Sharks reportedly close to signing KHL goalie
SAN JOSE » The Sharks are close to signing KHL goalie Alexei Melnichuk, Sport24 in Russia reported Thursday.
The Sharks were believed to be among four teams in the race to sign Melnichuk, whose contract with St. Petersburg of SKA was set to expire Thursday. Other teams in the mix were the Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes and the Colorado Avalanche.
The Sharks have not confirmed that a contract with Melnichuk is in place.
In his second season in the KHL, Melnichuk, 21, had a .930 save percentage and a 1.68 goals against average in 16 games.
Given his age and lack of professional experience, it’s reasonable to assume that if he does join the Sharks, Melnichuk would need time to develop in the AHL.
With the Sharks organization, Melnichuk, listed at 6-foot-1, would likely work with goalie coach Evgeni Nabokov, who has a similar background. Born in Kazakhstan, Nabokov was drafted by San Jose in 1994 and moved overseas to start his professional career in the Sharks organization in 1997 when he was 22.
Nabokov would go on to become the Sharks’ all-time winningest goalie with a career record of 293-178-66 across 10 seasons in San Jose. Before he was brought on to be part of interim coach Bob Boughner’s staff in December, Nabokov had served as a scout and goaltending development coach with the organization for five seasons.
Soccer
FIFA PROBE: FIRST BANKS ADMIT MONEY LAUNDERING ROLE » An Israeli bank and its Swiss subsidiary agreed to pay over $30 million for their role in conspiring to launder more than $20 million in kickbacks to soccer officials, the first financial institutions implicated in the
FIFA scandal to reach a resolution with U.S. prosecutors.
Bank Hapoalim BM in Israel and its wholly owned Swiss company Hapoalim Ltd. agreed to forfeit $20.73 million and pay a fine of $9.33 million as part of a non-prosecution agreement, the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn said. The scheme took place through the banks’ Miami branch from 2010-15, with many of the payments tied to marketing rights for the Copa America. PSG DECLARED FRENCH LEAGUE CHAMPION » Paris Saint-Germain was declared champion of the French soccer league after the season ended early because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement from the league followed the French government’s decision on Tuesday to call off the soccer and rugby seasons in the country and end plans to resume.
The top two divisions in French soccer had 10 rounds of matches left to play. PSG led second-place Marseille by 12 points and played one game less.
Olympics
MORE RUSSIAN DOPING CASES IN PIPELINE AS INVESTIGATION ENDS » Another wave of Russian athletes could face new doping charges after the World
Anti-Doping Agency said it completed its investigation of a vast trove of evidence.
After obtaining a data archive from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory last year, WADA investigators focused on a “target pool” of 298 athletes, putting together evidence packages for other sports authorities to prosecute. Of the 298 athletes WADA has investigated, it says it found signs of manipulation in files relating to 145 of them.
Prosecuting the cases could be extremely difficult. WADA has argued the data archive was manipulated while in Russia, with some evidence deleted and false trails laid.