Quickley suffered a mild hamstring strain in the Raptors’ regular-season finale. He played 16 minutes in the first half, putting up four points, two rebounds and five assists.
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic says that Quickley is making progress in his recovery but is not yet ready to play.
The 26-year-old averaged 16.4 points, a career-high 5.9 assists, four rebounds and 31.9 minutes over 70 games this season.
Raptors return to the playoffs on Sportsnet
The Toronto Raptors are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2022. Watch Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday at 1 p.m. ET/ 10 a.m. PT on Sportsnet ONE and Sportsnet+.
Quickley’s standout skill is his three-point shooting, and after struggling over the first half of the season at 34.7 per cent from deep, he shot 41.5 per cent over the second half to bring his season mark to 37.4 per cent.
The Havre de Grace, M.D., native battled plantar fasciitis through the final portion of the season, missing eight consecutive games from late March through early April, and was frequently seen in a walking boot.
Quickley’s next chance at getting into playoff action will be Game 2 on Monday.
After practising in a non-contact jersey on Friday, the Senators determined that Kleven won’t be ready for the team’s series opener against the Carolina Hurricanes (Saturday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ – Coverage starts at 2:30).
Head coach Travis Green was optimistic that he was close to returning.
“He’s closer to playing, obviously, he’s out with the group,” Green said.
The 24-year-old has been out since April 2 after sustaining an upper-body injury against the Buffalo Sabres. He was injured in the first period when a hard slapshot careened up and appeared to hit him in the head.
The left-shot blue-liner has three goals and 18 points while appearing in 69 games this season and leads all Ottawa defencemen with 126 hits.
The 2026 NBA Playoffs are locked in. Between the Toronto Raptors returning to the post-season, some heavyweight match-ups worth watching in Round 1 and Oklahoma City’s quest for a repeat having to go through the gauntlet that is the Western Conference, there’s plenty of intrigue ahead of this weekend’s tip-off.
Sportsnet’s NBA experts break down a few of the bigger talking points heading into the post-season and lock in their picks for every Round 1 series as well as the NBA Finals, including which team will lift the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
Raptors return to the playoffs on Sportsnet
The Toronto Raptors are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2022. Watch Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday at 1 p.m. ET/ 10 a.m. PT on Sportsnet ONE and Sportsnet+.
What’s a head-to-head match-up in the first round (teams or players) that you are most looking forward to and why?
Michael Grange: The Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves as the 3-6 matchup in the West promises to be the most compelling first-round series league-wide. The Nuggets beat an emerging Minnesota team in the first round of the playoffs in 2022-23 the year Denver won the title, while the T-Wolves ruined Denver’s hopes of defending their championship when they took down Denver in seven games in 2023-24. After a year pause, the rivalry renews and we get to watch one of Anthony Edwards or Nikola Jokic’s hopes of a title run end early. This could be a conference final in many years and we get it in April … lucky us.
Eric Smith: Minnesota vs Denver. The T-Wolves have been knocking on the door the last couple of years but haven’t been able to bust through. Now they get a first-round match-up against one of the all-time greats? Ouch. However, Denver’s ‘D’ is not great and Anthony Edwards has all the tools to pull off an ‘upset’.
Kai Gammage: Storyline-wise, I think it’s hard to look past LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant one last time. Who knows how many more opportunities we’ll have to watch the old guard square off. Given the Lakers’ current lack of Luka and the Rockets’ own instabilities, it’s essentially a showdown between the two generation-defining superstars. Can we get one more all-time series, for old time’s sake?
Zulfi Shiekh: I’ll go with the Nuggets-Timberwolves series. This will be the third playoff matchup in four years between the division rivals, and the rubber match could go either way after splitting the first two. The Nuggets boast the league’s No. 1 offence and enter the post-season riding a red-hot 12-game win streak. The Timberwolves feature a top-10 defence and appear to have a healthy Anthony Edwards back — Minnesota was 37-24 with the star guard and 12-9 without him.
Ian Finlayson: Between Ant’ Edwards’ pull-up three-point prowess, Nikola Jokić’s unassuming wizardry and Jamal Murray having a career year defined by out-of-this-world shot making, the Timberwolves-Nuggets 3-6 matchup is the first-round series to watch for me. The two teams already have a budding rivalry fueled by their classic 2024 Western Conference semifinal that saw Minnesota complete a 20-point comeback in the deciding contest — the largest in Game 7 history. Their Christmas Day overtime thriller this season was also sensational.
With the Raptors back in the NBA Playoffs, what does success look like for them this spring?
Grange: Having exceeded expectations to make it to this point, the Raptors are playing with house money for the most part. The only thing that could derail the feel-good vibes would be if they get mercilessly trounced by the Cavs in the first round, which would amplify the doubts about the ceiling of this team that have been floating around them for much of the year. A competitive six-game series would let everyone involved go into the summer with their head held high. Even a strong showing in five games would avoid some awkward questions.
Smith: It’s already a success. Hopefully, this is the first year of a long run of post-season appearances. It should be! And as the team builds towards another championship, there’ll certainly be highs and lows on the playoff path. Simply making it this year is good enough (they were the No. 5 seed, after all), but anything that involves Round 2 or further is gravy.
Gammage: It looks like battle scars. This is a team without much playoff experience, particularly in the roles each of these players is currently in, and the last time Scottie was under the bright lights, he was a rookie learning what it meant from Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby. This time around, he’s the face of the franchise — it’s time for him to write his own story. Fight and fight hard, shed blood, sweat and tears, and learn what it takes to not just be here, but excel on the biggest stage.
Sheikh: Success for the Raptors will look like establishing faith, win or lose. The team’s leaders need to perform to a requisite degree to instill belief. This season was undoubtedly a step forward, but the ceiling appears short of title contention as presently constructed, so I expect a summer of change and then some. Before that, however, it’ll be vital to see how Darko Rajakovic’s first post-season run at the helm goes. Was the defensively minded identity he established playoff-ready, and how does he adjust to adversity? Lots of focus will also be on Barnes and Ingram to perform like the top-paid all-stars they are. Success in the NBA is player-driven above all else, and the playoffs are the grandest stage to prove it.
Finlayson: Entering the season, a reasonable goal for the Raptors would’ve been a proper playoff spot, which is exactly where they find themselves now. They also took a 16-win jump, had developmental wins, and discovered plenty about the team’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s fair to say they’re playing with house money — although, they’ll undoubtedly learn plenty more about the team’s makeup to assist with off-season decisions.
Round 1 picks: Eastern Conference
(1) Pistons vs. (8) Magic Grange: Pistons in 5
Smith: Pistons in 5
Gammage: Pistons in 4
Sheikh: Pistons in 4
Finlayson: Pistons in 5
(2) Celtics vs. (7) Sixers Grange: Celtics in 5
Smith: Celtics in 4
Gammage: Celtics in 5
Sheikh: Celtics in 6
Finlayson: Celtics in 5
(3) Knicks vs. (6) Hawks Grange: Knicks in 6
Smith: Knicks in 6
Gammage: Knicks in 6
Sheikh: Knicks in 6
Finlayson: Knicks in 5
(4) Cavaliers vs. (5) Raptors Grange: Cavaliers in 6
Smith: Raptors in 7
Gammage: Cavaliers in 7
Sheikh: Cavaliers in 6
Finlayson: Cavaliers in 6
Round 1 picks: Western Conference
(1) Thunder vs. (8) Suns Grange: Thunder in 4
Smith: Thunder in 5
Gammage: Thunder in 5
Sheikh: Thunder in 4
Finlayson: Thunder in 4
(2) Spurs vs. (7) Trail Blazers Grange: Spurs in 5
Smith: Spurs in 4
Gammage: Spurs in 4
Sheikh: Spurs in 4
Finlayson: Spurs in 4
(3) Nuggets vs. (6) Timberwolves Grange: Nuggets in 6
Smith: Timberwolves in 7
Gammage: Nuggets in 6
Sheikh: Nuggets in 6
Finlayson: Nuggets in 7
(4) Lakers vs. (5) Rockets Grange: Rockets in 5
Smith: Rockets in 6
Gammage: Rockets in 6
Sheikh: Rockets in 5 … or 7 if Luka Doncic and Auston Reaves play
Finlayson: Rockets in 5
One player you expect to have a breakout in the NBA Playoffs?
Grange: Does Jayson Tatum count? Sure, he’s a been first team all-NBA four times, but he wasn’t this season because he missed 66 games recovering from a torn Achilles tendon injury suffered in the playoffs last season. The longer the Celtics last in the post-season, the longer he’ll have a chance to return to his all-NBA form.
Smith: This may be ‘cheating’ a bit but I’m going with Wembanyama. It’s easy to forget he’s completing only his third season in the NBA and this will be his first appearance in the playoffs! I think he’s going to put on a show.
Gammage: Considering it’s his first dance, it’s hard not to pick Victor Wembanyama here. Even though he has already asserted himself as a superstar, a run to the Finals will officially make him the face of the NBA. But that’s too easy, right? So let’s go with Stephon Castle, who absolutely deserves credit as the Robin to Victor’s Batman and will be the player to shut down SGA in the Western Conference Finals.
Sheikh: It may just be the Canadian in me thinking with my maple-leaf-shaped heart, but Nickeil Alexander-Walker appears primed to break out even further in the playoffs. The Toronto native is the front-runner for Most Improved Player after helping the Hawks fly up the standings with a 16-5 record — and fourth-best net rating — since the start of March. In that same span, Alexander-Walker was top 25 in scoring (23.7) and steals (1.6) and was one of the most efficient high-volume three-point shooters in the NBA, making nearly four triples per game at a 48 per cent clip. The Hawks will need plenty more of that to upset the Knicks.
Finlayson: Taking into account it’s his first-ever appearance in the NBA Playoffs, the pick here has to be Victor Wembanyama. It’s not just that he intelligently uses his functional, seven-foot-four frame to erase opponent’s rim attempts and post a 62.6 true shooting percentage, it’s also that he’s surrounded by a stable of guards who can create with a live dribble. The Spurs are scary.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods’ attorney intends to fight an attempt by prosecutors to subpoena the golfer’s prescription drug records following his arrest last month in Florida on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Attorney Doug Duncan said this week in a court filing that Woods has a constitutional right to privacy when it comes to his prescription medications. The attorney asked a judge overseeing the case in Martin County, Florida to hold a hearing to determine if the drug records are necessary for the criminal investigation.
If the judge determines the drug records are necessary, Duncan asked for a protective order limiting their release only to prosecutors, law enforcement officers, state experts and Woods’ defense team.
Woods has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence. A sheriff’s office report said deputies found two pain pills in his pocket and he showed signs of impairment after his SUV clipped a truck’s trailer and rolled over on its side.
Woods was travelling at high speeds on a beachside, residential road on Jupiter Island with a 30 mph (nearly 50 kph) speed limit when his Land Rover caused $5,000 in damage to the truck, according to an incident report. Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but refused a urine test, authorities said.
Prosecutors told the court they would issue a subpoena seeking copies of all prescription medication records for the legendary golfer on file at Lewis Pharmacy in Palm Beach, Florida from the start of the year through the end of last month.
Prosecutors also demanded in court papers on Wednesday that Woods reveal the names and locations of any witnesses he plans to present in his defense.
TORONTO — What Auston Matthews did not say is as important as what he did say.
Upon conclusion of a season blessed with national triumph and cursed with local embarrassment, the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs was offered multiple opportunities to assure the city’s fans that he was down for the long haul, that he only envisions himself playing hockey in one NHL sweater.
Instead, Matthews pled the fifth.
“I can’t predict the future. There are steps that have to take place. They’ve got to hire new leadership in management. I don’t really know. I can’t really predict the future,” Matthews told reporters Thursday morning, the earliest locker cleanout day of his 10-year career.
“There is always noise and chatter. Personally, I really don’t pay attention to all of that. I really just focus on myself, this team, and trying to be a part of the solution,” he replied.
No doubt, it’s unusual for all this consternation over a superstar still under contract for two-plus years.
But Matthews and the Maple Leafs began preliminary discussions on his desire to re-sign two off-seasons prior to his first impending UFA summer. The 2026-27 campaign is Matthews’s critical “Quinn Hughes” year, the season before the contract season.
And with talents and salaries of this magnitude, franchises must be proactive.
Hughes’s exit from Vancouver is fresh. As is Toronto’s Mitch Marner masterclass in asset mismanagement. The Leafs want Matthews in the fold; the Leafs cannot let him walk for nothing.
So, the top priority for Keith Pelley’s hired head of hockey operations is to find out: Is our guy willing to stick here through thick and thin? Or does he have a wandering eye?
The irony here is that Matthews, armed with a full no-move clause, absolutely can predict his near future. He could orchestrate a move to a team he believes has a better shot at the team success he desires. Or he could dig in and lead the Leafs for two more seasons minimum.
Don’t underestimate the power of the star athlete in a top-heavy league.
What would the player like to hear from the next boss?
“I don’t know if there is anything specific. Those conversations are going to be personal and private. We aren’t even at that point yet,” Matthews said. “When the time comes, those conversations will just happen organically.”
Our take: Matthews struck a noncommittal tone because — after the Leafs fell to 28th place in the standings, 31st in goals against, and 32nd in immediately having their captain’s back — the man needs to know what, exactly, he’s committing to.
Does training camp open with Craig Berube trying, once again, to get the troops to buy in to a chip-and-charge, clutter-the-crease attack? Does GM TBD find that elusive playmaking winger missing from Toronto’s top six? Is everyone healthy? Is the vision inspiring?
Those things, to be fair, Matthews cannot predict.
To a man, everyone wearing a Maple Leafs logo on the last day of school asserted their belief that 2025-26 could merely be a hiccup, that they have the personnel and conviction to summon a Bruins-esque bounce-back to the 2027 post-season.
“Absolutely,” Berube asserted, the Maple Leafs can win a Stanley Cup with Matthews and William Nylander. “’Cause I watch them play, and I know what kind of people they are.”
Stay with that a moment, though.
Watching Matthews play this season was underwhelming, to be kind.
The centreman carried the second-highest cap hit in the sport ($13.25 million) yet finished 67th in points per game (0.88) among skaters who played 20 games minimum.
His 27 goals and 53 points are both career lows. And while his defensive commitment and matchup game is strong, Matthews finished a dash-4.
Matthews will be 29 when the puck drops next, and now he has a surgically repaired left knee (“I think you know how I feel about the hit,” he said) to add to an injury history that includes a concussion, a separated shoulder, a twice-repaired wrist, and a wonky back.
Still, outside of some admitted Olympic-celebration jetlag, Matthews maintained that until Radko Gudas forced him into the brace he’s wearing, he had felt fine physically this season and will be raring to go come training camp.
Matthews stated that he loves being a Leaf and that he shares fans’ frustration and that he and his teammates must own this failure.
Less than 12 hours after the Maple Leafs’ 50th loss of the season, Matthews still believes he can win in this town.
“I believe in the guys in this room and the people we have here,” he said. “We are going to hire new leadership and management. There will be changes. That is just the way things go.”
But if we peer into the future, and the winning doesn’t come — or doesn’t come quick enough — Matthews cracked a door into a world where he could be part of those changes.
That’s just the way things go.
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
• Does Berube expect to coach the Maple Leafs in 2026-27?
“Yes,” he replied.
While he has been no indication otherwise from up top, Berube did acknowledge that new management would make that call.
• When Brad Treliving dangled Matthew Knies at the trade deadline, his ask was for one of three packages in a return, according to Nick Kypreos: two first-round picks and a high-end prospect; or one first-round pick and two high-end prospects; or three high-end prospects.
Did Knies take such a hefty ask as a compliment?
“I wouldn’t want to look at it as a compliment. I’d look at it as a crappy thing. I don’t want to leave this group of guys,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what it was. I wouldn’t want to leave here.
“I want to stay here. I want to play here.”
• John Tavares intends to play for Team Canada at next month’s world championships in Switzerland. He loves the game, especially in winner-take-all intensity, and finds he always learns and improves playing with different teammates under different coaches in different settings.
“It can only benefit me,” Tavares said.
• Chris Tanev, beauty that he is, said he feels he “let a lot of people down” by only suiting up for 11 games.
Every doctor he visited suggested season-ending groin surgery, but Tanev wanted to try to rehab without going under the knife. Only once the Leafs played themselves out of contention did he relent.
The 36-year-old defenceman’s rehabilitation is on track, and he vows to come back on time and in return-to-form condition.
“I work harder than anybody,” Tanev said.
• Anthony Stolarz was the first to notice something was amiss this season, publicly calling out the team’s defensive and togetherness issues way back in October.
“I think most definitely could have been handled in the room. But I think sometimes that what we need is tough love,” Stolarz reflected. “The guys understood where I was coming from. There was no animosity.”
BROSSARD, Que. — Juraj Slafkovsky stood stunned, with his voice tremoring and his eyes locked in a 1000-yard stare.
“We just have to play better, and we will,” Slafkovsky kept saying after sobering losses to the Washington Capitals last April.
His demeanour betrayed the confidence he wanted to portray following the first two games of his Stanley Cup Playoff career.
It was clear the experience shook Slafkovsky.
But by the time five games were played and a promising season had come to its abrupt end, it also became clear it had transformed him.
Countryman Eric Cernak saw that transformation as soon as Slafkovsky returned to Slovakia and joined him for their summer routine.
The Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman, who will face a much more hardened Slafkovsky than the one who got tenderized by the Capitals last spring, said the change was unmistakable.
“We have the same strength coach, so we work out and skate together, and I could see the difference right away when he was working hard and going for every single workout and skate with a different intensity,” Cernak told us prior to a 4-1 win for the Canadiens over his Lightning on Mar. 31.
“He clearly came prepared,” Cernak continued. “The way he’s played, the confidence he’s played with, it’s been amazing.”
It led Slafkovsky through the best of his four NHL seasons. He set career highs with 30 goals and 73 points, emerging as a dominant power forward three years ahead of schedule—in his 22nd year on the planet—and carrying himself with the swagger he had only hoped to have but couldn’t find with the Canadiens’ backs pinned to the wall in that Washington series.
An all-star performance at the Olympics in between prepared the 2022 No.1 overall pick for what’s coming next.
It was in Milan that Slafkovsky started every game as a marked man and finished it as an assassin. He posted four goals and eight points in six games and willed Slovakia to the semifinals.
In the process, he proved to himself what he wasn’t able to prove to himself last spring.
“I was able to see that I can actually go out there and do what I want and need to do in meaningful games against the world’s best players,” Slafkovsky said, “and now I know I can bring the same energy to playoff games.”
His voice was steady as he said it. His demeanour was confident, relaxed, and revealed the value of experience gained.
Seeing that from Slafkovsky and other members of this Canadiens team—ahead of a matchup with the most playoff-hardened team of the 16 challenging for this year’s Cup—made it easier to believe they can rise to the challenge in front of them.
You think of Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, among other young players who went green into last year’s playoffs and emerged from them black and blue, and you know they’ll also be much more ready for Sunday’s Game 1 in Tampa.
The lessons have sunk in.
“I was maybe a little less assertive as I wanted to be as a player,” Hutson said. “I feel more assertive in trying to help any way I can.”
Demidov came over from Russia last April and arguably would’ve gotten enough out of the two regular-season games he played while the Canadiens were trying to clinch a playoff berth if that was all he was exposed to before this season.
But getting in the five games he played against Washington had a massive influence on how he trained over the summer to author the most productive rookie campaign of any first-year player in the league.
To see Demidov score 19 goals and post 62 points was one thing, but Hutson feels he also offered evidence he can level up when it matters most—now.
“You can tell down the stretch, these last couple games, he’s hungry,” Hutson said. “We talk about the playoffs all the time, how exciting it is here and what we want to do to help us win, and he’s so hungry to do whatever it takes to win, and it’s definitely fun to see.”
The Canadiens are hoping that what they’ll get from Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble and Kaiden Guhle will be anything but fun for the Lightning to see.
The bruising back-enders also had their first experiences in the playoffs last spring, and they also took their hits like the rest of the Canadiens.
But Struble was more assertive down the stretch of this season than he was at any point last season—he was at his most aggressive in last week’s 2-1 win over the Lightning at the Bell Centre—and Xhekaj has recently found a better balance between asserting himself physically and managing the other key elements of play.
“I find he’s playing good hockey,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “He’s playing physical, playing to his identity, and he got some good reps down the stretch… I like what I saw.”
Results for Guhle were just as reassuring. Especially to his teammates.
“Guhles is going to be awesome for us,” said Kirby Dach. “Big, rangy defenceman who plays hard and physical in front of his own net. He can eat big minutes, he’s a bit of a pain in the ass to play against, so we’re definitely lucky to have him.”
Experience has brought Guhle and the rest of the Canadiens to another level, and that showed during this 106-point season.
“There’s ups and downs through a playoff series, there’s ups and downs through a game, there’s emotion that comes with it,” said St. Louis, “so having gone through it, I think it helps you.”
It may not have felt that way to Slafkovsky in the moment, but it certainly feels that way to him now in hindsight.
“Honestly, I grew a lot from that,” he said. “It was really hard. On TV, you can just watch and see all the plays developing, and everyone can figure it out on TV. Me too. I see what should happen. But on the ice, it’s way different. There’s a lot of physicality, and it’s way faster.
“But I realized it’s the type of game I love. It’s what I play for.”
Cernak knows that.
He saw it first-hand at the Olympics, and he knows Slafkovsky is just one of the young Canadiens more prepared for this year’s playoffs.
“Even if they have a young team, those guys have been there for a few years and have gone through stuff together,” he said. “It was only a matter of time before it started clicking, and everybody was playing winning hockey. That’s what they’ve done. Marty, as the head coach, has experience. Even if they’re young, they know how to manage winning those hard games, and I think that’s important.”
