The Atlanta Gladiators announced Thursday evening that the ECHL ice hockey club has re-signed forward and Sugar Hill native Connor Galloway for the 2025-26 season.

Galloway, a Lanier grad, signed with his hometown club for a second season with the Gladiators. The 25-year-old forward scored 3 goals and 4 assists in 47 games with the Gladiators last season in his first season as a pro. He scored his first professional goal on January 12, 2025, vs the Cincinnatti Cyclones.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound forward from Sugar Hill played three seasons of NCAA Division III hockey at SUNY-Brockport from 2021-2024 prior to joining the Gladiators, scoring 30 goals and 48 assists for 78 points in 75 career games with the Golden Eagles. In his final season at SUNY-Brockport in 2023-24, Galloway led the team in scoring with 7 goals and 12 assists in 25 games.

“Connor got his first taste of pro hockey last season and impressed everyone in the organization with his professionalism,” Gladiators director of hockey operations and head coach Matt Ginn said. “He did whatever was asked of him and competed day in and day out. We expect Connor to take another step now after having a year of pro hockey under his belt and are excited to see him continue to develop.”

This time last year, Penn State had one rostered player who had previously been named a nominee for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, given to the top Division I college hockey player.

There have been no finalists, no Hobey Hat Trick finishers and no award recipients in program history.

The Nittany Lions now have two skaters who finished in the top 10 of voting, seven draft picks and one of the most exciting talents in college hockey on their squad, resulting in no shortage of front-runners for the coveted trophy.

Although the award presentation is over nine months away, and the college hockey season has yet to begin, here are some early predictions for the blue and white’s top Hobey Baker candidates.

Gavin McKenna

Starting with the most obvious answer, incoming superstar forward Gavin McKenna is an early frontrunner for the MVP award.

McKenna is widely regarded as a generational talent, earning the consensus title of the highest-rated college hockey recruit ever, which is why his commitment to Hockey Valley made shockwaves across the athletic world.

The 17-year-old has it all — an unmatched creative ability, high hockey IQ levels and a physical skill set that rivals the best.

McKenna previously played in the Canadian Hockey League, dominating with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL and recording 129 points in just 56 games played, a staggering 2.30 points per game.

Though he has yet to play against college-level talent, the reigning CHL and WHL Player of the Year has the capability to be one of the best in the NCAA once he steps on the ice this winter.

Aiden Fink

Aiden Fink has been spoken about at length around Pegula Ice Arena over the past year, and for good reason.

The 2023 seventh-round draft pick dominated Hockey Valley and the Big Ten last season, setting new Penn State single-season records in almost every category, leading the conference in points and ranking third nationally in points per game.

Fink racked up plenty of accolades, including being named a 2025 West ACHA second team All-American and a finalist for the Big Ten Player of the Year, but the one that jumps off the page is the forward’s top-10 finalist recognition for the Hobey Baker Award — the first one in program history.

The rising junior has only improved since his freshman campaign, and now with the ability to share the ice with players who will only help elevate his game to a new level, a return to the Hobey Baker spotlight doesn’t seem too far out of the picture.

Jackson Smith

Another new name headlining the incoming class this season is defenseman Jackson Smith.

Smith was drafted No. 14 overall in this year’s NHL draft, making history as the first Nittany Lion to be selected in the first round.

The 6-foot-4, two-way defenseman joined McKenna as a dominant force in the WHL, playing for the Tri-City Americans and tallying 54 points in 68 games played, which ranked 10th amongst all WHL defenseman.

Along with impressive speed and a strong two-way skillset, Smith will bring even more creativity and flashy plays to the ice in front of the Roar Zone this winter.

The defenseman will come into State College as a likely lock for a first-line pairing as one of the top defenders on the roster, and possibly, in the NCAA.

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LAS VEGAS — Three months after Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee for UCLA and shook the college football world amidst the most significant contract dispute in the NIL era, the star quarterback finally broke his silence.

You just might not have been able to hear the soft-spoken quarterback Thursday when he stepped on stage near the end of Big Ten Media Days. The main attraction during the final hours of the three-day media event spoke barely above a whisper as he faced a barrage of questions concerning his departure from the Vols, whom he led to the College Football Playoff in December, to return to his home state and play for UCLA this fall.

The big question was asked in several different forms: Did he leave Tennessee because he wanted more than the $2.2 million he was set to receive next season? 

“Not at all,” he told CBS Sports earlier Thursday, before facing a throng of reporters. “My family was strictly the main importance for me. I let my business team, my parents, handle that side of NIL. Just me being closer to family was the most important thing.”

Iamaleava said he came to Big Ten Media Days to clear the air about his sudden departure from Tennessee, where he sat out a pair of spring practices in April as reports surfaced about an apparent contract dispute in Knoxville. Several outlets reported he asked for a new $4 million contract. One week before Iamaleava’s absence in Knoxville, sources told CBS Sports Iamaleava may be interested in testing the portal waters with the West Coast as a possible destination. Whatever happened during those two days in April, the result was all that mattered: UCLA landed Iamaleava out of the transfer portal. Earlier this summer, coach DeShaun Foster asked the quarterback to join him at media days to face the noise that had enveloped the sport.

“It’s time to let you tell your story,” Foster said. “A lot of people wrote a book for you and didn’t talk to him about it. I wanted him to come out here, and not for me (to tell his story), because you guys are gonna ask me these questions, and now I’m speaking for him. I wanted him to be able to go out there and really tell his truth.”

Nico Iamaleava’s Tennessee saga wasn’t the professionalization of college sports—it was a train wreck

Richard Johnson

Iamaleava’s decision irked Tennessee fans and riled up Internet sleuths, who labeled his decision as one driven solely by money. Again and again on Thursday, Iamaleava denied cash as the motivation behind his decision. Reports that he was unhappy with the Vols’ roster, specifically the offensive line that was built to protect him, were also not true, he said. “I love my O-line,” Iamaleava said. “I had a great O-line.” He told CBS Sports his mother, Marleinna, has a difficult time traveling across the country, and returning closer to home to finish his college career was a consideration. “I’ve always felt that way during this stage of my career,” he said.

If there are regrets, Iamaleava said it was how he handled his exit from Knoxville.

“I could have given a better explanation to Tennessee fans, but I thought at the time as it was all happening we were going through some personal stuff and you want to handle personal stuff privately,” Iamaleava told CBS Sports. “At this time, I felt it was the right time to speak out. I wish all the Tennessee fans nothing but the best and I really appreciated my time there.”

For Iamleava, the return to Los Angeles is a reunion with a dozen-plus players he once called teammates or competitors as a blue-chip preps player at Warren High in Downey, California. Senior linebacker JonJon Vaughns first met Iamaleava as an underclassman in high school. “He could sling it, and I saw how big his dad was,” Vaughns smiled. “Oh, he’s about to be, like, 6-6.”

Iamaleava, now indeed 6-6 and 215 pounds, passed for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns in his first full season as Tennessee’s starter in 2024. He padded his stats against inferior competition and threw for over 200 yards only twice against SEC teams.

He’s expected to elevate a new-look UCLA offense, which ranked near the bottom of the Big Ten last season, piling up only 328.8 yards and 18.4 points per game. Foster replaced offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy with Indiana co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri, who helped develop quarterback Kurtis Rourke and the Big Ten’s No. 1 scoring offense (41.3 points per game).

Foster loves Iamaleava’s arm strength, something he noted when he initially recruited him out of high school. 

“The sky is the limit,” Foster said. “We’re excited about this.”

He repeated Thursday that the quarterback never seems rattled. “Look, turn around, look at him,” Foster told reporters. “He’s on stage, people want to talk to him, but he’s composed and I just hope he brings it to the hill and continues to grow.”

“I’ve never been pushed like this by a staff before,” Iamaleava said. “I’m excited to go to work for these guys.”

Foster has long had connections to the Iamaleava family. He recruited Nico’s younger brother, Madden, who committed to UCLA but flipped to Arkansas on signing day in December after the Bruins made a change at offensive coordinator. Nico and his father, Nicholaus, traveled to Fayetteville the day after Nico departed from Tennessee to watch his brother’s spring game in Arkansas on April 19, but the game was canceled due to heavy rain. Hours later, Madden informed Arkansas he was entering the transfer portal and joined his brother at UCLA. Arkansas is pursuing buyout money totaling as much as $500,000, which is outlined in an NIL contract Madden signed with the Hogs in January, sources told CBS Sports.

Madden is expected to be Nico’s backup this fall. 

“I want to bring championships back to Westwood,” Nico said. “That’s our main goal. Coach Fos and our whole staff has set expectations for us that we’re going to meet. Everybody in the locker room truly believes in one another. I love the bond we got going.”

Iamaleava switches from his preferred jersey No. 8 at Tennessee to No. 9 at UCLA. Troy Aikman’s jersey is retired at UCLA, but that didn’t stop Nico from trying to persuade the Hall of Famer to allow him to wear the coveted No. 8 during a phone conversation, he told CBS Sports. “We had a good conversation,” he chuckled. He said the new significance of No. 9 is to represent his nine immediate family members: seven siblings and his parents.

UCLA returns six starters on offense but will primarily feature a new receiver corps led by returning starter Kwazi Gilmer, Cal transfer Mikey Matthews and Arkansas’ Jaedon Wilson. The Bruins rank 14th in FanDuel.com’s odds to win the Big Ten championship this fall.

“Man, I can’t wait for the season,” Iamaleava said.

Whether the noise around Iamleava subsides after his long-awaited appearance at Big Ten media days is up for debate, but Foster said he doesn’t mind the spotlight on UCLA.

“We’re probably gonna have to continue with that type of treatment, but we want noise,” the second-year UCLA coach said. “You want people talking about us, and in a couple months, you guys are going to be talking about us winning games and not the quarterback.”

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.”

JOLIET, Ill. (WLS) — Joliet will soon have its first all-girls ice hockey team.

The registration is already filling up as the team is flipping the script one puck at a time.

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When the Jaguar Hockey Club first opened applications, they hoped they would get enough girls just to fill a team. That interest has now more than tripled.

The athletes are making snow and rewriting a historic narrative with pink skates and all.

“I want to be good enough that they start accepting girls into the NHL,” 10-year-old Jaguar Hockey Club player Penny Antos said.

Antos and 11-year-old Ellie Sorg will be joining the first all-girls hockey team in Joliet this year. They are living proof of a decades-long dream.

“When we lost my sister when she was 19, and hockey was her absolute favorite thing in the world, but that’s been 25 years ago, and girls hockey was not an option,” Jaguar Hockey Club president Lauren Walsh said.

Walsh said her sister never got the chance to be on a team.

“Even her senior pictures were taken in old Blackhawk gear and sticks and all that,” Walsh said.

Now, 25 years later, Walsh is carrying out her sister’s love by giving the young girls of Joliet a chance to compete.

“We were just hoping for 12 girls that were interested, and now we’re in the 40s, 50s,” Walsh said.

According to USA Hockey, over the past 15 seasons, girls hockey in the United States has seen a participation increase of 65%.

“The puck’s the same color, but when you have the girls in the locker room and stuff like that, it transcends on there’s a lot of smiles out there,” Jaguar Hockey director Greg Stornello said.

With the launch of the professional women’s hockey league in 2023, the girls can now take their dream into adulthood.

“You just see them and you’re like, ‘Hey, I want to be like them,'” Sorg said. “You have nothing to like worry about, because all it’s about is like, having fun.”

So even if you fall, they said you have to try, try again.

“You might get hurt a couple times, but just you gotta keep trying and never give up,” Antos said.

Tryouts for the all-girls team in Joliet will be August 15, with the first game in September.

With five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team acquitted of all charges of sexual assault on Thursday, the stage could be set for some to return to professional hockey and potentially the NHL.

Justice Maria Carroccia told the London, Ontario, courtroom that she did not find the evidence provided by the complainant, who was referred to as “E.M.” because of a publication ban, to be “credible or reliable” while delivering a not-guilty verdict on two charges against Michael McLeod and one each against Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote. Those players were accused of sexually assaulting “E.M.” in a London hotel room following a Hockey Canada gala event in June 2018.

Each of them went on to play in the NHL before having the criminal charges brought against them in February 2024.

In the decision Thursday, Carroccia highlighted numerous inconsistencies and holes in the case brought against the players as part of her emphatic ruling in favor of the defendants. How the NHL views that decision will ultimately determine when, or if, the five defendants will have a chance to return to the league.

All five players are considered NHL unrestricted free agents after not receiving qualifying offers from their former teams upon the expiry of their previous contracts, but a league source told The Athletic on Thursday that the NHL will review the judge’s ruling and complete its own internal process before the players are eligible to sign contracts. There is no timetable for how long that may take.

“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behavior at issue was unacceptable,” the league said in a statement Thursday. “We will be reviewing and considering the judge’s findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the league.”

The NHL Players’ Association took issue with that approach, saying in its own statement, “Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, and Michael McLeod were acquitted of all charges by Justice Carroccia of the Ontario Superior Court. After missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work. The NHL’s declaration that the players are ‘ineligible’ to play pending its further analysis of the court’s findings is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA. We are addressing this dispute with the league and will have no further comment at this time.​”

The Crown also now has up to 30 days to appeal the judge’s decision, and Crown attorney Meghan Cunningham said in a statement outside the courthouse that it will “carefully review Justice Carroccia’s decision.”

In the meantime, there are certainly NHL executives with interest in signing some of the players.

A number of NHL teams could use an upgrade in goal, and Hart, 26, is a former No. 1 goaltender who showed flashes of great potential with the Philadelphia Flyers. McLeod and Dubé are forwards with multiple NHL seasons under their belts, with the New Jersey Devils and Calgary Flames, respectively.

Returns are less likely for Foote, a defenseman who previously bounced between the AHL and NHL, and Formenton, who spent parts of two seasons in Switzerland before stepping away from hockey in September of 2024 to take a job in construction.

McLeod and Dubé spent last season playing in the KHL, while Foote spent the year with a team in Slovakia. Hart hasn’t appeared in a professional game since his last start for Philadelphia in February of 2024 but continued to train on and off the ice during last season in Nashville while awaiting trial.

“Mr. Hart regrets that it took a criminal trial for the truth to come out, but he has learned from the experience and he is committing to sharing what he has learned with others in his personal circle and in his professional life,” Hart’s attorney, Megan Savard, said after the proceedings came to a close Thursday. “He will be taking time today to process today’s outcome and is grateful to his family, his friends and his supporters for standing by him during this profoundly challenging time.”

What remains to be seen is if the NHL puts additional roadblocks in the way should a team get to the point where it is willing to offer any of the players a contract.

The collective bargaining agreement affords NHL commissioner Gary Bettman considerable power to punish players for off-ice conduct deemed harmful to the league. That includes actions that don’t result in criminal convictions. Article 18-A grants Bettman the ability to expel, suspend, fine or even cancel the contracts of players following a league investigation and hearing (where the player and NHL Players’ Association are permitted to present evidence, testimony and argument in the player’s defense).

In June, Bettman said at his state of the league address before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final that he would let the judicial process play out but “what has been alleged is abhorrent, disgusting and shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Bettman used his latitude to levy a one-year suspension against former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov in April of 2019 — more than five years after Voynov had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of corporal injury to a spouse following his October 2014 arrest for attacking his wife, Marta Varlamova. The one-year suspension from Bettman also came after the player’s conviction had been dismissed by a Los Angeles judge in 2018.

Arbitrator Shyam Das later upheld the Voynov ruling on appeal, albeit while granting the player credit for 41 games already served because he sat out the entire 2018-19 season, which the NHL viewed as an expression of support for Bettman’s ability to mete out punishment for off-ice incidents.

“The decision also confirms and reaffirms the commissioner’s broad authority under the CBA and applicable league rules to establish — and to enforce — appropriate standards of conduct for individuals involved in the National Hockey League,” the league said in a May 2019 statement.

Even with Thursday’s not-guilty verdict, that’s a critical point to highlight in the fallout of the Hockey Canada case. Multiple sources with an understanding of the NHL’s views on the matter told The Athletic that what Carroccia had to say in her ruling would carry considerable weight in determining the potential playing futures of Dubé, Foote, Formenton, Hart and McLeod.

That is, being exonerated would not be enough on its own to clear a path for those players to return to the league — certainly not immediately, and perhaps not ever. But that’s why the justice’s emphatic words Thursday against the complainant were perhaps the best-case scenario for each of these players toward a potential return to the NHL.

Ultimately, it’s still possible the decision will be made by individual teams.

Former Vancouver Canucks winger Jake Virtanen hasn’t returned to the NHL since a 12-person jury found him not guilty on one count of sexual assault in July 2022, save for a two-week tryout with the Edmonton Oilers that fall, which ended with him being released. While there have been no restrictions on Virtanen’s ability to play in the NHL, no team has deemed him worthy of a contract while he’s jumped from Russia to Switzerland to Germany.

The same can be said of Voynov, who hasn’t been extended an opportunity to return to the NHL in the five years since his suspension, and of Mitchell Miller, the 2020 draft pick whom the Arizona Coyotes renounced and the Boston Bruins later signed and then terminated after public and internal outcry due to the fact that Miller bullied a Black classmate with developmental disabilities in middle school.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic, with photos of Cal Foote, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod and Alex Formenton by Andrew Mordzynski, Jonathan Kozub, Steph Chambers, Cato Cataldo and Richard A. Whittaker / Getty Images)