New Jersey Devils fined $3 million by NHL

The New Jersey Devils were fined $3 million and lost a first-round draft pick for trying to get around the NHL’s salary cap with their initial contract offer to Ilya Kovalchuk.

The NHL said in a statement that the Devils will be able to decide when, in the next four years, they will forfeit a first-round pick. New Jersey also will lose a third-round pick in the 2011 entry draft.

The penalty stems from a 17-year, $102-million contract the Devils offered Kovalchuk, a three-time All-Star who scored 40 or more goals in six consecutive seasons. The NHL rejected the deal, saying it was in violation of the league’s limit on team payrolls. Arbitrator Richard Bloch last month upheld the NHL’s right to void the contract.

The NHL accepted a 15-year, $100-million contract between the Devils and the 27-year-old left wing on Sept. 3.

ETC.

U.S. track fires chief executive

Doug Logan was fired as chief executive of USA Track and Field on Monday, ending his turbulent tenure after a little more than two years.

After listening to a presentation from Logan during a meeting in Las Vegas over the weekend, the board of directors voted to oust the leader who proposed many uncomfortable changes after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave his ex-girlfriend $200 to put under their daughter’s pillow for a lost tooth before threatening, hitting and taking a cellphone from the woman in an argument that led to a felony charge last week, according to a Las Vegas police arrest report made public.

The 33-year-old Mayweather is quoted as threatening to kill 30-year-old Josie Harris and her new boyfriend during the argument early Thursday at a home in southwest Las Vegas, and stating, “I’m going to have you both disappear,” according to the report. Mayweather faces a grand larceny charge over the missing cellphone — not domestic battery or assault — after turning himself in to police Friday.

Ricky Hatton’s spokesman says the former boxing champion has been admitted to a rehabilitation clinic following British newspaper reports of cocaine use.

Dismissed UCLA basketball player J’mison Morgan has been granted an NCAA waiver that allows him to play at Baylor immediately without sitting out a season.

Because of a lack of swell, the Hurley Pro Trestles surfing competition, which is being held this week at San Onofre State Beach near San Clemente, was called off Monday and organizers will assess conditions for a possible 8 a.m. start Tuesday.

— Baxter Holmes