South African scrum-half Nic Groom says the lure of joining "a club on the rise" convinced him to swap Super Rugby side Lions for Edinburgh.

Groom was a key player for Lions after joining a year ago and previously made 100 appearances for Stormers and Northampton Saints.

He is Edinburgh's seventh new signing for the upcoming campaign.

"Nic has been a standout in Super Rugby and the English Premiership," said Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill.

"That experience in the number nine jersey is obviously key, but Nic's ability to snipe and create opportunities in and around the fringes brings a different dynamic to our squad."

Groom, 29, professed himself "really excited" by the move to Edinburgh.

"I've been keeping an eye on their results from South Africa and it's definitely a club on the rise. I can't wait to play my role in the seasons to come."

Scotland's record cap holder Ross Ford has confirmed his retirement from playing and will now help coach the country's best young talent.

The hooker, who won his 110th and final cap in 2017, left Edinburgh this summer after 197 appearances in 11 years.

Former British & Irish Lion Ford, 35, will put his experience to use in the Scottish Rugby academy.

"There's a lot of talent here so if I can help them develop, hopefully they'll go on to big things," he said.

Ford began his career at Border Reivers and played in the World Cup in 2007, 2011 and 2015, as well as going on the 2009 Lions tour.

England boss Eddie Jones will coach the Barbarians against Fiji at Twickenham in November, just two weeks after the World Cup final.

The game will be the first international match staged in the UK following the World Cup, and is expected to feature some of the stars of the tournament.

"It's a huge honour to be invited to coach the Barbarians," Jones said.

"The club perfectly embodies the values and traditions of the sport."

Jones said 2019 is a "massive year for international rugby" and that he is "looking forward to returning to Twickenham after a successful World Cup campaign to coach a Barbarians team containing some of the stars of the tournament".

Jones is contracted by the RFU until 2021, but will be briefly seconded to the Barbarians before the match with the Fijians on 16 November.

It had been thought Jones would only stay in his role after the World Cup if England reached the semi-finals or beyond.

However, new RFU boss Bill Sweeney recently stated his intention to keep Jones even if England under-perform in Japan.

England's World Cup training camp started earlier this week, with Gloucester fly-half Danny Cipriani among those to be added to the group on Friday.

Jones then names his final World Cup training squad on 4 July, and his final 31-man World Cup party in mid-August.

STOCKTON, Calif. — Tristan Guardino held off Mitchel Moles for his second career Hoosier Tire California Speedweek Non Wing victory, grabbing Wednesday’s event at Delta Speedway.

Guardino’s win is his first series triumph since July 9, 2016 when he was victorious at Lemoore Raceway. He was joined by Moles in Super 600 and Jade Avedisian in Restricted as winners at the seventh-mile dirt oval at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds.

Guardino started the feature alongside Troy Morris III who was utilizing a backup engine in the 30-lap event. After a four-wide battle up front, Guardino prevailed with the lead. Fourth starting Moles advanced to second with the pair building up a strong lead ahead of 2018 champion T.J. Smith and Tuesday winner Caden Sarale. The top-two cars quickly found themselves seeing lapped traffic on lap 10. Morris drifted from his pole position to 13th position.

Ben Worth spun in turn three for a caution on lap 13. One lap later, a three-car skirmish involving Worth, Brandon Carey, and Carson Myrick brought out the red flag.

The following restart saw Sarale and Smith make slight contact, dropping Sarale back to sixth position behind 16th starting Austin Stone. Sarale took fifth back from Stone before the red flag flew for Chase Hyland flipping in turn one.

After the lap-20 red flag, Moles took advantage to try to crossover Guardino for the lead with Smith sticking his nose in there as well. Guardino swung back into the lead one lap later while a battle ensued behind him. Sarale tried to make the bottom lane work but eventually went upstairs for the closing laps.

Guardino paced Moles in a narrow run atop the cushion for the $1,000 victory with Smith topping Sarale for third. Stone rounded out the top five.

Jade Avedisian became the second female racer to win in the California Speedweek history when she topped the 22-car, 25-lap Restricted feature.

Tuesday night’s runner-up finisher Dawson Faria spun in turn one from the sixth-starting position and was hit by Emerson Vincent for a caution on lap one. The next attempt at the first lap was troublesome for Oklahoma’s Ryan Timms, the Dixon winner, when he had contact with Bryant Bell.

Delta point leader Logan Trevino jumped ahead with the lead by three car lengths before another caution for Washington’s Carson Borden spinning in turn three. Lane Taylor jumped upstairs and battled with Gauge Garcia and Izaak Sharp for third. Taylor cleared Garcia on lap four and turned his attention to Sharp for third.

Eli Bookout started tenth and started to challenge Garcia for fifth with quick time qualifier Reilee Phillips in lockstep with them as well. Lapped traffic entered the fray on lap 14 with the traffic running side-by-side in front of the leaders on lap 17.

Avedisian closed on Trevino in hot pursuit, making a dramatic move up onto the turn four berm to take the lead on lap 21. Trevino continued to put the pressure on Avedisian all the way to the finish. Avedisian topped Trevino, Sharp, Garcia, and Bookout for the top five after Taylor retired with a mechanical issue.

The Super 600 proceedings ripped the Speedweek standings wide open with Mitchel Moles grabbing his 19th win of 2019 and a much sought after first California Speedweek bear.

The start was a wild one as Ben Worth tumbled into turn one, collecting Nikko Panella, Keith Day Jr. and Mason Keefer as drivers jockeyed to avoid the incident.

Dixon winner Michael Faccinto was forced into the infield with mechanical problems and never completed a lap of the feature.
Faccinto’s troubles placed the Super 600 battle squarely on the shoulders of Moles and Dixon runner-up Jake Hagopian.

Colby Thornhill had a thrilling charge through the pack, passing both Brad Hannum and Texan Chase Randall to assume fourth from 14th on the grid. A caution on lap 12 for Cody Key spinning put Thornhill on top of Corey Day, with Thornhill grabbing third on the restart.

The drivers in the pack both looked high and low with Moles and Hagopian anchoring the top of the race track. A caution on lap 21 for Brandon Carey stopping in turn two erased a small lead Moles had built over Hagopian as they approached lapped traffic. Moles got a slight jump on Hagopian on the restart which allowed Thornhill to challenge Hagopian for second.

Moles pulled away for the $1,000 win with Thornhill getting second place ahead of the 2018 Speedweek champion Hagopian.

PEORIA, Ill. — Nick Hoffman makes it two wins in his 2019 DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals campaign as he claimed the big check at the Peoria Speedway on Wednesday night.

Point leader Tyler Nicely finished second to keep his point lead alive.

Nicely and Hoffman were on the front row of the 25-lap feature. On the start, Hoffman ran straight to the lead from the outside of the front row.

An early caution flew, forcing another restart, but it wouldn’t stop the North Carolina racer. “My car could run anywhere tonight” said Hoffman.

Seven green laps into the Feature and rain started to pour down onto the track. Officials sent the drivers back to the pits and waited out the storm cell.

Track prep crews ran the track in and packed it down to save the night. 30 minutes later, the action continued but Hoffman wouldn’t be challenged by the changing of the track conditions, or any of the competition behind him.

Hoffman ran away with the race from that point on and was never once challenged for the lead. Hoffman will pull double duty tomorrow in a DIRTcar Late Model and DIRTcar Modifieds.

Tyler Nicely and Kenny Wallace held their postions all throughout the race to complete the podium.

The finish:

Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 2-Nick Hoffman; 2. 25N-Tyler Nicely; 3. 36-Kenny Wallace; 4. 32-Donavon Lodge; 5. K19-Will Krup; 6. C40-Mike Chasteen; 7. 24H-Mike Harrison; 8. 292-Josh Allen; 9. 57-Trey Harris; 10. 148-Gabe Menser; 11. 99-Hunt Gossum; 12. 18-Jeffrey Ledford; 13. 27D-Beau DeYoung; 14. MB4-Marty Lindeman; 15. T6-Tommy Sheppard; 16. 7-Spencer Hughes; 17. J1-Roger Jackson; 18. 19B-Brock Bauman; 19. O5-Dave Wietholder; 20. 77-Ray Bollinger; 21. 25W-Allen Weisser; 22. 10K-Kelly Kovski; 23. 72A-Austin Lynn

LAFARGEVILLE, N.Y. — Veteran Can-Am Speedway master Tim Fuller was not to be denied a trip to victory lane in the 60-lap DIRTcar 358 Modified Series lid lifter Wednesday night at Can-Am Speedway.

The crowd was treated to an incredible duel between Billy Dunn and the race winner. Erick Rudolph, who started ninth, worked his way up through the field to finish in second. Meanwhile, Mat Williamson, rounded out the podium with another third.

Tim Fuller had not won a feature since last year and be picked the perfect time to shake the bad luck off. Fuller noted, “It’s been a struggle all spring and here in the summer.”

A $4,000 check will chase away anyone’s blues and Fuller had some important people to thank. “First and foremost thanks to St. Lawrence Radiology, Mike and Lauren Maresca,” Fuller said. “They fund this whole project here and they sponsored the race tonight. They are big DIRTcar supporters.”

Billy Dunn lead the race late in the tilt but a rear end failure ended his night on the backstretch with the caution flags unfurled. Just before that, Dunn and Fuller had a battle going that every race fan in attendance will remember.

Fuller and Dunn were wheel to wheel for at least five laps consecutively. Neither would give an inch, they raced hard and with serious professionalism. For the duel to end as it did, with a smoking, broken Dunn machine, was a shame.

Fuller described his tactics, “Machine Gun Billy Dunn had the fastest car. He found the bottom before I did. He was the car to beat before he blew up. I thought I could have a run at him on those long greens because I knew he had a little bit softer tire.”

With the No. 49 behind the wall, Erick Rudolph and Mat Williamson could smell blood.

Rudolph stayed consistent for the whole 60 laps and made passes when the opportunity arose. He wanted to take a run at the No. 19 but Rudolph read the play well.

“I thought I had something for Fuller but then on that last restart, he proved me wrong. He just took off like he put it in another gear. He checked out. I’ll settle for second. Not a bad night for us,” said Rudolph.

Williamson finished third for the second night in a row.

“It was challenging,” he said. “The track is nice when it gets black like this. Early in the feature, it started to take rubber. We tightened up too much but we were really good on restarts.”

The finish:

Feature (60 laps) 1. Tim Fuller 2. Erick Rudolph 3. Mat Williamson 4. Michael Parent 5. Mike Mahaney 6. Ryan Arbuthnot 7. Bobby Herrington 8. Jordan McCreadie 9. Dave Marcuccilli 10. Ronnie Davis 11. Corey Wheeler 12. Danny Johnson 13. Chris Raabe 14. Ryan Bartlett 15. Carey Terrance 16. Steve Bernier 17. Yan Bussiere 18. Kyle Dingwall 19. Jeff Sykes 20. Tyler Meeks 21. Scott Webb 22. Billy Dunn 23. Nick Webb 24. Lance Willix 25. Tim Sears Jr. 26. Mike Maresca 27. Pat Ward. 28. Tom Conklin 29. Chad Brachmann 30. Todd Root 31. Robbie Bellinger

PEORIA, Ill. — The 19th Summer Nationals visit to Peoria Speedway was a stellar one as fans packed the stands on Wednesday night.

Twenty-six DIRTcar late models checked in for the $5,000-to-win round one make-up race for the DIRTcar Summer Nationals.

Brian Shirley claimed the VP Racing Fuels Checkered flag once again as he won from the outside front row. Shirley now ties Shannon Babb for the most wins at Peoria Speedway with four wins apiece.

Brandon Sheppard and Shirley sat on the front row of the 40-lap feature. Sheppard started off strong on the bottom until Shirley got a grip on the outside and powered to the lead. Bobby Pierce worked to the runner-up position with Frank Heckenast Jr. following in third.

At the beginning of the race, Pierce ran the cushion and was catching Shirley, but the top faded and the track became bottom dominant. Shirley checked out by a straightaway until he caught lapped traffic. Pierce and Heckenast caught the leader but couldn’t capitalize quick enough. Shirley got around Bob Gardner, a strong lapped car standing in his way, after forcing him out of the low groove.

Shirley then jumped to a healthy straightaway lead once again until he got behind Allen Murray. Pierce knew it was closing time as he tried to make room under Shirley, but it wasn’t enough, as the “Smooth Operator” settled for a back-to-back second-place finish.

Hackenast charged to third and completed the podium after starting sixth. He appeared to have the fastest car on the racetrack, getting around Jason Feger for fourth and Sheppard for third in the early going. But once he reached the rear of Pierce’s Hoker Trucking No. 32, Heckenast ran out of room on the low side to get a nose underneath.

Nonetheless, a strong effort put forth and another top-three for the “Hell Tour” veteran.

The finish:

Feature (40 Laps) – 1. 3S-Brian Shirley; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr.; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard; 5. 25-Jason Feger; 6. 2-Mike Chasteen; 7. 18-Shannon Babb; 8. 84-Myles Moos; 9. 28-Dennis Erb Jr.; 10. 25W-Allen Weisser; 11. 24-Ryan Unzicker; 12. B12-Kevin Weaver; 13. 18J-Chase Junghans; 14. 2M-allen Murray; 15. CJ1-Rusty Schlenk; 16. 4G-Bob Gardner; 17. 31AUS-Paul Stubber; 18. 87-Walker Arthur; 19. 25H-Chuck Hummer; 20. T2-Todd Bennett; 21. 75-Billy Drake; 22. 2K-Zackary Kuhel

It's now been a few days since Jack Hughes was called at No. 1, and the dust of the 2019 NHL draft has started to settle. So there's naturally only one thing left to do. It's time to turn the page to the 2020 draft season.

And it looks like we've got another strong draft class on our hands. While we might not have a Hughes or even a Kaapo Kakko quite yet, the top end of this group is solid, and we should see a first round packed with talent, especially up front. It all starts at the top with an exciting top four prospects.

Here's a way-too-early look at the 20 best prospects in the 2020 NHL draft class.

2019 draft grades | Every pick in 2019
Meet the next three No. 1 picks

1. Alexis Lafreniere, LW, Rimouski (QMJHL)

A dominant force in the QMJHL this year, Lafreniere has been on the 2020 draft radar for some time. He was the CHL Player of the Year in 2018-19 after putting up 105 points, tied for the most by a U18 player in the QMJHL since Sidney Crosby. Lafreniere isn't at the Hughes level yet, but he's trending up pretty aggressively. Having missed the draft cutoff by only a few weeks and coming off that incredible season, the expectations for Lafreniere are going to be through the roof next season. All the 17-year-old really has to do is meet them, but he still isn't a Hughes-esque lock on the No. 1 spot. That's not a knock on Lafreniere, who is every bit as good as you've heard. It's more about the guys who are next in line.

2. Lucas Raymond, RW, Frolunda (Sweden)

Raymond is probably the biggest threat to Lafreniere at this point. The exceptionally skilled and smart forward has played beyond his years for a while now. His 48 points were the most ever by a U17 player in Sweden's top U20 league. Only four players who appeared in 20 or more games in the SuperElit had more than Raymond's 1.30 points per game, and two of them are the Sedin twins. Raymond (now 17) also appeared in 10 SHL games at 16 years old last season before putting up eight points in seven games at U18 worlds. In the final game of that tournament, Raymond completed a hat trick in overtime to hand Sweden its historic first-ever World U18 gold. He's a special talent.

3. Quinton Byfield, C, Sudbury (OHL)

P.K. Subban and Patrick Marleau were both traded during the 2019 NHL draft last weekend. Or, perhaps you know them by their more popular names: Nine Million Dollars Against the Cap Through 2022 and Six Point Five Million Dollars Against the Cap Through 2020.

They are human beings, virtually converted into currency. They are treated like commodities. This is what a salary cap does.

"That's the hardest thing for fans and the players to understand. It's even hard in discussions for my own people to understand," Nashville Predators general manager David Poile said after the Subban trade. "I think cap space is very valuable. Some teams are up against it. And you're going to see more trades like this."

This is life in a capped league. This is what happened back in 2005, when NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow rallied his players and prepared them for an 18-month brawl with the NHL to prevent a hard salary cap from being established ... only to see cracks in that foundation just three weeks into the lockout, dashing hope that the players would eventually end up with a soft cap or a luxury tax.

There's no question that under the salary cap, the NHL has grown both in revenue and in scope. But if there were a soft cap and/or a luxury tax instead?

"The NHL would be healthier today under that system," one player agent told me this week.

As we prepare for another free-agent frenzy, we look at the pros and cons of the salary cap.

Pro: The salary cap provides "cost certainty"

When uttered by commissioner Gary Bettman, that phrase still gives me the shrinks. It was his rallying cry from 2005's lost season, a lament from the owners that the salaries they established had grown too high and, that the salary cap was the only way to save the NHL from [checks notes] their own utter greed and reckless spending.

The salary cap was seen as a stabilizing force. If currency fluctuated -- looking at you, Canadian dollar -- the entire league would shoulder the blow. If revenues rose or fell, the cap would be tied to that. Everyone knew how big the pot was and what was inside of it; it was just a matter of figuring out what percentage of that pot you wanted to spoon-feed your players.

And then here's the best part: The owners, through escrow, get that money cycled back to them. It's quite a shell game.

To that end, you'd have to say the cap has worked as planned. The NHL is a sturdier investment now than it was 15 years ago: There are 17 owners on the board of governors who weren't there in 2005. From 2007 to 2017, the average value of an NHL franchise rose from $220 million to $598 million.

As for the players, the average minimum salary in 2005 was $450,000; last season, it was over $700,000. The top salary in 2005 was capped at $7.8 million; in 2017-18, it was capped at $15.9 million.

Of course, it could have been much more.

Con: The salary cap limits earning potential

As agent Allan Walsh tweeted when the salary cap was announced last weekend: "The main purpose of the cap is to sign players to a below-fair-market-value salary, artificially lower than they would otherwise sign for without a cap."

This is demonstrably true on two fronts. First, that contracts are signed for a specific dollar amount rather than, say, a percentage of revenues. There's some extrapolation for salary growth when a player signs long term, but mostly there's just manipulation of salary in over to get the average annual value to a workable place under the cap. But mostly, and most obviously, salaries are kept below market value because the market isto established by the cap rather than by the contracts. If Connor McDavid signs for $20 million per season, there's your market. Instead, he makes $15 million in Year 1 and $10 million in Year 8, because the cap is the market.

Pro: The salary cap perpetuates parity

Parity? I believe Mr. Bettman's preferred verbiage is "competitive balance," which he recently said was at an "all-time high" in the NHL.

"For the seventh straight year, at least five teams made the playoffs that missed out in the previous season," Bettman said recently. "As you certainly know, the Blues were in last place in the entire league on Jan. 3 of this year. Now they're in the Stanley Cup Final, and that's nothing short of incredible. Every single team, and as important, their fans, come into a season believing they can make the playoffs. As we've seen, once you make the playoffs, anything can happen."

That "competitive balance" exists for two reasons: The NHL's ridiculous standings and playoff formats, in which mediocre teams smash a piñata filled with charity points to stay relevant; and the salary cap, which ensures no team is too good for too long, and that ensures talented players from those good teams will be shuffled off to other franchises due to salary-cap concerns. If you like a league with two to three great teams, two to three horrible teams, and a giant pile of average, and are holding a Stanley Cup playoff ticket in one hand and a lottery ticket in the other, then you might be a cap-head.

Con: So could a soft cap/luxury tax

To put it bluntly: The salary cap punishes the proficient to reward the idiotic. Teams that draft well, develop well, manage well ... heck, flat out play well are eventually going to have to churn their roster for having the nerve to compensate and retain their best players. The moment a team wins the Stanley Cup, Bettman should hand them one of those little credit-card folders with a bill inside of it, so they know exactly how many players they were going to have to ante up within the next couple of seasons to help those teams that can't develop or attract talent.

It doesn't have to be this way. A soft cap with a luxury tax would allow teams to remain successful by spending over the upper level and then paying a tax on that money -- and it can literally be at any rate the NHL deems appropriate -- that's distributed to the league's most financially disadvantaged teams, who then can turn around and spend that on talent to improve their clubs and, in theory, remain competitive.

(And for what it's worth, the money spent above the cap wouldn't count toward the 50/50 revenue split.)

But in all honesty, I'm so much less concerned with the dregs of the league than I am about the dynastic teams that earn their empire only to see it capped at the knees.

Pro: Weaponizing cap space is good for the game

How many good players and great draft picks have been moved due to the salary-cap pinch? Look no further than the NHL draft weekend, when all three trades -- Marleau to the Carolina Hurricanes, J.T. Miller to Vancouver Canucks and especially Subban to the New Jersey Devils -- were made due to cap considerations.

In the case of the Subban trade, the only reason the Devils won that derby was because they were able to take on the full freight of the contract. Save your top-line centers and puck-moving defensemen; it could be argued the greatest asset in the NHL today is weaponizing your available cap space. And kudos to the teams that manage their payroll so well as to have it.

Con: Actually, hockey trades are more fun

The salary-cap system has eliminated the simplicity of hockey trades. Sure, financial considerations were always a part of transactions, but not to the point where a trade couldn't legally be completed the way it is now under cap compliance rules. There are too many dominoes that need to fall in order to make deals. There are too many trades that fall apart due to cap restrictions.

And here's another reality: When salaries are held in check, or need to be, that's when you have to ante up trade protection. Which is a main catalyst for the sluggishness of the trade market. If you hate having to sit through eight hours of trade deadline coverage filled with more T-shirt cannon stunts and llamas than actual deals, then blame the cap?

The bottom line is that a team like the Vegas Golden Knights, who will clearly spend at all costs to win, are instead twiddling their thumbs trying to make a few salaries disappear. It's like walking into a casino and being told you have to sell three items on eBay before you're able to gamble.

Pro: The salary floor encourages spending

Fun fact: The salary floor ($60.2 million) is higher than the upper limit of the cap in 2010-11 ($59.4 million). It means that a team that maxed out its contracts nine years ago is a team just barely fulfilling its minimum obligations today. Which also means the NHL has seen some kind of revenue growth in the past decade.

The salary floor exists to ensure teams spend a certain amount on their players, in essence to ice a competitive team. It protects against a total gutting to save money or tank for picks or hollowing out the roster for a potential team sale.

Con: The salary floor is an illusion

One problem with all of that: The bottom-feeders are usually hitting the cap floor by acquiring dead cap space, like injured or retired players, which at worst means they're not actually attempting to be financially competitive under the spirit of the CBA and at best means they're using that open cap space to acquire draft picks that they can then turn into other cheaper labor.

Pro: The salary cap pits GM against GM

The salary cap levels the playing field a bit, so it's not just teams with the largest financial means that win out in trades or free agency. Essentially, this makes the NHL more exciting: It's the most creative, innovative and forward-thinking teams that win. Not just, like, "because they're the Yankees," with which baseball fans are well familiar.

Con: The cap pits players against players

"The NHL salary cap pits players against players. Currently, it's players under contract vs. restricted and unrestricted free agents, with respect to the upper limit and escrow," a player agent recently told me.

Had the players triggered the cap escalator, as is their right in the CBA, the salary cap would have been upward of $86 million next season. "You have these guys who paid escrow and supported other players before they signed their seven- or eight-year deals, and they're wondering where that support was for them this year," the agent said. "There's a fundamental unfairness there."

Pro: The salary cap is the most straightforward way to manage salaries

Cost certainty! It's really simple: There's a ceiling. There's a floor. Stay under the ceiling. Get above the floor. Hand out contracts that comply with the CBA. If you need to, share the salary-cap burden with another team after a trade. If you have to, pay off the cap hit if you buy out a player. Rinse, repeat. This doesn't require a NASA supercomputer to figure out. Just visit Cap Friendly.

Con: The salary cap kills creative accounting

Why is the salary cap so simple? Why aren't there more creative options for teams that seek to retain their talent?

For example: a "franchise tag" for a star player. Apply it to one player on your roster, and that player's cap hit comes off the books. What's the situation with the Toronto Maple Leafs this summer if they could "franchise" the $11.634 million average annual salary of Auston Matthews? Do they end up with Subban and Mitch Marner?

The verdict

Abolish the hard salary cap. Adopt a soft cap with a luxury tax.

There's no reason to punish successful teams in the name of faux parity. There's no reason why a luxury tax system couldn't ultimately benefit those teams closer to the floor. There's no reason why a smart approach to exceeding a soft cap -- like restrictions on what kinds of players you can have an overage to sign, like for example players your team originally drafted -- can't result in some semblance of fiscal sanity within a freer market.

Spare me the anxieties about what a system like this could mean for future work stoppages to "correct" the market. We had them before the cap. We've had them after the cap. What we don't have is an equitable system for good teams and great players.

The week in Gritty

Apparently not content with being the orange googly-eyed face of the NHL, Gritty has now moved on to making everyone openly weep with gestures like this one:

Pure joy ��

7-year-old Flyers fan Caiden O'Rourke got a new Gritty-themed prosthetic leg this morning, and @GrittyNHL came to check it out.

(via @6abc) pic.twitter.com/FyI1OZOZXo

- ESPN (@espn) June 26, 2019

With due respect to Auston Matthews, Gritty should have gotten the NHL 20 cover. We all know this.

Three things about Roberto Luongo, upon his retirement

1. Two NHL players were the first to figure out social media. One was Paul Bissonnette, who transformed his career from fourth-line pugilist to viral comedic genius. The other was Luongo, whose @Strombone1 account went from playful anonymity to full-on reputation enrichment for the just-retired Florida Panthers goalie. It's stunning to think there was a time when Luongo wasn't one of the most beloved players in the NHL, at least for fans not centrally located in either Vancouver or Miami. After eight years of charming the pants off everyone on social media, that's what he is.

Great to be back on the ice doing what I love again...... pic.twitter.com/1do7XtwgZY

- Strombone (@strombone1) September 19, 2014

2. Here's the real trick to the Cult of Luongo: self-deprecation. I don't think he had much of it a decade ago, at least outwardly, and definitely not during the 2011 playoffs. But after losing Game 7 to the Boston Bruins, perhaps something changed. The first tweet on his account was the following October. From that moment on, Luongo loosened up and made himself the punchline more often that not. Good luck finding a handful of guys willing to do that in the league. It's why Lu was special.

3. I used to think that the "my contract sucks -- that's what's the problem" lament at the trade deadline was the realest real we'd ever get from Luongo. But then we got his Parkland speech. We don't talk enough about that Parkland speech.

Listen To ESPN On Ice

Emily Kaplan, Chris Peters and yours truly did a podcast at the draft with winners and losers. We also had an enlightening conversation with Hugh Weber, the president of the New Jersey Devils, in the hours after the Subban trade. Listen here.

Paul Marner, hockey insider

Rather quickly, Paul Marner, the father of Toronto Maple Leafs restricted free agent star Mitch Marner, has earned the reputation of being a Meddling Hockey Dad. Like when he told The Athletic last year, "It drives our family nuts when we hear you guys all talk about who should be the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch never hardly gets any consideration. It's because he's like this happy-go-lucky little kid."

Darren Dreger of TSN, rightly or wrongly, has earned the reputation of being a mouthpiece for sources. This was the case when Dave Nonis, his second cousin, was the general manager of the Maple Leafs. And this is apparently again the case in his reporting on Marner's contract kerfuffle with the Leafs, as everyone in Toronto thinks he's parroting Marner's father.

Seriously, look at these responses to his most recent news about interest in a Marner offer sheet being "brisk." About 500 of them are some variation of "OK, Paul" or "thanks, Paul." As our own Dimitri Filipovic noted:

'Thanks Paul!' is the new 'Not great Bob!' pic.twitter.com/86xx8p711j

- Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 26, 2019

Yeah, 'not great, Bob,' indeed.

Puck headlines

OK, I mean, if you're going to force me to go to Palm Springs to cover Seattle's farm team I GUESS I'll go to Palm Springs.

Ailish Forfar on how Hayley Wickenheiser inspired her hockey career: "Wickenheiser didn't teach me the mechanics, but she provided me with the inspiration. A meaningful connection to a positive female role model, Hayley instilled a drive inside of me."

Defending the Guy Carbonneau Hall of Fame selection. The Class of 2019 is whatever. At this point, after Vaclav Nedomansky was elected, the Hockey Hall of Fame is out of excuses for why Alex Mogilny remains on the outside looking in.

Long Q&A about Big Ten hockey.

Looking at the field for Joe Pavelski. I'll say it again: If there were a way to bring his leadership and postseason DNA and inject it into the Tampa Bay Lightning, that would be a coup.

The 10 free agents who won't break the bank. For you Patrik Nemeth fans. ($$$)

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Very cool feature photo gallery on women in sports, in particular in hockey.

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

Ranking the top 50 (plus) free agents. (ESPN+)

Barcelona have completed the signing of Valencia goalkeeper Neto, who arrives at the club as the replacement for Jasper Cillessen, who moved in the other direction on Wednesday.

Neto, 29, joins Barca for an initial fee of €26 million, with an additional €9m due in potential add-ons. He has signed a four-year contract at Camp Nou, tying him to the Spanish champions until 2023, and has had a €200m buyout clause inserted into his terms.

- When does the 2019-20 La Liga season start?

Cillessen signed for Valencia for an up front fee of €35m earlier this week. If Barca end up paying all the add-ons for Neto, the deal between the clubs will end up being a de-facto player exchange.

Barca were keen for Cillessen to remain at the club but the Dutch goalkeeper insisted on a move. He told them several months ago that his desire was to leave this summer so he could play regular football ahead of next year's European Championships.

The Blaugrana had considered promoting young goalkeeper Inaki Pena to become Marc-Andre ter Stegen's deputy. In the end, though, they preferred to look for a more experienced option.

Neto made 80 appearances for Valencia during his two seasons with the club after joining from Juventus, where he was back up to Gianluigi Buffon, in 2017. He has also played for Fiorentina and Atletico Paranaense and has one cap for Brazil's national team.

He will be No.2 at Barca to Germany international Ter Stegen, who has kept Cillessen out of the team for the last three seasons.

The arrival of Neto completes a busy week for Barca. As well as the sale of Cillessen, they have also sold Andre Gomes to Everton and Marc Cardona to Osasuna.