Mason Marchment is in midsentence when a surprise intruder cuts him short.
And the Dallas Stars forward can’t resist the interloper.
“Sorry about that,” Marchment said on a recent call with ESPN. “I just got in and my dog couldn’t wait to say hi. He needs some attention.”
His pup might be the star at home, but it’s Marchment who’s in the NHL limelight. Which was, frankly, a long time coming.
These days Marchment is the toast of Dallas hockey, a top-six winger fresh from signing a four-year, $18 million contract last summer. Marchment was a hot name on the free-agent market after a breakthrough season in 2021-22 with the Florida Panthers, where he blew away all of his previous career marks, scoring 18 goals and 47 points in 54 games. It was no surprise then, when Marchment rolled into this season on a heater, posting a two-goal debut with the Stars and netting six points through his first four games.
“Honestly, it’s been awesome,” Marchment said of joining up with Dallas. “The Stars were definitely in my top three teams right off the bat in free agency. I’ve known [coach] Pete DeBoer and [assistant] Steve Spott for a little bit now just through the relationship that they had with my dad [former NHLer Bryan Marchment] so it just felt right. I definitely wanted to be comfortable when I came in. They had a great team here with a lot of young talent, so it all just made my decision pretty easy.”
What we’re seeing now is Marchment in his prime. But the 27-year-old is no overnight success.
Marchment was the definition of a late bloomer, his early career marred by the rejections to prove it. The Toronto-area native was passed over at 16 in the Ontario Hockey League draft and spent his next two years playing youth hockey before graduating, at 19, to the Ontario Junior Hockey League.
It was during that season Marchment physically took shape, reaching 6-foot-2 and wielding increased confidence along with his height. The OHL’s Erie Otters finally took notice and added Marchment for the 2014-15 campaign. His 26-point showing that season yielded no takers in the 2015 NHL draft, though, so the now-overage Marchment returned to juniors another season to be shipped around from Erie to Hamilton to Mississauga.
His last stop — during the Steelheads’ playoff run — put Marchment on the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ radar. His five-point performance helped Marchment land an amateur tryout with the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies. That turned into an AHL contract for the following season and, eventually, a five-year stint with the organization. But that half-decade would be no ordinary opportunity for Marchment. It became the grind of his professional life, an all-out battle from part-time minor-league skater all the way to eventual Calder Cup champion in 2018.
Toronto started Marchment off in 2016 with a plan that involved playing no games while he worked instead with their stable of development coaches. Marchment was already in his early 20s then, a point when most players are anxious to establish their game on the ice. Marchment wanted that, too; he just lacked some of the tools to get there. So he embraced the Leafs’ proposal, and in doing so met a teacher who helped changed his life: skating coach Barb Underhill.
“I honestly don’t think I would be where I am without her,” he said.
IT WAS JUNE 6, 2016. The first time Underhill watched Marchment skate.
“He was just a gangly, overgrown, skinny kid,” Underhill recalled. “He had not grown into his body yet; that was the big thing I saw in him. I just remember thinking like, ‘Wow, this kid really needs to get stronger.'”
That wasn’t the only thing Marchment needed. Once the session was underway, Underhill instructed Marchment to get his knees over his toes and use more ankle flexion for balance on his blades. She was floored by his response.
“He said to me, ‘I can’t bend my ankle because I’ve had this chronic lace bite my whole life and it’s just too painful,'” she said. “I remember being so shocked, like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And I think he thought it was normal to just always be in pain when he skated. I was shocked, and it just made me angry that this was happening, but also just determined to help him.”
Underhill describes lace bite as “super, super, super painful, and it’s because your skates aren’t fitting right.” She and her staff convened immediately to figure out a path forward for Marchment. It would be the start of an unexpected journey for both of them.
“First, we got him a pair of skates that fit properly,” she said. “We just had to get him out of pain. And then he was taking a lot of really weird falls, like out-of-balance falls. At times he almost looked like a marionette in how he would collapse and just really be off balance. So it was trying to get him in a position where he could play heavy, where he wouldn’t get pushed over. And in that initial time together we just formed a nice trust, and we had a good bond from the very beginning, because I think he could tell that I cared and really wanted to help him out.”
Marchment remained an eager pupil. He admits that “coming up, I was never the best skater” and the chance to work with Underhill was too good not to invest in. He could also appreciate her no-nonsense approach to creating improvements.
“I remember when we first started, she said to me, ‘If you give me 100%, I’ll give you 100%,'” Marchment said. “She’s one of the best if not the best out there, a great person, and just easy to get along with and talk to. She was probably the biggest piece for me playing [professionally] and moving up into the NHL ranks. She definitely has a big spot in my journey to making it.”
Underhill believes she logged more one-on-one time with Marchment than any player in her career. It was inevitable they’d become close, especially when Marchment grappled with being on the sidelines.
“I was there with him through a lot of very vulnerable times,” she said. “When he wasn’t even playing [in 2016-17], a lot of the work was not just skating, but it was personal. It was motivating and encouraging and like, ‘Come on; let’s get at this.'”
Those tactics became a staple in their relationship. After Marchment’s initial development stretch, he was sent down to the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears for a 35-game stint in 2017. He played only home games there, until the Marlies — satisfied with his progress — called Marchment back into the fold. At last, Marchment was ready to grab a permanent AHL role for the 2017-18 season. That would be the campaign in which Toronto won its first Calder Cup, and Marchment — playing a fourth-line role primarily with Trevor Moore and Adam Brooks — scored twice in the Cup-clinching victory, including what would be the game-winning goal.
Underhill said the ensuing on-ice celebration was “amazing — to be in that moment with him and see part of his dream come true after the journey we had taken was so cool.” It was the road thereafter that became rocky.
Right as Marchment was hitting his stride a series of injuries — including back-to-back shoulder issues — threatened his future. The second of those shoulder problems happened during Leafs training camp in 2019, and the ensuing surgery delayed Marchment’s potential of working into an NHL lineup. Underhill was back in motivation mode.
“I’ll never forget when he blew the shoulder out again,” Underhill said. “Just seeing him at the lunch table, I felt crushed for him, after all the work that he did to get back. And I just went and hugged him, and I was like, ‘Come on, you can do this’ and I can remember multiple times saying, ‘Look, this adversity, anybody at the top has gone through it, anybody that ever makes it has gone through major adversity.’ I had his back.”
Her positive attitude rubbed off.
“I definitely had my fair share of injuries in Toronto,” Marchment said. “That’s never easy and you have to grind through those and come out better on the other side is the way I look at those. I had a really good support system in Toronto and just having those people around through a lot of the tough times when I was getting hurt and things weren’t really going the way I wanted them to be was huge.”
Marchment did eventually suit up with the Leafs, making his NHL debut on Jan. 2, 2020. Barely a month later, after four appearances with the club, Toronto traded Marchment to Florida for Denis Malgin. The Leafs were overstocked with forwards, so the move gave Marchment a fresh start elsewhere. Still, the news devastated Underhill.
“I remember not being very happy with [Leafs general manager] Mr. [Kyle] Dubas at the time,” she said. “But I knew also that it might be the best thing for him, and I said that to him because I’m sure it was a shock to him as well. And it was the best thing because there was an opening there for him and an opportunity and he made the most of it. That was a big part of him getting to where he is right now.”
Timing, as they say, is everything. Marchment packed his bags and headed south believing he was better off than when Toronto first brought him in.
“I think the biggest thing for me was learning to play a complete game,” Marchment said. “Coming out of junior and really just growing up, I always just liked to play offense. I knew when I got to the pros, at least initially I wasn’t going to be the guy that they go to in those situations and I had to learn to basically play a different role. Being in Toronto taught me that I’ve got to play a different role and play a different way. That definitely helped my complete game going forward.”
SAM REINHART PROBABLY heard Marchment before he saw him.
His new Panthers teammate had that sort of energy.
“The first thing I think of with him is how he was in the room. He’s a personality,” Reinhart said. “He’s going to be himself no matter what, and guys are drawn to that. He’s such a popular and likable guy. It’s an unbelievable trait to have. No matter how he’s doing on the ice, off the ice, he’s the same. He just carries himself in such an awesome way.”
Marchment glided his way into Florida after another brief turn in the AHL. Reinhart was still with the Sabres during Marchment’s first full season with the Panthers (2020-21), where Marchment notched two goals and 10 points through the COVID-19-shortened campaign.
In April 2021, Marchment signed a one-year deal to stay with the Panthers. Reinhart joined the club via trade later that offseason, then signed a three-year contract.
Marchment’s breakout started — in part — when he linked up on a line with Reinhart, their off-ice synergy apparent on a unit with Anton Lundell. That trio played a significant role in Florida’s dominant, President’s Trophy winning 2021-22 season, collecting a combined 173-point effort that ramped up throughout the campaign. On Jan. 31, 2022, Marchment recorded a six-point night in the Panthers’ win over Columbus, and then tallied his first-ever NHL hat trick the following month.
“We had really good chemistry from day one, honestly,” Marchment said. “I really enjoy Sam as a person and a friend. We were close off the ice and we were really close on the ice. We would talk on the bench a lot; we were pretty good at communicating with each other. He’s a really good player, a really easy guy to play with.”
That line kept producing, and suddenly Marchment was on everyone’s radar. He took the mounting accolades in stride, while knowing full well they didn’t happen by accident.
“I always believed that I was capable of getting there; it just had to be the right opportunity at the right time,” Marchment said. “When I went to Florida, [then-head coach Joel Quenneville] he really gave me a good opportunity to succeed and put me in the right places. He’s the reason I started flourishing, because he put me in those positions where I was going to succeed. It just took off from there.”
If Marchment is humble in his personal assessments, Reinhart is happy to brag about him. He got to know “a little bit” about Marchment’s career trek, and felt struck by the perseverance Marchment displayed to reach his target.
“It was a long path for him going through Toronto and slowly working his way up,” Reinhart said. “But to see the confidence he has in himself, and his game is pretty incredible. I think as soon as he came here, he took his game to a whole other level, and it doesn’t look like he’s slowing that down any time soon.”
The same thought occurs to Moore, Marchment’s former linemate with the Marlies. He shares a similar story to Marchment’s, going undrafted into the Leafs’ organization and battling his way into a regular role now with the Los Angeles Kings.
That shared history of growing pains bonded Moore and Marchment for almost three AHL seasons, through which Moore could see — well before the rest — Marchment’s ultimate destiny.
“I think people thought of him as just a bigger guy who’s going to hit and be tough, but there was always that skill there,” Moore said. “Like with the toe drags and the shot and the way he saw the ice. That just kept growing every year. Looking at him now and seeing him in the NHL, it’s amazing. There’s all the stuff that he can do as a top-six forward, but it’s not too, too surprising having seen all the steps that he’s taken in the past.”
Marchment is still a tough customer — just ask his supposed friends. Moore experienced that firsthand when his Kings faced Marchment’s Stars earlier this season.
“It was pretty cool, lining up against him the first shift in the starting lineup of an NHL game,” Moore said. “And then he goes and takes a run at me. The full circle moment was a little bit dampened. No, it was good. It’s really cool to see that we’ve both made it this far and I’m happy about it for him.”
MARCHMENT COMES BY that killer instinct naturally. His father Bryan had it, too.
For 15 years, the elder Marchment was a bruising, hard-nosed NHL defender who also laced up briefly for the Leafs. After his playing career, Bryan transitioned into front office positions, his last with the San Jose Sharks.
It was while working for the Sharks at the 2022 draft in Montreal that Bryan passed away suddenly on July 6. He was 53. No cause of death was ever publicly revealed.
The younger Marchment respectfully declines to talk about his father and what transpired last summer. The loss of his family’s patriarch was clearly gut-wrenching. Somehow, Marchment found his way forward — like so many times before — and showed in the wake of intense grief what a special person his father helped raise.
“I think it was [three weeks] out [from Bryan’s death], and I was actually able to see him at [Brandon Montour‘s] wedding in Nashville,” Reinhart said. “For him to be a few weeks from going through something like that — and obviously he wasn’t doing great and was having a hard time with it — for him to put that aside for somebody he’s so close with in Monty and to be able to come to the wedding and show up for him and put on a brave face, I just had so much respect for someone like him doing that. It just shows the kind of man he is and the friend he is.”
Reinhart and Marchment are still close now — Marchment’s girlfriend Alexis will be a bridesmaid in Reinhart’s upcoming wedding — and they’ll take any opportunity to tee it up on the golf course. That will have to wait until summer though; both Reinhart and Marchment hope their teams are on track for a long run ahead.
For Marchment, this season came stacked with expectations akin to producing on a big-ticket contract. Although in famously laid-back fashion, he hasn’t exactly been sweating those details.
“Nothing changes for me,” Marchment said. “I just have the same mindset that you’ve got to work hard every day and try to get better every day. I think with all the added pressures and stuff like that, it even makes more sense to just keep doing the same things. Don’t worry about the outside noise and just have fun and go out there and work hard.”
It’s a perspective that has served Marchment well in achieving this current level — something even his staunchest supporters weren’t sure was in the cards.
“It blows my mind,” Underhill said of Marchment’s NHL success. “I really didn’t see that for him early on. I don’t think anybody did. But there was something about this kid where he just kept kicking, he just kept going and nothing could hold him down.”
That includes the void left by his father. It was six days after Bryan’s death that Marchment signed with the Stars. Even if dad never got the chance to see him in that uniform, there’s no doubt who Marchment is thinking about every night on that ice. Or that a proud father is watching him from somewhere.
“He’s playing for his dad,” Reinhart said. “He’s got that extra incentive. For people to finally notice him, it’s definitely time for him to get some recognition. I’m thrilled to see him doing well. He’s got a massive fan in me and all the support in the world from me.”
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.
Missouri quarterback Drew Pyne has entered the portal as a graduate transfer, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Pyne is looking to move to his fourth school after stints at Notre Dame, Arizona State and Missouri. He’ll be a sixth-year senior this fall.
Pyne joined Missouri last year as a backup for senior starter Brady Cook. He earned one start, leading the Tigers to a 30-23 comeback win over Oklahoma while Cook was sidelined by ankle and wrist injuries.
Missouri brought in former Penn State quarterback Beau Pribulavia the transfer portal this offseason. He’ll compete with redshirt junior Sam Horn and true freshman Matt Zollers, the No. 86 overall recruit in the 2025 ESPN 300, for the opportunity to start this season.
Pyne, a former ESPN 300 recruit, began his career at Notre Dame and started 10 games for the Fighting Irish in 2022. He threw for 2,021 yards on 65% passing and scored 24 total touchdowns with six interceptions while winning eight of his starts.
After the Irish brought in grad transfer quarterback Sam Hartman, Pyne transferred to Arizona State but appeared in just two games with the Sun Devils before an injury forced him to sit out the rest of the season.
Pyne played 211 snaps over six appearances for the Tigers last season and threw for 391 yards on 60% passing with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
The NCAA’s spring transfer window opens April 16, but graduate transfers are permitted to put their name in the portal at any time. More than 160 FBS scholarship quarterbacks have already transferred this offseason.
There are slow starts, there are slumps, and then there is whatever Rafael Devers is going through.
The 28-year-old three-time All-Star for the Boston Red Sox has been one of baseball’s best hitters since 2019, posting three 30-homer seasons, three 100-RBI seasons and a whole bunch of doubles.
His first five games of 2025 have been a nightmare. It’s the early-season equivalent of dealing Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Johnny Pesky holding the ball. Bucky Dent. The ball rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs. Aaron Boone. Just to name a few Red Sox references. Here’s how those games unfolded for Devers:
Game 1: 0-for-4, three strikeouts Game 2: 0-for-4, four strikeouts Game 3: 0-for-4, three strikeouts, walk, RBI Game 4: 0-for-4, two strikeouts, walk Game 5: 0-for-3, three strikeouts, two walks
He became the first player to strike out 12 times in a team’s first four games. And, yes, with 15 strikeouts through five games he shattered the old record of 13, shared by Pat Burrell in 2001 and Byron Buxton in 2017. Going back to the end of 2024, when Devers fanned 11 times over his final four games, he became the fourth player with multiple strikeouts in nine straight games — and one of those was a pitcher (the other two were a rookie named Aaron Judge in 2016 and Michael A. Taylor in 2021).
With Devers struggling, the Red Sox have likewise stumbled out of the gate, going 1-4 after some lofty preseason expectations, including an 8-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in the home opener Monday. To be fair, it’s not all on Devers: Jarren Duran, Devers and Alex Bregman, the top three hitters in the lineup, are a combined 11-for-62 (.177) with no home runs.
But there is one question weighing heaviest on the minds of Red Sox Nation right now: What is really going on with Devers?
It’s easy to say his head simply isn’t in the right space. Devers made headlines early in spring training after the Red Sox signed Bregman, saying he didn’t want to move to DH and that “third base is my position.” He pointed out that when he signed his $331 million extension in January of 2023, the front office promised he would be the team’s third baseman.
That, however, was when a different regime was in charge. Bregman, a Gold Glove winner in 2024, is the better defensive third baseman, so it makes sense to play him there and move Devers — except many players don’t like to DH. Some analysts even build in a “DH penalty,” assuming a player will hit worse there than when he plays the field. While Devers eventually relented and said he’d do whatever will help the team, it was a rocky situation for a few weeks.
But maybe it’s something else. While Devers avoided surgery this offseason, he spent it trying to rebuild strength in both shoulders after dealing with soreness and inflammation throughout 2024. He didn’t play the field in spring training and had just 15 plate appearances. So maybe he is still rusty — or the shoulder(s) are bothering him.
Indeed, Statcast metrics show his average bat speed has dropped from 72.5 mph in 2024 to 70.3 mph so far in 2025 (and those are down from 73.4 mph in 2023). His “fast-swing rate” has dropped from 34.2% in 2023 to 27.9% to 12.2%. Obviously, we’re talking an extremely small sample size for this season, but it’s clear Devers isn’t generating the bat speed we’re used to seeing from him.
That, however, doesn’t explain the complete inability to make contact. Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after the series in Texas that Devers had made alterations with his foot placement — but was having trouble catching up to fastballs. Following Monday’s game, Devers told reporters (via his interpreter) that, “Obviously this is not a position that I’ve done in the past. So I need to get used to it. But I feel good, I feel good.”
Which leads to this question: Does this historic bad start mean anything? Since the DH began in 1973, three DHs began the season with a longer hitless streak than Devers’ 0-for-19 mark, so let’s dig into how the rest of their seasons played out:
Don Baylor with the 1982 Angels (0-for-20). Baylor ended up with a pretty typical season for him: .263/.329/.424, 24 home runs.
Evan Gattis of the 2015 Astros (0-for-23). Gattis hit .246 with 27 home runs — not as good as he hit in 2014 or 2016, but in line with his career numbers.
Curtis Terry with the Rangers in 2021 (0-for-20). Terry was a rookie who ended up playing just 13 games in the majors.
Expanding beyond just the DH position, I searched Baseball-Reference for players in the wild-card era (since 1995) who started a season hitless in at least 20 plate appearances through five games. That gave us a list of … just seven players, including Evan Carter (0-for-22) and Anthony Rendon (0-for-20) last season. Both ended up with injury-plagued seasons. The list also includes Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who was 0-for-24 for the Houston Astros in 1995. He was fine: He hit .302/.406/.483 that season, made the All-Star team and finished 10th in the MVP voting. J.D. Drew started 0-for-25 through five games with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005; he hit .286/.412/.520, although an injury limited him to 72 games.
But none of those hitters struck out nearly as often as Devers has.
So let’s focus on the strikeouts and expand our search to most strikeouts through the 15 first games of a season. Given his already astronomical total, Devers is likely to rank high on such a list even if he starts making more contact. Seventeen players struck out at least 25 times through 15 games, topped by Yoan Moncada and Miguel Sano with 29, both in 2018. Not surprisingly, all these seasons have come since 2006 and 12 since 2018.
How did that group fare?
They were actually OK, averaging a .767 OPS and 20 home runs. The best of the group was Matt Olson in 2023, who struck out 25 times in 15 games, but was also hitting well with a .317/.423/.650 line. He went on to hit 53 home runs. The next best season belongs to Giancarlo Stanton in 2018, his first with the Yankees. He finished with 38 home runs and an .852 OPS — but that was a big drop from his MVP season in 2017, when he mashed 59 home runs. His strikeout rate increased from 23.6% in 2017 to 29.9% — and he’s never been as good.
Indeed, that’s the worrisome thing for Devers: Of the 16 players who played the season before (Trevor Story was a rookie in 2016 when he struck out 25 times in 15 games, albeit with eight home runs), 13 had a higher OPS the previous season, many significantly so.
As Cora argued Monday, it’s a small sample size. “You know, this happens in July or August, we’d not even be talking about it,” he said.
That doesn’t really sound quite forthright. A slump, even a five-game slump, with this many strikeouts would absolutely be a topic of discussion. Still, that’s all the Red Sox and Devers have to go on right now: It’s just a few games, nothing one big game won’t fix. They just hope it comes soon.