Roy Signs a $16-Million Deal With Canadiens

Goaltender Patrick Roy, who led the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup last June, signed a four-year contract worth $16 million Monday to become one of the NHL’s highest-paid players.

“The most important thing is to have the chance to finish my career in Montreal,” said Roy, 27.

The contract makes Roy the third-highest paid player in the league behind Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Wayne Gretzky of the Kings could make more than Roy when he signs a new deal this season.

Roy has a 2.79 goals-against average in 418 regular-season games, a 2.45 average in 108 career playoff games.

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The Kings signed goaltender Robb Stauber to a three-year contract worth about $1.5 million.

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NHL camps and exhibition games will continue as scheduled despite the expiration Wednesday of the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement with its players, Commissioner Gary Bettman said.

“I told the players we have no intention of locking them out,” Bettman said. “Our dialogue continues, and at some point in the season we’re hopeful we will have an agreement. . . . I’m not fixated on any particular date.”

Bettman also said on-ice officials have agreed to work through Nov. 15 while negotiations continue on a new contract. Their old pact expired Aug. 31.

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Brian Mullen, the New York Islander forward who suffered a mild stroke last month, underwent surgery to repair a small hole in his heart.

Mullen, 31, is expected to be sidelined this season.

Pro Football

Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C., was chosen as the first-year home for a proposed NFL franchise for Charlotte, N.C., because a new stadium in downtown Charlotte will not be completed until 1996.

NFL owners will select two expansion franchises for the 1995 season at meetings in Chicago on Oct. 26.

Miscellany

Eighth-seeded Andrei Cherkasov of Russia defeated Sweden’s Mikael Tillstroem, 6-3, 6-0, in a first-round match at the Romanian Open in Bucharest, the country’s first major tennis tournament. . . . An advertisement that appeared in New York magazine and stated that Monica Seles will play in the Virginia Slims Championships at Madison Square Garden in November is wrong, a Garden spokesman said.

Michael Johnson, the 400-meter world champion, easily won the 200 on the opening day of the ITC International Athletic Meet at New Delhi, India. Mike Powell won the long jump, Butch Reynolds the 400. . . . Ralph M. Higgins, former track coach at Oklahoma State, died in San Antonio. He was 91. . . . Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks will be host of the Croquet National Championships beginning today.