Avalanche reward defenseman Sam Malinski's breakout season with a 4-year extension

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Avalanche reward defenseman Sam Malinski's breakout season with a 4-year extension

2026-01-28 02:39 Last Updated At：02:41

DENVER (AP) — Sam Malinski's breakout season was rewarded Tuesday when the Colorado Avalanche signed the defenseman to a four-year extension.

The deal is reported to be worth $19 million, with an annual cap hit of $4.75 million.

The 27-year-old Malinski has already set career-highs with 21 assists and 24 points in logging 16 minutes, 43 seconds of ice time per game. He's second among defensemen on the team in assists behind reigning Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar.

"Sam is a hard-working defenseman who has great skating and puck-moving ability,” Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said in a statement. “His commitment to the defensive side of the game has turned him into a reliable defenseman for us.”

It's another instance where the Avalanche have rewarded an up-and-coming player this season. In November, Gavin Brindley signed a two-year contract extension less than 48 hours after scoring his first NHL overtime winner. The 5-foot-8, 173-pound Brindley was acquired by Colorado on June 27 as part of a deal that sent Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to Columbus.

Three months ago, the Avalanche signed Martin Necas to an eight-year, $92 million contract extension through 2034.

The Avalanche brought in Malinski as a college free agent in March 2023. He made the opening roster in 2024-25 and has been a fixture on the blueline since. He has 11 goals and 38 assists over 149 career regular-season appearances. Malinski also played in five games, with one assist, in the playoffs for Colorado last season against Dallas.

Malinski, who is 5-foot-11, 190-pounds, suited up for Cornell University from 2019-23. The Lakeville, Minnesota, native was a team captain in 2022-23.

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Search warrant FBI served at elections office near Atlanta seeks records tied to the 2020 elections

ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI on Wednesday searched the election office of a Georgia county that has been central to right-wing conspiracy theories over President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, acting just one week after the Republican leader predicted prosecutions over a contest he has baselessly insisted was tainted by widespread fraud.

The search at Fulton County’s main election facility in Union City sought records related to the 2020 election. It appeared to be the most public step by law enforcement to pursue Trump’s claims of a stolen election, grievances rejected time and again by courts and state and federal officials, who found no evidence of fraud that would have altered the outcome.

It also unfolds against the backdrop of FBI and Justice Department efforts to investigate perceived political enemies of Trump, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump has for years focused on Fulton, Georgia’s most populous county and a Democratic stronghold, as a key example of what he claims went wrong in the 2020 election. His pressure campaign there culminated in a sweeping state indictment accusing him and 18 others of illegally trying to overturn the vote.

FBI agents secured an area around the large warehouse building that houses the county elections hub with yellow tape and could be seen loading boxes from the building into trucks. FBI spokesperson Jenna Sellitto confirmed that the boxes contained ballots. Among the 2020 election documents sought are ballots, tabulator tapes from the scanners used to tally the ballots, electronic ballot images and voter rolls.

An FBI spokesperson said agents were “executing a court authorized law enforcement action” at the county’s main election office in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The spokesperson declined to provide any further information, citing an ongoing matter.

State and county Democratic officials expressed concern about the search and ballot seizures.

“We don't know why they took them, and we don't know where they're taking them to,” county Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment. FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey and U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were seen onsite.

Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen even though judges across the country and his own attorney general said they found no evidence of widespread fault that tipped the contest in Democrat Joe Biden’s favor.

The president has made Georgia, one of the battleground states he lost in 2020, a central target for his complaints about the election and memorably pushed its secretary of state to help “find” enough votes to overturn the contest.

Last week, in reference to the 2020 election, he asserted that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” It was not clear what in particular he was referring to.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case was dismissed in Novembe r after courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing it because of an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she had hired to lead the case.

The FBI last week moved to replace its top agent in Atlanta, Paul W. Brown, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a non-public personnel decision. It was not immediately clear why the move, which was not publicized by the FBI, was made.

The warrant is a criminal document, but the Justice Department last month sued the clerk of the Fulton County superior and magistrate courts in federal court seeking access to documents from the 2020 election in the county. The lawsuit said the department sent a letter to the clerk, Che Alexander, but that she had failed to produce the requested documents.

Alexander has filed a motion to dismiss the suit. The Justice Department complaint says that the purpose of its request was “ascertaining Georgia’s compliance with various federal election laws.” It also says the attorney general is trying to help the State Election Board with its “transparency efforts under Georgia law.”

A three-person conservative majority on the State Election Board has repeatedly sought to reopen a case alleging wrongdoing by Fulton County during the 2020 election. It passed a resolution in July seeking assistance from the U.S. attorney general to access voting materials.

The state board sent subpoenas to the county board for various election documents last year and again on Oct. 6. The October subpoena requested “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.” A fight over the state board's efforts to enforce the 2024 subpoena is currently tied up in court.

The Justice Department sent a letter to the county election board Oct. 30 citing the federal Civil Rights Act and asking for all records responsive to the October subpoena from the State Election Board. Lawyers for the county election board responded about two weeks later, saying that the records are held by the county court clerk. They also attached a letter the clerk sent to the State Election Board saying that the records are under seal in accordance with state law and can’t be released without a court order.

The Justice Department said it then sent a letter to Alexander, the clerk, on Nov. 21 requesting the documents and that she failed to respond.

The department is asking a judge to declare that the clerk’s “refusal to provide the election records upon a demand by the Attorney General” violates the Civil Rights Act. It is also asking the judge to order Alexander to produce the requested records within five days of a court order.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington and photographer Mike Stewart in Union City, Georgia, contributed.

Avalanche reward defenseman Sam Malinski's breakout season with a 4-year extension

Sport

Avalanche reward defenseman Sam Malinski's breakout season with a 4-year extension

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