 Newsy day! The Toronto Raptors parted ways with Masai Ujiri, the Leafs re-signed John Tavares, the Montreal Canadiens made a big trade, and the NHL confirmed its new labour deal includes an expanded regular season.
More on all that below. But first, let's take our usual Friday look at what Canadian athletes are up to this weekend. | | | What to watch this weekend in international sports
| | | Here's what Canadian fans should look for:
Soccer: Canada in the Gold Cup quarterfinals
The Canadian men's team rebounded from a disappointing 1-1 draw against tiny Curacao by defeating a belligerent El Salvador team 2-0 on Tuesday night in Houston to win its group at the Concacaf championship. Head coach Jesse Marsch returned to the sidelines after serving a two-game suspension and star forward Jonathan David scored his record-extending 35th goal in 66 matches for the men's national team to lead the way against El Salvador. Tajon Buchanan, who had a pair of goals in Canada's 6-0 rout of Honduras in Vancouver to open the tournament, scored again.
Canada, ranked 30th in the world, faces No. 106 Guatemala in the quarterfinals on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET in Minneapolis. Los Chapins finished a surprising second in their group after upsetting Jamaica and defeating Guadeloupe, with a 1-0 loss to group winner Panama sandwiched in between.
The winner will face either the United States or Costa Rica, who play on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET in Minneapolis. The Americans won all three of their group matches.
The other quarterfinal matchups are on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. Panama faces Honduras at 7:15 p.m. ET, and Mexico meets guest team Saudi Arabia at 10:15 pm ET. The semifinals are on Wednesday and the final on July 6.
The Canadian women's national team, ranked eighth in the world, hosts a friendly against No. 43 Costa Rica tonight in Toronto before taking on the top-ranked United States on Wednesday night in Washington, D.C.
Canadian forward Jordyn Huitema said she's excited to play after taking time away to deal with the emotional fallout of a harrowing nighttime burglary at her home in the Seattle area, where she plays for the local National Women's Soccer League club. Robbers stole around $200,000 US worth of belongings while a terrified Huitema, awakened by noise downstairs, hid in the bathroom. Here's more on that story.
Basketball: Canadian women in the 3x3 World Cup playoffs
The sixth-seeded Canadian women's team trounced No. 15 Japan 18-6 in a play-in game today to advance to the quarterfinals in Mongolia. Canada, which went 2-2 in group play, will face No. 4 Spain (4-0) on Saturday at 5:25 a.m. ET.
The winner of that game meets either the second-seeded Netherlands or No. 16 Australia in the semifinals on Sunday at 5 a.m. ET. The final is Sunday at 8 a.m. ET. You can watch all the games live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here's the full schedule and results.
3x3 is a fast-paced, half-court version of basketball often played outdoors. The Canadian women's team took silver at the 2022 World Cup before losing the Olympic bronze game to the United States last summer in Paris. At both tournaments, Canada was led by twin sisters Katherine and Michelle Plouffe, who are not playing in this World Cup due to a combination of minor injuries and scheduling conflicts.
In their absence, holdovers Kacie Bosch and Paige Crozon are teaming with Cassandra Brown and Saicha Grant-Allen. Brown and Grant-Allen combined for 15 of Canada's 18 points today against Japan while Crozon grabbed 12 rebounds.
Canada's men's team did not make the playoffs at the World Cup after going 1-3 in group play.
Meanwhile, Canada's regular women's basketball team is in Chile for the North, Central and South American championship, known as the AmeriCup. The winner gets a spot in next year's World Cup, which will also serve as a qualifier for the 2028 Olympics.
Canada, ranked seventh in the world, faces No. 56 El Salvador on Saturday and No. 31 Argentina on Sunday. Those will be the team's first games under new head coach Nell Fortner, a 66-year-old American who guided the U.S. to Olympic gold in 2000.
The Canadians' group also includes No. 10 Brazil and the 34th-ranked Dominican Republic. The top four advance. Here's more on Canada's outlook from CBC Sports contributor Myles Dichter.
Other stuff to watch:
* The Canadian men's volleyball team fell to 2-4 in Nations League play with losses to the fifth-ranked United States and No. 6 Brazil over the past two days in Chicago. No. 11 Canada faces top-ranked Poland tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET and No. 23 China on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET. Watch both matches live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
* The second stop on the World Rowing Cup tour is taking place through Sunday in Switzerland. Most of the medal races are on Sunday, and you can watch them live from 5-8 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. | | |  | Kacie Bosch and the Canadian women's 3x3 basketball team are off to the quarterfinals at their World Cup. (Altan Gocher/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
| | | Quickly…
| | | Some other things to know:
1. Masai Ujiri is leaving the Toronto Raptors.
In a surprising move today, the Raptors' ownership conglomerate announced it has "parted ways" with the longtime head of basketball operations and architect of Toronto's 2019 NBA championship team.
Ujiri, 54, was entering the final year of his five-year contract as Raptors president. His dismissal continues the trend of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment dropping its team presidents under CEO Keith Pelley, who took over in January 2024. Brendan Shanahan was let go last month by the Maple Leafs, and Bill Manning was ousted by both Toronto FC and the Argonauts last year, with no successor in either case.
However, MLSE said the search for a new president will begin "immediately." It also announced contract extensions for general manager Bobby Webster and other "key" front-office personnel.
Ujiri rose from the Raptors' scouting department to assistant general manager in 2008 before leaving to become GM of the Denver Nuggets. He came back to Toronto in 2013 to take the GM role and later became president of basketball ops.
When Ujiri returned, the Raptors had won just one playoff series in their 18 years of existence and had missed the post-season for five straight years. They immediately went on a run of seven straight playoff appearances, highlighted by an improbable championship that was the product of several bold moves by Ujiri in the spring and summer of 2018.
After the Raptors got swept in the second round by LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers for the second consecutive year, Ujiri fired Dwane Casey just two days after he won the NBA's coach of the year award and replaced him with assistant Nick Nurse, who'd never been an NBA head coach. Then Ujiri made his now-famous blockbuster trade, sending popular Raptors scoring leader DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard, who'd been the Spurs' top scorer before he had a falling out with the team over how to treat a quad injury that cost him nearly the entire 2017-18 season.
Some considered it a risky trade with Leonard, his health still in question, heading into the final year of his contract and widely believed to be eyeing a move to his hometown Los Angeles Clippers. But it turned out to be one of the best deals in NBA history as Leonard immediately led Toronto to the NBA title, culminating with an upset of the dynastic Golden State Warriors in the Finals. Ujiri and his staff wisely allowed Leonard to sit out 22 games that season to preserve his health for the playoffs, popularizing the concept of "load management" — now ubiquitous (though loathed by many fans) across the league.
Ujiri was unable to re-sign Leonard (he indeed went to the Clippers), and the Raptors have won just one playoff series since, in 2020. They've missed the post-season in four of the past five seasons and have lost two thirds of their games over the last two. Here's more on the end of the Ujiri era.
2. The NHL season is expanding to 84 games.
The league and the NHL Players' Association announced today that they've agreed in principle to a four-year extension of their collective bargaining agreement, ensuring labour peace through the 2029-30 season.
The basic financial structure will remain the same, with team owners and players splitting revenues 50/50 and the salary cap determined by that split. But the new deal, which takes effect for the 2026-27 season, expands the regular season from 82 games to 84 for each team while reducing the pre-season by two games, to four per team.
Also, the maximum length of player contracts will reportedly be reduced by one year. A player re-upping with his current team would be able to sign for up to seven years, while players joining a new team in free agency can sign for up to six. Here's more on the new labour deal.
3. John Tavares is staying with the Maple Leafs.
The 34-year-old pending free agent opted not to test the market, re-signing with his hometown team today for four years at an average annual salary of $4.38 million US. That's a very team-friendly number after Tavares scored 38 goals in the final season of a seven-year deal worth $11M per year.
In other NHL news, the Montreal Canadiens made a splash by reportedly acquiring top-pair defenceman Noah Dobson in a trade with the New York Islanders and immediately signing the restricted free agent to an eight-year contract for $9.5M per year. Dobson, 25, had 39 points in 71 games last season. Montreal is reportedly sending forward Emil Heineman and its two first-round picks (16th and 17th overall) in tonight's draft to New York.
The Islanders also have the first overall choice and are expected to take 17-year-old defenceman Matthew Schaefer of the OHL's Erie Otters. | | | That's it for today. Talk to you later.
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