Chatham's Doug Melvin

The new deal for Melvin, who has been with the Milwaukee Brewers as their General Manager since 2002, extends his deal through the 2015 season.

The Brewers also extended manager Ron Roenicke through the 2014 season.

“Doug Melvin has had an enormous amount of success for us. Two playoffs in four years. People forget this team won only 56 games the year before he got here,” said principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers Mark Attanasio on the team’s website following the announcement.

Melvin also received a promotion during the negotiations being named the President of Baseball Operations on top of his role as General Manager; this, a step up from his previous role as Executive Vice President.

In the offseason, Melvin won two different honours for executive of the year in Major League Baseball, and he was also named as a new inductee to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony for this honour will take place June 23 in St. Marys, Ontario.

TJ Brodie of the Calgary Flames - CKSN.ca File Photo

The Hockey News stated that Brodie had “veteran poise and high panic threshold,” which comes as high praise for a young defenseman who only a year ago was known for high risk plays and errors on the ice in his own zone.

Brodie had his season ended prematurely by a concussion from a hit against the Winnipeg Jets in mid-March.

In 54 regular season games this year, TJ Brodie had 2 goals and 12 assists for 14 points, and was also an impressive plus three on a weak Flames team.

Former Blenheim Blades player Matt Martin was also honoured in the issue being named the New York Islanders Toughest Player..

Martin set a new NHL record this year for hits in a season with 374, which was 81 more than second place Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown.

Shaun Suisham from Steelers.com

Many analysts were predicting the Steelers would take a kicker early in the draft to seriously challenge Suisham, who is under contract with Pittsburgh for next season, heading into camp.

The Wallaceburg kicker, who has also played for the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys in his career, played all 16 regular season games for the Steelers last season going 23-for-31 in field goal attempts, for a 74.2 percentage.

Suisham was a perfect 36-for-36 in extra points.

The league average for field goal percentage last season was 83.1, while Suisham scored just over the league average in points. He had 105 points last year, while the league average for kickers was 100.

Suisham struggled in the 40-49 yard range going 6-for-11 but was solid at other distances, and even hit a career long 51-yard field goal in week 15 against the San Francisco 49ers.

Without any kickers drafted by the Steelers in the NFL draft, they would have to bring in a kicker on a tryout contract for training camp to challenge Suisham, which they likely will.

The Steelers selected guard David DeCastro from Stanford in the first round, 24th overall.

Chris Clements - Photo from UFC

Clements made an appearance in his hometown Monday and also visited Wallaceburg where he made a radio appearance. Clements now awaits his next fight, which is currently unscheduled, with the UFC. He signed a multi-fight contract with the world’s top MMA organization earlier this year.

Click play below to see the full interview with Chris Clements:

Clements entered the fight with a 10-4 professional record with each of his wins coming by knockout, including a convincing win against longtime UFC veteran Rich Clementi late last year in Sarnia as a part of Meltdown in the Valley.

Following his fight in Sarnia, Clements, who hails from Dresden, Ontario signed a mutli-fight deal with the UFC.

Clements won Saturday’s fight by a split decision. The judges scored the fight 29-28, 28-29,and 30-27 for Clements.

Clements likely lost on the mat where he struggled on the night, but was the clear winner of the standup portion of his fight.

The preliminary card fight, although not televised, was streamed live on Facebook. With a UFC win to his name in his debut, Chris Clements will undoubtedly draw more attention for his next UFC fight.

No announcement has been made regarding Clements’ next fight.

Continue to follow CKSN for more on this story.

Andy Fantuz at Hamilton Tiger Cats camp - Photo from Facebook.com/cfltigercats

The first day of the three day mini-camp saw the Tiger Cats take part in team meetings and an on field practice.

“It’s nice to be out here running around, the weather turned out for us really nicely. You know we have a big group here, bigger than I thought, but it’s great, you get to meet a lot of guys and get some good work in,” said Fantuz at the Tiger Cats camp.

Early reports from Hamilton media discussed the instant chemistry Andy Fantuz found with Tiger Cats quarterback Henry Burris. For Fantuz entering camp, one of the main challenges will be learning a new offensive system and playbook after 6 seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“We’re trying to learn the system, improve our physical skills, show what we’ve got, figure out where we’re going to play, and how we’re going to fit into what we’re trying to do as a team when training camp comes,” Fantuz said about the mini-camp.

Despite the mixed emotions Fantuz showed when choosing to leave the Roughriders this offseason, his excitement to get started with the Tiger Cats was obvious Wednesday,

“I’m a strong believer that chemistry between teammates is a big factor in success. I have no doubt about it I’m going to be best friends with most of the guys on the team. It begins today, it’s kind of an introduction day, from here on out we’ll be a pretty tight unit.”

Fantuz wasn’t the only person excited to be in Hamilton, as Henry Burris, a long time star in Calgary, also spoke about the opportunity Hamilton has for success, and he welcomed the addition of Fantuz to the Tiger Cats lineup,

“I’m happy to be here. I’m looking forward to it. Black and yellow looks good on myself. I looked at Andy (Fantuz), and I was like, ‘man you look much better in this colour than you did in green.’ It’s good to be here with guys like himself and we’re looking forward to continuing our career and having success here in Hamilton.”

To listen to Andy Fantuz and Henry Burris discuss their opening day in Tiger Cats uniforms, click play on the video below from TicatsTV

Chris Clements will make his UFC debut this weekend - Photo Ian Kennedy/CKSN.ca

Clements, who will fight this Saturday, April 21 at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Georgia, has been preparing for months, after learning he would make his UFC debut this year only days after winning a bout against UFC veteran Rich Clementi at Meltdown in the Valley.

Clements will fight another UFC veteran, Keith Wisniewski, who has a 28-12-1 record in his debut as part of a card that also features Jon Jones and Rashad Evans going toe to toe for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

Chris Clements enters Saturday’s fight with a 10-4 professional record, with all 10 of his professional wins coming by knockout.

The matchup between Wisniewski and Clements was originally scheduled for a card in Montreal, but was shifted due to a scheduling change.

Clements will be the second fight of the night in front of the crowd at Philips Arena in Atlanta.

Sean Pollock - Photo from Colorado Mammoth Facebook

The NLL veteran, and Wallaceburg Minor Lacrosse and Wallaceburg Red Devils alumni, continues to rack up the points, and is closing in on his career mark of 67 points in a season, which he collected in 2007 playing for the Minnesota Swarm.

Through 14 games this season, Pollock already 23 goals and 44 assists for 57 points. With only two games left however, Pollock will need to do some damage in the final games of the season to eclipse his career mark.

Saturday, Pollock had 7-points (4 goals and 3 assists) for his Colorado Mammoth as they defeated the Toronto Rock 19-12.

With the win, Colorado remained in first place in the West Division with 11 wins and 3 losses this season. Colorado has already clinched a playoff spot.

Fellow former Wallaceburg Red Devils player, goaltender Tye Belanger also played in Saturday’s win, spending almost 5 minutes on the floor and stopping all shots he faced.

The Mammoth will finish their season against Edmonton and Pollock’s former team, the Minnesota Swarm.

Jason Missiaen of the Greenville Road Warriors - Photo by Richard Shiro

Greenville was eliminated from the ECHL playoffs last week by the Florida Everblades in their best-of-three first round playoff series.

Missiaen had a stellar first professional season in the ECHL, compiling a 23-13-0 record, with 3 shutouts, a 2.71 goals against average, and a .916 save percentage.

Missiaen was also the ECHL goaltender of the week twice during the season. He was previously recalled by the Connecticut Whale, but didn’t play a game for the New York Rangers top affiliate.

Connecticut sits 6th in the AHL’s Eastern Conference.

It’s unlikely Missiaen will play a game in the Calder Cup playoffs, however goaltending has been a weak point for the Whale this season, with starter Chad Johnson ranking 19th in the league in goals against average and 15th in save percentage. Missiaen will likely serve as a practice netminder facing extra rubber to help save Connecticut’s starting goalie.

Missiaen is the youngest goalie in the New York Rangers professional system

Screenshot of TJ Brodie's interview on FlamesTV

Brodie was injured March 9 against the Winnipeg Jets, suffering a concussion that saw him miss the final 14 games of the NHL season.

Although Brodie has since been skating with the team, he was kept out of the lineup due to re-occurring symptoms. In an interview on the Calgary Flames website, Brodie had this to say about his injury.

“You just don’t feel right. When I got it, I felt almost a step behind, like I couldn’t make decisions fast enough. Just sort of cloudy I guess. I’d feel good for a couple of days and try to do something and sort of feel bad after that. I had to go back, take a couple days off again, and try to take it one step at a time. I don’t want this to be a reoccurring thing. I just want to make sure that everything’s right before I try to take the next step.”

Overall however, Brodie, who finished the season with 2 goals and 12 assists, and a +3 rating felt his season went well.

“I thought it went ok overall, obviously there is room for improvement and hopefully I can improve for next year.”