Rangers hire Mike Sullivan as coach days after he and the Penguins parted ways

The New York Rangers have hired Mike Sullivan as coach, days after he and the Pittsburgh Penguins agreed to part ways.

General manager Chris Drury announced the move Friday, bringing in the organization’s top candidate who was out of work for less than a full business week.

“Mike Sullivan has established himself as one of the premier head coaches in the NHL,” Drury said. “Mike brings a championship-level presence behind the bench. ... As we began this process and Mike became an available option for us to speak with, it was immediately clear that he was the best coach to lead our team.”

Sullivan replaces Peter Laviolette, who was fired after the Rangers missed the playoffs following a trip to the Eastern Conference final last year. Sullivan, who coached Pittsburgh to the Stanley Cup back to back in 2016 and ’17, is tasked with trying to turn the Rangers back into an immediate contender.

Iisalo hired as Grizzlies coach after taking over the team near the end of the season

MEMPHIS, Tenn. >> Tuomas Iisalo, who was appointed interim coach of the Memphis Grizzlies in the waning days of the regular season, was given the full-time job on Friday and becomes the first Finnish-born coach in the NBA.

The team announced the hiring on Friday but terms of Iisalo’s contract were not released. He joined the Grizzlies as the lead assistant this past season.

Iisalo took over the team on March 28 after the Grizzlies returned home from an 0-5 road trip, the last loss coming at Oklahoma City. The road trip led to the firing of Taylor Jenkins, the winningest coach in Grizzlies franchise history.

“I have full confidence in Tuomas serving as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies going forward,” Grizzlies president Zach Kleiman said in a statement. “Tuomas’ teams at every level have been disciplined, tenacious and connected on both ends of the floor, consistently exceeding expectations. We look forward to the same in Memphis.”

Iisalo, a native of Finland, was 4-5 in the final nine games of the regular season. Memphis split two games in the play-in tournament, earning the eighth seed and faced Oklahoma City, to whom they lost all four games.

Transgender women banned from women’s cricket in England and Wales

LONDON >> Transgender women are to be banned outright from women’s and girls’ cricket in England and Wales.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said Friday it had updated its previous restrictions following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month.

“With immediate effect, only those whose biological sex is female will be eligible to play in women’s cricket and girls’ cricket matches”, the ECB said Friday. “Transgender women and girls can continue playing in open and mixed cricket.”

The announcement comes a day after transgender athletes were banned from playing on women’s soccer teams in England and Scotland by the Football Association.

Transgender women were already banned from the top two tiers of elite women’s cricket from the start of this year but had been permitted to compete in the women’s game at lower levels including recreational cricket.

— The Associated Press