FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The New York Jets suddenly have a big question mark on their offensive line — before they’ve even played a game.
Coach Aaron Glenn announced Thursday that right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker has a torn triceps and will miss the entire season.
Glenn said Vera-Tucker is facing a seven-month rehabilitation from the injury, which occurred during practice Tuesday and will require surgery.
“He was a big player for us, man,” Glenn said, “but we’ve got to continue to keep rolling.”
The offensive lineman was listed Wednesday on the team’s injury report as not participating in practice — an estimation since the Jets didn’t have an on-field session — with a triceps issue. The same injury cut short Vera-Tucker’s second NFL season in 2022.
Word came as the Jets prepare to open their season against Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. It’s a huge blow for New York’s offensive line, considered a strength entering the season.
Joe Tippmann, who has started at center the past two seasons, could take his spot at right guard and Josh Myers could play center after being a starter at the position most of the past four seasons in Green Bay.
“When it comes to who’s going to be up as far as the O-line, I’m still getting that evaluated,” Glenn said.
Tippmann and Myers have been in a positional competition for the center job throughout training camp. Both are listed as the possible starter on the team’s unofficial depth chart this week and Glenn has said only that they’re both still competing.
The 26-year-old Vera-Tucker is perhaps the Jets’ best all-around offensive lineman. He has played well at multiple positions but has struggled with injuries since being drafted 14th overall in 2021 out of Southern California.
“It’s a tough deal,” offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said. “As we all know, that’s a good football player. It’s a really good football player, but we feel confident in the other guys, too.”
Vera-Tucker started 16 games primarily at left guard as a rookie and was considered a bright spot on a team that went 4-13. But he missed the final 10 games in 2022 — after playing at right guard, left tackle and right tackle — with a torn triceps. Vera-Tucker returned in time to start the next season and played right guard and right tackle but tore an Achilles tendon in Week 5 and missed the final 12 games.
The Jets picked up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract that offseason, a sign the team was confident he was a building block for the O-line. Vera-Tucker stayed mostly healthy while starting 15 games at right guard last season.
Entering the final year of his deal, Vera-Tucker was considered an important piece of what appears will be an offence heavily focused on the run game behind quarterback Justin Fields.
Vera-Tucker was also voted one of the Jets’ six captains last week by his teammates.
It’s been seven years since the Anaheim Ducks last made the playoffs, but the 2024-25 season can be looked back on as one in which the team took a notable step forward. The Ducks were one of the most improved teams year over year, jumping from 59 points in 2023-24 to 80 in 2024-25.
However, there remains a lot of work to do. Anaheim still missed the playoffs by 16 points and finished 8-9-3 in their last 20 games. The Ducks offence was 30th in the league, the power play worst overall, and they had a penalty kill that wasn’t much better.
A few more veterans were brought in over the summer. Chris Kreider was acquired from the Rangers for pennies on the dollar and he arrives motivated with two years left on his contract. Mikael Granlund was signed off the UFA market to a three-year deal with a $7 million AAV. While Kreider will be eyeing a bounce back, Granlund had one of the better offensive seasons of his career between San Jose and Dallas and was a top-four scorer for the Stars in three playoff rounds.
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.
Although finishing as one of the most improved teams in 2024-25 brings promise this new season, the tougher job is to make up the rest of the difference and qualify for the playoffs. The veterans who dot the roster will play key leadership roles and be counted on to produce, but it’s the younger generation that will have to pull the hardest. Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish (more on him later), Cutter Gauthier and Jackson LaCombe all need to keep progressing if Anaheim’s long rebuild is going to pay off with some post-season hockey.
The Ducks are the first franchise up in our look at 32 teams in 32 days, and here’s what to look out for in Anaheim this season.
Newcomer to watch: Chris Kreider
Last season was an utter disaster for the New York Rangers, and Kreider was right in the middle of it all. The longest-tenured player of the team and a vocal member of the leadership group, Kreider wasn’t pleased when Jacob Trouba was dealt early in the season and then he struggled throughout. Kreider did manage to score 22 goals, though that was one of the lower totals of his career, and with just eight assists, he finished with a measly 30 points. Now 34 years old, is Kreider down the road of age-related decline, or can he return to form and help show Anaheim the way to a playoff push after he was moved in a salary-dumping trade?
Under-the-radar player to watch: Tristan Luneau
The Ducks have a wealth of young defencemen and their top three scorers from the blue line last season were all 23 and under: Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger. Those three are all also left shots. On the right, veterans Trouba and Radko Gudas will still get big minutes, but are in the final season of their contracts. This is why we should keep an eye on Tristan Luneau in training camp. The 21-year-old was AHL San Diego’s top scorer last season and finished third in scoring among all defencemen in the league. A second-round pick in 2022, Luneau brings an offensive upside that could garner an opportunity with a good camp, or a quick call up during the season.
Top Prospect: Beckett Sennecke
When the Ducks took Sennecke third overall in the 2024 draft, some saw it as reaching for a player over the likes of Ivan Demidov or Tij Iginla. Returning to OHL Oshawa for his draft plus-one season, Sennecke improved by nine goals and 18 points and was a driving force in returning the Generals to the OHL Final. Sennecke has grown a few inches and added considerable weight, bringing him closer to being ready for the NHL, though the Ducks’ signing Kreider and Granlund over the summer has limited any shot of earning a top-nine role this season.
Sennecke is not old enough to play in the AHL yet and because he already signed his entry-level deal with the Ducks, he’s also not eligible to switch over to the NCAA. If he doesn’t crack the Ducks lineup, Sennecke will return to major junior. There, he’ll get another shot to make Team Canada for the WJC, a roster he was surprisingly left off a year ago. This time around, he could be counted on to be one of their key players.
Three Burning Questions:
1. Will Mason McTavish sign or will he be traded?
GM Pat Verbeek has played hardball with young players before. In 2023, when both Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale were RFAs, the Ducks did not come to terms with those players until Oct. 2 and Oct. 5, respectively. This year, it’s Mason McTavish, fresh off a 22-goal, 52-point season. It’s not often that a 22-year-old centre picked third overall gets traded, especially after three good seasons to begin an NHL career, so odds are that a deal will get done. But if the season starts without one, look out.
2. Can Lukas Dostal build on last season and make Anaheim’s big investment worth it?
After years of trade speculation, the Ducks finally moved on from John Gibson, trading him to Detroit on July 1. The reason they could feel good doing so was that Dostal had such a strong season and has now played more than half of the games two years in a row — he has a .902 save percentage in 98 games from 2023-24 through 2024-25. Just 17 days after trading Gibson, the Ducks signed the 25-year-old Dostal to a five-year extension with a $6.5-million cap hit. Can he now prove that he can be the goalie Anaheim needs in this next window of development, when they’ll be eyeing a move out of the rebuild and into a playoff race?
3. Will Jackson LaCombe‘s breakout continue?
One of the best stories from this team last season was LaCombe, a second-round pick from 2019 who jumped from 17 to 43 points between 2023-24 and 2024-25. The 12 goals he scored at even strength last season was tied for seventh among all NHL defencemen, with Quinn Hughes and Rasmus Dahlin, and the individual high-danger chances he got at five-on-five ranked behind only Zach Werenski and Cale Makar at the position. Invited to Team USA’s Olympic orientation camp in September, LaCombe will be looking to follow up his breakout season with international recognition.
Dennis Hildeby agreed to a three-year, $2.525 million contract extension, the Maple Leafs announced on Tuesday.
The deal runs through the 2027-28 season, when it is converted from a two-way contract into a one-way.
Hildeby, 24, posted a .908 save percentage and 2.55 goals against average in 30 games with the Toronto Marlies last season. For his AHL career, which spans 73 appearances, the Swede holds a .909 save percentage, 2.53 GAA and six shutouts.
The hulking six-foot-seven, 224-pound netminder also started six games for the Maple Leafs last season, going 3-3 with an .878 save percentage and 3.33 GAA.
Hildeby was originally selected by Toronto in the fourth round (122nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft.
He appears set to enter the coming season third on the depth chart behind the NHL tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll.
Yet another Canadian striker is set to join a new side in this hectic transfer window.
Forward Cyle Larin is heading to the Netherlands to sign with Feyenoord after the team agreed to a transfer from La Liga club Mallorca, the team confirmed on Tuesday. Soccer insider Fabrizio Romano initially reported the move on Monday.
The transfer fee for Larin is unclear.
Larin, 30, has spent the last two seasons with Mallorca, picking up 11 goals and five assists in 76 appearances between all club competitions.
“I’m very happy to be here,” Larin said, according to a story on the team’s website. “I know the history of Feyenoord, the passion of the supporters and the fact that the club always wants to compete for trophies. That fits perfectly with who I am, and I’m looking forward to playing for Feyenoord and working with coach Robin van Persie. He was a striker, just like me, and his presence convinced me to come to Rotterdam. I can learn a lot from him.
“I’ve, of course, played football in different places and gained a lot of experience. But my goal is always the same everywhere: to score goals and win championships. That is not easy, so as a team and as a club you have to work very hard every day to achieve success. I can’t wait to get started.”
He initially joined the team ahead of the 2023-24 season on a €7.5 million (CAD$12 million) transfer fee from Club Brugge. He has also enjoyed spells at Real Valladolid, Besiktas, Zulte Waregem and Orlando City SC over his 10-year professional career.
Along with his club goals, the Brampton, Ont., native has 30 goals in 86 international caps for Team Canada.
He now joins a Feyenoord side that has gotten off to a perfect 3-0 start in the early going of the Eredivisie season.
Larin is the latest in an active transfer window for Canadians, as star striker Jonathan David joined Juventus earlier in the summer, Tani Oluwaseyi moved to Villareal, midfielder Ismael Kone was loaned to Sassuolo and centreback Derek Cornelius nears a move to Rangers.
DUESSELDORF, Germany — Erik ten Hag said he was as stunned as the rest of the soccer world when Bayer Leverkusen fired him after three games in charge in an “unprecedented” move on Monday.
The former Manchester United manager was tasked with rebuilding Leverkusen after an exodus of key players since Bundesliga-winning coach Xabi Alonso’s departure for Real Madrid.
It soon fell apart.
Discontent was clear as Ten Hag questioned club decisions in the transfer market, while players squabbled over who would take a penalty in his third and final game.
“The decision by Bayer Leverkusen’s management this morning to put me on a leave of absence came as a complete surprise. To part ways with a coach after just two league matches is unprecedented,” Ten Hag said in a statement released by his agency.
Ten Hag argued he needed more time to make the rebuild work.
“I started this job with full conviction and energy, but unfortunately the management was not willing to grant me the time and trust I needed, which I deeply regret. I feel this was never a relationship based on mutual trust.”
Ten Hag’s task was to integrate a raft of new players, including American forward Malik Tillman — more new signings continued on Sunday and Monday — after stars from Leverkusen’s 2023-24 title-winning season like Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Granit Xhaka all left.
There were signs of trouble before the season when Ten Hag spoke out publicly against Xhaka leaving, only for Leverkusen to allow the midfielder to join Sunderland anyway. Ten Hag’s first friendly in July was a 5-1 loss to the youth team of Brazilian club Flamengo, a jarring result even if it wasn’t a competitive game.
Leverkusen was beaten by Hoffenheim 2-1 at home in Ten Hag’s Bundesliga debut — it proved to be his only home game — then squandered a two-goal lead to allow 10-man Werder Bremen to draw 3-3 on Saturday.
Comments from captain Robert Andrich after that game questioned his teammates’ commitment and teamwork, while Ten Hag fumed at an “unacceptable” on-field dispute over who’d take a penalty, saying his players treated his instructions as up for debate. “There has to be clarity,” he said.
Ten Hag’s only other game was a 4-0 German Cup win over a fourth-division team.
“This decision wasn’t easy for us,” Leverkusen sports director Simon Rolfes said in a statement. “Nobody wanted to take this step. But the last few weeks showed that building a new and successful team with this set-up could not be achieved effectively. We firmly believe in the quality of our team and will now do everything in our power to take the next steps in our development with a new constellation.”
Leverkusen chief executive Fernando Carro said, “A parting at an early stage of the season is painful, but it was necessary from our point of view.”
The 55-year-old Ten Hag was appointed as Alonso’s replacement in May and entrusted with managing a massive overhaul of the squad that won the Bundesliga in 2024.
Ten Hag warned he was no magician and that it would take time to get Leverkusen performing as a true team again. “You can’t force the process. It’s impossible. No one is like Harry Potter,” Ten Hag said last month.
Ten Hag previously used the Harry Potter line in his time at United. Following a loss to Liverpool in September 2024, Ten Hag said he was no Harry Potter while explaining the difficulties of relying on players who hadn’t had much game time. Less than two months later, he was fired.
Leverkusen gave no indication of a possible successor for Ten Hag. The team’s next game after the international break is on Sept. 12 at home against in-form Eintracht Frankfurt.
