The Vancouver Canucks finally won the draft lottery.
Sort of.
The NHL brought back the player draft for this year’s edition of the All-Star Game, with Canucks captain Quinn Hughes named as the captain of one of the four All-Star teams. Joining him as co-captain were his brother, Jack Hughes, who is injured and won’t be playing in the game, and crooner and Canucks fan Michael Bublé, as well as Elias Pettersson as alternate captain.
When it came time for the draft, Team Hughes won the lottery, with an inaudible Wayne Gretzky revealing a picture of Michael Bublé to show who would be picking first overall. It was the first of many awkward moments for the draft.
Hughes snubs his Canucks teammates with first pick
Given the opportunity to pick first and build an all-Canuck team, Hughes and his compatriots instead took the approach of every general manager in a draft and went with the best player available: the NHL’s leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It seemed like Hughes would start going with Canucks after when he took Thatcher Demko with his second pick bit then threw a curveball with the Winnipeg Jets’ Kyle Connor, who was a late addition to the All-Star Game in place of the injured Jack Eichel.
With their fourth and fifth picks, Team Hughes still eschewed Canucks.
“Do you think Brock will be mad?” asked one of the four co-conspirators, likely Quinn, on their hot mics as they debated their fourth pick. “He’ll be okay,” said one of the others, possibly Jack.
Eventually, Hughes went with his longtime friend Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators, then did his brother a favour by picking his New Jersey Devils teammate, Jesper Bratt, fifth.
“We can try to trade for Millsy after.”
It was an unexpected sequence of events but there were some suggestions that Hughes might have worked out some side deals with the other team captains, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, and Connor McDavid to ensure that he got all of his Canucks teammates.
That was hinted at by Matthews at one point and seemingly confirmed by Hughes before they picked Bratt.
“We’re going to have five Canucks no matter what,” said Hughes, “And then we can try to trade for Millsy after.”
“Hot mic,” cautioned Pettersson with a grin.
The plan, then, seemed to be to take two of the three remaining Canucks — as well as one of the goaltenders, which was a requirement — with their final three picks, leaving J.T. Miller for last. The final four players wouldn’t be picked but instead sorted randomly into the four teams, so the Canucks could hope to get Miller by chance or trade whoever they got for Miller.
“I told Quinn that he should take Lindy before me.”
Things almost went according to plan. Sure, they botched their sixth pick, where they were required to take a goaltender but announced Brock Boeser instead, forcing Boeser to skate back to his seat while looking forlornly back over his shoulder.
Team Hughes took Los Angeles Kings goaltender Cam Talbot with their sixth pick instead, then took Boeser with their seventh pick after a commercial break.
“Nothing that happens tonight better cost me a Stanley Cup,” quipped Bublé before the Boeser pick, seemingly hoping that their decision to wait to pick Canucks wouldn’t cause a locker room rift.
That’s when Tate McRae, the celebrity co-captain for Team MacKinnon, threw a wrench in the works by picking a player from her favourite team, the Calgary Flames. Or, rather, a player who was on the Flames up until Wednesday: Elias Lindholm.
It’s a possibility that Boeser had hoped to avoid.
“Hopefully, Quinn just drafts [Lindholm] right away so we’re all on the same team,” said Boeser on the All-Star red carpet before the draft. “I told Quinn that he should take Lindy before me.”
“I feel bad we made you wait that long.”
That took Lindholm off the board for Team Hughes, who were able to pick Miller rather than hoping for random chance.
“I feel bad we made you wait that long,” said Hughes as he gave Miller a hug.
That left their final player up to chance and they got the Anaheim Ducks’ Frank Vatrano.
The Canucks regrettably weren’t able to work a trade to get Lindholm from Team MacKinnon, which means Quinn Hughes evidently isn’t as good of a general manager as Patrik Allvin.
The NHL’s choice to mic up all of the captains, co-captains, and alternate captains led to some chaos, as there was plenty of cross-talk throughout, but it did lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments, even beyond Hughes unintentionally revealing his draft strategy.
The best of those moments was definitely the two Edmonton Oilers picking Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with their first pick, with Draisaitl loudly declaring, “We need goaltending.”
I mean, Stuart Skinner was just named the NHL’s second star for January, but the Oilers probably do still need goaltending.
Bublé jokes that All-Star draft felt like he was on mushrooms
The goofiest moment came after the All-Star draft, however, as Michael Bublé stepped up to the podium for a press conference
“My buddy told me this is just a microdose of mushrooms and he was lying,” said Bublé. “So, I’ll be honest, I thought I was in Blades of Glory for most of the time that I was out there until it sort of settled down and then I realized, ‘Holy shit, I’m at the NHL All-Star Game.’”
Bublé clarified that it was a joke to professional sports-yeller Steve Dangle shortly after.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
