DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon's 116 points is tied for the league lead with three games to go in the regular season. That may very well be the total he winds up with, too.
The Colorado Avalanche forward will sit out against Vancouver on Thursday night, marking the first game he's missed this season. He may also be sidelined this weekend for the final two regular season games as a way to both rest and heal up for the playoffs.
Asked if MacKinnon, who has appeared in 209 straight games, was out purely for rest purposes, coach Jared Bednar said, “he’s dealing with something, too. You get to this point in the year, all these guys are dealing with something."
It’s been a lot of hockey for MacKinnon, who was the MVP in helping Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. The fast-flying forward has 32 goals and 84 assists this season as he makes a case to win a second straight MVP title. He's tied with Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov for the most points this season.
The 29-year-old MacKinnon was the first skater to reach the 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 110-point marks this season.
“He's such a valuable player,” defenseman Cale Makar said. “Every single day, what he brings to our team is pretty incredible. In my mind, he's a runaway (MVP winner).”
MacKinnon isn't the only player sitting out the game against the Canucks. The Avalanche also will be without defensemen Ryan Lindgren (upper body) and Josh Manson (upper body), along with forward Jonathan Drouin (upper body).
Meanwhile, up the road in Loveland, Colorado, captain Gabriel Landeskog has joined the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on a minor league conditioning assignment. He could play with the Eagles on Friday or Saturday — maybe even both — in his comeback bid after nearly three years without playing an NHL game. A knee injury and subsequent surgeries have sidelined Landeskog since he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Landeskog could be activated for Game 1 of Colorado’s first-round playoff series if the conditioning assignment and additional practices go well. The Avalanche will enter the postseason as no worse than the Central Division’s No. 3 seed.
“The more excited he gets about a return, the more excited I get," Bednar said. "Because I know there’s been lots of peaks and valleys.
“When you’re talking about mental toughness, resilience, the work ethic that it takes to go through what he’s gone through, and have all those ups and downs and peaks and valleys along his recovery to get to the point where it’s possible he could play, that’s pretty exciting.”
Landeskog's teammates feel the same way.
“Everybody wants him to be able to come back from this and succeed,” Makar said. “Everybody's rooting for him in here."
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Linesman Brandon Gawryletz (64) drops a puck for a face-off between Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) and Vegas Golden Knights center Brett Howden (21) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan)
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) and center Brock Nelson (11) skate against Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) in overtime of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan)
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) skates against Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb (3) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan)
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Iran against reconstituting its nuclear program Monday as he welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his home in Florida for wide-ranging talks.
The warning comes after Trump has insisted that Tehran's nuclear capabilities were “completely and fully obliterated” by U.S. strikes on key nuclear enrichment sites in June. But Israeli officials have been quoted in local media expressing concern about Iran rebuilding its supply of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump told reporters soon after Netanyahu arrived at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We'll knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
Trump’s warning to Iran comes as his administration has committed significant resources to targeting drug trafficking in South America and the president looks to create fresh momentum for the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The Gaza deal is in danger of stalling before reaching its complicated second phase that would involve naming an international governing body and rebuilding the devastated Palestinian territory.
Iran has insisted that it is no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program. But Netanyahu was expected to discuss with Trump the need to potentially take new military action against Tehran just months after launching a 12-day war on Iran.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s warning.
Trump criticized Iran anew for not making a deal to completely disarm its nuclear program ahead of the U.S. and Israeli strikes earlier this year.
“They wish they made that deal,” Trump said.
Trump, with Netanyahu by his side, said he wants to get to the second phase of the Gaza deal “as quickly as we can.”
“But there has to be a disarming of Hamas,” Trump added.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that Trump championed has mostly held, but progress has slowed recently. Both sides accuse each other of violations, and divisions have emerged among the U.S., Israel and Arab countries about the path forward.
The truce's first phase began in October, days after the two-year anniversary of the initial Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. All but one of the 251 hostages taken then have been released, alive or dead.
The Israeli leader, who also met separately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has signaled he is in no rush to move forward with the next phase as long as the remains of Ran Gvili are still in Gaza.
Gvili’s parents met with Netanyahu as well as Rubio, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Florida on Monday. The Gvilis are expected to meet with Trump later in the day, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that advocates for families of abductees of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“They’re waiting for their son to come home," Trump said of the family of the young police officer known affectionately as “Rani,”
The path ahead is certainly complicated.
If successful, the second phase would see the rebuilding of a demilitarized Gaza under international supervision by a group chaired by Trump and known as the Board of Peace. The Palestinians would form a “technocratic, apolitical” committee to run daily affairs in Gaza, under Board of Peace supervision.
It further calls for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world and a possible pathway to Palestinian independence. Then there are thorny logistical and humanitarian questions, including rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza, disarming Hamas and creating a security apparatus called the International Stabilization Force.
Two main challenges have complicated moving to the second phase, according to an official who was briefed on those meetings. Israeli officials have been taking a lot of time to vet and approve members of the Palestinian technocratic committee from a list given to them by the mediators, and Israel continues its military strikes.
Trump’s plan also calls for the stabilization force, proposed as a multinational body, to maintain security. But it, too, has yet to be formed. Whether details will be forthcoming after Monday's meeting is unclear.
A Western diplomat said there is a “huge gulf” between the U.S.-Israeli understanding of the force's mandate and that of other major countries in the region, as well as European governments.
All spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that haven't been made public.
The U.S. and Israel want the force to have a “commanding role” in security duties, including disarming Hamas and other militant groups. But countries being courted to contribute troops fear that mandate will make it an “occupation force,” the diplomat said.
Hamas has said it is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons but insists it has a right to armed resistance as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory. One U.S. official said a potential plan might be to offer cash incentives in exchange for weapons, echoing a “buyback” program Witkoff has previously floated.
The two leaders, who have a long and close relationship, heaped praise on each other. Trump also tweaked the Israeli leader, who at moments during the war has raised Trump's ire, for being “very difficult on occasion.”
Trump also renewed his call on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a corruption trial, a pardon.
Netanyahu is the only sitting prime minister in Israeli history to stand trial, after being charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy political supporters.
Trump has previously written to Herzog to urge a pardon and advocated for one during his October speech before the Knesset. He said Monday that Herzog has told him “it’s on its way" without offering further details.
“He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon?" Trump said.
Herzog's office said in a statement that the Israeli president and Trump have not spoken since the pardon request was submitted, but that Herzog has spoken with a Trump representative about the U.S. president's letter advocating for Netanyahu's pardon.
“During that conversation, an explanation was provided regarding the stage of the process in which the request currently stands, and that any decision on the matter will be made in accordance with the established procedures,” the Israeli president's office. “This was conveyed to President Trump’s representative, exactly as President Herzog stated publicly in Israel.”
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington, Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, and Lee Keath and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump greets Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks before a luncheon with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens as President Donald Trump speaks before a luncheon at his Mar-a-Lago club, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seated before a luncheon at his Mar-a-Lago club, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an arrival at his Mar-a-Lago club, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks during a NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Tracks Santa Operation call at his Mar-a-Lago club, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Citadel of David Hotel in Jerusalem, Monday Dec. 22, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)
Amal Matar, 65, sits next to the oven as she cooks for her family in the Al-Shati camp, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian youth walk along a tent camp for displaced people as the sun sets in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
