What is going on with Saracens, one of England's most successful rugby union clubs?

In the past five years no one has been better, with Sarries winning England's Premiership four times and being European champions three times.

Six Saracens players started for England in the Rugby World Cup final defeat by South Africa in November, including captain Owen Farrell.

But the north London club were hit by a massive fine and points deduction late last year for breaking salary cap rules - and unless they can prove within a few days that they are under the salary cap for this season, they face relegation from England's top flight.

What's the background?

In November Saracens were given a 35-point deduction and a £5.4m fine for breaching salary cap regulations for the previous three seasons.

Initially, the club insisted they had done nothing wrong and said they would appeal - this was later withdrawn and the punishment accepted.

However, it was not until Nigel Wray resigned as chairman and Edwards Griffiths returned as chief executive that the club admitted culpability and announced plans to trim down their squad in order to comply with the cap this season.

Was the punishment fair?

While the fine and points deduction was unprecedented - and according to some draconian - others feel Saracens should have been punished more severely.

Automatic relegation or a stripping of titles was not in the regulations, and therefore not a realistic sanction, but Sarries were found to have twice been more than £650,000 over the cap limit.

This could have led to two separate 35-point deductions - a total of 70 points. However, the panel decided to run the sanctions concurrently.

Have Saracens released any players this season?

Despite Griffiths' intentions, no players have yet left Saracens, either permanently or on loan.

Saracens are thought to have exceeded the cap by well in excess of £1m last season, and other Premiership clubs have been determined to see the champions make major changes to their operation this campaign.

However, simply terminating players' contracts would be difficult, with any compensation paid out also counting towards the cap.

Put simply, Saracens are on the way to breaking the rules again. While one solution would be the players taking a pay-cut across the board, there are no indications yet that this is happening.

How have the other clubs reacted?

Exeter have been the most vocal opponents, not surprisingly given how they have lost three Premiership finals in recent seasons to the men in black.

Shortly after Christmas, the Chiefs beat Sarries in an ill-tempered clash at Sandy Park, with director of rugby Rob Baxter strongly criticising the Londoners in an interview with BBC 5 Live after the game - claiming their cheating had had an impact on others' livelihoods.

On Tuesday 14th January, Premiership bosses met in London at a board meeting. Given Saracens had not been able to show evidence they were going to comply with the cap this season, it was decided they should face further punishment - which would lead to automatic relegation.

What would happen in the event of relegation?

Saracens' situation is complicated by Wray's retirement as chairman and resignation from the board. He has financed Saracens for decades, reclaiming full control in April 2018. Although Wray's family remain heavily involved, it isn't clear what long-term plans they have for the club.

While Sarries would remain Premiership shareholders, relegation for the club would be potentially disastrous, and could lead to regrettable redundancies on the non-playing side.

As for the impact on the playing squad….

What would happen to the players in the event of relegation?

While relegation would almost certainly lead to the break-up of the star-studded squad, it is a complicated situation.

Unlike in football, where there isn't a salary cap and there are set transfer windows, rugby clubs tend to finalise their squads for the new season at the start of the calendar year.

While some clubs may have room in the cap for a big name who suddenly becomes available, many will now have started to finalise their playing group for the 2020-2021 season.

So either Saracens' players go onto the market as free agents, or they take considerable pay cuts elsewhere, or they stay at Sarries - especially as it's unlikely they would have relegation clauses in their contracts.

Like with Mark Wilson and Newcastle, season-long loan deals are likely, while players moving abroad is another option. However, French clubs also have salary cap restrictions, many Pro 14 sides are not flush with extra money, and operating overseas would mean players wouldn't be eligible to play for England because of Rugby Football Union regulations.

Could England players play in the Championship?

Yes. There are no rules precluding selecting Championship players for England. While playing a significantly poorer standard of rugby in the second tier would be far from ideal preparation for international rugby - let alone the Lions in 2021 - there could even be benefits for the national side. For example, if a star name stays at Saracens in the event of relegation, he may be able to focus more on being fit and available for England, without the week-to-week grind of Premiership and Champions Cup action.

Can Saracens play in the Champions Cup if relegated?

No. While the winners of the Champions Cup qualify for next season's tournament - and Saracens are still in contention - European organisers have confirmed to the BBC that only teams from the Premiership, Top 14 and Pro 14 are eligible to play in European competitions. The only exceptions are the teams from emerging nations who play in the Challenge Cup.

What happens now?

Premiership Rugby has yet to officially comment, while at the time of writing Saracens insist they are still working towards finding a solution.

Either way, this episode will serve as a line in the sand. An independent review into the salary cap regulations - conducted by former government minister Lord Myners - is already under way.

This episode has not just hit the integrity of Saracens as a club - but the Premiership as a whole.

McLaren’s desire to become a full-time participant in the NTT IndyCar Series has included many obstacles, but they have not kept the famed racing brand from its mission.

Its arrival for 2020 has already been controversial to some. By combining efforts with Arrow Schmidt Peterson’s IndyCar team to become Arrow McLaren Racing SP, the operation left Honda with more than a year left on its contract.

Honda officials prohibited American Honda and Honda Performance Development from doing business with McLaren because of comments made about the company’s Formula One engine in 2017.

Arrow McLaren Racing SP will be a Chevrolet team.

Popular Canadian driver and Honda spokesman James Hinchcliffe was expected to fulfill the final year of his Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports contract as driver for Arrow McLaren SP but was told in late October that he would not be one of the two drivers.

Instead, Arrow McLaren Racing SP will have an all-rookie lineup featuring the past two Indy Lights Series champions. Mexioc’s Patricio O’Ward, the 2018 Indy Lights champion, finally gets a full-time ride and he will be joined by 23-year-old Oliver Askew of Jupiter, Fla., who won the 2019 Indy Lights championship.

Hinchcliffe remains part of the team and will be paid for the final year of his contract. He is free to pursue a full-time ride with another NTT IndyCar Series team but had been unsuccessful in that effort at press time.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown had a strong passion to bring McLaren back to IndyCar racing since he brought two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso to the 101st Indianapolis 500 in 2017.

In a joint effort with Andretti Autosport, Alonso led 27 laps and was in contention before his engine quit on lap 179. He finished 24th.

McLaren returned to Indy last year and failed to make the 33-car starting lineup. The McLaren Indy team had an engineering alliance with Carlin, but that team also struggled at Indy.

When the team left Indianapolis Motor Speedway after getting bumped out of the starting field, Brown and McLaren sporting director and Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran vowed they would be back.

In an effort to help ensure a successful Indy car operation, McLaren purchased Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in August.

“This has been going on obviously behind the scenes for some time, identifying areas in which we think McLaren can help support what we think is already a very good foundation at Sam’s team,” Brown said. “Arrow is obviously our title partner of our IndyCar team. They joined us this year in Formula One. Their automotive business has taken off in the last five years, and they currently are in business with our automotive group, our racing group, our IT infrastructure and applied technologies.

“While they are a sponsor partner on our race cars, they are a much more integrated technology partner across all of our businesses.”

In order to make that move, Sam Schmidt had to end a long-standing relationship with Honda, including ending a contract with one year left on the agreement.

“It was extremely difficult, because there is that loyalty,” Schmidt said. “There is that length of time and a lot of success and at the end of the day, they are a great motorsports and OEM operator.

“When they aren’t winning, they do everything possible to win, so we wanted to stay in that camp. When you draw the line down the center of the paper and you put your pros and cons on each side, that was definitely a big negative to doing this deal.

“On the other side of the page, there were so many positives that it really was, you know, a no-brainer. At the end of the day, it’s just unfortunate, but it’s ultimately their decision.”

De Ferran, a two-time CART champion with Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500, is in charge of McLaren’s IndyCar effort. Arrow, Schmidt and Ric Peterson remain ownership principals in the team.

TULSA, Okla. – Though a penalty hampered him early on, Spencer Bayston put on a rally during Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night feature to give himself a shot going into Saturday.

Bayston was put to the tail for a green-white-checkered finish in his heat race, after making contact with Michelle Decker that sent Decker spinning on the backstretch.

He still scraped out enough points to make the qualifiers, but Bayston’s real rallies came after the heats, when he went from ninth to fourth in his qualifier and then came from the eighth row in the 30-lap feature all the way up to a sixth-place finish.

The most notable showing of the speed in Bayston’s No. 19b Hayward Motorsports midget came in the early moments of the feature, when Bayston stormed from 15th to eighth in the first four laps.

From there, it was a matter of picking his moves when they appeared for Bayston, who put himself solidly into a B-main for Saturday’s championship program.

“We could be (sitting) a lot better, but we for sure definitely could have ended up a whole lot worse,” Bayston noted. “I don’t think we really found anything in the future; we’ve been this good and this fast all week. It’s just silly things, I feel like, that keep happening and putting us behind. I rolled out for the feature and I knew we were going to have a car that could go forward. Some of the guys in front of me, at the start of the feature, kind of paved the way for me. That helped out a little bit.

“Once we got to open track, I was able to run down the leaders pretty quick. But just through traffic, I never had that open door that I really needed,” Bayston added. “But man, yeah, we were fast. It’s unfortunate that we had to have something like what happened in the heat race that ended up putting us so far behind. I think without that, I think we could have had a really, really solid night.”

– Much like Bayston, Cole Bodine had to put on a rally to keep himself from being buried too deeply in the alphabet soup for Saturday night, but instead of in the feature, Bodine’s charge came in his qualifier.

After barely making the qualifiers as the 37th-highest man in points, Bodine came from last all the way to second, ripping the top side of the temporary fifth-mile dirt oval to advance past car after car.

That run catapulted Bodine to seventh in points, and while his run in the feature didn’t work out as well and he ended up 22nd in the final rundown, Bodine was still pleased with what many people in the pits dubbed “the drive of the week” to-date.

“We had fun in that qualifier, man; it was a struggle in the heat race, but we got it right after that,” Bodine said. “I just had to finesse the No. 39bc Driven2SaveLives Spike/SR11x around the top and man, she ripped. It was pretty cool coming up through there. The feature, I just drove her in a little too hard and got turned around. It was a rookie mistake. We’re not in a horrible spot for Saturday, so we’ll see.”

– In the continuing fan debate on whether Christopher Bell or Kyle Larson is the better driver, runner-up Thomas Meseraull had his two cents to offer following Thursday night’s 30-lap preliminary feature.

“Christopher Bell is one of the best, if not the best, drivers in this sport,” Meseraull noted. “I think Larson’s better by a lot, but you know, like Bell’s a bad-ass, man. He’s good at what he does.”

Of note, both Larson (Tuesday) and Bell (Thursday) won their preliminary night features this week, while Bell also won the Vacuwox Invitational Race of Champions and has won the last three Chili Bowl finales.

– Both Swindell SpeedLab entries – the No. 1 of Sammy Swindell and the No. 39 of Logan Seavey – are now locked into B-mains for Saturday’s program.

Swindell ran fifth in his preliminary feature on Wednesday night, while Seavey one-upped the three-time World of Outlaws sprint car champion with a fourth-place finish on Thursday night.

– He led the first two laps on Thursday night, but Shane Golobic couldn’t replicate the same performance that his Matt Wood Racing teammate Colby Copeland put on from 24 hours earlier.

Golobic faded back to fifth in the No. 17w NOS Energy Drink machine, putting himself in the middle of a B-main for the finale after Copeland locked into the 55-lap A-main with a runner-up effort to Rico Abreu.

– Driving for former Chili Bowl winning car owner Andy Bondio, Danny Stratton was perhaps the biggest name who failed to make Thursday night’s feature field.

Finishing fifth in his B-main, Stratton will have to come from deep in an E-main on Saturday if he wants to give Bondio a fourth Chili Bowl title.

Bondio won his first Golden Driller as a car owner in 1991 with legendary driver Lealand McSpadden, and added two more Drillers in 2000 and 2004 with California’s Cory Kruseman at the controls.

– The World Wide Technology Raceway Flip Count stands at 49 through four nights of action, with the most spectacular flip on Thursday coming on lap one of the first heat race.

In that event, Jessie Barber went for a wild ride in turn four, coming to rest in a cloud of steam and smoke but climbing out uninjured after a couple of rolls through the high side of the corner.

How to Watch the Chili Bowl:

LIVE From the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Presented by MyRacePass – Story Index Page
News, analysis, interviews, behind-the-scenes and more – updated throughout each day.

LIVE PPV Streaming Broadcast – Racinboys.com
Monday – Saturday coverage

LIVE Television Broadcast – MAVTV.com
Saturday, Jan. 18th at 8:30pm EST

LIVE Timing and Scoring – MyRacePass
https://www.myracepass.com/app

SPEED SPORT’s Chili Bowl coverage is presented by MyRacePass, the official timing and scoring app of the 2020 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. Fans can download the MyRacePass app on their phones to follow all the action during the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. For more information on MyRacePass, visit www.myracepass.com and use the hashtag #GetTheApp on Twitter!

PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Port Royal Speedway has released a busy schedule of events for this year, which includes 34 races dates.

The Weikert Livestock 410 sprint cars will be featured 29 times, beginning with the opener on Sunday, March 8 and concluding with the two-day World Of Outlaw NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series on Oct. 9-10.  The final three races of the season, the Tuscarora 50 and the World Of Outlaw events, will be non-point races for local competitors.

The marquee event, the Tuscarora 50, will take place on Saturday, Sept. 12 and will again be sanctioned by the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions.  The All Star series will sanction the Keith Kauffman Classic on April 18 and pay $7,700 to win, the two-day Weikert Memorial over Memorial Day and the Night Before the 50 on Sept. 11.

The unsanctioned $10,000-to-win Living Legends Dream Race will take place on Saturday, Aug. 1.  Port Royal Speedway will again host two events as part of Pennsylvania Speedweek on Wednesday, July 1, and conclude the week on Saturday, July 4 with the running of the Greg Hodnett Classic.  Both events will pay $7,000 to win.

The super late models have 20 events scheduled. The biggest late model purse in the history of the speedway will be paid on Saturday, Aug. 29 when the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series invades with a $50,000 to win main event. The Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series will also present the Rumble By The River on Sunday, April 19 and the traveling group will have a preliminary event on Friday, Aug. 28.

The super late model class will again be part of the Weikert Memorial on both Saturday and Sunday over the Memorial Day holiday, paying $5,000 to win each event. The Pennsylvania Late Model Challenge Series, formerly the Tri-Track Challenge, will visit the speedway for a time trial event on Saturday, June 6.  Other high-paying late model races will take place on March 21-22 and Sept. 5 when the ULMS Late Model Series sanctions the events.

Returning for their second full season is the 358 Limited Late Model division. The Limited Late Models have 12 events scheduled and will again be part of the Butch Renninger Memorial event on Saturday, Sept. 5 and the Labor Day Classic on Monday, Sept. 7. The Limited Late Models will be showcased twice during the Keith Kauffman Classic and Lucas Oil Late Model weekend on April 18-19.  The limited late models will run a pair of 18-lap feature events on Saturday, May 30.

The PA Sprint Series (PASS) 305 sprint cars have 10 events scheduled. The 305 sprints will make their first appearance at the speedway on Saturday, April 4 and will close the season with the ninth annual Keystone RaceSaver Challenge event on Saturday, Oct 17. For the first time, the PASS/IMCA 305 sprints will be part of the World Of Outlaw event on Saturday, Oct. 10 in an invitation only event with the top 24 drivers in the point standings participating.

A multitude of open wheel divisions will take on the Speed Palace as well. Returning after a year’s absence are the USAC East Coast 360 wingless sprint cars on Saturday, Aug. 22 during Open Wheel Madness IV.  The Wingless Super Sportsman will be part of Open Wheel Madness III on Saturday, July 18, and the 358 Sprint Car Summer Series returns on Saturday, June 20 as part of Open Wheel Madness II.

The United Racing Club 360 winged sprint cars have three events scheduled. They are Saturday, April 11, Saturday, April 25 as part of Open Wheel Madness I and on Wednesday, July 1 as a second division to the 410 sprint car PA Speedweek event. 358 sprint car teams are welcome to run all three events.

Also on the schedule are the 4-cylinder stock cars (twice), the Short Track Super Series Modifieds on Sunday, March 22 and the return of the Mid Atlantic Modifieds on Saturday, April 11

Finally, the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series returns for the week-long Eastern Storm series with a 410 sprint car doubleheader on Saturday, June 13.

TULSA, Okla. – After nearly a week of waiting, Justin Allgaier will finally hit the dirt at Tulsa Expo Raceway Friday night during Vacuworx Qualifying Night for the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series star is one of 72 drivers scheduled to compete in the final preliminary program before the championship features take center stage on Saturday, and it’s a day he’s been waiting for ever since last year’s Chili Bowl ended.

He has annually competed in the Super Bowl of Midget Racing for the last five years, but Allgaier has a history with the event that dates back to 2001, when he was a fresh-faced 14 year old.

Allgaier keeps coming back because – in his eyes – the Chili Bowl became intrinsically spooled in his DNA from that very first visit to the River Spirit Expo Center.

“To be back at the Chili Bowl is always such a treat,” said Allgaier. “This race and what it means to me as a race car driver, but more so too as a fan, is just something that’s special and hard to put into words. Just coming here to the Expo Center, I’ve been coming here for almost 20 years of racing and it’s never gotten old. Every time I come in here, I’m equally as excited as I was that first time.

“We were laughing on the plane coming out here about the first time I came here, I had actually never even sat in a midget. I mean, we bolted the seat in here in the Expo Center for the first time, we fired the car up for the first time in the parking lot outside … I didn’t even know how to put them into in and out of gear at that point,” Allgaier recalled. “The only thing I’d ever driven was a micro sprint. And you know, to think back on those days … my dad’s standing a few feet from me and, really, was probably crazy for putting me in one when he did, but we got through it and got stronger through the years.

Ultimately, it was that day that started a lifelong love affair for this race and this weekend.”

Allgaier is driving the No. 7a Ripper/Stanton-SR11 for Flea Ruzic and Steve Reynolds at this year’s Chili Bowl, seeking his fourth-career Saturday A-main start and first since the 2009 running of the event.

His car this week, oddly enough, was actually a show car just a few weeks prior to move-in at the Expo Center.

“That’s the funny part about my car is that, it’s kind of been the man with many hats, if you will,” Allgaier noted. “Last year, I was obviously here with one of my cars, but I’m having a good time in this situation. To be able to come here and be back with Flea, Steve Reynolds, everyone on this team … we had a lot of fun the last few years with having my own car and hanging out with them, but now this deal is just as good, I think.

“We just decided that, to do this once a year, it’s way too hard to have your own car and to operate at a high level,” Allgaier continued. “So we had an opportunity to be able to drive one of Steve and Flea’s cars, and I knew how good of equipment they have and watched him wrench on it and build it, so I’m excited to hopefully go out and show them what we’ve got here over the next two days.”

Regardless of where he finishes through the remainder of this year’s Chili Bowl, Allgaier will have his trademark ear-to-ear grin on his face because, in his own words, “that’s just what the Chili Bowl is.”

It’s a gathering of fans, drivers and enthusiasts, all with the same passion and love for racing in mind.

“I tell people all the time, that unless you’ve experienced the Chili Bowl, you’re not going to understand it,” Allgaier said. “You know, this place has it all: open wheel fans, winged sprint car fans, late model fans, modified fans, NASCAR fans … it doesn’t matter what your cup of tea is and what you enjoy when you get here, because you see this weekend, and you see the racers, and that’s what it is, is pure racing.

“There’s racers from I don’t know how many states, close to all 50 states, layman racers, stock car racers, asphalt racers, dirt racers, winged racers; there’s all different genres of racing covered with the drivers that are going to be here. And the fans are, there’s nothing like them here,” Allgaier added. “This whole week is just a blast, and to be a guy that’s been fortunate enough to come here for so many years and come back and run this weekend … I’m honored to line up each and every time I come here and race with these guys.”

That doesn’t mean Allgaier’s competitive fire isn’t still there, though. He wants to perform as bad as ever and hopefully end that decade-long drought of being outside the A-main.

“Don’t get me wrong, my goal is always go out there and win,” he smiled. “I’ve been close to getting in there. In 2007, the year we finished third to Tony (Stewart) and J.J. (Yeley), that was probably one of the most fun races in my entire life. But the thing that I love about Tulsa is that you can be the best race car driver here, in the best car here, and you can be in the Z-main on Saturday night. I mean it has no prejudice.

“This place doesn’t care who you are or how good your stuff is; you have to have that Tulsa luck, and that’s what makes this place so much fun and so special.”

BATAVIA, Ohio – The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has named MyRacePass as the official race management of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

“A partnership with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is something we’ve strived to achieve for quite a while,” said MyRacePass Co-Founder and Director of Business and Marketing Josh Holt. “The whole team at MyRacePass is excited to work with the premier traveling dirt series. We are confident our product will help the series both with fan engagement as well as race management.”

The MRP App is free to download from the App Store or Google Play, providing entry list, lineups, results, points, and news.

“It’s our goal to make the sport better, and with what we have done with MRP in other areas around the country it makes it exciting to now be able to bring that to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and to all of the fans and drivers of the series.”

Fans can upgrade to “MRP Live” for only $7.99 per year and enjoy the additional benefits of live timing and scoring along with driver lap times. MRP Live also includes sorting functionalities that allow fans and drivers to see which drivers are quickest lap-by-lap and even monitor the cut off line in qualifying races to see who is in the show, and who is out.

“It’s our mission to help engage race fans and provide them with more information at their fingertips, faster,” said Holt. “We’re constantly working on more and more ways to get our product into the people’s hands during the race, the whole time they are at the venue. Nearly everyone has a smartphone and nearly everyone has them out during the events. With the tools we provide, they can now be on the MyRacePass app learning about their favorite drivers and learning more about the race itself.”

For the ultimate race fan, MRP Insider is available for $34.99/yr., giving full live access plus driver bio’s, event history from previous years, detailed points breakdowns, and more.

Series drivers will not only benefit from MRP’s live lap-by-lap timing, but also be able to maximize their marketing portfolio via MRP’s website package options, which start as low as $144 per year. MRP driver websites automatically populate with results and news articles via integration with the MRP Race Management program.

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins have waived 14-year veteran David Backes.

Backes has scored 245 goals with 309 assists in 944 NHL games, spending the first 10 years of his career with the St. Louis Blues and the last four in Boston. A two-time U.S. Olympian, he was an All-Star in 2011, and the following season he was the runner-up in the Selke Award voting.

The 35-year-old Backes has just one goal and two assists in 16 games with the Bruins this season.

The team said it wants to assign him to Providence of the American Hockey League.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Carolina Hurricanes All-Star defenseman Dougie Hamilton has a broken bone in his left leg.

The team announced Friday that Hamilton had suffered a broken fibula in Thursday night's loss at Columbus. He was hurt in the second period while chasing down a puck along the wall in the neutral zone when he was tangled up with Columbus' Kevin Stenlund. He fell awkwardly with his leg bent underneath him. He didn't return to the game.

The Hurricanes said team doctors are evaluating the 26-year-old Hamilton and a recovery timeline will be known later Friday.

Hamilton had 14 goals and 26 assists through 47 games this season. That ranked tied for second in goals and fourth in points (40) for all NHL defensemen. He was a week away from attending his first NHL All-Star Weekend in St. Louis.

NEW YORK -- Nashville Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson has been fined $2,000 by the NHL under the league's rules regarding diving and embellishment.

NHL Rule 64 was designed to penalize players who repeatedly dive and embellish in an attempt to draw penalties. A player gets a warning for a first citation and a $2,000 fine for the second citation.

League officials said Arvidsson received a warning following an incident Dec. 27 against Pittsburgh. His second citation occurred during the first period of a Jan. 7 game with Boston that resulted in coincidental minor penalties on Arvidsson and Bruins forward Brad Marchand.

Fine proceeds go to the players' emergency assistance fund.

DALLAS -- Defenseman Stephen Johns appears on track to return to the Dallas Stars' lineup for the first time in 22 months on Saturday.

Johns, who returned from a conditioning assignment with Texas of the AHL, was not active for Thursday's game but will travel with the Stars for their game at Minnesota.

He has not played in an NHL game since March 29, 2018, because of post-traumatic headaches.

"There's a good chance he'll play Saturday," interim coach Rick Bowness said, "so we'll evaluate that [Friday] and Saturday morning."

Johns had a goal and three assists in two games for Texas.

The Stars could be in need of a defenseman after Miro Heiskanen didn't play the second half of Thursday's 4-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres because of an upper-body injury. Bowness said Heiskanen's availability is considered day to day.