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- Ranking all 20 MLP teams
Ranking all 20 MLP teams
We're giving away 10 BRAND NEW Paddletek Honeyfoam TKO-X paddles!
It’s now officially Major League Pickleball season, and in today’s newsletter we’re setting the stage for the first matches of the year.
11 teams will be in action in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend, including the defending-champion Columbus Sliders as well as preseason favorites New Jersey and St. Louis.
In addition to kicking off the new season, MLP will also be debuting a new event format, with pool play the first three days and head-to-head matchups that will pit the top teams from each pool against each other on Monday (Memorial Day). Find more info below.
Also in this issue:
You don’t get bonus points for catching the ball 🤦‍♂️
We’re giving away 10 BRAND NEW Paddletek Honeyfoam paddles 🙌
These are the most insane firefights we’ve ever seen 🔥
Reviewing the Proton Peacock — the best deal in pickleball right now 🦚
Let’s get cookin’. 🧑‍🍳
GIVEAWAY
Win a BRAND NEW Paddletek Honeyfoam TKO-X paddle!
We are excited to partner with Paddletek to give away 10 of their brand new Honeyfoam TKO-X pickleball paddles. 🍯
This paddle was just released last week and is already generating buzz in the equipment industry.
HOW TO ENTER
▪️Enter your information HERE & receive up to 500 additional bonus entries 👊
▪️LIKE this post & COMMENT “HONEY” once you've completed Step 1 🙌
*** You MUST complete both steps to be eligible. ***
BONUS MULTIPLIER: JOIN & INVITE 5 friends to our Facebook community and ALL of your entries are DOUBLED! âś…
We will choose 10 random winners on May 26!
🔗 Learn more about the Paddletek Honeyfoam here or shop all Paddletek paddles here — use code “KITCHEN” for 10% off
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
Turns out you’re not supposed to catch the ball … oops!
Every once in a while a pro player gets fooled so badly that they seem to forget what sport they’re playing and catch the ball with their non-paddle hand.
That’s exactly what happened on this point at last week’s PPA Tour Asia Kuala Lumpur Open. Len Yang (bottom left in the image above) hit a flick out of the air that the player across from him was definitely not expecting.
It was actually a pretty impressive catch, but there are no bonus points for that unfortunately.
đź”— Check out the clip on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok
GEAR
The best deal in pickleball right now.
The Proton Peacock, which was released late last year, was already a good pickleball paddle ... the problem was the price. At $280, it was tough for a lot of players to justify. But now Proton has completely restructured pricing and suddenly this paddle has a very different value proposition.
EVERY PADDLE IS AT LEAST $100 OFF RIGHT NOW + an ADDITIONAL 15% OFF with code “KITCHEN.” 🤯
In this review, we take another look at the Proton Peacock after the massive price drop.
TOPICS COVERED
▪️Proton Peacock performance
▪️Elongated vs. widebody shapes
▪️13mm vs. 15mm core differences
▪️Gen 4 atomic foam core technology
▪️Lifetime warranty details
▪️Why the new pricing changes everything
🔗 Watch our full review of the Proton Peacock here or shop all Proton paddles here — use code “KITCHEN” for 15% off
THE PROS
Major League Pickleball 2026 preseason power rankings: New Jersey, St. Louis are teams to beat
Happy Major League Pickleball opening week, to those who celebrate.
With the 2025-26 PPA Tour season in the rear-view mirror, the pro pickleball calendar now moves into the MLP summer season, with plenty of storylines attached to the return of team pickleball.
The season-opening event begins Friday at the Pickler Universe in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, Texas.
To get your prepped for the season, we’ve broken down all 20 team rosters and put together our annual preseason power rankings.
We’ve based our initial power rankings on how we think each team will use their rosters -- new this year, all six players on a team can be used in a match in whatever configuration a team wants. That means we could see some players only play gender doubles or mixed doubles, and several teams have "singles specialists" that will be used if a match goes to a Dreambreaker.
#1: NEW JERSEY 5S
Likely doubles starters: Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson.
Bench players: Martin Emmrich, Lina Padegimaite.
They have had runner-up finishes the past two seasons (losing to the Dallas Flash in the finals in 2024 and falling to the Columbus Sliders in 2025), so the core of Waters and Howells have consistently kept this team in the mix come playoff time. And they made the biggest improvement of any team this offseason by picking up Jorja Johnson in the draft. We see no holes in this team -- both gender doubles pairings and both mixed doubles pairings will be favored against most opponents, and they also have one of the best Dreambreaker lineups.
#2. ST. LOUIS SHOCK
Likely doubles starters: Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey.
Bench players: John Lucian Goins, Elsie Hendershot.
They are running it back with the same starting four they've had the past two seasons. Both years they've been one of the best regular-season teams but have been beaten in the semifinals of the playoffs twice. They have without a doubt the best men's doubles team in the league in Patriquin/Tardio (they went 39-4 last season) and also the best mixed doubles team in Patriquin/Bright.
#3. LOS ANGELES MAD DROPS
Likely doubles starters: Ben Johns, Max Freeman, Catherine Parenteau, Jade Kawamoto.
Bench players: Gabriel Joseph, Genie Bouchard.
On paper this team can compete with New Jersey and St. Louis. The question (as it always seems to be) is which Ben Johns will show up in MLP? If it’s a locked-in Johns like we see week-to-week on the PPA Tour, the Mad Drops will be dangerous, as Parenteau/Kawamoto were a Top 5 women's team during the regular season last year. They also should be one of the top Dreambreaker teams in the league with Joseph and Bouchard coming off the bench.
TRENDING
There are 11 teams in action at this week’s MLP event in Dallas, which will also mark the debut of a new format this year. Pool play matches will be held Friday-Sunday, followed by single matches for Event Standings Points to be played on Monday.
Here are the teams in the field this week:
Group A: Columbus Sliders, Dallas Flash, New Jersey 5s, Orlando Squeeze, Phoenix Flames.
Group B: Bay Area Breakers, Carolina Hogs, LA Mad Drops, St. Louis Shock, Texas Ranchers, Utah Black Diamonds.
VIRAL VIDEOS
The best pickleball FIREFIGHTS
Firefights are without a doubt the most exciting part of pickleball, especially at the higher levels. When the ball speeds up, anything can happen.
We recently put together a collection of the most insane firefights we’ve seen over the years. Watch top players go head-to-head in some of the fastest hands battles and craziest exchanges you’ll ever see.
QUICK HITS
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