Matthew Tkachuk’s year just keeps getting better.
As if his second Stanley Cup wasn’t enough, on Wednesday, video game giant EA Sports revealed that none other than the Panthers star winger will grace the cover of their latest hockey title, NHL 26, which will be released on Sept. 12, 2025.
Tkachuk will be the lone athlete on the game’s standard edition – pictured in the Panthers’ red home jersey, lifting the Stanley Cup overhead. However, on the Deluxe edition, Tkachuk is joined by his brother, Brady, a left winger for the Ottawa Senators, and father, Keith, who played 18 years in the NHL.
Both editions are currently available for preorder, but the Deluxe for $100 comes with a week of early access starting Sept. 5 and a “Matthew Tkachuk 99 OVR item.” The Standard Edition costs $70 to pre-order.
The game will be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and will feature gameplay enhanced by NHL EDGE, a data-tracking service employed by the league.
Prior to being announced as the game’s cover star, Tkachuk starred in the Panthers’ back-to-back-title run. This past season, the 27-year-old fought through multiple significant injuries to return for the playoffs, where he had three goals and four assists in the six-game Stanley Cup Final versus the Edmonton Oilers.
Windsor’s Marty Hogan is a new amateur scout with the Detroit Red Wings.
Hogan, who scouted with the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League for the past eight years, replaces Kevin Gibson, who left the Red Wings to join the USHL’s Waterloo Blackhawks organization.
A former member of the Tecumseh Bulldogs in Junior B hockey, the 43-year-old Hogan also scouted for the the Niagara IceDogs and Mississauga Steelheads and was the video coach of the U18 team in Estonia.
Gibson was originally hired by Steve Yzerman in 2019 when Yzerman returned as GM in Detroit.
Ottawa Charge forward Emily Clark set a PWHL record in becoming the league’s highest-paid player based on single-season salary in signing a two-year contract extension on Thursday.
The team announced the signing that secures her through the 2027-28 season, but not the value of the contract. Two people with knowledge of the league’s payroll structure confirmed to The Associated Press that Clark’s six-figure salary next season broke the record in restructuring the third and final year of her existing contract.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the league and the PWHL Player’s Association doesn’t make salaries public.
While the PWHL’s collective bargaining agreement features a minimum salary of $35,000, there is no maximum under what will be the league’s $1.3 million salary cap this season. The only requirement is that at least six players per team make at least $80,000 per season.
For context, one of the people said Clark will be among nine players making $100,000 or more with the PWHL expanding from six to eight teams next season.
Clark declined to reveal the value of her contract by saying she’d prefer placing the focus on the growth of the women’s game rather than herself.
It’s part of Clark’s modest background, growing up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and reflects her style of play in being one of the game’s top two-way centers.
“I’m really proud to play the way that I do, but it might not be always the most attractive role or the stat lines don’t always show maybe some of the intangibles that I do,” Clark said, before crediting Charge general manager Mike Hirshfeld. “But for Mike and the organization to see that complete game that I try to bring every night and value it, I think it’s a testament to our organization.”
Clark is a two-time Olympian and was one of the first three players signed by the Charge entering the league’s inaugural season in 2024. She’s relied upon to kill penalties, face opposing team’s top offensive lines, and contribute on offense.
Clark’s do-it-all ability was on full display during Ottawa’s playoff run in which the Charge went 3-1 to eliminate Montreal in the semifinals before losing in four games to defending champion Minnesota in the Walter Cup Finals. Clark led Ottawa in playoff scoring with three goals and five points, while also playing a key defensive role in which all eight of the Charge’s playoff games were decided by one goal.
In the regular season, Clark finished second on the Charge with nine goals and 19 points while leading team forwards in averaging 19:22 of ice time per outing.
“We know what she brings. She’s really the heart and soul of our organization,” Hirshfeld said. “Our organization is an offense by committee type of approach, and so she fits in the toughness, the competitiveness, the defensive side of it. She fits exactly what we’re trying to do as an organization.”
The contract is humbling for Clark, who recalled being in a room with her Team Canada teammates at the 2019 world championships in Finland when they were informed of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folding.
“I’m in a room with all the women that built that league and feeling the emotion for them.
“But then also that realization of what does this mean for me?” Clark said, noting she was counting on competing in the CWHL fresh off winning a Frozen Four title during her senior season at Wisconsin.
“No, I couldn’t have imagined to be in this position,” Clark said, reflecting back. “I’m very grateful.”
Salt Lake City – The owners of the NHL’s Utah Mammoth have filed a lawsuit against a hockey equipment bag manufacturer to settle a trademark dispute.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah claims the Mammoth and Mammoth Hockey LLC have reached a stalemate in the trademark fight.
“Utah Mammoth and the NHL believe strongly that we have the right to use the name Utah Mammoth under federal and state law, and that our use will not harm the defendant or its business in any way,” Smith Entertainment Group officials said in a statement. “We have taken this action only after careful consideration based on the defendant’s position.”
The Mammoth announced the new name and logo in May following the team’s first season in Utah. The team used the name Utah Hockey Club for its first season after moving from Arizona to Salt Lake City.
Oregon-based Mammoth Hockey issued a cease-and-desist letter not long after the new franchise name was unveiled, claiming potential customers would confuse the two brands and fans of rival teams would not purchase its products. The team and the company both have mammoth-shaped logos, and are associated with “Mammoth” and “hockey,” according to the letter.
Mammoth Hockey launched in 2014 and manufactures large equipment bags geared toward hockey players.
“Mammoth Hockey intends to vigorously defend the litigation recently commenced against it by Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League and protect its longstanding trademark used in connection with the hockey goods it has manufactured and sold for the past 10 years,” Mammoth Hockey co-founder Erik Olson said in a statement to the Deseret News.
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