This summer, there is a creative escape for sports and art fans alike. The opening of a new exhibit, the Founders of Philadelphia Sports, welcomes a free gallery at City Hall.
The exhibition is a collection of seven mosaic portraits by local artist Jonathan Mandell. Each piece features a groundbreaking figure in Philly sports, as a way to pay tribute to their achievements and keep their name alive, while celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
The collection is a joint effort between the City of Philadelphia’s Creative Philadelphia team and the upcoming Philadelphia Museum of Sports.
An unveiling of the first two mosaics took place Thursday evening, showcasing local baseball legends Effa Louise Manley and Ed Bolden. Manley, a pioneer for women in baseball, co-owned the Newark Eagles, a franchise in the Negro leagues. In 2006, she became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bolden’s portrait is set in front of the Philadelphia Stars stadium, honoring the team he founded.
The other portraits include Bert Bell, Ed Snider, Billie Jean King, Connie Mack, and Eddie Gottlieb, which are set to arrive in the gallery throughout the summer before eventually finding a permanent home at the Philadelphia Museum of Sports.
Founders of Philadelphia Sports Exhibition features mosaic portraits of Ed Snider (top left), Bert Bell, Billie Jean King, Connie Mack, Effa Louise Manley, Ed Bolden, and Eddie Gottlieb (bottom right).
“This project has been envisioned for years,” said Brett Mandel, executive director of the Philadelphia Museum of Sports. “It’s really exciting to bring something from conception to something three-dimensional and beautiful, and what’s more important is the story of seeing these beautiful pieces of art and asking, ‘Who was Effa Manley? And why is she important?’”
Mandell, the artist behind each creation, considers that question carefully when precisely cutting and placing each tile and piece of glass.
“At heart, I’m a storyteller,” Mandell said. “I want to tell stories visually, so that’s what I’m hoping to do with the narrative pieces. It’s not just the portrait, but the narrative tells the story.”
Each 36-by-36-inch portrait is accompanied by a 12-by-12-inch mini mosaic that encapsulates a story of each founder’s work. The exhibit was specifically selected as the first to be a part of the Philadelphia Museum of Sports because “the Founders is where you begin any story,” Mandell said.
This exhibit is a step toward the long-awaited and much-speculated museum. Having been in discussion for more than a decade, the museum is closer than ever to achieving an in-person experience, Mandel says.
Located at 7th and Market, it will serve as a place for local fans and tourists to learn about the people and moments that have built Philadelphia’s rich sports culture over the past century.
“We hope the Museum of Sports is going to connect generations and inspire people to fulfill their dreams on and off the field,” Mandel said. “We want to educate and inspire people through the stories of sports, the champions we’ve cheered for, the hometown heroes that we’ve celebrated, and all the ways sports are about more than just sports.”
Brett Mandel (left), executive director of the Philadelphia Museum of Sports, and Jonathan Mandell (right), a local artist who is designing the pieces, pose together at City Hall on Thursday.
However, Mandel noted it may be some time before visitors can interact with the full collection in person.
“Philadelphia waited almost 100 years for the first World Series championship,” Mandel said. “We waited more than a half century for a Super Bowl championship. It is not uncommon in Philadelphia to keep thinking, ‘This is the year, this is the year, this is the year.’ But eventually, if you work hard enough and you keep focused, you’re going to win that championship. So we are telling the world that we are real, and we are here, and we got next.”
In the meantime, Creative Philadelphia, with the aid of the William Penn Foundation and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, was able to showcase Mandell’s mosaics in new display cases on the first floor of City Hall. The Founders is just one of many free galleries in the building.
“This is City Hall. It’s the People’s Building,” said Tu Huynh, curator of exhibitions and programs at Creative Philadelphia. “We want to represent all the communities that create the culture here, and this is just one of the exhibits of Philadelphia Stories 250 [a citywide initiative]. They are all local and community driven.”
Whether you’re celebrating the semiquincentennial or waiting until the Philadelphia Museum of Sports finds its permanent home, the mosaics gives folks a chance to encounter the stories that built the city’s iconic sports legacy, one portrait at a time.
This article was originally published May 29, and has been updated with recent information about bargaining and IBEW Local 614’s strike plans. This is a developing story, and it will continue to be updated.
Peco workers plan to strike on the Fourth of July, after three months of working under an expired contract.
Union members include employees who help restore electric service during outages, such as those sometimes caused by intense summer storms.
The company and the union have been bargaining since January, and they have reached some agreements, but wages and benefits have become sticking points.
Bargaining turned ugly in April, as both sides filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Peco has suggested using a federal mediator.
The most recent bargaining session was on June 19. Peco and Local 614 plan to bargain next on July 1.
They voted at the end of May to authorize a strike if their union called for it, with over 1,000 participating in the vote.
Have Peco workers gone on strike in the past?
No. This would be the first work stoppage in the company’s history. Since unionizing, this group has never before seen their contract expire without a new one in place.
Peco workers voted to join the union in 2004 and ratified their first contract in 2007.
Who are the union members and what do they do?
IBEW Local 614 represents roughly 1,500 Peco employees, including call center employees and field workers who maintain electric and gas infrastructure.
Some members work long hours during outages to help restore electricity to customers. Linemen, who repair and maintain power lines, are some of the union’s highest paid workers, and made on average over $243,500 last year in wages, including overtime.
Workers want higher wages and a uniform retirement plan for all members. Some 600 workers who were hired in recent years don’t have a pension, while other groups have pension plans with varying terms.
Peco has offered a 20% wage increase over five years, as well as “enhanced retirement and medical benefits,” according to company officials, who said their proposals “support our employees while maintaining affordability for customers.”
What does a Peco strike mean for my electricity? What if there’s an outage?
Peco has a strike contingency plan in place, chief operating officer Nicole LeVine has said. Customers shouldn’t expect delays or interruptions in service, she said.
“If there’s severe weather, we’ll be able to restore any service issues,” LeVine has said.
The company would call in substitutes for the striking workers, LeVine said this week, some of whom are “familiar with our specific system,” while others “are coming in from outside of the region.” She declined to say how many workers are part of the contingency plan.
“We’re an emergency response company,” LeVine said. “We’ve been working on contingency planning in the event of a strike, and we were well prepared to execute our plan if needed.”
How many customers does Peco service?
In Southeastern Pennsylvania, Peco provides electricity to 1.7 million customers and natural gas to 553,000.
Paoli Hospital was not cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for any safety violations between April 2025 and March of this year.
Located in Chester County, the hospital is one of four owned by Main Line Health.
Here’s a look at the publicly available details:
June 18, 2025: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance. Complaint details are not made public when inspectors determine it was unfounded.
June 19: The Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital accreditation agency, renewed the hospital’s accreditation, effective April 2025, for 36 months.
Oct. 20: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
March 12, 2026: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
The Democratic Party should be a big tent and welcoming to a diversity of voices, Gov. Josh Shapiro told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki in a live event in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Following Tuesday’s primary races in New York that saw the elections of more progressive and socialist candidates, Shapiro said the results there and around the country show that voters are eager for change.
“I appreciate the passion that we are seeing from voters all across this country,” Shapiro said during the event at the Academy of Music, part of MS NOW’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
People are feeling the strain and opting to support more progressive candidates, Shapiro said, because of rising health insurance costs, struggles to purchase a house, and the feeling that their rights are being stripped away.
“They are channeling that pain into purpose, they’re channeling that into showing up at the ballot box, they’re channeling that into showing enthusiasm,” he said. “That is a good thing.”
But he stopped short of explicitly endorsing more left-leaning ideologies. In a separate interview with CNN on Thursday, Shapiro added that the successful candidates must now deliver results.
“I get that there are some candidates out there that just say a lot words and attract a lot of attention but what we need to do as a party is drill down on how we take those words turn them into actions and make people’s lives better,” he said.
In Philadelphia, voters elected Chris Rabb, the democratic socialist who has challenged the city’s political establishment, in May’s Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District. Shapiro did not get directly involved in Rabb’s district, despite making endorsements in other races.
He also dodged direct criticism of Sen. John Fetterman, a fellow Pennsylvania Democrat who has become increasingly unpopular among the party’s voters, after Psaki posed some of the senator’s recent comments to Shapiro.
In both Philadelphia and New York, the victorious progressive candidates during their campaigns heavily criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and the United States’ role in supporting its material.
Psaki did not ask Shapiro, who supports Israel but has been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the issue during the event. And he did not refer to it when talking about the New York results.
To show voters that Democrats hear their pain, the party needs to get “real stuff done to make people’s lives better,” he said.
Sandra Dungee Glenn, who attended the event Thursday, said Shapiro could have been even more forceful against Fetterman, who is viewed unfavorably by 43% of Philadelphia residents, according to a recent poll.
“Don’t even mention that name,” said Glenn, who lives in West Philadelphia, referring to Fetterman. “He’s a big disappointment.”
In addition to his own reelection campaign in November, Shapiro is focused on getting Democrats elected in four competitive congressional seats and flipping the Pennsylvania state Senate, which has been under Republican control for three decades.
Should the chamber flip, Shapiro said his immediate priority would be raising the state’s minimum wage and codifying the right to access abortion — blaming Republicans for standing in his way.
But Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, is also looking ahead, past 2026 and Donald Trump’s presidency, as he builds a national profile and becomes a likely contender for the presidency in 2028.
He said Congress should pass a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guards against corruption and gerrymandering, and railed against the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave presidents absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their constitutional authority, following Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Shapiro said he is also open to adding more justices to the Supreme Court, which has been set at nine justices since 1869.
“I think we’ve got to have everything on the table. We’ve got to be bold,” he said.
Expansion has been pushed by progressives as a way to reform the court and end its conservative majority.
Leslie Berger, 69, who attended MS NOW’s event Thursday said she supports adding more justices to the court.
“These norms we have aren’t etched in stone,” she said. “We need to change this justice system and more justices would be a great start.”
Democrats, Shapiro said, need to be aggressive and elevate candidates who will drive down costs, increase access to healthcare, repair the country’s standing in the world and rein in artificial intelligence.
“We’ve got to understand that our sole mission right now is winning in these midterms and providing a check against Donald Trump at the state and the federal level,” he said. “Then as we go forward, I think we have to understand that rebuilding a federal government like it was before Donald Trump showed up cannot be the answer to the Democratic Party.”
In recent months, the public’s backlash to the artificial intelligence boom has spilled over to a surprising place: college commencement stages. From Florida to California, students have booed speakers who praised AI or highlighted its growing role in today’s society.
A cohort that historically has supported and quickly adopted cutting-edge technologies is now growing more skeptical.
The backlash is hardly surprising since AI threatens to wipe out the kind of entry-level jobs that new college graduates depend on. But beneath that immediate threat lies another, less obvious one: the AI boom’s impact on climate change — an issue that young people have grown up worrying about and that has shaped how they view their future.
In Pennsylvania alone, there are more than 130 AI infrastructure projects either under construction or in the approval pipeline. As demands for AI have increased, utilities and developers are racing to secure enough power to support them. Clean energy projects are already playing an important role in the AI infrastructure build-out.
Shown is the Northampton generating station in Northampton, Pa., in 2024. Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a plan to fight climate change Wednesday, saying he will back legislation to make power plant owners in Pennsylvania pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and require utilities in the nation’s third-biggest power-producer to buy more electricity from renewable sources.
There is a stark contradiction at the center of this reality. AI is marketed as a 21st-century future-oriented technology, yet much of it is being powered by 19th-century energy sources.
In addition to the energy demands, data centers can require up to five million gallons of water for cooling per day, including in regions already facing drought and water stress linked to climate change.
A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that 54% of adults under the age of 30 believe data centers will have negative impacts on the environment. While older cohorts surveyed still express concerns about environmental impacts, it isn’t the majority of respondents as it is with younger people: 44% of those 30 to 49; 35% of people ages 50 to 64, and 26% of those 65 and older.
The increasing backlash among younger people — which has found expression from college commencement speeches to community forums — points to what research has consistently shown: Younger generations are worried about climate change.
They are already experiencing the impacts in Pennsylvania: hotter and longer heat waves, more dangerous flooding, worsening drought conditions, and the increase in certain diseases thanks to the territorial expansion of carriers, like ticks.
Chart shows the rise of tickborne illnesses in Pennsylvania.
If the growth of AI leads to more fossil fuel use, higher emissions, and worsening air pollution, young people are justified in questioning whether the technological progress is worth the future problems they will inherit.
Leaders have a responsibility to usher in new development responsibly. One way to do that is to pair data center expansion with investments in clean energy sources. Clean energy is affordable, local, and reliable, and by producing homegrown power, Pennsylvania could potentially lower power bills and protect families from price spikes in the process.
A clean energy standard for data centers would require that these Big Tech companies use clean energy in increasing percentages over time and that they pay for the required electricity system upgrades to support their operations.
Another way is for the state to require greater transparency around the electricity and water use of these data centers, so communities understand the tradeoffs required for these proposals in their backyards before agreeing to them.
It is a positive move toward responsible development.
Not all young people skeptical of AI are rejecting it; many are just questioning whether the race to build that future is happening with an understanding of the environmental consequences.
For the U.S. and Pennsylvania to continue leading in technological innovation while protecting the planet on which young people will build their lives, leaders must take climate change concerns seriously. Young people deserve their future.
Sanya Carley is the Mark Alan Hughes faculty director of the Kleinman Center. She is also vice provost for climate science, policy, and action at the University of Pennsylvania and presidential distinguished professor of energy policy and city planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design.
A former bouncer with hands like 5-pound hams was peppering Bam Margera with rib punches in a small gym at his Chester County castle.
Every few minutes, Margera waved his hands in surrender. He started looking for a place to sit down. Sweat poured down his face, and he struggled to catch his breath
“I need a second,” he said.
Margera had strung together years of bad days recently, but, despite the pain, this wasn’t one of them. Today, he’s sober, in love, skateboarding, spending some time with his family and son, Phoenix Wolf, and, on this early June afternoon, working out, too.
Fans of the Jackass series will get to see him on Friday, June 26, when Jackass: Best and Last, the fifth and final film in the series, is released.
“I think this is the grand finale of it all,” he said.
While Margera didn’t film new stunts or pranks for the latest film and had no interest in attending any premieres (his parents attended) or promotional events, he signed a deal allowing unseen archival footage and outtakes from early Jackass days to be used in the film.
Margera had a public falling out with the Jackass crew over sobriety demands they placed on him before the release of 2022’s Jackass Forever. (He still blames Johnny Knoxville’s “sharp tacks” stunt in a Viva La Bam episode for damaging his feet and hurting his skateboarding career.)
“I’m not ready to reunite with anybody,” he said recently.
Paramount Pictures alleged Margera broke a “wellness agreement” that required him to undergo regular drug and alcohol tests and take prescribed medication to be in the 2022 film. When the film was released, Margera had a brief cameo, and The Inquirer noted that it suffered without Margera’s trademark heartagram symbol and Philly hoagiemouth accent.
Some stars of the show and films, including Stephen “Steve-O” Glover and Brandon Novak, a longtime friend of Margera’s, have gotten sober. While Margera was seemingly blowing up friendships at his worst, Novak, a former pro skater, said he never took it personally.
“I always have and will still love him, wherever he is in his journey,” he told The Inquirerin June.
West Chester native Bam Margera poses for a portrait at his home in Pocopson Township, Chester County on June 4, 2026. After years of personal struggles, Margera says he is sober, skating again, and reconnecting with the “Jackass” franchise, allowing producers to use archival footage of him in the latest film.
Three years ago, Margera seemed hell-bent on burning his own bridges to a better life. He was in California, a long way from his home and family in Chester County. He was even further from good publicity, from his passion — skateboarding — or any semblance of a normal life. In his own words, he became a professional “piece of s—.”
Margera was mired in a custody battle with his ex-wife, Nikki Boyd, along with a slew of other legal issues and lawsuits in Pennsylvania and beyond, plus the subsequent attorney fees. He was in and out of rehabilitation centers for drugs and alcohol, and dealing with medical and mental health issues.
When The Inquirer spoke to Steve-O about Margera in 2023, he said he was ready to help.
“I just can’t do it for him,” Steve-O said at the time. “I tried everything I could to encourage him to want to get better, and none of it worked, so here we are. He has to want to get better.”
“Jackass” star Steve “Steve-O” Glover has been sober for several years but he says his stunts are better than ever.
Margera was placed on a 5150 psychiatric hold when he was found acting erratically outside Trejo’s Tacos in Los Angeles in June of 2023.When he was released, he checked into the Sunset Marquis hotel with more drugs than he’d ever had. Looking back, Margera said he wasn’t suicidal, but he didn’t really expect to wake up.
Still, he said a little prayer that night.
If he survived, Margera expected God to deliver him the “hottest eye candy with a tan pit bull” to save him. When he woke up, surprised to be alive, Margera went out by the pool, ordered a Bloody Mary, and met Daani Marie, a model and stretch coach he later married.
Margera and Daani Marie, who now spend most of their time in Florida, hit it off immediately.
“I really like you,” she said. “Do you want to walk my dog with me?
“What kind of dog do you have?” Bam asked.
“A tan pit bull.”
He looked up at the sun and smiled.
Former Jackass star Bam Margera walks to the Chester County Justice Center on July 27, 2023, for a preliminary hearing.
While he didn’t get sober immediately, Margera credits that night, that chance meeting with Daani Marie the next morning, for at least putting him on the path. The two were married in New Mexico a year later.
“Enough was enough,” Margera said. “I knew if I continued this lifestyle, I’m gonna die this way.”
Margera said he hadn’t been back to Castle Bam in 10 months, and on this June afternoon, was paying Andrew Mehan, a former bouncer in West Chester, for boxing lessons.
Mehan had to kick Margera out of some West Chester bars back in the day. He’d seen Margera in worse shape.
“Come on, get up,” he commanded.
Bam Margera in his personal skateboard park in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 2011. (Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Suddenly, Margera would rise from his rest with a groan — he still smokes — and snap a few jabs at Mehan.
His father, Phil, the lovable victim of countless pranks and a few punches from Bam over the years, sat in the wings, beaming with pride as his son countered with a few jabs.
“Yeah, he put me through it, but I’ll sit through anything as long as he’s sober,” Phil said.
Margera’s solo show, Viva La Bam!, was set almost entirely in and around Castle Bam, his notorious home and compound in Pocopson Township, Chester County, and also at his parents’ home. The show ran for five seasons on MTV, from October 2003 to August 2005.
Many of Castle Bam’s mainstays were still there: purple luxury cars — a Bentley and Audi in the driveway — skateboard decks on the walls, and lots of Margera’s paintings leaning against the walls. Margera described his style as “Jackson Pollock-ish.”
Brandon “Bam” Margera (right) of MTV’s “Jackass” was born in West Chester, and friend and costar Ryan Dunn moved there as a teen. Above, they were signing autographs after a screening of the movie “Jackass 3D” at Manayunk’s UA Main Street 6 in October 2010.
One skateboard deck featured Ryan Dunn, another steady fixture at Castle Bam back in the day. Dunn, Margera’s longtime friend and a fellow Jackass star, died in a fiery crash after a night of drinking in Chester County in 2011. The two met at 15, at West Chester East High School, and were nearly inseparable thereafter. In the wake of Dunn’s death, Margera turned to food and alcohol — pints of vodka and Gatorade, food binges followed by purges — to deal with the grief.
Margera was interviewed by a television station at the scene. He was mostly sobbing, and when asked how he would get through it, he said he “couldn’t.”
On this June afternoon, there were people, young and old, everywhere at the Castle: in the pool, putting skateboards together, or doing yard work. His wife doesn’t love the cold, so he didn’t plan on spending too much time back at the Castle or any one place, for very long. Pocopson Township, he said, cracked down on his ability to host big gatherings and do outlandish stunts.
“I love Pennsylvania, but I love to travel, too,” he said. “Boredom is my trigger.”
Friends popped in and out, including Dennis Wood, a West Chester native who used to skate at Margera’s as a teen.
“Obviously, there’s been trials and tribulations throughout the years; he took some steps forward, some steps back,” Wood said. “In the last couple of years, this is the best I’ve seen him.”
Margera had very public fallouts with his family during the worst years, too. He was charged with assaulting his brother at Castle Bam in 2023.
Margera’s mother, April, said his legal issues have been resolved and that he seems to be “out of the darkness.” She went to California with him and Phil recently to visit Phoenix Wolf.
“I would like to say I’m really proud of him. He came a long way. We’ve all been through the fire and brimstone, and we seem to be coming out on the other side,” April said in a text message.
Novak, a former star of Jackass and Viva La Bam! who now owns sober living houses in Delaware and New Jersey, said Margera’s family was always the grounding force, a source of unconditional love, and he was happy to hear the Margeras have made amends.
He also loves that Margera is skating again.
“Where he seems to be now is a healing stage,” Novak said recently. “To what degree, I can’t speak on, but it’s better than it was when he wasn’t speaking to his family or the majority of his friends.”
Margera started skateboarding as a teen, with Phil driving him all over the area to pursue his passion, including the late Love Park and FDR Park. Margera’s earliest stunts appeared in videos for his brother’s alt-metal band, CKY, and he got noticed by MTV. His crew was teamed up with other wild men, like Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O. Jackass was born. Margera and Dunn were featured in the first episode on Oct. 1, 2000, riding — crashing, rather — shopping carts.
Phil watched his son’s recent torturous boxing lesson with pride.
“He’s still cute, even at 46,” Phil said.
When the final sparring round was over, Mehan helped pull Margera’s gloves off. Margera slumped down and took deep breaths. A few minutes later, he shuffled out of the gym and walked straight into the deep end of the pool, fully clothed.
“I need to quit smoking,” he said along the way.
Mehan put the day’s boxing lesson into a deeper perspective while he unwrapped his own hands.
“That’s the worst he’ll ever look,” Mehan said of the boxing lesson. “Here’s the deal: He fought through it. He kept saying he was done, that he wanted to quit, but he kept going.”
West Chester native Bam Margera is filmed by a documentary crew as he rests during a boxing workout at his home in Pocopson Township, Chester County.
We will learn to believe in these Phillies. These Bryce Harper Phillies. These Kyle Schwarber Phillies. These Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez Phillies.
We will learn that, while they might occasionally lose, they are never defeated.
We will learn that, until the last strike of the last out is recorded, they have not yet lost.
We came to learn this about the core of these Phillies in the dead of summer in 2022, and perhaps we should relearn it as summer begins in 2026. Then, they sparked a drive to the World Series with a handful of exhilarating victories. Now, after a wild midweek series in Washington, they might be doing the same.
We will come to accept that, as long as Harp and Schwarbs and Wheels and Sanchey are active and competing and leading the charge, the rest will follow until the very end.
That quartet might not be the best players in baseball, but they are always the best players they can be, and that’s often all that matters, because it inspires their peers to be the same. That’s how the Phillies manage comeback miracles like they produced in D.C. this past week.
Bryce Harper flashed a finger — which he clarified was his ring finger — toward the upper deck in right field as he rounded the bases of his go-ahead two-run homer on Thursday in Washington.
Then, incredibly, it happened Thursday night, too, a 10-5 thriller that launched them to Queens for three against the last-place Mets, who, despite the presence of duplicitous error machine Bo Bichette, have lost six in a row, costing manager Carlos Mendoza his job on Friday.
They won three of four in D.C. Wheeler was scheduled to start Friday in New York.
“We’re coming. Watch out,” Harper told 94 WIP radio. “Obviously, we have a great ball club.”
Great? Maybe.
The momentum is palpable.
Why?
Because the Phillies hit go-ahead home runs in each of the ninth innings of those games, the first time that’s happened in Major League Baseball history.
Harper, scorching, was in the middle of it all Thursday.
Down 5-0 in the fifth, Harper beat out an infield single and scored the first run on Brandon Marsh’s third home run of the four-game series. Harper drove in the third run in the seventh with a 3-2 bases-loaded walk that began a three-run, game-tying frame. Then Harper drove in the go-ahead runs with a 390-foot blast to left-center, the surest sign that Harper’s hot: When he’s going “oppo,” he’s unstoppable.
Harper is 13-for-31 with three homers and seven RBIs in his last eight games. The Phils entered the weekend having won five of six and sit four games behind the idle Braves, the closest they’ve been to the top of the NL East since tax day, when Rob Thomson was still their manager.
They were 9-19 when Thomson was fired 12 days later, and they’re 36-17 since bench coach Don Mattingly took over as interim manager. Maybe it’s been addition by subtraction. More likely, it’s coincidence, since this core group of Phillies has been winning in heart-stopping fashion since it came together in 2022, when the Phils fired Joe Girardi and Thomson took over as interim manager.
The DNA of this club seems independent of its boss.
“Each team is different,” Harper told reporters afterward. “It’s how we are. It’s who we are.”
There were other big moments from big names Thursday, and all week, really. Schwarber, who didn’t start Tuesday or Wednesday, worked a 10-pitch, two-out, pinch-hit walk in the ninth on Wednesday that framed a bigger moment for a lesser player. Trea Turner put his season from hell on hold for the ninth inning Tuesday, when his two-out single began an eight-run inning in which his second two-out single drove in the eighth run.
How could something like this possibly happen again Thursday?
“You’ve got to keep fighting back,” Harper said.
Sánchez stumbled to a 5-0 deficit after 2⅔ innings but stabilized and faced just one batter over the minimum in recording the final seven outs. That preserved the bullpen, as four relievers pitched a scoreless inning apiece. José Alvarado finally looked untouchable in the seventh, and Orion Kerkering, who’d blown a save two days earlier, earned the win when, in the eighth, he stranded a leadoff double at second base and preserved the tie.
It is contagious.
How contagious?
Derek Hill celebrates his two-run home run during the ninth inning on Wednesday.
Derek Hill, who was Wednesday’s hero with a pinch-hit, go-ahead, ninth-inning homer, padded the lead Thursday with a two-run shot for a five-run lead. He’s a journeyman outfielder who has been a Phillie for just two weeks, the roster replacement for the Phils’ latest free-agent outfield bust, Adolis García, who had latissimus dorsi repair surgery and is done for the season.
How contagious?
Edmundo Sosa had the first homer, double, and five-RBI night of his eight-year career in Tuesday’s 14-9 win, when they erased a two-run deficit in the ninth. Sosa has a knack for the dramatic. He ended May with a two-run homer in the eighth inning to complete a late comeback in Los Angeles.
How contagious?
Bryson Stott’s three-run homer on Tuesday was his first go-ahead homer in the ninth inning in four years.
“We just have that never-quit mentality,” said Brandon Marsh, the team’s most consistent hitter this season.
Marsh padded his unlikely All-Star resume with a two-run shot in the ninth inning Tuesday that re-tied the game, 8-8, and set up Stott’s moment. Marsh was 9-for-14 and scored five runs in the three comeback wins.
Marsh knows of what he speaks because he’s lived this life before. It’s all he’s ever known, really.
Marsh landed in Philly as a deadline trade piece in 2022 from the Angels having played just 163 games in the majors. He landed in the middle of the Phillies’ crucial surge.
It began July 25, when Stott’s three-run home run in the eighth inning gave the Phillies a 6-4 lead over the visiting Braves. That was the first of 13 wins in 15 games, which allowed them to play .500 ball the rest of the season and still reach the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
Bryson Stott (right) hit the go-ahead three-run homer on Tuesday in the Phillies’ 14-9 comeback win over the Nationals.
It was the first of five games in that span that crackled with late-game electricity.
On July 29, in the top of the 10th inning, Rhys Hoskins ripped an 0-2 fastball 410 feet over the centerfield wall in Pittsburgh for a 4-2 win. The next night, again in the 10th, Hoskins put a ball in play that the Pirates threw away, and that was the difference.
On Aug. 3, the day after Marsh became a Phillie, he was in Atlanta and saw J.T. Realmuto drive in Hoskins with a fielder’s-choice grounder to tie it at 1 in the eighth, then saw the next batter, Nick Castellanos, blast a two-run game-winner.
A week later the Phils managed six hits and three runs in the bottom of the eighth to win, 4-3, over the visiting Marlins.
Does this recent competence mean that the Phillies will reach the World Series this season? Not necessarily.
What it means is, with this Core Four, the faithful should never forsake the season … and they should watch every game until the very last out.
The Flyers entered the night with the No. 21 pick, but traded down with the San Jose Sharks. The deal also netted them two additional picks: No. 62 and No. 120.
“Meet Sokolovskii, who checks several boxes for the Flyers’ usual modus operandi at the draft and is the targeted pick for several outlets and insiders.
…
After spending the 2024-25 season with the Atlantic Coast Academy, Sokolovskii played this past season for London of the Ontario Hockey League. Yes, that London, where Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk won a Memorial Cup one June ago. That London where team president Keith Jones has a connection with Mark and Dale Hunter. The Flyers like the system and how they prepare players. Could this be a match just for that reason?
And then there’s the height. And Sokolovskii is, to put it mildly, a big boy at 6-foot-7¼, 240 pounds. The Flyers like tall dudes, drafting 6-5 Jack Nesbitt, Carter Amico, Luke Vlooswyk, and Matthew Gard all last year. Since Flahr took over, 31 of 50 players are over 6-feet, and 17 of those were taken with Brière as GM.
The biggest difference compared to several previous prospects is that Sokolovskii is a pretty good skater for a guy his size.
“He’s 6-foot-8, and he skates like he’s 5-foot-8,” Mike Taylor, the owner and one of Sokolovskii’s coaches at Atlantic Coast Academy, told The Inquirer recently. “… He came here, and I had a skating coach once a month come up and do power skating with our guys, and he does it like with UMass Amherst, and all these other schools. And he saw him skate, and he’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ He couldn’t believe how good his edge work was, and stuff, for being the size that he is.”
Considered a mean guy with some bite on the ice, Sokolovskii likes to be physical, throw the body around, and play tough. Although Taylor says there is an offensive dimension to his game — as seen from his numbers at Atlantic Coast — he is considered a shutdown defender.
Flyers take defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii with No. 27 pick
The Flyers selected Maksim Sokolovskii after trading back to the No. 27 overall pick in the first round of the NHL draft.
// Timestamp 06/26/26 9:56pm
Flyers should have some good options at No. 27
A couple of good options should be there at No. 27 when the Flyers now pick.
The list of prospects could include Maksim Sokolovskii, Brooks Rogowski, Jack Hextall, Ryder Cali, Tommy Bleyl, and maybe the first goalie off the board, Tobias Trejbal.
I wouldn’t sleep on Casey Mutryn or William Håkansson, either.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Maksim Sokolovskii go at 27 now. Not a fan personally but there's been a lot of smoke around him and the Flyers, and 27 feels like a slightly more defensible spot for him.
TRADE ALERT: We have acquired the 27th, 62nd and 120th overall picks in the 2026 #NHLDraft from San Jose in exchange for the 21st overall pick. pic.twitter.com/bW46IMZYPE
Flyers are up and all three of the undersized blueliners are still on the board in Ryan Lin, Tommy Bleyl, and Xavier Villeneuve. Let's see if the Flyers buck their norm and believe in one of these guys.
Ducks center Mason McTavish has been traded to the St. Louis Blues, using their No. 15 and No. 29 overall picks.
McTavish was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, and signed a 6-year extension worth $7 million annually ahead of the 2025-26 season, but he fell out of favor in Anaheim with the emergence of Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson.
McTavish had been linked with the Flyers over the past two summers given his pedigree, the team’s need at center, his north-south game, and the team’s well-documented trade history with the Anaheim Ducks.
Swedish center Alexander Command, who at one stage was probably someone the Flyers thought they had a shot at but had been rising, goes at No. 12.
With Tynan Lawrence and Command gone, Oliver Suvanto, Ilia Morozov, Jack Hextall, and Brooks Rogowski make up the next group of centers if the Flyers choose to go that route.
With Keaton Verhoeff off the board at No. 9 to San Jose, that closes the book on the top tier of defensive prospects in a draft class heralded for its blueliners.
Expect a run of forwards to come now with Malte Gustafsson and Ryan Lin highlighting the next tier of defensemen. As Jackie Spiegel noted earlier, Tommy Bleyl, MaksimSokolovskii, and Xavier Villeneuve are among the defensemen the Flyers could consider at No. 21.
The New York Rangers are making a big addition on the wing, reportedly acquiring Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas for the No. 26 pick, the No. 92 pick and a conditional 2028 first-round pick (condition on the pick is top-10 protected).
Dorofeyev is a restricted free agent who scored 37 goals this past season, and 35 the season prior, plus 12 goals in Vegas’ Stanley Cup Finals run. Dorofeyev is a restricted free agent, joining the Rangers after they finished last in the Metropolitan Division in 2025-26.
Vegas is reportedly one of the teams on Red Wings center Dylan Larkin’s no trade list. Could they be compiling assets to make a run at the Olympic gold medalist? Or even for Stars winger Jason Robertson? The Stars wouldn’t – would they?
Utah Mammoth right winger JJ Peterka is heading to Boston.
The Boston Bruins are acquiring forward JJ Peterka from the Utah Mammoth for two first-round picks, including the No. 23 pick in the 2026 draft.
Peterka, 24, managed 25 goals this past season for the Mammoth but his first season in Utah went anything but smoothly. The fit never quite worked out and now Boston will take a chance on the German who has a longstanding connection with Bruins coach Marco Sturm.
Peterka’s best season came in 2024-25 when he notched 27 goals and 68 points in 77 games for the Sabres. He is signed for four more seasons at a cap hit of $7.7 million.
Blue Jackets reportedly taking calls on Zach Werenski. Could the Flyers be interested?
Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski could be on the move.
The Flyers have said they want to become a destination for top players and believe that Rick Tocchet can help in that aim.
Well, another one seems destined to soon hit the market, as the Columbus Blue Jackets are fielding trade calls on Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski, according to Pierre LeBrun.
The report comes after recent rumblings suggested that Werenski, who turns 29 next month, was growing unhappy in Columbus and was not keen to extend with the Blue Jackets when his contract expires in two seasons.
The Flyers will assuredly check in on Werenski, as he is exactly the type of offensive difference-maker they’ve long lacked on the blue line. Werenski has averaged 23 goals, 82 points, and 23 power-play points over the past two seasons and is universally considered one of the best three defensemen in the NHL. Center and a bona fide No. 1 power-play QB are the Flyers’ two biggest needs, and Werenski would certainly check the second box and then some.
The two big questions are would Werenski be open to Philadelphia – he has a full no-move clause and would need to approve any potential destination – and do the Flyers have the pieces to acquire him? Only Werenski knows the answer to the first question, while the Quinn Hughes trade would be a comparable trade to get a sense of Werenski’s value. In that deal, Minnesota traded the equivalent of four first-round picks with Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, and a first-round pick going to Vancouver for fellow Norris winner Hughes.
The Flyers to this point have said they are unwilling to move Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov, but this is the type of player that would likely require one to go the other way. Danny Brière’s plan all along was to go “big-game hunting” this offseason, let’s see if the Flyers’ GM gets aggresive here.
Could the Flyers actually target someone under six feet tall?
Tommy Bleyl (right) is coming off an impressive first season in the QMJHL where he was named the top defensive rookie.
The Flyers have prioritized size when drafting – and not drafting – defenseman the past few seasons, but with the 21st pick, and a couple of interesting undersized defensive prospects in that range, could they be more apt to consider someone under six foot this year?
While GM Danny Brière and assistant GM Brent Flahr tried to pour cold water on that idea at their recent pre-draft news conference, could the trade of Emil Andrae have changed things slightly. The Flyers don’t have a truly dynamic offensive defensemen in the system, and Ryan Lin, Tommy Bleyl, and Xavier Villeneuve, while all under six feet, would all fit the bill in some regard.
Jackie Spiegel took a deeper look at the three polarizing defenseman and whether the Flyers could break their mold and target a future potential QB for their power play on Friday night.
While fans have been rapidly refreshing X with the NHL hot stove on fire and the clock ticking closer to the NHL draft on Friday night, the Flyers might have teased something.
At around 2 p.m., the team posted a picture of the team’s draft headquarters in Atlantic City with the following caption:”Ready for action in AC.”
On the floor in the middle of the room was a black Liberty Bell outline in highlighter orange trim. Could this be a new alternate logo for the team’s City Connect jerseys? Hmm …
The Flyers are looking for a power-play quarterback, and with very few available as unrestricted free agents beyond 36-year-old John Carlson, they may need to get creative to find one.
Two days after Bowen Byram was traded from Buffalo to Chicago, another young defenseman came off the board with the Sabres acquiring Olen Zellweger, seemingly as Byram’s replacement, for a second-round pick and forward prospect Anton Wahlberg. The dynamic 22-year-old defenseman is a restricted free agent and will need a new contract from Buffalo.
Known for his effortless skating and silky puck skills, the 5-foot-10, 193-pound Zellweger had seven goals and 22 points last season and has PP1 upside. With Byram and Zellweger off the board, the Flyers will have to look elsewhere if they want to add to their blue line this summer.
We have acquired defenseman Olen Zellweger from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Anton Wahlberg and the 45th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Likely No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna on what he learned at Penn State
// Timestamp 06/26/26 3:35pm
Watch our Gameday Central draft preview
// Timestamp 06/26/26 1:59pm
Maple Leafs deal Sam Ersson to Senators
Goaltender Samuel Ersson is with his third team in the last two weeks.
Sam Ersson is on the move again.
Ten days after being traded alongside defenseman Emil Andrae to the Toronto Maple Leafs for goaltender Joseph Woll and depth blueliner Simon Benoit, the former Flyers goaltender’s rights were traded across Ontario to Ottawa on Friday.
TRADE ALERT: The #Sens have acquired goaltender Samuel Ersson from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a 5th round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. pic.twitter.com/MkEuWY9XEt
The Leafs recouped a fifth-round pick for Ersson’s rights, while Ottawa will now likely qualify the restricted free agent goaltender. His minimum qualifying offer is $1.6 million.
Ersson, 26, amassed a 65-50-17 record and .884 save percentage in four up-and-down seasons in Philadelphia. Last year, he posted 14-11-5 record with a .870 SV%, but he was excellent after the Olympic break with a .912 save percentage in nine games. In Ottawa, he could form an all-Swedish tandem with Linus Ullmark.
Maksim Sokolovskii (center) tied forward Brooks Rogowski for the tallest players measured at this year’s combine.
Who the Flyers will actually select in the first round is now just hours away from being revealed.
Philly picks at No. 21, so there is a lot of intrigue to see who they can get that deep in the draft. And that’s the crux and the reasoning behind why, in the fourth and final draft for The Inquirer, we have the Flyers picking a fourth different player.
First round: Maksim Sokolovskii, LHD, London (OHL)
Meet Sokolovskii, who checks several boxes for the Flyers’ usual modus operandi at the draft and is the targeted pick for several outlets and insiders.
For background, since assistant general manager Brent Flahr took over, he has drafted 50 players, with general manager Danny Brière by his side for 26 of those.
The position Flahr has drafted the most across his tenure is defense, at 15, and he did mention during his sit-down in Buffalo that the Flyers need defensive depth. He added during his pre-draft presser last week that the Flyers could use some more depth down the left side in particular — he did add “not necessarily being the first round” — and Sokolovskii is a left-handed defenseman.
And then there’s the height. And Sokolovskii is, to put it mildly, a big boy at 6-foot-7¼, 240 pounds. The Flyers like tall dudes, drafting 6-5 Jack Nesbitt, Carter Amico, Luke Vlooswyk, and Matthew Gard all last year. Since Flahr took over, 31 of 50 players are over 6-feet, and 17 of those were taken with Brière as GM.
The biggest difference compared to several previous prospects is that Sokolovskii is a pretty good skater for a guy his size and isn’t the big project that other draft picks have been.
Click here for a more in-depth breakdown of Sokolovskii and a look ahead at who the Flyers might take on Day 2.
Will Flyers join Rangers and Blues in Mason McTavish sweepstakes?
Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish is reportedly available this summer.
It’s no secret that Danny Brière and the Flyers are poking around the trade market for a top-six center. One name that has come up quite a bit over the past two seasons is Anaheim’s Mason McTavish. The 23-year-old center, who was the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft, has fallen out of favor in Anaheim is reportedly available this summer.
The latest update from Pierre LeBrun is that Anaheim has offers on the table from the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues for the player but that there is still time for another team to get involved.
On Mason McTavish, Anaheim still talking to Rangers and Blues about their offers. NYR package includes roster player while St. Louis offer is picks. If the Ducks make the Blues trade, the idea would be to flip said pick(s) before tonight to go get roster player(s) in separate…
The appeal with McTavish is obvious: He’s a young player with draft pedigree who two seasons ago tallied 22 goals and 52 points on a bad Ducks team. He’s the exact type of reclamation project the Flyers have been attracted to in recent years — Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras, David Jiříček. He’s also a rugged player who gets to the hard areas and can help a power play as a net-front presence and as a goal scorer. The Flyers and Ducks have also done two recent deals with one another which adds further smoke here.
The question is after slumping to 17 goals and 41 points and being a healthy scratch in the playoffs this season, is McTavish someone you want to commit to for the next five seasons at $7 million per? He’s also been a defensive liability as a pro and is not the most fleet of foot — two things that could sway the Flyers in a different direction.
We’ll keep an eye on this one but for now it looks like McTavish won’t be the answer for the Flyers down the middle.
Nine players the Flyers could target in the first round
Could the Flyers take Maddox Dagenais, a potent right winger, in the first-round?
The first round of the 2026 NHL draft is just hours away, and the Flyers are scheduled to pick at No. 21.
Who will be there, before general manager Danny Brière’s turn to face the camera and announce the pick, is anyone’s guess. With the expectation that prospects like Wyatt Cullen, Ryan Lin, and Alexander Command — who really does scream Flyer more than anyone on this list — will be long gone, here are nine players (in alphabetical order) the team could take in the first round.
Senators defenseman Jordan Spence (right) is reportedly returning to Ottawa on a four-year deal.
One of the top restricted free agent defenseman is off the board as Jordan Spence is closing in on a four-year, $20 million contract extension with the Ottawa Senators, according to multiple reports.
Spence, 25, had 31 points last season and had been mentioned in some recent trade chatter. The undersized blueliner’s extension likely doesn’t take Ottawa out of the Rasmus Ristolainen sweepstakes, as Spence is a very different defenseman to the Flyers’ bruiser.
Ottawa, who are lucky to get bigger on the blue line are one of the teams that have been linked to Ristolainen in recent weeks. Ristolainen, 31, is entering the final year of his current contract and is likely not part of the Flyers’ long-term future. With prices high, the Flyers could opt to cash in on the rugged defenseman now, especially given Ristolainen’s extensive injury history.
South Jersey native Tony DeAngelo re-signs with Isles
Former Flyers defenseman and Sewell native Tony DeAngelo is staying in the Metropolitan Division. Sportsnet reported Friday that DeAngelo will sign a two-year contract to remain a New York Islander.
The offensive defenseman, who played the 2022-23 season for his hometown Flyers, tallied five goals and 35 points in 76 games last season for the Islanders. DeAngelo, 30, had 11 goals, 42 points, and a minus-27 rating in his lone season in Philadelphia before being bought out a season before his contract expired following a clash with former coach John Tortorella.
Mock draft roundup: Lots of options for the Flyers
Ilia Morozov could be an option in the first round.
The Flyers have the 21st overall pick in the NHL draft — they also have three more picks on Day 2 — but there doesn’t seem to be any kind of consensus on who Danny Brière and Co. will select Friday night. Here’s a roundup of who some experts think the Flyers will take …
[Note: In Jackie’s final mock draft, which published after this post went live, she has the Flyers taking defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii]
The Athletic: Ilia Morozov, C, Miami (NCAA) — Philadelphia continues to build out its center depth with a potential middle-six pivot in Morozov. Lawrence and Hextall are also possibilities. — Corey Pronman
ESPN: Maksim Sokolovskii, D, London (OHL) — The Flyers have not been shy about drafting a certain type of player — especially given coach Rick Tocchet’s influence on the organization. [Porter] Martone, Jack Nesbitt, Jack Murtagh and Shane Vansaghi are massive players with a physical edge. … The 6-7 Sokolovskii seems like the prototypical Philadelphia Flyer. He’s enormous, skates well, has a mile-long mean streak and is widely considered the hardest hitter in the draft class. All of that screams Tocchet type. — Rachel Kryshak
NHL.com: Maksim Sokolovskii, D, London (OHL) — Sokolovskii checks a lot of boxes for the Flyers. At 6-7, 240, he was the biggest player measured at the NHL Scouting Combine, and he’s a left-handed shot, an area where Philadelphia is thin among its prospects. He also comes from a London program the Flyers have trusted for player development in the past, including defenseman Oliver Bonk and forward Denver Barkey. — Adam Kimelman
NHL.com: Thomas Bleyl, D, Moncton (QMJHL) — If Bleyl (5-11, 170) is here, it makes sense for the Flyers to grab him to replenish their defensemen prospect pool. The 18-year-old is a dynamic puck-moving defenseman who emerged as one of the draft’s pleasant surprises thanks to his offensive production and elite skating ability. A natural power-play quarterback, he makes plays consistently while still holding his own defensively. — Mike G. Morreale
Bleacher Report: Mathis Preston, RW, Vancouver Giants (WHL) — On our draft board, we have Mathis Preston ranked as a high second-rounder. But draft boards and mock drafts are not the same thing, and it’s believable that a team will choose to select him in the first round. Last go-round, we tried the Vancouver Canucks out as a fit; for this one, we thought the Philadelphia Flyers were an interesting landing spot. He brings incredible speed, he’s a later birthday, and his passing and handling are top-notch. — Hannah Stuart
Porter Martone (left) was one of two first-round picks for the Flyers in the 2025 draft. The team only has one this year.
The 2026 NHL draft officially starts at 7 p.m., but the Flyers won’t be on the clock for a lottery pick.
The first round of the draft will air live on ESPN, hosted by John Buccigross alongside analyst Kevin Weekes, NHL insider Emily Kaplan, and Draft and hockey analytics expert Meghan Chayka. ESPN will also
The second round begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday on the NHL Network, and the draft will end with the seventh round that same evening.
When do the Flyers pick?
After winning a playoff series over Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2026 postseason, the team’s first since 2019-20, the Flyers will pick at No. 21 overall during Friday’s first round.
The Flyers will also have three picks on Saturday: in the second round (53rd overall), fifth round (136th overall) and seventh round (213th overall).
Alexander Command’s coach with Örebro HK U20 called him a game-breaker.
Flyers beat writer Jackie Spiegel’s No. 1 choice for the No. 21 pick tonight, if he’s available, is 18-year-old Alexander Command, a center for Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League.
Unfortunately, Spiegel expects Command to be “long gone” when the Flyers pick. In her most recent mock draft, published last week, Spiegel had the Flyers taking center Jack Hextall, a distant cousin of former Flyers goalie and general manager Ron Hextall.
“This Hextall is a 6-foot-½ inch, 195-pound right-shot centerman who is projected to play a middle-six role,” Spiegel wrote, adding the “Flyers love picking centers in the first round.”
FloHockey draft and prospect analyst Chris Peters is also high on Command, praising his “physicality” and his “doggedness in pursuit of the puck.”
“Just the absolute annoyingness of just getting under your skin, and I think that there’s a lot to like about that player,” Peters said of Command on Flyers Gameday Central. “The comp that I had for him was Brayden Schenn and I think he probably has a higher motor, even there. Brayden Schenn was physical and mean, and he could score, and that’s what I think Command can do, too.”
Flyers land more draft picks by trading veteran forward Garnet Hathaway
Garnet Hathaway was part of a formidable fourth line in the playoffs for the Flyers.
The Flyers are making a few changes on the fourth line.
The team announced Thursday that Garnet Hathaway has been traded to the Florida Panthers along with a 2026 sixth-round pick for a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft and a 2027 fourth-rounder. The Flyers now own four picks in this weekend’s NHL draft: 21, 53 (second round), 136 (fifth round), and 213 (seventh round).
Signed as a free agent in 2023, the 34-year-old winger played three seasons in Philadelphia and put up three points in 66 games last season, down from his 21 points in 2024-25 and 17 in 2023-24. Alongside Sean Couturier and Luke Glendening, he was part of a formidable fourth line in the playoffs, scoring one goal and recording one assist in eight games while asserting himself physically.
A Maine native who graduated from Brown, the undrafted Hathaway ranked fourth in hits in the NHL across his three seasons in Philly. The past two seasons, for every hit the Flyers recorded, Hathaway and his wife, Lindsay, pledged to donate to local first responders with a match from Flyers Charities through Hits for Hath’s Heroes. Following the 2024-25 season, the Hathaways donated $30,000 to the Families Behind the Badge Children’s Foundation, a Conshohocken-based nonprofit.
Hathaway has one year left on his two-year extension signed last July 1, which is worth $2.4 million annually. A team source has confirmed to The Inquirer that the Flyers will retain 50% of Hathaway’s salary, leaving a cap charge of $1.2 million on the books for 2026-27.
Could the Flyers trade away or acquire more picks?
Flyers general manager Danny Brière (right) and assistant general manager Brent Flahr speak to reporters ahead of the 2026 NHL draft.
Maybe?
In a news conference earlier this month, Flyers general manager Danny Brière did say he was OK with having only four picks now in the upcoming draft — one each in the first, second, sixth, and seventh rounds — and he did call the first- and second-round picks “the key.” But he also said everything is on the table.
“We’ve drafted so much the last few years [so] it might not be quite a bad thing to not have as many this year,” he said. “But, if I had the choice, yeah, I would rather have more picks.”
Fair, because who doesn’t want to keep stocking the cupboard? But what if it meant trading a first-rounder for a young player who could fit into the lineup today?
“Yeah, we’re getting closer to that. I don’t know that we’re quite there yet, but we’re certainly willing to listen on different ideas,” he said. “I’m not too keen on trading future first-round picks, because you never know where it can go, and we’re not at [where] Colorado or Carolina [are] at this point, where you know we’re going to be finishing [high] and picking late first [round]. I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones in a major nighttime attack on 12 Russian regions as well as the Russia-held Crimean peninsula, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday.
It appeared to be one of the biggest drone attacks on Russia and the illegally annexed Crimea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. The previous biggest Ukrainian attack over the past year was 556 drones on May 17.
In an effort to turn the tables on Russia’s grinding war of attrition, Ukrainian long-range drones have for months been battering targets, including oil production and energy facilities, behind the front line and deep inside Russia. The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield, Western officials and analysts say, and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Initial damage reports from Russia after the overnight attack provided scant information. Russia’s Defense Ministry usually doesn’t say what was targeted in Ukraine’s drone attacks, nor does it detail any damage.
Ukraine’s Security Service said it used drones to strike Russian navy ships and air defense radars in Kerch, an important port city in Crimea.
The targets were two reconnaissance and mine-laying ships, the Volga and the Vyatka, and the cargo-passenger ferry Petropavlovsk, the agency said, claiming that the strikes started a large fire. The claim could not be independently verified.
Successful drone attacks hearten Ukraine
The major attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after U.S. peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.
The successful strikes, including hitting targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, have buoyed Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said he got further promises of foreign support when he attended a recent summit of G7 leaders, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, and that the promised aid will help Ukraine step up its effort to force Putin to the negotiating table.
A NATO summit next month could be another key moment in beefing up Ukraine’s military.
A Russian chemical plant is reportedly hit
In the Tula region just south of Moscow, a private house was damaged by the attack and a woman was wounded, Tula Gov. Dmitry Milyaev said in an online statement, as reports of damage caused by the attack began to emerge.
He also said a power line was damaged and an unspecified industrial facility in the city of Novomoskovsk.
Russian independent online outlet Astra reported that a chemical plant and a hydroelectric plant in Novomoskovsk were attacked and caught fire. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the report, and there was no official confirmation.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also reported that 47 Ukrainian drones were downed as they flew toward the Russian capital. He did not report any casualties or damage.
Ukraine says 2 civilians were killed in Russian attacks
Two people were killed and seven others injured in Russian attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region over the previous 24 hours, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Friday.
Russian forces struck the city of Kharkiv and 16 other settlements across the region using guided aerial bombs and drones of various types, Syniehubov said.
Ukraine’s defenses overnight stopped 174 of 189 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force said. However, four of seven Iskander-M ballistic missiles that were fired got through air defenses and struck various locations, it said.
Ukrainian officials reported damage to energy facilities, homes and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, the southern Odesa and Zaporizhzhia regions, and Sumy in the northeast. At least six people were wounded, according to authorities.
No Russian military buildup seen on border with Belarus, Ukraine says
Russia is expanding several of its military sites deep inside Belarus, but there is no buildup of forces near the Ukrainian border, a State Border Guard Service spokesman said Friday.
Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine from Belarus, which borders both countries, and Kyiv has kept a close watch on developments there during the war.
Ukrainian intelligence units have detected no grouping or reinforcement of Russian units, equipment or personnel close to the border, spokesman Andrii Demchenko said in remarks to Ukrainian television.
However, Russia has a growing number of training grounds, bases and other sites deeper inside the country, according to intelligence units.
President Donald Trump shocked transit officials last year when he said that he would seize control of the long-delayed renovation of Penn Station, one of the busiest and most maligned transit hubs in the world.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York state agency that had been in charge of the project and frequently found itself at odds with Washington, offered a surprising response: It’s all yours.
Now, federal officials may need the cooperation of that same agency, which controls a large portion of the space, if it intends to keep its promise to break ground on the Penn Station revamp by the end of next year. And the partnership is not off to a good start.
On Monday, Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief executive, wrote a scathing letter to Amtrak, the national rail company that owns Penn Station, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, whose overtures he described as a lot of “blah-blah” and “gamesmanship.”
“When the Trump administration announced it was taking over the reconstruction project, we were cautiously optimistic, despite the typically gratuitous (and fact-free) snipes USDOT and Amtrak took at the MTA,” he said. “But the process since then has been simply bizarre.”
At the center of the dispute is a web of tangled stakeholders. While Amtrak owns Penn Station, the MTA is its busiest tenant, accounting for two-thirds of the riders who pass through each day. They use it to board the subway system and the Long Island Rail Road, both of which are operated by the MTA New Jersey’s rail network, NJ Transit, also runs service there. The labyrinthine station sits beneath Madison Square Garden, the arena controlled by James Dolan, a close friend of Trump’s.
Amtrak announced in April 2025 that it would proceed with a plan to make room for a new, classically inspired train hall, but has yet to disclose the cost. Sean Duffy, the U.S. transportation secretary, has said that the federal government could spend $8 billion on the project.
Lieber said that the renovation plan had the “appearance of impropriety” because the process to select a developer was opaque. The winning proposal involves a plan to buy and demolish a portion of the arena called the Infosys Theater, and replace it with a grand entrance on Eighth Avenue. Amtrak has yet to disclose what it might pay Dolan for the privilege.
In October, Amtrak sent the MTA a “collaboration agreement” that it said would help expedite renovation decisions by granting the federal government more oversight. But the MTA has not signed on to the arrangement, arguing that the deal could compromise an existing and much stronger contract — a prepaid lease that gives the agency more latitude in station design decisions. That pact doesn’t expire for 160 years.
Lieber said that the agreement offered last year by Amtrak would limit the MTA’s ability to influence design decisions, constrain the ways it communicates changes to riders and cede other rights.
“Not interested,” he wrote.
Lieber’s letter this week was a response to a missive from Andy Byford, a former head of the MTA’s transit division. He had been nicknamed “train daddy” by his supporters because of popular changes he put in place. Byford left the transit agency after a public dispute with Andrew Cuomo, who was governor at the time.
But Byford, who has occasionally had a tense relationship with Lieber, is now in charge of Trump’s federal takeover of the Penn Station redesign.
“It is disingenuous for some to continue to assert that MTA has been ‘frozen out,’ ‘sidelined,’ or ‘excluded’ by Amtrak. Rather, it has been MTA’s repeated choice over the past year to opt out of participating in the project,” he wrote in a letter sent to reporters Sunday — a day before the MTA received it.
Like most landlord-tenant relationships, this one is fraught. The MTA in October blamed Amtrak for delaying by three years an expansion of railroad service in the Bronx, because it did not grant enough access to their shared infrastructure. In April, Amtrak sued the MTA for refusing to let some of its new trains ride on the transit agency’s tracks. (A judge sided with the MTA.) And for months, the two groups have clashed over the repair schedule for tunnels under the East River that provide service to Penn Station.
Wednesday, after an MTA board meeting, Lieber said that he was willing to work with Amtrak, but not at the expense of protections guaranteed in their lease, such as the right to challenge construction decisions that could affect LIRR service.
“The idea that we should give away rock-solid rights in favor of a lick and a promise, a hope and a prayer that they might agree to do what we think are the important things to do, is not realistic,” he said.
Byford said in a statement that Amtrak had already made amendments to the agreement, and insisted that the contract would not “water down” the MTA’s lease. NJ Transit has already signed a version of the pact.
MTA officials have raised concerns that the Penn Station redevelopment plan, led by the companies Halmar and Skanska and designed by the architecture firm PAU, could generate costs that might be borne by New York transit riders.
In an interview Wednesday, Byford insisted that the plan would not require ticket surcharges or fare increases for passengers who use Penn Station.
“That’s not how budgets work,” he said, calling that fear unfounded. But he left open possibly finding other ways to fully pay for the project.
The MTA’s reluctance to sign the agreement may cause friction with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who effectively controls the agency. She has said that she supports Trump’s takeover of Penn Station, provided that the cost is not passed on to New Yorkers.
Hochul received a presentation last week from Penn Transformation Partners, the private consortium of developers and architects that the federal government selected to lead the redesign, according to three people familiar with the meeting.
Sean Butler, a spokesperson for Hochul, said the governor believed that delivering a better Penn Station “is too important to not work collaboratively and constructively with all partners.”
When asked about the MTA’s response, Byford said that he liked Lieber, and that the two of them had a good working relationship when they led different divisions of the agency.
“This is just a professional disagreement,” he said.
But Wednesday, in a statement attributed to Byford, Amtrak said that the redesign of Penn Station will continue, with or without the MTA’s help.
“We don’t need them to sign; we will proceed regardless,” Amtrak said. “Gov. Hochul gets that, the MTA does not, it would appear.”
