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It appears the Jonathan Marchessault era in Vegas is over. The Golden Knights’ 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy winner didn’t agree to an extension as of Sunday night and is set to find a new home in free agency on Monday, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports.
Getting a Marchessault extension done in Vegas was always going to be a difficult proposition without a significant cap-clearing move, something that hasn’t happened to date.
He’s likely to command upward of $6M annually on the open market, a figure that would have swallowed up all of the Golden Knights’ remaining space, even with goaltender Robin Lehner’s $5M cap hit projected to remain on long-term injured reserve next season.
Among the teams expected to express interest in the 33-year-old on Monday include the Devils, reports The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta. They’re on the hunt for a top-six winger, especially after parting ways with prospect Alexander Holtz via trade to the Golden Knights and with Dawson Mercer and Ondrej Palat coming off underwhelming seasons.
Both Vegas and Marchessault were intent on a reunion, but Monday’s news isn’t the most surprising. LeBrun had indicated last week that Marchessault was preparing to move on from Sin City without an agreement in close reach.
The Quebec native immediately becomes one of the most attractive goal-scoring options on the market and will almost certainly have a new home within hours.
He’s coming off a career-high 42 goals for Vegas while also playing in all 82 games for the second time in his career. He added 27 assists for 69 points, six short of his career high of 75 set with the Knights back in 2017-18. Some regression should be expected, though, as he shot 4.2 percent higher than his career average of 11.6 percent last year.
More must-reads:
- Buyer beware: NHL free agents that teams should avoid this offseason
- Who is the greatest head coach in every NHL team's history?
- Can you name every player selected in the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft?
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Report: Dallas Cowboys sign running back Miles Sanders to one-year deal
According to Jeremy Fowler, the Dallas Cowboys have signed running back Miles Sanders to a one-year contract. Sanders, last playing for the Carolina Panthers, steps into a room in desperate need of talent. He will join Javonte Williams as free agents the Cowboys have signed this offseason at the position. Sanders is a former second-round pick of a division foe for Dallas, the Philadelphia Eagles. He spent four seasons there and was named to the Pro Bowl during the 2022 season. Carolina picked him up and saw the relationship last two years. In total, Sanders has rushed for 4,345 yards and 23 touchdowns. His most recent campaign in 2024 saw career lows with 55 carries, 205 yards, but escaped the threshold by securing two touchdowns, compared to one from the year before. For the longest time, Dallas has been linked with a running back in the 2025 NFL Draft. Ashton Jeanty has been a popular pick in mock drafts although, the Cowboys may wait until Day 2 to find their guy. At the very least, Sanders is a veteran back ready to compete for snaps. Carolina released Sanders at the beginning of the new league year, deciding to move on. Turns out, the Panthers have wound up swapping running backs with Dallas via free agency decision. Panthers, Cowboys swap running backs with Rico Dowdle signing in Carolina Rico Dowdle is moving on from the Dallas Cowboys and joining the Carolina Panthers. According to Mike Kaye of the Charlotte Observer, the former Cowboys running back and the Panthers have agreed to a one-year contract. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network then said the contract is worth up to $6.25 million. Shortly after the report, the Panthers announced they had agreed to terms with Rico Dowdle. He has ties to the area as he is from Asheville, North Carolina and played college football at the University of South Carolina. The Panthers are getting a running back who had a strong 2024 season. Dowdle rushed for 1,079 yards and two touchdowns while catching 39 passes for 249 yards and three scores. His 1,328 yards from scrimmage was 20th in the NFL. The Panthers were looking for another running back to complement Chuba Hubbard. They drafted Jonathon Brooks last year, but he is expected to miss most of the 2025 season due to a torn ACL. On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this report
'He had problems with David's intensity and work ethic': Dennis Rodman didn't respect David Robinson while they played together on Spurs
For two seasons, NBA icons Dennis Rodman and David Robinson were teammates on the San Antonio Spurs. And according to Jack Haley, who played with Rodman and Robinson, Rodman didn’t respect Robinson one bit. “Dennis had a real problem in his respect for David Robinson as a player,” Haley said in Roland Lazenby’s book Blood On the Horns: The Long Strange Ride of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. “He had problems with David’s intensity and work ethic in practice. One thing about Dave: Dave could be the most talented player and athlete in the NBA. … Therefore, he’s not a big practice guy. Not a big work ethic guy. By [January], Dave would have sat out 30 practices. It’s tendinitis. It’s, ‘I’m sore today.’ Whatever it was, Dennis is a practice guy, and it didn’t sit well with Dennis. That caused a lot of problems… “Dave tried everything … imaginable to bond with Dennis Rodman, to get through with Dennis Rodman to form a friendship. I’m good friends with Dennis and I’m good friends with Dave. Dave would ask me, ‘Why don’t the three of us go to lunch? Why don’t we sit down and try to talk?’ He would try to talk to Dennis about basketball to form a bond. Dennis wouldn’t respond. Dave is very religious. He felt that part of his quest was to get through to Dennis Rodman on a religious level, to try to turn his life around. That didn’t work out at all.” The Spurs traded Rodman to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 and Robinson was delighted about the move. Rodman finished his San Antonio career with averages of 5.6 points, 17.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.4 blocks in 128 games. The Bulls benefited significantly by adding Rodman, one of the best rebounders in NBA history. Chicago won three consecutive championships and went 72-10 in 1995-96. Rodman averaged 5.2 points and 15.3 rebounds with the Bulls, who beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA Finals and the Utah Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals. Rodman won three straight rebounding titles in Chicago. The Bulls won three NBA titles before acquiring Rodman. However, Rodman said in The Last Dance docuseries that Chicago wouldn’t have won three more rings without him. “You got the great Michael Jordan, the great Scottie Pippen, the great Phil Jackson, but if you take me away from this team, do they still win a championship? I don’t think so,” Rodman said in The Last Dance. “I love Michael Jordan to death. I love Scottie Pippen, all these guys, but they really don’t do the things that I do. I’m the only guy who does all the dirty work, taking abuse from other players. I wanna go out there and get my nose broke. I wanna get cut. Something that’s gonna really just bring out the hurt, the pain. I wanna feel that.” Rodman won five championships during his career, while Robinson won two. Both players are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
Mavericks owner's stunning claim on Luka Doncic trade contradicts GM Nico Harrison — and reality
Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he traded Luka Doncic to win now. Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont says he did it for the future. As part of the Bank of Texas Speaker Series from a Dallas-area real estate group, Dumont explained his motivations for the team sending Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. "After the trade deadline last year, we actually had the best record in basketball," Dumont told the group. "We got to the championship games, and we didn't win...We had to decide how to get better." Dumont added, "This [the trade] was a decision for the future." Aside from betraying his unfamiliarity with basketball by referring to the NBA Finals as the "championship games," Dumont's contention that the Mavericks made the move looking to the future, because other teams passed them, contrasts with Harrison, who considered the trade a move to "win now and in the future." It appears that the Mavericks weren't totally sure why they traded Doncic, aside from their desire not to give him a supermax extension this summer. Harrison wanted to win now and move forward without Doncic. Dumont seems to have already given up on the team that made the 2024 "championship games," even after their offseason additions of Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall and Quentin Grimes. If you take Dumont's comments at face value, the Mavs were looking to the future by trading 26-year-old Doncic for Anthony Davis, who recently turned 32. They followed up that move by sending the 24-year-old Grimes to the Philadelphia 76ers for 29-year-old Caleb Martin. They also received just one future first-round pick when they traded Doncic, hardly long-term thinking. All of those plans became moot when Davis was injured in his first game with the Mavericks and Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending ACL tear. Winning now and winning in the future both seem like a challenge. But it's hard to believe that Dumont is familiar with NBA basketball, especially if he considered his team uncompetitive. The Mavericks made the NBA Finals a year ago, and the Western Conference finals two years earlier. Dumont didn't think the Mavericks could compete with the elite teams, even in a season where they have gone 3-1 against the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, who they also defeated in last year's playoffs. Dumont may know the casino business well. He's in line to become the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, which is the casino and resort company that his late father-in-law, Sheldon Adelson, founded. So far, he hasn't demonstrated that same expertise when it comes to NBA basketball. Perhaps worse, he doesn't seem to be on the same page as his GM.
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