Stars’ Seguin to undergo hip surgery

Stars forward Tyler Seguin needs hip surgery and will be out four to six months, jeopardizing the season for the 32-year-old now dealing with the second major hip injury of his career. Seguin will have a procedure to repair an impingement and the labrum in his left hip, the team said Wednesday. The surgery is planned for Thursday. The six-time All-Star missed all but three games of the 2020-21 season following a similar surgery on his right hip. Seguin also underwent arthroscopic knee surgery during that absence. Seguin tried to play through hip pain during the playoff bubble in Canada in 2020, when the Stars reached the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Lightning. He played 19 of the first 23 games this season and is third on the team with 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists). The Stars put Seguin on injured reserve after a 3-1 victory over the Jets on Sunday. Seguin played 81 games the first season after the surgery on his right hip and didn’t miss any of the Stars’ playoff games in runs to the Western Conference Final each of the last two seasons.

Soto narrowing list of potential teams

Juan Soto is starting to drop teams from negotiations ahead of baseball’s winter meetings next week. Likely to approach or set a record contract, the free agent slugger has met with the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays. “When you’re going through these things, he’s just got a lot of information to meld through,” agent Scott Boras said Tuesday. “We’ve had meetings with a number of franchises. He’s begun the process of eliminating teams — Juan is a very methodical thinker. So we’ll see. But I don’t think anything is imminent in the near future.” Soto is the top player available among this year’s free agents. A four-time All-Star, he finished third in AL MVP voting after hitting .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks for the AL champion Yankees. He has a .285 career batting average with 201 homers, 592 RBIs and 769 walks over seven major league seasons. Soto turned down a 15-year, $440 million offer from the Nationals in 2022, prompting the Nationals to trade him to the Padres, which then dealt him to the Yankees last December.

Djokovic to open season at Brisbane

Novak Djokovic will open the new tennis season at the Brisbane International tournament, a warmup event for the Australian Open. “I’m excited to be kicking off my Australian swing at the Brisbane International and to compete again at Pat Rafter Arena,” Djokovic, who will be seeking his 100th tour-level title, said. It will be only the second time that Djokovic plays at the event, having lost to Ernests Gulbis in the first round in 2009. The tournament is scheduled for Dec 29 – Jan 5 with Grigor Dimitrov, Holger Rune, Frances Tiafoe and Nick Kyrgios also set to compete. Djokovic is a record 24-time Grand Slam champion who has spent more weeks at No. 1 than any other player in tennis history. He announced last month he hired former rival and recently-retired Andy Murray as his coach to work together at the Australian Open, a Grand Slam event he won record 10 times, The Australian Open starts on Jan 12. The 37-year-old Djokovic won only one tournament in 2024, claiming his first Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games in August. —Associated Press