Robitaille Traded to Rangers
The New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, both coming off disappointing playoffs last spring, made a trade Thursday involving four high-profile players that changes the makeup of each team.
The Rangers acquired seven-time all-star left wing Luc Robitaille, 29, and combative defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, 31, from the Penguins for high-scoring defenseman Sergei Zubov, 25, and underachieving center Petr Nedved, 23.
“The coaching staff and myself [were] committed to making changes this summer to shore up the team,” said Neil Smith, Ranger general manager. “It wasn’t easy to trade Sergei Zubov. He’s a star player in the league. We just feel that the trade was an overwhelming strengthening of our lineup.”
Samuelsson makes the Rangers tougher on defense, and Robitaille gives them scoring punch they frequently lacked last season.
The Penguins’ purge began after they lost in five games to the New Jersey Devils in the first round. The team was hamstrung by the loss of Mario Lemieux for the entire season, but defenseman Larry Murphy and forwards Kevin Stevens and Shawn McEachern were traded and defenseman Kjell Samuelsson was not re-signed.
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The Kings hired Don Edwards, a former goaltender with Buffalo, Calgary and Toronto, to act as a goaltending consultant during training camp and at various times throughout the season.
Pro Basketball
Karl Malone said that if the National Basketball Players Assn. is decertified and the NBA lockout delays the season, he might play in Europe.
The Utah Jazz forward, who voted to support the union, said that, at 32, he does not want to risk losing a season.
“I may be pretty close to signing an agreement overseas,” said Malone, who is beginning his 11th NBA season.
Jazz officials would not comment, either on Malone’s statement or on how his playing in Europe might conflict with his contract. Malone has three years left on his agreement with the Jazz.
Malone blamed agents for the lockout.
“If the agents were running this business, I would quit playing today,” he said.
The NBA players’ association is seeking to halt an antitrust lawsuit against the league until the decertification vote is settled. The motion, filed Wednesday in federal court in Minneapolis, asks Judge David Doty to delay any rulings in the case, including ordering an end to a 62-day lockout, until the National Labor Relations Board has counted the votes and approved the results.
Players voted Wednesday on whether to dissolve the union or allow it to continue to represent them. A vote for the union is considered a vote to accept a new labor agreement with the NBA. A second voting day for players is set for Sept. 7 and results will be announced Sept. 12.
Jon Spoelstra resigned as president of the New Jersey Nets to take a sports-marketing job in Portland, Ore.
Golf
Richard Zokol, whose best finish this year was a tie for 40th place, shot a six-under-par 65 for a one-stroke lead in the first round of the Greater Milwaukee Open.
Zokol won at Milwaukee in 1992 but is 246th on the PGA money list with $11,571 and is trying to come back after losing exempt status in 1994. A victory would add $180,000 to his winnings.
Jurisprudence
Laker forward Elden Campbell pleaded guilty to drunk driving, more than a month after he lost control of his Mercedes-Benz and flipped it on a Simi Valley highway. Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 7.
Forward J.R. Reid of the San Antonio Spurs was arrested at the San Antonio airport for carrying an unloaded .45-caliber handgun as he tried to board a plane.
Miscellany
Host Japan edged back into the gold-medal lead in the World University Games, thanks to Kazuhiko Yamazaki’s victory over American Octavius Terry in the men’s 400-meter hurdles. Japan, Russia, Germany and Ukraine were double gold-medal winners. Japan boosted its total to 20, one more than the United States.
La’Keshia Frett of Georgia scored 20 points to lead the United States into the final of the women’s basketball tournament with a 101-74 victory over Russia.
Organizers of the 1996 Olympic Games said they will send out more than 300,000 letters on Sept. 22, telling ticket buyers which events they will be seeing. Those who were seeking seats to the July 19 opening ceremony are most likely to be disappointed. That is the most-requested ticket among the 326,000 orders received, according to the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
Confirmation letters will include a schedule of sessions for which tickets are still available. About half of the 540 sessions of the Games are sold out, the ACOG said. Ticket applicants had been urged to list second and third choices on their order forms.
Only one amateur football player died last year of injuries suffered on the field, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries at the University of North Carolina. Four players died in 1993.
Names in the News
Doug Flutie, the Canadian Football League’s most valuable player the last four seasons, expects his elbow injury to sideline him until late October but hopes to return to the Calgary Stampeders for the playoffs. . . . Alico Dunk, considered one of the top high school basketball players in North Carolina two years ago, has left Tennessee and transferred to East Carolina. . . . Second baseman Adam Riggs of the San Bernardino Spirit, the California League affiliate of the Dodgers, was named most valuable player by the league’s managers.