The successor to Bob Costas as play-by-play voice on TNT’s Major League Baseball postseason games will be the same broadcaster who replaced the legendary Bob Miller in 2017 after Miller retired following a 44-year Hall of Fame career with the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL.
Yes, Alex Faust has experience replacing a titan of the airwaves.
Costas, of course, is another Hall of Famer, and he also retired after 44 years. His final MLB call was the 2024 American League Division Series in which the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals in four games.
Faust, 36, currently calls Friday Night MLB games streamed on Apple TV+. He also is the radio voice of the New York Rangers and has been part of hockey and tennis coverage at TNT Sports. Faust left the Kings in 2023 when their television deal with Bally Sports expired.
Costas will continue to appear on MLB Network but won’t do play-by-play. His most recent appearance on the airwaves was as a guest on the NPR news quiz “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on Sept. 13.
After telling stories about not making his high school baseball team and recounting an embarrassing, mildly profane gaffe he made on air early in his career, Costas answered all three game show questions about the Emmy Awards correctly.
Costas joked that he had accomplished “the trifecta, the hat trick, the triple crown.” Host Peter Segal asked what the show should call it when someone goes 3 for 3. Costas laughed and replied, “The Costi.”
He probably should have an award named after him. Costas, 73, has received 29 Emmys and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 1988 through 2016. He called three World Series and 10 MLB league championships.
Costas stepped down from MLB play-by-play in November, telling Tom Verducci of MLB Network that he had planned to retire for more than a year, saying, “I couldn’t consistently reach my past standard.”
MONTREAL — Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender who helped the Montreal Canadiens win six Stanley Cup titles in the 1970s, has died after a fight with cancer. He was 78.
The Canadiens announced his death early Saturday, saying Dryden’s family asked for privacy. A team spokesperson said a close friend of Dryden’s appointed by the family contacted the organization, adding he died peacefully Friday at his home.
“Ken Dryden was an exceptional athlete, but he was also an exceptional man,” Canadiens owner Geoff Molson said. “Behind the mask he was larger than life. We mourn today not only the loss of the cornerstone of one of hockey’s greatest dynasties but also a family man, a thoughtful citizen and a gentleman who deeply impacted our lives and communities across generations.”
Dryden backstopped the NHL’s most successful franchise to championships in six of his eight seasons in the league from 1970-71 to ’78-79. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, the Vezina as the best goalie five times and the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 1971, while being a six-time All-Star.
Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden deflects a shot during a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 15, 1971.
(Harry Cabluck / Associated Press)
“Ken embodied the best of everything the Montreal Canadiens are about,” Molson said.
Known for resting his blocker and glove hands on top of his stick in a relaxed manner that became one of hockey’s most recognizable poses, the 6-foot-4 Dryden retired at just 31 in 1979.
“From the moment Ken Dryden joined the Montreal Canadiens as a 23-year-old rookie in 1971, he made an immediate and lasting impact on the NHL, the Canadiens franchise and the goaltending position,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Ken’s love for his country was evident both on and off the ice.”
Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, Dryden was 258-57-74 with a .922 save percentage, 2.24 goals-against average and 46 shutouts in just over seven seasons and went 80-32 in the playoffs.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media he was “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the Hon. Ken Dryden, a Canadian hockey legend and hall of famer, public servant and inspiration.”
“Few Canadians have given more, or stood taller, for our country,” Carney said. “Ken Dryden was Big Canada. And he was Best Canada. Rest in peace.”
Ken Dryden waves to the crowd while being recognized as a member of Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team before a game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens on Sept. 28, 2022.
(Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
From Hamilton, Ontario, Dryden played three seasons at Cornell University from 1966-69, leading the Big Red to the 1967 NCAA title. He also was a cornerstone of Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team that defeated the Soviet Union.
Dryden entered the NHL in 1971 and spent just six games in the crease before making his NHL postseason debut. He and Montreal upset rival Boston in the first round and beat Chicago in the final.
He also worked at a Toronto firm while sitting out the 1973-74 NHL season — after previously earning a law degree at Montreal’s McGill University.
After retiring as a player, he went into broadcasting and wrote “The Game,” one of the best known books about the sport, after publishing “Face-off at the Summit” as part of an accomplished career as an author. He was the color analyst alongside Al Michaels for the “Miracle on Ice” when the U.S. beat the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Dryden served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1997 through 2004 — a stretch accented by trips to the Eastern Conference final in both 1999 and 2002 — before resigning to enter politics. He ran for the federal Liberals in 2004 and was named minister of social development in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s cabinet.
Dryden, who also taught at various universities across Canada, held onto his seat in Toronto’s York Centre riding in 2006 when the Liberals were ousted, and again in 2008, but lost in 2011.
Dryden is survived by wife Lynda and their two children.
Brother Dave Dryden was a longtime NHL and WHA goalie. He died in 2022 at the age of 81.
A RUSSIAN oligarch’s estranged wife has won a six-year fight to drag her divorce battle into the English courts.
Natalia Potanina secured a landmark Court of Appeal ruling on Thursday to sue her billionaire ex-husband Vladimir Potanin, who is said to be worth around £15.7billion.
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Vladimir Potanin with ex-wife Natalia PotaninaCredit: Alamy
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Vladimir Putin and Potanin (right) during a meeting in SochiCredit: Alamy
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Putin greets billionaire and businessman Potanin (left) during a group photo at a hockey match in Sochi, 2019Credit: Getty
Potanin is described as Russia’s second richest man and a pal of Vladimir Putin through their shared love of ice hockey.
Potanin is the chief executive of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest palladium producer and a global nickel giant.
But he was sanctioned by the UK and US in 2022 after Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
The former couple wed in Russia in 1983, where they lived for their entire married life and raised three children.
They split in acrimonious fashion, with Potanin claiming the marriage ended in 2007.
Potanina insists they only separated in 2013, with a Russian court finalising the divorce a year later.
She said at first she thought it was a “badly-worded joke” but was later told she “didn’t need money” when the subject of a financial settlement arose.
The pair first met as penniless students in the 1970s, when Russia was still under communism.
Potanina argues that her husband only built his fortune after their marriage, and that she supported him throughout his rise.
Putin’s icy encounter with rival at China parade may reveal his NEXT target
Despite his £15billion fortune, Potanina was awarded just £30.9million in the Russian courts – less than one per cent of the family wealth.
Lawyers for Potanin argue she actually received around £63m, but she insists the sum barely scratched the surface of their assets.
Now, after years of legal wrangling, Potanina has been cleared to bring a claim in London for financial relief – setting the stage for what could become the world’s biggest-ever marital split.
She is seeking half of her ex-husband’s beneficial interest in shares in Norilsk Nickel, along with half of the dividends paid on those shares since 2014.
She also wants half the value of a lavish Moscow mansion known as The Autumn House, on which the couple splashed out around £111million.
She is thought to be seeking around £5billion in total.
At the heart of earlier disputes was the couple’s palatial family home in Nemchinovo, 17 miles west of Moscow, where they lived with their three children – daughter Anastasia, and sons Ivan and Vasily.
Also up for grabs were two superyachts, including “The Anastasia,” named after their daughter, and “The Nirvana.”
Potanina’s legal team told the court she had earned her share of the fortune through years of marriage and by being the “main carer” of their children.
Her barrister, Charles Howard KC, branded the earlier dismissal of her case “inconsistent and illogical,” accusing the judge of falling into Potanin’s trap of repeatedly labelling her a “divorce tourist.”
Potanin’s lawyers, led by Lord Faulks KC, countered that the couple had “no connection with this jurisdiction during the marriage” and that Potanina only had “recent and modest connections” to England when she applied.
London’s High Court originally threw out her claim in 2019, warning that allowing it would mean “no limit to divorce tourism.”
That decision was overturned in 2021 by the Court of Appeal, only for Potanin to win a narrow 3-2 victory in the Supreme Court last year, which sent the case back to be reconsidered.
Now, judges Lord Justice Moylan, Lady Justice Falk and Lord Justice Cobb have sided with Potanina once again, ruling she had “substantial grounds” to pursue her claim in England.
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Vladimir Potanin and Natalia Potanin, pictured on their wedding day in 1983
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Potanin is said to be Russia’s second richest manCredit: Getty
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The pair met in high school and lived together for thirty yearsCredit: Alamy
They said there was evidence she had “very largely severed her ties with Russia” and that her connection to the country was “increasingly tenuous.”
The ruling added: “The discrepancy between her award of the marital assets and the husband’s retained share was significant.
“The discrepancy between what she had recovered in Russia compared with what she would have recovered had the case been heard in this jurisdiction was equally significant.”
She said at the time to be fearing that if she returned to Russia her passport could be seized, preventing her from visiting her son studying in New York.
She also accused her husband of offering her only medical insurance, a driver, and maintenance for their youngest child, rather than a fair settlement.
The blockbuster ruling reignites fears that London will become the “divorce capital of the world.”
Jennifer Headon, head of international family law at Birketts LLP, said the High Court had already warned such a move could open the floodgates to “limitless” divorce tourism.
Sarah Jane Lenihan, partner at Dawson Cornwell, said few had expected such an outcome, asking: “The question now is whether it will open the door for others who have divorced overseas to seek a second bite at the cherry in England.”
Sital Fontenelle, head of family law at Kingsley Napley LLP, said the ruling reinforced the UK’s status as the “divorce capital of the world” and left the “door still open” for future claims.
Peter Burgess, partner at Burgess Mee, added that aspiring “divorce tourists” might now wait to demonstrate their links to England at a full hearing rather than being knocked back early.
She has previously said her situation reflects the discrimination faced by many women in Russia, where “the law is male, the ideology is male,” adding that she had been “deprived of money and driven out of the house.”
Potanina’s solicitor, Frances Hughes of Hughes Fowler Carruthers, hailed the ruling as a “second vindication” of her client’s case, saying Potanina was delighted and now hoped the matter could be “resolved without further delay.”
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Putin meeting with metals magnate Vladimir Potanin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow in 2017Credit: AFP
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Potanina seeks billions more from her ex-husband after receiving less than one percent of assets in RussiaCredit: Getty
From left to right: Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote
Five Canadian ice hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a woman have all been acquitted by an Ontario judge in a case that has been closely watched in Canada.
In a packed courtroom on Thursday, Justice Maria Carroccia reviewed testimony and evidence from the eight-week trial over several hours before declaring the men not guilty.
The former players for Canada’s world junior hockey team were accused of assaulting the woman, known as EM, in a hotel room in 2018 in London, Ontario, where they had been attending a Hockey Canada gala.
Justice Carroccia said she did not find EM’s evidence “credible or reliable”, and that “the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts”.
The players are Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton and Carter Hart, and all were with the National Hockey League (NHL) when the allegations surfaced, although one was playing in Europe.
In a statement on Thursday, the league said they remain “ineligible” to playin the NHL pending a review of the judge’s findings.
The players declined to speak to the media after the decision and their lawyers each offered statements on their behalf.
Lawyer David Humphrey, who represented Mr McLeod, said that his client is relieved.
“For years, public perception was shaped by a one-sided narrative”, Mr Humphrey said, adding that the damage to Mr McLeod’s career and reputation “has been significant”.
Lawyer Karen Bellehumeur, speaking on EM’s behalf, said the woman had tuned in to Thursday’s hearing virtually and was “very disappointed” with the judge’s assessment of her credibility.
“When a person summons the courage to disclose their story, the worst possible outcome is to feel disbelieved,” said Ms Bellehumeur.
The central issue of the trial was whether EM, who was 20 at the time of the incident, had consented to every sexual act in the hotel room that night.
Court heard that the woman had met the players at a bar and later went back to the hotel room to have consensual sex with Mr McLeod. Other players then entered the room and engaged in further sexual acts with her.
Lawyers for the players contended that she asked the men to have sex with her and they believed she gave consent.
EM, however, testified that she was intoxicated and felt fearful of the men. While she had initially agreed to have sex with Mr McLeod, she testified that she did not agree to what unfolded afterwards.
Only one player, Mr Hart, testified in his own defence.
The trial attracted significant attention in Canada. Many people had attended court to hear the ruling on Thursday, forcing clerks to open two additional overflow rooms.
Some of the players appeared visibly relieved in Thursday’s hearing after Justice Carroccia revealed that she was not convinced with EM’s testimony.
Reuters
In explaining her ruling, Justice Carroccia pointed to irregularities in EM’s testimony, including about who had bought drinks that night, and said her statements reflected an “uncertain memory” that did not line up with evidence presented in the trial.
The judge added that there were differences in what the woman told police investigators and those for Hockey Canada, which settled a C$3.5m ($2.5m; £1.9m) lawsuit with her for an undisclosed sum in 2022.
Two videos from the incident were shared in the trial, where EM was recorded giving her consent to the activities. The first was taken without her knowledge.
While under Canadian law the videos did not establish consent, the judge said they did show EM “speaking normally, smiling”, and that she “did not appear to be in distress”.
That undercut the Crown’s argument that EM did not leave the room out of fear, she said.
It is unclear if the Crown will appeal. Prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham said her team will carefully review the decision.
She added they had received “dozens of messages from people across Canada and abroad” expressing support for EM.
“A successful prosecution is not measured solely by whether there are guilty verdicts at the end,” she said. “The Crown’s goal throughout this proceeding has been to see a fair trial, a trial that is fair to the men charged, and one that is also fair to EM.”
Throughout the trial, the Crown argued the woman’s testimony was credible, that “intoxication does not equal unreliability” and that any inconsistencies in her testimony were minor.
They also argued the woman did not have a motive to fabricate a story and that she had initially reported the alleged assault to police in 2018, four years before filing the lawsuit against Hockey Canada.
They added that text messages between the players allegedly showed it was Mr McLeod’s idea to invite his teammates to the room and that the players allegedly engaged in “getting their story straight” by drafting a narrative that EM had consented to all sexual activity.
Justice Carroccia dismissed that argument, saying the players were “recounting their recollections” of what unfolded.
Reuters
Defence lawyers argued that EM’s testimony was undermined by eyewitness testimony from two players who were present in the room but not charged in connection with the incident.
Both had told the court that the woman was “vocal” about what she wanted sexually.
Lawyers for the players also argued that the woman was a willing participant who later felt regret, and that intoxication in this case did not equal “incapacity”.
Several protestors in support of EM had gathered outside the courthouse throughout the trial and on verdict day.
One of them, Fabienne Haller, told the BBC she felt “devastated” with the outcome.
She added that she believed the case “will influence the next decade, and even more, of how sexual assault cases are going to be dealt with” in Canada.
Trial that sparked debate over culture of sexual assault in Canadian hockey ends after judge says allegations not ‘credible’.
A Canadian judge has found that five former members of the country’s 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey team are not guilty of sexual assault, following a trial that roiled Canada.
Judge Maria Carroccia told a courtroom on Thursday that she did not find allegations of assault against the five men “credible or reliable”, according to Canada’s CBC News.
A lawyer for the complainant said the justice system had fallen short in both the way her client was treated on the stand and the conclusions drawn by the judge.
“She’s obviously very disappointed with the verdict and very disappointed with Her Honour’s assessment of her honesty and reliability,” said Karen Bellehumeur, a lawyer for the complainant who is only known as EM due to a prohibition on publicising her identity. “She’s really never experienced not being believed like this before.”
Pavement is painted in support of a complainant in a sexual assault case near the Superior Court of Justice in London, Ontario, Canada, on July 24, 2025 [Carlos Osorio/Reuters]
The allegations of misconduct prompted debate over the culture of sexual assault within Canadian hockey, a favourite pastime of the North American country. But it also drew attention to the sceptical eye that authorities often cast on alleged victims.
Carroccia’s statement that she did not find evidence from the woman who was allegedly assaulted reliable prompted gasps in the courtroom, CBC reported.
All five men – Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart and Cal Foote – denied wrongdoing, stating that the alleged victim, EM, was a willing participant in sex acts at a hotel in London, Ontario, in 2018, following a team celebration.
The judge seemed to accept that claim, saying that the complainant had failed to establish that the encounter was “vitiated by fear”. She also said that the woman had a “tendency to blame others” when presented with inconsistencies in her memory of the night.
“Justice Carroccia’s carefully reasoned decision represents a resounding vindication for Mr McLeod and for his co-defendants,” said McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey.
Two previous juries in the case were dismissed, resulting in a trial where a single judge rendered a verdict.
The CEO of Hockey Canada and the organisation’s entire board of directors stepped down in October 2022 amid scrutiny of the alleged gang rape and an out-of-court settlement with the accuser.
Nareg Dekermenjian had Mother’s Day brunch with the Stanley Cup, which caused more than a little anxiety since no one was sure what hockey’s championship trophy liked to eat.
“I’m thinking all-meat diet for the Stanley Cup,” Dekermenjian said before sliding into a large corner booth at Stanley’s Restaurant (no relation to the Cup) in Sherman Oaks. “Anything less than that, I’m going to be very, very disappointed.”
As it turned out, the Cup was fasting so the plate in front of it remained empty. But then the trophy wasn’t the one being feted Sunday, Dekermenjian was. Last week he was named the winner of the NHL’s Future Goals Most Valuable Teacher Program, chosen from a field of hundreds of candidates from 31 of the league’s 32 cities.
For the fifth-grade teacher, who left a well-paying job as a financial advisor for a classroom four years ago, being honored by a visit from the Stanley Cup was a full-circle moment in several ways. For starters, it was an acknowledgment of the role hockey played in helping him adapt to his new country after his father, Edward, a jeweler in Lebanon who spoke only broken English, wagered everything when he left Beirut for the West Valley so his three children could have a chance at a better life.
Nareg Dekermenjian and his family eat lunch while the Stanley Cup sits in the middle of the table. Left to right are Edward, Ian, Zovig, Oliver and Nareg.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Dekermenjian, the youngest, was just 5 and he immediately had trouble fitting in.
“Making friends or having some kind of link with the kids my age, coming from a different country, that was really different,” he said. So one day his mother, Zovig, pushed him out the door to join some neighborhood kids in a street-hockey game.
“I’m glad I did,” Zovig said Sunday. The game, it turned out, would change everything.
“They gave me a roller-hockey stick and I just kind of fell in love with the sport immediately,” Dekermenjian said. “I’d never been really good at anything before, especially athletics. But I took to roller hockey.
“What it helped me do is create a lot of self-confidence and self-esteem, which is turn helped me in social situations.”
Dekermenjian went on to play at several levels, became a Kings season-ticket holder and now coaches his two sons on the concrete rink he built in their backyard. He’s also using hockey to break down social and cultural barriers at the Dixie Canyon Community Charter School in Sherman Oaks, where many of the nearly 700 students come from immigrant families new to the U.S.
Nareg Dekermenjian, a teacher in Sherman Oaks who won an NHL award, watches as Stanley Cup keeper Howie Borrow sets up the trophy.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“We have a big melting pot here,” assistant principal Maria Silva said.
But if all those children speak different languages, wear different clothes and pack different foods for lunch, they all understand sports. Even hockey.
“One hundred percent,” said Dekermenjian, 41. “That’s kind of why I do it.”
There are parallels between the challenges athletes face and the ones students face. The grit and perseverance needed to make it through an NHL season is just as necessary to make it through an academic year. There are goals and victories and defeats and teamwork, both on the ice and in the classroom.
“That connects a lot of the dots for these kids that aren’t used to hearing it that way,” Dekermenjian said. “I actually show clips and videos of hockey games when teams are down by multiple goals and they don’t give up and then they come back, they pull the goalie, and they take it.
“That’s, I think, a better way of starting a session. Having these kids look at something so incredible and then looking at themselves and thinking, ‘You know what? I can do this.’”
Nareg Dekermenjian takes a selfie with his son, Oliver, and the Stanley Cup during lunch at Stanley’s Restaurant.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Silva said few teachers at Dixie Canyon are requested by parents more frequently than Dekermenjian, whom she calls Mr. Deker. She often stop by his class herself just to listen.
“I’m just captivated by the stories that he’s sharing. And I don’t want to leave,” she said. “I want to be a kid and listen to him too. When they announced that he won [the NHL award,] I definitely felt they got it right.”
The stories don’t always work, however. And when they don’t Dekermenjian, like a good coach, changes his game plan — as he did in his first year as a teacher after welcoming a shy Ukrainian girl named Maria, who understood little English.
“We’re going over U.S. history and I’m like, ‘What does this child need to know about the Constitution?’ There’s way more important lessons we need to teach,” he said.
Maria loved art so Dekermenjian asked her to draw each day and then, after class, he and a translator would discuss the meaning behind what she had drawn. She was soon thriving in her new environment.
When kids struggle, Dekermenjian said, the problem often isn’t the student, but rather an engagement issue with the teacher.
“Educators, we need to kind of step it up and engage them in nontraditional ways,” he said.
“I’ve seen it work in the classroom. So I do it more and more and the feedback has been overwhelming. I’m creating a bunch of hockey fans and Kings fans in the process, so everyone wins, I guess.”
Speaking of the Kings, that’s the second reason Sunday’s meal was a reunion with the Stanley Cup. The first time he met the trophy was in 2014, when he posed in front of it with his wife, Lori, and then-infant son Ian, who actually owes his existence to the Cup.
During the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, Lori came up to Dekermenjian and suggested that if the Kings won the Cup, they should have a baby. Dekermenjian, uncertain whether he was ready to be a dad but certain the Kings had no chance to win the NHL title, agreed — and a little more than a year later, Ian was born. They have since added a second son, Oliver.
“It’s a full-circle thing,” he said.
“I definitely feel like I found where I need to be in life. And I’m 100% certain that I was meant to teach.”
On Sunday the NHL agreed, giving him an afternoon with the Stanley Cup to prove it.
