The Washington Capitals will begin their 2016-17 NHL season on Oct. 13 on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who will raise their 2016 Stanley Cup championship banner before the game. Washington's home opener will be Oct. 15 against the New York Islanders. The complete NHL schedule will be released today.
The Capitals are 13-2-1-1 all-time in home openers at Verizon Center and 2-0-1 in home openers against the Islanders. Washington posted a 3-0-1 record against New York last season and outscored the Islanders 13-9.
College
Report: Deal with ESPN nearly triples Big Ten's media rights
The Big Ten Conference and ESPN have agreed to a $190 million-per-year deal that will supplement the $240 million-per-year deal that the league already had secured from Fox Sports, SportsBusinessDaily.com reported Monday. CBS Sports also is in for $10 million a year for basketball games. SportsBusinessDaily called the six-year, $2.64 billion haul a "big win for the Big Ten," which will see its average media rights payout nearly triple when it goes into effect in the fall of 2017. For the Terps, retaining a connection to ESPN will certainly help in terms of recruiting and added television exposure. During its first season in the Big Ten in 2014-15, Maryland received $36.1 million, according to a report in the Omaha World-Herald, which also reported that the payout to the Terps was the highest in the league and that $11.6 million was used as an advance to pay off the $31 million penalty assessed for leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Big Ten Network also remains prominent with a rights package that runs through 2031-32. For its extra $50 million a year, Fox gets both the league's football championship game and the first pick during the regular season, SportsBusinessDaily reported. That means the annual Ohio State-Michigan game is likely to leave move away from ABC/ESPN. SportsBusiness Daily reported that soon after Fox's deal leaked in April, ESPN President John Skipper called Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany to rekindle talks.
—Teddy Greenstein, Tribune Newspapers. Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus contributed to this report.
Et cetera
NBA: Former Maryland guard Dez Wells will play for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA's Las Vegas summer league held July 8-18 on Nevada-Las Vegas' campus, according to a report by Comcast SportsNet. Wells, who wasn't able to compete last year because of a thumb injury, signed with the Washington Wizards after going undrafted in 2015, but declined their training camp invite. He scored one point in five preseason minutes with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who waived him before the start of the regular season. Wells played three seasons for Maryland after transferring from Xavier, and was the team's leading scorer for two of them, averaging 14.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
Women's college basketball: Vermont assistant coach Courtnay Pilypaitis was named to the same position at UMBC on Friday, replacing Rich Conover, who left last week to take an assistant job at East Carolina. Pilypaitis spent the past four years as an assistant at her alma mater, where she was also a four-time All-America East selection. The Orleans, Ontario, native played with Team Canada in the 2012 Olympic Games in London and played two seasons professionally for VICI Kaunas in Lithuania. VICI won back-to-back Lithuanian Cup and BWBL Championships and Pilypaitis was named Eurobasket.com All-Lithuanian and LMKL Import Player of the Year both years. She was also a two-time all-league selection.
Women's college track and field: Coppin State rising sophomore Khemani Roberts set a pair of personal records while placing first overall in the heptathlon for her native Trinidad and Tobago at the Panamerican Combined Events Cup/Canadian Combined Events Championships this past weekend. Roberts threw 11.34 meters in the shot put and ran 24.95 seconds in the 200-meter dash, both career bests. She will compete this weekend at the Trinidad Senior Nationals for a chance to represent her country at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Baseball camp: Registration for UMBC's summer camps is open. The camp begins June 27 and includes a two-day pitching camp July 4-5 and two-day hitting camp July 6-7. For registration and more information, contact UMBC coach Bob Mumma at mumma@umbc.edu or assistant coach Liam Bowen at bowen@umbc.edu, or go to collegebaseballcamps.com/umbc/.
Baseball: Mitchell Nathanson will discuss his book, "God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen," at a meeting of "Talkin' Baseball" on July 2 at 9 a.m. at Brighton Gardens, 7110 Minstrel Way, Columbia. For further information, call 410-740-1145.