Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) received a price target increase from Cantor Fitzgerald on June 18, with the firm raising its estimate to $75 from $60. Despite the upward revision, Cantor maintained a Neutral rating on the semiconductor stock. In a research note, Cantor acknowledged that Marvell’s expanding total addressable market aligns with ongoing momentum in the data center space. Analysts called the company’s recent commentary “an overall positive step forward” in understanding its long-term growth trajectory.
Cantor Fitzgerald Raises Marvell (MRVL) Price Target, Maintains Neutral Rating
However, the note expressed disappointment over the limited updates on ramp progress with cloud giants Amazon and Microsoft. Cantor cited lingering investor concerns over a potential slowdown extending into mid-2026. The firm did note encouraging signs from Marvell’s engagement with a new hyperscale customer but emphasized that visibility into the financial impact remains limited. Without concrete figures, estimating earnings contributions through 2028 remains a challenge, analysts said.
Cantor also questioned Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL)’s goal to reach 20% market share in the data center segment. Analysts suggested that growth in custom silicon is likely to remain concentrated among hyperscalers with large language model deployments, a scenario seen as favorable to Broadcom. The revised $75 price target is based on a valuation of approximately 20 times Cantor’s projected 2026 earnings per share estimate of $3.60, which the firm described as a more fitting multiple for Marvell’s outlook.
While we acknowledge the potential of MRVL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MRVL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
Video screens glow softly from the floor, looping footage of salt lakes, steppe villages, and decaying nuclear test sites. Suspended above them is a large handwoven textile map, crafted by artisans in Kazakhstan. The tapestry maps 12 significant sites across Kazakhstan and the surrounding region, each corresponding to one of the flickering videos below. This is Posthuman Matter: The Map of Nomadizing Reimaginings #3, the latest large-scale installation by photographer and multimedia artist Almagul Menlibayeva.
Recently unveiled at the VRHAM! Digital & Immersive Art Biennale in Hamburg, Germany, the work is part of Menlibayeva’s ongoing series of “cyber textiles,” which offer a striking blend of craft and code. It imagines an alternative cartography of Central Asia, with each video in the installation infusing the locations with erased histories and traditions, putting forth an alternative future for them. While the tapestries are created by hand, the videos are a mixture of real and replicated, built from documentary footage captured by Menlibayeva and then augmented with AI to infuse feminist rituals, nomadic storytelling traditions, and whispers of endangered languages.
Menlibayeva’s approach to artificial intelligence isn’t rooted in fascination with high-tech innovation for its own sake. Rather, it’s part of a deeper reckoning — with history, with loss, and with the systems that shape how stories are remembered or erased. She engages with AI not as a neutral tool, but as a terrain of power, ideology, and potential transformation. “Perhaps my interest in artificial intelligence is rooted in the traumatic history of Kazakh nomads,” she says, recalling how Soviet-era collectivization dismantled her ancestors’ way of life under the guise of technological progress.
Born in Kazakhstan and educated in the Soviet art system, Menlibayeva’s early training in folk textiles and Russian futurism is evident in her layered, hybrid works, which centered on photography and multichannel video installations for many years. Since 2022, she has expanded her practice to include AI, marking a pivotal evolution in her decades-long engagement with themes of historical erasure, cultural survival, and ecological trauma. Across these mediums, Menlibayeva critiques the lingering impacts of Soviet rule in Central Asia — from ecological degradation to cultural erasure — while reviving Indigenous and nomadic histories long overwritten by empire. With AI, she’s found a way to confront and reanimate these stories.
AI Realism: Qantar 2022 was Menlibayeva’s first project to incorporate AI. It’s a visceral example of how she uses AI to build counternarratives. Created in response to the Bloody January protests in Kazakhstan — mass demonstrations that were violently suppressed by the state and subsequently censored in national media — the project constructs a synthetic memoryscape from collective trauma. During the protests, the Kazakh government imposed a near-total internet blackout, plunging the nation into an information vacuum.
Faced with this blockade, Menlibayeva began collecting protest-2related stories from friends and social media, extracting key phrases in Kazakh and Russian, as well as voice messages sent via landlines and mobile networks. These fragments of real speech became the raw material for AI Realism: Qantar 2022. “The situation itself pushed me, because when these political events happened, the internet was shut down in the whole country,” she recalls. “I used audio recordings of voice messages, words these people used, to generate images of this work.”
Working with text-to-image and voice-to-image models via Google Colab, Menlibayeva assembled a series of AI-generated images from those crowdsourced stories. The resulting artwork, a 24-minute video and a series of haunting stills, is nonlinear and emotionally charged, confronting the erasure — both state-sanctioned and otherwise — of the events from memory. “I knew that the conditions, the events, would be forgotten or deliberately erased,” she says. “In this work, the people’s words are the main material. That is why the project is called AI Realism.”
The image Search and Seizure. History of Kairat Sultanbek. Kazakh January (2022), which is part of this series, reveals a chaos of bloodied surfaces and fragmented bodies. But it resists straightforward interpretation: there is no clear sequence of events and no clear heroes. “AI machines have a large limit, but sometimes system errors give rise to interesting results,” Menlibayeva says. In AI Realism: Qantar 2022, those glitches evoke the ruptures in history itself: the erasures, silences, and distortions enforced by both state violence and data-driven platforms.
Menlibayeva’s process often starts analog, with her own photographs or video stills — or even embroidered motifs passed down from older generations. These materials are transformed using Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and Perplexity. For video-related work, tools including Deforum, Runway, and Kaiber AI are used, but not without friction. “My first stage is to find the right prompt. Then I choose the most suitable platform based on how well it performs for that specific idea. Each platform has its own strengths, limitations, and biases, so I adapt my approach accordingly,” she says.
While some celebrate AI’s democratizing potential, Menlibayeva remains wary. “AI is a complex tool with both democratizing potential and the risk of reinforcing new hierarchies,” she warns, noting that “AI systems are often controlled by large corporations, which influences access and power.”
So, why use them at all? Menlibayeva doesn’t believe AI creates anything truly new, only what data makes possible. But by inserting her own images, myths, and archives, she sees it as opening a dialogue between algorithmic systems and human history. “AI acts both as a tool and a distorted mirror, reflecting the hidden codes, preferences, and limitations of its creators: data, culture, and power,” she says. “I consciously engage with these biases, embedding my personal mythologies into the process.”
To Menlibayeva, “humanizing AI” doesn’t mean teaching machines to mimic empathy. Instead, it means embedding human stories, memories, and resistance into their logic. In her art, AI becomes a way to recover what state archives, history books, and dominant media refuse to hold. “That is why, as an artist, I try not to obey this logic, but to transform it. Humanizing AI is not the task of programmers, it is the task of artists,” she says.
Dallas Mavericks All-Star guard Kyrie Irving is declining his $43 million player option and intends to sign a three-year, $119 million contract with the franchise, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Mavericks officials and Irving’s agent, Shetellia Riley Irving, negotiated the new deal that keeps Irving out of free agency and in Dallas long term. The new deal includes a player option in the 2027-28 season, sources said.
Irving told ESPN on Tuesday night that his decision to stay with the Mavericks long term was based on a commitment level from both sides, wanting to build a legacy in Dallas, and believing in the franchise’s ability to win a championship when he returns healthy from a torn ACL.
Throughout the conversations surrounding his player option and a new extension, both sides made clear their commitment to each other, and the Mavericks put a premium on Irving’s leadership and ability to team with All-Star Anthony Davis and soon-to-be No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg under the guidance of coach Jason Kidd and general manager Nico Harrison.
A leader and cornerstone of the Mavericks alongside Davis, Irving averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists last season before sustaining a season-ending ACL tear in his left knee in March.
Rival executives believed Irving, a nine-time All-Star, was in line for a major payday — between $50 million and $60 million annually — before the injury.
Irving, 33, will sit out the start of the 2025-26 season but is hopeful to return as soon as January, sources told ESPN.
The Mavs are expected to open up the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception by signing Irving to this deal, sources said. Potential targets for that salary slot would have included Dennis Schroder, D’Angelo Russell, Chris Paul and Malcolm Brogdon, sources said.
Earlier this week, Dallas officials and agents for Daniel Gafford negotiated a three-year contract extension for the Mavs center worth up to nearly $60 million, sources said.
Irving’s importance to the Mavs only increased with the shocking blockbuster trade of five-time All-NBA point guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, only months removed from Dallas’ run to the NBA Finals.
Irving averaged 28.1 points and 4.1 assists in 39.3 minutes in the 10 games he played between the Doncic deal and when he was injured. He also provided calm leadership in the locker room amid the chaos of the fan backlash from the trade, which brought Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick to Dallas.
Irving has thrived in Dallas since arriving via a 2023 deadline deal with the Nets, which ended a tumultuous 3½-year tenure in Brooklyn.
During his run with the Mavs, Irving has averaged 25.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists and has been revered by teammates and people throughout the organization for his professionalism and leadership.
Dallas pounced on the opportunity to acquire Irving for a trade package considered below market value for a star of his stature — sending Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, a 2029 first-round pick and a pair of second-rounders to Brooklyn. The Mavs, who at the time were in desperate need of a co-star for Doncic in the wake of Jalen Brunson‘s free agency departure, were confident they would create a comfortable environment for Irving due to his longstanding relationships with former Nike executive Harrison, Kidd and assistant coach God Shammgod.
Where “Liver King” Brian Johnson Is Now After Eating Only Raw Meat and Testicles for Years
The “Liver King” is living some legal drama.
Brian Johnson—the subject of Netflix’s Untold: The Liver King documentary—has been arrested in Texas on June 24 after threatening Joe Rogan on Instagram, the Austin Police Department confirmed to E! News.
According to police, detectives were informed that Johnson “had made threats against” Rogan and reviewed the posts, observing that “Johnson was traveling to Austin while continuing to make threatening statements.”
After contacting Rogan, who informed police he had never previously interacted with Johnson and that he “considered the posts to be threatening.”
“Based on this information,” police shared, “detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on a charge of Terroristic Threat.”
Johnson, police confirmed, was arrested later that day outside a hotel in Austin and brought into custody “without incident.” His charge of terroristic threat, according to authorities, is considered a Class B misdemeanor.
Police added, “This remains an active investigation, and there is no further information available at this time.”
On the pitch, Southgate’s legacy will always be those agonising near misses, with the finger being pointed in his direction for conservative tactics, especially when early leads and domination ended with defeat to Croatia in the World Cup last four, as well as that defeat on penalties to Italy at Wembley.
For someone so often portrayed as “too nice” – something mistaken for his basic decency – Southgate showed steel as a player and again as a manager.
Even before he was appointed as the permanent manager, caretaker boss Southgate effectively signalled the end for Wayne Rooney’s England career by dropping the captain and record goalscorer for a World Cup qualifier in Slovenia before he was eased aside.
Sterling’s time with England ended after the 2022 World Cup, while Jack Grealish was cut from the Euro 2024 squad.
Southgate’s relationship with England’s supporters fluctuated, from the adulation between 2018 and 2021 to the toxicity of a night at Molineux in June 2022 when the personal abuse was such that it had a profound impact on the manager.
England’s Euro 2024 campaign, a somewhat joyless and mediocre affair in which much of the goodwill for Southgate had been diluted, also saw the manager pelted with empty beer cups and jeered by fans after a goalless draw with Slovenia in Cologne.
It was poor payback for what Southgate had given those England fans, only adding to the sense that this was an era drawing to a close, and perhaps the manager would not be sorry to see the back of it.
England flickered fitfully in Germany, reaching the final which ended in the familiar pain of defeat at Spain deservedly won 2-1.
It was a disappointing conclusion, making for a natural end to his time as England manager in which Southgate had made players and supporters dream again.
Once the short-term disappointment eased, it was right that Southgate should be judged with total respect, and befitting of his reign that he should have his investiture moment.
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Southern California burger joint In-N-Out is not amused by a YouTuber’s prank video filmed at several of its restaurants.
Last week, In-N-Out filed a lawsuit against online prankster Bryan Arnett, who posed as an employee at multiple local restaurants, took orders from unsuspecting customers, and made lewd comments while wearing In-N-Out-branded clothing.
In the video, which has since been restricted to private viewing, Arnett, a resident of Fillmore, is seen interacting with customers and making comments that In-N-Out says damage the chain’s reputation.
The pranks themselves were purportedly captured on Easter Sunday, at a time when the restaurants were closed, the lawsuit states.
“[Arnett] visited multiple In-N-Out locations in Southern California … wearing a fake uniform bearing [In-N-Out]’s trademarks,” a lawsuit filed last Friday in United States District Court reads. “[Arnett] made lewd, derogatory, and profane remarks, such as stating that In-N-Out had cockroaches and condoms in its food, and that In-N-Out Associates put their feet in lettuce served to customers.”
A screenshot of a prank video posted by Bryan Arnett, which was attached to a lawsuit filed by In-N-Out on June 20, 2025, in the United States District Court Central District of California.
The lawsuit also accuses Arnett of asking customers if they want their food made “doggy style,” a play on the restaurant chain’s famous “animal style” menu options.
He also tells one customer that they are “only serving gay people,” which leads to the customer driving away, and asks another if they would like to try the “monkey burger,” which comes with a “damn-near black bun.”
In one moment that the restaurant brand found particularly troubling, Arnett asks a customer if they would like to sleep with his wife and allow him to watch.
“I like watching my wife sleeping with other men. Is that something you’d be interested in?” he says in the video, as reported by SFGate.
He then posted the videos to his YouTube page and his approximately 330,000 subscribers, despite warnings from In-N-Out to remove them for infringing on its company trademarks and posting without the consent of the customers who were filmed.
After the lawsuit was filed, the main prank video was switched to private. On Monday, a follow-up video was posted in which Arnett commented on the filing. That video has also been taken down or removed from public viewing.
This wasn’t the first time Arnett has allegedly made prank videos at the expense of In-N-Out. Previous videos include him placing an employee of the month plaque with his own photo on a wall of a restaurant, and In-N-Out alleges he had previously been asked to leave one of its restaurants and refused.
In-N-Out, which is seeking a lifetime ban of Arnett from its restaurants, any money made from his video, and potential financial damages incurred, called Arnett’s stunt and the comments he made “defamatory, insulting, racially insensitive, bizarre, and lewd,” and said they did not come across as jokes but instead made the restaurant chain look bad.
In the since-removed follow-up video, Arnett says he is not particularly worried about the lawsuit and said, “whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.”
Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) is one of the largest industrial and medical research products manufacturers in America. It has been one of the most troubled stocks this year as the shares have lost 14.5% year-to-date. Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)’s shares dipped by 9.7% in January after the firm missed its fourth-quarter analyst earning estimates which was the first miss in years. It reported $2.14 in earnings and $6.5 billion in revenue while analysts had penciled in $2.16 and $6.4 billion. Cramer hasn’t been a fan of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) for the past year or so. Following its quarterly earnings, he called management “smug” and outlined that he had been following Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) for years. Cramer first bought the shares in 2022 and held on to them as believed Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)’s headwinds were temporary. He stuck with the pessimism this time around as well:
“My charitable trust has owned it initially. It was gold now it’s fool’s gold. I’m irate.”
Earlier this year, Cramer shared his discussions with Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)’s management. Here is what he said:
“I think those guys are great—the Rales brothers are amazing. Even when I’m moody, you know, they have Rales stake there and the commander, so I love them even more. But here’s what I mean by that: I want them to show me they understand there’s been some serious underperformance here. They could come back and say, “We’ve outperformed for so many years, Jim, give us patience.” I just want something that shows me they understand we’re getting restless. I think that’s a reasonable thing to say, and I do like them very much.”
Danaher Corporation (DHR) Is “Fool’s Gold,” Bemoans Jim Cramer
A healthcare professional in a lab coat holding a microscope and looking at a slide under the lens.
While we acknowledge the potential of DHR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
Google is making a big change to how Fi users on iPhone access their voicemails: instead of getting voicemails from a dedicated tab in the Fi app, iPhone users will be able to get them right from the native iOS Phone app instead. The change started rolling out on Tuesday and will be fully rolled out by July 2nd, the Fi team says in a support forum post.
In August, Google plans to phase out voicemail in the iOS Google Fi app. “If you have voicemails you want to keep, you must download them using Google Takeout before August 13th,” the team says in its post. “After this date, they will no longer be available in the Google Fi app.”
If you use Google Fi and have an iPhone, you may have seen some voicemails show up in the iOS Phone app before this announcement. But that has only happened under a specific set of circumstances. If a user had iOS’s Live Voicemail feature turned on, your phone was turned on, and you were within Google Fi’s service area when getting a voicemail, that voicemail would be delivered to the iPhone’s Phone app, Google’s Patrick Seybold tells The Verge. After this update has rolled out to you, all voicemails will show up in the iPhone’s Phone app.
Google teased in April that this change was in the works. At that time, Google also announced a more affordable Google Fi Unlimited Essentials plan that costs $35 per month.
The Hockey Hall of Fame will welcome an impressive class of players in 2025: Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton and Duncan Keith, all first-ballot choices; Alexander Mogilny, ending a prolonged wait; and women’s hockey stars in Jennifer Botterill of Canada and Brianna Decker of the United States.
Who will join them in the Class of 2026?
Here’s a look at the most likely men’s and women’s players to next get the call for the Hall, ranked in order of their likelihood for enshrinement. We’ll begin with the former NHL players eligible for the first time next season:
MEN’S CANDIDATES
An extremely easy call for the selection committee. Bergeron won the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward six times, an NHL record. The center was a finalist for the award in 12 consecutive seasons, the longest streak for any player being nominated for an NHL award in league history.
He was a dominant defensive force whether measured by traditional stats or analytics during his 19-year career with the Boston Bruins but was anything but a one-dimensional star. Bergeron had 1,040 points in 1,294 games, including 427 goals. That’s the third-most points for any Bruins player.
From a team perspective, he won a Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 and was a primary reason they made to back to the Final in 2013 — a series against Chicago in which Bergeron played through a punctured lung, separated shoulder, a broken rib and a broken nose — and in 2019. He’s a member of the Triple Gold Club: winning Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014 and world championship gold in 2004. He also won world junior gold in 2005 and the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, all with Canada.
Price follows in the legacy of great Montreal Canadiens goaltenders such as Hall of Famers Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.
He played all 15 seasons with the Habs from 2007 to 2022 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins (361) in 712 games. He helped Montreal to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final during the NHL’s COVID-impacted season. Price had one masterpiece season in 2014-15, becoming only the seventh player in NHL history to win the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender and the Hart Trophy as MVP in the same season.
Price won Olympic gold in 2014, backstopping Canada in Sochi. He also won gold at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 2007 world junior championships.
His candidacy is intriguing, because it signifies the collision between two competing Hockey Hall of Fame forces: the Hall’s traditional hesitancy to induct goaltenders and its over-indexing on Team Canada heroes. Although we should note they’ve put six goalies in the Hall since 2018, so maybe that first trend is changing.
Come on, admit it: You thought there was a chance that Marleau could join Thornton in the same class when Jumbo’s name was announced. The Hall of Fame is cheeky like that.
But unlike his longtime teammate, Marleau’s induction is anything but guaranteed. It comes back to a central question: Does breaking the NHL record for career games played make him a hockey legend or just an accomplished compiler of stats?
Marleau finished his career with 1,779 career games played, breaking Gordie Howe’s record of 1,767. He’s 25th in NHL history with 566 goals and 53rd in career points with 1,197. He cracked 30 goals seven times and had a career peak of 44 goals in 2009-10. He won Olympic gold in Vancouver and Sochi, IIHF World Championship gold in 2003 and the World Cup in 2004, all with Canada. But Marleau was a finalist for only one NHL award: the Lady Byng, for gentlemanly play, once. And he never won a Stanley Cup.
If he is a “compiler,” he’ll be far from the first one inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His stats are strong and his longevity is probably too impressive to keep him out — keep in mind there are plenty of ex-players on that committee.
play
1:53
Elias on 23-year career: ‘Time flies’
Patrik Elias reflects on his career with the New Jersey Devils and looks ahead to his retirement ceremony.
Now that Mogilny is in, the next great offensive player that fans and media rally around might be Tkachuk.
He amassed 538 goals and 1,065 points in 1,201 games over his 18-season career whose prime was spent in the dead puck era. He led the league in goals only once (1996-97) but was otherwise a model of consistency. He’s 35th all time in goals. Every player ahead of him who is Hall of Fame-eligible is enshrined.
He won World Cup gold in 1996 and Olympic silver in 2002 but never the Stanley Cup. He never got a sniff of an NHL award, although 89 playoff games in an 18-year career spent in Winnipeg, Phoenix, St. Louis and Atlanta isn’t exactly the stuff of postseason hardware.
It’s a solid but unspectacular career, but those numbers are hard to ignore. Ask around, and you can sense there’s momentum building for him. It probably doesn’t hurt that he has found new life as the father of Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, which has afforded him camera time during playoff games, ice time during Stanley Cup celebrations and airtime on reality television series.
The big center spent 17 years with the Anaheim Ducks, leading them to a Stanley Cup in 2007. He’s their all-time leader in regular-season games played (1,157), assists (737) and points (1,019), and holds the same marks in the playoffs for Anaheim.
During the span of his career, he was fifth among centers in points. Three of guys he’s ranked behind — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Anze Kopitar — are all likely to be Hall of Famers. The fourth, Thornton, was just announced as one. Overall, he had the seventh-most points of any player in that span.
Getzlaf won Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014, World Cup of Hockey gold in 2016 and gold at world juniors in 2005. He finished second for the Hart to Crosby in 2013, but that was the extent of the awards love. But given how he dominated his era, Getzlaf should be in line for a higher accolade.
When Pavel Datsyuk made the Hall in 2024, attention turned to his Detroit Red Wings teammate Zetterberg. But Datsyuk is one of the reasons Zetterberg might not make the Hall, as he vacuumed up Selke trophies that might have otherwise gone to his teammate during Zetterberg’s prime.
Zetterberg finished his career with 960 points in 1,082 games, including 337 goals. His greatest individual accomplishment was winning the Conn Smythe in the Red Wings’ 2008 Stanley Cup win. That ring earned him Triple Gold Club status, going with championships in the 2006 Olympics and the 2006 IIHF World Championship with Sweden. He had 120 points in 137 playoff games, including 27 in 22 games when he won the Conn Smythe.
He’s one of the most respected players of the past 20 years and a legend in both Detroit and Sweden. It’s not a clear-cut case, but he does have a case.
Elias has been the hipster pick for the Hall of Fame ever since previous hipster pick Sergei Zubov made the Hall in 2019.
His numbers are stellar, holding the New Jersey Devils records goals (408), assists (617) and points (1,025) in both the regular season (1,240 games) and the playoffs (162 games). He won the Cup twice with the Devils in 2000 and 2003, and was in the Stanley Cup Final two other seasons. He was a rookie of the year finalist in 1998. Internationally, he helped the Czechs to Olympic bronze in 2006 and bronze twice at IIHF worlds.
The argument from Elias backers is that this exceptionally skilled player put up impressive offensive stats in a defensive era for a defensive team. Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey, which Pidutti founded to analyze NHL players’ Hall of Fame potential, computes that Elias would have 119 more points if he played in a “neutral era.” Elias has some vocal supporters. Will the Hall listen?
Gonchar is 19th in career points among defensemen, with 811 in 1,301 NHL games. Everyone who is Hall of Fame-eligible ahead of him — save for Gary Suter — is in the Hall. That includes Nicklas Lidstrom, with whom Gonchar has the misfortune of sharing an era.
The Detroit Red Wings Hall of Famer — considered one of the best defensemen in hockey history — is the only blueliner who amassed more goals (236) and points (985) than Gonchar (220 goals, 811 points) from 1994-95 to 2014-15, which was the span of the Russian defenseman’s career. He did some real offensive damage during the dead puck era.
Lidstrom won the Norris Trophy seven times. Gonchar finished in the top five for the award four times, which is more than Hall of Famer Zubov, for comparison’s sake. Gonchar won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009. He won Olympic silver in Nagano, bronze in Salt Lake City and world championship silver in 2010.
The Carolina Hurricanes coach’s candidacy has been fascinating to watch over the years. Brind’Amour had 1,184 points in 1,484 games, including 452 goals. But his Hall of Fame case is built on his reputation as a defensive center. It’s a role in which he excelled with the Hurricanes during their run to the Stanley Cup in 2006, which is also the first year of his back-to-back Selke Trophy wins.
But Pidutti, for one, has believed his reputation was overstated.
“I think Brind’Amour has been a bit retroactively lionized because he’s the coolest guy in the room and an awesome coach,” Pidutti told ESPN in 2023. “He was never really a top Selke candidate. And then he’s pushing 40 and he was just this incredibly interesting, intense warrior. He wins those two Selkes. … I don’t want to say out of the blue, but if you look at the voting history, they kind of were. I think everyone remembers him being the best defensive forward in the league, and really wasn’t the case during his entire career.”
Still, there’s a lot of support for “Rod The Bod” to make the Hall.
There’s a “peak years” argument that could be made for two goalies of the same era.
From 2008-09 to 2011-12, Miller was third in wins (182) and fourth in save percentage (.919) while playing for a Sabres team that was 21st in points percentage (.520). The apex of his career was 2009-10, when he won the Vezina Trophy, finished fourth for the Hart Trophy and became a superstar while backstopping Team USA to Olympic silver in Vancouver, losing gold in overtime to Sidney Crosby and the Canadians.
But if we’re talking all-time heat checks, that Thomas from 2007 to 2012 for the Boston Bruins: 151-78-31 in 270 games with a .926 save percentage, 2.28 goals-against average and 27 shutouts. He won the Vezina Trophy twice and the Conn Smythe in 2011, leading the Bruins to the Stanley Cup with a .940 save percentage, a 1.98 goals-against average and four shutouts. He played only nine NHL seasons, debuting at 28 years old. His journeyman status before NHL stardom is part of his legend, but he probably doesn’t have the longevity for the Hall.
Duggan won seven IIHF World Championship gold medals and captained the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team to gold in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. She won the 2011 Patty Kazmaier Award as the top women’s player in the NCAA while playing for Wisconsin. Duggan was the first American men’s or women’s player to win seven consecutive world championship gold medals. Off the ice, she played in integral role in the national team’s fight with USA Hockey over inequitable support and conditions in comparison to the men’s team. She’s currently director of player development for the New Jersey Devils.
The Class of 2025’s Brianna Decker was a worthy Hall of Famer, but it was a little surprising she was in before Duggan.
2. Shannon Szabados, goalie (seventh year)
Former Team Canada goalie Kim St-Pierre was the first women’s goaltender inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022. Szabados has the case to be the next.
She won Olympic gold twice, pitching a shutout in 2010 and winning in overtime in 2014 for Canada against the United States. When Canada won silver in 2018, she was selected the tournament’s top goaltender.
Szabados was also a trailblazer: In 2014, she signed to a professional contract with the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) to finish out the 2013-14 season, becoming the first woman to compete in the regular season in that minor league. She ended up playing four seasons in the SPHL.
3. Julie Chu, forward (seventh year)
One of the pioneers in American women’s hockey, Chu won silver three times and bronze once in the Olympics, and captured gold five times in the IIHF world championships. She was the top NCAA scorer of all time during her time at Harvard, and won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2007.
Chu also played professionally in the CWHL, winning playoff MVP while helping Minnesota to the Clarkson Cup in 2010. She’s an iconic American player who captured 23 medals during her storied international career.
4. Meghan Agosta, forward (fifth year)
Overshadowed by other Team Canada legends such as Hayley Wickenheiser and Marie Philip-Poulin, Agosta was a crucial part of the national team that won Olympic gold in 2006, 2010 and 2014, and then silver in 2018.
At the time of her official retirement in 2024, Agosta ranked sixth all time in goals (85) and points (176) and seventh in assists (91) in 178 career games while playing for Team Canada.
5. Florence Schelling, goalie (fifth year)
The selection committee has heavily skewed toward Canadians and Americans among women’s players. If they wanted some international flavor, look no further than Schelling, a goaltending star for Switzerland.
She had stellar international numbers, backstopping the Swiss to bronze in Sochi, earning MVP honors for the tournament. She was also dominant during four seasons at Northeastern.
Final prediction for the Class of 2026
For the men, it’s Bergeron, Price and Getzlaf, the second time in three seasons they only take three inductees; for the women, we’ll say Duggan and Szabados to make it three straight seasons of multiple women’s players getting into the Hall.
Taraji P. Hensonearned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but years later she was still fired up by the $150,000 she accepted to be in the movie—after producers rejected the $500,000 quote she brought to the table.
As for the film’s leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, “You don’t hear a lot of $20 million quotes anymore, but at this time that was happening,” Henson said on the Ladies First With Laura Brown podcast in 2021. “And rightfully so—I’m not saying they shouldn’t have paid Cate and Brad what they deserved.”
But, she continued, “I’m bringing a certain amount to the seat too and I felt like what I was asking at that time in my career was fair, was fair to the ticket sales that I would contribute to this big film. Wouldn’t do it.” Henson was “gutted” when they offered $100,000, she recalled. “When it was all said and done I got $150,000, but I had to swallow my pride, baby.”
Breaking it down, “I know people go, ‘$150,000, that’s a lot of money!’” Henson acknowledged. “I don’t ever want people to think that I’m ungrateful because that is not me.” But, she calculated, “Uncle Sam is going to take 50 percent of that, so now you’re left with, what? $75,000. Now before Uncle Sam takes the money, I have to pay my team before taxes, 30 percent. So once Uncle Sam takes his 75, then I got another 30 that’s coming off of that 75, so I may have made $40,000?”
