SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks traded their 2020 first-round draft pick, Ozzy Wiesblatt, to the Nashville Predators on Sunday in exchange for forward Egor Afanasyev.

Afanasyev, 23, led the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals in scoring last 12 months with 54 points, including 27 goals, in 56 regular-season games and nine points in 15 playoff games. He has one goal in 19 profession NHL games, most recently playing in two games with the Predators in February.

A restricted free agent, the Russian-born Afanasyev stands 6'4″ and weighs 205 pounds. He was selected by the Predators in the second round of the 2019 draft and just completed his third season of North American professional hockey. He has 113 career points in 187 regular-season games in the AHL.

Wiesblatt, 22, spent most of the last two seasons with the Barracuda, scoring just 11 points in 34 AHL games. With him potentially slipping down the team's rankings and the Barracuda having no chance of making the playoffs, Wiesblatt was loaned to Milwaukee in March to gain postseason experience.

For Milwaukee, Wiesblatt scored six points in 16 regular-season games and nine points in 15 playoff games. He has one year left on his entry-level contract and has yet to play an NHL game.

“He plays a really high-energy, high-intensity game, but he hasn't gotten quite a lot of playing time,” one NHL scout said of Wiesblatt's time with the Barracuda. ​​”He's aggressive about it.”

Wiesblatt is the fourth player the Sharks have taken in the first round and traded away by general manager Mike Grier in the last 18 months.

Most notably, Timo Meier, drafted ninth overall in 2015, was traded to the New Jersey Devils in February 2023, and Tomas Hertl, drafted 17th overall in 2012, was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights in March of this year. Both transfers created salary cap space and brought draft picks and young players to San Jose.

Defenseman Ryan Merkley, who was selected 21st overall in 2018 and was unhappy with his role, was traded to the Colorado Avalanche along with Matt Nieto in January 2023.

Wiesblatt was selected 31st overall by the Sharks in 2020, and the way San Jose drafted the forward made headlines.

In making his selection, Doug Wilson Jr., the Sharks' former director of scouting, said Wiesblatt's name and used sign language for his first name. Wiesblatt's mother, Kim White, has been deaf since birth and has always used sign language to communicate with her children – four boys and a daughter.

“This means so much to me, especially to my mother and the deaf community generally,” Wiesblatt said on the evening of October 6, 2020. “It's just a really nice gesture and my mother will always remember it.”

The Sharks acquired the first-round pick they used for Wiesblatt from the Tampa Bay Lightning in February 2020. The other way went for forward Barclay Goodrow, who won two Stanley Cups with the Lightning before being traded to the New York Rangers in July 2021.

Goodrow then signed a six-year, $21.85 million contract with the Rangers. Three years before the contract expired, the Rangers placed him on waivers last Tuesday. The Sharks signed him the next day.

Ozzy Osbourne has fully embraced modern medicine despite his ongoing health problems.

The 75-year-old Grammy winner revealed this week that he’s receiving stem cell treatments after revealing in November that doctors had discovered a tumor on his vertebrae during his fourth spinal surgery.

“I just got back from the doctor after having some stem cells implanted in me,” Osbourne told his “Ozzy Speaks” co-host Billy Morrison on their SiriusXM radio show. “The thing is, you have it and you think, 'I'm not doing so well,' but I don't know what it would be like if I didn't have it.”

According to The Prince of Darkness, the treatments – which he described as “something like a super stem cell” – “are also quite expensive.”

Osbourne said he’ll return for follow-up treatment “in about six months.”

Morrison revealed that he had also undergone stem cell treatments for “hip problems” that caused him difficulty getting out and in of his automobile: “I couldn't tie my own shoelaces, so I had injections right there, five.” of it, and.” it’s gone. It fixed the issue.”

Last July, Osbourne announced that he was stepping down from headlining the inaugural three-day Power Trip festival in Indio, California, resulting from ongoing health issues stemming from his recent spinal injury.

Months earlier, the previous Black Sabbath frontman had announced his retirement from touring, having canceled European tour dates on the grounds that he was now not well enough resulting from a “serious accident” through which he injured his spine to look.

In 2020, he made public his Parkinson's disease, diagnosed in 2003.

Last week, it was announced that the bat-biting “Crazy Train” singer could be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2024 as a solo artist, marking his second entry following Black Sabbath's induction in 2006.

NEW YORK – Mary J. Blige,Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & The Gang and Ozzy Osbourne were included Rock & Roll Hall of Famea category that also includes folk-rockers Dave Matthews Band and Singer and guitarist Peter Frampton.

Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton received the Musical Influence Award the late Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield receive the Musical Excellence Award. Pioneering music manager Suzanne de Passe won the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

“Rock 'n' roll is an ever-evolving blend of sounds that influences culture and moves generations,” John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in an announcement. “This diverse group of newcomers have each broken musical barriers and influenced countless artists who have followed in their footsteps.”

The induction ceremony will happen on October 19 on the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. It will stream live to tell the tale Disney+, air at a later date on ABC, and be available the following day on Hulu.

Music artists who were nominated this yr but didn't make the cut included Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and the late Sinead O'ConnorSoul-pop singer Sade, Britpoppers Oasis, hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim and alt-rockers Jane's Addiction.

There was an excellent push to bring Foreigner – with hits “Urgent” and “Hot Blooded” – into the hall, with Mark Ronson, Jack Black, Slash, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney publicly supports the move. Ronson's stepfather is Mick Jones, founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of Foreigner.

Four of the eight nominees – Cher, Foreigner, Frampton and Kool & the Gang – were on the ballot for the primary time.

Cher – the one artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the last six a long time – and Blige, with eight multi-platinum albums and nine Grammy awards, will help increase the number of ladies within the hall, which, based on critics, can be low.

Artists will need to have released their first business recording a minimum of 25 years before being considered for inclusion.

More than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals voted on the nominees. Fans voted online or in person on the museum, with the five top artists chosen by the general public forming a “fan ballot” that was tallied with the opposite skilled ballots.

Last yr it featured Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, Kate Bush and the late George Michael were among the artists who entered the hall.

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Mark Kennedy is there http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits