NEW YORK -- The New York Rangers signed forward Chris Kreider to a four-year contract worth $18.5 million in a last-minute deal that helped the sides avoid arbitration.General manager Jeff Gorton announced the agreement on Friday. Hours later, he also announced the signing of the Rangers other major restricted free agent, center Kevin Hayes.Hayes signed a two-year contract for $5.2 million. He was scheduled to have an arbitration hearing next week.Kreiders new contract will pay him an average of $4.6 million and keep him the team through 2020. It also includes a modified no-trade clause that prevents Kreider, 25, from being traded to 11 teams.What happens in this type of deal is that both sides have stated positions and when the specter of arb comes, it drives both sides closer, Matt Keator, Kreiders agent, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. For us, the term was the right amount and for the team that amount was the right amount, so we were able to come together on both sides.It worked out fine, and Chris loves New York and wants to be there.Keator said both sides were ready to present their cases Friday morning before reaching an agreement.Kreider had 21 goals, 22 assists and a plus-10 rating in 79 games for New York last season. He established career-highs in even-strength goals (16) and hits (177), and he tied his career-high in goals, set the previous season.Kreider was one of six NHL players who registered at least 20 goals, 40 points, a plus-10 rating and 50 penalty minutes this past season. Alex Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand?and James Neal were the others.Kreider ranked third on the team in power-play goals (five), fourth in even-strength goals, fifth in goals and even-strength points (35), and tied for fifth in points. Kreider also led the Rangers in goals (15) and ranked second on the team in points (26) on the road.The 6-foot-3, 226-pounder had two goals in five playoff games.Kreider has skated in 248 career NHL games with the Rangers, registering 61 goals and 68 assists, along with a plus-47 rating. He is the only Ranger who has recorded at least 20 goals in each of the last two seasons.In 65 career NHL playoff games, Kreider has 20 goals and 13 assists.The native of Boxford, Massachusetts, was selected by the Rangers in the first round, 19th overall, of the 2009 NHL entry draft.Hayes, 24, had 14 goals and 22 assists in 79 games last season He established career-highs in game-winning goals (three), power-play goals (three), power-play points (six) and shots on goal (133).Hayes tied for fifth on the team in even-strength assists (19), was sixth in primary assists (14) and tied for sixth in assists, power-play goals and even-strength points (30).The 6-foot-5, 227-pounder, who was signed as a free agent in 2014, has 31 goals and 50 assists and a plus-19 rating in 158 career games with the Rangers. Custom White Sox Jerseys . 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Essendon coach John Worsfold has evoked the memory of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, urging the Bombers to put their dismal AFL season behind them.Ravaged by the loss of 12 players to doping suspensions, Worsfolds side managed just three wins to claim the wooden spoon.In his address to the clubs best-and-fairest ceremony on Wednesday night at Crown Casino, Worsfold said Essendon could learn from the challenges faced by Ali during his career as they looked to climb back up the ladder.In 2016, the world lost Muhammad Ali, a man with an incomparable work ethic and a fearlessness for standing up for his beliefs, Worsfold said.A man who was arrested, stripped of his titles and exiled from his sport for three years - three of his prime years - but then he took part in what was billed as the Fight of the Century with Joe Frazier and he lost.But then he made a comeback and is recognised as one of the greatest athletes of all time.Barack Obama said of Muhammad Ali: hes a man who believes real success comes when we rise after we fall.Though not identical, theres some lessons we can learn there.None of the banned players was present at the ceremony as they served the last weeks of their penalties.Club chairman Lindsay Tanner told the gathering he was proud of the progress made in the long recovery processs after the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) January decision to uphold the doping bans stemming from the 2012 supplements program.ddddddddddddWeve come to the end of an extremely challenging season, one that is unique in AFL history, Tanner said.We all know why and I dont intend to revisit the causes tonight. The events of the past few years have been very serious for Essendon Football Club, our members and particularly for the players involved. The effects will be with us for some time.On that awful day in mid-January when the CAS decision was handed down, my message was very simple: We will get through this.We can now take stock at the end of an extraordinary season. The recovery process is by no means over, but we have made great progress.Despite his earlier assertion, Tanner couldnt resist one small dig at CAS as he praised the unity and resilience of the players and club.We havent turned on each other, he said.We havent been distracted by the temptation to publicly re-fight the CAS decision - outrageous though it may have been.The banned players are allowed to return to the club in September and are awaiting the verdict of their appeal to a Swiss court. ' ' '