NHL clear on whose out of Olympics
Not only will Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and most of the best hockey players in the world not be going to the Olympics, neither will anyone on an NHL contract.
The league has decided that players with active NHL contracts, even those in the minors, will not be allowed to participate in the Olympics next February in South Korea. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the league’s stance to The Associated Press yesterday.
The league announced in April it wouldn’t be stopping its season to go to the Olympics for the first time since 1994, but questions had remained about players in the American Hockey League and ECHL.
“A decision has been made that all players under NHL contract will be subject to similar treatment,” Daly said.
This means players signed to two-way NHL contracts or who are loaned to minor league affiliates by their clubs won’t be available to the United States, Canada or other national teams. The AHL said earlier this summer that general managers could decide to allow players on AHL contracts to play in South Korea.
Daly confirmed that players signed to NHL deals but who are playing in Europe, like Dallas Stars first-round pick Miro Heiskanen, who is expected to spend the season in Finland, would not be precluded from playing in the Olympics. Those players loaned to European teams wouldn’t be playing the season on their NHL contracts, which is the same situation for those on entry-level deals in Canadian major junior leagues.
The U.S. team is expected to be made up of a mix of current college players, those on AHL deals and professionals playing in European leagues.
NBA: Owner wants Wiggins
Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said he is ready to commit nearly $150 million to Andrew Wiggins with a max-level extension of his rookie contract. Before he does so, Taylor wants to sit down face-to-face with Wiggins to hear the former No. 1 overall pick commit to the franchise in a similar fashion.
Wiggins’ scoring numbers have improved in each of his first three seasons. He averaged 23.6 points per game and shot 35.6 percent from 3-point range last season, more than 5 percent better than his previous season. But the Wolves have not made the playoffs since 2004, and it’s clear that when Taylor decides to give a contract of this magnitude after adding Jimmy Butler via trade and Taj Gibson and Jamal Crawford in free agency, he is expecting it to pay off quickly.
Taylor spoke with Wiggins when the two attended assistant coach Ryan Saunders’ wedding in July, but the owner is looking for more substance before closing the deal.
Soccer: Barca hosts ACF
Eight months after surviving the plane crash that killed most of his Chapecoense teammates, Alan Ruschel played his first minutes when his Brazilian club met Barcelona in a friendly in Spain. Ruschel and two teammates were the only ACF players to not perish when the team’s flight went down in Colombia last year, killing all but six of the 77 players, officials and journalists on board.
Jackson Follmann and Helio Zampier Neto, the only other Chapecoense players to survive the crash, shared in a moving honorary kickoff. Follmann, who had to have part of his right leg amputated, was wearing a prosthetic leg when he took the kickoff along with Neto, who later played in the friendly. . . .
Serbian league champion Partizan Belgrade must play its next two European home games in an empty stadium as punishment for fan racism and crowd unrest. Partizan was charged by UEFA following two Champions League qualifying games.
Misc.: Kahne, Hendrick split
Hendrick Motorsports and driver Kasey Kahne have agreed to part ways after six seasons together in NASCAR’s top series. The team said in a statement that Kahne has been released from the final year of his contract, allowing him to begin pursing a new Monster Energy Cup ride for 2018.
Kahne will finish the season driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick. He has six victories with Hendrick, including one at Indianapolis last month that qualified him for the playoffs. . . .
Former French Open finalist Sara Errani must serve a two-month doping ban after testing positive for the banned substance letrozole in a test taken in February, the International Tennis Federation said.
Errani blamed contamination from her mother’s breast cancer medication. An adjudication panel ruled Errani’s fault was “at the lower end of the scale,” but still issued the ban.