SPORTS digest

Former Penguin Kunitz retires

CHICAGO

Chris Kunitz announced his retirement Tuesday after winning four Stanley Cup titles in 15 NHL seasons.

He wasn’t out of work for very long.

Kunitz is joining the Chicago Blackhawks’ front office as a player development adviser. He will work with the coaching staffs for the Blackhawks and their American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford.

The 39-year-old Kunitz had 268 goals and 351 assists in 1,022 NHL games with Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Chicago. He also had 27 goals and 66 assists in 178 career playoff appearances.

In a statement put out by the Blackhawks, Kunitz thanked practically everyone from his playing career. He said his teammates “taught me to give my very best.”

“Your leadership helped mold me into the player I knew I could be,” he said. “I was given the opportunity to play with the very best teams and the very best players and I’m grateful for the laughs and the friendships that we shared together.”

The forward made his NHL debut with Anaheim in 2004 but spent most of his career as Sidney Crosby’s linemate with Pittsburgh. He was part of championship teams with the Ducks in 2007 and Penguins in 2009, 2016 and 2017.

Kunitz played for the Blackhawks last season, collecting five goals and five assists in 56 games. He skated in his 1,000th game Feb. 14 against New Jersey.

Wild dismisses GM Fenton

ST. PAUL, Minn.

Less than 15 months after hiring Paul Fenton as general manager, Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold changed his mind.

Still confident he has a contending team, Leipold decided to fire Fenton on Tuesday despite the unusual late-summer timing to try to redirect the franchise before it drifted further off track. The Wild’s six-year streak of making the playoffs ended in the spring.

“Our organization and our culture were a little different than the way Paul wanted to handle things. We just felt this was the time to do it,” Leipold said.

There was no “final straw,” the owner said, but rather a series of “smaller issues” that stacked up on his radar prior to the surprising move.

When Leipold picked Fenton to replace Chuck Fletcher there was no desire in the front office to embark on a significant rebuild, particularly in the NHL with a championship that is the most attainable of the major sports given the annual unpredictability of postseason play.

Fenton initially obliged the owner’s belief that “tweaking” was all that needed to be done, but the three forward-for-forward trades he made before the deadline neither boosted the team’s chance of qualifying for the playoffs nor restocked the prospect pool while disassembling the once-promising core.

USA soccer coach Ellis moving on

With two Women’s World Cup titles in hand, U.S. national team coach Jill Ellis says it’s time to move on.

Ellis announced Tuesday that she’s resigning, just more than three weeks after the United States raised a second consecutive World Cup trophy following a dominant and record-setting run. She said she started thinking about stepping away around the start of the year, with the intention of seeing the team through this summer’s tournament.

“It’s obviously been a fantastic run, a fantastic ride,” she said.

Ellis said she wanted to spend more time with her family after more than five years in charge of the team.

“I just need to take a step back and take it all in and see what next intrigues me and piques my interest,” she told reporters on a conference call.

Ellis, 52, was named coach of the team in 2014 and has led it to eight overall tournament titles, including victories at the World Cup in 2015 and earlier this year. Over the course of her tenure, the United States lost just seven matches.

Associated Press