The New York Rangers bolstered their back end by acquiring veteran defenseman Carson Soucy from the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

The Rangers sent a 2025 third-round pick to Vancouver for Soucy. New York had acquired that pick, originally belonging to the San Jose Sharks, from the Vegas Golden Knights in a trade earlier in the day for forward Reilly Smith.

At 6-foot-5, Soucy is a solid physical presence who can play either side despite being a left-shot defenseman. The trade reunites him with Rangers defenseman Will Borgen, as the two previously played in a tandem with the Seattle Kraken.

Soucy waived his no-trade clause to join the Rangers. He's in the second season of a three-year deal he signed as a free agent ($3.25 million AAV), and that additional season was another selling point for the Rangers.

A source told ESPN that the Canucks had engaged with other teams about trading Soucy earlier this season.

"Carson was a big part of our success last season, helping our group take a positive step forward in the right direction," Vancouver GM Patrik Allvin said. "He is a true professional both on and off the ice and we wish him nothing but the best in New York."

Soucy didn't fit into Vancouver's long-term plans, as the Canucks look to reshape their blue line, and that could prove to be a benefit for his new club.

He comes with some term left on his deal, one more season and a $3.25 million salary cap hit, but at 30 years old, the blueliner adds stingy size to any defensive group and can play the tough minutes in either conference.

At the 4 Nations Face-Off break this season, he had two goals and eight points for the Canucks but also had 85 blocks, bringing his total to 420 for his career.

He will likely not join a power-play unit anytime soon, but he can be used in most other situations and is probably a fit on either a second- or third-line pairing.

NEW YORK -- Bad Bunny's sports representation firm and the Major League Baseball Players Association filed an agreement Thursday to dismiss the union's lawsuit over penalties imposed for making improper inducements.

The sides submitted a stipulation telling U.S. District Judge Jennifer H. Rearden in Manhattan they had settled the matter.

The MLBPA disciplined Rimas Sports, the agency co-owned by Puerto Rican musical artist Bad Bunny, last April over violations of its agent regulations. It revoked the agent certification of Rimas' William Arroyo and denied certifications of executives Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. The union issued a $400,000 fine for misconduct.

Arbitrator Ruth M. Moscovitch last October upheld the union's five-year suspensions of Assad and Miranda and cut Arroyo's suspension to three years. The union filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court, and the case was shifted to federal court.

Representatives of the union and Rimas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

ATLANTA -- Hawks coach Quin Snyder returned to the bench for Thursday night's game against the Indiana Pacers after missing one game because of an illness.

Snyder sat out Tuesday night's 127-121 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks with flu-like symptoms. Assistant Igor Kokoskov served as acting coach.

"His level of experience makes you very comfortable in those situations," Snyder said of Kokoskov before Thursday night's game. "We have a great staff with a lot of people who are really talented. His experience, I think for an assistant in the league is very unique."

Kokoskov, a native of Serbia, has coached in the NBA for 19 years.

Kokoskov joined Snyder's staff in Atlanta in 2023 after previous stints as an assistant with Brooklyn, Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix, Utah, Cleveland, Detroit and the Los Angeles Clippers.

When hired by the Clippers in 2000, Kokoskov became the first non-American to be hired as a full-time assistant. He spent one season as a head coach, going 19-63 with Phoenix in 2018-19 and getting fired afterward.

In tricky conditions created by a brisk wind in the Californian desert, Raducanu looked uncomfortable throughout.

The 2021 US Open champion made a host of errors to allow Uchijima, a tenacious opponent who adapted to the breeze quickly, to come out on top of the often scrappy rallies.

Raducanu faced break points in her opening six service games as a result of the pressure created by the mistakes caused by her lack of accuracy.

Five of those games ended in Raducanu losing serve as she trailed by a set and a break to the 52nd-ranked Uchijima.

The Briton cut a subdued figure after she could not convert any of three chances to break back for 3-3.

After Uchijima dug deep to hold, Raducanu did not win another point and trudged off court having lost for a sixth time in her nine matches this year.

Lionel Messi is expected to sit out a second straight game for Inter Miami in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup match against Cavalier FC on Thursday at Chase Stadium, a source confirmed to ESPN.

The player did not suffer any injury, but will watch from afar in an effort to manage his workload and avoid any potential injury, the source added.

Messi also missed Miami's win over the Houston Dynamo in MLS on Sunday, leading the Texas side to offer fans who attended the game free tickets to another match later this season.

Head coach Javier Mascherano reiterated that Messi was physically healthy and not injured during the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

"Leo is training. He trained yesterday, he trained today. We'll see, he's in good health, but we'll see what's good for us," he said. "The chances [that Leo plays] are the same as the rest of the players.

"We'll see. We'll see what decision we make tomorrow. As of today, I haven't confirmed 100% of the team."

Media watched the first 15 minutes of training on Wednesday morning, where Messi looked to be playing normally alongside his teammates. Fafà Picault was the only Inter Miami player training separately from the group as he recovers from an injury sustained in the first week of the 2025 season.

Miami will face Charlotte FC on Sunday before traveling to Jamaica to face Cavalier for the second leg of the round-of-16 series on March 13.

Linebacker Bobby Wagner, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection, is returning to the Washington Commanders on a one-year deal, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

In 2024, Wagner was named second-team All-Pro -- the 11th time in his career he made an All-Pro team - and was again voted to the Pro Bowl. He also recorded 100 or more tackles for a 13th consecutive season, tying former Washington linebacker London Fletcher for the second longest streak in NFL history.

Wagner, 34, finished with a team-high 132 tackles and two sacks, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. He became a key leader for Washington, which went 12-5 and reached the NFC Championship Game.

Wagner, a second-round pick by the Seahawks in 2012, spent his first 10 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, where he won a Super Bowl and also was voted to eight Pro Bowls and named to 10 All-Pro teams -- including six on the first team.

Wagner spent the 2022 season with the Los Angeles Rams before returning to Seattle in 2023. In Washington, he reunited with two of his former coaches from Seattle -- Dan Quinn and Ken Norton, Jr.

In 13 seasons, Wagner has 1,838 tackles, 35 sacks, 102 quarterback hits and 13 interceptions.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jaguars plan to release tight end Evan Engram, per a league source, in a move that will save the team $5.98 million against the salary cap.

The move comes on the same day the team agreed to trade receiver Christian Kirk to the Houston Texans for a 2026 seventh-round pick, and it leaves the Jaguars without two of quarterback Trevor Lawrence's top pass catchers from the past three seasons.

After the trade of Kirk, Engram would have had the highest salary cap figure on the roster ($19.75 million) in 2025. He was scheduled to earn $14.75 million, which would have been the final year of a three-year, $41.25 million contract with $25.5 million guaranteed he signed just before training camp began in 2023.

Engram signed a one-year, $9 million contract in March 2022 and went on to set career highs in catches (73) and receiving yards (766) that season. The Jaguars used the franchise tag on him but worked out a deal before camp and Engram caught 114 passes (the second-most in franchise history and second-most by a tight end in NFL history) for 963 yards and four touchdowns in the first year of his new deal.

However, he missed eight games last season because of hamstring and shoulder injuries and finished with 47 catches for 365 yards in nine games last season.

Engram was drafted 23rd overall by the New York Giants in 2017 and had 262 receptions for 2,828 yards and 16 touchdowns in five seasons before signing with the Jaguars.

He has been selected to two Pro Bowls in his career.

Releasing Engram leaves the Jaguars with three tight ends under contract for 2025: Brenton Strange (the team's second-round pick in 2023), Shawn Bowman, and Patrick Murtaugh (an International Pathway Program player). Strange (45 catches for 466 yards and 3 TDs) is the only one with a catch in the NFL.

In a continuation of criticism of the league office over the better part of two years, New York Knicks owner James Dolan has called for a resolution to be voted on at this month's Board of Governors meetings that asks for clearer accounting of the league's finances, according to a letter that was received by the league office and the rest of the Board of Governors.

Dolan, who said ahead of the September meeting that he wouldn't be voting on the 2024-25 budget, or the election of a new chair of the Board of Governors, laid out in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN, why he believes the NBA needs to add a resolution to its agenda for this month's meeting as part of an ongoing attempt to seek out "increased financial transparency and operating efficiency."

The proposed resolution would begin with the 2025-26 NBA fiscal year, and would ask the league to both "adopt a zero-based method of budgeting operating costs, headcount, and capital expenditures for all League and Affiliate League operations" and "adopt a process to present and distribute the League's annual proposed budgets inclusive of all underlying account detail summarized by department and type of expense, headcount, and fully allocated costs against each League revenue stream."

In the letter -- co-signed by both Dolan and the team's alternate governor, Madison Square Garden chief operating officer Jamaal Lesane -- the Knicks detail how the league's operating budget rose nearly 8% from the year before, and pointed out specific increases in a variety of areas, as well as an increase in "League office headcount" by over 800 people.

"Despite the League's swelling costs and headcount, the budget materials provided by the League during its annual September budget review are limited in scope," the letter said. "Accordingly, to improve the League's financial transparency and operating efficiency, the Knicks propose that the League adopts a zero-based method of budgeting operating costs, capital expenditures, and headcount for all League operations and initiatives (including Affiliate Leagues, such as the Basketball Africa League, WNBA, and G League).

The letter then went on to ask for further underlying details -- "summarized by department and type of expense-including headcount, capital expenditures, and fully-loaded budgeted costs with respect to the League and each of its subsidiaries and Affiliate Leagues" and asked for all costs and head counts related to both the league's upcoming new national media deals, which kick in next season, and "any contemplated NBA Europe league operations."

The Knicks also asked for the 2025-26 budget to be presented in July at the league's annual Las Vegas BOG meeting, so that it could be ratified in September when the owners convene again prior to the start of the season.

Dolan and the Knicks have repeatedly questioned the league office on a variety of topics dating back multiple years. The team sued the Toronto Raptors over the alleged theft of thousands of files back in August 2023, with an arbitration hearing scheduled for the week of July 21 to finally resolve it. That same summer, Dolan resigned from both the advisory/finance and media committees, and wrote in a memo obtained by ESPN that "given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion."

Last year, he sent another letter criticizing the league for its new television deal, which he said would render regional sports networks as "unviable" moving forward.

"The NBA has made the move to an NFL model -- deemphasizing and depowering the local market," Dolan wrote in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN. "Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year's jersey will be. Don't worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.

"Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal."

On Monday, Sphere Entertainment said in an earnings release that it could look at entering MSG Networks, which broadcasts both Knicks and New York Rangers games, into bankruptcy protection if it's unable to work out a deal to refinance its debt, shortly after the company came to an agreement with Altice to get the networks back onto one of the biggest cable providers in the country, and one that serves much of the tri-state area.

The ferocity of Fearnley's forehand increased, finding more speed and depth to trouble Fonseca, while also stepping further into the court to attack the Brazilian's second serve.

The adjustments were illustrated by three whopping forehand winners - including one at 89mph - which secured a double break on his way to levelling the match.

Fearnley's momentum enabled him to move an early break up in the decider but Fonseca showed he possesses the mental strength, as well as the technical talent, needed to climb even higher in the rankings.

Fonseca reasserted his authority in the baseline exchanges, applying enough pressure on Fearnley's serve to draw out two double faults and break back for 3-3.

With plenty of vocal Brazilian fans behind him, Fonseca maintained the momentum as he underlined why he is being predicted to reach the very top.

Ruben Amorim has told his Manchester United players that they will have to be more ruthless in front of goal if they are to progress in the Europa League following their 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad.

United were held in San Sebastian after Joshua Zirkzee's opener was cancelled out by Mikel Oyarzabal's penalty.

Amorim's side had enough chances to win the game, but instead head back to Manchester for next week's second leg with the last-16 tie in the balance.

"We are creating chances but sometimes you don't see it in the xG [expected goals] because we manage not to shoot but the great opportunity is there and you can see it," said the United head coach.

"We have transitions, we have situations and sometimes we are missing something. That can change something, especially in these kinds of games where we need goals that can make a difference."

United's frustrations in front of goal was summed up by an altercation between Diogo Dalot and Rasmus Højlund.

Dalot had the chance to cross for Hojlund but decided instead to pass the pass backwards prompting a brief row between the two players.

"One thing for sure is they are really anxious to score goals and to win games," said Amorim.

"They are all doing their best but are not deciding the best way in their position.

"It was a clear position. Rasmus did really well, Dalot did really well. The decision was not the best. The important thing is to move on and not fighting. Let's move on to the next game."