India Sherret, of Cranbrook, B.C., won the bronze medal in the World Cup ski cross competition on Friday.
Switzerland’s Fanny Smith claimed gold, while Italy’s Jole Galli took silver.
It was Sherret’s sixth podium finish of the season, and she now leads the World Cup standings with 750 points, ahead of teammate Marielle Thompson, of Whistler, B.C., who has 727.
Thompson, who was first in qualifying, finished 16th.
Courtney Hoffos, from Windermere, B.C., won the small final to place fifth, and Edmonton’s Abby McEwen finished seventh.
In the men’s competition, Italy’s Simone Deromedis won gold, followed by Japan’s Ryo Sugai and Sweden’s Erik Mobaerg. Toronto’s Kevin Drury finished eighth.
There may be no bigger late-season swing than the trade-deadline goalie swap.
To alter course in such a foundational way, that late in the game, seems to say something particular about what an organization believes its roster is capable of — that it’s strong enough to potentially make some real noise in the playoffs, but flawed enough to need major surgery just months before the post-season begins.
Timing-wise, it’s an odd gamble. Look across the league at the moment, and the majority of the most impactful changes in net came in the off-season. In June, the Washington Capitals acquired netminder Logan Thompson from the Vegas Golden Knights for a pair of picks, kickstarting their resurgent campaign. The New Jersey Devils brought in veteran Jacob Markstrom for defender Kevin Bahl and a pick, stabilizing their situation in the cage. The Los Angeles Kings shipped out centreman Pierre-Luc Dubois to bring back Darcy Kuemper, while the Ottawa Senators landed a new starter in Linus Ullmark, sending a package highlighted by Joonas Korpisalo back to Boston.
It’s rare that a club looks to bring about that type of shake-up mid-season — rewind back through the past half-decade of deadline deals, and there have only been a handful of instances where teams have made moves to bring in a marquee goaltender in the lead-up to the deadline. And even then, it’s rarely been to take over the No. 1 job.
Last year’s deadline saw the Devils aim to address their goaltending issues mid-season, bringing in Jake Allen from Montreal in exchange for a third-round pick. The veteran started the majority of Jersey’s games for the rest of the campaign, winning six of 13 appearances and posting a .900 save percentage as the club fell short of earning a ticket to the post-season. Beside him, the Devils had brought in Kaapo Kahkonen at the deadline too, sending Vitek Vanacek to San Jose. On the other side of that deal, the move was hardly a game-changer for the Sharks, given the club’s position in the standings and the fact that Vanacek was out with an injury that kept him sidelined for the rest of the season.
Ultimately, both the Devils and Sharks wound up swinging bigger to shore up their goaltending down the line, the Devils trading for Markstrom in the off-season, and the Sharks acquiring Yaroslav Askarov five months after Vanacek, and Alexandar Georgiev a few months after that (more on that later).
Watch Hockey Central Trade Deadline on Sportsnet
Sportsnet’s hockey news breakers, analysts and reporters will have coast-to-coast coverage of all the moves made ahead of this season’s NHL trade deadline. Full coverage on March 7 begins at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
The 2023 trade deadline brought some more notable goalie drama, with the Los Angeles Kings trading franchise legend Jonathan Quick to Columbus, only to see the Blue Jackets turn around and flip him to Vegas — the Kings’ division rival — a day later. The veteran helped the Golden Knights survive a rash of injuries and make it to the post-season as the West’s best. While he was pushed to the press box in the post-season as Vegas’s top options regained their health, the move still netted Quick a third Stanley Cup ring.
Marc-Andre Fleury’s been at the centre of a few instances of deadline drama. In 2022, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin went out and swung a deal to bring in his former Pittsburgh Penguins teammate, acquiring Fleury from Chicago for a second-round pick. Upon arriving, the veteran strung together a solid run to close out the regular season, winning the starting job over previous No. 1 Cam Talbot by the time the playoffs arrived, and eventually re-signing with the club. Still, the move didn’t wind up being the true game-changer for the Wild’s plans in net — that arguably came a few months later, in the off-season, when the team acquired Filip Gustavsson from Ottawa in exchange for Talbot, the young Swede soon taking over the starting role in Minnesota himself.
The 2021 deadline saw only marginal goaltending deals — Toronto brought in David Rittich, Colorado acquired Devan Dubnyk and Jonas Johansson, and none of the three got significant time in the net over the rest of the season. But a year before that, the 2020 deadline saw Fleury on the other end of a situation similar to the one that later played out in Minnesota, when the Golden Knights landed Robin Lehner from Chicago. Lehner wound up usurping Fleury — then the Golden Knights starter — when the post-season arrived, the Swede going on to backstop Vegas to the Conference Finals.
It should come as little surprise that a mid-season deal for a starting netminder brings only a rare shot at truly moving the needle, given how much success at that position is tied to a goaltender’s comfort — with their own game, with the defence in front of them, with their new club’s environment in general.
It’s for that reason that one of the biggest moves in the cage already happened earlier this season, when the Avalanche traded for Mackenzie Blackwood in December, sending Georgiev to San Jose in a massive seven-piece blockbuster.
In the 24 games since arriving, Blackwood’s put up a .922 save percentage and a pair of shutouts, earning 15 wins for the Avs as they hold on to a wild-card spot. Speaking with NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley last month, the 28-year-old highlighted the fact that the trade came early in the season as a key reason he’s been able to settle in well with his new club. Whereas a change of scenery only months before the playoffs begin, he said, seems a daunting ask for any netminder.
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.
“I feel that’s definitely more of a challenge,” Blackwood told Woodley. “Especially because you’re at the end of the year and everyone is fighting for playoff spots. You get put into a situation that’s very tense and stuff like that and you’re having to deal with moving. … If you’re going to get moved, I feel this was a bit of an easier time to do it. It gives you more time.”
Still, even if it is a gamble, even if the circumstances won’t be ideal, there’s a fair chance we’ll see at least one well-known netminder changing jerseys by the time the March 7 trade deadline arrives. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few names who could be available:
It’s not the first time the Anaheim Ducks stalwart has seen his name in the rumour mill, but the noteworthy difference this time around is the strong campaign Gibson’s been stitching together. Despite playing behind the perennially struggling Ducks, the veteran’s put forth his best season in half a decade so far, looking more like the goaltender who earned praise as one of the game’s best early in his career. A new upper-body injury complicates things, but the day-to-day ailment doesn’t look likely to keep Gibson out for long. And with the Ducks acquiring netminder Ville Husso from Detroit earlier this week, a trade to send their long-time veteran on to a new chapter seems even more likely. At only 31, there’s still plenty for Gibson to give, and the American has long seemed like a potential game-changer for a contender in need of an upgrade.
You’d have to go back to Binnington’s first few years in the league to find a time when his stock was higher than it is right now. A key piece of the Blues championship run back in 2019, Binnington now finds himself part of a woeful situation in St. Louis that has seemingly every key name on the roster potentially available for the right price. The 31-year-old hasn’t exactly lit the league on fire this season himself, nor has he over the past few years. But he’s fresh off backstopping Canada to a 4 Nations Face-Off championship that seemed to revive his reputation as a big-game player, particularly given the heroics he came up with late in the tournament’s championship overtime thriller.
The 28-year-old is four years into his run with Utah’s organization, joining the club as a free agent back in 2021, when they were still in the desert. Vejmelka hasn’t exactly been a world-beater at the NHL level to this point, posting a career-best .910 save percentage through 36 games this year and a .900 overall in his big-league career so far. But he’s shown flashes of quality — the latest coming just a couple months ago, when he authored a 49-save performance that stole Utah a win over the contender Canes. Playing out the final year of a three-year pact, Vejmelka could find himself on the move if Utah feels an extension can’t be hammered out before the deadline arrives.
The NHL is expecting one of its largest crowds ever at this weekend’s outdoor game in Columbus.
Steve Mayer, president of NHL content and events, said more than 90,000 fans are expected to attend the game between the Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
“This is an iconic place,” Mayer said of the home of the Buckeyes. “I’ve watched some incredible sporting events take place in this building, and it’s special to be here and for us to actually look at what will be the second-largest crowd in the history of these outdoor games, and to know that even though it started many years ago, we’re still going strong, and we’re bringing a game to Columbus for the first time. It’s kind of unbelievable that we haven’t been here.”
Watch Hockey Central Trade Deadline on Sportsnet
Sportsnet’s hockey news breakers, analysts and reporters will have coast-to-coast coverage of all the moves made ahead of this season’s NHL trade deadline. Full coverage on March 7 begins at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
The record for the largest crowd at an NHL game is 105,491, which was set at Michigan Stadium when the Red Wings faced the Maple Leafs in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1, 2014.
Ohio Stadium can seat 102,780 fans for football, but some seats are unavailable due to a stage being set up for a concert by Twenty One Pilots during the first intermission, the NHL said.
The Stadium Series game will be the first time the Blue Jackets will skate in an outdoor game. It is the sixth such game for the Red Wings.
Fans in Canada can watch the game on FX and Sportsnet+ on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. PT.
OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators are caught between a rock and a hard place ahead of the March 7 trade deadline. The four-letter word Senators fans have heard in recent deadlines has been “sell.” But now, the team is clinging for dear life to a playoff berth with plenty of teams circling around.
The team needs a boost to ensure a chance at snapping a seven-year playoff drought, but will general manager Steve Staios break the bank to make that happen?
Highly unlikely.
Why?
A couple reasons. First, the team has very few assets. Ottawa has traded its first-round picks in three straight years, and faces the future loss of a first-round pick in 2025 or 2026 for the botched Evgeni Dadonov trade. The cabinet is bare. (Carter Yakemchuk says hi).
The other hiccup is the Senators have very little cap space. Yes, you read that right. For the first time in too long, the Senators are paying to the cap and, according to PuckPedia, they will have $1.65 million in cap space by deadline time.
To simplify it, for almost any trade of substance to occur the Senators will need to flush out another salary. Addition with subtraction.
Watch Hockey Central Trade Deadline on Sportsnet
Sportsnet’s hockey news breakers, analysts and reporters will have coast-to-coast coverage of all the moves made ahead of this season’s NHL trade deadline. Full coverage on March 7 begins at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Even if Ottawa could muster the assets to acquire some talent, the cap minutiae would be difficult to pull off.
But the time is now to push for the playoffs. Every team in the Atlantic Division next season could have a legitimate goal of making the playoffs. The playoffs are right there, right now.
That doesn’t mean the Senators should trade all of their future for the now (which happened under the previous regime). However, there are ways to make the team marginally better for the final 25 games because there are holes in the roster.
What I’m hearing is that the Senators and Staios believe their team is good when the currently injury Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Shane Pinto are in the lineup. I don’t expect an overly active deadline from Ottawa. My sense is the organization feels that they are set on defence and in net with the emergence of Nikolas Matinpalo and Leevi Merilainen.
The Senators are testing the theory of having too many defencemen with eight on the roster. But other than potentially adding another left-shot defenceman to insulate Tyler Kleven, Ottawa is good on the backend. Ottawa is ninth in goals allowed and in the top half in most defensive team metrics. Defence isn’t the problem, and Merilainen has shown himself to be more than capable in net.
Don’t expect a blockbuster, instead it’s likely a “Steady” Steve Staios deadline. But Staios should consider a major move if he can acquire a player that can dramatically change the fortunes of the team. This team has holes, and whenever he can, the GM should plug them.
Real Kyper’s Trade Board
Hockey Insider Nick Kypreos shares the latest intel on players who could be on the move ahead of the March 7 trade deadline.
One area that should be enhanced is the forward group, which needs a punch of more finishing and speed. Even before the injuries to Tkachuk, Norris and Pinto the team had consistently struggled to score. The Senators are ranked 22nd in the league in scoring at 2.79 goals per game and were shut out five times in January.
The Senators’ lack of finishing can be explained easily by just looking at shooting percentage. The club is 29th in the league in all situations at 9.40 per cent but drops to 32nd with just 6.73 per cent when narrowed down to five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
For their part, the Senators don’t seem concerned about the low shooting percentage.
“I think it’s always going to even out,” Tim Stutzle said. “Throughout the year, teams get 40 shots and just score one goal. Maybe (we need) to get to the net front more often and get some more rebounds and get some ugly goals.”
All season, coach Travis Green has mixed and matched wingers for Stutzle but none have clicked other than Tkachuk. Outside of Stutzle, Norris and Pinto, there is very little speed within the forward group. Over half of the forward group has below-league-average speed, according to NHL Edge data.
To the eye test, there are many times that Stutzle jumps into the play with his blistering speed and must wait for his teammates to catch up. Same goes for Norris and Pinto.
In today’s NHL, the most important attribute is speed.
Staios’s summer moves brought in veteran forwards David Perron, Michael Amadio and Nick Cousins but none of them are speed burners. Cousins is currently out injured but there is some belief that he could return in April, which weighs into Ottawa’s deadline equation.
Ottawa’s emphasis must be to find a winger who has enough wheels and skill to play with their centremen.
Potential fits would be Ryan Donato, Jake Evans, Ryan Strome and Mathieu Olivier. They aren’t big names, but can they make a significant impact within a reasonable cost and cap hit. A solid middle-six forward with speed and finish could provide a similar boost to the one Nick Jensen has brought to Ottawa after getting swapped for the “big name” Jakob Chychrun. Jensen isn’t a star or glitzy player, especially compared to Chychrun, but he’s had an enormous impact on the Senators as an excellent partner for Thomas Chabot.
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.
In an ideal world with cap space and more assets, the Senators could be aiming higher.
There are different avenues to create cap space, such as trading Anton Forsberg’s $2.75 million expiring contract, but Merilainen was hurt in Belleville on Monday, clouding that option. An alternative might be moving Perron’s $4 million AAV contract with another season left on the deal. Any shedding of salary for Ottawa would likely be for an impact player with term.
Staios almost acquired Linus Ullmark at last season’s trade deadline and eventually got him in the summer. If there is a trade that could solidify the forward group for years to come, Staios shouldn’t hesitate to pounce.
Sportsnet’s Jacob Stoller floated the name of Seattle’s Jared McCann as potentially being on the trading block.
McCann, a once 40-goal scorer who consistently produces 20 goals while bringing some speed, would work well in the top six and has two more seasons remaining on his contract at $5 million. He would be a perfect acquisition for the Senators.
McCann is an example of a player Ottawa should go after and give up assets for if he is made available. A trade for the now and future.
I am hearing the team believes they did most of their work over the off-season in acquiring Ullmark, Jensen, Perron, Amadio and Cousins. Nevertheless, Staios has preached constant evaluation and putting everything on the table.
As Senators fans know, it’s been a long time since Ottawa has had an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot. To get there, the team needs another forward and they have less than two weeks until the deadline to find one.
OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators are caught between a rock and a hard place ahead of the March 7 trade deadline. The four-letter word Senators fans have heard in recent deadlines has been “sell.” But now, the team is clinging for dear life to a playoff berth with plenty of teams circling around.
The team needs a boost to ensure a chance at snapping a seven-year playoff drought, but will general manager Steve Staios break the bank to make that happen?
Highly unlikely.
Why?
A couple reasons. First, the team has very few assets. Ottawa has traded its first-round picks in three straight years, and faces the future loss of a first-round pick in 2025 or 2026 for the botched Evgeni Dadonov trade. The cabinet is bare. (Carter Yakemchuk says hi).
The other hiccup is the Senators have very little cap space. Yes, you read that right. For the first time in too long, the Senators are paying to the cap and, according to PuckPedia, they will have $1.65 million in cap space by deadline time.
To simplify it, for almost any trade of substance to occur the Senators will need to flush out another salary. Addition with subtraction.
Watch Hockey Central Trade Deadline on Sportsnet
Sportsnet’s hockey news breakers, analysts and reporters will have coast-to-coast coverage of all the moves made ahead of this season’s NHL trade deadline. Full coverage on March 7 begins at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Even if Ottawa could muster the assets to acquire some talent, the cap minutiae would be difficult to pull off.
But the time is now to push for the playoffs. Every team in the Atlantic Division next season could have a legitimate goal of making the playoffs. The playoffs are right there, right now.
That doesn’t mean the Senators should trade all of their future for the now (which happened under the previous regime). However, there are ways to make the team marginally better for the final 25 games because there are holes in the roster.
What I’m hearing is that the Senators and Staios believe their team is good when the currently injury Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Shane Pinto are in the lineup. I don’t expect an overly active deadline from Ottawa. My sense is the organization feels that they are set on defence and in net with the emergence of Nikolas Matinpalo and Leevi Merilainen.
The Senators are testing the theory of having too many defencemen with eight on the roster. But other than potentially adding another left-shot defenceman to insulate Tyler Kleven, Ottawa is good on the backend. Ottawa is ninth in goals allowed and in the top half in most defensive team metrics. Defence isn’t the problem, and Merilainen has shown himself to be more than capable in net.
Don’t expect a blockbuster, instead it’s likely a “Steady” Steve Staios deadline. But Staios should consider a major move if he can acquire a player that can dramatically change the fortunes of the team. This team has holes, and whenever he can, the GM should plug them.
Real Kyper’s Trade Board
Hockey Insider Nick Kypreos shares the latest intel on players who could be on the move ahead of the March 7 trade deadline.
One area that should be enhanced is the forward group, which needs a punch of more finishing and speed. Even before the injuries to Tkachuk, Norris and Pinto the team had consistently struggled to score. The Senators are ranked 22nd in the league in scoring at 2.79 goals per game and were shut out five times in January.
The Senators’ lack of finishing can be explained easily by just looking at shooting percentage. The club is 29th in the league in all situations at 9.40 per cent but drops to 32nd with just 6.73 per cent when narrowed down to five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
For their part, the Senators don’t seem concerned about the low shooting percentage.
“I think it’s always going to even out,” Tim Stutzle said. “Throughout the year, teams get 40 shots and just score one goal. Maybe (we need) to get to the net front more often and get some more rebounds and get some ugly goals.”
All season, coach Travis Green has mixed and matched wingers for Stutzle but none have clicked other than Tkachuk. Outside of Stutzle, Norris and Pinto, there is very little speed within the forward group. Over half of the forward group has below-league-average speed, according to NHL Edge data.
To the eye test, there are many times that Stutzle jumps into the play with his blistering speed and must wait for his teammates to catch up. Same goes for Norris and Pinto.
In today’s NHL, the most important attribute is speed.
Staios’s summer moves brought in veteran forwards David Perron, Michael Amadio and Nick Cousins but none of them are speed burners. Cousins is currently out injured but there is some belief that he could return in April, which weighs into Ottawa’s deadline equation.
Ottawa’s emphasis must be to find a winger who has enough wheels and skill to play with their centremen.
Potential fits would be Ryan Donato, Jake Evans, Ryan Strome and Mathieu Olivier. They aren’t big names, but can they make a significant impact within a reasonable cost and cap hit. A solid middle-six forward with speed and finish could provide a similar boost to the one Nick Jensen has brought to Ottawa after getting swapped for the “big name” Jakob Chychrun. Jensen isn’t a star or glitzy player, especially compared to Chychrun, but he’s had an enormous impact on the Senators as an excellent partner for Thomas Chabot.
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.
In an ideal world with cap space and more assets, the Senators could be aiming higher.
There are different avenues to create cap space, such as trading Anton Forsberg’s $2.75 million expiring contract, but Merilainen was hurt in Belleville on Monday, clouding that option. An alternative might be moving Perron’s $4 million AAV contract with another season left on the deal. Any shedding of salary for Ottawa would likely be for an impact player with term.
Staios almost acquired Linus Ullmark at last season’s trade deadline and eventually got him in the summer. If there is a trade that could solidify the forward group for years to come, Staios shouldn’t hesitate to pounce.
Sportsnet’s Jacob Stoller floated the name of Seattle’s Jared McCann as potentially being on the trading block.
McCann, a once 40-goal scorer who consistently produces 20 goals while bringing some speed, would work well in the top six and has two more seasons remaining on his contract at $5 million. He would be a perfect acquisition for the Senators.
McCann is an example of a player Ottawa should go after and give up assets for if he is made available. A trade for the now and future.
I am hearing the team believes they did most of their work over the off-season in acquiring Ullmark, Jensen, Perron, Amadio and Cousins. Nevertheless, Staios has preached constant evaluation and putting everything on the table.
As Senators fans know, it’s been a long time since Ottawa has had an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot. To get there, the team needs another forward and they have less than two weeks until the deadline to find one.
MANCHESTER, England — Newcastle scored four goals in 11 minutes against Nottingham Forest, but still had to withstand a late fightback to seal a 4-3 win in the Premier League on Sunday.
A first-half goal spree — including two more for Alexander Isak — gave Newcastle a 4-1 lead at the break at St James’ Park.
But Forest, which had led after six minutes, mounted a comeback that provided a nervous finale.
The win moves Newcastle up to fifth and boosted its hopes of a top-four finish and Champions League qualification.
Third-placed Forest led through Callum Hudson-Odoi’s opener in the sixth.
But Newcastle powered back with Lewis Miley’s goal in the 23rd sparking a remarkable spree.
Jacob Murphy put the home team ahead two minutes later and Isak struck from the penalty spot in the 33rd.
A minute later Isak scored his second to take his total for the season to 21. The Sweden striker is level with Erling Haaland on 19 league goals and only Mohamed Salah, with 24, has scored more this season.
Forest’s fightback began in the 63rd through Nikola Milenkovic and in the 90th, Ryan Yates pulled the score back to 4-3.
The defeat was Forest’s third in its last four games in the league and saw it miss out on the chance to move to within three points of second-placed Arsenal.
Despite telling USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale that he would likely retire at the end of the 2024 season, Pillar’s stint with the Los Angeles Angels has him back trying to extend his career.
TheTexas Rangers announced Sunday morning that they signed the 36-year-old to a minor-league deal with an invite to MLB spring training.
If Pillar can crack Texas’s MLB club, he will suit up for his 13th MLB season with his 10th big league team.
If he can’t earn a shot with the Rangers, Pillar won’t be looking for ways to fill the time. The West Hills, Calif., native told reporters Sunday that he picked up some new hobbies this off-season. He’s now the proud owner of about 50 chickens and six llamas — three of which are pregnant.
Pillar spent the first 17 games of the 2024 campaign with the Chicago White Sox before being released and latching on with the Angels.
Once in L.A., the longtime Toronto Blue Jays outfielder turned his season around. Over 83 games with the Angels, Pillar slashed .236/.291/.378 with seven home runs, 41 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
He told Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi last August: “When I say it’s over, it’s over, there’s no coming back.” He added that officially deciding to hang up his cleats will be a “tough decision.”
Pillar spent time in all three outfield spots with Los Angeles last year, but was most successful playing centre field, racking up three defensive runs saved over 312.1 innings.
From 2013-19 with the Blue Jays, Pillar wowed fans with his acrobatic catches in the outfield, often pulling home runs back at the Rogers Centre wall. With the bat, he carried a .692 OPS over his seven seasons in Toronto, collecting 55 homers, 231 RBIs and 69 stolen bases.
MANCHESTER, England — Erling Haaland was left out of the Manchester City squad for Sunday’s Premier League clash with Liverpool after failing to recover from injury in time.
The Norway international was an unused substitute against Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, having been forced off late in the previous game against Newcastle.
City manager Pep Guardiola had said Friday he did not know if his leading scorer would be available.
Haaland has scored 27 goals in all competitions this season.
“It’s better to have Erling on the pitch. Everybody is responsible for the good things and bad things for the team but obviously with Erling we are better,” Guardiola said Friday.
January signing Omar Marmoush was named in attack in his place, having also started in the 3-1 loss to Madrid.
According to Terry Koshan and Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun, Stolarz will start in net for the Maple Leafs Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes, and Alex Steeves will draw into the team’s forward group with Max Pacioretty out for the weekend.
Joseph Woll will start Toronto’s game Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Stolarz, 31, returned to the Maple Leafs crease on Feb. 6 after missing nearly two months of action, picking up a win in his first game back.
Over 18 contests this season, the eight-year NHL veteran has been a revelation for the Maple Leafs with a 10-5-2 record, 2.08 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.
Steeves, meanwhile, was recalled from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies on Tuesday. He has appeared in four games with the Maple Leafs this season — the last of which came on Nov. 27 — registering zero points.
The 25-year-old leads the Marlies in scoring with 29 goals and 46 points in 40 games.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube told reporters Friday that Pacioretty was unlikely to play this weekend after tweaking something during Wednesday’s practice.
The 36-year-old has been limited to 37 games this season due to injuries and has five goals and eight assists.
Finally, Berube provided an update on forward Connor Dewar, who has been out with an upper-body injury since Jan. 22, but could return as soon as Sunday for Toronto.
You can watch as the Maple Leafs return to action against the Hurricanes on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT.
The Winnipeg Jets are locking up their second-line centre.
Forward Vladislav Namestnikov has been signed to a two-year, $6-million contract extension, the team announced Saturday. The deal carries a $3 million AAV.
Namestnikov, 32, has 10 goals and 29 points in 52 games for the first-place Jets. He joined Winnipeg ahead of the 2023 trade deadline from Tampa via San Jose.
Drafted 27th overall by the Lightning in 2011, Namestnikov has also spent time with the New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars.
In 760 career NHL games, he’s amassed 136 goals and 191 assists.
