Ex-Tri-City American will be in Hockey Hall of Fame + NBA team drafts Kamiakin grad

A former Tri-City American is going into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Carey Price, who was the Ams goalie from 2003 to 2007, was named as part of the 2026 induction class on Monday.

Price was a standout for the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted him fifth overall in the 2005 NHL Draft.

He began playing for the Canadiens during the 2007-08 season, and in 2021, Price helped lead Montreal to the Stanley Cup finals.

The induction ceremony is Nov. 9 in Toronto.

With the Americans, Price had an 83-74-9-3 record, a 2.53 goals-against average, and a .914 save percentage.

In his five seasons with Tri-City, Price had 15 shutouts.

Meanwhile, being an NHL coach can be a real rollercoaster ride.

Former Tri-City coach Jim Hiller was fired earlier this season by the LA Kings.

On June 17, though, Hiller was hired as the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Hiller spent five seasons — from 2009 through 2014 — as the head coach of the Americans.

Sidenote about the Hockey Hall: Joining Price as players into the hall will be Patrice Bergeron, Cindy Curley and Keith Tkachuk. Brian Burke will join in the Builders category.

Burke, who has been a long-time hockey executive, has a Tri-City connection too.

Burke was also at one time a co-owner of the Americans, along with Darryl Porter and Glen Sather.

Draft week

The NBA and NHL drafts are this week.

First up, the NBA Draft, which is being held Tuesday and Wednesday.

Kamiakin grad Tyler Bilodeau was drafted No. 43 overall by the Brooklyn Nets. Bilodeau, a 6-foot-8 forward who can shoot well, finished his college career in March with UCLA.

He spent the past two seasons with the Bruins, and the two seasons before that he played for Oregon State.

There were only two rounds, or 60 picks, in the NBA Draft.

Meanwhile, look for Tri-City Americans defenseman Jakub Vanecek to get selected by some team in the NHL Draft, which runs June 26-27.

Vanecek was a first-year player for the Ams last season. The Czechia native can put the puck in the net, and was one of the team’s leaders on the team’s power play in the second half of the season.

College signings

Richland’s Landen Northrop, who graduates as the Bombers’ all-time leading scorer in boys basketball, signed a letter of intent last month to play for Wright State University, an NCAA Division I school in Fairborn, Ohio.

The Raiders play in a tough mid-major conference, the Horizon League.

“The coaches were very genuine and good people, and (they) had a big emphasis on faith, which I love,” said Northrop. “The team is also super competitive in their league, and they were just in March Madness.”

This past season, head coach Clint Sargent led his team to the Horizon League championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance, falling 82-73 to Virginia in the first round.

The Raiders finished with a 23-12 record.

“We are excited to welcome Landen and his family to the program,” Sargent said in a press release. “Landen is a state champion who understands what it takes to win. His shooting ability, size, competitiveness, and work ethic are all areas we feel like he will help improve our team and culture.”

Northrop is spending time on the Wright State campus through Aug. 1, then come home for a few weeks before school starts in mid-August.

• Hanford senior Kristen Schell is headed to Columbia Basin College this fall to play for the Hawks women’s soccer team.

• CBC’s softball team signed three local athletes for the coming 2026-27 season in Kennewick’s Mayce Davis and Alayna Goodknight, and Kamiakin’s Harley Worster.

Pro baseball

Kamiakin High product Payton Graham made his professional baseball debut in April in the Florida Complex League for the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

Graham, who was also a standout pitcher at Gonzaga University, suffered a torn UCL pitching in the Bulldogs’ opener last year against UCLA.

That ended his season, and Graham was planning on taking a medical redshirt season for 2026.

But the Cardinals had other plans for him, drafting him in the seventh round of last July’s MLB Draft.

Graham signed with the team, and he ended up having Tommy John surgery.

The right-hander spent all off-season rehabbing under the Cardinals’ medical staff, and he finally was given the green light to pitch competitively in the Florida Complex League last month.

In three starts, Graham went 9.2 innings and had a 1.86 earned run average.

On May 18, he was promoted to the Palm Beach Cardinals, St. Louis’ Class A team in the Florida State League.

In an 18-6 win over the St. Lucie Mets on May 21, Graham went 3.1 innings in his start, striking out two batters and surrendering 3 earned runs.

All-State baseball

Rarely do more than a few seniors from this region ever get picked to play in the All-State Baseball Series, which runs June 27-28 at Parker Field in Yakima.

But this year, our region will have 10 players compete.

They were nominated from the regional feeder games from a few weeks ago and by high school coaches.

Kamiakin’s Steve Woods will be coaching one of the four teams, Team Adams.

Kennewick’s Brady Mattson and Dylan Mamiya, as well as Kamiakin’s Zach Vega, will be playing for Team Adams.

Hanford’s Ty Repko will play for Team Baker; while Othello’s Aiden Garza and Quade Gonzalez IV will compete for Team Rainier.

Finally, Team St. Helens will have three players from Richland High — Braylon Edwards, Deegan Quesenberry and Michael Revell — and River View’s Dre Dimond.

Games on Saturday start at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. On Sunday, contests start at 10:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.

Tri-City Dust Devils

The first half of the Northwest League season ended last Thursday, with Eugene clinching the title with a 42-24 record.

But the Tri-City Dust Devils placed second in the six-team league with a 35-31 record.

Currently, before games begin this week, the Dust Devils are tied for the second-half lead with two other teams. All three are 2-1.

Overall, Dann Billardello’s squad has a 37-32 record.

The team spends this week in Spokane (June 23-28) and next week at Everett (June 30 to July 5).

Their next homestand is July 7-12 against Hillsboro. All home games from now until the end of August will start at 7:05 p.m.

Outfielder Randy DeJesus leads Tri-City with 12 home runs and 45 RBIs. Juan Flores, Jake Munroe and Anthony Scull each have 11 homers.

Caleb Bartolero leads the team with a .306 batting average, while infielder Capri Ortiz has a team-best 22 stolen bases.

Top pitchers so far include Lucas Knowles (5-1 record, 54 strikeouts) and Peyton Olejnik (54 strikeouts, 4.82 earned run average).

• Former Tri-City Dust Devils manager Andy Schatzley is the infield coach this season for the major-league Los Angeles Angels. Schatzley spent the last four seasons as the manager of the Angels’ Double-A team, the Rocket City Trash Pandas. In his one season as the Dust Devils manager (2021), his record was 43-68.

College football

Eastern Oregon University’s football team is loaded with plenty of Mid-Columbia products for the coming 2026 season.

Wide receiver Brody Bocek, a standout from Richland High School, leads a crew of eight area signees. In addition, EOU has seven area veterans already on the team roster.

Other players who signed in February include four athletes from Pacific Northwest Christian College, located in Kennewick: defensive back Toby Frei, offensive lineman Gavin Hindle, wide receiver Keshawn Kelly, and wide receiver Omar Zepeda.

Pasco High has two seniors headed to La Grande: offensive lineman Sawyer Hickam and running back Jayden Williams.

College Place grad Nick Josifek — who was on the University of Idaho roster the past few seasons, and who started for the Vandals last season at quarterback for one game — has transferred to EOU.

Those eight players will be joining the following veterans in training camp in August: defensive lineman Sam Cadenas (Hermiston), linebacker Dawson Gebers (Kennewick), defensive back Michael Lenke (Columbia-Burbank), defensive lineman Adrian Magana (Connell and PNWCC), linebacker Nehemiah Medrano (Prosser), linebacker Kolo Moser (PNWCC), and defensive back Monte Pettichord (Waitsburg).

Pro soccer

McKenna Martinez (Tri-Cities Prep, Richland) completed her professional soccer season with Portugal squad Valadares Gaia recently.

The forward scored four goals and an assist in 12 matches.

-- Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.