Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly private email about the mensches and miscreants running the sports business. Happy First-Ever Day 2 of the NBA Draft to all who celebrate. I’m sending tonight’s email from Dardanelle, Arkansas, where I’m playing John Daly’s course as part of a charity golf tournament. I’m told that “Long John” will play a hole or two with my group… which means I’ll be swinging out of my shoes to try to out-drive him.

📺 Ratings review: In Monday’s Varsity, I took the over on ABC’s Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 viewership, guessing that it would eclipse 6 million. Florida’s thrilling win over Edmonton destroyed that figure, averaging 7.7 million viewers. If you include Canadian television, that number jumps to 16.3 million, much higher than any of my sources predicted and the cause of some crowing inside NHL offices this week.

🎧 Programming note: Make sure to check out my appearance on Peter Hamby’s The Powers That Be podcast, where we talked about Stephen A. Smith’s dizzying contract negotiations and the coming launch of Spulu, a.k.a. Venu.

Quick reminder: The detectives inside Puck’s Tribeca headquarters are tracking the behavior of every single forwarder. The next one we catch will end up on an untested clinical trial for Marchand’s new semaglutide miracle drug!

Let’s get to it…