. After working up the ranks across several leagues, Payne has led the Cyclones to success and coached the ECHL All-Star Game this year. Payne helped at Buffalo Sabres development camp last summer, and Don Granato told people how much of a valuable contributor Payne was.
“He’s put in his time in Cincinnati for a few years [beginning as an assistant coach] and I admire that he understands he needs time,” one respondent said. “But I do think his time will come soon. He’s earned it.”
Marc Savard, OHL Windsor Spitfires head coach
A history of concussions forced Savard to retire prematurely from the NHL. But the former center — who became a fan favorite with the Boston Bruins, and had enough of an impact on the team that management fought to get his name engraved on their 2011 Stanley Cup — has pivoted to coaching. He spent one year as an assistant coach for the Blues before becoming the head coach in Windsor, where he led the team to the finals in his second season. That prompted Savard to get some interest from NHL teams for an assistant job this summer, though he’s focused on becoming the best head coach he can be.
“He’s a popular guy and has done well in the O,” one respondent said. “He’ll be back in the NHL eventually.”
Cory Stillman, Arizona Coyotes assistant coach
After playing 1,000 games in the NHL and winning two Stanley Cups, Stillman has the credentials a lot of organizations value — and have a tendency to overvalue. But that shouldn’t be a mark against Stillman; he has put in the work to rise in coaching. Stillman was the head coach of the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL for three years before being named an assistant in Arizona.
“He has very high expectations for players and holds them accountable,” one respondent said. “Just a really solid coach.” Stillman interviewed with the Bruins for the Providence AHL job and will be on more organizations’ radars in the future.
Mike Van Ryn, St Louis Blues assistant coach
The former NHL defenseman, 43, has been on other organizations’ radars for a few years. Van Ryn has experience as a head coach, albeit for only one year with the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. But Van Ryn is constantly looking for ways to improve and learn; in the offseason, he enrolled in a neuroscience coaching program to tap into another way of mentoring people.
Van Ryn isn’t the only Blues assistant with head coaching potential. Steve Ott, the former Sabres captain, is thought of highly by Blues GM Doug Armstrong and has other backers around the league.
Joel Ward, AHL Henderson Silver Knights assistant coach
Players who shared a locker room with Ward over his 11-year NHL playing career routinely cite him as one of their favorite teammates. Ward was also a fan favorite at each of his stops (Nashville, Minnesota, San Jose, Washington), which will make him attractive to owners and those in hiring positions.
Ward’s easy-going personality has already made him a hit behind the bench for the Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate since he joined the team in November 2020. Ward’s contract with the Vegas organization runs through this season. He should get opportunities to be behind an NHL bench next season as an assistant coach. “Ward still needs some seasoning,” one respondent said. “But he has the personality and the ability to lead an NHL team one day.”
The retreads
Coaches who have led NHL teams before but have stayed in the game and worked their way to earning a second opportunity.
Jeremy Colliton, AHL Abbotsford Canucks head coach
Colliton was hired to coach the Blackhawks at age 33, with no NHL experience, and tasked with replacing future Hall of Famer Joel Quenneville. Colliton wasn’t exactly set up for success. “He’s very reflective,” one respondent said. “He made mistakes he won’t make the second time, and he continues to develop and put time into his craft.”
When Colliton was fired, he went to Europe because he wanted to sit in with other coaches and learn how they teach. This past summer, Colliton turned down NHL assistant coaching jobs because he wanted to be a head coach again, even if it was in the AHL. Several respondents predicted Colliton would get another NHL opportunity.
Todd Reirden, Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach
He’s the only person to coach both Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby — unique perspective, for sure. Reirden was an assistant for Barry Trotz in Washington before he was tapped to replace him. While it didn’t go as either party had hoped, they remained on good terms. Reirden went back and accepted an assistant job in Pittsburgh, where he runs the defense. Last summer Reirden was promoted to associate coach and given a contract extension.
“Mike Sullivan thinks very highly of him as a coach,” one respondent said. “He’s a smart hockey mind. I think he would do well if given a second opportunity.”
Joe Sacco, Boston Bruins assistant coach
Sacco, a Boston assistant since 2014, interviewed for the Bruins’ head coaching job this summer, but the job went to Montgomery. Even still, Sacco stuck around on Montgomery’s staff, which speaks to how he is viewed. “He’s a very good coach,” one respondent said. “Adds a ton of value to the staff.” Sacco is in charge of the Bruins’ penalty kill, which has been tops in the league all season. Sacco coached the Avalanche from 2009 to ’13, but one respondent thought Sacco could receive renewed attention based on Boston’s success this season.
General managers
Ready right now
These are candidates who have either the credentials or the behind-the-scenes backing that could land them GM positions as soon as next season.
Jason Botterill, Seattle Kraken assistant general manager
He’s the only retread on this list, but for good reason. Multiple respondents said Botterill — currently an assistant general manager with the Kraken — is tracking for a second opportunity as a GM, perhaps as soon as this summer.
“I think everyone around the league realizes he wasn’t dealt the best hand in Buffalo when it came to what ownership asked of him, the circumstances he had to navigate,” one well-connected league source said. “If you look at the Sabres now, they’re well-positioned for success, and Botts built a lot of that foundation. He’ll get another shot.”
Danny Briere, Philadelphia Flyers interim general manager
Briere holds the interim title in Philadelphia — but it’s one of league’s worst-kept secrets that the 45-year-old will likely get the job. The Flyers have been developing Briere for this opportunity for years, including sending him to UPenn’s Wharton School of Business to strengthen his business acumen. That suggested Briere was on the team president track. However, when Chuck Fletcher entered the fray, the veteran GM took Briere under his wing, giving him exposure and experience at all levels of the franchise.
Mathieu Darche, Tampa Bay Lightning assistant general manager
The 45-year-old Darche has a wealth of experience. He’s a former NHL player who has dabbled in broadcasting, sales and marketing and served five years on the board of the Ronald McDonald House. During the 2012-13 NHL lockout, he was appointed to the NHLPA’s negotiating team and was an integral voice for the players working toward a new CBA.
In Tampa Bay, he has had a key role in player contract negotiations, budgeting and the salary cap. One NHL agent describes Tampa’s assistant GM as having “a really pleasant demeanor. Well-spoken. Honest and fair to work with. I know he’s interviewed for a few GM jobs, including Montreal, but wouldn’t be surprised if he continues to get looks.”
Laurence Gilman, Toronto Maple Leafs assistant general manager
When the league needed to create a new set of expansion rules ahead of the Golden Knights’ arrival, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly turned to Gilman for help. When asking around about Gilman, the word that continually came up in conversations was “smart.” Gilman was also described as “well-connected,” which tends to go a long way in NHL hiring practices. He’s running the Marlies for Toronto now, but he has a ton of experience as a capologist and negotiator. Gilman was in the mix for the Vancouver GM job last year.
Ryan Martin, New York Rangers assistant general manager
Martin, who came to New York in 2021 after 16 years with the Red Wings, has put in the work. “If you looked around the league and tried to identify someone who doesn’t have GM experience but could step into that role seamlessly from day one, Ryan Martin would be top of list,” one respondent said. “He has experience in all assets of hockey ops.” That includes working across amateur, scouting and pro staffs, overseeing AHL teams, plus managing the salary cap and contract negotiations for two of the premier organizations in the league. Martin interviewed in Anaheim, and according to sources close to that process, “he interviewed extremely well.”
Ray Whitney, NHL director of player safety
Whitney retired from the NHL in 2015 after 22 seasons and more than 1,300 games. Well-connected after playing for eight teams, including winning a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006, Whitney took a job as a scout in Carolina before joining the league’s Department of Player Safety in 2017. Whitney was a finalist for the Sharks GM job last year, and is expected to make future shortlists — especially since he has backing from the league office. An NHL team’s front-office executive described Whitney as “charismatic and magnetic — someone who would be able to manage up and manage down, which is an essential quality in running a team.”
The next wave
These candidates are rising stars in hockey management circles. While they might not be ready right now, they are on a track to run a team one day.
Ryan Bowness, Ottawa Senators assistant general manager
Bowness, 39, came up through the Thrashers/Jets organization before rising up the ranks in Pittsburgh for six years, becoming the Penguins director of pro scouting. But when Ron Hextall was hired, he didn’t promote Bowness, which had him looking for opportunities elsewhere. He found a match in Ottawa.
“First, he’s just a great person. But the Senators absolutely love him,” one respondent said. “Pierre Dorion leans on him heavily. He’s been a huge asset to their organization over the last year.” Bowness is the son of Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness.
Emilie Castonguay, Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager
Castonguay was hired as an assistant general manager in Vancouver along with Cammi Granato, and is another name to watch. Castonguay’s portfolio includes the CBA, NHL contracts and salary negotiations. An agent who regularly works with Castonguay called her “extremely smart, organized, and has a confidence about her.”
Meghan Duggan, New Jersey Devils director of player development
Since joining the Devils in a newly created role in 2021, Duggan has thrived — being promoted within a year. Duggan runs the Devils’ development camp and is heavily involved in the organization’s athletes care staff, which creates individual development plans, both physical and mental, for players. Now based in Toronto, Duggan has been pounding the pavement scouting and visiting with Devils prospects.
Because of her credentials and leadership résumé — Duggan captained Team USA to a 2018 Olympic gold medal, highlighting a 14-year stint with the national team — one respondent said, “You’re going to hear Meghan Duggan’s name being mentioned as a potential NHL GM much sooner than you think.”
Cammi Granato, Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager
Granato, a Hockey Hall of Famer, is one of the best women’s hockey players in United States history, captaining the first U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning team. Granato, who is married to ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro, has had job opportunities come up over the past decade but often turned them down for family reasons. She entered the fray in 2019 when the Kraken hired her to be the first female scout in NHL history. The Canucks poached Granato last summer, tasking her with overseeing their scouting department.
Ryan Hardy, Toronto Maple Leafs assistant general manager
The 36-year-old Hardy, who got his start as a Bruins scout, was on our list last year, after three years running the Chicago Steel of the USHL. As one respondent said in 2022: “He’s got his s— together. He’s a great recruiter, well organized and runs a great organization. Running a USHL team is a tough gig.” That caught the eye of the Maple Leafs, who hired Hardy last year to run the Marlies of the AHL.
“He’s young, he’s bright, he’s easy to talk to,” one respondent said. “He needs some polish, but he’s well on his way.”
Brad Holland, Edmonton Oilers assistant general manager
Nepotism is quite prevalent in hockey, and Holland has been boosted because his father, Ken, is the longtime architect of the Detroit Red Wings and currently is GM of the Oilers. “But Brad has proven his value, especially when it comes to analytics and finding inefficiencies,” one respondent said. “He’s actually a great complement to his dad, who is more of an old-school guy, and his type of thinking aligns with where hockey is going.” Holland has experience in several area of hockey ops, most recently overseeing pro scouting for the Oilers.
Shawn Horcoff, Detroit Red Wings assistant general manager
Horcoff was a fourth-round pick who had no guarantee of even making an NHL roster. He then went on to play 1,000 career games. Horcoff applied the same principles that made him a successful player to his career in management, something he has been singularly focused on for a while now. It’s why someone who made nearly $50 million as a player took a hockey ops job that initially paid him about $60,000. He wasn’t afraid of the work. With the departures of Pat Verbeek and Ryan Martin, Horcoff has become a key member of Steve Yzerman’s brain trust (which is small). Yzerman has supported Horcoff to get experience in all facets of the job, from contract negotiations to player development.
Jamie Langenbrunner, Boston Bruins assistant general manager
The former NHL captain, two-time Stanley Cup winner and Olympic silver medalist joined the Bruins in 2015, a year after retirement. He got an in with the organization thanks to former teammate Jay Pandolfo and initially began in player development, working with Boston’s prospects. Langenbrunner’s role expanded from there, as he now oversees the Bruins’ top minor league team in Providence.
A respondent described Langenbrunner as “a key member of the organization’s brain trust.”
“You can tell Don Sweeney trusts him,” another respondent said, “which should say a lot.”
Kate Madigan, New Jersey Devils assistant general manager
At age 30, Madigan is a fast riser. Madigan ran track at Northeastern, where her father, Jim, was the longtime hockey coach turned athletic director. Her background is in accounting; she took a postgrad job at Deloitte before then-GM Ray Shero hired her in New Jersey. Now, she’s essentially Tom Fitzgerald’s chief of staff, traveling with the team, running logistics and so much more. A Devils front-office staffer described Madigan’s role as “serving as a liaison between business and hockey ops, the analytics department and coaching staff, and everything in between.”
“Fitzy has a small leadership group that he trusts as his sounding board,” the Devils staffer said. “Kate quickly earned a spot in that group.” Madigan is well-suited for a team president or president of hockey operations role, which is likely the track she’s on.
Alex Mandrycky, Seattle Kraken assistant general manager
Mandrycky got her NHL start in 2015 as a data analyst for the Minnesota Wild. She was one of the Kraken’s first hires and was part of the search committee that hired GM Ron Francis. Since then, she has been a key voice Francis leans on. When Mandrycky was promoted to assistant general manager this summer, she was the first person in league history elevated to that position with a background with a sole focus in analytics.
“I’ve always been in the school of thought that you find the best person available for the job,” Francis told ESPN in September. “Alex isn’t getting this promotion because she’s a female. It’s because she’s earned this promotion, there’s no doubt about it. She’s already been involved in all facets of our organization, from the pro side to amateur to management discussions.”
Rich Peverley, Dallas Stars Director of player personnel
The Stars have successfully starved off a rebuild, and their window is wide open thanks to smart drafting and equally strong development of prospects. One of the people most influential in that development process is Peverley, the former player whose career was cut short in 2015. He immediately began working for the Stars, who promoted him to his current title in 2021. GM Jim Nill has called Peverley his ‘eyes and ears’ and knows how important he is to their big club’s success. For example, Peverley worked closely with Jason Robertson during his AHL season, preceding his meteoric rise.
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Bradford Doolittle
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Hall of Famers coming to Cooperstown — the newbies and the veterans alike — are typically subject to a fairly regimented schedule. They have a garden party. Ozzie Smith holds an annual charity event. There’s a golf tournament on Saturday morning. They roll down Main Street on Saturday night during the Parade of Legends. Finally, there is the induction itself.
Ichiro Suzuki, a 2025 inductee, took part in much of this, but even though he is an avid golfer, he did not play in the golf tournament. It turns out that doing so would’ve meant that he wouldn’t be able to maintain his usual workout routine. So he headed out to one of the numerous Little League fields a few miles outside of Cooperstown and got in his work.
At 51 years old, he follows the same routine he always has. He played long toss, did his stretching and running, played catch with Billy Wagner’s son — an aspiring ballplayer himself — and took batting practice against Wagner.
When asked why, Ichiro kept it simple.
“Because I love it,” he said.
That much has been clear, not only through his 19-year MLB career but well before it and since. His induction weekend was not the first time Ichiro made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown — he has been here many times. Each trek he made as a player was to view and study different relics that held special meaning to him.
“You just don’t see players come to the Hall of Fame, while they’re actively playing in the winter time — seven, eight times, because they just want to touch the bat of the guy whose record they broke,” Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch said, “or be here in the freezing cold and snow to see this place.”
Ichiro didn’t limit those travels to the stops in Cooperstown — he famously visited the gravesite of Hall of Famer George Sisler after he broke Sisler’s single-season hit record in 2004 — but the beauty of the Hall of Fame is that it ties all of these interlocking stories together, linking the stars of the past with the stars of the present with the stars of the even more distant past, and in some cases, the stars of the future.
For a person like Ichiro, who is deeply interested in historical artifacts and the stories they represent, there is no better place than Cooperstown, and there is no better ambassador for Cooperstown than Ichiro.
“The history of baseball is very important,” Ichiro said. “We’re able to play the game today because of players of the past. I really want to understand them and know more about them. I think we all need to know the game of the past, things of the past, so we can keep moving it forward.”
Ichiro’s plaque there suggests the closing of a historical, cultural and symbolic loop that brings together two great baseball cultures.
It was the converging of paths, joining the practice of yakyu, the game Ichiro began playing at age 3, and the pastime of baseball, the game he still plays — with ritualistic abandon — at 51.
For all of the cultural significance and the historic nature of Ichiro’s induction, it’s this work ethic and his meticulous nature that is almost certainly going to be his greatest legacy. And it’s one that spins into the future, as he blazes a path to serve as a guide for the Japanese and American stars of the future — and present — to follow.
Before Shohei Ohtani, there was Ichiro. Before Ichiro, there were many, but none who followed the path that perhaps only he could see.
EVEN BEFORE SUNDAY, Ichiro Suzuki had a Hall of Fame plaque on a wall. That one was hung in January at the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, located within the Tokyo Dome.
The contrast between Cooperstown, a tiny rustic village in upstate New York, and Tokyo, one of the world’s largest and most dense cities, couldn’t be more stark. But the baseball galleries within them look very similar, right up to the shape and size of the plaques themselves.
This is no coincidence. The American version came first; the very concept of a Hall of Fame is a purely American convention. So when one was built in Japan, back in the late 1950s, it was an early sign of the dissolution of differences between the two leading baseball cultures.
The differences, convergences and exchanges between the two is the story told in the Hall of Fame’s stunning new exhibit “Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game.”
“This isn’t just an exhibition about baseball in Japan,” said RJ Lara, the curator of the exhibit. “This isn’t just an exhibition about baseball in the United States. It’s about how the two countries and how baseball in two countries has come together and exchanged equipment, ideas, concepts, players, teams.”
Baseball’s roots in Japan trace to the 1850s, the game exported there by visiting Americans and seafarers. For decades, even as the popularity of baseball spread, it remained a strictly amateur practice, with the college level seen as the pinnacle of the sport into the middle of the 20th century.
While baseball grew into America’s pastime as a source of joy and play for anyone who could toss a ball or swing a bat, in Japan, at least in the early years, yakyu was viewed as a martial art. In fact, the first thing you see when you walk into the exhibit is a suit of traditional Samurai armor, full of red and gold — a gift from the Yomiuri Giants to Los Angeles Dodgers president Peter O’Malley in 1988.
Yakyu, one of the Japanese words for baseball, describes a game that evolved from the American version and still differs in mainly intangible ways and strategic preferences. The gap between the two has narrowed, as the success of Ichiro, Ohtani and others strongly suggests. But it might never completely disappear.
The “Samurai Way of Baseball” — as author Robert Whiting described it — meant a painstaking focus on practice and repetition, a heavy emphasis on fundamentals and a standardized version of the game in which every discrete act had a precise method behind it, and everything was about the team: the “wa,” as outlined by Whiting in the seminal “You Gotta Have Wa.”
Starting around 1905, teams on both sides of the Pacific began making the voyage to compete against one another. But the biggest influence on the professionalization of baseball in Japan came in 1934, when a team of American barnstormers stuffed with future Hall of Famers — including Babe Ruth — toured the country, drawing huge crowds nearly everywhere they went.
Plans for a professional league were already being hatched, and the success of the 1934 tour helped to cement them. The Yomiuri Giants were founded in 1935, and, as longtime Tokyo resident Whiting put it, grew into a behemoth that became as popular as the Dodgers, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox combined. It set the stage for Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima and the legends who laid the foundation of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) — and the collision of Japanese and American baseball that the exhibit celebrates.
THE YAKYU EXHIBIT has three centerpieces, and appropriately the first one you encounter focuses on Hideo Nomo. (Ichiro is the second and, though you can probably guess who is the third, we will come to that a bit later.)
Nomo was not the first Japanese-born player to make the transition to the major leagues: The seal was broken in the mid-1960s, when Masanori Murakami pitched two seasons for the San Francisco Giants. There was a lot of rancor in Japan over the move, and after two seasons, Murakami went back to Japan. Meanwhile, greats such as Oh and Nagashima stayed put, both spending their careers with Yomiuri, thanks to the reserve clause in place in Japan, as well as a societal pressure to remain true to Japanese baseball.
Oh talked in later years about how he would’ve liked to have played in the majors, but he just couldn’t do it. The taboo against jumping the pond remained in place until the mid-1990s. This was when Nomo “retired” from his team in Japan, a ploy cooked up by agent Don Nomura to exploit a loophole. Nomo ended up with the Dodgers, and Nomo-mania was born.
Nomo was heavily criticized at the time in Japan, and doubt existed in America about whether a Japanese player could truly make the leap. Nomo more than proved his ability to make the transition, and did so with such verve that it swept through Southern California and beyond, and also captivated audiences in Japan. The practice of baseball fans on the other side of the Pacific rising in the early morning to watch MLB began at that time.
The exhibit features some of Nomo’s equipment, as well as videos of hitters flailing at his nasty splitter. There are also some model baseballs with which you can try to simulate the grips Nomo used on his various pitches, including that splitter.
Jack Morris was in the midst of praising the nastiness of Nomo’s splitter when fellow Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith interjected, “You should try to hit it!”
NOMO’S DEBUT SEASON in 1995 preceded the now-celebrated 1996 Japan tour, which saw an MLB all-star team that included Cal Ripken Jr. play an eight-game series against players from the NPB, then called All-Japan. Ripken had gone on a similar tour in 1986, along with Morris and Smith, and a decade later he already noticed a marked difference in the caliber of play from his Japanese opponents.
“Going over there, you kind of look and shake your head and go, ‘These people are crazy about baseball,'” Ripken said. “They were talking about drawing 60,000 fans for a high school championship game.
“I thought the Japanese were always really competitive and very serious. They wanted to do really well. They wanted to beat us.”
One of the opponents of the all-star group in 1996 was Ichiro, and that experience for the Japanese star, in combination with the phenomenon that Nomo created, began to turn his head toward the other side of the Pacific. He wanted to test himself.
“The excitement I felt in that series was definitely a turning point,” Ichiro told author Narumi Komatsu in “Ichiro on Ichiro.” “Instead of something I just admired from afar, the majors became a set goal of mine.”
Ichiro had become a phenomenon in his home country, his face splattered on billboards all over Tokyo and beyond, as he exploded on the scene by becoming the first player in Japanese professional history to record 200 hits in a season, setting the since-broken record of 210 at age 20. He hit .353 during his nine years for Orix, which would far away be the all-time highest average in Japanese history if he qualified for the career leaderboard.
He did it in his own way, forging a path unlike any players before him. He famously refused to change the batting stance he’d used since high school — much to the chagrin of his first manager with Orix.
Ichiro also donned the name “Ichiro” on his jersey, departing from Japanese tradition. Suzuki is a common name in Japan and his club felt that would make him all the more marketable, which it did. To this day, in baseball everywhere, when you hear the name “Ichiro”, you know exactly who’s being referenced.
Bobby Valentine, who initially bucked against tradition when he went to manage in Japan, eschewing conventions such as marathon practice sessions and incessant meetings, saw things evolving, especially when he prepared for his first stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 1995, the year Nomo debuted with the Dodgers.
“That was the year after Ichiro was Rookie of the Year for Orix in 1994,” Valentine said. “Every night, all the coaches got together and looked at video and looked at charts, trying to figure out one guy, Ichiro.
“He showed me what he could do. I asked him for an autographed bat and told him that he was one of the best players I ever saw.”
Later, when Valentine was managing the New York Mets, he unsuccessfully lobbied his front office to pursue Ichiro.
“I was told at the end of the day, that they didn’t want a singles hitter in the outfield,” Valentine said mournfully. “And I said, ‘What if you get 200 of them?’ I swear. And he got like 240 of them.”
AT TIMES, IT has been far from certain that the paths that came together through Ichiro on Sunday would indeed merge. That part of the story isn’t overlooked in the yakyu exhibit.
It’s depicted in a couple of very different ways that relate the baseball sliver of the story of the years during and after World War II, including the post-war period when the United States occupied Japan under the supervision of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
One object from the war years is the most melancholy relic in the exhibition, and indeed perhaps in the entire Hall of Fame.
It is a handmade, wooden home plate that once was part of Zenimura Field at the Gila River in Arizona internment camp during the war. The field was built by Kenichi Zenimura, a baseball advocate born in Hiroshima who spent most of his childhood in Hawaii.
The home plate is a a solemn reminder of how the forces that too often keep nations apart can’t be overcome by baseball alone. But if baseball can’t keep nations from conflict, conflict can’t keep people from baseball.
“It was the anchor of the Gila River community, and that’s how we like to describe it,” Lara said. “During these tragic, incredibly hard times at this camp in Arizona, it was the anchor that brought the community together, around a single baseball diamond that they built with their hands.”
After the war, when the occupation of Japan began, much of the country, and especially Tokyo, was in ruin. The battle for the ideological soul of the country was well underway in those early years of the Cold War, and the influence of communist Russia was of chief concern for the Americans.
MacArthur thought that reigniting the dormant cultural elements of Japanese society might help to calm things down and help make some headway in turning heads from the encroaching communist influence. With many of the country’s cultural institutions in rubble or ashes, sports, especially baseball — which can be played outside and a sport the Japanese already loved — was the answer.
Author Robert K. Fitts describes the sequence in “Banzai Babe Ruth.” League play resumed in 1946. Things improved enough that in 1947, Japan celebrated Babe Ruth Day at the same time that the major leagues were honoring the dying slugger. Quality of play began to recover but the overall fervor around yakyu still fell short of the pre-war years.
In 1949, on a suggestion from MacArthur staffer Cappy Harada, the project was turned over to Lefty O’Doul, who had fallen in love with Japan on a 1931 tour with other major leaguers and played a key role in helping convince Ruth to join the 1934 tour.
O’Doul, manager of the San Francisco Seals, brought his Pacific Coast League squad to Japan after the 1949 season to tour the country. The Seals were welcomed with a parade and, over the course of four weeks, helped boost the morale of a struggling nation. One evening before a game, for the first time, the flags of the United States and Japan were raised together, bringing many fans to tears.
Japanese journalist and historian Tadao Kunishi sees the O’Doul tour as one of the turning points in the evolution of Japanese baseball, especially in its gradual move toward becoming more like the American game.
“During that time, Japan was still doing the rebuilding,” Kunishi said. “We did not have much entertainment, and baseball is outside. So many movie theaters were burned down, so they cannot play, but baseball is outside, and anybody can go there. And really [Lefty] O’Doul brought the joy of watching baseball.”
A veritable baseball Forrest Gump, O’Doul always seemed to be in the middle of baseball history. He pitched for John McGraw. He converted to hitting and one year batted .398 in the National League. He managed and mentored life-long friend Joe DiMaggio, whom he brought along on a later, much-celebrated tour of Japan. He saw the potential of Japan as a baseball nation from the start.
“He said it was just a matter of time that Japanese ballplayers are going to be playing in America,” said Tom O’Doul, Lefty’s cousin. “And they’re going to be playing American baseball because they’re good and they respect the game. And that’s what happened.”
Though you don’t need to attribute the eventual boom in Japan — baseball and beyond — entirely to Lefty O’Doul and baseball, those tours proved to be a turning point in the ongoing exchange in the sport between Japan and America, which had seemed hopelessly severed.
THE THIRD CENTERPIECE of the yakyu exhibit, along with Nomo and Ichiro, as you probably have guessed, is the display for Shohei Ohtani, who is in the midst of a Hall of Fame career, and thus years away from joining Ichiro in the Japanese and the American plaque rooms. But he will get there.
Ohtani’s display looms in the back of the room behind Ichiro and indeed, from a certain angle as you stand there and look upon Ichiro’s uniform and bat and shoes and batting glove, a little lower to the left and against the wall behind him, you see an image of Decoy, the most famous dog — and literary muse — in all of baseball.
As for the player himself, Ohtani’s display is a stunning piece of museum technology. Depending on which angle you take to look at his image, you might see him pitching or hitting for the Los Angeles Angels, doing the same for the Dodgers, or celebrating the end of Japan’s victory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which he clinched by fanning Mike Trout for the last out.
The rise of Ohtani is also a chief part of the legacies of Oh and Nagashima and Nomo and Ichiro. By now, 74 players have made the transition to the major leagues — not all with resounding success, but many have reached All-Star status. All you have to do is look in the financial ledgers and the contracts that have been dolled out to the likes of Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki to know how Japanese stars are valued today.
For his part, Ichiro does think that the differences between yakyu and MLB have softened, but they still exist — and they should.
“It usually takes a few years for Japanese baseball to pick up the things that happen in major leagues,” Suzuki said. “It’s definitely getting closer.
“I don’t think that Japan should copy what the MLB does. I think Japanese baseball should be Japanese baseball in the way they do things, and MLB should be the way they are. I think they should be different.”
And yet in so many ways, Ichiro himself was the bridge. He was yakyu and he was baseball.
Ichiro, who will generally give frank answers about himself and his thoughts about baseball, almost always deflects when asked about the thoughts or impressions of others. He still does it.
When asked about his role or his sense of how Japanese fans are reacting to his induction to Cooperstown, he says he doesn’t know. When asked about his relationship to the current Japanese stars in the major leagues, he says that he sees them at the ballpark when they come through Seattle.
He doesn’t get any more detailed when asked about the path that he has opened up for other Japanese stars, but he does open up a little when discussing his role in spreading knowledge to the next generation of players on both sides of the Pacific.
“The players need to tell the younger players about the game,” Ichiro said. “That’s a responsibility that those who have played this game have. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help in that aspect, but it’s something I’d really like to do.”
As much as anything, Ichiro’s legacy is helping to bring the paths of two different baseball cultures together.
“We used to say that yakyu and baseball are different games with the same rules,” Kunishi said. “Now yakyu and baseball is the same game and the same rules.”
As far as legacies go, that’s not bad, even if the process remains ongoing. In the meantime, Ichiro will be there, connected with Cooperstown and Japan alike, making sure that no aspects of all the history he has been a part of will be lost.
MIAMI — Sandy Alcantara admitted that Thursday was one of the hardest days of his career.
It has been thought all season that the Miami Marlins could move on from Alcantara amid their rebuilding project, which has included shipping out established players for prospects.
And as Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET trade deadline approached, the Marlins’ ace could not hide his nerves.
He sat in front of his television watching baseball programming with his family for most of the day, repeatedly checking his phone to see if he had been traded.
“It was hard, man,” Alcantara said Friday. “Every time I get on my phone, I see my name. I thought that I was leaving.”
Miami opted not to trade its 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner. In their only trade Thursday, the Marlins sent their longest-tenured position player, outfielder Jesús Sánchez, to the Houston Astros for right-hander Ryan Gusto and two prospects, infielder Chase Jaworsky and outfielder Esmil Valencia.
The rest of the team, which has won five straight series and went 15-10 in July, remains intact. Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said Friday that the club’s recent success, in part, factored into its approach at the deadline.
And manager Clayton McCullough said if there weren’t trade scenarios that “moved the needle for us in the near and the long term,” the Marlins were happy to continue competing with the group they have.
Amid what was expected to be a season of finding out which of its relatively inexperienced pieces Miami could build around in the future, the Marlins are third in the National League East at 52-55 and entered Friday seven games behind San Diego for the National League’s third wild-card spot.
Bendix declined to say how close Miami was to finalizing a trade for Alcantara but noted that the team “felt really comfortable” with its ultimate decision.
“All of the things that go into building a sustainably successful team were taken into consideration,” he said, “at a deadline where you have all of these decisions in front of you. It’s our job to be disciplined. Disciplined means listening, means having conversations, and then means trying to figure out the best decision to make for every decision point that we have.”
Alcantara has played most of his eight-year career in Miami, going 47-64 with a 3.64 ERA in 159 starts while becoming the first Miami player to win the Cy Young Award after a 2022 season in which he pitched a league-high 228 innings and six complete games.
Alcantara, 29, missed the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and hasn’t yet returned to form in 2025. He is 6-9 with a 6.36 ERA, and despite being known as one of MLB’s most durable starters, has pitched only seven innings once.
He said it has taken a new level of mental toughness to play through a season not knowing if he would finish the year with the Marlins.
“It was a little hard because everywhere you go, every time you grab your phone, you see your name on the media,” Alcantara said. “But you [can’t] think too much about it. Just stay focused on everything you can do. I just came here, and if something happened, it just happened.”
Alcantara’s most recent two starts have been his best, an indicator to both the player and the Marlins that he might be close to returning to his All-Star caliber play.
He allowed one run and four hits in a season-high seven innings against the San Diego Padres on July 23, then pitched five shutout innings in a win at St. Louis on Tuesday.
“Sandy is continuing to trend,” McCullough said. “And we’re going to continue to be the beneficiaries of having Sandy for the rest of the season, continuing to get back to the pitcher that we all know Sandy is.”
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