Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Regular contributors include Jordan Moss, Rob Wagner, Howard Steiss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Peter Hucul, Ted Tait, Bill and Glen Myles, Frank Sullivan, Mark Hughes, Iqbal Grewall, Brent Atkins and Charlie Frenette.
Back after a summer break and ready to empty the cupboard with takeaways and leftovers from the past six weeks or so. Hope you have been having a great summer.
Pucks and Bucks – In case you didn’t notice, the National Hockey League has experienced a sea change in economics over the course of the summer. There’s a new madness in play. And you thought the contracts were silly before?
The landscape became completely unsettled the day the Philadelphia Flyers handed Leo Carlsson a five-year, $90 million dollar offer sheet. The fun was just starting. Chicago came to terms with Connor Bedard on a five-year, $75 million dollar extension and then, the capper, San Jose gave Macklin Celebrini (5 X $18.8 million), making him the highest-paid player in the league. The bar has been raised big-time. Time for the Sharks to take flight.
The Anaheim Ducks were on a nice trajectory until the Carlsson offer sheet. The Ducks salary cap has been thrown into spin cycle. What’s it going to cost to sign Cutter Gauthier coming off a 41-goal, 69-point season? And Beckett Sennecke? Building a championship calibre roster just became immeasurably harder. Look for Anaheim to dump the contracts of Chris Kreider and Frank Vatrano. The Canucks should get involved. The Ducks have three 2027 second-round picks as sweeteners.
Editor’s Note: In case you were wondering, Patrick Mahomes is the highest-paid player in the NFL at $63 million a year, Shohei Ohtani tops MLB at $70 million. Steph Curry leads the NBA at $62 million. Lionel Messi pulls down $28 million a year to lead the MSL.
What’s perhaps more shocking are the deals for RFA’s. Bridge contracts have exploded this summer. Pavel Dorofeyev inked a lengthy $11 million AAV deal with the Rangers. The Flames generosity helped Šimon Nemec reset the market for defensemen on second contracts. Trevor Zegras, who has never really made much of an impact since coming into the league, signed a four-year, $9.125 million AAV contract extension with the Flyers. We’re talking goofy, folks!
You know things are out of whack when the Blackhawks sign 37-year-old Patrick Kane to a two-year deal with an AAV of $8 million. Takes stupid to a whole new level.
In Pittsburgh, Wonder Boy Kyle Dubas gifted the immortal Ville Koivunen a new eight-year deal at $4 million per season, triggering more inflation throughout the league. Here’s a guy with two goals in 47 games career games. Nothing Koivunen has done would warrant that kind of contract. Dubie must be smoking doobies.
For fans of the Canucks, it just made the rebuild a whole lot tougher. For a team like the Montreal Canadiens who have all their foundational pieces under team-friendly, long-term contracts, the outlook is exceedingly bright.
NHL Summer Notebook – Even casual sports fans know the Stanley Cup is the Holy Grail of hockey and one of the most iconic trophies in all of sports. After winning the Cup in June, Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon had the audacity to engrave the names of his wife and five children on the Cup. Yes, ahead of captain Jordan Staal and coach Rod Brind’Amour. Worse yet, little Gary Bettman gave it his approval. Florida owner Vinny Viola did the same thing when the Panthers won the Cup in 2025. He included the names of four relatives. Sorry, if you didn’t take a shift on the ice or were part of the coaching staff, your name should not be going on that mug.
If the Hurricanes have defenceman Alexander Nikishin on the trade block, as some reports suggest, teams should be lined up to acquire this guy. Nikishin is a stud. The Canes had him on the third pairing during the playoffs and he could easily have played up in the lineup. At 6-foot-3, Nikishin has size, toughness and shutdown potential. He also has a big shot and could pop offensively if given more opportunity. The Canes would be smart to bridge Nikishin and worry about the numbers later especially with several Hurricane blueliners on the wrong side of 30.
Should we be surprised that the Seattle Kraken are trying to kick Shane Wright to the curb? Who can forget that just a few years ago he was the consensus number one overall pick in the 2022 NHL draft. That is until the Montreal Canadiens, holding the top pick, interviewed Wright and immediately crossed him off their list. Wright came off in the pre-draft interview as an entitled, self-absorbed snot and the Canadiens said – “no chance.” The Habs wisely pivoted to Juraj Slafkovsky. Wright dropped to fourth overall to the Krakers and they’ve been regretting the selection ever since. There were reports the Kraken were asking for Zeev Buium or Tom Willander in a deal for Wright with the Canucks. Thanks, but no thanks.
If we had our way, there are two NHL rule changes that would be enacted immediately. The 1-through-8 playoff format in each conference and the multi-point system (3-2-1-0) for regular-season games. Just do it. It will make the game better.
Devastating news from the Sportsnet studio. The cheapskate network has announced they will not be renewing Kelly Hrudey’s contract for next season. Hrudey should have been punted about 10 years ago. He’s the master of the obvious. Never seen an announcer so unwilling to criticize a player’s performance. Can we now turf Ron McLean, once and for all?
In Vancouver, Rogers shut down Sportsnet 650 as part of sweeping layoffs across the country which cut 230 jobs. Don’t know where diehard Canuck fans are supposed to get their fix. Pretty sad commentary on the state of sports talk radio. According to a statement, radio production of Canucks games will move to another Rogers owned station in Vancouver. Nothing has been announced as of yet.
Veteran Vancouver broadcaster Don Taylor didn’t mince words. “They come across as horrible, horrible people. They really do. They just toy with people’s emotions and they don’t care. I get the idea that you’re not making the profit you want, but you can treat people better. It just happens again and again and again, all over Canada, except for stations in Toronto. And then they don’t get why people in B.C. don’t like the Blue Jays and the Raptors.”
Dead Things – It had to happen. There was no other choice. Steve Yzerman may be a Red Wings legend but a change was necessary. Not one playoff berth in seven years from a guy who, as a player, helped author one of the longest playoff streaks in NHL history.
Stevie Y’s greatest failure may have been that he’s too nice a guy. Detroit’s amateur scouting staff failed to produce anything outside the first round during Yzerman’s entire tenure. He should have cleaned house when a lack of results demanded it. The pro scouting wasn’t any better. Yzerman threw money at a host of UFA’s who failed miserably.
Now the team is caught between a rock and a hard place. There are a few foundational pieces in Moritz Zeider, Simon Edvinsson and Lucas Raymond. The farm system has promise but no star power. Don’t see the Wings earning a playoff spot anytime soon.
2027 NHL Draft Outlook – What a performance by Team Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky U-18 tournament in Edmonton. The squad cruised to a gold medal, whipping the U.S. in the final 8-1. Landon DuPont, the consensus number one pick in the 2027 NHL Draft came as advertised. A pair of 16-year-olds, Vancouver product Maddox Schultz and Regina Pats teammate Liam Pue, look like future stars. DuPont is headed to the U.S. college ranks and a loaded Michigan team this season.
After DuPont, the ’27 draft should produce a cluster of imposing centres including 6-foot-4 Swede Milan Sundstrom, the son of former NHL’er Nik Sundstrom, 6-foot-3 Swiss centre Jonah Neuenschwander and 6-foot-5 Alexis Joseph out of the Q. In the mix with a bullet is massive Russian forward Nazar Privalov who’s listed at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds. The guy’s a beast and is still not 18. Some teams may be scared off after he signed a KHL contract until 2030.
Canucks Notebook – According to new GM Ryan Johnson, with their four selections in the first two rounds of this year’s draft, the Canucks landed four players they had ranked in their top 24. To walk out of the draft with that kind of haul is just what the team needed to kickstart the rebuild.
Win or lose, Johnson says he wants the team to be hard to play against. Music to the ears of long-suffering Canuck fans.
If you listen to the noise around the Canucks, you would think they can’t clean house quick enough. What’s the rush? Why rush into a trade just to make a deal? If you can’t get maximum value, wait until you can. Canuck followers have the team dealing Filip Hronek. That would be highly risky. What would the defence look like if you subtracted Hronek? Imagine what he could be worth at next year’s deadline? There will always be a market for a solid right-shot blueliner with some bite in his game. Hronek could be the top defenceman on the market. Wait until you can extract max value.
Playing Matchmaker – With the Canucks in the early stages of an honest-to-goodness real live rebuild, we thought it would be a good time to play matchmaker. Sooner or later, the Canucks are going to find a new home for Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk. Thatcher Demko will move too if he can stay healthy long enough to reestablish his game. From our perspective, here are the best options available for the Sullen One.
Pettersson to Detroit: God knows EP40 needs a fresh start. He’s past his best-before date in Vancouver. A deal involving Pettersson would signal the rebuild is truly underway. There are three teams that may best fit the description when it comes to a possible deal. How can we not include the Red Wings as a potential trade partner? The situation in Motown has gone from bleak to desperate. Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has demanded a trade which would open a massive hole down in the middle in an area that’s already woefully thin. Detroit is currently sitting with close to $20 million in cap space and in position to take on the full weight of Pettersson’s $11.5 million dollar contract. The Wings have plenty of young assets and excess draft capital so finding the right pieces should not be an issue. They should also be motivated. The Wings have been outside the playoffs for a decade.
Proposed Deal: Elias Pettersson to Detroit for C Michael Rasmussen, F Max Plante (University of Minnesota-Duluth) and a 2028 second-round draft pick. Note: (Rasmussen is a salary dump in the deal. He has two years remaining at $3.2 million per season).
Pettersson to Pittsburgh: Dubas loves reclamation projects so we must include the Penguins in a possible deal. The Pens have close to $17 million in cap space. If the Canucks are willing to take back overpriced defenceman Ryan Graves (3 years @ $4.5 million) to sweeten the deal, the framework could be there. Over their next four NHL Drafts, the Penguins hold 20 selections in the first three rounds. There’s zero chance they use them all. Playing in the shadow of Crosby and Malkin, Pettersson would benefit from facing much easier matchups. The Canucks are already sitting $17 million under the cap. This deal would create even greater cap flexibility.
Proposed Deal: Pettersson to Pittsburgh for D Ryan Graves and second-round draft picks in 2027 (via the N.Y. Rangers) and 2028 (via the Dallas Stars).
Pettersson to Los Angeles: The retirement of Anze Kopitar in Los Angeles has left the Kings with a massive hole at centre. Quinton Byfield’s development has stalled. Pettersson would be a reasonable bet especially if paired with Artemi Panarin. Don’t forget, Pettersson’s recent linemates in Vancouver have not exactly been game breakers. Hey, Petey’s been spotted training in L.A. Why not keep him there permanently?
The issue in L.A. is how to fit Pettersson onto the roster. The Kings currently hold less than $2 million in cap space. In order to facilitate a trade, the Canucks would take back Cody Ceci (3 X $4.5 million) and Trevor Moore (2 X $4.2 million) and retain $3 million in salary on Pettersson’s contract for 3-4 years.
Proposed Deal: Pettersson to Los Angeles for D Cody Ceci, F Trevor Moore and a 2027 first-round pick.
Blue Jays Notebook – Planning to catch a C’s game in Vancouver on Wednesday night. Just in time because the Blue Jays have promoted their top prospect JoJo Parker to Vancouver. Great opportunity for fans to catch a glimpse of a future Blue Jay.
It’s obvious the Jays have more faith in Parker at shortstop than another former top pick Arjun Nimmala who was the centrepiece in the deal to acquire righthander Jose Soriano from the Angels at the MLB trade deadline. Nimmala was the cost of doing business as the Jays look to stabilize the rotation in ’27 and beyond. Was kind of hoping Nimmala would reach the majors in Toronto. It would have been great for the Indian community.
Such a disappointing season overall. Vladdy Guearrero’s power outage is inconceivable. Only seven home runs on the season and none at Rogers Stadium in Toronto. That’s just nuts. The Jays offence as a whole has been horrible. The team is at the bottom of the league with a sub-.700 team OPS. They rank dead last in runs scored. The outfield is a black hole. Can’t see the Jays bouncing back next season without major upgrades throughout the lineup. Addison Barger and Anthony Santander will absolutely have to return healthy.
MLB Notebook – There’s a canary in the coal mine in major league baseball and it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers. After acquiring two-time Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, the resentment against the Dodgers has risen to new heights.
The free-spending Dodgers have massive advantages and they take full use of them. Unless some sort of salary cap is imposed next season, after what will likely be a lockout, the Dodgers will be happy to open the vault and extend Skubal. This was not a rental. He’ll probably finish his career in L.A.
It’s good to know the Dodgers aren’t perfect. A recent seven-game losing streak was a dose of reality. Can someone prevent a three-peat, please?
Great to see several Canadians in the MLB All-Star game. Tristan Peters, the Chicago White Sox outfielder, was a late add to the American League squad. The Winkler, Manitoba native was hitting over .300 and providing the Sox with outstanding defense. He recently became only the second Canadian to hit for the cycle. Cleveland reliever Cade Smith and Miami infielder Otto Lopez were also named to the 2026 All-Star rosters. Smith, from that well-known baseball factory Mennonite Educational Institute in Abbotsford, has been atop the majors in saves.
A number of Canadians were selected in the recent MLB Draft. Carson Beck, a 21-year-old outfielder from Carnduff, Saskatchewan was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the first round, 26th overall. Beck was the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.
The Blue Jays did not make a pick until No. 39 overall where they selected Arizona State lefty Cole Carlon. At six-foot-five and 230 pounds, Carlon is an imposing figure on the mound. His fastball ticked up this season as a starter after two years working in relief. He averaged around 96 m.p.h. but touched over 100 mph at times according to Baseball America. Several scouting reports claimed Carlon had one of the best breaking balls in the entire draft class.
Our favourite selection from the 2026 MLB Draft was pitcher Zach Crotchfelt taken by the New York Mets in the 14th round. The scouting report claims he’s in touch with himself.
Sticking with the groin area, Oakland A’s rookie Joshua Kuroda-Grauer underwent emergency surgery to repair a ruptured testicle, hours after fouling a ball off the sensitive region. He managed to play through the injury, if only for an inning.
Props to the Boston Red Sox. Looked like they were dead in the water earlier in the season. The Sox rebounded with a 21-4 month of July, a franchise record going all the way back to 1901.
Seahawks Notebook – Lots of positives coming out of Seahawks training camp, not the least of which is new ownership.
The team has been sold to Vinod Khosia pending league approval. The price tag was $9.612 billion, far and away the largest sum ever divvied up for an NFL team. The Washington Commanders sold for $6.05 billion in 2023. Nice profit for the estate of Paul Allen who purchased the Seahawks in 1997 for $194 million.
Looks like Seahawks rookie Jadarian Price may make fans forget Kenneth Walker in a hurry. The first-round running back has been dazzling in camp especially catching balls out of the backfield which was not a Walker strength.
Despite coming off a Super Bowl victory, the Seahawks are getting very little respect. Check out HBO’s Hard Knocks which features the Seahawks this season. Worth watching if you are a fan of the team or not.
No team in the NFL has more quality 25-and-under talent than the Seahawks. One site ranked the top quarterbacks in the NFL and had Sam Darnold 14th. Are you kidding? All he’s done is win 28 games and a SB over the past two seasons. The Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL.
NFL Notebook – The Los Angeles Rams are everyone’s choice to win the SB this season. Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie have been added to the defense. Looks like Aaron Donald will be returning. They look scary but let’s wait and see. Very little depth which could become a factor.
Pat Mahomes has looked brilliant in the Chiefs camp coming off of knee surgery. The Chiefs would be crazy to play him during pre-season games. Not necessary. He’ll be ready.
Say goodbye to the broadcast career of Tony Romo. The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback is on leave from CBS after his arrest for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Romo has been a massive failure in tandem with the equally annoying Jim Nance. Some in the industry are calling Romo’s 10-year, $180 million contract the worst in media history. They’re right.
Golf Notebook – Only three Canadians qualified for the FedEx playoffs which has to be disappointing. Sudershan Yellamaraju, Corey Conners and Nick Taylor made it into the top 70 in order to qualify for the St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the PGA Tour playoff, which starts this week in Memphis were the temperatures will be in the high 30’s all week.
Sudarshan has been the breakout player among the Canadians with three top-10 finishes. However, he enters the playoffs having missed the cut in four of his last tournaments. All three will need strong finishes in order to advance to the next round where only the top-50 move on.
The playing status for the rest of the Canadians on tour just became more complicated. The group includes Taylor Pendrith, Mackenzie Hughes, A.J. Ewart, Ben Silverman and Adam Svensson. Hughes will miss the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
Scottie Scheffler missed his first cut in nearly four years at the Scottish Open. He had made 78 consecutive cuts going back to 2022. It’s the longest streak since Tiger’s record-setting streak of 142 straight cuts from February 1998 to May 2025.
What Brooke Henderson did at the Evian Championship, one of the LPGA’s majors, is absolutely incredible and no one is talking about it. She had six eagles, the most in a single tournament in golf history, men or women. Brooke exploded on the weekend with a pair of 64’s. She chipped in for eagle twice on Saturday, Then, in the final round, she posted an eagle on seven, and on the very next hole, drained a hole-in-one. But she wasn’t done there. On 18, she sank an eagle putt to force a playoff. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to close out the win. Maybe getting married is just what Brooke needed to inspire her to new heights.
How about 17-year-old Vancouverite Anna Huang? She just captured a Ladies European Tour event in London, beating three-time LPGA tournament winner Charley Hull of England who’s sixth in the women’s world rankings. Huang will be among the field at the CPKC Women’s Open, Aug. 20-23 in Edmonton.
Keeping Score – According to the man himself, Donald Trump has won 43 club championships in his highly decorated golfing career. Ugh! The now 80-year-old U.S. president recently won the club championship at his own Bedminster club after he signed for a two-under 70. Apparently, it allowed him to win both the Senior and Super Senior titles.
Needless to say, many are questioning the score. It’s not as though Donald would cheat or anything?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynmxiMXkAm8
Judging by this swing, the Donald is not going to shoot 70 anytime soon, not even at Stanley Park Pitch & Putt.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N__9OC7Vsr8
Gianni Knows Corruption – Could greasy little FIFA president Gianni Infantino be on the verge of stepping down? Don’t bet on it. He’s been in the middle of a firestorm since launching a plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to a group of private investors led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The global backlash has been unrelenting. The 2026 World Cup earned FIFA a record $15 billion in revenues. The Trump tribe seemingly feel its their birthright to get a cut of the action. Many onlookers believe Canadian FIFA board member Victor Montagliani could be in line to replace Infantino if he’s booted from office.
World Cup Leftovers – Can’t stop thinking how the outcome for Canada may have been different if the team was truly fit. Ismael Kone and Marcelo Flores were both on crutches. Moise Bombito was far from 100 percent. Alphonso Davies played all of 15 minutes the entire tournament.
Davies was the target of much criticism for his failure to contribute. How much influence did Bayern Munich have in Davies availability? It’s a legitimate question. He’s under contract until June 30, 2030 after signing an extension in February 2025. The deal pays Davies between €15 million and €20 million per season excluding performance-related bonuses. Considering the string of injuries, Davies is yet to deliver.
Bottom-line for Canada, you can’t be missing your best players and expect to upset a top-10 ranked team like Morocco. Canada acquitted themselves very well but lacked the kind of finish you need to compete at the highest level. Nonetheless, the bar has been raised. Can we be considered a soccer nation? Maybe not yet but we saw amazing support from across the nation. It can’t help but inspire future generations.
Don’t know about you but too often, Jesse Marsch is “the story” when it comes to the national team. He just signed a new contract in May that runs through the next World Cup so he obviously isn’t going anywhere. It just seems like a lot of the time, Marsch is the story and not the team. Antics on the sideline. Comments that would be better unsaid. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s just the fact Marsch is an American coaching a Canadian squad at a time when anti-U.S. sentiment is running high.
Planning for Success – If Canada is ever going to have success on the international stage, Canada Soccer has to create a much better development strategy. We’ve become competitive almost by accident. The development system has produced spotty results. It’s time for a national plan for our best teenage players.
According to Canada Soccer, work has begun on an ambitious project to form a national youth residency centre bringing together the country’s best 15- to 17-year-old players. They would train at a yet-to-be-built national training centre that would model the best training programs in Europe.
For years now, top young Canadian players have rarely had the opportunity to train and compete together. Canada Soccer says the top 30 players in the country, aged 15 to 17, would attend school together, train together and compete for part of the year in various domestic leagues including MLS Next. Two separate groups, U-16 and U-17, each comprised of roughly 15 players, would represent Canada in competitions around the world. It would expose developing players to a much higher level of play.
The program change couldn’t come at a better time. FIFA will now be staging U-17 World Cups on an annual basis with the number of teams expanded to 48. The academy system in Canada has never worked. Let’s hope the changes pay dividends.
The Babe Ruth Diet – The eating and drinking exploits of New York Yankees great Babe Ruth are legendary. According to numerous online reports, for breakfast the Babe would start with a pint (16 oz.) of whiskey mixed with ginger ale, a steak, four eggs, fried potatoes and a pot of coffee. Guess you need that much coffee to counteract the whiskey.
For lunch, it was two porterhouse steaks, two heads of lettuce with blue cheese dressing, two platefuls of college fried potatoes along with two apple pies. For his afternoon snack, Babe would down four hotdogs, each washed down with a bottle of Coke.
For supper, it was a reprise of the exact same menu he had at lunch. After dinner, Babe was known to enjoy large amounts of beer, and yes, more whiskey. And did we mention his ravenous appetite for women?
Random Leftovers – Former Canucks owner Arthur Griffith is heading up an investment group interested in purchasing the Vancouver Whitecaps. Can Arthur cobble together a formal bid? The Whitecaps have pitched the idea of running BC Place Stadium which may be a big part of the strategy.
Meanwhile, the city of Vancouver has chosen a prospective owner to pursue an MLB expansion franchise. The group is led by CEO Zack Ross, the president of the Vancouver-based real estate company Cape Group. Ross is reportedly working with Populous, the architecture firm that designed Camden Yards and PNC Park, among others. If you believe this will ever happen, you must be an eternal optimist.
The Ottawa RedBlacks, current vintage, may be the worst football team ever assembled. They are 0-8 and who knows if they will win a game this season. Tickets are available. Operators are standing by.
YouTube Feature Artist – Rick Vito – Rick Vito is best known for his stint with Fleetwood Mac between 1987 and 1991, taking over as lead guitarist when Lindsay Buckingham left the group. Vito began his career in L.A. in 1971 with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. He was also a member of Bonnie Raitt’s touring band in the 80’s and 90’s.
Vito is an accomplished slide guitar player. He’s had ten solo releases including his latest, “Slidemaster,” an all-slide guitar instrumental.
Vito is a legendary signature artist for Reverend Guitars. Here he is performing “River’s Calling” at their Circle R Studios.
https://youtu.be/3ygXTt1QW68?si=blQWNGtnuTDWuNuD
Vito joined the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band in 2008 as frontman, lead guitarist and co-producer. Here’s Vito with an all-star band performing “Stop Messin’ Round” featuring, among others, Christine McVie and Steve Tyler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL8L-t8VLqE
Check out this rare footage of Vito and Joe Bonamassa performing “Never Make Your Move Too Soon” at a benefit concert for Midnight Mission at Villa Boehm in Camarillo, CA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUCtE-dql8
And finally, we have Vito’s rendition of the Peter Green classic “Albatross” at the Copenhagen Blues Festival in 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UvKPw4cijw
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