The first round of the 2023 NHL Draft is almost upon us, and we can speak for the majority of the hockey world when we say: “Finally!”
It feels like it’s been an eternity since the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers to capture the Stanley Cup. And with all the trade action seemingly dissipating as quickly as it came along in the first place, hockey fans across the continent are eager to see the movement resume on Wednesday.
Everyone knows about the Chicago Blackhawks possessing the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. They’ll use it to select Connor Bedard. But the intrigue will increase shortly afterward, as the teams situated immediately thereafter begin to sift through the impressive pile of top prospects available to them.
By default, the Blackhawks will be called the “winners” of this year’s draft. Bedard is an impressive prize. But there are a few other teams out there, those with multiple picks in the first round and a willingness to make big trades, who could feasibly steal the show this week.
Here’s a look at three of the most intriguing teams to keep an eye on during the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
Arizona Coyotes
The ‘Yotes are the only team with two picks in the top 15 of this year’s draft, having acquired the No. 12 selection from the Ottawa Senators in the Jakob Chychrun deal at the trade deadline. They’re uniquely situated to make a splash at both the top and the middle of the first round.
But, in an unusual turn of events, Arizona has also shown a willingness to part with some of its impressive draft capital to add players to its core. As our own Frank Seravalli noted last week, the Coyotes are “aiming to be more competitive next season,” and they’ve already added Sean Durzi to their existing complement of young defensemen. They likely aren’t done buying.
Don’t expect the Coyotes to move players like Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Lawson Crouse at this year’s draft. If anything, they’ll be looking to bring in guys who can slot in next to those three players in their lineup. They also have RFA forwards Matias Maccelli, Jack McBain, and Christian Fischer to sign, having already inked goaltender Connor Ingram to a three-year deal over the weekend.
The playoffs aren’t quite on the horizon in Arizona, but the Sun is beginning to rise in the Valley. If the Coyotes can snag, say, Dalibor Dvorsky and Zach Benson at No. 6 and 12 overall while also adding a couple of experienced NHL forwards to their ranks, they’ll come out of the 2023 NHL Draft in much better shape as an organization. And that’s not even getting into whether they’ll pick Matvei Michkov — or, if they’ll make a trade with a team interested in grabbing him …
Philadelphia Flyers
At this point, there isn’t a whole lot we know about Matvei Michkov’s situation. As has been extensively discussed, his contract in Russia runs for three more years and there’s no telling whether he’ll be able to wriggle out of it early to come to North America. Michkov has all the skill in the world, but he’s almost guaranteed to fall out of the top three picks of this year’s draft.
The Flyers currently own picks No. 7 and 22 in the first round. That’s right: Philly is one spot behind Arizona at the top of the draft. What if Michkov ends up being available at No. 6, but he also indicates he’s more willing to play for the Flyers than the Coyotes? But also … what if Michkov wants to play with Alex Ovechkin in Washington? The Capitals pick No. 8. As such, the Flyers are uniquely situated right in the middle of Michkov Madness.
And that’s only scratching the surface of what the Flyers can do this week. They’ve been hammering away at a blockbuster deal with the St. Louis Blues (more on them later) for what feels like an eternity at this point, with Blues defenseman Torey Krug seemingly holding up the process with his no-trade clause. If the Flyers end up being able to pull the trigger on draft night, that deal could overshadow a lot of the action on the draft floor.
With the No. 22 pick, which the Flyers acquired from Columbus in the Ivan Provorov deal, we could see new GM Danny Briere add a defenseman to his somewhat depleted pipeline. And if the trade with the Blues goes through, perhaps the Flyers end up making a third pick in the first round. Hey, speaking of St. Louis …
St. Louis Blues
As of right now, the Blues are the only team with three picks in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft. That’s right, three. In addition to their own pick (No. 10), the Blues possess picks No. 25 (acquired from Toronto in the Ryan O’Reilly trade) and 29 (from NYR, for Vladimir Tarasenko).
The main question surrounding the Blues has to do with whether they’ll end up actually making picks at all three of those spots. It’s hard to envision them not picking at No. 10 (Dmitri Simashev might be a good fit), but the Blues are unlike most other teams in the top 10 in that they likely have their eye on returning to the playoffs as soon as next season. Doug Armstrong hasn’t exactly signalled rebuild — yet.
The big rumored trade with Philadelphia notwithstanding, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see the Blues look to take a swing on the draft floor and move one of their two late firsts for immediate help. The Blues added those two selections in the first place by selling 30-somethings at the trade deadline; what if they turned around and flipped one (or both) of those picks for help closer in age to Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou? If Travis Sanheim is, indeed, part of their blockbuster deal with Philly, he’d help to stabilize their defensive group for years to come.
And then there’s the whole business with Krug, whose standing in the Blues organization is uncertain after he reportedly exercised his right to block a trade to the bottom-feeding Flyers. If the relationship between the Blues and Krug has soured in any way as a result, perhaps he gets dealt somewhere else during the draft. There are a lot of moving parts in St. Louis, and Krug sure looks like one of them. And he certainly wouldn’t be the only one.
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LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
