The Minnesota Wild signed restricted free agent right winger Nino Niederreiter to a three-year, $8 million contract on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Niederreiter made his Wild debut last season and had 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) and a plus-12 rating in 81 regular-season games. He ranked second on the team in hits with 175, third in goals, fourth in plus-minus and fifth in shots.
The highlight of 13 playoff games last season was the Swiss native scoring the winning goal in overtime of Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche on April 30.
A fifth overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders, Niederreiter went to the Wild on June 30, 2013, in a trade for forward Cal Clutterbuck and a 2013 draft pick that the Islanders used to draft Eamon McAdam.
Pistorius cleared of murdering girlfriend
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Oscar Pistorius was cleared on Thursday of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but the Olympic and Paralympic track star faces a troubled night after the South African judge adjourned for the day before ruling on a charge of culpable homicide.
The double-amputee, once one of the biggest names in world athletics, has reason to fear a guilty verdict after Judge Thokozile Masipa adjourned seconds after saying key elements of the culpable homicide charge were satisfied when he shot Steenkamp dead on Valentine’s Day last year.
Earlier, Masipa ruled that prosecutors, led by the combative Gerrie Nel, had failed to prove the 27-year-old intended to kill Steenkamp after an argument.
The defense said Pistorius shot Steenkamp as a result of a tragic accident after mistaking her for an intruder hiding behind a locked toilet door.
Culpable homicide - the South African equivalent of manslaughter - carries up to 15 years in prison but has no minimum sentence.
Miami man charged with smuggling Puig to U.S.
A Miami man was charged on Thursday with alien smuggling for his suspected role in a conspiracy to bring Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig to the United States from Cuba, according to court documents.
Gilberto Suarez, 40, allegedly paid $250,000 to smugglers tied to the Los Zetas drug cartel to bring Puig to America in exchange for a cut of his expected Major League Baseball contract.
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In 2012, the now 23-year-old Puig signed a seven-year, $42 million contract with the Dodgers.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to get back the money Suarez allegedly earned from the operation, according to the indictment, as well as almost $3 million in real estate and luxury cars.
Suarez was freed on a $120,000 bond on Thursday by a magistrate judge in Florida’s Southern District.
