Tuesday August 1st Local Sports

KGLO & KRIB Sports

TONIGHT:
AM-1300 KGLO — Minnesota Twins at St. Louis — pre-game 6:00, first pitch 6:45

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Danielle Hunter put the pads on and participated in practice Monday with the Minnesota Vikings for the first time since the 2022 season ended. His contract will be in question again soon. For now the team’s best pass rusher can happily push the business part aside and work up a sweat with his teammates while learning a new scheme. Hunter had his base salary more than tripled in the new deal that was reached over the weekend. He can become a free agent next year. Hunter ranks eighth on the franchise’s career list with 71 sacks.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Will McDonald knew there had to be something he could do to get even better during his college days at Iowa State.

So he turned on film of the Las Vegas Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and the star pass rusher’s spin move jumped off the screen.

McDonald on Monday said he went out on the field, tried it and just got familiar with it, got familiar with the steps, and he just tried to perfect it in his way.

The fast, athletic McDonald spun his way to a school-record 34 sacks during his five seasons at Iowa State while also tying Texas Tech’s Aaron Hunt for the Big 12 career mark. That’s one more than Von Miller — McDonald’s idol as a kid — had at Texas A&M.

McDonald meticulously studied Miller’s moves, too. But adding what he saw from Crosby, who has 37 1/2 sacks in four NFL seasons, made McDonald even more dominant.

The Jets loved everything they saw about McDonald when they watched the Wisconsin native’s game film in college.

So with the 15th overall pick in the draft in April, New York jumped at the chance to add him to its defense.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Wild signed goalie Filip Gustavsson to a three-year, $11.25 million contract on Monday, avoiding salary arbitration after his strong first season with the club.

The Wild have little room left on their salary cap after accounting for Gustavsson’s $3.75 million annual average value, but general manager Bill Guerin said he expects the 25-year-old to compete with veteran Marc-Andre Fleury for the starting job this season. The Wild also have top prospect Jesper Wallstedt waiting in the wings in the AHL.

Gustavsson made 37 starts last season, going 22-9-7 with three shutouts, a 2.10 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. He had a shutout streak of 177 minutes, 13 seconds across four games from Feb. 28 to March 12, the third-longest in franchise history.

Gustavsson, who is from Sweden, was acquired a year ago in a trade with Ottawa for goalie Cam Talbot. He was 2-3 in five starts in the playoffs, including a 51-save performance in a double overtime win over Dallas in Game 1 of the first-round series.

AMES — Iowa State center Rob Jones wants to boost his scoring next season and it begins at the charity stripe. The Prior Lake, Minnesota native averaged just under six points per game last season but it could have been more. Jones connected on less than 41 percent of his free throws. It is a weakness he has been working on this summer.