Sports
Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold’s deferred destiny
TWO YEARS AGO, Sam Darnold sat at a small round table in a Hilton ballroom just outside of Las Vegas. Several reporters visited the table he shared with another San Francisco 49ers teammate throughout the week of Super Bowl media availability, but many more maneuvered around it on their way to talk to someone more important. Darnold was just a backup hidden in a maze of dozens of tables. He wasn’t the star anymore, and he had chosen to fade into the background for his own good.
As Darnold sat unbothered at his table, a reporter asked if he had given thought to the best way to develop a quarterback. What had he learned in the six NFL seasons after he left college early and was drafted No. 3 by the New York Jets, saw “ghosts,” got dumped by the Jets and started over twice since? What does a young quarterback need?
“Just consistency in the organization, and trusting, too,” Darnold said in 2024. “If things don’t go well — which, having a rookie quarterback — they’re not all going to be C.J. Stroud. You’re not just going to go out there and ball out. It takes a really special coach and leadership to be able to have trust and keep everything together for at least a couple years. Let the kid grow into his skin, and after a couple years, you kind of know, if everything’s the same and if you have the same people, GM, coaches.”
That combination of consistency and trust was something Darnold, who had four head coaches in his first five seasons, hadn’t known in the NFL up to that point, and wouldn’t have it until he signed a three-year contract to be Seattle’s starting quarterback in March. He was comfortable enough that for the first time, he bought a house.
“You’d like to think patience is the lesson [from Sam’s career],” Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said, “but the NFL is not about patience. It’s not a fair league. … Sometimes, you get your tail fired, and then you get to go try somewhere else, and you just make sure that you got better from that last experience. … That’s what Sam’s done.”
The NFL’s draft structure routinely welcomes the most talented young quarterbacks to the worst-run organizations. Their rights are usually controlled by bottom-dwelling teams that lack the patience to figure out how to win, and like clockwork, the coaching staff tasked with developing them is fired. Despite the Jets’ best attempts to develop Darnold, once he left the organization, he strategically pieced together the foundation he had not been afforded at the start of his career.
When then-Niners quarterback coach Brian Griese called Darnold during the early 2023 offseason to recruit him for a reset season as Brock Purdy‘s backup, Griese asked Darnold how he viewed himself coming out of the tough times.
Griese said Darnold answered, “I like who I am.”
“That really cemented for me that he was the right guy,” Griese said. “New York was brutal. … If I had sat down with him and talked with him and he didn’t believe in himself, then I don’t think we would have been interested in San Francisco. So, the fact that he went through what he did, and he came out on the other side with his emotional resilience intact, that gave him a chance.
“What he was seeing on his reads and how he was supposed to play, there was uncertainty there, and that uncertainty is a death sentence for quarterbacks. But he never lost confidence in himself.”
Although Seattle’s offense reached the end zone only once, Darnold’s escapability was the X factor for the offense in the Seahawks’ 29-13 win Sunday night. He dodged and spun out of pressure from the New England Patriots‘ defense multiple times.
Those who know Darnold well say he isn’t motivated to prove the haters wrong, but to prove his teammates and family right. He found that trust and consistency that he said is crucial for quarterback development. He was a Super Bowl-losing backup quarterback then, and now he’s a Super Bowl champion.
WHEN DARNOLD’S FORMER coaches and teammates are asked to describe him, the same word continues to come up: resilient.
Darnold’s private quarterback coach, Jordan Palmer, who played seven years in the NFL, said that Darnold’s resiliency is the reason he has resurrected his career.
Quarterbacks who play through physical injuries are typically considered the toughest, Palmer said, but “I actually don’t think that’s hard.”
“Going through what Sam went through for four or five years, not all these tough guys that can take a hit can live through that. Sam’s one of the toughest quarterbacks I’ve ever been around, and it has nothing to do with his physical toughness.”
Palmer thinks Darnold first started improving in 2022, during his second season in Carolina, which gave up a second-round pick in a trade for him despite three subpar seasons with the Jets. Darnold lost the QB competition to Baker Mayfield and started the season on injured reserve because of an ankle sprain. Coach Matt Rhule was fired, and then Darnold came back from injury to go 4-2 as the Panthers’ starting quarterback for the final six games of the season, and kept Carolina in the hunt for the NFC South title.
Carolina’s offensive coordinator at the time was Ben McAdoo, who, despite now working for the Super Bowl rival Patriots, still considers himself “a big fan of Sam.”
Darnold, then in his fifth season, “was still a raw player in a lot of ways,” McAdoo said. He worked with him on tying his feet to his eyes, so that Darnold could eliminate the hesitancy in his progressions and let his footwork tell him when to move off his first read.
“We tried to break the feet down, and build him back up,” McAdoo said. “Spend a little more time on fundamentals than he did in the past.”
McAdoo said Darnold proved to him that he could reclaim his career during two plays in Carolina’s Week 17 game at Tampa, with the NFC South title on the line. The Panthers lost the game, but Darnold threw a touchdown pass to receiver DJ Moore on third down from the Buccaneers’ 24-yard-line, a pass that McAdoo said was a checkdown off his first read. And later in the red zone again on third down, Darnold made “a tremendous read” to find Shi Smith, his third option, on a dig route for another touchdown.
“Everything happens faster in the red zone,” McAdoo said. “It’s a tough read and a long way to go to get through that progression, and he was on it. I was like, ‘This guy has a chance!'”
After that 2022 season, Darnold became a free agent. McAdoo said he hoped Carolina would hire interim head coach Steve Wilks permanently and re-sign Darnold to keep building off the progress McAdoo had seen, but Carolina moved on from both.
“A lot of the time, the quarterback takes the blame, and the quarterback gets the blame,” said backup quarterback P.J.Walker, who also started games for Carolina that season. “But not a lot of things was on Sam specifically. That situation was tough. It never was a mesh of offense, defense and special teams all playing well. You never could put it all together.”
AS SAN FRANCISCO’S QBs coach, Griese studied all the free agent quarterbacks ahead of the 2023 offseason. It didn’t take him long to realize Darnold was “head and shoulders above” the rest of the class, he said, and “physically, one of the top two or three throwers of the ball in the league.”
Starting quarterback Brock Purdy was coming off elbow surgery, and the team wasn’t certain when he’d be ready to play, so the 49ers needed a “bona fide” backup.
“As I started digging into his tape, I saw that there was not a whole lot of foundation and structure that he had been given in his first three, four years in the league,” Griese said. “I knew that he was made of the right stuff. I knew he had the right talent. It was just a matter of, could we convince him to come to San Francisco to be a backup?”
Griese and Palmer said Darnold had multiple opportunities with other teams that offseason to compete for starting jobs, but chose San Francisco to take a year to learn from Kyle Shanahan instead.
“He takes a huge pay cut to go there,” Palmer said. “Myself, his agent, a couple of us were big on, you need a redshirt year. It’s like going to Harvard, or night school, you need to go sit in a room with [Kyle] Shanahan.”
Griese said he was honest with Darnold during his recruiting call about what he needed to improve. Darnold turned the ball over — a lot. He threw 55 interceptions and fumbled 35 times in 46 games during his first five seasons.
“He was erratic at times,” Griese said, “and it’s impossible to play this position in the NFL when you have any uncertainty or any doubt in your mind. I could see that on the tape, and we talked about that, and he confirmed it.”
Griese’s pitch was convincing: The Niners’ coaching staff and Shanahan’s offensive scheme could help Darnold find confidence in what he was seeing on the field.
“I told him that he needed to refocus and take more of a 30,000-foot view of where he was in his journey,” Griese said. “To understand what his strengths were and to understand the situations that he had been in, and how we could create a foundation underneath him that was solid enough that he could see how good a player he could be. That’s what he bought into.”
Even though he was headed into his sixth season, he was only 26 years old, and the Niners’ staff still thought he had room to grow.
“He just understood, I got another 10 plus years to play, and I want to be able to be good for a long time. That was awesome, just so rare, for any player,” a source close to the Niners said.
In the Niners’ first QB meeting during the offseason program, Griese said he asked the QBs why they play. When it was Darnold’s turn, Griese said he talked about his relationships with his teammates during his Jets career and how hard it was to come back into the locker room week after week after losing games. “When you work your ass off as hard as you possibly can, and you don’t see progress and then the scaffolding around you starts to fade and crumble and crash,” Griese said.
Seattle run game coordinator Rick Dennison was the Jets’ offensive line coach during Darnold’s rookie season in 2018. During Super Bowl media availability in San Jose, California, he described that year like this: “Whereas teams figure out how to win, we figured out how to lose.”
Darnold said during a Super Bowl week news conference that his Jets era taught him to “flush bad plays, flush bad games.”
“Early in my career, I was really hard on myself,” he said. “After a bad rep or a bad practice, I would let it affect my attitude a little bit. … It’s football, we’re not always going to be perfect. Jerry Rice has a quote that he never had a perfect practice or a perfect game.”
Darnold’s detailing of his Jets trials was an important perspective for Purdy to hear, Griese says, because the second-year starter and last pick of the 2022 draft wore rose-colored glasses. Purdy started as a rookie midseason after Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt, played well right away and in his first season, the Niners made it to the NFC Championship Game.
“But we have unbelievable support systems around him from an organization standpoint,” Griese says. “It’s easy for a young player to think, ‘Oh, this is how it should always go.'”
Griese said the Niners staff saw Darnold’s potential immediately during OTAs and training camp, particularly Darnold’s “underrated” athleticism.
“His ability to roll left and to get his body in position to make throws while he’s rolling against his throwing arm was really special,” Griese says. “When you see him on these bootlegs, which Klint [Kubiak] loves to run to the left with Sam, his ability to contort his body is not natural. He makes it look easy.”
Darnold only played one game that season, a meaningless Week 18 matchup against a Los Angeles Rams team that was also resting its starters, but he’d shown enough that season in his support role that multiple sources said Niners assistant general manager Adam Peters, who was hired that January as the Washington Commanders general manager, tried hard to sign Darnold with his new club.
But the Commanders had the No. 2 overall pick in 2024 and would be drafting a quarterback, so Darnold chose to sign a one-year deal with the Vikings, who also would be drafting a quarterback, but later in the first round.
Then, rookie J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus during the preseason and Darnold started the entire season, taking the Vikings to a playoff berth and his first postseason appearance.
Darnold and the Vikings won 14 games, but lost the last game of the regular season at Detroit with a playoff bye at stake. The next week, Minnesota exited the playoffs in the wild-card beatdown at the hands of the Rams, who sacked Darnold nine times.
“A lot was put on his shoulders to really lead the team to 14 wins,” then-Vikings backup quarterback Nick Mullens says. “And now that he’s got a complete football [team], I’m not totally surprised. The run game is really good in Seattle.”
The back-to-back losses in the most important games of the season tested the Vikings’ trust in Darnold, as many analysts began another round of questioning whether Darnold could ever win a big game.
“It was not only Sam’s fault,” Mullens says. “To say that two weeks before those games, he was a top desired, top-dollar free agent, and then he plays two bad games after winning 14, and then he’s, a ‘I don’t know if he truly is the guy or not.’ To go from that high to that low, I think, is an unfair judgment.”
Minnesota let Darnold leave after his career year and decided to roll with McCarthy for 2025. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said Darnold had “earned the right” to explore free agency.
“Man, to win 14 games in the NFL and not know if you’re good enough?” Mullens says. “That’s brutal. Like, what do you want, undefeated?”
ON SATURDAY NIGHT before each game, Darnold, Seattle backup quarterback Drew Lock and QB3 Jalen Milroe get together at a table in the team hotel ballroom about an hour before the team dinner opens. The three quarterbacks review each play on the call sheet together, especially the ones that aren’t printed on the wristband.
“I’ll call it out to him,” Lock says. “He’ll call it back to me, and we’ll talk through all of our cans and alerts. I would vouch for any quarterback to do it.”
The group Saturday night study session is new to Lock. Before this season with Darnold, Lock used to study on his own at home in the afternoon before reporting to the team hotel.
Wide receiver Cooper Kupp comes an hour early too, and brings the quarterbacks each an order of pho, the Vietnamese soup dish. Kupp is responsible for finding the pho spot for each road trip, and the group ranks and reviews Kupp’s choices like a trio of food critics after they’ve finished reviewing the call sheet.
“We get another dinner together,” Lock says. “It’s also good because a lot of guys get there early and they see you working, putting a little extra time in.”
Griese said Darnold picked up the QB group study habit from Purdy’s preparation during his year in San Francisco, and he has taken it with him since.
“What does a guy that has been in the league five years and experienced what [Sam] has, have to learn from a second-year player?” Griese says. “But Sam did that.”
In March, Seattle general manager John Schneider traded quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders and signed Darnold in free agency, a move that wasn’t unanimously seen as an upgrade.
“All I knew is that people were writing him off,” said Seattle linebacker Ernest Jones IV, after Seattle won the NFC title game. “Once he signed to us, we were immediately supposed to be worse than we were the year before.”
Jones — and many of his teammates — have taken on the role of Darnold defender. Kupp wore an “I <3 Sam Darnold” shirt to a Super Bowl media availability. When Darnold threw four interceptions against the Rams in Week 11, Jones dropped an F-bomb to let everyone know how serious he was about Darnold.
“Sam’s been balling,” Jones said postgame. “If we want to try to define Sam by this game, Sam’s had us in every f—ing game. So, for him to sit there and say, ‘That’s my fault,’ no it’s not.
When Darnold’s high school football coach Jaime Ortiz saw the clip of Jones IV, he mailed him a San Clemente Tritons football T-shirt with a note that said, “Thanks for having Sam’s back.”
“Watching a guy stand up for Sam, it was good to see, because Sam takes ownership when his team doesn’t do well,” Ortiz said.
“He’s my QB, you don’t put hands on my QB,” Jones said during Super Bowl week. “From the first day we met him, regardless of what he was labeled as before he got here, he got a clean slate with us and he has shown and proved why we believe he would get us to this point.”
On the Thursday ahead of Seattle’s first playoff game against San Francisco, Darnold injured his left oblique at practice. Lock says he didn’t throw again until the game, and Macdonald said he barely practiced the following week ahead of Seattle’s NFC Championship Game win against the Rams when he threw for three touchdowns and 346 yards. He was limited in eight practices until the Thursday before the Super Bowl.
Lock has had a similar oblique injury, so he has an appreciation for what Darnold has been playing through.
“You feel it in everything you do,” Lock says. “Especially throwing. We were both front side obliques, so pulling into it, turning into it, it’s gnarly.”
Lock said his own oblique injury was bad enough that he took a Toradol shot on gameday even though he was a backup — just in case he had to play. “Those obliques are nothing to mess with.”
Because Darnold has played well through the injury and downplayed it publicly, Lock said no one outside the team is appreciating what Darnold has done in the last two games before the Super Bowl. “You can tell how good Sam is mechanically, to be able to go out, trick your brain into thinking nothing’s going on, and still be able to deliver the football,” Lock says. “It’s extremely hard.”
0:36
Sam Darnold throws the 1st TD of Super Bowl LX to AJ Barner
Sam Darnold finds AJ Barner in the end zone for a 16-yard Seahawks touchdown.
THE VIKINGS FIRED general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah the Friday after Darnold went toe-for-toe with Matthew Stafford and led his team to a Super Bowl appearance. The suspiciously late timing of the firing, after Adofo-Mensah spent the week at the Senior Bowl, made it impossible not to connect the dots with Darnold’s success for another club. Since Adofo-Mensah’s firing, several Vikings players, including receiver Justin Jefferson, have done press tours singing Darnold’s praises and wishing he were still their quarterback.
“I definitely feel like we would have done better [with Darnold],” Jefferson told USA Today.
“I felt like we had everything we needed [last year],” Vikings running back Aaron Jones said on the Nightcap podcast. “But we are not GMs, that’s outside of us. When you got a group of guys behind a QB, and he wants to stay somewhere, I think you should try to make it work.”
Jamal Adams, who played with Darnold his first two seasons in New York, called Minnesota’s decision a “headscratcher.”
“Why would you let him go?” he told ESPN.
And former Jets GM Mike Maccagnan told ESPN, “You would think, after winning 14 games, they would’ve figured out a way to hold on to him. I personally would’ve done that. At the end of the day, you can’t have enough good quarterbacks.”
There’s a lesson in Darnold’s career for both clubs and quarterbacks, if they’re open to receive it.
“You can’t write him off right away,” says the source close to the Niners. “The Baker Mayfields and Sam Darnolds and those guys that have that confidence, the belief in themselves and the mental toughness. If they have the talent, don’t give up on them.”
“It’s easy to say, this guy’s a bust,” says the same source close to the Niners. But the whole environment around him plays into why he didn’t have initial success.”
Darnold didn’t let the turbulent situations doom or define him. He looked inward, had hard conversations with the people who supported him and came to tough conclusions. Eight seasons later, he saved himself by finding patience in his own development and trust that his unconventional choices would work.
It’s not a coincidence that Mac Jones, another first-round pick (2021) and “bust” who is represented by the same agency as Darnold, is following the same playbook as a Niners backup quarterback.
And for those who are still unconvinced, Darnold isn’t bothered, and his Darnold defenders know there’s more to come.
“This is not out of nowhere,” Palmer says. “It started out his last year in Carolina. It led into what he did every day in practice. You talk to the Niners guys off the record, they’re like, yeah, we thought this would happen. We watched him every single day in practice. Everyone was trying to get Sam that year, and he chose the Vikings, and then Kevin O’Connell gets [NFL] Coach of the Year and gets all the credit. How about some credit for Sam?”
“This is a repeatable pattern. Wait until you see how good the Seahawks are going to be in three years when he’s not learning the system like he did all offseason. Anybody who thinks it all came together this year, no, this is how dynasties start.”
–ESPN Jets reporter Rich Cimini contributed to this story.
There are just three weeks until the start of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. As chaotic as the standings have been the past few weeks, it’s only going to get wilder now that the pressure is ramped up.
NHL fans are in for a treat on what’s been dubbed Showdown Saturday, with 15 games throughout the course of the day.
And instead of the usual “eight games starting at 7 p.m. ET” trick, the start times have been staggered earlier in the day, too!
So without any further preamble, let’s dive right into the storylines ahead of each contest in regards to playoff positioning, the draft lottery and more:
Ottawa Senators at Tampa Bay Lightning
1 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
The Senators were in a playoff spot earlier this week, and are pushing to get there again. They enter play a point behind the Islanders and two behind the Bruins for the wild-card spots; importantly, Ottawa holds the regulation-wins tiebreaker over both of those clubs. On the other side, the Lightning still have designs on an Atlantic Division title; they are two points and two regulation wins behind the Sabres, with two games in hand.
Florida Panthers at New York Islanders
1 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
Well, we knew the Panthers might be a little out of sorts this season after two straight Cups (and a Cup Final appearance the year before that), and their playoff hopes are closing in on zero. However, they are in line for a top-10 draft pick, currently sitting No. 8 in the lottery standings. The Islanders are hanging on to a playoff spot by a thread; getting wins in games like this one against a non-playoff team are crucial.
Anaheim Ducks at Edmonton Oilers
3:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
If you’d told a hockey fan prior to the season that this game would pit a team with a five-point Pacific Division lead against one battling it out for the No. 2 or 3 seed, they’d likely have replied, “Wow, good for the Ducks to eke their way in!” Instead, it’s Connor McDavid and friends whose playoff lives are in a bit more peril. A win here by Anaheim would put it seven points ahead of Edmonton, while a decision the other way would drop the Ducks’ lead to three.
Minnesota Wild at Boston Bruins
5 p.m. ET (NHL Network)
This will be the final meeting of the season between U.S. Olympic teammates Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman (Bruins) with Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber (Wild) — unless they meet again in the Cup Final. The Wild are on the cusp of clinching a spot, with a magic number of two; the Bruins have quite a bit more work to do, with the Senators and Red Wings nipping at their heels. Also of note: the B’s are just two points back of the Canadiens for the No. 3 spot in the Atlantic.
Dallas Stars at Pittsburgh Penguins
5 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
Another green vs. yellow matchup! The Stars have clinched a postseason spot and are likely to be paired up with the Wild in Round 1, as they enter Saturday nine points back of the Avalanche for first in the Central. Pittsburgh has been swapping spots with the Blue Jackets and Islanders recently. As it stands heading into this one, the Penguins are the Metro’s No. 2 seed, one point and two regulation wins ahead of both Columbus and New York.
New Jersey Devils at Carolina Hurricanes
5 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
The Hurricanes appear destined to win another Metro crown, with an eight-point lead over the Penguins. What remains to be won is the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed; Carolina enters the day tied in the standings with Buffalo, but ahead on the games played tiebreaker. Of note, they have five fewer regulation wins than the Sabres. As for the Devils, a late-season surge has been encouraging for 2026-27, but a playoff spot would require an extraordinary amount of help from opponents of the teams ahead of them. New Jersey sits No. 12 in the draft lottery standings.
San Jose Sharks at Columbus Blue Jackets
5 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
Last season, the Blue Jackets remained in the playoff race until the final week of the season, ultimately just missing the cut by two points. This season, the Hockey Gods appear to be on their side, as they hold the Metro’s No. 3 spot heading into Saturday. They are a point behind the Penguins for second, and a tiebreaker ahead of the Islanders. San Jose finished 44 points out of a playoff spot in 2024-25, so the fact that they have any chance at all at this stage is a vast improvement. But if they are going to make it, they’ll need to start earning points more regularly; the Predators hold the second Western wild card six points ahead of the Sharks, and the Golden Knights are eight points ahead in the battle for third in the Pacific.
Seattle Kraken at Buffalo Sabres
5:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
The Kraken are even closer to the playoff mix than the Sharks — three points behind Nashville, five behind Vegas — but face an even more challenging opponent Saturday. The Sabres are on an epic run; as a result, they hold a two-point lead in the Atlantic Division, and are a tiebreaker behind Carolina for first overall in the East.
Toronto Maple Leafs at St. Louis Blues
7 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
This is the first matchup of the slate featuring two lottery-bound teams; unfortunately for the Leafs, their pick belongs to Boston unless it falls in the top five. As of now, Toronto is 10th in the lotto standings, in the middle of a cluster of eight teams between 71 and 76 points. One of the teams at the end of that cluster is the St. Louis Blues, who hold the No. 5 position with 71 points.
Montreal Canadiens at Nashville Predators
7 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
Is it a bigger surprise that the Canadiens are on pace for 104 points, or that the Predators are in line to earn a playoff spot after how dreadful last season (and the start of this one) went? Montreal is four points (and seven regulation wins) back of Tampa Bay for second in the Atlantic, and has a two-point edge on Boston to retain their No. 3 position. Nashville is just a point ahead of Los Angeles for the second Western wild card, and three points behind Utah for the first.
Winnipeg Jets at Colorado Avalanche
7 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
The NHL awards the Presidents’ Trophy to the team with the best regular-season record. In 2024-25, that team was the Jets. In 2025-26, that team will likely be the Avalanche. Sadly for the wonderful fans of Winnipeg, the Jets’ success last season didn’t carry over into this one, and they enter Saturday five points back of Nashville for the wild card. Maybe the club will have some lottery luck, and it enters the day in seventh in the draft standings.
Philadelphia Flyers at Detroit Red Wings
8 p.m. ET (ABC)
Time is running out for both of these teams to vault into a playoff spot. As play begins Saturday, the Red Wings are one point back of the second wild card, two back of the first, and four back of Montreal for the Atlantic’s No. 3 seed. The Flyers have four additional points to make up — although their pathway in the Metro is slightly easier, with the Blue Jackets five points ahead in the No. 3 spot and the Penguins six ahead for second.
Utah Mammoth at Los Angeles Kings
9 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
As the end of Anze Kopitar‘s career comes into sight, the Kings remain alive for a playoff berth, but must surpass the Predators for a wild card (they are one point back), the Golden Knights for No. 3 in the Pacific (they are three points behind) … or the Mammoth themselves, who are four points ahead. One wrinkle: Los Angeles will almost certainly need to get ahead of teams on standings points, as they are well behind everyone else in the regulation wins column.
Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames
10 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
Here’s our other draft lottery positioning game of the day — although it’s exceedingly unlikely that any team “catches” the Canucks, who are 15 points clear of anyone else in the No. 1 position in the draft lottery standings. Calgary enters the day in fourth in the lottery standings, one point behind the Blackhawks and three behind the Rangers.
Washington Capitals at Vegas Golden Knights
10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
Will this be Alex Ovechkin‘s final visit to Las Vegas as a member of the Capitals? If so, his team could really use the points as it looks to chase down even a wild-card spot. As the slate begins, the Caps are six points back of the Isles and Blue Jackets, although if they do get back in the mix, their regulation-wins total (currently 31) might well beat out anyone if it comes down to tiebreakers. As for the hosts, the Golden Knights appear much more likely to return to the playoffs — largely because of the relative weakness of the Pacific Division — but could certainly use any additional points they can get to bolster their chances.
Every team has around 10 games remaining before the regular season concludes April 16, and we’ll help you keep track of it all here on the NHL playoff watch every day. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide details on all the playoff races — along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2026 NHL draft lottery.
Note: Playoff chances are via Stathletes.
Jump ahead:
Current playoff matchups
Today’s schedule
Last night’s scores
Expanded standings
Race for No. 1 pick
Current playoff matchups
Eastern Conference
A1 Buffalo Sabres vs. WC1 Boston Bruins
A2 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. A3 Montreal Canadiens
M1 Carolina Hurricanes vs. WC2 New York Islanders
M2 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. M3 Columbus Blue Jackets
Western Conference
C1 Colorado Avalanche vs. WC2 Nashville Predators
C2 Dallas Stars vs. C3 Minnesota Wild
P1 Anaheim Ducks vs. WC1 Utah Mammoth
P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. P3 Vegas Golden Knights
Saturday’s games
Note: All times ET. All games not on TNT or NHL Network are available to stream on ESPN+ (local blackout restrictions apply).
Ottawa Senators at Tampa Bay Lightning, 1 p.m.
Florida Panthers at New York Islanders, 1 p.m.
Anaheim Ducks at Edmonton Oilers, 3:30 p.m.
Minnesota Wild at Boston Bruins, 5 p.m. (NHLN)
Dallas Stars at Pittsburgh Penguins, 5 p.m.
New Jersey Devils at Carolina Hurricanes, 5 p.m.
San Jose Sharks at Columbus Blue Jackets, 5 p.m.
Seattle Kraken at Buffalo Sabres, 5:30 p.m.
Toronto Maple Leafs at St. Louis Blues, 7 p.m.
Montreal Canadiens at Nashville Predators, 7 p.m.
Winnipeg Jets at Colorado Avalanche, 7 p.m.
Philadelphia Flyers at Detroit Red Wings, 8 p.m. (ABC)
Utah Mammoth at Los Angeles Kings, 9 p.m.
Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames, 10 p.m.
Washington Capitals at Vegas Golden Knights, 10:30 p.m.
Friday night’s scoreboard
Detroit Red Wings 5, Buffalo Sabres 2
New York Rangers 6, Chicago Blackhawks 1
Expanded standings
Atlantic Division
Points: 96
Regulation wins: 37
Playoff position: A1
Games left: 9
Points pace: 107.8
Next game: vs. SEA (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Magic number: 10
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 94
Regulation wins: 35
Playoff position: A2
Games left: 11
Points pace: 108.6
Next game: vs. OTT (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Magic number: 12
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 90
Regulation wins: 28
Playoff position: A3
Games left: 11
Points pace: 103.9
Next game: @ NSH (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 93.8%
Magic number: 16
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 88
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 10
Points pace: 100.2
Next game: vs. MIN (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 65%
Magic number: 18
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 86
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 97.9
Next game: @ TB (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 74.5%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 19
Points: 86
Regulation wins: 28
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 97.9
Next game: vs. PHI (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 32.1%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 19
Points: 75
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 84.3
Next game: @ STL (Saturday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 6
Points: 73
Regulation wins: 27
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 11
Points pace: 84.3
Next game: @ NYI (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 8
Metro Division
Points: 96
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: M1
Games left: 11
Points pace: 110.9
Next game: vs. NJ (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Magic number: 10
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 88
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: M2
Games left: 10
Points pace: 100.2
Next game: vs. DAL (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 90.1%
Magic number: 18
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 87
Regulation wins: 27
Playoff position: M3
Games left: 10
Points pace: 99.1
Next game: vs. SJ (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 82.1%
Magic number: 19
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 87
Regulation wins: 27
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 97.7
Next game: vs. FLA (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 49.1%
Magic number: 19
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 82
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 11
Points pace: 94.7
Next game: @ DET (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 10.8%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 17
Points: 81
Regulation wins: 31
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 91.0
Next game: @ VGK (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 2.3%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 12
Points: 76
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 11
Points pace: 87.8
Next game: @ CAR (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 0.3%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 11
Points: 67
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 75.3
Next game: vs. NYI (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 0%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: OUT
Central Division
Points: 106
Regulation wins: 42
Playoff position: C1
Games left: 11
Points pace: 122.4
Next game: vs. WPG (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 100%
Magic number: IN
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 97
Regulation wins: 33
Playoff position: C2
Games left: 10
Points pace: 110.5
Next game: @ PIT (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 100%
Magic number: IN
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 94
Regulation wins: 26
Playoff position: C3
Games left: 9
Points pace: 105.6
Next game: @ BOS (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Magic number: 2
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 80
Regulation wins: 28
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 9
Points pace: 89.9
Next game: @ LA (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 96.4%
Magic number: 16
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 77
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 10
Points pace: 87.7
Next game: vs. MTL (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 34.9%
Magic number: 19
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 72
Regulation wins: 24
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 82.0
Next game: @ COL (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 2.3%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 15
Points: 71
Regulation wins: 26
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 11
Points pace: 82.0
Next game: vs. TOR (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 5.2%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 16
Points: 67
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 9
Points pace: 75.3
Next game: @ NJ (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 8
Pacific Division
Points: 86
Regulation wins: 24
Playoff position: P1
Games left: 10
Points pace: 97.9
Next game: @ EDM (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Magic number: 10
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 81
Regulation wins: 27
Playoff position: P2
Games left: 9
Points pace: 91.0
Next game: vs. ANA (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 94%
Magic number: 15
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 79
Regulation wins: 24
Playoff position: P3
Games left: 9
Points pace: 88.7
Next game: vs. WSH (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 97.7%
Magic number: 17
Tragic number: N/A
Points: 76
Regulation wins: 19
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 86.6
Next game: vs. UTA (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 38.2%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 19
Points: 74
Regulation wins: 25
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 11
Points pace: 85.5
Next game: @ BUF (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 5.9%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 19
Points: 71
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 12
Points pace: 83.2
Next game: @ CBJ (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 25.5%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 18
Points: 68
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 10
Points pace: 77.4
Next game: vs. VAN (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: 11
Points: 50
Regulation wins: 14
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 11
Points pace: 57.8
Next game: @ CGY (Saturday)
Playoff chances: 0%
Magic number: N/A
Tragic number: OUT
Note: An “x” with a team’s name means the club has clinched a playoff spot. An “e” means that the club has been mathematically eliminated.
Race for the No. 1 pick
The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the draw for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process can be found here. Atop draft boards for this summer is Gavin McKenna, a forward for Penn State.
Points: 50
Regulation wins: 14
Points: 67
Regulation wins: 20
Points: 67
Regulation wins: 20
Points: 68
Regulation wins: 23
Points: 71
Regulation wins: 26
Points: 71
Regulation wins: 20
Points: 72
Regulation wins: 24
Points: 73
Regulation wins: 27
Points: 74
Regulation wins: 25
Points: 75
Regulation wins: 23
Points: 76
Regulation wins: 19
Points: 76
Regulation wins: 25
Points: 81
Regulation wins: 31
Points: 82
Regulation wins: 22
Points: 86
Regulation wins: 28
Points: 86
Regulation wins: 32
*Note: The Maple Leafs’ pick belongs to the Bruins, unless it lands in the top five.
Opener Yasir Khan scored a quick 83-run knock as RawalPindiz set a 215-run target against Peshawar Zalmi in the third match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11 at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday.
Opting to bat first, RawalPindiz posted 214-4 in their 20 overs, after getting off to a flying start. Khan and captain Mohammad Rizwan set the tone, punishing anything loose and keeping the boundaries flowing.
The duo compiled a 50-run partnership, attacking from the outset as they aimed to take their team to a massive total in their PSL debut.
Khan led from the front, keeping the scoreboard ticking and raising his bat for his third PSL fifty. Rizwan was equally aggressive, striking consecutive boundaries to help the pair reach a 100-run opening stand.
However, Zalmi’s Ali Raza broke the partnership, dismissing Rizwan for 41 off 32 balls, featuring five fours and a six, on the first delivery of the 13th over, ending the 125-run stand.
Khan continued his assault, looking poised for a maiden PSL century, but he too fell to Raza in the 15th over, finishing at 83 off 46 deliveries, with seven fours and six sixes, leaving the team at 144-2.
In the final overs, Kamran Ghulam and Daryl Mitchell combined to accelerate the scoring, taking RawalPindiz past the 150-run mark.
However, their 41-run partnership was broken when Aaron Hardie struck, claiming his first wicket of the tournament by dismissing Ghulam for a 20-ball 37, which included two fours and three sixes.
In the first ball of the final over, Aamir Jamal struck, dismissing Mitchell, who scored 23 off 13 balls, including two sixes.
Sam Billings played a crucial cameo in the final over, scoring an unbeaten 18 off eight balls, including one four and two sixes, as Aamir conceded 17 runs. Abdullah Fazal also contributed five runs.
Raza was the standout bowler for Zalmi despite being expensive, finishing with figures of 2/42 in three overs, while Hardie and Jamal claimed one wicket each.
Playing XIs
Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Haris (wk), Kusal Mendis, Aaron Hardie, Farhan Yousuf, Michael Bracewell, Abdul Samad, Aamir Jamal, Sufiyan Muqeem, Shoriful Islam and Ali Raza.
RawalPindiz: Mohammad Rizwan (c/wk), Yasir Khan, Abdullah Fazal, Kamran Ghulam, Sam Billings, Daryl Mitchell, Amad Butt, Rishad Hossain, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir and Asif Afridi.
This is a developing story and is being updated with further details.
CHICAGO — Alabama players sat teary-eyed at their lockers Friday night at the United Center, still processing a season with plenty of twists before reaching its endpoint against Michigan in the Sweet 16.
The No. 4 seed Crimson Tide started their 14th different lineup against No. 1 seed Michigan, one that had carried them to two dominant wins in the NCAA tournament but ultimately wouldn’t measure up in a 90-77 loss. Alabama’s starters could have included center Charles Bediako and guard Aden Holloway, who both contributed during the season but are no longer with the team, albeit for very different reasons.
“We would not have gotten outrebounded by 13 tonight had we been able to continue to play [Bediako],” coach Nate Oats said.
Michigan held a 46-32 edge in rebounds and finished with 34 points in the paint, while the Tide had 20. Alabama’s Aiden Sherrell, a forward who had to play some center without another sizable low-post presence, acknowledged the season contained “some complicated things.”
“But as a team, we did a great job fighting all the adversity and keeping it between us,” he said.
Oats praised the group as one of the most enjoyable he has had, noting that the team’s leadership was the best he has seen in seven seasons at Alabama. The coach noted all the lineups Alabama used, and added that he “couldn’t be more proud of the group.”
The Tide played their third straight game without Holloway, their second-leading scorer (16.8 points per game) and a third-team All-SEC selection, who was arrested on a felony drug charge earlier this month. An Alabama judge granted Holloway’s request to travel Friday, but he did not join the team and remained banned from all school-related activities. Police found 2.1 pounds of marijuana in Holloway’s apartment after they executed a search warrant in Tuscaloosa.
Bediako’s absence was felt more in the Michigan loss, even though he last played for Alabama on Feb. 7 against Auburn. The 7-footer left Alabama for the NBA draft in 2023, signed a two-way NBA contract and played the past three seasons in the G League. He returned to play five games for the Tide and averaged 10 points and 4.6 rebounds while navigating the courts, but ultimately had a motion for a preliminary injunction denied by a state judge in February, ending his college career.
After Saturday’s loss, Oats referenced the case of Baylor center James Nnaji, another former NBA draft pick who never played in the league. Nnaji was cleared to play on Christmas Eve.
“We saw the opportunity to bring some size on after all the adversity we went through, after Nnaji was declared eligible, and most people, including ourselves, thought if they’re going to make Nnaji eligible, that Bediako would be eligible,” Oats said. “We had one judge who thought so. He would’ve definitely helped the situation with the rebounding.”
Guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and others said players have often talked about everything that transpired during the season, which is why they will never forget the 2025-26 team.
“We stayed together, we played for each other, we built off of continuous growth, selfless love and maximum effort,” Sherrell said. “We just stuck through this to those core values, and we went this far.”
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