Former Golden Knights Defenseman Retiring After Final Game This Season
Former Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez will retire from professional hockey after his season with the Chicago Blackhawks concludes.
The 37-year-old played 861 NHL games, scoring 88 goals and 289 points. 221 of those games were with the Golden Knights, scoring 21 goals and 79 points. Martinez won three Stanley Cups throughout his career, two with the Los Angeles Kings and one with the Golden Knights.
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During his pregame interview prior to the Blackhawks matchup with the Winnipeg Jets, Martinez told Darren Pang that tonight's game will be the last one of his career.
"Obviously a lot of different emotions today...just very thankful, very appreciative," said Martinez.
Throughout his career, Martinez was known for his defensive game, consistently performing as one of the best shot blockers in the NHL. Martinez also scored multiple clutch goals in the playoffs, including the winner in double overtime in Game 5 when the Kings defeated the New York Rangers.
Known as a great defensive defenseman, Martinez was a beloved teammate throughout his Vegas tenure and was highly recognized for his leadership.
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New York Times
7 hours ago
- New York Times
Looking at Carter Yakemchuk's path to making the Senators — and the hurdles ahead
CALGARY — It's a Tuesday morning in mid-July. Most people of Carter Yakemchuk's age are probably sleeping in, having hung up their cowboy hats to recover from the Calgary Stampede festivities that ended two days ago. Nearly 1.5 million partygoers spent the better part of two weeks revelling, Yakemchuk among them. But there was the 19-year-old Calgary native in a grey hockey jersey marked 'Find A Way or Make One,' skating alongside a mixture of professional players and prospects at the Flames' community rink in the southwestern part of the city. Advertisement For Yakemchuk, a 6-foot-4 defenceman, this is all part of the work required to achieve his ultimate goal: making the Ottawa Senators' opening roster come Oct. 9, when the team begins its 2025-26 regular season on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning, no matter what potential pitfalls lie in front of him. After four seasons with the WHL's Calgary Hitmen, the 2024 first-round pick is old enough to play minor-league games this year, as he'll turn 20 before the end of the calendar. It's the NHL or AHL for him, now. 'I'm looking forward to it,' Yakemchuk said in July following the Senators' development camp. 'My goal is to make the opening roster. That's what I want to do. And I'm looking forward to putting in the work that it takes to make that.' Every summer in Calgary, a group of players and coaches under CRASH Conditioning — self-proclaimed as the 'training destination of choice for elite players of all ages' — gather to prepare for the season ahead. Given the time of year, most participants were skating at half speed this morning. Some mistakes were apparent, like when Yakemchuk got caught on the wrong side of a one-on-two with another defender before being beaten by another opponent who cut into the middle of the offensive zone and scored. 'It's July 15,' said Seattle Kraken assistant Dave Lowry, one of the on-site coaches at the CRASH session. 'There's only so much you can give, right?' But there were brighter spots for Yakemchuk, like when he fought to clear a puck and retrieved it after it bounced off an opposing player. He then led an offensive rush of his own before going forehand to backhand on a goaltender. Yakemchuk also chased a forward from behind and swiped the puck away, putting it between his legs before once again going on the counterattack. It wasn't all flash and offence for the teenager, either: Yakemchuk practiced penalty kills where he used his body positioning and stick to block shooting lanes. 'We all know the offensive side of the game is natural for him,' Lowry said. 'In order for him to play in the National Hockey League, he's gonna have to defend. He's going to have to be a hard defender.' Yakemchuk turned heads during last year's preseason thanks to some solid performances and a highlight-reel goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs, saying that he felt he could play at the NHL level. But his maturity, age and defensive abilities kept him from being Sens-ready, leading him to suit up for one final year of junior hockey. It meant working with Hitmen defensive assistant David Liffiton on his positioning and gap control, among other defensive attributes. Advertisement 'I think his defensive game's come a long way from two years ago,' Liffiton said, also on-site at the CRASH camp. 'Positioning, stick details, the way he closes in the corner. I actually think he's better defensively than guys give him credit for. Down low, killing plays, breaking plays with his stick and his long reach.' As a result, Yakemchuk's offensive numbers dipped. He scored 30 goals and 71 points in 66 games in 2023-24, only to fall to 17 goals and 49 points in 56 games this past season. Those weren't the only ups and downs through Yakemchuk's final WHL campaign: He was also among the many highly-touted prospects infamously left off Canada's World Juniors team last Christmas, leaving the Senators' front office surprised. An ankle injury temporarily slowed him in February, too. But he still helped the Hitmen make the playoffs and reach the second round. 'Point-wise, obviously, there was a bit of a drop-off,' Yakemchuk said. 'It was more (about) improving my game and getting ready to make the jump next season. So, overall, I think I played my best games in the playoffs. That's when it matters the most. I think that was, maybe, my best hockey.' Carter Yakemchuk finally scores in his team's first round series against Saskatoon in the WHL playoffs and it's a nice one. — Julian McKenzie (@jkamckenzie) April 3, 2025 The Senators seem to like Yakemchuk's progression as well, feeling he's grown mentally and physically. 'You know, contrary to some people's beliefs, he played a better defensive game. I don't have a problem with Carter's game,' head scout Don Boyd said after this year's NHL Draft. 'He's got so many avenues and so many ways that he can play, you know, he's big, he's, you know, he can handle the puck. He's got deception. He can shoot the puck. He thinks the game offensively.' Advertisement Despite the decrease in numbers, the Sens do not doubt Yakemchuk's offensive ability and call his puck-handling abilities his 'biggest strength.' Hitmen defensive assistant David Liffiton described Yakemchuk's ability to fire the puck as an 'NHL shot' and praised his ability to help on a power play, whether from the blue line or the faceoff dot. During his draft season, Yakemchuk closely watched Evan Bouchard and the Edmonton Oilers defenceman's offensive game. But it's how those attributes translate to the professional level, in addition to whatever growth he shows at the defensive end, that will help make his case for a roster spot. 'We think he's more ready for that now than he was a year ago, but he's still a young guy, and learning defence in this league takes time,' Senators development coach Andrew Gordon said. 'So, we're not expecting him to be in the All-Star Game this year. But we just expect him to keep progressing. And when his time's right, we'll make sure he's in the right position.' Yakemchuk showed promise last season, and it'll be on him to duplicate that success. Especially considering the state of the team's depth chart on the right side, and the questions surrounding where the current roster's players should be slotted. Artem Zub spent most of last season as Jake Sanderson's partner on their top pairing. But with newly-acquired Jordan Spence in the fold, it's easy to wonder if Zub will stick in that top pairing spot or fall into the second pairing with Thomas Chabot. Nick Jensen is recovering from hip surgery, and while the team has been positive about his recovery, it remains to be seen how effective he'll be once he returns to the ice. And when he does, will he return to that second pairing or does he get bumped down to a third pairing assignment with Tyler Kleven? Nikolas Matinpalo filled in admirably when needed alongside Kleven, even in the playoffs, and when Team Finland's blueline was badly banged up entering the 4 Nations Face-Off, he earned a roster spot. But entering this season, Matinpalo could either be the team's No. 6 defenceman with Kleven or their No. 7, with limited offensive capability. The Senators have also brought back Lassi Thomson, a former first-round pick and right-shot defenceman, after achieving success in the Swedish Hockey League last season. If Yakemchuk goes above and beyond during training camp, he could give himself a chance. But otherwise, he could be destined for AHL Belleville. It shouldn't be seen as a punishment if he does. You can expect him to be under the watchful eyes of director of player personnel Sam Gagner and new Belleville GM Matt Turek, both of whom joined the organization this summer. Advertisement 'My background is scouting, player development and management,' Turek told The Athletic. 'I'll be able to kind of lean on that a little bit just working with the different people in Belleville, whether it's Sam (Gagner) or (BSens head coach David Bell), with the coaching staff and trying to get these players to another level.' All of those above questions need to be posed before Yakemchuk can be considered for NHL action. The Senators will watch closely and ask themselves constantly: 'Do we need him now?' 'That's the question,' Boyd said. 'Or is he better off served playing some time in the American League? Or is he ready to go now? 'You don't give him anything at this level. He's got to earn it.'
New York Times
8 hours ago
- New York Times
How a ‘metamorphosis' turned Ryker Lee into one of the NHL's most gifted prospects
MINNEAPOLIS — One of the first times Adam Nightingale went to watch Ryker Lee, he was 'a wee little' 14-year-old, his stick was spray-painted black and he 'was doing all these stickhandling moves.' Nightingale took to calling him 'The Wizard.' A few years later, the nickname has stuck. He's also now a first-round pick of the Nashville Predators and a big part of a sterling freshman class for Nightingale's Michigan State program, joining the Spartans with fellow first-rounders Cayden Lindstrom and Porter Martone and second-rounder Eric Nilson. Advertisement This week, all four of them are in Minneapolis at Ridder Arena playing games in the World Junior Summer Showcase. In the tournament's opening game between USA White and Finland, he picked up two goals and an assist. He opened the scoring on a pretty give-and-go with Bruins first-rounder James Hagens, added a second to make it 4-2 early in the third period and then passed up the hat trick to find fellow Predators prospect Teddy Stiga for the empty-netter. In Monday's second game against Sweden, he had and created several more looks and was moved from the second power play to the first. To get here, Lee has undergone what his old Shattuck St. Mary's coach Tom Ward calls 'an absolute metamorphosis in his world and his life over the last five years because of his growth.' Four years ago, when Lee arrived at Shattuck for his bantam year, he was 5-foot-3 and Ward said 'like 68 pounds.' Bruins prospect Will Zellers, one of his teammates on that Shattuck team, guessed that he was 'like 5-foot and maybe 95 pounds' when he first met him. 'He was a bone rack,' Ward said. 'Oh man, he was a little guy.' When he started his U16 season at Shattuck three years ago, he was still just 5-foot-6. He was 5-foot-7 when he committed to Michigan State. In his U18 year at Shattuck under Ward, he registered 45 goals and 99 points in 57 games (second on a loaded team of future NHL picks as a young 2006 playing mostly with 2005s), and another two points in two games with the USHL's Madison Capitols at season's end, earning him a spot on Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, where he registered one point in five games. That was enough to earn him a 'B' rating on NHL Central Scouting's preliminary players to watch list, which 'indicates a 2nd/3rd round candidate.' Advertisement At the start of his draft year, he'd shot up to 5-foot-11.5. He then won the USHL's Rookie of the Year Award, scoring 31 goals and 68 points in 58 games with the Capitols, both fourth in the league. He led Madison in goals and points by nine apiece and registered another six points in six playoff games, also tops on the team. At the midseason mark, he was named Player of the Game at the 2025 Chipotle All-American Game, scoring the game-winner in a 3-2 win with 4:54 left. At the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, they measured him at 6-foot-0.25 and 185 pounds. 'I think in the last 24 to 36 months he has grown like 8-10 inches,' Ward said. Through it — one growth spurt after another — he climbed the ranks, rising to No. 40 on NHL Central Scouting's midterm ranking of North American skaters and then again to No. 28 on their final list. The Predators called his name with the 26th pick. Despite the newfound height, he's still got the wizardry he had to learn as a little guy, too. Capitols head coach and general manager Andy Brandt says Lee's stick skills are 'at a different level.' 'Stick. Brain. Off the charts,' Michigan State associate head coach Jared DeMichiel said earlier this year. 'What can I say? That kid is one of the most skilled offensive players with the puck on his stick,' Zellers said Sunday night. 'The things he does and tries in games, and pulls them off successful, I've never seen anything like it. He is one of a kind. And that guy's got a good goal-scoring touch too. He's a special player. And he has grown and still kept that hand-eye and that skill in his toolbox. I mean, it's pretty special. The sky's the limit for that type of player like him.' Now Lee is trying to show that he's more than just his hands. The two most common things scouts have talked about when they've talked about Lee over the last couple of years are, first, his hands and second, that his skating needed to improve. When he arrived at Shattuck, Ward said he was a little heavy-footed and 'kind of a thumper.' 'You could feel him coming behind you,' Ward said. Advertisement Part of that was the constant growing and the reality that things hadn't fallen into place for him yet. In Madison, Brandt set him up with their skating coach, Amy Claggett. Claggett would skate with the team once a week, and Lee another time. They worked on lengthening his stride to match his longer legs, his efficiency with his arm movement and also moving his feet more and the puck quicker — and trusting that he'd get it back. Lee said he enjoyed picking her brain about things that he could take into practice. Once the growth spurts slowed and three inches a year turned to one inch a year, his skating really started to come, and the results showed. In the agility testing for the prospects at the Chipotle All-American Game, he ranked near the top. 'It was something that he worked on, that he was mindful of, and it's something that he's continuing to grow into,' Brandt said of Lee's skating. 'He has continued to adapt to his growth while continuing to work on his skating. Just in a year, his foot speed improved noticeably.' Last season, he also worked hard with Madison's strength and conditioning coach Jason Johnson. Together, they didn't just maintain his weight in season (usually the goal), but actually managed to add five pounds. The coaching staff at MSU noticed it right away (that he was thicker in the shoulders and filling out) when he arrived on campus following Predators development camp earlier this summer. The results showed in the testing at the NHL Scouting Combine, too. He finished first in vertical jump (with a standing vertical jump of 25.67 inches), 13th in the no arm vertical jump, 10th in left-hand grip (151 pounds) and tied for 14th in pullups with 12. 'I get his skating needs to come, but look out,' DeMichiel said. 'I don't think he's done growing either. Unreal kid, too. Great energy to him. He adores the game.' Advertisement He has also always been 'a competitive little guy,' according to Ward, which has helped him mitigate against his size and skating at different points in his career. Ward said that Shattuck actually got lucky that he was as small as he was because the players who have his skill and also more physical stature at an early age have 'everybody in the world wanting them.' 'It was a blessing that he started out as a little guy. And now that he's moving on out into the big, real hockey world, he has been blessed again, and he has had a growth spurt. Because he's not afraid of the gym,' Wars said. 'He's a strong kid, a farmer strong kid. He's wiry strong. He can hold his own, and he can hang. He's a good athlete. He's got good explosiveness. And he's losing his heavy feet. Now that he's getting stronger in his legs and his core, he can lift them up, and set them down, and get back, and cut and stop and start.' Because of that development, Ward said Nightingale and his staff are now the lucky ones. '(Nightingale) has got a good player. And he's a wonderful kid. He gets it. Like the tortoise does win the race and he has just had to stick with it,' Ward said. 'He's just a rink rat, throwback kind of kid. If he could be up at the rink all day long, whether it's on the ice or just in the dressing room, or training, or laughing, or just shooting the breeze with his buddies, he would be. He's just a rat, and in the greatest, most affectionate, most competitive way. (He's) a really good teammate, and he plays his ass off, and he has finally grown. And I'm so happy for him because he is a completely different person.' The Predators will be the next lucky ones. 'I was telling all of the guys from the (NHL) when they were calling and asking questions about him, if you don't take him when you have the chance to take him, you're going to be kicking yourself in four or five years because this kid's going to be ripping it up,' Ward said. Advertisement In that way, Ward thinks Lee's metamorphosis actually helped his development 'because it's almost a curse if you're a young kid and you're already the fastest skater or the biggest kid and you don't develop things in your game that are nuanced-based that are in your brain and your soul.' 'He came into his love of the game as a little guy and learned how to manipulate his way through the trees,' Ward said. 'And now he's a good, big average-sized kid, and he can handle his own, and I'm sure he's loving being on the other side of a few checks here.' Ask Brandt and Ward what they'll remember most about coaching Lee, and they both start with how much fun it was and how hardworking he was. 'Right from when Ryker stepped onto the ice, we knew his approach every day,' Ward said. 'We do skills every day, and when he gets on the ice and it's his turn, he takes every rep serious. He can also challenge players in one-on-one situations or small-area games, but he makes it fun. He's got a contagious attitude that he brings to the rink, and it's one of work ethic, but also one that he truly enjoys doing what he does.' But they always come back to his hands. For Brandt, it's the way he does it all with his head up. And he said Lee's edges while handling don't get talked about enough, either. 'He can cut on a dime and use his body and torque his body in different ways,' Brandt said. 'He can still skate, he can still make a play, all while having the puck on a string. And as a defender, that's hard because if you make a wrong read, it's a dangerous thing when he's got his head up. And then he also loves to shoot it, so as a goaltender, you're never sure if he's going to pass or shoot it, and his deceptiveness adds to his stick skills.' For Ward, it's the absurdity of the way he always finds his way in and out of the tightest cracks in coverage. Even on a team with guys such as Zellers, the reigning USHL Player of the Year, and Aidan Park, a draft pick of the Oilers known for his hands, it was Lee who was 'The Wizard.' Advertisement 'You could put three of us, four of us, in a phone booth and we'd never touch the puck,' Ward said. 'He's got that ability. And he can wire it, too. Like he can shoot it and he's not afraid to score. He's not one of these guys that is just enamored with stickhandling. He's just as enamored with scoring.' Ask Lee where his hands come from, and he says it's twofold. They were honed with hard work in his basement, but they were also a necessity of his reality as a smaller player. 'I had to learn how to be smarter and put myself in good positions,' Lee said. With his new size, he's learning to use his body more as well. Between development camp with the Preds and the World Junior Summer Showcase, he has also been in East Lansing working out with Michigan State's strength and conditioning coach Will Morlock, who he said was one of the main reasons he and others are now choosing the Spartans. 'I've been working with him ever since I got on campus, and the workouts have been hard, but that's exactly what I need, and he kind of caters everything to what you need specifically,' Lee said. After a strong start at the World Junior Summer Showcase, he's excited to continue to show USA Hockey the progress he has made this fall — and that he's more than just his hands — with his sights set on making the team in December. 'Obviously, I have an offensive game and I can bring offense to this team, but I also want to prove that I can outwork opponents and play in all situations for them,' he said. (Photo of Ryker Lee: Madison Capitols / Rosenau Photography)
New York Times
8 hours ago
- New York Times
Philadelphia Flyers fan survey: What do you think of Briere, Tocchet, Michkov and more?
It's been a newsworthy few months for the Philadelphia Flyers. John Tortorella was replaced by Rick Tocchet. Trevor Zegras was acquired from Anaheim. Porter Martone is now arguably the top prospect in the organization, while another goalie and depth center were acquired in free agency. We're also about to enter the third year of the Daniel Briere and Keith Jones era — and with summer here, it's a good time, in our opinion, to gauge fan sentiment in the form of a brief survey. Results and analysis will be presented in a future piece. Anyone having trouble viewing the survey also can use this link. (Photo of Matvei Michkov: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images) Loading…
