CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Oksana Masters, the most decorated American Winter Paralympian, surprised even herself by adding a 20th Paralympic medal to her overall tally at Milan Cortina on Saturday.
After overcoming a series of adversities that hindered her preparations in the leadup to the Games, Masters came through with victory in the women's sprint sitting discipline in Para biathlon, finishing ahead of fellow American Kendall Gretsch.
“Oh my gosh, my emotions are just pure shock. I did not expect this. All I was hoping was just to have a good time in the shooting range," she said. "I did not expect a podium finish to be honest, let alone a gold.”
It was her sixth Winter Paralympic gold medal to go along with her four victories at the Summer Paralympics. She has competed in every Paralympics since 2012, earning medals in Para cross-country and Para biathlon in the winter and Para cycling and Para rowing in the summer.
Masters was coming off a difficult season that included surgery, a bone infection and a concussion.
“I’m starting to realize that’s who I am. I have to have adversity going into the Games, although I don’t like it," she said. “The summer started out with surgery and then the last three weeks have been just absolutely a lot of time away from training, with infection and with a concussion, and battling, and just trusting the process and waiting. This is why this just means so much more, I did not expect this.”
She thanked her “incredible team” to help her bounce back and triumph again.
“I’m the athlete that crosses the finish line, but we have an entire team with our coaches that are cheering with us, and our skis and our wax team,” she said.
Masters now has won 15 medals in the Winter Games and five medals in the Summer Games. She became the first American to win seven medals — in seven events — at a single Paralympics in Beijing 2022.
The 36-year-old Masters was born in Ukraine with birth defects believed to be related to the Chernobyl nuclear accident. She had to go through orphanages at an early age in Ukraine before being adopted by an American father. She had her left leg amputated at age 9, and her right leg amputated at age 14.
“For me, I have a very strong ‘why’, where every single stroke for me counts," she said. “It’s for every Paralympian, every athlete with a disability that was overlooked and was told they were never going to be enough and didn’t belong. That helps me overcome those adversities.”
AP Winter Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games
Oksana Masters of the USA competes in the Para Biathlon Women's sprint sitting at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Oksana Masters of the USA competes in the Para Biathlon Women's sprint sitting at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
There is an All-Star starting lineup that can be made from the NHL players who easily could have been traded at the deadline but were not.
In goal, Sergei Bobrovsky. On defense, Colton Parayko and Rasmus Ristolainen. At forward, Vincent Trocheck, Robert Thomas and Steven Stamkos.
A lot of trades, big and small, never materialized. A combination of factors from new CBA salary rules to no-trade clauses and leaguewide parity conspired to make this to a quieter-than-usual deadline.
The 20 trades completed Friday were the fewest in five years, dating to the pandemic-shortened 2021 season.
General managers were for the first time navigating an environment in which a third team cannot facilitate a trade by retaining salary, something that was eliminated in the new collective bargaining agreement. The so-called “double retention” solution that made so many past trades happen is now limited to 75 days apart, and fitting players in under the cap became more difficult.
“When you take that out, it’s probably why you saw, I don’t want to say as little trades, but not as many as the past,” New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald said. "Teams would’ve made more moves, I think, if prices were split in half twice. I do think that had something to do with it. I think it was obvious by looking at the past and how many double retentions there were and have been versus this year.”
Not that Florida was eager to trade Bobrovsky, who backstopped the Panthers to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, but double retention would have allowed a team acquiring him to get him at a $2.5 million cap hit, rather than $5 million or his full $10 million salary.
New York Islanders GM Mathieu Darche, who had plenty of space to get Brayden Schenn from St. Louis, pointed out that the Tampa Bay Lightning — where he worked before — “used that double retention quite a few times over the years.” They won the Cup twice over that time.
The Lightning, Panthers and other recent champions also benefitted from no salary cap in the playoffs, which allowed them to keep players on long-term injured reserve through the regular season and dress them in the first round. That has also changed, because each team now has to make sure its 20-man roster for each game is cap compliant.
“With the new wrinkle of the playoff roster for calculations and things like that, you had to run the scenarios from a bunch of different viewpoints,” Colorado GM Chris MacFarland said after he and the Avalanche made the biggest move of deadline day by reacquiring Nazem Kadri from Calgary. “We’re on the phone with the different permutations and they got to be sharp in so many different ways, so there’s definitely different lenses this year.”
At least a few deals were consummated but did not get to the finish line because the player involved had a no-trade or a no-movement clause and control over his destination.
Tyler Myers was rumored to be going to Detroit, but then Vancouver traded him to Dallas later in the week. Colton Parayko declined to waive his no-trade clause to go from St. Louis to Buffalo.
“I’m not talking about Parayko alone, players negotiate their trade rights based on their status on the team and in the league and some players have full no-trade clauses, some have partial no-trade clauses,” Blues GM Doug Armstrong said. “To sign players, you have to provide those type of guarantees. And I respect when players, if they decide to invoke the right that they’ve earned, that’s great and that means they want to be here.”
At the time of the deadline, there were six teams within four points of a wild-card spot in either the Eastern or the Western Conference. Add that to the 16 teams in playoff position, and that leaves just 10 of 32 out of the mix.
“There’s still so many more teams that are still in it or have a chance, so they’re thinking, ‘Well, even if I’m not sure I’m going to make it, I’m not going to sell the farm,'” Darche said. “There was probably less teams selling this year. It was probably more of a seller’s market because of that. It’s supply and demand, so I think that plays a factor, too.”
With so much turnover of playoff teams from last season looking like they'll miss this year — and vice-versa — a lot of front offices can convince themselves the downfall is an aberration, chalked up to injuries and other issues.
“There are teams that are in playoff spots that probably they would admit that they didn’t think they’d get there this quick, Fitzgerald said. “Then there are other teams that unfortunately aren’t, like us, but still believe in this group and don’t want to blow the whole thing up.”
Part of the parity is the record year-over-year rise the salary cap is seeing. Most teams have plenty of room to keep the players they want to keep.
“It’s been really easy for teams to kind of go out there and re-sign their players, which doesn’t put anybody at the end of their contract and you saw that this year coming down the stretch,” Utah GM Bill Armstrong said. "Everybody got re-signed, and there wasn’t a lot of people and inventory into the market. It’s kind of what we’re going to see for the next few years.”
AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow, AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston, Pat Graham, Aaron Beard and Andrew Destin and AP freelance writer Denis Gorman contributed to this report.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
Toronto Maple Leafs' Easton Cowan (53) catches a penalty for tripping Philadelphia Flyers' Rasmus Ristolainen (55) during first-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Monday, March 2, 2026. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky hands his stick to a fan after being named the second star of the game after an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington warms up before an NHL hockey game against the Seattle Kraken, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)
New York Rangers' Vincent Trocheck (16) reacts after scoring a goal during the shootout of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Nashville Predators center Steven Stamkos (91) skates past the Dallas Stars bench after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
