Clan-Members » McQueary off the sidelines was motivated by threat

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins locked up another elite young player long term and kept a key player off the market Tuesday, agreeing to terms with defenceman Kris Letang and re-signing forward Pascal Dupuis. A finalist for the Norris Trophy as the NHLs top defenceman, Letang received an eight-year, $58 million contract extension. He would have entered the final season of an existing contract that carried an annual salary-cap hit of $3.5 million. That will now jump to $7.25 beginning in 2014-15. Dupuis potentially couldve been a free agent this week and cashed on his 11-point post-season, but chose to stay to sign a $15 million, four-year deal. Letang, 26, tied for the scoring lead among NHL defencemen last season with 38 points in 35 games. He has 44 goals and 165 assists in 385 career games over six-plus seasons. Letang joins star centres Sidney Crosby (12 years, $104.4 million) and Evgeni Malkin (eight years, $76 million) as players the Penguins have given long-term contracts to in the past 13 months. Under the collective bargaining agreement, Letang cannot sign until Friday. The pact -- the longest allowable by terms of the new CBA -- will run through the 2021-22 season, when the 6-foot, 201-pound native of Montreal will be 35. Beginning in 2014-15, the Penguins will be committing $25.45 million of salary cap space to just three players for every season until 2021-22. For the 2014-15 season alone -- counting contracts given wingers James Neal and Chris Kunitz, defenceman Paul Martin and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury -- the organization already has $44.3 million of cap space accounted for just seven players. The salary cap for the 2013-14 season is projected at $63.4 million, although it is expected to increase dramatically the following year. The swift and skilled Letang is one of the NHLs top offensive defencemen. But at times, the former third-round pick has been criticized for play in the defensive end -- most recently during a stunning sweep of the Penguins by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals. Letang had no points in the series and was a minus-5 over the first two games. During Pittsburghs run to the Stanley Cup in 2009, Letang had 13 points, tying for the post-season lead among defencemen with four goals. Over the past three seasons, Letang leads all NHL defencemen in assists (107). His 0.77 points-per-game average over that span ranks second to Ottawas Erik Karlsson for players at that position. Since the end of the regular season, general manager Ray Shero has said extending Letang was a priority. Before the Penguins were swept by Boston, they defeated the Islanders and Senators in the first and second rounds, respectively. Though he and agent Kent Hughes talked for a while, Shero could have traded Letang during the NHL draft Sunday. A similar scenario played out last summer, when centre Jordan Staal rejected a 10-year contract offer and Shero dealt him to the Carolina Hurricanes in a trade announced from the podium. It never reached that point with Letang. Pittsburgh also didnt have to deal with replacing Dupuis. The 34-year-old winger was third on the team in goals, tied for third with 38 points and led the league with a plus-31 rating, the first Penguins to pull off that feat since Ron Francis did during the 1994-95 season. He is also a key penalty-killer, who blocked 36 shots and is tied for the NHL lead with eight short-handed goals over the past three years. Dupuis, who also helped the Penguins hoist the Cup four years ago, has 175 goals and 374 points in his career with Minnesota, the New York Rangers, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. Randy Moss Vikings Jersey . LOUIS -- Attorneys for the St. Adrian Peterson Womens Jersey . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. http://www.authenticvikingspro.com/Mike-hughes-vikings-jersey/ . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Brett Favre Jersey . -- Canadian Andrew Wiggins got the ball on the wing, made a nifty spin move and then let go with a soft floater from about 10 feet that swished through the net in Allen Fieldhouse. Randy Moss Jersey . Klitschkos management company says the bout will be the Ukrainian fighters 25th world championship fight. The 1.83-meter (6-foot) Leapai defeated the previously unbeaten Denis Boytsov in November to become the WBOs mandatory challenger. BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- ??? Penn States former general counsel testified Tuesday that several days before two high-ranking administrators were charged over their handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal, the schools then-president let the mens defense lawyers review and suggest changes to a statement he later issued that voiced his full support for them.Cynthia Baldwin told jurors about email exchanges that ensued with defense attorneys Tom Farrell and Caroline Roberto shortly before their clients were charged with perjury, failure to properly report suspected abuse and other offenses in November 2011.Baldwin said someone at the attorney generals office had told her the charges were coming against Gary Schultz, then the schools vice president for business and finance, and Tim Curley, then the athletic director. That led to an internal meeting with high-ranking members of the schools public relations staff, the then-chairman of the board of trustees Steve Garban and president Graham Spanier.Spanier wanted help with a statement in support of Curley and Schultz that he had drafted, and his aides suggested changes. He also directed Baldwin to provide it to the defense attorneys.He said to send it to (Roberto), Baldwin testified. Thats what I did.It was published on Nov. 5, the day that the attorney generals office announced charges against the two administrators and Sandusky, news that sent the campus reeling and soon led the board of trustees to force out Spanier. It was also later revised to include direct quotes from Farrell and Roberto.Spaniers statement is a critical part of a civil lawsuit that went to trial this week, brought by former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary. He believes he was defamed by the Spanier statement, which said the charges against Curley and Schultz were groundless.McQueary has testified he reported to the two men in 2001 that he saw Sandusky sexually abuse a boy in a team shower. He believes Spaniers press statement made him look like a liar.Before Spaniers statement was posted on a university news site, Baldwin had been in touch with the two defense lawyers. Farrell, who represents Schultz, suggested making a wording change, from indictment to presentment..dddddddddddd. She said she passed that along to Spanier, who made the change. Pennsylvania grand juries generally do not indict, but rather issue reports known as presentments.Baldwin said she understood why Spanier was writing the statement: I knew it was going to be used for press reasons.Baldwin is a former chair of the Penn State board who also spent two years as an appointed member of the state Supreme Court. Her actions in accompanying Curley and Schultz before a grand jury investigating Sandusky in early 2011 led a state appeals court earlier this year to dismiss several of the charges against them on grounds their right to legal representation had been compromised.Spanier was also charged, a year later, over his actions in response to the Sandusky matter. All three men await trial in Harrisburg on charges of failure to report suspected abuse and child endangerment.McQueary is seeking more than $4 million for how he was treated after his role in the Sandusky investigation became public. The week after Sandusky, Curley and Schultz were charged, McQueary was placed on paid administrative leave and never returned to the football program. He says has not been able to find work since.Baldwin said the decision to keep McQueary off the sidelines was motivated by threats against him that were reported to her by police and athletics department staff.In addition to the defamation allegation, the lawsuit also claims McQueary was retaliated against for helping police and prosecutors convict Sandusky, and that Curley and Schultz committed a misrepresentation by falsely making him think they took his report seriously and would respond accordingly.The universitys defense has been that his contract was not renewed, he was paid 18 months severance, and that damage to his reputation was in part because of public outrage that he did not intervene physically to stop Sanduskys abuse of the boy.---This story has been corrected to show that the last name of the then-chairman of the board of trustees is Steve Garban, not Garbin, and that the former athletic director is Tim Curley, not Tom Curley. ' ' '