MLP St. Louis Event Preview: Shock Try for First Win on Home Court as Brooklyn and SoCal Make Their Debuts
The Dink's Erik Tice previews the third stop of the 2026 Major League Pickleball season at Chaifetz Arena (June 4-7), where the St. Louis Shock arrive as Group B favorites after a third-place Dallas finish and a second-place Columbus run, facing Atlanta, Bay Area, Orlando, and Palm Beach. Tice flags Pool A as a two-elite-team race between Brooklyn and the LA Mad Drops, with the Las Vegas Night Owls, Phoenix Flames, SoCal Hard Eights, and Utah Black Diamonds chasing playoff positioning in the debuts of Brooklyn and SoCal.
Read at The Dink →Five Major MLP Trades That Would Make Sense Before the June 30 Deadline
Pickleball.com's Jim Kloss lays out five hypothetical Major League Pickleball trades that could reshape the 2026 title race ahead of the June 30 deadline, including New Jersey shipping Noe Khlif to Dallas for JW Johnson, an alternative Khlif-for-Federico-Staksrud swap with Orlando, and an LA-Orlando deal sending Max Freeman plus $200k for Staksrud. Kloss also floats a Columbus-Dallas Danni-Elle Townsend-for-Tyra Black framework and a St. Louis-Dallas two-for-two centered on pairing Black with Anna Bright.
Read at Pickleball.com →Built to Win: Why the St. Louis Shock Cannot Afford Another Near Miss at Their Home MLP Event
World Pickleball Magazine's Chris Beaumont argues the St. Louis Shock arrive at MLP St. Louis carrying the weight of pro pickleball's most expensive roster, reportedly built at over $1.23 million around Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Hayden Patriquin, and Gabe Tardio, with a third place in Dallas and a second place in Columbus no longer enough to quiet the questions. Beaumont points to the Patriquin-Tardio men's pairing as the swing factor and frames Chaifetz Arena as either a home-court boost or an extra layer of expectation depending on how the Shock open the weekend.
Read at World Pickleball Magazine →
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