Sharks lock up two pending UFA's to two-year contracts
The San Jose Sharks have locked up two of their potential free agents early in the offseason, agreeing to two-year deals with forward Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Jaycob Megna.
Interim general manager Joe Will announced the deals as the Sharks placed a priority on retaining two players who were set to hit the open market in July.
Barabanov's deal is worth a reported $5 million over two years and Megna's is worth a reported $1.625 million.
The 27-year-old Barabanov spent most of the season on San Jose's top two lines, playing mostly with center Tomas Hertl. He had 10 goals and 29 assists in 70 games in his second season in the NHL.
Barabanov played 22 games in 2020-21 for Toronto and San Jose after playing the previous seven seasons in the KHL in Russia.
The 29-year-old Megna played a career-high 44 games this season, recording two goals, six assists and playing solid defense.
MLB
MLB PLANS LONDON GAMES IN 2023, 2024 AND 2026 >>
Major League Baseball intends to play regular-season games in London in 2023, 2024 and 2026.
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox split two games at London's Olympic Stadium in June
2019. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs were scheduled to play there on June 13-14, 2020, but those games were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cardinals and Cubs are the leading candidates to play in London next year.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the formation of the MLB London Legacy Group on Monday that will include members from the Greater London Authority and Baseball Softball UK.
MLB plans to hold a Home Run Derby at London's Crystal Palace Park on July 9 this year.
NFL
MISSISSIPPI SUES FAVRE, WRESTLERS, OVER WELFARE MISSPENDING >>
The Mississippi Department of Human Services on Monday sued retired NFL quarterback
Brett Favre and three former pro wrestlers along with several other people and businesses to try to recover millions of misspent welfare dollars that were intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.
The lawsuit says the defendants “squandered” more than $20 million in money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.
The suit was filed less than two weeks after a mother and son who ran a nonprofit group and an education company in Mississippi pleaded guilty to state criminal charges tied to the misspending. Nancy New, 69, and Zachary New, 39, agreed to testify against others in what state Auditor Shad White has called Mississippi's largest public corruption case in the past two decades.
In early 2020, Nancy
New, Zachary New, former Mississippi Department of Human Services executive director John Davis and three other people were charged in state court, with prosecutors saying welfare money had been misspent on items such as drug rehabilitation in Malibu, California, for former pro wrestler Brett DiBiase.
Fishing
`ULTIMATE SHOWMAN' OF BASS FISHING, RAY SCOTT, DEAD AT 88 >> Ray Scott, a consummate promoter who helped launch professional bass angling and became a fishing buddy to presidents while popularizing the conservation practice of catching and releasing fish, has died, a longtime aide said.
Scott died of natural causes late Sunday at a rehabilitation center near Montgomery, Ala., said Jim Kientz, who worked for Scott for more than two decades. He was 88.
A member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, Scott founded the first professional bass fishing tournament in the late 1960s. Anglers could win money based on the weight of the fish they caught over several days on a lake or river, and they were penalized if a fish died.
Pro fishing caught on and Scott's Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, or BASS, grew into what it describes as the world's largest fishing organization. Its signature tournament, the Bassmaster Classic, includes equipment shows that draw thousands of spectators.