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GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Greenville Swamp Rabbits, ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings and American Hockey League’s Ontario Reign, announced that veteran forward Brent Pedersen has re-signed with the Swamp Rabbits for the 2025-26 season.

Pedersen comes back to the Swamp Rabbits following the conclusion of his seventh professional season, his first with the team. He served as an alternate captain last season and notched 30 points (14g-16a) in 56 games. Pedersen has earned 120 points (63g-57a) in 178 ECHL games.

Originally from Arthur, Ontario, Pedersen, 30, originally came to the Swamp Rabbits in a three-team trade with Savannah and Reading on Aug. 28, 2024. Throughout the previous seven years of his career, Pedersen has amassed 172 points (83g-89a) in 287 games spent in the ECHL with Greenville, Savannah, Toledo and Orlando, and in the AHL with Henderson, Colorado and Manitoba. 

Before becoming a professional, he played three seasons of Canadian college hockey with Laurentian University, tallying 59 points (27g-32a) in 76 career games. Prior to that, he spent four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Kitchener Rangers and Oshawa Generals, picking up 112 points (58g-54a) in 268 games. After being traded to Oshawa in his final junior season, Pedersen helped lead the Generals to the 2015 OHL and Memorial Cup championships. He was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the fifth round (126th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

On a warm Wednesday summer evening in late July, Gavin McKenna is in Calgary.

After announcing his groundbreaking commitment to play at Penn State University on ESPN’s SportsCenter earlier this month, he had just spent a week at home in Whitehorse, Yukon, where the 2026 NHL Draft’s No. 1 prospect pitched in at a hockey camp for First Nations youth.

His older sister, Madison, helps organize the camp through her work at Council of Yukon First Nations, and McKenna says he gave “a little speech” and helped out on the ice.

“This is my first time this year getting home and it’ll be my last probably,” McKenna said in a one-on-one interview with The Athletic.

He misses home — his parents, Willy and Krystal, Madison and his 14-year-old sister, Kasey — and wishes the stay hadn’t been so short.

“I love being up north and kind of away from everything. And when I’m there, I love dirt biking, I love fishing, I love golfing. It helps me get away from the game and resets me in the summertime,” he said.

But in what’s already been a busy summer schedule for McKenna, he’s chosen to squeeze in some skates and workouts in Calgary.

He’s there for his first summer of training with DASH (Dynamic Athletic Strength & Hockey), skating and working out with the likes of Cale Makar.

He’s staying with his girlfriend (who is from Calgary) and her family for the time being.

Then, on Saturday, he’ll join Hockey Canada in Minnesota for the World Junior Summer Showcase.

After a week in Minneapolis, he’ll return to Calgary for a couple more weeks of training before heading to Penn State on Aug. 15 to begin prep for his freshman year in college — a freshman year that may be the most hotly anticipated in NCAA hockey history.

All eyes were always going to be on him. He knows that. But in choosing Penn State, a program that has only played at the Division I level since 2011, and that only made its first appearance in the Frozen Four a few months ago, all eyes will be on the Nittany Lions, really for the first time in the program’s history, as well.

He says that he just felt a pull toward Hockey Valley, and that he’s ready for all of the bright lights.

“From the start of this whole entire process, I got the feeling that it was going to be Penn State that I was going to go to,” McKenna said. “And then once I toured the area and I got to see the facilities and meet some of the people there and some of the guys, it was just a place that I knew right away I could call home and then on top of that they have a great team and they have a chance of winning it, and obviously that’s the goal next year.”

He admits that he was nervous for the SportsCenter announcement — a first for a college hockey player.

“It was a little bit more pressure and higher stakes” than even he was used to, he said.

When he arrives on campus, he’ll jump right into university classes as well. Though it’ll be a for-one-year-only situation, “the school part comes with it and I’ve got to take some course,” McKenna said.

“It’s all part of the college experience, so I’m looking forward to it,” he added.

He knows new teammates Jackson Smith, Shea Van Olm and Aiden Fink a little, which he hopes will help with the transition.

Once he pulls on a Nittany Lions jersey and the puck drops on the season, the hockey part will come much easier. It always has.

McKenna registered 174 in 123 games (1.41 points per game) in his age 15-16 seasons in the CHL, better than Connor McDavid’s 165 points in 119 games (1.39 points per game) in his same seasons (their birthdays are less than a month apart).

He registered 20 points in seven games as a double underager at U18 worlds, the most points ever by a U17 player in the tournament’s history, surpassing Alex Ovechkin’s 18 points in eight games (at the same age, McDavid had 14 points in seven games). In the gold medal game, he scored a hat trick in a come-from-behind win for Canada.

Last year, he registered 129 points in 56 games, 30 more than the 99 that McDavid registered in the exact same number of games at that age.

He’s the reigning CHL Player of the Year and was the reigning CHL Rookie of the Year before that. Last season, though he only turned 17 on Dec. 20, he led the WHL in assists (88) and plus-minus (plus-60).

And he’s only just beginning.

In stepping into the next chapter of his career in college hockey, McKenna closed his last chapter with Medicine Hat in the WHL.

The WHL, or Dub as he calls it, “was a great league for me,” he says.

“I loved my time there and it was a lot of fun in Med Hat,” McKenna said. It was a great spot for me, and obviously having a coach like Willie (Desjardins) that has been through it all to guide me and mentor me through my Dub career, it for sure prepared me for this next step. And he has already coached in the NHL, so he knows the next step after that, too.”

Desjardins talks about McKenna as a “great kid (who) wants to be a great player.”

On the ice, his greatness starts with his vision, according to Desjardins.

“He’s got incredible vision, and he can see plays before they develop and when they develop,” Desjardins said. “He sees plays really, really early.”

He remembers spotting that the very first time he saw him play on a trip to Nashville. He’d already drafted him by then, but he went down to watch him at a spring hockey showcase and he “couldn’t believe what he could see.”

Once he got to coach him, he noticed his developing leadership qualities and that he has “an incredible stick both defensively and offensively.”

“He turns a lot of pucks over and generates a lot of takeaways with his stick. And then all of a sudden he has a chance for offense because of it,” Desjardins said. “I think he’s grown in being a leader. I think he wants to win. He’ll do things for the team.”

Desjardins’ favorite McKenna story is from the 2023-24 season. It was Christmastime, and though he was first in his age group in scoring, he wasn’t first among all rookies, and he showed up unannounced in Desjardins’ office.

“This isn’t good enough,” McKenna told his head coach. “I’ve got to be better than this.”

From that point on, Desjardins said he watched video and started skating himself after practice “every day.”

“He skated himself hard. And that translated from 1.3 points, which is what he was averaging, to I think 2.6 in January. That was a player that wasn’t satisfied with being good, he wanted to be elite. You forget how young he is. You always forget. But he’s way faster than people think,” Desjardins said. “At times I’m surprised by how fast he is. He’s pretty athletic, and he pushes himself, but things also just come to him.”

Predators first-rounder Tanner Molendyk played against McKenna with the Saskatoon Blades and then with him at the 2025 World Juniors and in Medicine Hat following the trade deadline. He saw him register 38 points in 16 WHL playoff games en route to a WHL title and a 54-game point streak. He’s also been on the other end of it.

“Seeing it first person, I’ve probably been a victim of him walking me sometimes. It’s pretty special,” Molendyk said.

One longtime scout said, “his hockey IQ is off the charts.”

“He sees plays that others don’t see and he can make passes that other players can’t make so he’s got a combo pack of being able to read, see situations, and at an elite level know who’s open and when they’re open and then he’s got the puck skills to move the puck to those people before sometimes they’re even ready for it. His vision and his creativity are high, high-end,” the scout said.

“And he’s a lot more competitive than people would expect without the puck. He’s a guy that angles and picks people’s pockets when they’re not expecting it because he’s got such a quick stick. He defends not like most people think of defending, where you knock other players off the puck or you run people through the boards, but he’s always got his stick in lanes deflecting pucks and picking people’s pockets by lifting blades and being in good spots to intercept pucks. So he’s an elite offensive mind and then a good defensive player as well.”

Alan Millar, the new general manager of Canada’s 2026 World Junior team, saw it in his previous role as general manager of the Regina Pats, too.

He uses the same word Molendyk did: special.

“You just look at his talent level, you look at his offensive abilities, you look at what he did in the WHL as a 17-year-old, really impressive young man, really special player. He’s going to be a real important player for us, and I think Gavin’s the kind of kid who, along with a Porter Martone, those guys are going to be real motivated through this process based on the results a year ago (a quarterfinal defeat at the 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa). We’ll look for Gavin to be a focal point for us. He’s exciting, he’s dynamic, it’s obviously a big year for him with the change that he has made, but we look forward to him being a big part of our team,” Millar said.

McKenna looks forward to that challenge, and to all the others that will come in his draft year under the microscope — and his career beyond that.

“There’s a lot of things to be excited about next season,” he said. “Heading to college, playing my first game. That’ll be pretty amazing. And then with the World Juniors, last year wasn’t the best way to go out, and I know a lot of us will have a big chip on our shoulders this year, and that’s going to be exciting. And then for us, I know there’s a lot of talk around Penn State and how good the team’s going to be, and hopefully we can win a national championship. That’s on the bucket list, and I know with my draft year there’s going to be a lot of attention, but it’ll be fun.”

(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)

By Katie Strang and Dan Robson

All five defense teams were given the chance to put forth final reply submissions and focused on a variety of aspects of the case.

David Humphrey, attorney for McLeod, argued that the Crown was manipulating evidence, distorting the timeline and jettisoning arguments that were inconsistent with their arguments.

Riaz Sayani, Hart’s attorney, largely focused on what he argued was the Crown’s misapplications of law, including invoking trauma principles for circular reasoning and “bootstrapping” information to augment their case.

Hilary Dudding, attorney for Formenton, argued that myth-based stereotypes should not be applied to defense arguments, nor for Crown positions. She cautioned the judge against accepting false binary propositions and to instead allow for the possibility that a woman could be enthusiastic and consenting within the environment the defense describes without it being characterized as “bizarre” or “odd.”

Lisa Carnelos, attorney for Dubé, addressed the contact her client had with E.M.’s buttocks, calling it “playful” and arguing that the “Crown has not disproved that she was consenting.”

“It was playful, possibly foreplay,” Carnelos said. “And in no way looked to be harmful or with the intention to be abusive.”

Julianna Greenspan, who represents Foote, took aim at the Crown, criticizing what she said was an earlier suggestion that further evidence exists that was not permitted to be considered in court. Without a jury, those documents are available to the public. “That was a factually wrong and unfair comment to make,” Greenspan said.

She also took issue with a slide shown earlier in the day that indicated there was “no evidence from Callan Foote.” Had this still been a jury trial, Greenspan said, she would have called for mistrial, even at this late stage — calling the slide “illegal.”

“It runs contrary to the Canada Evidence Act, which states failure of the accused to testify shall not be made the subject of comment by counsel for the prosecution,” Greenspan said.

She further suggested that the slide was purposefully included to influence the media.

“Everyone in this courtroom knows the attention in this case has garnered from the media and public,” Greenspan said. ”The Crown, I submit, has throughout this trial been preoccupied with litigating the public opinion through the media. This is an upsetting final example on behalf of my client.”

LAS VEGAS — Next week, college football coaches can put the recruiting promises they have made to high school seniors on paper.

Then the question becomes whether they can keep them.

Uncertainty over a key element of the $2.8 billion NCAA antitrust settlement that is reshaping college sports has placed recruiters on a tightrope.

They need clarity about whether the third-party collectives that were closely affiliated with their schools and that ruled name, image, likeness payments over the first four years of the NIL era can be used to exceed the $20.5 million annual cap on what each school can now pay players directly. Or, whether those collectives will simply become a cog in the new system.

Only until that issue is resolved will many coaches know if the offers they’ve made, and that can become official on Aug. 1, will conform to the new rules governing college sports.

“You don’t want to put agreements on the table about things that we might have to claw back,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day explained at this week’s Big Ten media days. “Because that’s not a great look.”

No coach, of course, is going to fess up to making an offer he can’t back up.

“All we can do is be open and honest about what we do know, and be great communicators from that standpoint,” Oregon’s Dan Lanning said.

Aug. 1 is key because it marks the day football programs can start sending written offers for scholarships to high school prospects starting their senior year.

This process essentially replaces what used to be the signing of a national letter of intent. It symbolizes the changes taking hold in a new era in which players aren’t just signing for a scholarship, but for a paycheck, too.

Paying them is not a straightforward business. Among the gray areas comes from guidance issued earlier this month by the newly formed College Sports Commission in charge of enforcing rules involved with paying players, both through the $20.5 million revenue share with schools and through third-party collectives.

The CSC is in charge of clearing all third-party deals worth $600 or more.

It created uncertainty earlier this month when it announced, in essence, that the collectives did not have a “valid business purpose.” if their only reason to exist was ultimately to pay players. Lawyers for the players barked back and said that is what a collective was always met to be, and if it sells a product for a profit, it qualifies as legit.

The parties are working on a compromise, but if they don’t reach one they will take this in front of a judge to decide.

With Aug. 1 coming up fast, oaches are eager to lock in commitments they’ve spent months, sometimes years, locking down from high school recruits.

“Recruiting never shuts off, so we do need clarity as soon as we can,” Buckeyes athletic director Ross Bjork said. “The sooner we can have clarity, the better. I think the term ‘collective’ has obviously taken on a life of its own. But it’s really not what it’s called, it’s what they do.”

In anticipating the future, some schools have disbanded their collectives while others, such as Ohio State, have brought them in-house. It is all a bit of a gamble. If the agreement that comes out of these negotiations doesn’t restrict collectives, they could be viewed as an easy way to get around the salary cap. Either way, schools eyeing ways for players to earn money outside the cap amid reports that big programs have football rosters worth more than $30 million in terms of overall player payments.

“It’s a lot to catch up, and there’s a lot for coaches and administrators to deal with,” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said, noting the terms only went into play on July 1. “But I don’t think it’s unusual when you have something this different that there’s going to be some bumps in the road to get to the right place. I think everybody is committed to get there.”

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, whose program tapped into the transfer portal and NIL to make the most remarkable turnaround in college football last season, acknowledged “the landscape is still changing, changing as we speak today.”

“You’ve got to be light on your feet and nimble,” he said. “At some point, hopefully down the road, this thing will settle down and we’ll have clear rules and regulations on how we operate.”

At stake at Oregon is what is widely regarded as a top-10 recruiting class for a team that finished first in the Big Ten and made the College Football Playoff last year along with three other teams from the league.

“It’s an interpretation that has to be figured out, and anytime there’s a new rule, it’s how does that rule adjust, how does it adapt, how does it change what we have to do here,” Lanning said. “But one thing we’ve been able to do here is — what we say we’ll do, we do.”

Nearly four years after shutting down NBCSN, and months after setting in motion the jettisoning of USA Network, Comcast is reportedly eyeing the launch of a new cable sports network to complement Peacock.

Comcast-owned NBC Universal is in early discussions on the launch of a potential sports cable network that would carry events that are streamed exclusively on Peacock, Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The channel could launch as soon as this fall, ahead of the debut of NBC’s new NBA package.

Per Flint, the intention is not for the channel to compete with Peacock but to complement the streaming service by making its content available to those who are reluctant to leave the cable bundle.

Accordingly, the channel would be only exist on specialty tiers — like the DIRECTV “MySports” bundle launched earlier this year — rather than the basic cable packages that include the likes of ESPN.

The decision to create an entirely new cable network is perhaps a circuitous route to what has become a regular occurrence, the inclusion of direct-to-subscriber streaming services in specialty cable tiers. Peacock itself is already available for no extra fee as part of Charter’s Spectrum TV Select package. ESPN+ is also available to some Charter and DIRECTV subscribers free of charge (and the ESPN direct-to-subscriber app will be as well, though that is fairly redundant given it consists of channels already available through the cable bundle).

Peacock this year is raising its monthly price from $8 to $11/mo ahead of its first season carrying NBA games. The NBA package — which at $2.5 billion/year will cost NBCU more each season than its Sunday Night Football package (at least until the NFL renegotiates, as expected, by the end of this decade) — is perhaps the highest-stakes addition to the streamer’s line-up, given the sheer tonnage of exclusive games (50 per season in the regular season, plus up to 14 in the playoffs).

As previously noted, NBC in 2021 shut down its cable sports channel NBCSN, which originated as the Comcast-owned OLN. NBCSN programming then shifted to USA Network, which Comcast is spinning off into a new company (“Versant”). After that spinoff — which also includes Golf Channel and CNBC, which regularly carry NBC Sports programming — the only cable channel of any kind under the Comcast umbrella will be Bravo.