The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

July 1, 1984

The Hockey News July 1, 1984

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01595/5127420-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabre netminder Tom Barrasso admitted he was more than a little shocked after winning both the Vezina and Calder Trophy.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Mikael Andersson is one player Sabre general manager-coach Scotty Bowman could not overlook.And so it was, when the Sabres were called upon to announce their first-round pick (18th overall) in the 1984 National Hockey League entry draft, Bowman picked Andersson.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t let a guy like this one pass by,&rdquo; Bowman said of Andersson, an 18-year-old center from Malmo, Sweden. &ldquo;I was afraid that he would be signed before we would get a chance at him. I had thought the Rangers might take him.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real talented player. But I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll be able to play for us next year.&ldquo;Our scouts saw him play and they told me that he was a very talented player.&rdquo;Rated the best player at the world junior tournament in Sweden in December, Andersson was the leading scorer with 16 points (eight goals and eight assists) in five games.Even if Andersson is able to play for the Sabres this season, he&rsquo;d have a hard time equalling the success of Tom Barrasso.Not only did Barrasso, the Sabres&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the 1983 draft, win the Calder Trophy as the league&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year, he also won the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the league and earned additional honors by being selected to the NHL&rsquo;s first All-Star team arid the All-Rookie team, too.&ldquo;I nearly had a heart attack when I won the second one (Vezina),&rdquo; Barrasso said at the NHL Awards dinner in Toronto. &ldquo;I was really hoping to get the Calder. That is something you can only win once.&ldquo;But to win both, I can&rsquo;t express the feeling I have now. But I know I&rsquo;ll able to treasure this moment for the rest of my life.&rdquo;Barrasso has certainly come a long way since June of &rsquo;83 when, at the age of 18, he was drafted directly from Acton-Boxboro high school near Boston, MA.Barrasso had three options heading into last summer&rsquo;s draft&mdash;joining the Sabres, playing for the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, or going on to college. But by August he had made his decision.&ldquo;I wanted a pro career, not one in college and I&rsquo;m glad, despite winning these awards, to have made the decision that I did,&rdquo; he said.Barrasso, one of the taller netminders in the league at 6-foot-3, finished second in the league in goals-against average (2.84), third in save percentage (.893), and had an overall record of 26-12-3 with two shutouts.&ldquo;I personally feel that I can play better next year,&rdquo; said Barrasso. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to be coming to training camp in the fall ready to work again. I can&rsquo;t play on what I won this year.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel that my job can&rsquo;t be taken away by someone else. The bottom line is with Scotty, and that is to win.&ldquo;I had no problems with the way things worked out this year alternating with Bob Sauve in the nets. But I would like to see the team go to one goalie the last couple of weeks of the season to get one of us ready for the playoffs.&ldquo;But again, that will be up to Scotty.&rdquo;SABRES NOTES&mdash;The Sabres forfeited their ninth-round pick, Eric Weinrich, because he wasn&rsquo;t eligible to be drafted. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Bowman Felt Andersson Was A Swedish Delight

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03218/5127613-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="284" height="377"></div><h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>PLAYERS WANTED PORT-AUX-BASQUES Mariners of the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League require for the 1984/85 season, a player-coach plus other players. We are looking for players with junior, senior or pro experience. Please forward resume and qualifications to: Jack Evans, Box 50 Isle-Aux-Morts, Nfld., A0M 1J0, or call (709) 698-3776.DEFUNCT SPORTS PRICELISTS 55 pages of media guides, yearbooks, photos, programs, pennants, decals, cards, game Jerseys and more, includes WHA (World Hockey Association), WFL (world Football League), ABA (American Basketball). NL (National Lacrosse) and more. Send cheque or m/o for $4.99 to. EMPIRE SPORTS, 1947 Avenue Road, Suite 201, Toronto, Ont. M5M 4A2. NCCA Dealer &#9733; Free gift and $2.50 credit on first order.FORMER PROFESSIONAL seeking scouting and/or coaching job. Contact (804) 740-8759 after 6:00 pm EST.SPORTS COLLECTIBLES SALEFor list send $1.00 to D.W. Sim, 60Parkland Cres., Nepean, Ont., K2H 7V8.WHA-NHL-AHL-IHL-MINOR HOCKEY65 page pricelist of photos, media guides, cards, yearbooks, programs, pennants, pucks, game used Jerseys, equipment and much more, send cheque or m/o for $5.50 with this ad to: CANADA U.S. SPORTS ENTERPRISES99 Katherine M. Downsview, OntCanada M3K 1J5* Free gift valued at $3 00 with this ad.SUCCESSFUL HOCKEY SALES executive seeking career with pro, Junior or college organizaton. Contact: Joe (801) 562-0602 (collect).WHA FAN CLUB forming. For information send SASE to &ldquo;Screaming Eagle,&rdquo; 29 Cleveland Ave. Worchester, MA, 01603.EXPERIENCED PLAY-BY-PLAY announcer seeks position. Bob Laird, 79 Jackson Ave, Pompton Plains, NJ, 07444. (201) 8352760.<h2>AUDIO</h2>1980 USA Olympic hockey VHS videotapes (2 tapes, all games). Available for trade for other international hockey cassettes. Barry A. Winiker, 403 8th St., Brooklyn, NY, 11215.<h2>TOURNAMENTS</h2>2ND ANNUAL YANKEE CUP Tournament August 28-September 2, Danvers Twin Rinks. Danvers, MA. For information call Torre Lapiana (617) 438-1017.<h2>MERCHANDISE</h2>CLOSE-UP PHOTOS, postcards. NHL, CHL players. For sample send SASE. Madeloni, 3501 E. 10, Denver, CO. 80206.SPORTS JERSEYS UNLIMITEDComplete 18 page pricelist of game worn jerseys Leagues include Baseball, CFL-NFL-WFL-NHL WHA-NASL-NBA and more. Over 1500 satisfied customers. For complete list send cheque or m/o for $5.00 payable to:EMPIRE SPORTS, 1947 Avenue Road,Suite 201, Toronto, Ont. M5M 4A2. NCCA Dealer&#9733; Free gift and $2.50 credit on first order.NOVA SCOTIA VEES 83-84 hockey cards set includes Canadiens&rsquo; playoff star Steve Penney. $2.00 per set. Write Nova Scotia Vees, 5284 Duke St., Halifax, N.S. B3J 3L2.<h2>PUBLICATIONS</h2>WANTED: COMPLETE 1947-48 season editions of The Hockey News. Contact: James Bazdel 1125-1 10th East, Regina, Sask. S4N 0J3. (306) 757-2241.<h2>COLLECTIONS</h2>AUCTION SALE: Football, basketball sets, singles 50&rsquo;s-80&rsquo;s, sticker albums. Send SASE for free catalogue. Ward McComiskey, Lower East Pubnico, Yarmouth County, N.S., BOW 2A0.<h2>EQUIPMENT</h2>ICE RINK EQUIPMENT. Holmsten Rink-master refrigeration, HDB Zamboni, studio dashers, scoreboard, sharpener, and more. Contact: Joseph Paggi (914) 4542615.<h2>NOVELTIES</h2>SCORE WITH THE HOCKEY-WATCH! Very unusual top quality watch with animated player moving his stick. A great gift idea. Dealers and hockey camps welcomed. For more information write: M.A. Himes Co., 41 High St., Bradford, PA, 16701.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04151/5127606-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="1802" height="1123"></div> &#9632;

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The Classified

Wayne Gretzky has never had a hard time taking center stage in hockey. Clearly, he is the best in his business. But when it comes to center court, well, that&rsquo;s a different story.Every year for one day, Gretzky has to share the spotlight with many others luminaries in his own gala affair, The Wayne Gretzky Celebrity Tennis Classic. The tourney consistently reveals more stars than The Big Dipper.This is the fourth year of the tournament and each outing has brought together famous people from the entertainment and hockey profession who&rsquo;ve donated their time to raise money for charity. Proceeds from the tourney go the Canadian National Institute For the Blind.Naturally, it&rsquo;s a subjective viewpoint which celebrity has drawn the most attention, but aside from Gretzky, the one person who would probably merit serious consideration is Cheryl Tiegs.Tiegs, the long-legged cover girl beauty who made a name for herself with her good looks on cosmetic commercials, drew a few stares and countless autograph seekers the two years she participated in the tourney.Last year, however, Karen Baldwin, a virtual unknown who followed up her success as Miss Canada by winning the Miss Universe crown in 1983, drew considerable attention, too.But these are only two of the many stars who&rsquo;ve come to the town of Brantford to assist Gretzky in his charity affair.Some of the stars attending the tournament for the first time include Ed Marinaro, the former National Football League running back who&rsquo;s gone on to stardom in television&rsquo;s Hill Street Blues; Bob McGrath, the popular figure on Sesame Street (he&rsquo;s the one without the feathers); basketball star Leo Rautins, the former standout in Toronto who became a first-round pick of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association; and Eddie Murray, the Canadian-born placekicker who plays for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League.In the past, some of the stars who&rsquo;ve attended the event include: Anne Murray, Canada&rsquo;s &ldquo;Snowbird;&rdquo; Mike Reno and Doug Johnson, two-fifths of the Vancouver-based rock band, Loverboy; Al Waxman, the &ldquo;King of Kensington;&rdquo; Danielle Brisbois of Archie&rsquo;s Place; and Gloria Loring and Mike Storm of Days of Our Lives.Not to be overlooked in this starfold are the hockey players. While some of the entertainment stars may be recognized internationally, the hockey players are well-known in the nooks and crannies of Canadian communities.When Gretzky walks around the rink to sign autographs during the tournament, he&rsquo;s besieged by youngsters looking to get the most famous autograph in hockey today. Gretzky is al-ways obliging, as are the majority of the hockey players. &#9632;

You Can Count Stars At Gretzky Tourney

<h2>FIRST-ROUND PICKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01480/5127997-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="707" height="479"></div><h2>MIDGET DRAFT BY TEAMS BELLEVILLE (18)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02343/5127990-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="701" height="559"></div><h2>CORNWALL (14)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03245/5127983-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="697" height="445"></div><h2>GUELPH (15)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04189/5127976-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="697" height="469"></div><h2>HAMILTON (18)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05156/5127969-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="695" height="558"></div><h2>KINGSTON (17)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06131/5127962-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="707" height="534"></div><h2>KITCHENER (19)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07118/5127955-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="697" height="593"></div><h2>LONDON (17)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0898/5127948-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="695" height="539"></div><h2>NORTH BAY (17)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0986/5127941-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="699" height="533"></div><h2>OSHAWA (16)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1081/5127934-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="693" height="502"></div><h2>OTTAWA (15)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1177/5127927-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="695" height="476"></div><h2>PETERBOROUGH (17)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1276/5127920-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="695" height="528"></div><h2>S.S. MARIE (16)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1361/5127913-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="694" height="498"></div><h2>SUDBURY (15)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1456/5127906-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="696" height="476"></div><h2>TORONTO (16)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1550/5127899-1-eng-US/f0033-152.jpg" title="f0033-15" width="698" height="504"></div><h2>WINDSOR (17)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1644/5127892-1-eng-US/f0033-162.jpg" title="f0033-16" width="702" height="524"></div> &#9632;

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Ontario Hockey League Midget Draft

<div class="image-hero"><img title="cover" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover30/5128183-1-eng-US/cover2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Don Dixon)</figcaption></div>Habs Snag Czech Star In 1984 Draft Coup&mdash;Page 3Could Bryan Trottier Play For The U.S.?&mdash;Page 7Complete Team-By-Team NHL Draft List&mdash;Page 6Gretzky&rsquo;s Got It Ail: Awards, A Tennis Tourney&mdash;Pages 17, 23 &#9632;

cover

MARIO LEMIEUX CAN HE SALVAGE THE PENGUINS?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011236/5125985-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="287" height="339"></div><h2>Hockey In June</h2>A FEW NAMES and notions as the hot weather sets in:&bull; Mario Lemieux is a splendid stand-up comedian, a natural with a dead-pan line. Lemieux could be the best junior player in Canada&mdash;it&rsquo;s difficult to rate Quebec League players to National Hockey League potential&mdash;and the Pittsburgh Penguins made him the first pick in this year&rsquo;s draft. Lemieux&rsquo;s agent, Gus Badali, was having problems working out a contract and because of that Mario avoided the Pens at the draft and talked about going to Europe or back to junior hockey. Sure, Mario, sure!&ldquo;I guess the Penguins don&rsquo;t want me very badly because they haven&rsquo;t offered me a very good contract,&rdquo; Lemieux said and the comers of his eyes didn&rsquo;t crinkle.&bull; Lemieux&rsquo;s brooding seriousness&mdash;did he think he&rsquo;d be forced to play for $10,000 a season?&mdash;was in direct contrast to the great enthusiasm of the next two picks&mdash;Kirk Muller, claimed by the New Jersey Devils, and Ed Olczyk, who will play for the Black Hawks in his hometown of Chicago.&bull; The televising of the NHL draft allowed a couple of tv executives to find the promised land&mdash;a Bear Bryant style tower built in the Montreal Forum&mdash;from which they could peer down at all beneath them.&bull; Sat behind some Canadian juniors in the Forum seats in the draft&rsquo;s late rounds when two out of three players selected seemed to be Europeans. Their comments on hockey geography, especially Swedes and U.S. high schoolers, were profane and priceless.&bull; Has anyone in history ever appeared as puzzled as young Czech Petr Svoboda, the first draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens, fresh from Czechoslovakia, when he walked on the Forum floor?<h2>Like Old Times</h2>&bull; SERGE SAVARD MADE the draft like old times for the Canadiens, swinging deals to get the players he wanted. However, did anyone figure they would see the day when the Canadiens didn&rsquo;t have their own farm team, not a shared (with Winnipeg Jets) setup in Sherbrooke?The only way to describe Eddie Bush was &ldquo;a hockey man,&rdquo; and when he died in early June at 65, the game lost one of its great characters. Bush, hockey&rsquo;s &ldquo;Big Bark,&rdquo; was a very successful junior coach, notably in Guelph and Hamilton, but made it to the NHL only for a cup of coffee, with Kansas City Scouts in 1975-76. A good promoter. Bush sent a large number of players to the pros.&bull; Robert Sedgwick is a name few people would recognize but he was one of the NHL board of governors&rsquo; strong men, a brilliant lawyer in Toronto who made large contributions to the league as a hobby. &ldquo;Sedge&rdquo; died in May, leaving a hole a mile wide in the NHL board and, especially, in the operation of the Toronto Maple Leafs where he was one of the very few men who had any influence on owner Harold Ballard. It&rsquo;s doubtful if anyone who knew Sedgwick didn&rsquo;t have this warm, gentle man on their list of the best half dozen people they&rsquo;ve ever met.&bull; The retirement of goalie Vladislav Tretiak from the Soviet Union national team makes you wonder what will happen with the USSR side in the Canada Cup. There are three possibilities: (a) they&rsquo;ll find a reason not to appear; (b) the comrades will leave a half dozen stars at home and say the Canada Cup is just a tuneup for the world championship; and (c) they have a hot new goalie to spring on the world.<h2>Money To Go</h2>&bull; A MAN ASKED why the Soviets would miss the Olympics but attend the Canada Cup. Money! They take home hard bucks from the hockey tournament, zilch from the Los Angeles games.&bull; The demise of the Central Hockey League has really reduced hockey&rsquo;s job market both for coaches and players by a large margin. The days of a minor pro &ldquo;career&rdquo; are distant history now.&bull; Despite all the baloney from both sides that progress is being made in their negotiations on a new agreement, the NHL and the operators of junior hockey clubs are miles apart and the chances of a deal that pleases the juniors at all are very remote. &#9632;

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FRANK ORR’S HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;I thought back, to when he was a little boy and we had hardly any furniture in our house. I&rsquo;d get dressed up like a goalie and I&rsquo;d sing Here Come the Hawks&rsquo; and Ed would shoot tennis balls at me. And now he&rsquo;s a Hawk.&rdquo; &mdash;Diane Olczyk, reacting to her son, Ed, being drafted third overall by the hometown Chicago Black Hawks.</blockquote> &#9632;

Quote Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03684/5126078-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="528" height="904"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Olczyk indicates the status afforded him by his hometown Black Hawks.</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;Diana Olczyk kept getting smoke in her eyes as she watched her son, Ed, being mobbed by reporters and cameramen in the Montreal Forum.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t sleep a wink last night,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I thought back to when he was a little boy and we had hardly any furniture in our house.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d get dressed up like a goalie and I&rsquo;d sing &lsquo;Here Come the Hawks&rsquo; and Ed would shoot tennis balls at me.&ldquo;And now he&rsquo;s a Hawk.&rdquo;Her emotion was mirrored by that of her son when the announcement came that the 18-year-old from the U.S. Olympic Team and the Chicago suburb of Palos Heights had been drafted third overall by the Black Hawks.Olczyk&rsquo;s voice broke and he had to pokecheck away a tear.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the happiest guy in the world,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is the ultimate: first making the Olympic Team and now getting drafted by the Black Hawks.&rdquo;To get the young man he had his heart and soul set on, Hawk general manager Bob Pulford had to work deals with the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils.Bob Janecyk, the 27-year-old rookie goalie from the Chicago suburb of Midlothian who played in eight games with the Hawks at the end of last season, went to L.A. In return, the Kings, owners of the third pick in the draft, swapped selections with the Hawks, who had the sixth pick.The Hawks also gave Los Angeles their third-round draft choice and switched selections with the Kings again in four rounds.Last summer, the Hawks surrendered their second-round choice in the draft to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the deal that sent Doug Crossman to Philadelphia and brought defenseman Behn Wilson to Chicago.However, the Hawks retained a third-round pick obtained from the deal sending Terry Ruskowski to Los Angeles in November, 1982. They used it to draft Trent Yawney, a defenseman from Saskatoon of the Western League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really delighted in being able to get Yawney,&rdquo; said Jack Davison, the Hawks&rsquo; assistant GM and director of player personnel. &ldquo;Central Scouting had him rated 18th and a couple of our scouts, including myself, had him in the top 10.&rdquo;Davison also said there are &ldquo;future considerations&rdquo; with New Jersey because the Devils didn&rsquo;t use their second pick overall to take Olczyk.Reportedly, New Jersey&rsquo;s compensation will be part of a trade package. Among the Hawks mentioned are veteran winger Rick Preston and defenseman Don Dietrich, a rookie who spent most of last season with Springfield of the American League. Sources indicate that veteran winger Bob MacMillan will be dealt to Chicago as part of the transaction.&ldquo;The Devils have shown interest in Preston but nothing has been finalized,&rdquo; said Davison. &ldquo;Bob Pulford will announce the details when an agreement is reached.&ldquo;It was a sorry situation for us to have to give up Bob Janecyk but it&rsquo;s a great break for him. We didn&rsquo;t want to give him up, but they wouldn&rsquo;t listen to any-thing else.&ldquo;We think Olczyk can fit right in with us because he&rsquo;s so versatile. He has played right wing, left wing and center. He was a center all his life but he was called on in the Olympics at the right wing and he was a star at that position.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big jump to the National Hockey League but Pat LaFontaine and Paul Flatley moved right in from the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams and starred with the New York Islanders. Dave King, the coach of the Canadian Olympic team, also was quoted as saying he thought Olczyk was by far the best American player at Sarajevo.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Chicago Is Olczyk’s Kind Of Town

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Serge Savard is becoming a master at grabbing the headlines.Knowing exactly what he wanted in the National Hockey League draft, Savard went out and got it to the delight of the 7,000 on hand at the Forum for the first-ever nationally televised proceedings.With the fans buzzing over the Mario Lemieux controversey, after the Penguins had selected him first overall, Savard announced that the Canadiens were drafting an 18-year-old defenseman from Czechoslovakia as their No. 1 choice and fifth overall.Petr Svoboda, who had defected from the Czechoslovakian junior team and had been in West Germany, was then guided out onto floor as the fans rose to their feet with an ovation. It had been expected that Savard would be choosing Shayne Corson, a rugged forward from Brantford, Ont., in the No. 5 spot, but the Canadiens&rsquo; managing director had something else in mind.Savard wanted Corson and made sure he got him by dealing goaltender Rick Wamsley to St. Louis, who held the eighth overall choice. There were exchanges of second-round choices involved in the deal as well, but the key was that Savard was getting precisely what he wanted.No sooner had the excitement from the draft died down than Savard engineered a trade four days later with Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson to bring Jet captain Lucien DeBlois to the Canadiens in exchange for Perry Turnbull, whom the Canadiens acquired from the Blues on Dec. 21 for Doug Wickenheiser, Greg Paslawski and Gilbert Delorme.Speaking of Svoboda, Savard believes he may have selected the best player in the draft.&ldquo;Time will tell,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I wanted to make sure that he was here, otherwise 1 would not have taken him.&rdquo;Svoboda, who speaks neither English nor French, is being enrolled in language courses this summer and should have sufficient knowledge of English by the time training camp begins in September. His weight is listed as 170 pounds and he&rsquo;s about six feet tall.Svoboda&rsquo;s low weight is partially because he runs in marathons, something which Savard will discourage him from doing.Speaking through an interpreter, Svoboda, who look a little bewildered by all the attention, said that he knew three days before the draft that the Canadiens were going to select him.&ldquo;Nobody contacted me before I left the Czechoslovakian team,&rdquo; Svoboda said. &ldquo;1 left because I wanted to play in the National Hockey League.&rdquo;Svoboda arrived in Montreal at four p.m. the day before the entry draft and was hidden in a downtown hotel away from the people attending the annual NHL Congress. The Canadiens were worried that the New Jersey Devils, who were selecting second overall, might choose Svoboda instead.&ldquo;Once New Jersey did not pick him we knew we had him,&rdquo; said team president Ronald Corey. &ldquo;During the past couple of weeks, our scouting staff reviewed the top 30 players, The best player was Svoboda.&rdquo;While no official deal was announced, speculation was that Svoboda had agreed to a five-year contract worth about $750,000. That&rsquo;s excellent money for someone who had 15 goals and 21 assists in 40 games last season.&ldquo;There is no doubt that we have chosen two future stars in the NHL,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;We could not have obtained the St. Louis pick if we hadn&rsquo;t agreed to give up Wamsley. In order to get a quality player like Corson, we had to give up some quality.&rdquo;Corson, who will be 18 on Aug. 13, was heavily scouted by Claude Ruel. He had 25 goals and 46 assists in Brantford along with 165 minutes in penalties.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m a good two-way hockey player,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got good hockey sense. I don&rsquo;t mind the aggressive style of game&hellip;and I guess you could say I&rsquo;m an all-round player.&rdquo;Comparisons have already been made between Corson and Dale Hunter, that well-known agent provocateur with the Quebec Nordiques.&ldquo;To be compared with Dale Hunter is flattering,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;I hope to accomplish as much as he has. I might not score 50 or 60 goals, but I might be good enough for 40. I like to set up plays and watch the other players score goals. I think assists are just as important.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011276/5126047-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="945" height="1559"><figcaption class="caption-body">The surprise of the NHL entry draft meetings, overview below, was when Montreal Canadien publicity director Claude Mouton, far right, escorted Czechoslovak defector Petr Svoboda through the Forum.</figcaption></div>With the addition of DeBlois, Savard feels he has strengthened the Habs on right wing.&ldquo;We were a little weaker on the right side than on the left,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;We feel the trade gives us a player who can not only score goals, but can kill penalties.&rdquo;DeBlois admitted he was surprised by the trade.&ldquo;There weren&rsquo;t any trade rumors and I hadn&rsquo;t heard any for the past year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;On the other hand, there have always been rumors before when I played in New York, Colorado and even Winnipeg.&ldquo;I leave Winnipeg with regrets. It&rsquo;s a good hockey town, but coming to the Canadiens is something every kid wants.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Lucien DeBlois is in his option year, however the Canadiens feel they have a good chance of meeting his salary demands&hellip;The Canadiens announced that Jean Perron, a former coach with the Canadian Olympic team, will work with the organization. It&rsquo;s likely Perron will serve as an assistant to Jacques Lemaire&hellip;Mike McPhee and Rick Green have signed new contracts with the Canadiens, McPhee for a year plus an option and Green received a two-year, plus option deal.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021042/5126040-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1978" height="1003"></div> &#9632;

f0003-01

Habs Score Draft Coup With Acquisition Of Svoboda

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;No one could deny that the New Jersey Devils hit the jackpot when they made 18-year-old center Kirk Muller their No. 1 pick in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s entry draft in Montreal. Scouts, opposing general managers and coaches immediately tabbed the Canadian Olympian a &ldquo;can&rsquo;t miss&rdquo; NHL star, perhaps even a better prospect than Mario Lemieux.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s (Muller) the most complete player in the draft,&rdquo; said Ron Harris of the NHL Central Scouting Bureau.&ldquo;To me, Muller is the best player in the draft,&rdquo; added Red Wing scout Neil Smith. &ldquo;The Devils really did it right.&rdquo;There was an audible sigh of relief at the Devils&rsquo; draft table when the &ldquo;reviews&rdquo; came in for their selection of Muller. Just 10 days earlier the Devils had also selected a new coaching staff, headed by ex-St. Catharines Saint coach Doug Carpenter, and it appears that New Jersey may indeed have settled on Carpenter and assistant Lou Vairo.The Devils deny that Carpenter, 41, was not their top choice to replace Tom McVie. President Bob Butera even went so far as to say, &ldquo;We never really got to the stage of offering the position to any others.&rdquo; But several NHL sources have indicated that chairman John J. McMullen&rsquo;s offer of only a one-year contract soured more notable candidates such as former Flyer coach Pat Quinn, ex-King and Canadien coach Bob Berry and even McVie himself.Part of New Jersey&rsquo;s realignment sent McVie back to Maine, where he becomes GM-coach of a team which first-year coach John Paddock guided to an American League title. Paddock will return as an assistant but he is popular there and it will be an awkward situation for McVie.McVie&rsquo;s reign helped make the Devils respectable over the second half of last season, shedding their &ldquo;Mickey Mouse&rdquo; image. But he apparently did not impress McMullen enough to get a multi-year contract to continue his rebuilding job. McMullen just wasn&rsquo;t offering such a contract.&ldquo;It (the one-year contract) wasn&rsquo;t an absolute thing when I started looking for a coach but that&rsquo;s what I think is best,&rdquo; insisted McMullen, who was forced to pay off the balance of Billy MacMillan&rsquo;s contract and hefty contracts MacMillan gave to several unproductive veteran players.McMullen is also feeling the pinch at the gate, where attendance dropped off slightly last season.&ldquo;The most successful managing and coaching in sports is done with one-year contracts,&rdquo; he said.Carpenter, who seemed to be in line for a coaching job in Toronto after doing a solid job at St. Catharines for two seasons, said &ldquo;one-year contracts don&rsquo;t bother me.&rdquo;What may bother, however, is the roster he will inherit.&ldquo;When I was contacted by (Devil GM) at the Memorial Cup I was concerned about what I would be stepping into,&rdquo; admitted Carpenter, who became the franchise&rsquo;s 12th coach in 10 years (MacMillan served two terms). &ldquo;They finished second from the bottom last year and I know it&rsquo;s going to be a very difficult job to build this team. It would be nice to step in with an established nucleus of 12 good players like Mike Keenan did in Philadelphia, but I have my own philosophy of patience and repetition to be successful. It appears the chemistry of this hockey team at the present time is going to need that.&rdquo;Carpenter coached the Cornwall Royals to the Memorial Cup in 1980 before joining the Maple Leaf organization. He has no NHL experience.Vairo, 39, has been associated with the Colorado Rockies and Devils for four years, although he did not become a prominent hockey figure until last winter&rsquo;s Olympics in Sarajevo. He coached the U.S. National Team to a 41-20-10 overall record before his U.S. Olympians finished a disappointing seventh at Sarajevo.The Brooklyn-born Vairo was actually close to becoming head coach of the Devils during Billy MacMillan&rsquo;s last term. The plan was for MacMillan to become full-time GM while Vairo took over be-hind the bench, but when the Devils had a 2-18 record at the one-quarter mark, MacMillan stayed on with both jobs and sank with the ship. He could not talk McMullen into letting him remain as GM while Vairo became coach.Vairo, of course, coached against New Jersey&rsquo;s No. 1 draft choice, Muller. At 5-foot-ll, 186 pounds, Muller was the top player for Team Canada (4-3-7 in 21 games) while also compiling stats of 31-63-94 in 49 games for Guelph Platers last season.&ldquo;Muller&rsquo;s a more proven commodity than (Ed) Olczyk,&rdquo; said McNab, who had narrowed his pick down to those two players. &ldquo;We think Kirk has the skills to become a complete player. He also has that certain something every team is looking for: He&rsquo;s a driving force.&rdquo;The Devils followed Muller with a surprise pick of goalie Craig Billington in the second round. The first goalie to go in the draft, Billington himself thought he&rsquo;d go in the sixth round or later.But Muller was the prize.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m ready to play in the NHL,&rdquo; said Muller. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already played three years of junior hockey, which is a little unusual. I&rsquo;m anxious for camp to start. I&rsquo;m anxious to do whatever 1 can to contribute to the rebuilding program in New Jersey.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011305/5126109-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="561" height="843"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Devils are enthused with Kirk Muller, who&rsquo;s been dubbed a &ldquo;can&rsquo;t-miss&rdquo; prospect.</figcaption></div>HOT STUFF&mdash;The Devils made a deal with the Black Hawks to bypass Ed Olczyk, a Chicago native. New Jersey will receive future considerations, which will be a trade sending Bob MacMillan to Chicago for defenseman Don Dietrich&hellip;Devil general manager Max McNab expressed anger at Minnesota GM Lou Nanne&rsquo;s offer of Dino Ciccarelli for No. 1 pick. &ldquo;Why does Nanne have to bring our name into his problems?&rdquo; asked McNab. &#9632;

f0004-01

Devils Overjoyed With ‘Reviews’ On Muller

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCON TRIBI TING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrDIRECTOR ADVERTISING SALESDanny LewickiADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Cliff Kivell, 287 MacPherson Ave.Toronto. Ontario M4V 1A4(416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPaula HeardNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTJudy HartmanRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes MarketingHockey News Bookshelf(416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Third AvenueNew York. New York10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTORDistributed nationally by Disticor101 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite L4Don Mills. Ont., M3B 1Z3(416) 449-6430THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018 3016) is published weekly except monthly June and bi-monthly July and August by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. In U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.40 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $22.95 in the U.S.A. $22.95 in Canada. $49.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS. P.O. Box 13055, Postal Station &lsquo;A&rsquo;, Toronto, Ont M5W IV7 U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOT KEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Road #100. Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News. 85 Scarsdale Road. #100, Toronto. Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class post age paid at New York. N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News. P.O. Box 904. Buffalo. N.Y 14240Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<h2>July 15</h2>In our next issue, which will be available in early July, we&rsquo;ll pay tribute to one of the best players ever, Bobby Clarke of the Philadelphia Flyers. It&rsquo;s only a matter of time until he&rsquo;s inducted into the Hall of Fame and we&rsquo;ll take a look at his splendid, albeit controversial, career and the transition he&rsquo;s making as general manager of the Flyers.This is also our statistics issue, the one that will have final 1983-84 totals for all NHL, AHL, CHL, IHL, ACHL, OHL, WHL and QMJHL players.On top of all that, we&rsquo;ll present our annual THN Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable.<h2>August 1</h2>And you thought this was the off-season, right? Wrong! This issue marks our first of five that will pay special attention to the illustrious Canada Cup tournament, the training camps for which get underway early in August. We&rsquo;ll tell you who&rsquo;s invited to the Team Canada and Team USA training camps and reflect on a bit of Canada Cup history.And we&rsquo;ll also have the interesting results of our Power to the People Opinion Poll, which so many readers took time to send in. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The first two weeks of June proved to be rather hectic for King general manager Rogie Vachon, who used the time to hire a new head coach, acquire a goaltender from the Chicago Black Hawks, then oversee his first National Hockey League draft.&bull; On May 30, after nearly two months of negotiations, Vachon announced the hiring of former Philadelphia Flyer coach Pat Quinn as the Kings&rsquo; new head coach, signing the 41-year-old to a multi-year contract (believed to be about three years).&bull; On June 7, Vachon announced the signings of seven young prospects, including defenseman Gary Galley, an All-American at NCAA champion Bowling Green who is expected to make the big club next September.&bull; On June 8, he finalized a deal with Black Hawk GM Bob Pulford, acquiring 27-year-old minor-league goaltender Bob Janecyk and a third-round draft pick in a trade that included switching firstand fourth-round selections in the entry draft.&bull; On June 9, Vachon, using Chicago&rsquo;s No. 6 overall pick (the Kings gave up their No. 3), grabbed Canadian Olympic defenseman Craig Redmond, who should win a spot on the roster next season.&ldquo;If we hadn&rsquo;t been able to make a deal, we would have picked him with the third pick,&rdquo; Vachon said, meaning the Kings feel it was a no-lose situation.&bull; Vachon also selected playmaking center Brian Wilks from Kitchener in the second round (24th overall)&mdash;the Kings had pegged him 17th overall on their list&mdash;and rugged defensive defenseman John English from Sault Ste. Marie with the third-round pick he acquired from Chicago.No, the Kings haven&rsquo;t suddenly turned into Stanley Cup contenders, but they are definitely a much sounder team today than they were when the 1983-84 season came to a dismal conclusion.&ldquo;I think we really helped ourselves,&rdquo; said Vachon, who was referring to the draft but who could have been talking about Quinn and Galley also.There&rsquo;s no question the Kings are at least moving in the right direction, hiring a coach of proven ability and making a bid to fill holes in one of the NHL&rsquo;s leakiest defenses.&ldquo;When I was in Philadelphia, the goal was to win the Stanley Cup every year, but I can&rsquo;t say that here. That would be a ridiculous statement to make,&rdquo; said Quinn, who put together a 141-73-48 record over parts of four seasons with the Flyers before being fired on March 19, 1982.&ldquo;But ultimately we want to work to where we can compete for the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to develop a team that is very creative offensively, but one that goes on defense the moment it loses the puck. I want a team that plays aggressive defense immediately, that makes the transition, say, the way it&rsquo;s done in basketball.&ldquo;I want my players to stand up for one another, to play a physical game. I don&rsquo;t want Fancy Dans. I understand there are some Fancy Dans here so we&rsquo;ll have to work to incorporate them into a system that will work.&rdquo;Quinn, who has completed two of the three years required to earn his degree from Delaware Law School, will finish up the remaining year he needs during the summer.It&rsquo;s very possible Quinn would have been Vachon&rsquo;s main man back in January, when Roger Neilson was hired to replace the fired Don Perry. But Vachon was named GM at the same time&mdash;by owner Jerry Buss, who also brought in Neilson.&ldquo;His name certainly would have been mentioned,&rdquo; Vachon said, when asked if he would have hired Quinn. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really hard to say now. Anyway, that&rsquo;s in the past and it&rsquo;s not important.&rdquo;Speaking of the past, the Kings hadn&rsquo;t had a No. 1 draft pick in three years until Redmond was picked, and he has blue chip written all over him.The 18-year-old native of Langley, B.C., is 5-foot-10, 190 pounds and was a standout on Team Canada. Redmond has extraordinary offensive skills and improved the defensive part of his game a great deal during the Olympics.&ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t work on that until last year,&rdquo; said Redmond, a distant cousin of former NHL players Dick and Mickey Redmond. &ldquo;Last year taught me a lot. (Olympic coach) Dave King taught me a lot. Hey, I played against the Russians and the Czechs, you have to be able to play a strong defensive game against offensive teams like that.&rdquo;Vachon admits he&rsquo;s taking a bit of a gamble with Janecyk, who has played in only eight NHL games during his five-year career as a pro, but he didn&rsquo;t have much choice. Vachon refused to make a deal for a Michel Dion or a Gilles Meloche or a Bob Sauve because he would have had to trade down too far in the first round, yet he had to acquire someone because he&rsquo;s not renewing the contracts of Marco Baron and Markus Mattsson.Janecyk is a native of Chicago who was signed by the Black Hawks as a free agent in 1980 and has been an all-star three times in the International and American Leagues. He was 14-11-14 with Springfield and had a 3.39 goals-against average when he was called up last season. In eight games with Chicago, he posted a 2-3-1 record and 4.08 average, and earned his first NHL win with a 4-3 victory over Buffalo.He is a stand-up goalie who plays the angles well and has a good glove hand. And he&rsquo;ll go to camp with every intention of winning the No. 1 job.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to camp to be anything less,&rdquo; he said.Janecyk becomes the oldest goalie in the system, the others being Darren Eliot (signed after last year&rsquo;s Olympics, where he was Mario Gosselin&rsquo;s back-up with Canada), Mike Blake, Gary Laskoski and Dave Ross.&ldquo;We needed a goalie badly,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;Janecyk may not be the best one I could have gotten, but I didn&rsquo;t want to pick any lower than sixth. If he plays the way he has the past few seasons I think we&rsquo;ll be in good shape.&rdquo;Janecyk is just pleased to be going somewhere where he&rsquo;ll get an opportunity to play, having spent the last five years behind Tony Esposito and Murray Bannerman.&ldquo;This is a very good break for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a crucial time in my career and I&rsquo;m very happy.&rdquo; &#9632;

Vachon Bitten By The June Bug

<h2>THREE IN HALL OF FAME</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Three former National Hockey League players who made their marks in the &rsquo;70s have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.Phil Esposito, Bernie Parent and Jacques Lemaire were recently notified of their achievement. All were selected within five years of their retirement, with Esposito earning it in his first year of eligibility under the Hall&rsquo;s manadatory three-year waiting period.Esposito was the first player to break the 100-point barrier (&rsquo;68-69), scoring 49 goals and 77 assists. He totalled 99 points the next season, then strung together five consecutive seasons in which he scored at least 55 goals.Parent was the best at his position between &rsquo;73-75, when he played a big part in the Philadelphia Flyers winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the top player in the playoffs both seasons. He shared the Vezina with Tony Esposito of Chicago, posting a 1.89 goals-against average in the &rsquo;73-74 season and was the sole winner the next season. Within those two seasons, he registered 24 of his 55 career shutouts.Lemaire was a standout player for the Canadiens in the &rsquo;70s, centering the Habs&rsquo; No. 1 line. He played 12 seasons for the Habs, totalling 366 goals and 469 assists for 835 points in 853 games. He retired from the NHL in &rsquo;78-79, played and coached in Switzerland for awhile, returned to North America to work as an assistant coach at Plattsburgh State, then coached the Longueuil Chevaliers of the Quebec League. In 1983, he started off the season as assistant coach of Montreal and then took over as head coach.<h2>SOVIET VETERANS RETIRING</h2>MOSCOW&mdash;Three players from the Soviet team which participated against Canada in the Summit Series in 1972 have announced they&rsquo;re retiring from competitive hockey.Vladislav Tretiak, Valeri Vasiliev and Alexander Maltsev said they plan to retire from the sport as players and become coaches.Tretiak was the only Soviet hockey player to compete in four Olympics and every World and European championship game since 1970.Maltsev made his debut at international championships in Stockholm at the age of 19 and was voted the best forward at the world and European championships in &rsquo;70, &rsquo;72 and &rsquo;81.Vasiliev, the rugged and solidly-built defenseman, captained the Soviet national teams at the &rsquo;81 and &rsquo;82 world and European championships.<h2>FORMER NHLER DIES</h2>COLLINGWOOD, Ont.&mdash;Former National Hockey League defenseman Eddie Bush died recently. He was 65.Bush played defense briefly for Detroit in &rsquo;38-39 and in &rsquo;41-42. He later was a coach with Hamilton and Guelph Biltmores in the &rsquo;60s, advanced to the minor pros with Pittsburgh and Memphis, and coached at the NHL level with Kansas City Scouts (now New Jersey Devils) in &rsquo;75-76.His last coaching job was in &rsquo;78 with the Tier Two junior A team here.<h2>HIGGINS GIVEN SENTENCE</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Former Maple Leaf forward Paul Higgins was recently sentenced to 60 days in jail for dangerous driving and possession of a dangerous weapon.Higgins, whose brief stint with the Leafs in the &rsquo;82 season caused a lot of consternation for both him and his teammates, played in both the Atlantic Coast and American Hockey League last season.Former Leaf coach Mike Nykoluk said of Higgins&rsquo; fate: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sad story. He was a 21-year-old man with the mind of a 14-year-old kid.&rdquo; &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>New York State has a promotional theme called, I Love New York.Former New York Ranger hockey star Rod Gilbert has a similar theme&mdash;I Love New York City.Gilbert spent parts of 18 seasons (1960-78) in New York as a member of the Rangers. For him it was the beginning of a love affair between a man and a city.&ldquo;I went to New York for the first time when I was only 19 years of age,&rdquo; said Gilbert, who grew up in Montreal, Que. &ldquo;I can remember how in awe 1 was of the city. It was so big.&ldquo;But after playing there for a number of years I discovered that New York was like the center of the world. It had anything you wanted.&ldquo;I also enjoyed playing there for so long. The fans may have been tough at times, but they were some of the best in the world.&rdquo;The only thing Gilbert regrets is that the Rangers never won a Stanley Cup during his tenure there.&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s the one thing that any player who played as long as I did would like to do,&rdquo; said Gilbert, who won the Bill Masterton Trophy for dedication and perserverance to the sport in 1976. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t feel depressed over the fact that I didn&rsquo;t play on a championship team.&ldquo;I feel in my mind that I gave it my best on every occasion we played. I felt responsible to my teammates to at least do that much.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02867/5126243-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="555" height="1070"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Gilbert coached for a while and now he&rsquo;d like to try his hand at managing.</figcaption></div>Gilbert&rsquo;s professional career almost ended prematurely. During the 196162 and 1965-66 seasons, Gilbert had two spinal operations, both almost ending his career.&ldquo;If there was one big thrill during my career it was coming back from both of those operations,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Anyone having one spinal fusion is bad enough.&ldquo;But to have two and then bounce back to play again, I think I&rsquo;m one lucky guy.&rdquo;Gilbert&rsquo;s greatest thrill as an active player came in 1972 as a member of Team Canada, when the Canadians defeated the Soviets in the first Summit Series.&ldquo;It was one of the most exciting series of hockey games I&rsquo;ve ever been in,&rdquo; said Gilbert. &ldquo;It was such an honor to play for my country, something that not too many hockey players get to do in their career.&rdquo;Gilbert, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, works for a brokerage firm in New York City. His attraction to the city is still there.&ldquo;After I retired from hockey, I wanted to stay in New York to find out about the high finance business,&rdquo; Gilbert said. &ldquo;And I like what I&rsquo;ve seen so far. But for now I&rsquo;m getting my feet wet.&ldquo;I did own a restaurant for awhile but I sold that. Now I&rsquo;m concentrating my efforts as a broker.&rdquo;Does Gilbert miss hockey?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still a faithful follower of the Rangers,&rdquo; Gilbert said. &ldquo;But 1 would like to get back into the game someday as a general manager.&ldquo;I did try my hand at coaching in the minors. But a GM&rsquo;s position would be more challenging and much more safe as far as employment goes.&rdquo;<h2>BEAVER TALES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011178/5126236-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="1857" height="608"></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; A controversy arose after the official confidential list of protected players&rsquo; was published by the Montreal Star.&bull; Detroit left veteran goalie Terry Sawchuk unprotected and he was claimed by Toronto, which also took Dickie Moore from Montreal.&bull; Chicago traded Ab McDonald and Reg Fleming to Boston for Doug Mohns. Later, the Hawks and Bruins completed another deal with Murray Balfour and Mike Draper going to Boston and Jerry Toppazzini and Matt Ravlich going to the Hawks. Two days later, the Hawks traded Ron Murphy and Aut Erickson to Detroit for Art Stratton, John Miszuk and Ian Cushenan.&bull;Plans were revealed for a European professional hockey league slated to start the following season. Eight teams from across Europe were expected to participate, with players coming from Europe and &ldquo;imports&rdquo; from North America.&bull;Bernie Geoffrion quit as a player to coach Quebec Aces of the American Hockey League.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull;The Central Hockey League was trimmed down to seven teams, with Amarillo and Houston folding because of poor fan support.&bull;Baltimore Clippers and Pittsburgh signed a working agreement. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03606/5126322-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"></div>that the highest-scoring junior players in Canada last season were: &#9632;

f0005-03

Did You Know…

1. What NHL team did Edmonton GM-coach Glen Sather play for in the 1972 Stanley Cup final?2. Who was the last player to win the Hart Trophy and not make the first All-Star team?3. What NHL team appeared in three successive Stanley Cup finals without winning a game?4. Who was the last player to lead the NHL in goal scoring but failed to win the scoring championship?5. Before Tom Barrasso, who was the last goaltender to win the Calder and Vezina Trophies in the same season?6. What team won the last championship of the now-defunct Central Hockey League?7. Which two Edmonton Oiler players previously won Stanley Cups with another club?8. Against which team did Islander goalie Billy Smith score?9. Before Mario Lemieux, who was the last French-Canadian from the Quebec League chosen first overall in the NHL entry draft?<h2>Trivia Answers</h2>1. New York Rangers.2. Wayne Gretzky, 1979-80.3. St. Louis, 1968-70.4. Mike Bossy, 1980-81.5. Tony Esposito, 1969-70.6. The CHL Oilers.7. Pat Hughes and Rick Chartraw.8. Colorado Rockies.9. Guy Lafleur. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011360/5126556-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div><h2>NHL Second-Round Picks</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02982/5126549-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1405" height="685"></div><h3>BOSTON BRUINS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03639/5126542-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="765" height="383"></div><h3>BUFFALO SABRES (11)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04423/5126535-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="765" height="360"></div><h3>CALGARY FLAMES (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05344/5126528-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="763" height="384"></div><h3>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS (13)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-06248/5126521-1-eng-US/f0006-062.jpg" title="f0006-06" width="769" height="418"></div><h3>DETROIT RED WINGS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-07139/5126514-1-eng-US/f0006-072.jpg" title="f0006-07" width="755" height="391"></div><h3>EDMONTON OILERS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-0881/5126507-1-eng-US/f0006-082.jpg" title="f0006-08" width="761" height="383"></div><h3>HARTFORD WHALERS (7)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-0957/5126500-1-eng-US/f0006-092.jpg" title="f0006-09" width="753" height="243"></div><h3>LOS ANGELES KINGS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1041/5126493-1-eng-US/f0006-102.jpg" title="f0006-10" width="757" height="388"></div><h3>MINNESOTA NORTHSTARS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1138/5126486-1-eng-US/f0006-112.jpg" title="f0006-11" width="763" height="388"></div><h3>MONTREAL CANADIENS (14)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1418/5126479-1-eng-US/f0006-142.jpg" title="f0006-14" width="753" height="443"></div><h3>NEW JERSEY DEVILS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1517/5126472-1-eng-US/f0006-152.jpg" title="f0006-15" width="759" height="385"></div><h3>NEW YORK ISLANDERS (13)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1614/5126465-1-eng-US/f0006-162.jpg" title="f0006-16" width="751" height="419"></div><h3>NEW YORK RANGERS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1711/5126458-1-eng-US/f0006-172.jpg" title="f0006-17" width="761" height="387"></div><h3>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (13)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1811/5126451-1-eng-US/f0006-182.jpg" title="f0006-18" width="763" height="420"></div><h3>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (10)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-219/5126444-1-eng-US/f0006-212.jpg" title="f0006-21" width="755" height="331"></div><h3>QUEBEC NORDIQUES (10)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-228/5126437-1-eng-US/f0006-222.jpg" title="f0006-22" width="753" height="335"></div><h3>ST. LOUIS BLUES (15)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-238/5126430-1-eng-US/f0006-232.jpg" title="f0006-23" width="763" height="479"></div><h3>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (11)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-248/5126423-1-eng-US/f0006-242.jpg" title="f0006-24" width="755" height="355"></div><h3>VANCOUVER CANUCKS (14)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-257/5126416-1-eng-US/f0006-252.jpg" title="f0006-25" width="754" height="438"></div><h3>WASHINGTON CAPITALS (11)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-286/5126409-1-eng-US/f0006-282.jpg" title="f0006-28" width="759" height="359"></div><h3>WINNIPEG JETS (12)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-296/5126402-1-eng-US/f0006-292.jpg" title="f0006-29" width="753" height="387"></div><h3>DRAFT BREAKDOWN</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-306/5126395-1-eng-US/f0006-302.jpg" title="f0006-30" width="647" height="507"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1231/5126388-1-eng-US/f0006-122.jpg" title="f0006-12" width="355" height="496"><figcaption class="caption-body">CRAIG REDMOND&hellip;Drafted No. 6</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1322/5126381-1-eng-US/f0006-132.jpg" title="f0006-13" width="355" height="496"><figcaption class="caption-body">SHAYNE CORSON&hellip;Drafted No. 8</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1910/5126374-1-eng-US/f0006-192.jpg" title="f0006-19" width="357" height="494"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG BODGER&hellip;Drafted No. 9</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-209/5126367-1-eng-US/f0006-202.jpg" title="f0006-20" width="352" height="494"><figcaption class="caption-body">J.J. DAIGNEAULT&hellip;Drafted No. 10</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-267/5126360-1-eng-US/f0006-262.jpg" title="f0006-26" width="352" height="496"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROGER BELANGER&hellip;Drafted No. 16</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-277/5126353-1-eng-US/f0006-272.jpg" title="f0006-27" width="352" height="496"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN BENNING&hellip;Drafted No. 26</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL First-Round Picks

Bryan Trottier, the New York Islander center whom some hockey people consider the best all-around player in the game, could be wearing a Team USA jersey in the six-nation Canada Cup tournament, Sept. 1-15.While it&rsquo;s too early to tell whether it will actually happen. Team USA general manager Lou Nanne is making every effort to get the native of Val Marie, Sask., into his lineup, which is solid on defense but a little suspect up front.So how does Trottier, who was born in Canada, rate consideration for a spot on Team USA?&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a North American Indian,&rdquo; says Nanne, who sprung this bit of news on a group of newsmen on a slow day at the NHL&rsquo;s annual meetings.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got an Indian card, which allows him to travel back and forth between the two countries without any problem. He can work in the U.S. with-out any problem. I think Indians can be citizens of either country, Canada or the U.S.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in the process of checking it out. I think there&rsquo;s a good chance he&rsquo;ll play for Team USA. I&rsquo;ve already talked to him about it and he wants to play for us.&rdquo;If Nanne can overcome the bureaucratic obstacles, then Trottier admits he&rsquo;d pass up his spot with Team Canada and defect to the U.S. squad.&ldquo;The U.S. has allowed me to make a good living for my wife and family,&rdquo; Trottier says. &ldquo;I want to give something back.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a North American citizen. My mother is pure Irish but my father is part Cree and part Chippewa with a tad of French thrown in.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a U.S. passport or a green card, but I do have a North American Indian card that allows me to live in either country.&rdquo;Whether that is enough to allow him to play for Team USA remains to be seen, but New York-based player agent and lawyer Arthur Kaminsky isn&rsquo;t optimistic.&ldquo;I could be wrong,&rdquo; Kaminsky says, &ldquo;but I think Trottier&rsquo;s Indian card is the equivalent of a green card. It allows him to move between countries and take a job in the U.S., but I don&rsquo;t know if you could make a case for him being an American citizen.&rdquo;Nevertheless, Nanne. who would like nothing better than to rankle Canada Cup officials, is attempting to do just that, knowing that having Trottier in the lineup would help his club immensely and also be a feather in his managerial cap.&ldquo;After I finish working on this,&rdquo; says Nanne, breaking into a wide grin, &ldquo;I can get started on my next project. Do you think Bill Torrey would make a good assistant GM?&rdquo;Each of the 21 NHL arenas will be sporting new&mdash;and safer&mdash;goal nets next season. thanks to a unanimous endorsement by the NHL joint rules committee.They&rsquo;re called Megg-Nets&mdash;named after their designer, Dennis Meggs of Ayr, Ont.&mdash;and they differ from traditional nets in two significant ways.First, they are anchored to the ice by a magnetic disc as opposed to traditional post. Second, the metal deflector plate, with its sharp metal point in middle, is gone, replaced by a cushioned ballistic nylon pad that rings the entire inside of the goal frame.The magnetic disc will keep the net in place under normal circumstances, but if a player crashes into it, the net is dislodged and the player avoids harsh contact and possible serious injury. The metal deflector plate was always considered a hazard&mdash;it pierced Mark Howe&rsquo;s buttock and seriously injured him (his lawsuit is still pending) a few years ago&mdash;and the new padded frames pose no threat at all.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really pleased,&rdquo; says Meggs, who had his nets used on a trial basis at Maple Leaf Gardens last season. &ldquo;Scotty Morrison (NHL vice-president officiating and a member of the rules committee) told me the support was unanimous and that&rsquo;s nice.&ldquo;As I understand it, each team owner will buy the nets so there&rsquo;s no problem with arenas saying they can&rsquo;t afford it.&rdquo;Meggs also expects to have his nets in all American and Ontario Hockey League arenas in the near future.&ldquo;The beauty of the nets is that I can increase or decrease the degree of the magnetic field on the disc,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So if little kids are playing you can adjust the nets so it will move with only 40 or 50 pounds pressure. It can be increased for the adults or pro players.&rdquo; &#9632;

Trottier Wants To Play For Americans

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011211/5126587-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Every scout admits Mario Lemieux is the most talented prospect, but there are some reservations about his ability to lead the Penguins.</figcaption></div>The speaker is a National Hockey League scout, one of the very best in the business, and the subject is Mario Lemieux, who is being billed by some as next best thing to Wayne Gretzky.&ldquo;This kid has so much more bleepin&rsquo; talent than anyone else, it&rsquo;s laughable,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not one of those next kids&mdash;(Kirk) Muller, (Ed) Olczyk, (Craig) Redmond&hellip;any of them&mdash;who have as much God-given talent as Mario Lemieux. In terms of natural ability, he&rsquo;s the closest thing I&rsquo;ve seen to Wayne Gretzky. Unbelievable moves. It will be interesting to see what kind of player he turns out to be.&rdquo;Come again?&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a difference between being the most talented player and becoming the best player,&rdquo; the scout adds, emphasizing the axiom that says it&rsquo;s not how much talent you have, but how you use it.&ldquo;Maybe one of those other kids, Muller or Olczyk, or someone down even lower in the draft will turn out to be a better player than Lemieux. Me? I think it&rsquo;s going to be boom or bust for Mario. He&rsquo;ll either be a superstar or do nothing in the NHL.&rdquo;For the sake of the NHL&rsquo;s Penguins, who have been called hapless so many times you&rsquo;d think it was Pittsburgh&rsquo;s twin city, Mario Lemieux, the No. 1 pick in the 1984 entry draft, had better be boom, not bust.&ldquo;I just cannot see him (Lemieux) missing,&rdquo; counters another NHL scout, obviously more confident of the 18-year-old Montreal native&rsquo;s ability to step right in and produce. &ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t get 40 goals and 80 points for the Penguins next season, I&rsquo;11 be a little surprised. It wouldn&rsquo;t really surprise me if he gets 100 points.&rdquo;And so it is with Mario Lemieux. Survey 10 hockey people and 10 will tell you of his immense talent, the uncanny ability that garnered him 133 goals and 282 points in 70 games with the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. But ask the same 10 people if Lemieux will become an NHL superstar and lead the Penguins to the promised land of respectability and you&rsquo;re likely to get an even split, five for him, five against him.But why in heaven&rsquo;s name would anybody be willing to bet against a whiz kid who broke the QMJHL scoring records of Guy Lafleur, Pierre Larouche and Pat LaFontaine?Well, there are three possible reasons.&bull; First, there is the No. 1 draft pick syndrome. For a variety of reasons, the first player selected in the NHL entry draft often struggles and performs at a level far below what is expected of him. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s because the expectations are unrealistic. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s because the player just doesn&rsquo;t have the necessary ingredients to arrive in a losing atmosphere and lead a team of no-stars to competitiveness.The pressure on No. 1 picks is immense. They are under constant scrutiny and, quite frankly, most don&rsquo;t measure up. In a 10-year period, for example, Greg Joly, Mel Bridgman, Dale McCourt, Rick Green and Doug Wickenheiser topped their respective drafts. None of the five has proven to be even a solid front-line player.In that same 10-year period, Denis Potvin has risen to the point where he is the modern-day standard of what a No. 1 pick should accomplish. The other four&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Gord Kluzak, Bobby Smith and Rob Ramage&mdash;have proven to be moderately successful, with the first two still young enough to attain superstar status.That helps to partially explain the reluctance to award Lemieux unanimous induction into the Can&rsquo;t Miss Club. But when you consider that Gil Perreault and Guy Lafleur, the last French-Canadian out of the QMJHL to go No. 1, topped their respective drafts, you realize the history lesson is not entirely one-sided.&bull; Second, hockey people wonder about the calibre of play in the QMJHL. Compared to the Ontario and Western Leagues&mdash;in terms of depth and competitiveness&mdash;well&hellip;there&rsquo;s just no comparison.One respected NHL scout called it &ldquo;a glorified midget league&rdquo; and when an NHL GM was asked to confirm or deny that label, he replied, &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t answer that on the grounds it may incriminate me.&rdquo; This is one case where by not saying anything, the GM said a mouthful.Therefore, the popular opinion is that Lemieux&rsquo;s stats are grossly inflated. Proponents of this theory point to the Memorial Cup, where Lemieux was basically invisible against tougher Ontario and Western opposition, scoring only one goal, not unlike the 1983 Memorial Cup in Portland, where QMJHL scoring ace Pat LaFontaine shot blanks, too.&bull; Third, and far more important than the others, is Lemieux himself. In spite of his great numbers and obvious talents, some scouts question his heart and attitude.After he snubbed the Penguins on draft day (by refusing to go their table, shake hands and put on a Pittsburgh jersey) because he was not happy with the way contract negotiations were proceeding, many hockey people subscribed to the &ldquo;bad attitude&rdquo; school of thought.Add up the three and you get some skepticism, not overwhelming, mind you, but it&rsquo;s there, a constant presence that will follow Lemieux around until he does what is necessary to erase it.It&rsquo;s not going to be easy,&rdquo; says Lemieux, a handsome kid who stands 6-foot-4, has an iron will&mdash;some would call him stubborn to a fault&mdash;and possesses more charisma than the entire Pittsburgh Penguin hockey club.&ldquo;Hockey is a team sport. It takes 20 guys and I know that the guys will have to help me a lot. It is a lot of pressure to shoulder. But I think first of pride, not pressure. A lot of guys, they can&rsquo;t take the pressure. I think I can.&ldquo;I am confident of my abilities but I think everyone will have to be patient, too. It takes some time to adjust.&rdquo;His agents&mdash;Gus Badali in Toronto and Bob Perno in Montreal&mdash;have heard the skeptics, but remain convinced that the young Montrealer has exactly what the Penguins need.&ldquo;There is absolutely no question in my mind that he&rsquo;ll be a great NHL star,&rdquo; says Perno. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be as good in the NHL as he was in junior. Wayne Gretzky saw Mario play and said the same thing. He&rsquo;ll be a dominant player.&rdquo;But what about the No. 1 syndrome?&ldquo;Just give him the puck and let him play,&rdquo; says Badali. &ldquo;The No. 1 picks who have had trouble in the NHL are the ones who were brought along slowly. When you&rsquo;ve got a talent like Mario and he&rsquo;s used to playing 45 minutes a game, it&rsquo;s tough to adjust to playing only a few shifts here and there. If he gets the ice time, I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;ll do the job. He can handle the pressure.&rdquo;But aren&rsquo;t Lemieux&rsquo;s amazing scoring statistics tainted because of the league he scored them in?&ldquo;There is no question that the Ontario and Western Leagues have more depth and are perhaps more competitive,&rdquo; says Perno. &ldquo;But hockey in Quebec is more individualistic. The Quebec League has produced so many great stars&mdash;Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Raymond Bourque, Sylvain Turgeon&hellip;so while the overall league might not be quite as strong, it has never stopped us from sending great stars to the NHL. Mario is out of that mold. It makes little difference how people rate the Quebec League.&rdquo;Which brings us to the determining factor&mdash;what goes on in Lemieux&rsquo;s head and heart. Is he spoiled and petulant, as was said by many on draft day, or he is independent, shrewd and proud, attributes which have impressed those around him?These are value judgments, to be sure, but more than anything else, Lemieux may be a product of his own environment. Quebec and its French-speaking inhabitants are surrounded on all sides by a massive English culture that threatens to erode their heritage.As a result, Quebec is an insular world. And in Quebec, Lemieux is, as one Toronto hockey writer put it, &ldquo;a deity.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s been a star player since he was nine years old. Within the province, he&rsquo;s had his own way, on and off the ice.&ldquo;It is true that in Quebec we love to have our heroes,&rdquo; says Perno. &ldquo;We build them up, put them on a pedestal and that is true of Mario. You have to remember it&rsquo;s been 14 years since a French Canadian from the Quebec League has been the No. 1 pick (Guy Lafleur in 1970).&ldquo;So this day (Lemieux going No. 1) has generated a lot of excitement. When Mario goes to the NHL, he&rsquo;s not only representing himself and his family, he&rsquo;s representing the whole province.&rdquo;If carrying the hopes and aspirations of an entire province on his back&mdash;not to mention the future of the Penguins&mdash;are proving to be too much, Lemieux is doing a good job of hiding it all.He carries himself well. He&rsquo;s a sharp dresser and on his right hand sits a diamond ring in the shape of his number (66). It was a gift from his family and friends at a post-draft party. Ask him a question, he looks you straight in the eye and gives you a simple, direct answer. Though Badai and Perno may disagree, it&rsquo;s reported that lario&mdash;not the Penguin management&mdash;first made public the quest for an attendance clause in his contract. The information was made public because a Montreal reporter asked Mario about it. He doesn&rsquo;t dodge questions. When asked why he didn&rsquo;t want to go the Penguin table on draft day, he replied, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to shake the hand of Eddie Johnston if he doesn&rsquo;t want to give me a good contract.&rdquo;Some people would like to believe that Lemieux&rsquo;s actions were orchestrated by Badali and Perno. Not true. Mario calls the shots for Mario. He is not one to be manipulated and he&rsquo;s fiercely independent and stubborn.An example: On draft day, when he, Perno and Badali were on their way to the Forum floor for media interviews, Lemieux turned to his agents and said he had changed his mind and would go to the Penguins&rsquo; draft table. A few moments later, Albert Mandanici, the Penguins&rsquo; Quebec scout, approached Lemieux, grabbed his arm and told Mario he had to come to the table.&ldquo;He (Mandanici) told me I had no choice,&rdquo; Lemieux says. &ldquo;1 have a choice. I decided then I wasn&rsquo;t going.&rdquo;Whether Lemieux&rsquo;s pride, stubbomess and deified status in Quebec work for him or against him, only time will tell. One must remember, though, that he is only 18 and, really, is leaving home for the first time. In fact, up until the June 19 press conference in Pittsburgh to announce his signing with the Pens, Lemieux had never seen the city, which was a source of minor irritation to him when the contract squabbles were going on (the Penguins invited him down before the Memorial Cup but the timing was bad and he never made the trip).And what of this city that Lemieux is going to? How will the long-suffering Penguin fans, who have had to live with two consecutive last-place finishes, react to an 18-year-old phenom who refused to go through with a few harmless draft-day rituals because he wasn&rsquo;t happy with his contract?&ldquo;Very, very well,&rdquo; says Vince DeLisi, the host of Pittsburgh radio station KQV&rsquo;s open-line sports show who had Lemieux on the air for 40 minutes a couple of days before the Pens announced they had agreed to terms.&ldquo;We had Mario on for 40 minutes and the people were all very supportive and understanding. The only negative call was the first one and that guy was running down the team more than he was Mario.&ldquo;Sure, everybody was disappointed on draft day that Mario didn&rsquo;t put on a sweater. But after a few minutes on the show, people stopped asking about the contract problems. They talked to him as if he was signed and he was great, talking about the team and next season.&rdquo;But Pittsburgh is a hard-hat town. They take their sports seriously and they don&rsquo;t have time for losers and ineptitude, which is why the Penguins draw so poorly. It will be interesting to see how the city reacts once the season gets underway.&ldquo;If Lemieux has a few shaky games, the fans will be patient,&rdquo; DeLisi says. &ldquo;It was like that with Mike Rozier (Pittsburgh Maulers&rsquo; rookie running back phenom). When he started off slowly, everybody was patient. But the end of the season is coming up and he hasn&rsquo;t done anything. The patience is gone. In Pittsburgh, we like to see guys making $3 million for three years earn their money.&ldquo;Mario seems like a nice kid. He was cordial with the callers. That&rsquo;s good. You look at a guy like Dave Parker (the former Pittsburgh Pirate, now with the Cincinnati Reds). He let his ego get in the way of his ability and that&rsquo;s one thing fans in Pittsburgh won&rsquo;t put up with.&rdquo;Lemieux isn&rsquo;t exactly in the same financial stratosphere as a Rozier or Parker. His three-year contract (two years plus an option) is worth slightly less than $600,000, including a $150,000 signing bonus. There is no provision for an attendance clause of any description.Those figures speak more for the state of hockey than Lemieux&rsquo;s status in the grand scheme of things. For the Penguins, he is the future. He could be a franchise thriller or he could be a franchise killer.The future of Johnston is inexorably linked to Lemieux&rsquo;s. If Lemieux becomes the kingpin and gives the Penguins some credibility, fans may start returning to the Igloo and they may even forget that they could have had Brian Bellows and Brian Lawton from the past two years&rsquo; drafts. If Lemieux fails to give the Penguins the leadership and appeal they so desperately require, then the fans may not only forget about E.J., but the Penguins, too.One of the most intriguing questions during draft week in Montreal came when someone asked Lemieux if he was going to be another Doug Wickenheiser?&ldquo;I hope not,&rdquo; he said.So do the Penguins. &#9632;

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Will Mario Make Or Break The Penguins?

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Mario&rsquo;s Power Play</h2>WHEN MARIO LEMIEUX, selected No. 1 overall at the 1984 National Hockey League entry draft, stood up in the Montreal Forum on June 9 and waved to his family and friends but refused to go to the Pittsburgh Penguin draft table for the usual handshake and jersey-wearing routine, he made more than a few enemies.In the ensuing days, while Lemieux and his agent, Gus Badali of Toronto, negotiated a contract with Pittsburgh Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston, the media and other hockey people had a field day writing and talking about a player they perceived as petulant, spoiled and, quite possibly, vastly overrated.Perhaps he is all those things. Perhaps is he is none of them. Only time will tell for sure and that may be the best attitude to take in this whole Mario Lemieux affair.First, a few misconceptions should be cleared up.By not going to the draft table to exchange pleasantries with the Pittsburgh management, he did not make the Penguins, the NHL or the game of hockey look bad. The only villains, if you are so inclined, spawned by his actions are Badali and himself.Another misnomer is that Lemieux took his stand based on bad advice from Badali. For those who know Lemieux and how fiercely proud he is, they realize the decision not to go to the Pens&rsquo; table was as much his own as Badali&rsquo;s. Badali has rarely been known as an agent who uses confrontation as a weapon, which is another reason this entire fuss came as something of a surprise.So given those circumstances, the only thing we can say about the Lemieux issue is that he went one step further than is the norm in NHL contract negotiations, which as a rule rarely get out of hand.All of which explains why we won&rsquo;t join the chorus of criticism being directed at Lemieux and Badali, at least not yet.If Lemieux honestly believes the Penguins&rsquo; offer was an insult or they weren&rsquo;t negotiating in good faith, then all he did was to have the courage of his convictions.He must have known in advance that the decision to snub the Pens wasn&rsquo;t going to be a popular one.So he was ready for the plethora of criticism that surfaced after the draft. In fact, he even fanned those flames before the draft, when there were threats he wouldn&rsquo;t show up at all.Fine, it&rsquo;s his life and a decision only he has to live with.One can only hope that he fully understands the possible repurcussions down the road. Lemieux, as a result of his draft-day actions, has set himself apart from all other NHL No. 1 draft picks. In effect, he has said &ldquo;I&rsquo;m special, I&rsquo;m different.&rdquo;Being the first choice overall is no easy task&mdash;just ask someone who has gone through the ordeal&mdash;but to do something which draws even more attention to yourself, well, that may be difficult to handle. Perhaps he has set himself up for a fall.For example, if Lemieux isn&rsquo;t an instant success, how will the Penguin fans react? If Mario is merely ordinary, how will his teammates react? Since he was already a marked man by being No. 1 overall, how will opponents react?In other words, if Lemieux fails to live up to his billing, fails to be the kingpin of a rebuilding Pittsburgh franchise, then he can rest assured that his actions on June 9 mean there will be a lineup to take a pound of his flesh.A lot of people will be waiting for the fall of Mario Lemieux, which raises the question: Will he be able to deal with that in the same cool fashion he exhibited on June 9?So for the moment we&rsquo;ll sit back and give Lemieux the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to prove that he is special, that he is different, maybe even the next-best-thing-to-Wayne-Gretzky, which is how he has been billed and. therefore, will be judged.If he&rsquo;s a smashing success, June 9 is likely to be forgotten by all but a few. But if times are tough, he had better look for solace in the good contract he fought so hard to get, because it&rsquo;s doubtful he&rsquo;ll find it elsewhere.Such are the ways of the world for a No. 1 pick. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011296/5126666-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="310" height="357"></div>It&rsquo;s too easy to be duped by the National Hockey League entry draft. It requires very little effort to fall into the trap of thinking the draft is a beginning, a joyous day each year when professional hockey careers are launched and superstars are born.After all, that is the unmistakable impression conveyed on draft day. And it was even more obvious this year since television was carrying the event live across Canada.The announcement&hellip;lights, action, camera. Out of the stands bounds a hulking young specimen, grinning ear-to-ear, to be greeted on the Forum floor by a representative of an NHL team. A quick interview with TV&rsquo;s roving newsman and it&rsquo;s on to the draft table, where Junior meets the braintrust, which enthusiastically welcomes him to the family.Moments later, the kid pulls his new team&rsquo;s jersey over his suit jacket and is escorted out to meet the media. Flashbulbs pop, TV lights glare, microphones thrust forward, reporters congregate and unless the draft pick&rsquo;s name is Mario, he tells everyone how this is the thrill of a lifetime, the day he&rsquo;s dreamt about since he started playing hockey.This lavish attention is reserved primarily for the first and second-round picks. As the plums are plucked, though, the lustre and aura of importance dissipates.But only to a degree. A draft pick, no matter when he&rsquo;s selected, has his name announced over the PA system. He and his family&mdash;if they were foolish enough to go to Montreal and endure the agony of sitting through round after round, waiting for the announcement&mdash;watch as his name and the logo of an NHL team are finally flashed across the electronic sign board at the Forum. Some of the more image-conscious teams even have a sweater for the late-round pick and a photographer to take his picture.So given the pomp, pageantry and excitement of draft day, it&rsquo;s easy to see how the illusion of this affair&mdash;being the beginning of something big&mdash;is created.The truth of the matter is that the draft is the beginning of the end. This is a theory bom not of pessimism and negativism, but of reality. The professional hockey world is the peak of a very steep pyramid. Each step up the summit knocks countless players to the ground.The facts, if we can use the evolution of the 1980 and 1981 drafts, are as follows:&bull; Slightly less than 30 per cent (about 74 of 251) of the players selected on June 9 will be playing in the NHL four years from now.&bull; Of that group, don&rsquo;t expect any more than eight to go on to be premier players with NHL all-star capabilities.&bull; It isn&rsquo;t likely that any more than 26 will become solid regulars with an NHL club.&bull; About 40 players will go on to be fringe players, the third and fourth-line guys who are in danger of losing their job at any time or the ones who regularly bounce between the minors and the NHL.These figures were arrived at by perusing the &rsquo;80 and &rsquo;81 draft lists and searching out the names of players who finished the 1983-84 season in the NHL. Those players were then classified as either Group A (premier players with all-star capabilities) or Group B (solid NHL regulars) or Group C (fringe players).The 1980 draft was a particularly good one. Slightly more than 36 per cent of the players taken finished last season in the NHL, including nine Group A players, 27 Group B players and 41 Group C players. The 1981 draft wasn&rsquo;t nearly so fruitful with only about 22 per cent&mdash;the fact that some &rsquo;81 draftees are just now becoming good NHL prospects was taken into account&mdash;including five Group A&rsquo;s, 17 Group B&rsquo;s and 26 Group C&rsquo;s.The average success rate of these two drafts was then applied against the total number of players taken in 1984, which leaves you with a projected 30 per cent success rate, which is really a misnomer since the majority of that 30 per cent will become, at best, fringe players.Now, this is far from a detailed, scientific study, but even with its flaws&mdash;the player classifications were subjective; perhaps not enough time has lapsed before evaluating the &rsquo;80 and &rsquo;81 drafts and there is no allowance for the number of drafted Europeans who have yet to arrive on our shores&mdash;it&rsquo;s obvious that the odds of a player drafted on June 9 making it to the NHL as a regular contributor are not good.But mere numbers cannot dim the desire of the draftees. Each one will continue to believe in himself&mdash;as it should be&mdash;and figure he&rsquo;s the one to beat the odds.In the meantime, though, two opinions to consider: To those propects who were ignored by 21 NHL teams, take heart because at least you know where you stand. And to the majority of those players drafted on June 9, take heed because that may be the only day you&rsquo;ll ever wear an NHL sweater. &#9632;

f0008-01

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

<h2>A JOURNALISTIC DISGRACE</h2>So, the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup. Congratulations to the players, coaches, front office, staff, fans and city.But not to the Edmonton Journal.In what has to be one of the most juvenile moves I&rsquo;ve seen in the field of journalism, someone from the Edmonton Journal sent a funeral wreath, along with a note, to Sports Illustrated, the magazine that predicted a New York Islander win over the Oilers for the Stanley Cup.Whatever happened to the journalistic ideal that a newspaper and reporter are supposed to remain neutral?Printed in Sports Illustrated&rsquo;s letter section was a picture of the wreath and the following, addressed to E.M. Swift, the magazine&rsquo;s hockey writer: &ldquo;With best wishes for your future hockey predictions.&rdquo; And it was signed, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Alta. Home of the Stanley Cup.&rsquo;Is that neutrality?When a reporter covers an event he or she must remain an unbiased observer and report the facts and statements while leaving out personal comments.I don&rsquo;t know how many other publications the Edmonton Journal sent its immature message, but by sending it to even just one, the Journal has succeeded in undermining its credibility.And if memory serves me correctly, wasn&rsquo;t it the Edmonton Journal that raked the Oilers over the ice hockey coals for failing to win any games in last season&rsquo;s match against the Islanders?How quickly a newspaper will forget its past and jump on the bandwagon.The Journal&rsquo;s effort appears to-be either an effort to bribe newspaper readers, hoping they will forget last year&rsquo;s salvos against the Oilers or it may be a plot to set up the Oilers as the Journal pretends to be best buddies, yet ready to slip in the editorial knife should the Oilers fail to repeat next season.Last year, it was generally agreed that the Oilers were not mature as a team, that they needed more discipline, more hard work and more experience.The team grew up and matured and won with class. I&rsquo;m sure, as long as the Oilers keep their present attitude, they will continue to win and thrill their fans.Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Edmonton Journal. The paper has not grown up with its Oilers. Instead it resembles the little kid who, after winning a game, greets his opponents for a post-match handshake and instead of saying &ldquo;nice game&rdquo; or &ldquo;good going,&rdquo; says &ldquo;Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. We won, you didn&rsquo;t. You stink.&rdquo;Probably the best way to characterize the Edmonton Journal is not as the Wayne Gretzky of journalism but rather the Billy Smith.In Edmonton, you may have the best hockey team, but not the best newspaper.Larry Gallone Asst. EditorSouth Philadelphia Review ChroniclePhiladelphia, PA &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Don&rsquo;t be misled by the name.Selmar Odelein does not hail from Helsinki or Stockholm. He&rsquo;s a big, rawboned farm kid from Quill Lake, Sask., who spent the entire first round of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s entry draft on June 9 hoping he would be chosen by the Edmonton Oilers.&ldquo;How can you complain about being drafted by the Stanley Cup champions?&rdquo; grinned Odelein after the Oilers made him their first pick (21st overall).The 6-foot, 194-pound Odelein, a product of the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League, becomes the fifth defenseman selected by the Oilers in six years of drafting NHL first-rounders. Kevin Lowe started the trend in 1979 and was followed by Paul Coffey (1980), Jim Playfair (1982) and Jeff Beukeboom last year.Although he&rsquo;s rated by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting as &ldquo;a good offensive defenseman.&rdquo; Odelein&rsquo;s long suit is defensive play in his own zone.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s okay offensively, too,&rdquo; said the Oilers&rsquo; Western scout Lome Davis, who is primarily responsible for choosing the 18-year-old. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been watching him for four years now&hellip;ever since he attended a hockey school of mine.&ldquo;He moves the puck well, but he passes better than he skates with it. He&rsquo;s capable of doing everything that makes him an all-round hockey player.&rdquo;Odelein will attend the Oilers&rsquo; training camp, but&mdash;in the manner of Playfair and Beukeboom&mdash;figures to be back in junior for at least another year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011273/5126721-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="559" height="915"><figcaption class="caption-body">Selmar Odelein has no complaints about being drafted by the Stanley Cup champions.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give it my best shot, but another year of junior would do me good.&rdquo; said Odelein, who accounted for nine goals and 42 assists along with 45 penalty minutes in 71 games last season. &ldquo;There are a few points I&rsquo;d like to prove. I&rsquo;d like to be better on the scoreboard, maybe make an all-star team and I&rsquo;d like to set a few records, too.&rdquo;Odelein, the eldest of three brothers of Norwegian heritage, hails from a 1,200-acre farm at Quill Lake&mdash;150 miles north of Regina.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big, talented kid. He&rsquo;ll fit right in to Edmonton&rsquo;s tyle of play,&rdquo; said Pat general manager-coach Bob Strumm. &ldquo;Of course, I&rsquo;m biased but he&rsquo;s a good, solid person. He needs another year of junior&mdash;particularly from a physical standpoint&mdash;but we don&rsquo;t mind being a farm team for the Stanley Cup champions.&rdquo;Strumm was referring to a couple of the Oilers&rsquo; 1983 drafts&mdash;seventh-rounder Dale Derkatch and 11th-round selection John Miner&mdash;who returned to play junior with the Pats last season. Miner was named the club&rsquo;s top defenseman and Odelein the Rookie of the Year.In the second round, the Oilers selected 6-foot-4 goaltender Daryl Reaugh, who posted a 4.34 goals-against average with the Kamloops Junior Oilers last season.&ldquo;We had him rated as a first-rounder,&rdquo; said Oiler chief scout Barry Fraser of the Prince George, B.C. native. &ldquo;We think he was the best goaltender available in the draft. He&rsquo;s quick with his feet for a big guy. He carried the Kamloops team a long ways. He ran out of gas at the end of the year, due to the fact he had to play so much.&ldquo;It just surprises me that we got the two guys we had rated alongside each other.&rdquo;IN THE CREASE&mdash;Emanuel Viveiros, a product of the Edmonton suburb of St. Albert, was a bonus for the Oilers. The 18-year-old was part of the December deal that netted Edmonton solid playoff performer Kevin McClelland from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Tom Roulston&hellip;The Oilers are shifting their farm team from Moncton to Halifax, citing financial losses as the reason for relocating their American League franchise. Doug Messier, father of Conn Smythe Trophy-winner Mark, is also expected to be replaced as general manager-coach of the Oilers&rsquo; No. 1 affiliate. The elder Messier is expected to be offered a scouting assignment. &#9632;

f0009-01

Odelein To Give It ‘Best Shot’ With Oilers

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011336/5126752-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="289" height="340"></div><h2>My Opinion On&hellip;</h2>THE FIRST PICK&mdash;The whole Mario Lemieux scenario stank out the joint as far back as March when Pittsburgh loped into last place and clinched the first draft pick. To avoid battles for the cellar (for example, between the Penguins and New Jersey), the National Hockey League should rewrite its rules so that the worst team (the Penguins, in this case) are not automatically rewarded with the top choice. The five non-playoff teams should draw lots for the first five picks.As for the Pens, they stupidly tipped their hand on Lemieux too far in advance, thus putting themselves in a hole. The Kid, a failure in the Memorial Cup, has yet to prove himself in the bigs and acts as if he uses the same mirror as the witch in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. If I was Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston, I&rsquo;d make the best deal I could for Lemieux with the Nordiques or Canadiens (where he really wants to play) and go with proven aces.PAT QUINN&mdash;Why this guy has a super-paying coaching job, and guys such as Don Cherry, Fred Shero and Bob McCammon are out in the cold, defies logic. The secret is that Quinn went to law school (much prestige), kept a low profile and must have had one helluva press agent because all you heard last winter was Quinn, Quinn, Quinn&mdash;as if he was the most-holy-blessed-be-bench-boss. In truth, he did a creditable job with the Flyers &lsquo;way back when, in the aincient pre-Gretzky era. If Quinn gets Los Angeles into the playoffs, 1 will personally kiss the blarney stone (obviously, he already has) and present him with an antique pipe, to replace the smoke-blowers he now employs.MARK MESSIER&mdash;Several years ago in this space I told Mark Messier that he could (a) skate faster than Wayne Gretzky; (b) outmuscle Gretzky; (c) shoot harder than Gretzky; and (d) compete as fiercely as Gretzky. Then how come. Mark Messier, you&rsquo;re not better than Gretzky. I predicted, then, that ultimately he would out-wonderful Wayne. Well, for the first three games of the finals&mdash;when Mister Waynederful was going for the goose-egg&mdash;Mister Don&rsquo;t Messieraround was Gretzky&rsquo;s savior. Perish the thought, but what happens to the league if Messier does get better than Gretz?THE SI AFFAIR&mdash;More than a year ago, Sports Illustrated had what seemed to be a dynamite piece on Alan Eagleson that was ready for publication. It was supposed to be dynamite. Dud or dynamite, it never ran. Didn&rsquo;t run in the fall, winter of spring either. This much I&rsquo;ll tell you, SI, if it isn&rsquo;t out this summer I&rsquo;m going to stop holding my breath.BOBBY CLARKE&mdash;Now that we&rsquo;ve digested all the apple-sauce from the Philly media on Bobby Clarke becoming general manager of Philadelphia, let us regurgitate the facts: Bob McCammon should still be the Flyer GM and Ted Sator head coach. Unschooled in managerial affairs, Clarke is two years away from being an adequate GM, five years from becoming first-rate. Can Ed-Jay Snider, the father-son combo that runs the Broad Streets, wait that long? Doubtful. But Clarke may be saved by the GM-emeritus, Keith Allen, who knows more about hockey than even Mario Lemieux.BARRY BECK&mdash;Am I crazy or is Barry Beck not as good as I keep thinking he is. Remember at the beginning of the season I wrote that he&rsquo;s on the threshold of becoming one of the top three defensemen. So, who finishes ahead of him in the balloting for the Norris Trophy? Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Charlie Huddy, Phil Housley. Better than Bubba? Who&rsquo;s kidding whom? Or am I seeing Barry through Beck-colored glasses.<h2>The Devilish Deed</h2>NEW JERSEY&mdash;BACK in March, I urgently suggested that Devil boss John McMullen bring back Tom McVie as coach and Max McNab as GM to give his forlorn club some stability. Shortly thereafter, 1 received a call from a friend, who knows hockey and hockey players, telling me that I had erred.&ldquo;McVie can&rsquo;t handle kids and some of the vets don&rsquo;t like him,&rdquo; the man snapped. &ldquo;And Max is a little too slow for the business today.&rdquo;The man has his vested interests at heart. Objective, he&rsquo;s not. McVie&rsquo;s major fault is that he couldn&rsquo;t make chicken salad out of chicken feathers or convert Mickey Mouse into Superman. He did as much with the decrepit Devils as anyone could and should be the coach today. If Doug Carpenter does better, I will tip my hat to him. As for McNab, once he took over from Billy MacMillan, he made one significant move, dealing Jeff Larmer for Tim Higgins. It was as good a deal as the Devils have made. As for Max, he will not hurt the Devils and already has demonstrated that he can help them. They could do worse.THE CENTRAL LEAGUE&mdash;It&rsquo;s all a matter of bucks and pucks. The cost of running teams such as Tulsa became prohibitive to NHL teams who find it easier to use American colleges, Lapland and Slovakia for developmental purposes. That&rsquo;s well and good but hockey suffers deep wounds when solid franchises in Salt Lake City and San Diego and so on are allowed to disappear. The inevitable result is that indoor soccer is planted where hockey once flowered and The Game is all the worse for it. The death of the CHL is a lot more profound than it appears to the bookeepers and accountants of hockey.GLEN SATHER&mdash;Whomever succeeds Slats behind the Oiler bench will not be as good as he was at handling a potentially difficult squad. If Sather steps down it will be the best thing that has happened to Bob Johnson all year.THE CANADA CUP&mdash;If I was an NHL GM or an agent for a big-league player, I&rsquo;d advise him not to participate in the Canada Cup. To me it&rsquo;s nothing but a self-serving Al Eagleson exhibition that can only detract from a player&rsquo;s ability to perform at top potential during the regular 1984-85 season and the playoffs. An NHL player should play in NHL games only and not invite injury&mdash;Lord knows, there&rsquo;s enough of them during the 80-game sked&mdash;in some meaningless tourney. The only international series I favor is a seven-game playoff between the Stanley Cup champions and the European titlists. That would have genuine significance. The Canada Cup is applesauce.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Exactly one year ago this moment, the NHL was hoping (nay, praying) that the roots of the Blues would remain firmly planted in St. Louis, not Saskatoon or Sault Ste. Marie or even San Francisco. But the Blues needed an angel, a money-type saint, who would pour his dollars over the troubled Missouri waters. Out of the, ahem, blue appeared Hany Ornest, the saviour. He bought the team and thus saved the NHL barons a lot of grief. As a reward, the barons should have restored the Blues&rsquo; picks in the 1983 June draft which were lost by Ralston-Purina in its disorderly retreat from hockey. Logic and a sense of fairness dictate that the NHL should have worked out a deal in 1984 to allow the Blues to at least draft from a pool of players not drafted by other clubs. This was not done. It was a gratuitous kick in the pants to the man who saved the Blues from being gratuitously kicked out of the NHL.<h2>Borough Of Ballard</h2>DAN MALONEY&mdash;ANYWHERE else there would have been a blare of trumpets, a sumptuous luncheon and a round of triumphant speeches. But in the Borough of Ballard, the proclamation about Dan Maloney&rsquo;s appointment as coach was surreptitiously delivered to many members of the media. What gives? The Devils weren&rsquo;t ashamed to hail Doug Carpenter before a mass of journalists. And the Kings welcomed Pat Quinn as if he was the emperor of Southern California. There are four possibilities: (1) The Leafs are paranoid about the reporters who crucified them last season and simply don&rsquo;t want to go through the hassle of putting up with the Al Strachans et al at a formal presentation; (2) Harold Ballard would rather save the money he&rsquo;d be spending by feeding the munch-mad media; (3) The Leafs are embarrassed about the selection since Maloney was de facto coach of the club in the last half of the season although Mike Nykoluk had the title. What&rsquo;s more the Leafs were losers and slipped through the playoff quicksand with Maloney: (4) All of the above.THE NORTH STARS&mdash;Don&rsquo;t you get the feeling that the North Stars are the NHL&rsquo;s version of Lebanon. There always seems to be a mini-war brewing in the Duchy of Nanne. Sweet Lou makes as many declarations of peace as Amin Gemael in Beirut, yet the war goes on. Maybe the criticism levelled by Al McAdam and Dino Ciccarelli is legit. Maybe Bill Mahoney isn&rsquo;t running the North Stars. Maybe Nanne, more than anyone, is the problem. It is one helluva soap opera and, like all good soap operas, it will last forever&mdash;or until Herb Brooks takes over as coach of the team.SERGE SAVARD&mdash;There will be no knocks for slick Serge here but the kudos will be directed at the man who isn&rsquo;t at the Forum anymore and who rates as much credit as Savard for the Habs&rsquo; Stanley Cup effort. That man is Irv Grundman, who was booted out by the current administration, who was in a no-win situation and who did a lot more good for the Canadiens than folks imagine. Who starred for the Habs in the playoffs? Mats Naslund, Chris Chelios, Craig Ludwig, Steve Penney&mdash;all Grundman draft choices. Here&rsquo;s to you, Irv Grundman! &#9632;

f0010-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Now the Islanders have two Melansons. However, it&rsquo;s possible that neither will be with the team for the start of the 1984-85 season.On a day when the Isles failed to engineer a trade that presumably involved Roland Melanson, the former Stanley Cup champions drafted another Melanson.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re distant cousins,&rdquo; Bruce Melanson said after the Islanders made the 17-year-old right winger their second-round pick in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s entry draft. &ldquo;Roland is from Moncton (New Brunswick) and I&rsquo;m from St. John.&rdquo;Because the Islanders had the second best record in the NHL last season, they had the next-to-last pick (20th overall) in the first round and used it to draft Duncan MacPherson, an 18-year-old defenseman from the Saskatoon Blades.General manager Bill Torrey sought to acquire the No. 3 pick of the Los Angeles Kings but failed. Instead, the Kings switched draft positions with the sixth-place Chicago Black Hawks.The Islanders offered a goalie to the Kings, but Los Angeles turned down the deal because it would have hurt its draft standing in the first round.Neither Vachon nor Torrey divulged which Islander goalie was offered, but insiders say it was Melanson, who was a 20-game winner during the regular season but was virtually ignored in the playoffs.It was learned that Torrey also attempted to complete a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins for one of their three first-round picks, but the Islander GM again had no luck.The overcrowded goalie situation will presumably be resolved at some time in the future. Will Torrey retain Melanson and Kelly Hrudey, both 23, and trade 33-year-old Bill Smith? Or will Smith be retained and one of the younger goalies traded?Torrey was offering no hints. He has made it clear, though, that he will move one of the three and not risk losing one in the waiver draft.Bruce Melanson will join the Isles at their training camp in September, but is expected to be returned to his junior team, Oshawa Generals, for more seasoning. His progress was slowed last season by a dislocated shoulder and he admitted he didn&rsquo;t expect to be picked in the second round.&ldquo;I felt I&rsquo;d have to wait until the fourth round,&rdquo; he said.MacPherson confessed he was &ldquo;totally surprised&rdquo; when the Islanders made him their first-round pick. He missed half of his first season with the Blades because of an ankle injury.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not much of an offensive threat,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenseman who failed to score a goal in 45 games with the Blades.Torrey, though, feels MacPherson has excellent potential.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a Fancy Dan, but he&rsquo;s strong and he&rsquo;s a hard checker,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t expect him to make the big jump right away, but at this stage of his development he&rsquo;s very impressive.&rdquo;Eight of the Islanders&rsquo; 13 picks are defensemen. Five were prep schoolers, including third-rounder Jeff Norton, who scored 22 goals and 55 points in 21 games with Cushing (MA) Academy.The Isles also drafted their first Czechoslovak player, David Volek, a 17-year-old winger who, at 5-foot-10, 165-pounds, was one of the smallest players in the draft. The biggest Islander draftee was Russ Becker, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound high school defenseman from Iowa City, IA.ON THE ISLE&mdash;Mike Bossy, an All-Star right winger for the fourth consecutive year and winner of the Lady Byng Trophy for the second straight year, predicted Al Arbour would be back as coach next season. &ldquo;Al seemed encouraged about the future,&rdquo; he said&hellip;If Butch Goring becomes a free agent July 1, the Winnipeg Jets will attempt to sign the veteran center, who is a Winnipeg native. &#9632;

Isles Possess Two Melansons…For Now

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Flyers used their gaggle of second-and third-rounds picks, went for a lot of size and announced their satisfaction at the completion of the National Hockey League entry draft.But several sources said they tried to do more, talking trade with Quebec, with some of the names mentioned including Dale Hunter, Michel Goulet, Brian Propp, Tim Kerr and Mark Howe.New Flyer general manager Bobby Clarke said none of his trade efforts reached the serious stage.&ldquo;Sure, I&rsquo;d love to have a Dale Hunter, but he wasn&rsquo;t offered,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think he would be offered to us.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll make a trade this summer. Our people say we&rsquo;ve got a few kids coming (centers Peter Zezel and Todd Bergen, right winger Rick Tocchet, left winger Ross Fitzpatrick) who can make our team this fall. We want to see what they can do.&rdquo;&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be at all disappointed to start the season with what we have right now.&rdquo;To finish it with the same cast, though, would probably lead to the same first-round disappointments of the past three seasons. The Flyers need a left winger to replace Bill Barber, who will miss all of next year while recuperating from major knee construction. And while none of the other positions is a particular troublespot, they could use one more thing.A superstar. Anyplace.They have enough B-plus, A-minus players for another 90-100 point season and have come through a major transition year without slipping into the middle of the pack. But the star-calibre player, who can hitch the team on his back and carry it through a few rounds of the playoffs, is probably not here.If Howe can bounce back to his 198283 form, he&rsquo;s close. If Tim Kerr&rsquo;s 54 goals last season are just a start, he could do it too. A little more consistency from Propp, and that means 110-point seasons instead of his usual 90, might be the answer. But for now, the first all-star just isn&rsquo;t here.It might be a reason why the Flyers might be willing to make a big sacrifice for a Goulet, if the Nordiques really would be willing to move him. But most of the smaller deals Clarke attempted to make in the pre-draft days fell short for a couple of other reasons.The first was Clarke&rsquo;s unwillingness to trade one of his goalies. Whether either Pelle Lindbergh or Bob Froese would have interested Los Angeles and St. Louis, the teams that made draft deals to acquire help in the nets, is a moot point. Clarke wasn&rsquo;t offering.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a third goalie ready to play in the NHL,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;Now if one of the kids (Darren Jensen, Ron Hextall, Gil Hudon) comes to camp and beats somebody out of a job, we might have room to move. But right now it&rsquo;s too risky.&rdquo;Another reason is a shortage of depth in the organization due to weak 1980 and 1981 drafts. The 1982 and 1983 drafts look a lot better and if Tocchet, Bergen and Zezel prove capable of playing in the NHL in the near future, the Flyers will have a little more maneuverability.&ldquo;We had some interest in some of our players,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;But they weren&rsquo;t trying to trade. They were trying to steal.&rdquo;So he waited for the second round and turned the microphone over to Gary Darling, the assistant GM, and the scouts.&ldquo;They tell me,&rdquo; Clarke said after the five second-and third-rounders had been selected, &ldquo;that I&rsquo;m very pleased.&rdquo;The Flyers drafted five of the eight players they hoped would be available with the 22nd, 27th, 43rd and 47th picks. Their first target was either defenseman Greg Smyth, a 6-foot-3, 194-pound throwback to the bully days, or right winger Scott Mellanby. When Darling heard that both New Jersey and St. Louis, which had the 23rd and 24th picks, were ready to take Smyth, they grabbed him and gambled Mellanby would last until 27th.It worked. The Flyers then held their breath that Jeff Brown, a finesse-type defenseman would last until 37th. That didn&rsquo;t work. Quebec took him 36th, just one pick away.The Flyers called time and selected defenseman Jeff Chychrun, more a defensive type. Their 43rd pick was left winger David McLay. And their piece de resistance was defenseman John Stevens, whom they had projected as their final third-round pick.&ldquo;Stevens is a very mature defensive defenseman for his age,&rdquo; said Jerry Melnyk, the Flyers&rsquo; head scout. &ldquo;He takes the man very well and doesn&rsquo;t get beat one-on-one.&rdquo;Size and defensemen, to a lesser extent, became a priority because the Flyers&rsquo; three best defensive prospects from the last three drafts&mdash;Jerome Carrier, Andre Villeneuve and Billy Campbell&mdash;are all smaller, puck-moving types.Smyth, who is playing junior in London, announced proudly that he is not of that ilk.&ldquo;The Flyers have always been my favorite team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I love the rough stuff.&rdquo;His 252 penalty minutes, the most of any player taken in the draft, attests to that.Mellanby&rsquo;s father, Ralph, is executive producer for Hockey Night in Canada.&ldquo;Scott also worked at Howie Meeker&rsquo;s hockey school, where I send my kid,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;He was like a big brother to Wade. After I got the job, I was looking over the draft list for the first time and there was Scott&rsquo;s name. This is really nice for him.&rdquo;Mellanby has signed a letter of intent to play at the University of Wisconsin, where he will major in communications.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want him to play in the minors,&rdquo; said the senior Mellanby. &ldquo;When the Flyers think he&rsquo;s ready to play for them, he&rsquo;ll sign and then finish college in the summer.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;The Flyers forfeited their 11th-round selection, Czechoslovak defenseman Petr Rucka, when they embarrassingly found out Calgary had claimed him in the 10th round. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not upset,&rdquo; Darling said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a kid you draft just in case he ever defects. We couldn&rsquo;t see the bottom of the board and they hadn&rsquo;t delivered the ninth-round list yet to our table.&rdquo; &#9632;

Flyers Were Shopping For A Superstar

THE HOCKEY NEWS and Labatt&rsquo;s would like to thank all those readers who entered the contest to select their own versions of the Team Canada and Team USA lineups which will compete in the Canada Cup. The response was over-whelming.The official lineups and winners of the contest will be announced in the special Canada Cup section in the Aug. 31, 1984 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011221/5126831-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="505" height="489"></div> &#9632;

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A Message To Our Readers

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Tamper with success? Not the Red Wings.For the second straight year, the Wings selected a young center from the Ontario Hockey Legue as their No. I pick in the National Hockey League entry draft.The name is Shawn Burr, but everything else about the young man reminds the Wings of another teenage center.&ldquo;When I met him for the first time and had a chance to talk to him for awhile, I immediately thought of Steve Yzerman,&rdquo; said Wing coach Nick Polano. &ldquo;Naturally, we like that.&rdquo;Burr is a 6-foot, 185-pounder who was the OHL&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year last season, his first out of Sarnia midget hockey. He scored 41 goals and 44 assists and all of his physical tools&mdash;size, speed, goal-scoring ability&mdash;resemble Yzerman&rsquo;s.&ldquo;It was unanimous we were going to take Burr,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;When building a team, it&rsquo;s important to be strong down the middle, and that was an area where we needed to improve. Jimmy D. and our scouts tell me he&rsquo;s our kind if player, a relentless forechecker who goes in fast and makes things happen. He&rsquo;s very clever.&rdquo;The Wings can&rsquo;t expect Burr to have the spectacular season Yzerman did in 1983-84. They went into the draft just looking for someone who could step in and contribute 20 to 25 goals. Anything more from a first-year pro is a bonus.Burr, one of the players interviewed by general manager Jimmy Devellano before the draft, said he was &ldquo;happy, and relieved&rdquo; to be selected by Detroit.&ldquo;Soon as it happened, 1 thought about it, that people would expect so much from me because of the kind of season he (Yzerman) had.&rdquo; Burr said. &ldquo;I probably won&rsquo;t be able to do the things he did. but I&rsquo;ll try my best.&rdquo;He&rsquo;ll certainly get the chance.&ldquo;We plan on putting him in there and giving him every opportunity to make the team, just like we did with Yzerman,&rdquo; Polano said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll probably be on a line wth Rob McClanahan (recently acquired from New York Rangers) and either Eddie Johnstone or Pierre Aubry on right wing. We&rsquo;re hoping to put together a fourth line that can play on a more regular basis. We didn&rsquo;t have the kind of depth last year to do that. We think Shawn gives us some of that depth.&rdquo;The Wings&rsquo; next two picks were defensemen&mdash;Doug Houda of Calgary and Milan Chalupa, a veteran of 200 games with the Czech national team.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a terrific puckhandler,&rdquo; Devellano said of Chalupa. &ldquo;He gives us a little more depth, balance and insurance on defense. That was very much a draft for today, to help make our hockey club better next season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going after him.&rdquo;Devellano said Chalupa, 31, has received permission from the Czech Hockey Federation to play in North America next season.&ldquo;There was a nice balance to our draft, a nice variety,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re very pleased at the top of it with Burr and Houda. We feel Burr is a good, young, smart center&hellip;with good hands and good goal-scoring ability. Following our first draft of Steve Yzerman, Shawn gives us strength down the middle as we try to build a good hockey club.&ldquo;Even though Houda has two years of junior left, we feel that a year from now he could be a kid we&rsquo;ll be looking at for our team.&rdquo;The Wings, reluctant adventurers into the foreign talent pool in the past, finally jumped in&mdash;with both feet. In addition to Chalup, they drafted four teenage Swedes&mdash;defenseman Stefan Larsson, left winger Mats Lundstrom and centers Lars Karlsson and Urban Nordin.WING NOTES&mdash;Veteran defenseman John Barrett, who blossomed into a dependable performer last season, signed a four-year pact with the club while center Dwight Foster agreed to a two-year contract&hellip;Rob McClanahan was acquired from the Rangers for &ldquo;future considerations.&rdquo;&hellip;Steve Yzerman was a close second to Buffalo goaltender Tom Barrasso in the Calder Trophy race. He didn&rsquo;t get the silver, but he got the cash&mdash;a $25,000 bonus from Wing owner Mike Hitch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011309/5126869-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="559" height="850"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021096/5126862-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="559" height="850"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit&rsquo;s first-round pick Shawn Burr (left) has been compared to Steve Yzerman (right), who had an outstanding rookie year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Wings Take Yzerman Clone With First Pick

<div class="byline">BY JOE FALLS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03738/5126900-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="283" height="334"></div><h2>Orr In The Summer</h2>WHAT HAPPENS TO the Zambonis in the summer?Do they use them to cut the grass or maybe clean the streets? It seems a shame they can only be used in the winter.Who cares about hockey in the summer?I do.I think of what it must be like in Parry Sound in the summer. I can see Bobby Orr sitting in his fishing boat, with a limp line hanging in the water, not caring if he catches anything but enjoying the silence and serenity of his hometown. It always gave me a good feeling thinking that there was a place that Orr could get away from it all&mdash;a place where he could sit under a tree and drink a cold beer and look out over his favorite lake.Guys like him, who gave so much during the winter, deserved a chance to unwind. Their time away from the game seemed short enough. They&rsquo;d go until the middle of May, then have June and July off, and by August they&rsquo;d be thinking about getting ready to return to camp in September.I know they enjoy their sport and that it is the very essence of their life.But the seasons seemed so long that I wondered how they could keep up the quality of play.I guess this is why they are athletes. It is in them to compete. They probably even need it to survive.<h2>The Bold Bruins</h2>SO WHEN I think of Bobby Orr out of hockey, I feel a sadness because I can imagine how much he must hurt because I know how much the game meant to him.He played with a team that was the boldest and best of its time. The Boston Bruins never came to town for a game&mdash;they arrived with a flare and flourish. You could hear the trumpets sounding and see the flashbulbs popping as they got off the plane.There was Phil Esposito in that fur coat which made him look like a grizzly bear and all but swallowed him up.There was Johnny Bucyk with those bony features and dark face, looking like an Indian prowling the plains in search of a skirmish.There was Wayne Cashman with that sandy hair and that craggy face&mdash;that look of intensity in his eyes. He was the naughty one, ready to steal the cookies from the jar the moment his mother left the kitchen.In my town, they&rsquo;d show up at The Lindell AC Bar after the games and take over the place.They&rsquo;d come in all but pounding on the tables for beer, and beers would materialize, along with hamburgers and pretty girls, and it didn&rsquo;t take long for the party to start.The Bruins lived life to the fullest. They were the best and they knew it and they played it for all it was worth.<h2>The Quiet One</h2>ORR WAS THE quiet one. He seemed to be sitting in the comer all the time sipping on a beer and watching his teammates dance on the tabletops. He enjoyed himself in his own way, taking his pleasures in private and personal ways.It was always something seeing the Bruins up close, in the raw reality of a bar at 1:00 in the morning, after watching them perform so brilliantly at Olympia Stadium.They were something special, all right: Orr starting out from behind his own net, looking everywhere at once and trying to find an open teammate on the wings, picking up speed and never once looking down at the puck. He could see the whole rink at once and figure out what was going to happen before it happened. He was Gretzkying the game before anyone ever heard of Wayne Gretzky.The best part was when Orr kept the puck for himself, skating up center ice and snaking around the boards and going in behind the net and passing out to Espo in the slot.Espo, in the slot, was worth the price of admission.He loved his goals. I loved it when he missed. He&rsquo;d fire one wide and grab his head with his hands and squeeze hard. He&rsquo;d look at the heavens for solace and all but cry out, &ldquo;How could this happen to me!&rdquo; He was a great thespian. I sat there and waited for him to hit the post.So now they are no more and wherever Bobby Orr is on this day&mdash;and I hope it is on a boat in the middle of his favorite lake in Parry Sound&mdash;I just want to say, &ldquo;Hi and don&rsquo;t feel so bad because all careers come to an end but the memories go on forever.&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY CORNER

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011235/5126931-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">First-round pick Kevin Hatcher, right, gets welcomed to the Capital family by general manager David Poile, left.</figcaption></div>LANDOVER&mdash;A year ago, Washington was the home for the short-lived Team America soccer experiment. Now, it is fast becoming the site for another Team America, hockey variety.The Capitals, who bid for recognition as America&rsquo;s team three years ago when they drafted Bobby Carpenter, have been adding Americans at a fast rate by trade and draft, overcoming the big edge Minnesota&rsquo;s general manager Lou Nanne and New York Rangers&rsquo; GM Craig Patrick had in that area.America&rsquo;s best hockey player, Rod Langway, earned his second straight Norris Trophy as the National Hockey League&rsquo;s top defenseman a couple of weeks ago and the Capitals followed that up by picking another sizable American defenseman, 6-foot-3 Kevin Hatcher, in the first round of the draft.Washington&rsquo;s second-round pick, right winger Stephen Leach, is another American. They join Langway, Carpenter, Bryan Erickson and Olympians Dave Christian, Gary Sampson and Bob Mason on the Capitals&rsquo; roster.Washington GM David Poile, Canadian-born but a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, said the U.S. bias was unintentional but welcome.&ldquo;There is no particular reason for having so many Americans, because our sole aim is to put the best possible team on the ice,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;But certainly the way it has turned out, with our trades and draft choices, I think it&rsquo;s a hell of a situation for an American team.&rdquo;Hatcher, a product of the Detroit Compuware midget program who played for North Bay of the Ontario Hockey League last season, was pleased to find so many of his countrymen wearing red, white and blue.&ldquo;Since the Caps made the playoffs, I&rsquo;ve thought about them a lot, and I know they&rsquo;re the youngest team in the league,&rdquo; Hatcher said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been finding out about the number of Americans on the team and that&rsquo;s good, I like that. I went to Canada to play junior because most of the pros come out of there, but I&rsquo;m sure in a few years it will be changing.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to be playing with Rod Langway. His defensive style is what I have to watch. My offensive game has been going really well and if they teach me the defensive part, I&rsquo;ll be that much ahead.&rdquo;Hatcher qualified for the draft by only six days, since he will be 18 on Sept. 9, and Poile made mention of that so Cap followers would not be expecting too much from Hatcher right away.Hatcher, however, had other ideas.&ldquo;I think I can make the NHL next year and I&rsquo;m glad to get the chance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I have to play one more year of junior, I&rsquo;ll be disappointed, but it won&rsquo;t matter a lot.&rdquo;Leach, who led Matignon high school to the Massachusetts state championship, plans to attend the University of New Hampshire and will not try his luck at Washington&rsquo;s first hometown training camp.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no pressure on me,&rdquo; Leach said. &ldquo;They respect my feelings. I want to go to UNH and after each year I&rsquo;ll evaluate my position with respect to the Capitals. I&rsquo;m going to push myself and if I do well, maybe I&rsquo;ll be in the NHL in a couple of years. If not, I&rsquo;ll go the full four years.&ldquo;Washington is a great organization. The real hockey fan, the guy who knows, is aware that there are a lot of Americans doing very well in Washington. It&rsquo;s going to be fun in the future.&ldquo;I heard a lot about Bobby Carpenter the year he was drafted. After that, whenever he&rsquo;s been on TV, I&rsquo;ve been glued. He&rsquo;s opened up a lot of doors for American hockey players. &ldquo;CAPPING IT OFF&mdash;Besides Rod Langway, other Capitals to receive postseason awards included, center Doug Jarvis, who captured the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward, and coach Bryan Murray, a runaway winner of the Adams Award as Coach of the Year, with 31 of the 34 first-place votes&hellip;After weeks of uncertainty following their eviction from Hershey, the Capitals secured a minor-league affiliate when they agreed to supply players to Hartford&rsquo;s American League franchise in Binghamton. &#9632;

f0013-01

Capitals Have Makings Of Hockey’s Team USA

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The sugar hit the fan in a sweet set-to between the New Jersey Devils on one side and the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau (CSB) on the other. Tremors began when the CSB discovered that the Devils had published a mammoth 1984 Entry Draft Guide with the aid of six staffers. Oozing with info, the 212-page tome covered everything from juniors and collegians to past drafts and sketches of the top 105 skaters and 27 goaltenders rated by the CSB. A source says the Devils produced 118 of these guides for the media at a cost of about $1,000. But while the media was delighted, the same couldn&rsquo;t be said for the folks at CSB in Toronto. A CSB spokesperson tells BLUELINES that the bureau is &ldquo;very upset&rdquo; about the Devils&rsquo; publication. &ldquo;Information that was included,&rdquo; the CSB informant says, &ldquo;was that which the league sends out in confidence to each team before the draft. CSB director Jim Gregory was outraged and had it out with Devil general manager Max McNab. Gregory told Rod Beaton of USA Today. &ldquo;Of course I&rsquo;m upset. You&rsquo;d be upset if your confidential information was made public.&rdquo; McNab tells BLUELINES that projects such as the Entry Draft Guide have been done before &ldquo;but not to this extent.&rdquo; McNab adds that the dispute has &ldquo;cooled off now.&rdquo;&hellip;The Golden Hockey League, which will employ former NHL stars, has an 85 per cent chance of getting off the drawing board, according to Dave Blair, one of its founders. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in the research and development process,&rdquo; Blair tells BLUELINES, adding that it will be a few months before a final decision is made&hellip;The Lions of Winter, a novel based on the Canadiens&rsquo; 1956-60 dynasty and authored by Chris Goyens and Al Turowetz, will be published in February.Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s behavior at the draft angered many and drew little support. One hockey man went so far as to suggest that the NHL should have been more forceful with the Penguins&rsquo; top draft choice. A GM snorts: &ldquo;The things Lemieux has said are among the most amazing I&rsquo;ve ever heard from a young hockey player.&rdquo;&hellip;A Guy Lafleur-to-the-New York Rangers rumor has been bruited about with The Flower skating on a line with his old buddy, Pierre Larouche. Insiders insist there&rsquo;s no way, for political reasons, that the Habs can let Lafleur go&hellip;Herb Brooks&rsquo; contract runs out at the end of next season, fueling speculation that Herb will return to his native Minnesota, but not with the North Stars. A very lively tip has it that Brooks is destined to return to his old stamping grounds, the University of Minnesota, to succeed Paul Giel as athletic director&hellip;Reports about Dave (Hammer) Schultz taking acting lessons are only partially true. Currently working with brother Ray&rsquo;s cable-tv company in New Jersey, Dave tells BLUELINES that it was only one lesson. &ldquo;I took it for a tv commercial,&rdquo; he reports&hellip;A Manhattan talent ace is eyeing Phil Esposito&rsquo;s wife, Donna, for tv commercial work&hellip;Al Eagleson goes to bat, against Vaclav Nedomansky later this month. First, Big Ned will finish his presentation in his case against The Eagle over contractual problems when he played for the Red Wings. Those who attended the player-owner meetings in the Bahamas report that Eagleson has taken on a more conciliatory posture than he has in other years. He has become supportive of the Phil Esposito Foundation&rsquo;s career planning program, which he once opposed. Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Marcel Dionne and Bryan Trottier have most actively backed the Espo post-career planning blueprint&hellip;Those who know him say Al MacAdam&rsquo;s popping off about dissension on the North Stars means that there really are problems in Bloomington. As one of MacAdam&rsquo;s friends tells BLUELINES: &ldquo;For Al to take a stand means that there is real trouble.&rdquo;The NHL nixed participation in the Universal hockey film. Touch and Go, because of fighting-on-ice sequences which the league figured would taint its image. Starring Michael Keaton, the $8-million flick is now being shot in Los Angeles and will be released early next year. Mike Kelly, an amateur player in L.A., has been teaching Keaton the finer points of stickhandling, skating and shooting. All hockey sequences are being shot at the Los Angeles Sports Arena (not The Forum) and the San Diego Sports Arena. Local hockey fans have been recruited as spectators&hellip;Although legendary broadcaster Danny Gallivan is talking retirement, the folks at Hockey Night In Canada are reluctant to believe it. Exec v.p. Frank Selke tells BLUELINES: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re seriously considering refusing to accept Danny&rsquo;s retirement. We&rsquo;re working on it.&rdquo;&hellip;The growing-increasingly-bitter-by-the-week battle between Hockey Night in Canada backers and promoters of the proposed new Canadian hockey network featuring U.S. NHL teams is causing major rifts on the governors&rsquo; level. One rumor has it that the 14 American clubs will be served with a writ and injunction against participating in the new telecasts. Resentment stems from the fact each U.S. club would rake in an easy $1,000,000 for participation and financially-strapped clubs such as the Caps and Kings could use the cash&hellip;Another breach in U.S.-Canadian relations on the NHL level has revolved around publication of the NHL Guide, which no longer is being handled by the league&rsquo;s Montreal office. A tug-of-war developed over whether it should be published in the States or remain in Canada. The Canadians won it with the Toronto firm, Gaylord Publications, taking over this summer, pending final NHL approval. Gaylord will go to a magazine format, combing the NHL guide and record book. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>TORONTO&mdash;When the Maple Leafs open training camp in September, one position which is sure to attract a lot of attention is defense.By selecting defensemen Al lafrate and Todd Gill with their first two picks in the June entry draft, the Leafs added two possible candidates for employment on the blueline. Defense was a sour spot last season, but that doesn&rsquo;t guarantee jobs for the two newest members of the Leaf fraternity. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to make predictions,&rdquo; said Leaf general manager Gerry McNamara. &ldquo;Our camp will be interesting this fall, especially on the blueline.&rdquo;The Leafs entered the draft desperately in need of help in every position but goal, which McNamara felt comfortable about with young goalies Allan Bester and Ken Wreggett and veteran Mike Palmateer.McNamara refused to say which player the Leafs were eyeing with their first-round pick (fourth overall), except to say, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take the best player available.&rdquo;The least-kept secret was that Pittsburgh would choose Mario Lemieux, the high-scoring center from Laval, but after that it became a guessing game.After New Jersey chose forward Kirk Muller and Chicago worked out a deal with Los Angeles to select hometown product Ed Olczyk, the Leafs chose lafrate, who played for the U.S. team in the 1984 winter Olympics in Sarajevo and later joined the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League.Twenty-one players later, the Leafs selected Gill, a veteran of two seasons with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL.The Leafs did not have a pick in the third round, having dealt that away to acquire Dan Daoust in &rsquo;82.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy to have two defensemen, but when we drafted, we felt we were taking the best player available,&rdquo; McNamara said. &ldquo;It just happens there were defensemen available, it&rsquo;s been that kind of year.&rdquo;A controversy of sorts arose a few days before the draft when it was revealed Craig Redmond, a highly-touted defenseman who played at the University of Denver and was a member of the Canadian Olympic team, had written a letter to the Leafs saying he&rsquo;d go back to school rather than report to the team if it drafted him. Redmond cited the Leafs&rsquo; poor development of their young players&mdash;particularly Jim Benning and Bob McGill whom he said were better in junior than in pro&mdash;and their antiquated style of play.McNamara, who normally refuses to comment on these things, broke &ldquo;policy&rdquo; by saying Redmond had been given poor advice by his agent (Alan Eagleson), had erred in not talking to the Leaf players to find out their views on the organization, and had flattered himself by thinking he would be chosen fourth overall.Redmond was eventually chosen sixth overall by Los Angeles and afterward McNamara said: &ldquo;I wish him luck, I hold no grudges. We took the people we really wanted.&rdquo;Neither lafrate nor Gill shared Redmond&rsquo;s ill feelings for the Leafs. Both indicated they were happy just to be drafted.While the two players are separated by an age difference of four months (Gill turns 19 on Nov. 9), they are alike in many ways. lafrate grew up in Livonia, MI, which is not too far from where Gill played last season, and Gill grew up in Brockville, Ont., which is not too far from where lafrate played last season.If McNamara&rsquo;s comments could be used as an indicator of lafrate&rsquo;s talent, then the Leafs have themselves a player who has the potential to someday be a kingpin at his position. McNamara says lafrate has it all&mdash;size (6-foot-3, 200 pounds), speed (he was a sprinter in track and field), strength, stickhandling skill and a good shot&mdash;but he lacks experience.To help lafrate and Gill (and the young Leaf defense, for that matter), McNamara is currently interviewing former defensemen, one of whom will be selected to assist newly-appointed coach, Dan Maloney.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for a defenseman, who has played and can pass on his knowledge. That&rsquo;s important for us,&rdquo; McNamara said.Possible choices include John Brophy, Brad Selwood and Ron Smith.lafrate, who is the complete opposite of his gregarious Olympic teammate Olczyk, realizes his situation and is taking a cautious outlook on his future.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to say I&rsquo;m a little apprehensive, I still have to prove myself (to others),&rdquo; Iafrate said, alluding to his subpar performance with the Bulls. &ldquo;I know I have the tools to make the team, I just have to prove it.&ldquo;I might think to myself I&rsquo;m confident, but I certainly wouldn&rsquo;t come out and say it. All in all, I&rsquo;m pretty shy.&rdquo;Gill, however, was not afraid to show his confidence, saying &ldquo;there&rsquo;s no point going to camp thinking you&rsquo;re not going to make the team.&rdquo; However, Gill admitted that if the Leafs felt he wasn&rsquo;t ready to make the big-league team, he&rsquo;d return to Windsor and work on improving his weak points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011286/5126986-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="563" height="665"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Al lafrate is considered to have all the tools, but he lacks experience.</figcaption></div>If lafrate&rsquo;s stock in the draft dipped as a result of his play in Belleville (at one point he was believed to be rated as high as second overall), Gill felt his rose because of his work on the power play, where he was paired with Keith Gretzky, the younger brother of Wayne Gretzky.As a member of the Spits, the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Gill had another reason to be happy with his high draft selection.&ldquo;Playing in Windsor, I went through five coaches and three organization changes,&rdquo; he said.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;The Leafs have signed a pair of overage right wingers, Steve Thomas from Toronto Marlies and Kevin Maguire of Orillia Travelways of the Tier Two Ontario Junior Hockey League, and have released Dale McCourt, who was on a termination contract and Has signed with Ambri-Piotta of Switzerland. &#9632;

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Leafs Go For Defensemen To Build Blueline Battle

<div class="byline">BY GARTH WOOLSEY</div>I&rsquo;ve dealt with a lot of &lsquo;celebrity&rsquo; functions,&rdquo; Barry Snetsinger said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ve never seen anyone work so hard at it as Wayne Gretzky does.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s that sort of commitment that prompted Snetsinger and the company he represents, Labatt&rsquo;s Breweries, to get involved with the Gretzky Tennis Classic for the first time this year.&ldquo;Wayne wants to be there for the organizing meetings. He doesn&rsquo;t just lend his name to the tournament and leave it at that,&rdquo; said Snetsinger. &ldquo;Of course, his time is restricted, but whenever possible he takes a direct role in everything.&ldquo;People might not realize, but his commitments go a lot further than just the tournament, too. When he gets on the phone and invites people to his tournament, he often has to turn around and make a commitment to attend their affair. He winds up without much time to himself.&rdquo;(&ldquo;For example, Wayne has committed himself to attend a Rick Vaive-sponsored affair in Prince Edward Island and to attend a Larry Robinson-sponsored hockey school.)&ldquo;As a sponsor, we think that commitment is terrific. It gives one a sense of security,&rdquo; said Snetsinger.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s important to note that everyone involved has done a great job. There&rsquo;s a whole group who make things tick. They made it easy for us to join in this year. Anything to do with Gretzky has a high profile and we want to do it right.&rdquo;Labatt&rsquo;s basically underwrites the cost of the tournament, with the proceeds going to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Sub-sponsors are Speedy Muffler, S.C. Johnson & Son and the Canadian Sports Pool Corporation.Last year the CNIB used the $45,000 in proceeds to purchase about 275 &ldquo;talking books.&rdquo; Two years ago, the tournament helped fund a special counselling program for parents of newly blind children.Labatt&rsquo;s has been impressed to the extent that it is underwriting another similar charitable undertaking, the Wayne Gretzky Celebrity Golf Classic, in Edmonton in late July.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t decided on a charity yet, but the golf tournament would follow the same basic format as the tennis tournament,&rdquo; said Snetsinger. &ldquo;This is the inaugural year and it&rsquo;s already nearly sold out.&rdquo;Why Edmonton? For the same reason that the tennis tournament is held in Brantford. Brantford is Wayne&rsquo;s hometown and Edmonton is his adopted home. He feels he wants to put some-thing back into both communities.There have been suggestions that the tennis tournament should move to Toronto&mdash;more people, more money for charity&mdash;but Wayne has been adamant in resisting such a move. Brantford, after all, is his one and only hometown.&ldquo;Wayne said the day it moves out of Brantford is the day he&rsquo;ll stop putting his name on it,&rdquo; said tournament chairman Murray Angus.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all family and friends here,&rdquo; Angus added. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a nice homey touch. We put a lot of care into it and it has become important to the self esteem of this community.&rdquo;Some celebrities, of course, haven&rsquo;t even heard of Brantford before they arrive for the Classic.&ldquo;I always say it&rsquo;s 60 miles west of Toronto and some of them say, &lsquo;Oh yeah, that must be in Canada, &ldquo;&lsquo;said Angus. &ldquo;But I guarantee you that no one has ever gone away from here disappointed.&rdquo;This year you&rsquo;ll notice plenty of television production paraphenalia on the scene. It&rsquo;s TV Labatt, the same crew that produces Toronto Blue Jays games, the Canadian Grand Prix auto race and golf and rodeo programs, among many others.Parts of the tournament will be aired on CTV&rsquo;s Wide World of Sports then aired again this fall, in four half-hour packages, on The Sports Network (TSN), the new all-sports channel that will be launched in September.This article has been supplied courtesy of the Sierra Sports Group. &#9632;

Gretzky’s Efforts Inspired Brewery’s Help

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Bookshelf

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;Somehow, the cherubic face and friendly manner don&rsquo;t match the scouting report.The Flames say they drafted a mean one when they chose Ottawa 67s&rsquo; left winger Gary Roberts with their first pick in the National Hockey League entry draft. General manager Cliff Fletcher was rumbling something about &ldquo;badder than old King Kong&rdquo; and coach Bob Johnson chimed in with a &ldquo;meaner than a junkyard dog.&rdquo;In Roberts&rsquo; case, looks are deceiving. The Flames are billing Roberts, 6-foot-l and 182 pounds of choir-boy innocence, a Doug Risebrough-type with a touch around the net.The Flames grabbed Roberts when the player they desperately wanted, Czechoslovak defector Petr Svoboda, went fifth overall to the Montreal Canadiens.Of Roberts, Fletcher said: &ldquo;He is a nasty, antagonistic winger and scores tough goals around the crease. He&rsquo;s the type of player who can bother the opposition. He&rsquo;s just the kind of player we need.&rdquo;Roberts, ranked 10th overall by the Flames, was the highest-rated left winger in the draft and will be given a shot right away. Only two Flames&mdash;Eddy Beers and Richard Kromm&mdash;are secure on left wing. Dave Hindmarch is coming off two serious knee operations, Jim Jackson is unsigned and both Jim Peplinski and Steve Bozek prefer center.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to see they need a left winger,&rdquo; said Roberts. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to be going to a team that wants me.&rdquo;Roberts missed 20 games last season with a broken thumb, but his excellent play for the 67s en route to their Memorial Cup win raised his ranking&mdash;especially in Calgary.The chance to draft Roberts eased the pain of losing Svoboda, who emerged from a concourse in the Montreal Forum wearing a Canadiens&rsquo; jersey.Montreal&rsquo;s coup put a bitter end to a full month of cloak-and-dagger intrigue by the Flames.Montreal&rsquo;s coup put a bitter end to a full month of cloak-and-dagger intrigue on the Flames&rsquo; part. Twice in four weeks, assistant general manager Al MacNeil flew to Munich to talk to Svoboda. On the last trip, Svoboda signed a conditional contract in which Svoboda agreed to play for the Flames if they drafted him.&ldquo;We had him signed to a letter-of-agreement,&rdquo; said Hetcher. &ldquo;We spent a lot of time and attention on him. We were almost babysitting him for 30 days.&rdquo;Fletcher said the Flames took a low-key approach to the Svoboda matter because, &ldquo;when you&rsquo;re drafting 12th, you want him as far away from North America as possible.&rdquo;Philosophically, the Flames&rsquo; altered their strategy in the 1984 draft. Roberts and defenseman Gary Sabourin, their second-round choice from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, are tough, physical players. A year ago, their first three choices were smaller, finesse types.The Flames also invested heavily in the possibility that relations between the NHL and Czechoslovakia will improve in the next few years. Four of the 12 players they drafted are from Czechoslo-vakia.&ldquo;The calibre of players you get from the fifth round on&mdash;less than 10 per cent ever make it to the NHL,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;Why not take players you know can play? From time to time, players from Czechoslovakia become available&mdash;for one reason or another.&rdquo;IN BRIEF&mdash;The Flames&rsquo; youth movement paid dividends for two players when it was announced defenseman Jamie Macoun and right winger Hakan Loob were chosen to the all-rookie team in balloting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Altogether, 13 rookies saw action with the Flames last year and from January on, a minimum of seven were in the lineup every game. The Flames were the only team to place two players on the all-rookie team&hellip;Goaltender Reggie Lemelin, runner-up to Tom Barrasso in the Vezina Trophy race, signed a new four-year contract a week before the draft. Including salary and bonuses, the contract is worth about $1 million. &ldquo;The security of a long-term contract, it&rsquo;s what I was looking for,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old Lemelin. No wonder. Only 20 months earlier, the Flames left him unprotected in the waiver draft, but no NHL team gambled on him&hellip;Jim Peplinski also grabbed an off-season award, winning the final Charlie Conacher award, given annually to an NHL player for outstanding humanitarian and public service contributions&hellip;Center Dan Kane became the second free agent from Bowling Green University to join the Flames when he signed a multi-year contract. Earlier, they signed Gino Cavallini, a left winger.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02742/5127079-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="562" height="781"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03532/5127072-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="562" height="773"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Roberts (left) was praised for his work around the net, while veteran Jim Peplinski (right) was saluted for his charity efforts.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Flames See Roberts As Risebrough Type

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01987/5127110-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="287" height="340"></div><h2>Winners And Losers</h2>THE WINNERS AND losers walked out of the Montreal Forum late that Saturday night not knowing just who the winners and losers were.Time will answer all questions. It always does.There was more intrigue to the annual National Hockey League entry draft than a Czechoslavak defector who was more interested in the history of Les Canadiens than he was in the storied history of the Les Flames.It was a rookie show&mdash;among general managers&mdash;and the Rookie-GM of-the-Year award has to go to Serge Savard, the old horse trader.Other rookies, Rogie Vachon and Ron Caron, also figured prominently in the proceedings. Just how smart they&rsquo;ll turn out to be is another matter entirely.Savard had to come out of the draft with a smile on his face. Not only did he wind up with Petr Svoboda, the Czech defenseman, but he also wound up with Shayne Corson, the forward he had originally planned to pick.That&rsquo;s where Caron, the ancient bird-dog of the Canadiens, came in. Without him, Savard couldn&rsquo;t have picked Corson, who many think will be a future star.Caron, taking a page out of the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; book on how to build champions, traded his first draft pick to Montreal. That, for those of you not counting, is the third consecutive year St. Louis has traded its first-rounder.<h2>Blues Ruffed Up</h2>PERHAPS THEY WERE so distraught with the distressing Marty Ruff, the Blues&rsquo; last and least first-rounder, that they&rsquo;ve decided to go another route.Draft choices went both ways with Corson winding up in Montreal, goalie Rick Wamsley winding up in St. Louis and Brian Benning, brother of Jim, winding up as the most significant St. Louis pick.The great irony here is that only a few days earlier, Caron whined about St. Louis not participating in the 1983 pool and petitioned the league to allow the Blues to be compensated for their missed adventure. The league said, &lsquo;No, and Caron traded his first-rounder anyway.Trading a first-round pick is one matter. Trading him for Rick Wamsley borders on the ridiculous.Wamsley is an adequate goaltender in a league of adequate goaltenders. The plan, according to Caron, is to have Mike Liut play 50 games and Wamsley 30. The plan, according to insiders, is that the Blues will trade Liut and elevate Wamsley to first-string status.When Liut fanned on a Willi Plett slapshot from outside the blueline in the seventh game against Minnesota, it cost the Blues&rsquo; organization a minimum of $500,000 in gate receipts. A nickel-and-dime operation such as the Blues does not sneeze at that type of money.<h2>Expensive Price Tag</h2>THUS, THE LOGIC behind the trade of a goalie who carries about a $300,000-per-season price tag with him.If the Blues can make a decent deal for Liut, the Wamsley trade won&rsquo;t look so bad. Not ironically, the Blues drafted Alan Perry in the third round. Perry was the-top rated goaltender in the draft, according to Central Scouting.Somewhere down the line, the Blues will regret trading that pick. They will regret not picking Jean-Jacques Daigneault. A prediction here is that at least eight NHL teams will curse their scouts in the future for passing on Daigneault.Watch. He will become a Ray Bourque-Paul Coffey-Phil Housley-type player. Vancouver Canucks came out of the first round with the real steal, a franchise-type player that was trapped in a disciplined style that didn&rsquo;t suit his ability. In the undisciplined world of the NHL, he will be a star.We seem to have whisked right past nice guy Rogie Vachon, who was too nice a guy in Montreal. He was too nice to Bob Pulford, which is odd, because Bob Pulford is rarely nice to anyone. Mostly he just grunts a lot.Anyhow, Vachon was sitting with the third pick that everyone in the free world wanted. Something happens to Los Angeles GMs with draft picks. They don&rsquo;t sit still. They trade.Usually they trade foolishly, such as Ron Grahame for Ray Bourque. That kind of thing.What did Vachon do? He traded. Not terribly, but not great either. If Chicago wanted the third pick to draft Ed Olczyk, the Olczyk everyone knew the Black Hawks clearly wanted, why didn&rsquo;t Vachon make Pulford pay a little for it?Getting minor-league goalie Bob Janecyk for a swap of firsts didn&rsquo;t seem to be enough compensation for the woeful Kings. Janecyk has played just briefly in the NHL and has never shown he can do more than that. Vachon should have held out, for something more tangible. Even if he didn&rsquo;t want Olczyk.Heck, the New Jersey Devils supposedly wound up with a not bad defenseman in Don Dietrich for doing nothing but picking Kirk Muller ahead of Olczyk, which was a logical move anyway. Never, however, confuse logic with Devils hockey. The two don&rsquo;t mix.Then again, the Devils aren&rsquo;t exactly unique. Are they Serge? Ron? Rogie? Pully? Cliff?Once in awhile, they all get out-manipulated. Unless their name happens to be Scotty or Bill. &#9632;

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THE WESTERN WORD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01918/5127141-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE WAYNE GRETZKY CELEBRITY TENNIS CLASSIC

<div class="byline">BY GARTH WOOLSEY</div>Yes, son,&rdquo; said the grizzled veteran to the wide-eyed youth, &ldquo;hard to believe, but there wasn&rsquo;t always a Gretzky Celebrity Tennis Classic.&rdquo;Going into its fourth year, the lassie has become just that. It las grown into a regular fixture in a Brantford and Southern Ontario summer; an annual occasion for various and sundry ithletes, entertainers, celebrities and friends of No. 99.It all started innocently enough.Historians will record that the concept was born around the kitchen table of the Gretzky homestead, Brantford, circa 1981.&ldquo;Wayne and I were just sitting here talking,&rdquo; said his long-time associate and advisor, Charlie Henry.&ldquo;There were always requests for Wayne to get involved in charity work of some kind or another. It kind of came to him in a flash. He said, &lsquo;How about a golf tournament or a tennis tournament.&rsquo;&ldquo;Well, there were all sorts of golf tournaments. But tennis was a little different. It was four in the morning, but we went and shook out Walter (Wayne&rsquo;s father). He thought we were crazy.&rdquo;Wayne, of course, had been to countless celebrity dinners, in aid of various charities. But one inspired him a little more than others; one where he met Craig MacFarlane. A fellow athlete&mdash;an award-winning wrestler, in fact&mdash;MacFarlane was different because he was blind.Not coincidentally, Brantford has long been the site of an acclaimed school for the visually handicapped and it was well-known around that time that it could use some financial help.In the span of only four weeks, the Gretzkys, with a lot of help from their friends, organized the event. Nothing to it, although in retrospect more time to prepare would have helped.The first year the tournament featured mainly hockey-playing friends of the Gretzkys, names familiar to the citizens of Brantford and area. It was played out-doors at several locations as people kicked in $50 for a chance to play tennis with their sports heroes.The net result was a $5,500 donation to the Canadian National Institute for the blind (CNIB).Worked so well, it fact, that planning began promptly for a second Classic. This time a major sponsor was enlisted and the tournament was moved indoors. More celebrities, more money. This time the CNIB benefitted to the tune of $20,000.Last year, using the same format, the Classic began to assume truly classic proportions. Bigger, better and $45,000 was channelled into support of the blind.This year? Well, there&rsquo;s going to be a new format, featuring a consolation as well as a championship round. Labatt&rsquo;s Breweries has thrown its considerable support behind the effort and the target is to double that $45,000.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really quite staggering,&rdquo; said tournament chairman Murray Angus. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s growing faster than any of us ever thought it would. To think that we&rsquo;d go from $5,000 to nearly $100,000&hellip;&rdquo;Part of the attraction, of course, has been the players, who compete as doubles teams in timed matches.&ldquo;Many of these people are just unbelievably busy,&rdquo; said Angus. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy for them to make room in their schedules, but somehow they do it.&rdquo;Finding &ldquo;names&rdquo; to play is no problem.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gotten to the point that we get calls from people asking if they can play,&rdquo; Angus added.&ldquo;Wayne goes somewhere, mentions the tournament and you&rsquo;ve got another bunch of possibilities.&rdquo;Tennis skills aren&rsquo;t the only criteria for participation, of course. There are few in the tournament who would threaten to upset a McEnroe or a Navratilova.There wasn&rsquo;t a tournament champion the first year, when it was more of a free-for-all exhibition. In Year Two, the Montreal Canadiens dynamic duo of Larry Robinson and Guy Lafleur were champs. Last year, Robinson took on a new partner, Mark Napier, and won again. (Take heart, competitors, Robinson isn&rsquo;t here this time around.)&ldquo;We try to rate the competitors from one to five,&rdquo; said Angus, &ldquo;and avoid pairing up two weak players or two strong players. There are some natural rivalries we like to pursue, of course, like stars from different soaps playing against each other.&rdquo;Last year, Wayne played with Gordie Howe, his childhood hero.No. 99 with No. 9.That&rsquo;s classic.This article has been supplied courtesy of the Sierra Sports Group. &#9632;

Organizers Hoping To Double Donation

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01665/5127227-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="277" height="205"></div>Louisville HockeyVANCOUVER&mdash;The skeptics, once again, were out in force here after the televising of the National Hockey League entry draft.Just what the Canucks needed, said some of those less-than-loyal supporters&mdash;a French-speaking defenseman on crutches.But the Canucks&rsquo; first-round pick, Jean-Jacques Daigneault, really wasn&rsquo;t all that bad.After all, Daigneault, from the Canadian Olympic Team, has considerable offensive skills. Furthermore, he speaks excellent English, something he picked up when he played for Dave King, coach of the Canadian entry.The crutches are scheduled to go very quickly, his pulled knee ligaments suffered in the Quebec League finals not considered too serious.&ldquo;It was a shame having him on crutches but his knee is not a problem at all,&rdquo; said Canuck general manager Harry Neale. &ldquo;We checked that out thoroughly before the draft. He may not have looked too good on TV but wait until you see this kid play. He&rsquo;ll make you forget all about the crutches.&rdquo;Daigneault, the son of a Montreal taxi driver, is believed to have major-league offensive talent, something the Canucks could use.&ldquo;I was glad to be going to Vancouver because I&rsquo;ve played there and had a lot of good games in the building when I was with the Olympic team,&rdquo; said the 18-year-old Daigneault, called J.J. by his teammates.&ldquo;I guess it will a struggle to make the team right away but I hope I can step in and play. I know Michel Petit very well and I&rsquo;m sure he will help me a lot in Vancouver.&rdquo;By drafting Daigneault, Neale has a chance to start moving some of the marketable defenders on the team for some help on the forward lines.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s true, I certainly have some leeway and maybe what we have to start doing is to move one or two of the younger ones for young forwards,&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;But those are often the toughest trades to make because everyone wants to wait a little bit longer to make sure they don&rsquo;t already have the player they want.&rdquo;Neale had been trying to make a deal for his pick with three clubs, Boston, Washington and Quebec, but nothing came of it.&ldquo;The trade we had going with Quebec would have raised some eyebrows,&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;It involved players off both of our present rosters but it&rsquo;s just talk now. But now that we have Daigneault, we have already had two offers to trade him right now.&rdquo;The Canucks&rsquo; next pick was Jeff Rohlicek, a Chicago native who played for Portland of the Western League last season.Rohlicek, a left winger, thinks he may be able to make the big-league team this season.&ldquo;That is certainly going to be my goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll work hard and see what happens.&rdquo;The rest of the picks are pretty much lottery tickets, though new coach Bill LaForge managed to influence the Canucks to select two players from his former junior team, Kamloops Oilers.Taken in the fourth round was center Brian Bertuzzi and lanky goaltender Rex Grant was chosen in the ninth round.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02473/5127220-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1775" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vancouver GM Harry Neale, left, discusses a draft choice with his new coach, Bill LaForge, who spent last season with Kamloops of the Western Hockey League.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Daigneault Could Influence Canuck Trade

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;Maurice Filion wanted desperately to trade his first-round draft pick at the recent National Hockey League entry draft.The Nordique general manager had talks with several teams before the draft&mdash;and those talks even continued in the opening round&mdash;but the price was always too high and when it came to the Nords&rsquo; pick (15th pick overall), Filion chose Trevor Steinburg from the Guelph Platers of the Ontario Hockey League.A serious offer was made to Pittsburgh to get Mario Lemeiux to Quebec, but when the Penguins wanted Peter Stastny, the deal fell through.In other dealings, at least three teams, in addition to Pittsburgh, tried to get Dale Hunter from Filion. Once again the player everyone loves to hate (except in Quebec) was sought by Minnesota, Philadelphia and Vancouver.The Nordiques continued in the draft with a strategy started two years ago&mdash;taking younger players and thinking of the future. After Stienburg, the Nords selected Jeff Brown from the OHL Sudbury Wolves and Steve Finn from Laval of the Quebec League. Neither of the three are expected to jump to the NHL next year.&ldquo;You must be patient with your draft choices these days,&rdquo; says Filion. &ldquo;We were very successful in the past with Dale Hunter. Randy Moller and Paul Gillis. We did not get everyone we wanted this year, naturally, but we are very pleased with our selections. We had serious talks with several teams about making a deal, but there was no way we were going to give up our top choices this year.&rdquo;The Nordiques&rsquo; priorities were size, skating ability, aggressiveness and overall character. Finn and Brown are both 6-foot, a necessity for defensemen in the NHL these days, as is Stienburg. All three players weigh more than 180 pounds.&ldquo;We finally decided on Stienburg because he was the best player available when we chose and because he suited our needs, being a right winger,&rdquo; Filion said.Stienberg hoped he would be selected in the first round and the Nords accommadated him.&ldquo;I knew Quebec was interested in me, as were a few other teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So, I didn&rsquo;t really know what to expect.&ldquo;I have heard a lot about Peter Stastny and watching him I think he can do just about anything on the ice. I also like the aggressive play of Dale Hunter. I like to play aggressively myself. I don&rsquo;t speak French but I don&rsquo;t mind at all going to Quebec because now I can learn how.&rdquo;NORDIC NOTES&mdash;Nordique general manager Maurice Filion has signed a new contract, though terms of the pact were not revealed&hellip;Reserve goaltender Clint Malarchuk, defenseman Blake Wesley and rookie Bruce Bell (third round, 1983) have also signed contracts. &#9632;

Price Too High For Nords’ GM

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01602/5127303-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky, flanked by Glen Sather on the left and John Ziegler on the right, proudly stands in front of the three trophies he won.</figcaption></div>Wayne Gretzky could probably think of 99 better ways to cap off the 1983-84 season than the way he did it on June 13 in an Edmonton hospital.It was there that Dr. Gordon Cameron, the Oilers&rsquo; team physician, removed a &ldquo;benign fibrous growth&rdquo; from Gretzky&rsquo;s ankle that was hindering the circulation.&ldquo;The surgery was a little more serious than we were led to believe,&rdquo; said Oiler public relations director Bill Tuele.&ldquo;Any time someone gets a general anastaetic, it&rsquo;s serious. But the doctor tells us that it will in no way hinder Wayne&rsquo;s ability to play hockey and he&rsquo;ll recover completely.&rdquo;The growth, Tuele said, could have been caused by a sharp blow, a lack of circulation caused by tying the skates too tightly, or any one of many unknown reasons.Aside from the operation, things couldn&rsquo;t have gone any better for Gretzky, especially at the NHL Awards Banquet on June 4, which was televised live in prime time across Canada.In addition to the Stanley Cup, which the Oilers won when they defeated the New York Islanders, Gretzky took home the Art Ross Trophy as the league&rsquo;s leading scorer and the Hart Trophy as the league&rsquo;s most valuable player, beating out Washington Capital defenseman Rod Langway (see page 34 for complete awards and all-star voting).Langway, however, walked off with his second consecutive Norris Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top defenseman, He beat out Oiler defenseman Paul Coffey, who broke the 100-point barrier.Buffalo&rsquo;s Tom Barrasso, who won the Vezina Trophy as the top netminder in the league, edged out Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman by 39 points (242203) in the Calder Cup race.Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders missed a chance to win a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup ring but won the Lady Byng Trophy as the most gentlemanly player for the second consecutive season. Rick Middleton of Boston finished second.Doug Jarvis, the veteran center who&rsquo;s been such a big help to the Washington Capitals since coming over from Montreal two seasons ago, won the Selke Trophy as the top defensive player. Bryan Trottier of the Islanders finished second.Bryan Murray, who guided the Caps to a second-place finish in the Patrick Division after they were winless in their first seven games of the season, unanimously won the Adams Award. Scotty Bowman of the Sabres finished a distant second.When the National Hockey League All-Star team was announced June 7 in Montreal, the Edmonton Oilers were not too happy with the results.Rod Langway of the Washington Capitals and Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins beat out defenseman Paul Coffey for the two spots on the first team.&ldquo;Ridiculous,&rdquo; was the response from Edmonton Oiler GM-coach Glen Sather, who is expected to be named to the same position with Team Canada for the Canada Cup tournament.The Oiler brass figures Coffey, who had 40 goals and 126 points, was a victimized by block voting of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, which has a high concentration of voters in the New York&mdash;Boston area.Goal was the other position that irked the Oilers, since Grant Fuhr failed to obtain a single vote.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just plain stupid,&rdquo; said Oiler director of player personnel Barry Fraser. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you guys (in the media) know there&rsquo;s teams in western Canada?The starting goal position went to Buffalo&rsquo;s Tom Barrasso, who beat out Calgary&rsquo;s Reggie Lemelin.Denis Potvin joined Coffey on the second team defense while Wayne Gretzky, center, Michel Goulet, left wing, and Mike Bossy, right wing, rounded out the No. 1 team.The second team forward line was centered by Bryan Trottier of the Islanders with Oiler Mark Messier on left wing and Edmonton&rsquo;s Jari Kurri on the right side.Three 19-year-olds, two Europeans and a U.S. collegian comprised the All-Rookie team, as selected by the Professional Hockey Writers Association on June 8 in Montreal.Tom Barrasso, who made the jump from high school in Massachusetts to the NHL&rsquo;s Buffalo Sabres with no stops in between, was judged to be the top rookie goalie.Thomas Eriksson of the Philadelphia Flyers and Jamie Macoun of the Calgary Flames finished atop the defense voting. Eriksson came over from Sweden and Macoun played briefly for the Flames last season after being signed as a free agent from Ohio State.Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman, who&rsquo;s only 19, was the top center. He was flanked by the Flames&rsquo; Hakan Loob, another Swede, on the right wing and Hartford&rsquo;s Sylvain Turgeon, also a 19-year-old, on the left wing.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02412/5127296-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="945" height="1621"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03299/5127289-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="943" height="1356"><figcaption class="caption-body">It was a big night at the awards banquet for the Washington Capitals. Bryan Murray, left, walked off with the Adams Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top coach; Rod Langway, right, collected the Norris as the top defenseman and Doug Jarvis, above, won the Selke as the best defensive forward.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04221/5127282-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="943" height="1616"></div> &#9632;

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Gretzky On The Mend After Super Year

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;After a buildup that had the Rangers lumped into the same pre-draft rumors that swept the rest of the National Hockey League, they emerged with much the same personnel they had before&mdash;and many of the same unanswered questions.There was little doubt that a number of Rangers were&mdash;and are&mdash;available for the right price, among them goalie Steve Weeks, defenseman Dave Maloney and forwards Blaine Stoughton and Mike Rogers. Mikko Leinonen would be in that group too, although with free-agency approaching for the Finnish winger at the end of June, there&rsquo;s a question whether he will remain in North America.Nick Fotiu&rsquo;s future remained as clouded as ever. The frustration that boiled within the New York native late in the season, when he was benched much of the time, and during the playoffs, when he did not play at all, erupted to the surface via statements made by his New York-based attorney, Larry Rauch, on the eve of the draft to New York reporters.The background is this: Fotiu&rsquo;s allies in the Ranger high command include president Jack Krumpe and, when he was Garden boss, Sonny Werblin. Fotiu really has no bone to pick with GM Craig Patrick, the man who ultimately controls his destiny, but coach Herb Brooks is clearly not on his Christmas list.&ldquo;Herb Brooks has made it clear to Nick and to myself that he&rsquo;d like to see Nick phased out,&rdquo; Rauch said in Montreal. &ldquo;We want the New York fans to know Nick loves the Rangers&rsquo; crest and the fans. But there&rsquo;s no sense in staying there if he&rsquo;s not going to be allowed to perform.&rdquo;Brooks and Patrick reacted as if any sort of verdict on Fotiu was premature and fence-mending measures were begun on both sides, with Rauch later explaining that &ldquo;we want Nick Fotiu to earn a living for his family as long as he is capable of doing so and enjoying the fruits of his efforts.&rdquo;With a better understanding between the coach and the tough, 10-year veteran winger, that place could still be New York. If not, one must wonder what will happen in the equalization draft in the fall if the Rangers fail to make a deal for him and then decide they cannot afford to protect him. If the nearby New Jersey Devils were to take Fotiu, the feeling is that he would be a potential goldmine for them at the box-office, no matter what on-ice skills he does or does not possess.The Rangers&rsquo; draft picks were an interesting blend, sprinkled with Europeans and high schoolers, some not too big. First choice was a defenseman, Terry Carkner, a 6-foot-3, 201-pounder whose cut from the mold of today&rsquo;s big backliners.Patrick said that Carkner, whose father played goal for the farm team the Rangers once owned in Kitchener, has been described by the Rangers&rsquo; scouts as another James Patrick&mdash;which puts Patrick on quite a plateau considering he has already become a point of reference for players his own age. But Carkner, unlike Patrick, cannot list skating as one his strongsuits. With two years of junior eligibility remaining, Carkner will likely be returned to his junior team, Peterborough Petes, to improve his skating.The Rangers also chose Paul Broten, whose brothers, Neal and Aaron, are already playing in the NHL. At 5-foot-11, 155 pounds, he was the Rangers&rsquo; fourth-round pick.Among the most intriguing dimensions were those of the team&rsquo;s sixth-round pick, Kjell Samuelson, a 6-foot-5, 224-pound defenseman from Leksand, Sweden.NOTES&mdash;Pierre Larouche, the Rangers&rsquo; goal-scoring leader, was negotiating what was likely to be a lucrative, multi-year contract&hellip;Anders Hedburg decided to return for the second and last year of his current contract, which he says will be his last as a player. &ldquo;We have a chance to win,&rdquo; Hedberg said following talks with his agent, Don Baizley, in Winnipeg. &ldquo;One more year and then it&rsquo;ll be over, one last shot at it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01644/5127334-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="517" height="499"><figcaption class="caption-body">Terry Carkner will probably return to Peterborough to work on his skating.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Rangers Still Haven’t Answered Questions

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;For too many of their 17 NHL seasons, the Penguins had traded away their first-round draft choices, but Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston put an end to that at the National Hockey League entry draft.The Penguins had three picks in the first round and though Johnston attempted to trade Nos. nine and 16, he ended up drafting instead.To no one&rsquo;s surprise, the Penguins selected Mario Lemieux first overall. That out of the way, Johnston attempted to trade his other two first-rounders. He called time out before picking ninth and talked to Quebec about center Dale Hunter. But the Nordiques&rsquo; asking price was too high. For the 16th choice overall, Johnston was looking for a good young player and a No. 1 choice in next year&rsquo;s draft, but again he couldn&rsquo;t swing a deal.With the ninth pick, the Penguins selected defenseman Doug Bodger from Kamloops of the Western Hockey League. The 6-foot, 185-pounder scored 21 goals and 77 assists for the Oilers last season.&ldquo;We had Doug Bodger rated No. 5,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;The guy that coached him last year (new Vancouver coach Bill LaForge) said that he&rsquo;s the best athlete he&rsquo;s ever coached. People seem to think of all the defensemen, Bodger might have the edge because of the toughness he has.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think I can come in and help them out,&rdquo; said the left-handed shooting Bodger. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re lacking a little on defense and maybe we can come in there and help turn things around. Because of the position, I might be able to step in next year. I&rsquo;m confident. I&rsquo;ll be disappointed if I don&rsquo;t step in next year.&rdquo;The Penguins picked center-right winger Roger Belanger with their third pick in the first round. The 6-foot, 188-pounder, whom Johnston exects to play right wing, registered 44 goals and 46 assists for Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League.&ldquo;I was surprised I went this early,&rdquo; Belanger said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t supposed to go this early, but I was really happy. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s going to be a really good team in the next couple of years with a lot of young hockey players. I just hope I can be part of it and play.&rdquo;&ldquo;Belanger is a physical-type player.&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of player we&rsquo;re looking to get in our franchise&mdash;the big forwards and the big defensemen.&rdquo;A few days before the draft, the Penguins hired Bob Berry as their new coach.&ldquo;A lot of my friends in Montreal would phone me and ask if maybe I had gone senile my last three years in Montreal or whether I had my brain baked in Los Angeles over the summer to come to the situation we have here in Pittsburgh,&rdquo; said Berry, who was fired by the Canadiens in February.Berry, 40, replaces Lou Angotti, who coached the Penguins for one season. Pittsburgh finished, 16-58-6 under Angotti, the worst in the history of the franchise. Angotti will assume the newly created position of director of professional scouting.PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Bob Berry&rsquo;s first move as coach was to fire his old buddy Mike Corrigan, who has been the Pens&rsquo; assistant coach since retiring as a player four seasons ago. Berry says he wants to start the season without an assistant and should he want one, have the freedom to make his own selection&hellip;About 1,500 people attended a closcd-circuit telecast of the draft at the Civic Arerta. The telecast cost the Penguins an estimated $10,000. &#9632;

Pens Loading Up For The Future

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01563/5127389-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="553" height="1105"><figcaption class="caption-body">Perry Turnbull admitted he had a hard time adjusting to the pressure of Montreal.</figcaption></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;It may take him awhile, but when John Ferguson likes a player, he&rsquo;ll do his damdest to acquire him.Exhibit A is Laurie Boschman, the rugged Jet center who had an outstanding season in &rsquo;83-84 despite a shoulder injury. Ferguson, the Jets&rsquo; general manager, wanted Boschman ever since he took a liking to him as a junior player. After stints in Toronto and Edmonton, Ferguson landed Boschman in &rsquo;82.Exhibit B is Perry Turnbull, cut from the same rugged mould as Boschman. Ferguson acquired Turnbull on June 13 from Montreal in exchange for Jet captain Lucien DeBlois, who was entering his option year and whom Ferguson was having a hard time signing.Ferguson, who has liked Turnbull since he was playing with the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western League but who was claimed second overall by St. Louis in 1979, has the rambunctious style that the Jet GM enjoys.&ldquo;When we started negotiations&hellip;we were looking for that type of winger,&rdquo; Ferguson said. &ldquo;He can score goals and he can really play the game tough. We wanted a tough forward who can play that style.&rdquo;Ferguson figures Turnbull, a left winger, will either complement Boschman or Dale Hawerchuk, adding that the Jets gave up &ldquo;an excellent two-way player&rdquo; in DeBlois to acquire him.Turnbull, once considered an &ldquo;untouchable&rdquo; in St. Louis, said he was happy with the trade though &ldquo;it would take a little while&rdquo; to adjust to it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like Montreal and I didn&rsquo;t want to leave St. Louis. I thought St. Louis was my town and I would play there for a long time. When I was traded to the Canadiens, there was a lot of pressure on me. Then when I got off to such a bad start, the press just built it up and I never really got going.&rdquo;Turnbull produced only six goals and seven assists in 40 games.&ldquo;The time Turnbull spent here was very hard for him,&rdquo; said Montreal managing director Serge Savard, a former Jet player. &ldquo;Perry has never played in a place where the pressure is on as much as it is in Montreal. The fans get on you if you don&rsquo;t ply as well as they think you should. It puts a player under a lot of pressure.&rdquo;The trade happened four days after the National Hockey League entry draft, in which the Jets did not have a pick until the second round because of their trade late last season to acquire Randy Carlyle from Pittsburgh for a first-round pick and future considerations (Moe Mantha).However, when the Jets finally did make their first pick (30th overall), they selected a player with whom they were extremely pleased.Peter Douris, 18, is a righthanded center who happens to excel at school, too. A straight-A student from Toronto, Douris is bound for the University of New Hampshire.&ldquo;Since our scouts are so stupid we decided the best way to even up is to draft smart hockey players,&rdquo; snickered Mike Doran, the Jets&rsquo; assistant GM.Doran, not unlike the others, was sensitive to the fact that the Central Scouting Bureau, in its estimation, rated Douris 73rd.&ldquo;We use Central Scouting as a reference, not as our guide,&rdquo; growled Ferguson, who insisted that his scouts had rated Douris eighth overall.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll do our own scouting, thanks,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll notice that Central Scouting had him listed at 170 pounds, too. He&rsquo;s 192.&ldquo;Remember, Central Scouting is the same group that rated Dave Christian 173rd when we took him in the second round in 1980.&rdquo;Douris was sitting in the stands when his name was announced. Three teams&mdash;Washington Capitals, St. Louis Blues and the Jets&mdash;had recommended that he come to Montreal.&ldquo;The breakthrough was Montreal&rsquo;s deal with St. Louis,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;By reducing the Blues&rsquo; number of picks to one in the first 30, we were able to slip in front of them.&rdquo;Douris said he sees the Jets as a future powerhouse, but doesn&rsquo;t expect to be playing for them in the immediate future.&ldquo;I want to improve my maturity and my basic skills,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel I can best develop my skills where I am.&rdquo;All told, the Jets drafted 12 players, all but one of whom will be attending a U.S. college this fall. At last count, the number of Jet draft choices enrolled in U.S. colleges is 26.The ranks were thinned by one when Dave Ellett, a defenseman from Bowling Green taken in the fourth round of the 1982 draft, signed with the Jets in Montreal only hours before the draft.BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets have all but finalized contract talks with Gus Badali and Larry Rauch, the men who represent Dave Babych and Brian Mullen, respectively&hellip;Kirk McCaskill appears to have found his niche in baseball as a pitcher in the California organization. He still has a hockey contract but the Jets doubt he would have ever played the game at the NHL level. &#9632;

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Jets Add Toughness With Turnbull Trade

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;He was the guy we were after,&rdquo; said Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. &ldquo;We went in trying to get a player who could put points on the board and he fits what we were looking for.&rdquo;He is Dave Pasin, a 6-foot-l, 190-pound right winger who scored 68 goals and assisted on 54 others for the Prince Albert (Sask.) Raiders of the Western Hockey League last season and whom the Brains picked 19th overall.Pasin&rsquo;s offensive talent boded well with the Brains, who were admittedly desperate for scoring help after being erased in three straight games from the Stanley Cup playoffs.Unfortunately, Pasin, who will be 18 on July 8, probably will not be performing in a Bruin uniform next season, even though he is a veteran junior with two full WHL seasons under his belt.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if he will make the team next fall,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;It depends on how well he shows at training camp. He&rsquo;ll probably be sent down for another year in junior. But we said that about Nevin Markwart last year and he made the team.&rdquo;Everyone knew the type of player the Bruins were looking for in the draft. Boston openly admitted it was looking for some scoring punch.Everyone knew the type of player the Bruins were seeking going into the draft. After scoring only two goals, both by Tom Fergus, in three playoff games after the Montreal Canadiens shut down the Rick Middleton-Barry Pederson line, the Brains openly admitted they were looking for some scoring punch.It made for a suspenseful moment as the first round wound down in the Montreal Forum.&ldquo;We thought that Buffalo, knowing what we wanted, would take him,&rdquo; said Sinden.But Buffalo, drafting 18th and thought to be looking for a scorer, too, opted for Swedish defenseman Mikael Andersson and the Brains were home free.&ldquo;We had a list of 13 players we thought we&rsquo;d like,&rdquo; said Sinden.All but two were gone by Boston&rsquo;s turn.&ldquo;Pasin has a cannon shot with built-in radar,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;He turned out to be the second highest point-getter in the whole first round, after Mario Lemieux. In fact, he was the fifth highest scorer in the whole draft.&ldquo;They say his weak point is his skating. I know he&rsquo;s not a blinding speed type but a lot of others plod around out there and they get it done. Our rink isn&rsquo;t bad for an average skater, either.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not worried about his skating. It&rsquo;s not excellent but it&rsquo;s not bad to the degree that it&rsquo;s going to hurt his performance. Mike Bossy came into the league as a mediocre skater and he was a better skater two or three years after he was drafted.&rdquo;Pasin admitted he&rsquo;s been a scorer since he was little.&ldquo;I have to work on my skating and my physical style but the scoring has always been there,&rdquo; Pasin said.The Bruins&rsquo; second-round choice (40th overall), was another scorer, Ray Podloski, who tallied 40 times and registered 50 assists for the Portland Winter Hawks, also of the WHL.&ldquo;I can score,&rdquo; said Podloski. &ldquo;People liken me to Phil Esposito in that I take advantage of opportunities in front of the net. I like to pass the puck, too. I&rsquo;ve always scored about 100 points at every level since I was 12. I can play the Brains&rsquo; ragged style, too.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say Pasin and Podloski have an outside chance of sticking with us after camp,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;The scouts don&rsquo;t think they can make it this year but sometimes a kid comes to training camp and does well.&rdquo;Curiously, Pasin and Podloski live within three blocks of each other in Edmonton.Sinden toiled, on the telephone and face-to-face, right up to the draft, trying to work a deal for the scoring forward the Brains need so badly. The two names most frequently mentioned were Thomas Gradin of the Vancouver Canucks and Dino Ciccarelli, said to be unhappy in Minnesota.The Brains reportedly offered Mike Krushelnyski and Markwart for Gradin but Canuck GM Harry Neale wanted Krushelnyski and Keith Crowder.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t blame Harry for wanting to get as much as they can for Gradin. He&rsquo;s the best player they&rsquo;ve ever had,&rdquo; said Sinden.The reported offer to the North Stars for Ciccarelli was any two of Krashelnyski, Markwart and Mike Milbury but the Stars&rsquo; general manager, Lou Nanne, kept bringing up Pederson, Middleton and Ray Bourque. &#9632;

Bruins Make Offense Top Priority

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01559/5127475-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;North Star general manager Lou Nanne concluded the National Hockey League meetings and the annual draft with somewhat predictable results.Nanne, who has secured the No. 1 overall pick three times&mdash;twice in the last two years&mdash;did not pull any rabbits from trading hats this time.Nanne-watchers know that he has two modes of operation at drafts: Either he talks a lot and is full of speculation about deals, or he pulls off a blockbuster, by surprise.This June, Nanne talked of enough near-trades to capture banner-headline reports back in the Twin Cities for several days running. But he didn&rsquo;t make a single deal, despite reports he was offering Al MacAdam, Curt Giles, Brad Maxwell, Gilles Meloche, Dino Ciccarelli, Randy Velischek and assorted others.The other predictable thing for Nanne was to proclaim the draft a huge success, despite picking only 13th in the first round and not at all in the second (swapping that pick for Dennis Maruk last year).Continuing another trend, Nanne shied away from Canadian junior players, taking only one&mdash;eighth-round pick Gary McColgan from Oshawa&mdash;out of 12 picks. Last year, Nanne took only three Canadian juniors out of 12.Various GMs have said the Canadian junior crop is depleted, but Nanne backs up the theory with his picks. And, if the theory is true, Nanne is justified in being pleased with his picks this year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking toward the future, not for immediate help,&rdquo; said Nanne. &ldquo;With the players we have right now, we don&rsquo;t feel we need help right away.&rdquo;Guided by that theory, the Stars took David Quinn, a Kent High School player from Connecticut first. And he took Ken Hodge Jr., son of the former Boston Bruin star, with his pick in the third round. Quinn is headed for Boston University. Hodge, who played at St. John&rsquo;s Prep in Boston last year, is going to Boston College.Then Nanne turned his attention overseas. He took defenseman Miroslav Maly, a Czech defector who had been playing in Bayreuth, West Germany, in the fourth round, and Jiri Poner, a swift forward who also defected from Czechoslovakia and played in West Germany, in the fifth round.Poner could be a sleeper. Already living in the Twin Cities, the 6-foot-2 forward defected a year and a half ago but, being under 20 at the time, could not get International Ice Hockey Federation clearance to play in the pro league. So he had to play in Germany&rsquo;s top junior league, where he scored 72 goals and 77 assists in 44 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01566/5127506-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="523" height="949"><figcaption class="caption-body">North Star general manager Lou Nanne could not swing any trades this time.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Nanne Misses Out On Hat Trick, But Still Boasts Of Stars’ Success

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02397/5127537-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Wamsley comes over from the Canadiens, after the Blues traded their first pick in the entry draft.</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;For Ron Caron, to know them is to love them.Dwight Schofield, Doug Wickenheiser, Gilbert Delorme, Greg Paslawski, Bunny Larocque, Rick Wamsley. That&rsquo;s six former members of the Montreal Canadiens organization whom Caron has brought to the Blues since he was named the Blues&rsquo; director of player personnel last August. Who&rsquo;s next? Guy Lafleur?The price for Wamsley was the number eight pick overall in the National Hockey League entry draft. The Blues and Canadiens also exchanged second-round choices and Montreal threw in picks in the second and third round.&ldquo;I knew the Canadiens wanted my selection and I made it emphatic that I wanted to start with Wamsley,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;I knew him and I usually go for people I know.&rdquo;But why a goaltender?&ldquo;We want to relieve Mike Liut of playing 68 to 70 games. We cut it down to 58 this year, but now we feel secure in having Mike play 50 and Wamsley 30.&rdquo;Why a 25-year-old player when the club so badly needs to infuse the organization with young prospects to fill a gap left after the Blues&rsquo; failure to draft in 1983?Caron&rsquo;s view was the Blues acquired Wamsley without neglecting the need to build for the future. They gave up a first-round pick but made a net gain by adding the selections in rounds two and three.&ldquo;This way we&rsquo;re putting more odds on our side,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s 17 or 18 years old, so&hellip;Caron and a scouting staff headed by Ted Hampson may have taken the sting out of potential criticism by drafting six players between number 26 and number 71. Among those taken were defenseman Brian Benning of the Portland Winter Hawks and goaltender Alan Perry of Mt. St. Charles High School in Rhode Island. Benning, whose brother Jim is a defenseman with Toronto, was rated 14th by the Central Scouting Bureau and had been rated even higher until a broken left wrist ended his season in January.Perry was rated No. I among goaltenders by Central Scouting and, comparable to Benning, had been expected to go higher. He was named the top goaltender at the world junior championships in Sweden last winter and was a teammate of Brian Lawton on a national championship team at Mt. St. Charles the previous year. At 5-foot-7, he is often compared to Toronto&rsquo;s rookie goaltender Allan Bester.Between Benning and Perry, the Blues picked two high-scoring forwards, Tony Hrkac and Toby Ducolon, and 6-foot-4 defenseman Robert Dirk of the Regina Pats. Hrkac is headed to the University of North Dakota and Ducolon is going to the University of Vermont.While those players mature, the Blues figure to be improved immediately with the addition of Wamsley. The question is, how good is Wamsley and does the trade signal a deal for Liut?Caron doesn&rsquo;t rule out the possibility of a trade, but he talks as if he plans to have Liut, Wamsley and Rick Heinz on hand in training camp.Wamsley has his boosters and his detractors. Two seasons ago, he posted a 2.75 goals-against average and shared the William Jennings Trophy with Denis Herron for best team goals-against average. But his average rose to 3.51 in 198283 and to 3.70 in 42 games this season. He was sidelined in March and then lost his job to rookie Steve Penney.&ldquo;His record is no indication of what he can do,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;In Montreal, they lose faith in some of their candidates and some become the goat. They&rsquo;re happy with Penney now, and I&rsquo;m happy with this guy.&rdquo;Wamsley is among those people who attribute at least part of his problems the last two seasons to a weaker team defense in Montreal.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a great year in Montreal and it was tough on the goalies,&rdquo; Wamsley said. &ldquo;It was a different type of team than it was when we won the Jennings. That year we had a good defensive team and this year we didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Wamsley said he had been prepared to go to camp and challenge Penney for the No. 1 job, &ldquo;but now I&rsquo;ll do it somewhere else. Nobody goes to camp thinking they&rsquo;re number two. I&rsquo;ll do my best in St. Louis, whether I play 50 games or 30 games.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-02

Caron Deals For Goalie So Liut Can Have A Rest

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;It has taken six years and the undeniable influence of Emile Francis, but the Whalers finally seem to have mastered this business of drafting young prospects. Just take the best Sylvain available.For the second straight year, the Whalers made a French-speaking youngster from the province of Quebec named Sylvain their No. 1 draft pick. Talk about longshots. When the Whalers joined the National Hockey League six drafts ago, how many people had even heard of the name, Sylvain?After claiming Sylvain Turgeon second overall last year, the Whalers used their first choice this year (11th overall) to acquire Sylvain Cote, a 6-foot, 175-pound defenseman from Quebec Remparts of the Quebec League. Later the Whalers said thay they &ldquo;never thought&rdquo; that Cote, who scored 15 goals and 65 points in 66 games last year, would be available.&ldquo;Cote was rated higher by both us and Central Scouting,&rdquo; said Francis, the Whalers&rsquo; general manager-president. &ldquo;We never thought he&rsquo;d still be there on the 11th pick. But Montreal drafted the Czech (Petr Svoboda) and that opened up one spot, and then Detroit took (Shawn) Burr higher than expected and that opened up another. All of a sudden, Cote pops up. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, we got upgraded.&rdquo;Before the draft, Francis warned cautiously that the 11th overall pick would only be a prospect, not a player who could provide immediate help. He altered that stance slightly after claiming Cote.&ldquo;This kid&rsquo;s a possibility,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;Our guys really like him.&rdquo;Cote, who will follow in Turgeon&rsquo;s footsteps by attending a Berlitz school to improve his English, left little doubt as to his future plans.&ldquo;The idea is to play in Hartford,&rdquo; Cote said. &ldquo;I am very excited about joining a young team on the way up. I&rsquo;m sure that Sly will help me. In two months my English will be better, I promise.&rdquo;Cote and Turgeon roomed together the night before the draft. Both are represented by agent Pierre Lacroix, who put the players up for a night at his house in Montreal. Turgeon, who scored 40 goals in his first NHL campaign, was in town to be honored for making the All-Rookie Team.&ldquo;We talked about how great it would be if I ended up in Hartford,&rdquo; Cote said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny, no?&rdquo;Turgeon dates Cote&rsquo;s sister, so the players are close. Call it a Sylvain Entry, No. 1 and 1A.Whaler scout Flo Potvin, who specializes in the QMJHL, was &ldquo;very, very pleased&rdquo; to land Cote.&ldquo;He was the No. 1 draft pick out of the midget league when he was 16,&rdquo; Potvin said of Cote, who was born and raised in Quebec City and knows the Whalers from their World Hockey Association days. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a skill player with great acceleration. He&rsquo;s very, very mobile for a defenseman.&rdquo;Considering the number of defensemen on the roster&mdash;at last count it was 13&mdash;the Whalers indicated they were going for a forward.&ldquo;But Mr. Francis wanted the best available player,&rdquo; Potvin said, &ldquo;and Cote was it, no question.&rdquo;Because of past trades, the Whalers didn&rsquo;t draft again until the sixth round or more than four hours after taking Cote.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash; Coach Jack Evans and assistant Claude Larose were rewarded with three-year extensions on their contracts. They will run through the 1987-88 season. &ldquo;Jack and Claude did a tremendous job,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;They were a big plus.&rdquo;&hellip;Larry Pleau has been named GM-coach in Binghamton, the Whalers&rsquo; AHL affiliate which they now share with Washington. Pleau is a former GM-coach for the Whalers&hellip;The Whalers expect to sign Swedish defenseman Ulf Samuelson, a fourth-round pick in 1982.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01488/5127575-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="549" height="801"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02336/5127568-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="549" height="801"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sylvain Cote (left) roomed with Sylvain Turgeon (right) the night before the draft and then became Whaler property the next day.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

Whalers Discover A Sly Method Of Drafting

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01557/5127651-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="270" height="206"></div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;A whirlwind series of moves, conceived and implemented during a 36-hour period, ended professional hockey in one city, breathed new life into a failing franchise in another, altered the character somewhat of a third and forced the realignment of the divisions of the American Hockey League.The changes, which were ratified by the AHL&rsquo;s Board of Governors at their spring meeting in Montreal, produced a few surprises. In essence, the Edmonton Oilers agreed to transfer their team from Moncton to Halifax, which allowed the Montreal Canadiens to end their long association with the Nova Scotia city and relocate their minor-league operations in nearby Sherbrooke. It left Moncton, a city that joined the league in 1978, without a team and reduced the AHL membership to 12 teams.Following the announcement of the moves, league officials agreed to scrap the North-South divisional setup and institute an East-West alignment for the 1984-85 season. Under the new format, Adirondack moved from the Northern group to the Western Division to join Rochester, Binghamton, St. Catharines, Hershey and Baltimore. The Eastern Division will be composed of Springfield and New Haven, two teams that played in the Southern Division, the Calder Cup champion Maine Mariners, Sherbrooke, Fredericton and Nova Scotia. Also changed was the league&rsquo;s unbalanced schedule; teams will play divisional foes 44 times and clubs from the other division 36 times next season.A number of other transactions were also announced by member clubs during June:&bull; The New Haven Nighthawks announced they would take in New York Rangers farmhands to form another of the increasingly-popular dual working agreements. Ironically, the Rangers had a working agreement with New Haven through most of the &rsquo;70s but left to go, first, to Springfield, and then to the Central Hockey League. The demise of the CHL this summer left the Rangers without a site for their development club. The Nighthawks also announced that coach Nick Beverly would return for another season.&bull; In Springfield, Indian owner Peter Cooney also confirmed a number of reports when he announced a working agreement with the New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars. Islander general manager Bill Torrey said a new coach would be named shortly.&bull;The Hartford Whalers named Larry Pleau, its former player, broadcaster, coach and director of hockey operations, as the head coach and GM at Binghamton. Pleau, who also will have Washington Capitals players on his roster, replaces John Cunniff.&bull; Shortly after the Mariners wrapped up the Calder Cup title by knocking off defending champion Rochester, the parent New Jersey Devils hired former St. Catharines coach Doug Carpenter to coach the Devils and returned Tom McVie to Portland to coach the Mariners. John Paddock, who replaced McVie in November and led the Mariners to the title, was retained as Maine&rsquo;s assistant coach.&bull; For Georges Guilbault, the driving force behind the establishment of the francise two years ago, the Canadiens&rsquo; alignment with Sherbrooke ended about six months of negotiations with a satisfying settlement. It had been feared the Sherbrooke would suspend operations since it appeared that the parent Winnipeg Jets were planning to join the Canadiens in Halifax after two losing seasons on the ice and at the box office. Montreal will now operate the Sherbrooke team, with Winnipeg suppling some players.Montreal indicated a desire to leave Halifax after 13 years, but a two-year commitment to lease the Metro Centre stood in the way of a move to Sherbrooke. Edmonton Oiler president Glen Sather moved into the picture on June 7 and by noon the following day an arrangement had been hammered out whereby the Oilers would replace the Canadiens at Halifax. The deal meant the death of the Moncton Alpines and the birth of the Nova Scotia Oilers and the Sherbrooke Canadiens.Although coaches for those teams have not been announced, Larry Kish and Roger Neilson have been mentioned as the leading contenders for the Nova Scotia job, and Pierre Creamer is considered to have the inside track at Sherbrooke. Former Montreal Canadien center Peter Mahovlich also has been rumored to be a candidate for the Sherbrooke post, but it seems likely that the Canadiens will hire an experienced bilingual coach.Both Guilbault and Nova Scotia spokesman Joel Jacobson said the reaction to changes in their communities was favorable.Guilbault, who has worn a variety of hats during the two-year life of the Sherbrooke franchise and will be a part of the new organization expects dramatic improvement in the quality of the sherbrooke club next season.&ldquo;You won&rsquo;t have to turn the paper upside down to see that you are in first place,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll definitely have to read it the right way.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02407/5127644-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="549" height="782"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom McVie is back again coaching Maine after a brief stint with New Jersey.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

American League Starting Over With Different Teams, Divisions

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03281/5127682-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

AHL All-Star Teams

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Brian Ford of Fredericton, Claude Larose of Sherbrooke and St. Catharines defenseman Garry Lariviere walked off with the majority of the American Hockey League&rsquo;s post-season awards.Each man, a first team all-star, also picked up two other honors, determined by the voting of the league&rsquo;s players, coaches and media. The players and media vote for the all-star teams, the Most Valuable Player, Best Defenseman and Rookies of the Year. The coaches vote for the Fred Hunt Trophy, for sportsmanship and dedication to the game, and the new Baz Bastien Trophy, presented to the league&rsquo;s top goaltender.Ford, who compiled a 2.84 goals-against average in 36 games with the Northern Division-champion Fredericton Express, won the Bastien Trophy, named after the late Pittsburgh Penguin general manager, and the Hap Holmes Trophy, presented annually to the goal-tenders on the team with the lowest goals against. Ford was the only Fredericton goalie with enough games played to quality for the award. Last year, he shared the honor with Clint Malarchuk. The Bastien Trophy is for the goalie judged to be the best at his position, regardless of statistics.Lariviere helped turn the St. Catharines Saints into a playoff team with his solid defensive play, and that performance earned him the Eddie Shore Plaque as the league&rsquo;s top defenseman, and a share of the Most Valuable Player Award with Rochester&rsquo;s high-scoring right winger Mal Davis. Lariviere and Davis each received a total of 48 points in the voting.Larose enjoyed a banner season with the Sherbrooke Jets and finished as the league scoring leader with 120 points. That point production earned him the John Sollenberger Trophy, given to the league&rsquo;s scoring leader, and the Hunt Trophy.Besides Ford, Lariviere, Larose and Davis, the other first-team selections were Sherbrooke center Murray Eaves, who finished second in the league in scoring with 115 points, and Fredericton defenseman Rick LaPointe. The second team is comprised of St. Catharines goalie Tim Bernhardt, Baltimore defenseman Tom Thombury, Adirondack defenseman Greg Joly, and forwards Mike Kaszycki of St. Catharines, and Mark Lofthouse and Daryl Evans, both of New Haven.Claude Verret of Rochester won the Dudley (Red) Garrett Memorial Trophy as the AHL&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year. Verret was the top-scoring rookie in the league with 39 goals and 90 points in 65 games.Davis, a five-year AHL veteran&mdash;two with Adirondack, three at Rochester-enjoyed his finest season as a pro. He scored a league-high 55 goals and finished sixth in the league scoring race with 103 points. &#9632;

Three Players Garner Majority Of AHL Awards

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01507/5127744-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="283" height="208"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;The International Hockey League looked forward to its 38th consecutive year following its annual meeting here.A few short weeks ago, the future of the IHL was a little shaky as Toledo announced it was putting its franchise in suspension for at least a year and there appeared little chance Peoria or Muskegon would remain with the lodge for the 1984-85 campaign.But following the meeting, the 1HL seemed sure of at least five cities for next season and the possibility of expanding to 11.The optimism was based on the fact 11 cities were represented at the meeting, including Salt Lake City and Denver of the defunct Central League. Both cities made formal application for membership. Salt Lake City was represented by Art Teece and Denver by Doug Speeding.A surprise development was that Toledo did not make a formal request for a leave of absense. Apparently there was a strong showing of support from a good segment of Toledo fans following the announcement that the franchise would ask for a suspension. At least the response was strong enough that Virgil Gladieux, who owns the Sports Arena where the Goaldiggers play as well as being the majority owner of the team, decided to delay the decision on the suspension.Muskegon and Peoria were also represented and each indicated a desire to play again this season.Al Savill, who owned IHL franchises before in Columbus, Grand Rapids and Dayton, is reportedly interested in putting an IHL franchise in Indianapolis, which was left without a league when the CHL folded. Savill is expected to join forces with former Checker general manager-coach Fred Creighton should Indianapolis make a formal application for an IHL franchise. Another group from Indianapolis is also reportedly ready to push for a franchise should the Savill-Creighton combination fade out of the picture.Ken Ullyot, former general manager-coach of the Fort Wayne Komets and now a consultant for the team and its representative on the IHL Board of Governors, was uncharacteristically optimistic about the next season, &ldquo;because we have at least five solid teams.&rdquo;He wasn&rsquo;t as optimistic about the league expanding to 11 teams, however.&ldquo;We set some guidelines under which we would accept Salt Lake City and Denver,&rdquo; Ullyot said. &ldquo;If they accept, fine.&rdquo;The catch is the travel involved. The IHL is a bus-league where the average travel expenses is about $1.60 a mile. The addition of Salt Lake and Denver would require air travel.Colin Lister, principal owner of the Komets, said, &ldquo;Plans would call for Salt Lake and Denver to pay travel costs in excess of $1,000 for teams going there to play. Under those conditions we would welcome them into the league.&rdquo;The five cities Ullyot said are &ldquo;ready&rdquo; are Fort Wayne, Flint, Kalamazoo, Milwaukee and Peoria.&ldquo;Muskegon will probably go again because they&rsquo;ve said that every year for the last six years and haven&rsquo;t missed a faceoff yet,&rdquo; Ullyot said.The 11th possibility is Saginaw, which put its franchise in escrow following the 1982-83 season. Originally, Saginaw was looking to return to the IHL for the 1985-86 season but the fact it was represented at the meeting raised speculation the Gears may be ready to return next year.Milwaukee appears to have reaped the first dividends from the fold-up of the CHL. The Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League are switching their minor-league base to Milwaukee and have named Cliff Koroll, a Black Hawk assistant coach, as coach. Phil Witliff, who has been both general manager-coach of the Admirals, will devote all his time now to performing duties as GM only.No decision was reached on replacing Bud Poile, who served as both the IHL and CHL commissioner this past season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02350/5127737-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="562" height="944"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cliff Koroll moves from assistant coach in Chicago to head coach in Milwaukee.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

International League Looking At Expansion

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>ERIE&mdash;Golden Blade head coach Bill Horton became the first casualty of the summer when he resigned his duties as general manager-coach.No immediate replacement was named, but the Blades were expected to follow the lead of other Atlantic Coast Hockey League teams by naming a player-coach in an effort to keep their budget in line.Horton&rsquo;s departure was under mysterious terms as owners Jim Mikol and Steve Stroul claimed he had resigned his post by not returning to work on a specified date, Horton left Erie and was un-available for comment.At a press conference, Mikol and Stroul explained that on May 25, Horton informed them he was heading to Canada for the Memorial Day weekend. While that didn&rsquo;t bother the owners, Horton also indicated he planned to extend his vacation since the following week was short.That part didn&rsquo;t please the Erie owners, who informed Horton his job could be in jeopardy.&ldquo;We told Billy that this is a very important time of the year for the team and we needed him for promoting hockey in Erie by selling tickets and advertising,&rdquo; related Mikol. &ldquo;When he (Horton) told us he wouldn&rsquo;t be back on that Tuesday morning, we told him, &lsquo;Billy, if you want your job and you don&rsquo;t come back by Tuesday morning (May 29), we will know then that you have resigned as coach of the Erie Golden Blades.&rdquo;&rsquo;Horton never came back and contacted the Blades by phone on June 4, at which time he was told of the owners&rsquo; decison.Horton may be seeking another coaching position in hockey after guiding his clubs to the ACHL finals for three straight seasons. His Mohawk Valley squad captured the playoff championship in 1981-82 and the Stars lost a four-game final to Carolina in 1982-83. After leaving Mohawk Valley for Erie, he led the Blades to their first playoff title in three years.In other league news, the owners decided not to attend the National Hockey League congress meetings in Montreal, but instead scheduled a special meeting at Hagerstown, MD. Commissioner Ray Miron represented the ACHL at the Montreal meetings.Miron has been working on a new concept for the league which would have them working closely with the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS) and the United States Olympic Hockey team. Team owners are expected to listen to Miron&rsquo;s plan before deciding on their format next season.Syracuse remains the only solid city being looked at for expansion. While the Pine Bridge Bucks haven&rsquo;t committed themselves for another season, Miron would like to see the loop operate with six-teams in 1984-85. &#9632;

Horton Takes A Permanent Leave

Schedule for the 1984 Canada Cup hockey tournament (dates and sites to be determined):Series 1: Canada vs. West Germany; Soviet Union vs. Czechoslovakia; Sweden vs. United States.Series 2: Canada vs. United States; Soviet Union vs. Sweden; Czechoslovakia vs. West Germany.Series 3: Canada vs. Sweden; Soviet Union vs. West Germany; Czechoslovakia vs. United States.Series 4: Canada vs. Czechoslovakia; Soviet Union vs. United States; Sweden vs. West Germany.Series 5: Canada vs. Soviet Union; Czechoslovakia vs. Sweden; West Germany vs. United States.Semifinal: First vs. Fourth; Second vs. Third.Final: Best of three. &#9632;

Canada Cup Schedule

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03260/5127861-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0032-03

THE CANADA CUP 1984

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01533/5127806-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="269" height="202"></div>BRANTFORD&mdash;For the first time in six years, the telephone city which produced Wayne Gretzky and a minor hockey system which has developed many other good hockey players is without a major junior A team.The sudden death of major junior&mdash;club owner Jack Robillard made the stunning announcement a few days after Brantford Alexanders&rsquo; season ended&mdash;becomes official July 1 when the franchise will be shifted to the more lucrative Hamilton market, where an 18,000-seat arena is under construction.But it will be a year before the Vic-Copps Arena and Trade Centre is completed in downtown Hamilton at a cost of about $42-million.On an interim basis, the Hamilton club will operate out of the 2,200-seat Mountain Arena, which the Hamilton Fincups deserted six years ago when they moved to Brantford.At about the same time, the new owners of the Windsor Compuware Spitfires will be settling into their offices at Windsor Arena making plans and gaining on-the-job experience for their first season of operating a major junior club. The only formality remaining is gaining approval of the transfer of ownership from Canadian to U.S. hands by the Foreign Investment Review Agency.Peter Karmanos, president of the Compuware Corp, in Birmingham, MI, bought the club from John McHale of Ottawa in May. As financial woes torpedoed McHale&rsquo;s Navy, Karmanos and his group stepped in at the last minute to save the city&rsquo;s Ontario Hockey League franchise.The Hamilton team is running a contest to select a name for the team but one moniker which seems to be enjoying favorable reviews is Hamilton Hawks.While the Hawks may be set to fly in Hamilton, one haunting question remains: What went wrong in Brantford?According to general manager-coach Dave Draper, who has been with the franchise for 12 seasons, the high unemployment in Brantford was just too costly at the box office. When the Alexanders left Hamilton for Brantford, there was high expectations for the beautiful Brantford Civic Centre.Through the years, the Alexanders had competitive clubs, barely sinking below .500, and had their best season ever in 1983-84, finishing second in the Emms Division and fifth overall. Although they averaged about 2,000 fans a game and had 1,000 season tickets&mdash;Robillard had bought up a couple hundred himself to give away to fans as a promotional gimmick&mdash;the club once again failed to turn a profit.In six years, the Alexanders never once finish in the black.Draper declined to disclose the extent of losses.&ldquo;It was the economic climate of the city, really, which hurt the most,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been so much unemployment and it hasn&rsquo;t been shortlived. It&rsquo;s been a long, drawn-out affair which makes it very difficlut for a hockey franchise.&ldquo;There were just not enough hardcore hockey fans. We had our 1,100 or 1,200 faithful but the rest just picked their games. That makes it very difficult. There were never really enough signs of encouragement that down the road you might turn a profit. I don&rsquo;t think this experience with this franchise in a six-year period is the only indicating factor that they (Brantford fans) have had trouble supporting this type of operation. At least so they tell me.&rdquo;Before the Alexanders, the city had senior A hockey and Toronto Marlboros played some of their home games at the Civic Centre.Both ventures eventually failed because of finances.&ldquo;They (the fans) just haven&rsquo;t supported anything,&rdquo; Draper said.Draper said the Alexanders&rsquo; departure met with mixed reviews in the city.&ldquo;From a media standpoint, they were very realistic as to understanding the bottom line,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;From a fan standpoint, the few real good ones we had naturally were upset and I feel and hope they continue to follow the team in Hamilton. The majority didn&rsquo;t seem to care and that&rsquo;s not surprising.&rdquo;With that, the Hamilton franchise is set to launch a season-ticket drive and is very excited about re-entering the larger market, especially with the new rink a reality in one season.&ldquo;Everything&rsquo;s set as far as the move is concerned,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll play out of the Mountain Arena but that shouldn&rsquo;t be much of a problem because we&rsquo;ve played there before. The new building is probably ahead of schedule and there doesn&rsquo;t seem to be any question we will be in there the following season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a wise decision. We&rsquo;re going into a large hockey market with a small building. If we can do well next year, the timing could be perfect to create interest when we go into our new building. Naturally there is going to be a pro team next year or the year after, but if we do well off the ice in marketing, it shouldn&rsquo;t matter. If we really do well on the ice and create a positive image in the community this year, we&rsquo;ll do very, very well in the new building.&ldquo;Hamilton&rsquo;s a good hockey town. To see that thing going up must create a good feeling for the people. The citizens of Hamilton must feel good to know it&rsquo;s finally going to be a reality to get the new building.&rdquo;The Hamilton club also figures to be strong next season with a strong nucleus of returnees, although Shayne Corson and Jeff Jackson could win jobs in the National Hockey League. Corson, one of the toughest rookies in the OHL last season, was the second of two Montreal first-round draft picks. Jackson, the Hamilton captain, will be trying to win a job with Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;If we have them back, naturally I think we&rsquo;ll be very, very strong,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;Both are going to be awfully close to making those teams.&rdquo;Bob Probert, Bruce Bell, Mike Millar, Todd Francis and Chris Pusey are other veterans who will be trying to crack the rosters of NHL teams but who will give the Alexanders depth if they return for another season of junior.Meanwhile, Compuware&rsquo;s hockey group got its feet wet quickly by taking part in the OHL midget draft in May at Toronto. It was also the first opportunity for Compuware&rsquo;s hockey executive to familiarize itself with the rest of the league.Mark Craig, who coached the Compuware midget club the past two seasons and coached a junior team in Detroit before that, will be the club&rsquo;s head coach. Joining the graduate of Bowling Green (Ohio) University, where he was a teammate of London Knights&rsquo; coach Don Boyd, is Ray DeGrendel and Bob Nelson. DeGrendel, who coached the old Detroit Junior Red Wings of the Southern Junior Hockey League several years ago, will be in charge of weight training and conditioning. Nelson, a Timmins native, will offer much help, particularly as an instructor at practice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02390/5127799-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="546" height="851"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Pusey should be back to give the new Hamilton entry veteran netminding.</figcaption></div>Former NHL goalie Jim Rutherford is general manager of the club.Craig said the club came away from its first draft with three first-round quality Mayers in Kevin Kerr, who played in the Teague last season for North Bay, 13th-rated J.P. Gorley from Gloucester and goalie Alan Perry, in the fifth round, from Mt. St. Charles High School in Providence, RI. Perry was a third-round choice of St. Louis in the NHL&rsquo;s entry draft.Add the newcomers to a nucleus of seven or eight returning forwards and four proven defensemen and the Spitfires may show dramatic improvement next season under stable ownership.&ldquo;We think we can get the Windsor crowds back up to 3,000 or 3,500 the way it was in the heyday,&rdquo; Craig said.&ldquo;We want to spruce up the Windsor Arena with better lighting and right now they have mostly bench-style seating. We want to change that. It&rsquo;s a heck of an arena&hellip;if it was brighter and cleaner.&rdquo;Craig says the Windsor fans realize now that Compuware did not buy the team with the intention of moving across the border to Detroit.&ldquo;Originally, we had people fear we were buying the Windsor Spitfires to move them to Detroit,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now people realize they&rsquo;re here to stay. Our biggest problem was they thought we were buying it to move. All along, the only reason we felt a Detroit franchise would be viable is if there was a team in Windsor.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve also mentioned to the city of Windsor we&rsquo;re interested in trying to find a new way to build an arena in Windsor.&rdquo;In a move to get the old and new players alike orientated to the Compuware organization, the players will be brought in to Windsor and Detroit. Already, Craig said he is impressed with his players.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re excited knowing that with the new owner there are not going to be any money problems and that he is going to run a good organization,&rdquo; Craig said. &ldquo;With Jimmy Rutherford, the kids realize they&rsquo;ll be playing for an honest and hard-working hockey man who has always been well-liked and respected in both Windsor and Detroit.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0032-01

Alexanders Could Become Hawks With Team’s Flight From Brantford

Following is the voting for the various NHL awards for the 1983-84 season. First place vote worth five points, second three and third one point:<h2>HART TROPHY Most Valuable Player Winner&mdash;WAYNE GRETZKY</h2>1. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton 306 (60, 2, 0); 2. Rod Langway, Washington 102 (1, 26, 19); 3. Bryan Trottier, Islanders 54 (1, 14, 7); 4. Rick Middleton, Boston 31 (0, 8, 7); 5. Ray Bourque, Boston 17 (0, 4, 5); 6. Mike Bossy, Islanders 13 (0, 3, 4); 7. Michel Goulet, Quebec 12 (0, 2, 6); 8. Rejean Lemelin, Calgary 6 (0, 1, 3); 9. Tom Barrasso, Buffalo 4 (0, 1, 1); 10. Paul Coffey, Edmonton 3 (0, 1, 0); 11. Tim Kerr, Philadelphia 2 (0, 0, 2); Peter Stastny, Quebec 2 (0, 0, 2); 13. Brad Park, Detroit 1 (0, 0, 1), Denis Savard, Chicago, Black Hawks 1 (0, 0, 1); Al Jensen, Washington 1 (0, 0, 1); Dan Bouchard, Quebec 1 (0, 0, 1); Barry Pederson, Boston 1 (0, 0, 1); Kent Nilsson, Calgary 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>NORRIS TROPHY Best Defenseman Winner&mdash;ROD LANGWAY</h2>1. Rod Langway, Washington 227 (37, 11, 9); 2. Paul Coffey, Edmonton 126 (12, 18, 12); 3. Ray Bourque, Boston 120 (9, 20, 15); 4. Denis Potvin, Islanders 66 (4, 9, 19); 5. Phil Housley, Buffalo 4 (0, 1, 1); 6. Charlie Huddy, Edmonton 3 (0, 1, 0); Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Boston 3 (0, 1, 0); Scott Stevens, Washington 3 (0, 1, 0); 9. Barry Beck, Rangers 2 (0, 0, 2); 10. Mario Marois, Quebec 1 (0, 0, 1); Mark Howe, Philadelphia 1 (0, 0, 1); Mike Ramsey, Buffalo 1 (0, 0, 1); Ken Morrow, Islanders 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>CALDER TROPHY Rookie of the Year Winner&mdash;TOM BARRASSO</h2>1. Tom Barrasso, Buffalo 242 (35, 20&bdquo;7); 2 Steve Yzerman, Detroit 203 (21, 29, 11); 3. Sylvain Turgeon, Hartford 67 (3, 7, 31); 4. Dave Poulin, Philadelphia 44 (3, 6, 11); 5. Alan Bester, Toronto 1 (0, 0, 1); Bryan Erickson, Washington 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>LADY BYNG TROPHY Most Gentlemanly Player Winner&mdash;MIKE BOSSY</h2>1. Mike Bossy, Islanders 196 (26, 19, 9); 2 Rick Middleton, Boston 146 (14, 20, 16); 3. Jari Kurri, Edmonton 123 (13, 14, 16); Doug Jarvis, Washington 19 (3, 1, 1); 5. John Ogrodnick, Detroit 16 (2, 1, 3); 6. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton 10 (1, 1, 2); 7. Bernie Federko, St. Louis 7 (1, 0, 2); 8. Mats Naslund, Montreal 6 (0, 1, 3); 9. Don Maloney, Rangers 5 (1, 0, 0); Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo 5 (1, 0, 0); 11. Peter Stastny, Quebec 4 (0, 1, 1); Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles 4 (0, 1, 1); 13. Bill Hajt, Buffalo 3 (0, 1, 0); Bobby Carpenter, Washington 3 (0, 1, 0); Dave Christian, Washington 3 (0, 1, 0); 16. Anders Hedberg, Rangers 1 (0, 0, 1); Ken Morrow, Islanders 1 (0, 0, 1); Mark Johnson, Hartford 1 (0, 0, 1); Joe Mullen, St. Louis 1 (0, 0, 1); Doug Wilson, Chicago 1 (0, 0, 1); Bryan Trottier, Islanders (0, 0, 1); Phil Housley, Buffalo 1 (0, 0, 1); Anton Stastny, Quebec 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>FRANK SELKE TROPHY Best Defensive Forward Winner&mdash;DOUG JARVIS</h2>1. Doug Jarvis, Washington 153 (22, 12, 7); 2. Bryan Trottier, Islanders 110 (15, 10, 5); 3. Jari Kurri, Edmonton 62 (5, 10, 7); 4. Rick Middleton, Boston 55 (6, 7, 4); 5. Craig Ramsay, Buffalo 22 (3, 2, 1); 6. John Tonelli, Islanders 18 (3, 0, 3); 7. Dale Hunter, Quebec 16 (0, 4, 4); 8. Michel Goulet, Quebec 14 (2, 1, 1); 9. Bob Gainey, Montreal 12 (0, 3, 3); 10. Barry Pederson, Boston 10 (2, 0, 0); 11. Bobby Clarke, Philadelphia 9 (1, 1, 1); 12. Doug Risebrough, Calgary 9 (0, 1, 6); 13. Mike Foligno, Buffalo 8 (0, 2, 2); 14. Bengt Gustafsson, Washington 6 (0, 2, 0); 15. Al MacAdam, Minnesota 6 (0, 2, 0); 16. Clark Gillies, Islanders 5 (1, 0, 0); Brian Sutter, St. Louis 5 (1, 0, 0); Mats Naslund, Montreal 5 (1, 0, 0); 19. Glen Currie, Washington 5 (0, 1, 2); 20. Gaetan Duchesne, Washington 4 (0, 1, 1); 21. Dwight Foster, Detroit 3 (0, 1, 0); Greg Gilbert, Isladers 3 (0, 1, 0); Dave Christian, Washington 3 (0, 1, 0); Thomas Gradin, Vancouver 3 (0, 1, 0); 25. Brian Propp, Philadelphia 2 (0, 0, 2); Brent Peterson, Buffalo 2 (0, 0, 2); Ric Seiling, Buffalo 2 (0, 0, 2); 28. Guy Carbonneau, Montreal 1 (0, 0, 1); Greg Terrion, Toronto 1 (0, 0, 1); Troy Murray, Chicago 1 (0, 0, 1); Thomas Steen, Winnipeg 1 (0, 0, 1); Mark Messier, Edmonton 1 (0, 0, 1); Bob Bourne, Islanders 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>JACK ADAMS AWARD NHL Coach of the Year Winner&mdash;BRYAN MURRAY</h2>1. Bryan Murray, Washington 162 (31, 2, 1); 2. Scott Bowman, Buffalo 61 (1, 16, 8); 3. Gerry Cheevers, Boston 18 (1, 3, 4); 4. Bob Johnson, Calgary 18 (0, 3, 9); 5. Glen Sather, Edmonton 12 (1, 2, 1); 6. Nick Polano, Detroit 10 (0, 3, 1); 7. Al Arbour, Islanders 9 (0, 2, 3); 8. Jacques Demers, St. Louis 4 (0, 1, 1); 9. Herb Brooks, New York Rangers4 (0, 1, 1); 10. Bill Mahoney, Minnesota 3 (0, 1, 0); 11. Bob McCammon, Philadelphia 2 (0, 0, 2); Michel Bergeron, Quebec 2 (0, 0, 2); 13. Jack Evans, Hartford 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>VEZINA TROPHY Top goaltender Winner&mdash;TOM BARRASSO</h2>Tom Barrasso, Buffalo 42 (4, 6, 4); 2. Rejean Lemelin, Calgary 39 (5, 4, 2); 3. Pat Riggin, Washington 37 (5, 3, 3); 4. Al Jensen, Washington 37 (4, 5, 2); 5 Dan Bouchard, Quebec 11 (0, 2, 5); 6. Grant Fuhr, Edmonton 6 (1, 0, 1); 7. Glenn Resch, New Jersey 5 (1, 0, 0); Billy Smith, Islanders 5 (1, 0, 0); 9. Doug Keans, Boston 3 (0, 1, 0); 10. Glen Hanlon, Rangers 1 (0, 0, 1); Mike Liut, St. Louis 1 (0, 0, 1); Roland Melanson, Islanders 1 (0, 0, 1); Pete Peeters, Boston 1 (0, 0, 1).<h2>ALL-STAR VOTING</h2>Following is the voting for the NHL All-Star teams for the 1983-84 season. Total points shown in parenthesis:<h2>GOALTENDERS</h2>1. Tom Barrasso, Buffalo (141); 2. Pat Riggin, Washington (131); 3. Rejean Lemelin, Calgary (104); 4. Al Jensen, Washington (100); 5. Pete Peeters, Boston (22); 6. Dan Bouchard, Quebec (12); 7. Bob Froese, Philadelphia (10); 8. Mike Liut, St. Louis (8); 9. Murray Bannerman, Chicago (8); 10. Glen Hanlon, Rangers (8); 11. Greg Stefan, Detroit (6); 12. Bob Sauve, Buffalo (5); 13. Billy Smith, Islanders (3).<h2>DEFENSE</h2>1. Rod Langway, Washington (285); 2. Ray Bourque, Boston (232); 3. Paul Coffey, Edmonton (226); 4. Denis Potvin, Islanders (189); 5. Phil Housley, Buffalo (38); 6. Mike Ramsey, Buffalo (32); 7. Scott Stevens, Mike Bossy of the Islanders won the Lady Byng Trophy for the second consecutive season.Washington (23); 8. Barry Beck, Rangers (18); 9. Mark Howe, Philadelphia (17); 10. Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Boston (16); 11. Mario Marois, Quebec (14); 12. Kevin Lowe, Edmonton (6);13. Reijo Ruotsalainen, Rangers (6); 14. Rob Ramage, St. Louis (2); 15. Stefan Persson, Islanders (2); 16. Doug Wlson, Chicago (2); 17. Ken Morrow, Islanders (2); 18. Charlie Huddy, Edmonton (2); 19. Brad Park, Detroit (1); 20. Brad Maxwell, Minnesota (1); 21. Bill Hajt, Buffalo (1); 22. Reed Larson, Detroit (1).<h2>LEFT WING</h2>1. Michel Goulet, Quebec (306); 2. Mark Messier, Edmonton (103); 3. John Ogrodnick, Detroit (57); 4. Brian Propp, Philadelphia (35); 5. Charlie Simmer, Los Angeles (20); 6. Brian Sutter, St. Louis (10); 7. Bengt Gustafsson, Washington (6); 8. Tom McCarthy, Minnesota (4); 9. Sylvain Turgeon, Hartford (3); 10. Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo (3); 11. Tim Kerr, Philadelphia (3); 12. John Tonelli, Islanders (2); 13. Ivan Boldirev, Detroit (2); 14. Mike Foligno, Buffalo (2); 15. Mats Naslund, Montreal (1); 16. Mike Bullard, Pittsburgh (1).<h2>RIGHT WING</h2>1. Mike Bossy, Islanders (240); 2. Jari Kurri, Edmonton (154); 3. Rick Middleton, Boston (130); 4. Tim Kerr, Philadelphia (14); 5. Glenn Anderson, Edmonton (7); 6. Rick Vaive, Toronto (5); 7. Joe Mullen, St. Louis (3); 8. Tony Tanti, Vancouver (3); 9. Mike Gartner, Washington (2).<h2>CENTER</h2>1. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton, (310); 2. Bryan Trottier, Islanders (137); 3. Barry Pedeson, Boston (58); 4. Peter Stastny, Quebec (46); 5. Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo (4); 6. Bernie Federko, St. Louis (2); 7. Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles (1).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03328/5128066-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="523" height="655"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Bossy of the Islanders won the Lady Byng Trophy for the second consecutive season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0034-03

Voting For NHL Awards, All-Star Teams

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04233/5128097-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="928" height="486"></div>ALL ROOKIE NHL ALL-STAR TEAMGoal&mdash;TOM BARRASSO, Buffalo; Defense&mdash;THOMAS ERIKSSON, Philadelphia and JAMIE MACOUN, Calgary; Center&mdash;STEVE YZERMAN, Detroit; R. Wing&mdash;HAKAN LOOB, Calgary; L. Wing&mdash;SYLVAIN TURGEON, Hartford. &#9632;

f0034-04

NHL All-Star Teams

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01546/5128035-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="274" height="208"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;It wasn&rsquo;t surprising that several Western Hockey League players made a big impression at the 1984 National Hockey League entry draft.But in a year where bigger seemed to mean better, several prominent WHL players who didn&rsquo;t have the physical attributes to back up their scoring stats were left out in the cold.It really shouldn&rsquo;t be surprising. In the past, diminutive stars such as former Brandon Wheat King center Kelly Glowa had a tough time convincing the NHL that good things come in small packages. Still, other say the fault lies within today&rsquo;s drafting system.When the 21 NHL clubs completed the 12-round draft, missing from the 251-player list were some of the WHL&rsquo;s better players.Among the missing were Kamloops Oiler forward Mike Nottingham, Regina Pat forward Tim lannone. Medicine Hat Tiger forwards Bob Bassen and Alan Conroy, and Victoria Cougar forward Jack MacKeigan.Nottingham, a rookie left winger with the league champion Oilers, had 91 points (including 48 goals), but he was considered too small at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds.lannone, a speedy center, had 64 points, but at only 5-foot-9, 172 pounds was passed over for the same reason as Nottingham. Bassen and Conroy, a pair of Tiger centers, were instrumental in getting Medicine Hat to the Eastern Division final series. Bassen, who did not play the entire season, totalled 58 points while Conroy had 112. Again, size appeared to be the determining factor. Bassen is 5-foot-7, 145 pounds; Conroy is 5-foot-6, 165 pounds.If size was a cut-and-dry issue, the system might be easier for WHL general managers to comprehend. Small players such as Kelowna Wing forward Grant Delcourt and New Westminster Bruin center Cliff Ronning were drafted.&ldquo;Certainly we had some disappointments,&rdquo; said WHL executive assistant Richard Doerksen. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing when some of your better players don&rsquo;t get picked.&rdquo;Regina GM-coach Bob Strumm said it&rsquo;s the system which is at fault.&ldquo;The draft is a product of the rules of the system,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They draft high school kids out of the U.S. and don&rsquo;t have to sign them for four years. And they take Europeans and it seems like they don&rsquo;t see them forever.&ldquo;I really feel major junior hockey is overexposed to the point where scouts become so critical of a player by the 30th time they see him. They find reasons why he can&rsquo;t play instead of why he can.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t give me a justified reason why lannone wasn&rsquo;t drafted. He&rsquo;s had the same rate of development through our organization as Doug Wickenheiser. But Wickenheiser was 6-foot-1, not 5-foot-9.&ldquo;If lannone played in the Minnesota high school system, he&rsquo;d be a first-or second-rounder. There, they look at a player once against inferior talent and pick him. This is something I&rsquo;m definitely going to bring it up at our league meetings.&rdquo;Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks each chose five players from the WHL, tops among NHL teams. Ironically, the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets virtually shunned the league. The Jets chose one player, the Flames abstained.&ldquo;The Jets&rsquo; scouting and drafting will catch up to them.&rdquo; Strumm said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re right in one of the hotbeds in junior hockey and they ignore it.&rdquo;Bill LaForge, who guided the Oilers to a Memorial Cup berth before accepting a head coaching position at Vancouver, was more than just displeased that Nottingham was bypassed in the draft.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s definitely been an injustice done in Mike&rsquo;s case, but he&rsquo;s a small kid and he&rsquo;s going to have to show guts and determination and never give up,&rdquo; LaForge said. &ldquo;The road to success is always under construction. He&rsquo;s going to have to come back next year and do it all over again.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02428/5128028-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="544" height="783"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Nottingham of Kamloops says he&rsquo;ll have to consider his options after being overlooked.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll have to prove he&rsquo;s better than they think he is. NHL teams will want to see if he has the jam or will pack it in. Most guys right now think he&rsquo;s going to pack it in.&rdquo;Nottingham admitted to being a little miffed at being overlooked.&ldquo;To say I was pretty upset is putting it mildly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I guess those are the breaks and now I&rsquo;m just contemplating next year. I have to try and look at all my options now and I have to have something to fall back on&mdash;like my schooling&mdash;because I didn&rsquo;t get drafted. I might try university hockey.&rdquo;Kamloops defenseman Doug Bodger was the first of 37 WHL players taken in the draft. The WHL all-star defenseman went ninth overall to the Pittsburgh Penguins.Prince Albert Raider Dave Pasin went 19th overall to Boston, while New York Islanders took Saskatoon Blade defenseman Duncan MacPherson immediately after the Bruins. The 21st pick went to Edmonton, who took Regina defenseman Selmar Odelein.In the second round, St. Louis took Portland defenseman Brian Benning and Detroit drafted Calgary Wrangler rearguard Doug Houda. Vancouver took Portland left winger Jeff Rohlicek and Buffalo Sabres selected Regina left winger Doug Trapp.Rounding out the top-10 WHL drafts were second-rounders Ray Podloski, a Portland center taken by Boston, and Kamloops netminder Darryl Reaugh, drafted by Edmonton. &#9632;

f0034-01

WHL Officials Bothered By Draft After Bypassing Of Good Players

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01517/5128128-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="275" height="209"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League had reason to smile after the recent National Hockey League entry draft, as three of its players are drafted in the first round.Scoring sensation Mario Lemieux of Laval went first overall to Pittsburgh, which was nary a surprise except that the Voisin scoring star refused to shake hands with Penguin officials and don the team&rsquo;s jersey.Nine picks later, Vancouver chose Longueuil Chevalier defenseman Jean-Jacques Daigneault, the 5-foot-ll, 180-pound quarterback who was named the QMJHL&rsquo;s top defenseman. He might have gone higher if hadn&rsquo;t suffered ligament damage in the playoffs. The smooth-skating, skilful puckhandler attended the draft on crutches.Following Vancouver, Hartford chose Quebec Rempart defenseman Sylvain Cote. The 6-foot, 170-pounder had 15 goals and 50 assists for 65 points along with 189 penalties minutes.&ldquo;There is a good chance he will stick with us,&rdquo; said Whaler coach Jack Evans, who transformed Hartford into the NHL&rsquo;s most improved club.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy we got another Sylvain, I only hope he&rsquo;s as good as the other one,&rdquo; said Whaler assistant coach Claude Larose, referring to Sylvain Turgeon.Turgeon, the former Hull Olympiques left winger, led the NHL&rsquo;s rookies in goals with 40.Montreal Canadiens took five QMJHL players, starting with Granby Bison center Stephane Richer in the second round. The Habs also drafted Granby goaltender Patrick Roy (51), Verdun right winger Jim Nesich from Detroit Compuware Midgets (116), Shawinigan left winger Eric Demers (179) and Verdun goalie Troy Crosby (240).Quebec Nordiques chose Laval defenseman Steven Finn (57) and Quebec Rempart center Guy Ouellette (183), while St. Louis grabbed Longueuil defenseman Graham Herring (71) and Granby left winger Daniel Jomphe (176).Buffalo decided on Drummondville defenseman James Gasseau (123), New York Islanders took Verdun defenseman Franco Desantis (167), Los Angeles selected Hull left winger Luc Robitaille (171) and Chicago picked Shawinigan defenseman Ralph Difiore (174).Trois-Rivieres Draveurs had the first pick overall in the QMJHL draft in Montreal and they selected Laurentides AAA midget center Martin Desjardins, fifth in AAA scoring and rated the top forward by Central Scouting.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very intelligent, a complete player,&rdquo; said Andre Mangifesto, Central Scouting&rsquo;s chief scout for the QMJHL.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s good offensively and defensively, a playmaker and a natural scorer. He should have been drafted last year at 16.&rdquo;Hull Olympiques picked second and took 5-foot-10, 182-pound right winger Jean Bergeron, rated second overall by Central Scouting.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tough winger whose main quality is his natural scoring ability, something like Clark Gillies was for the Islanders in the playoffs,&rdquo; Mangifesto said.Bergeron, 16, was runnerup for the AAA midget scoring title skating for Magog with 54 goals and 31 assists in 42 games. The Olympiques also traded one of two fourth-round picks and a seventh-round selection to Verdun Juniors just before the draft to obtain goalie Vincent Riendeau, 18, and six-foot defenseman Alain Bedard.Former Hull midget right-winger Simon Massie of Thurso went third overall to Chicoutimi after leading Laval AAA midgets in scoring with 35 goals and 33 assists.Verdun decided on center Jimmy Carson, who scored 85 goals and 74 assists for 159 points in 65 games with Detroit Compuware midgets.League champion Laval Voisins closed out the first round by claiming Mont Laurier&rsquo;s Jocelyn Lemieux, whose brother Claude of Verdun Juniors saw brief action with the Montreal Canadiens at the start of last season.Expansion Plattsburgh, (NY) Pioneers, the first all-American major junior team, was not allowed to draft but had the floor buzzing as the size of their protected players was flashed on an overhead screen.Among them were Max and Marty Middendorf from Wyckoff, NJ, 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, respectively; Chris Kiene of Springfield (MA), 6-foot-5, 220 pounds; Dino Vulpitta from Seattle Breakers, 6-foot-1, 225 pounds; Jeff Shulman of Buffalo, 6-foot-1, 220 pounds. &#9632;

f0035-01

Quebec League Smiles For Three Reasons

BOSTON&mdash;Guy Lapointe, D, announced retirement to become asst, coach with Quebec Nordiques.CALGARY&mdash;Rejean Lemelin, G, signed new four-year contract. Dan Kane, C, and Gino Cavallini, LW, both from Bowling Green University, signed as free agents.CHICAGO&mdash;Rich Preston, LW, and Don Dietrich, D, traded to New Jersey in exchange for Bob McMillan, RW.DETROIT&mdash;John Barrett, D, signed new four-year contract. Dwight Foster, C, inked two-year pact. Brad Shaw, D, 5th draft pick in 1982 from Ottawa of OHL, traded to Hartford for Whalers&rsquo; 8th round draft pick in 1984.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Traded their 3rd pick in 1984 first round draft to Chicago in exchange for Hawks&rsquo; 6th pick, also in 1984 draft, plus acquiring goaltender Bob Janecyk from Chicago. Hawks also gave up their 3rd round pick to LA and teams agreed to flip-flop their 4th round picks to complete deal. Gary Galley, D, a 4th pick by the Kings in 1983 draft, signed to NHL contract from Bowling Green University. Marco Baron, G, and Markus Mattsson, G, both released as free agents.MONTREAL&mdash;Perry Turnbull, LW, traded to Winnipeg for Lucien DeBlois, RW. J.G. Bergeron, D, a 1983 draft pick, signed to two-year NHL contract from St. Jean of QHL. Daniel Letendre, LW, their 5th draft pick in 1982, also signed two-year NHL contract from Quebec of QHL. Per Thomas Rundquist, C, 12th draft pick in 1983 from Sweden, signed three-year pro contract. Mike McPhee, LW, and Rick Green, D, signed to new contracts.NY RANGERS&mdash;Mario Proulx, G, 10th draft pick in 1981 from Providence College, and Tomas Sandstrom, RW, 2nd draft pick in 1982 from Sweden, both signed to NHL contracts.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Mario, Lemieux, C, 1st draft pick in 1984 from Laval of QHL, signed four-year contract with Penguins.QUEBEC&mdash;Clint Malarchuk, D, Blake Wesley, D, and Bruce Bell, D, a 2nd draft pick in 1983 from Windsor of OHL, signed to new NHL contracts.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Traded 8th pick in first round and 9th pick in second round of 1984 draft to Montreal for Rick Wamsley, G, and the Canadiens&rsquo; picks in second and third rounds of 1984 draft.TORONTO&mdash;Steve Thomas, RW, free agent from Toronto of OHL, signed to NHL contract. Kevin Maguire, RW, from Orillia of Tier II Ontario Junior League, signed as free agent. Dale McCourt, C, quit Leafs to sign with Ambri club in Swiss Hockey League.VANCOUVER&mdash;Lars Molin, RW, released as free agent to play in European Hockey League. Petri Sriko, RW, a 7th draft pick in 1981 from Finland, signed to NHL contract.WINNIPEG&mdash;Jordy Douglas, LW, signed to new NHL contract.<h2>COACHING CHANGES</h2>CHICAGO&mdash;Cliff Koroll, asst, coach with Black Hawks, named new head coach of Milwaukee of IHL.HARTFORD&mdash;Jack Evans signed new 2year contract as head coach. Claude Larose retained as asst, coach for another year. Larry Pleau named GM and coach of Whalers&rsquo; AHL farm club at Binghamton in AHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Pat Quinn named new head coach replacing Roger Neilson.MONTREAL&mdash;Jean Perron, asst, coach with Team Canada, hired as assistant to head coach Jacques Lemaire.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Doug Carpenter named new head coach and Lou Vairo appointed asst, coach. Carpenter succeeds Tommy McVie, who returns to Maine of AHL as coach. McVie replaced John Paddock, who will serve as assistant to McVie.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Bob Berry appointed new head coach replacing Lou Angotti, who will take up position as director of pro scouting for the Penguins. Asst, coach Mike Corrigan also released by club.QUEBEC&mdash;Guy Lapointe named new asst, coach after retiring as player. &#9632;

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July 1, 1984

Bowman Felt Andersson Was A Swedish Delight

The Classified

You Can Count Stars At Gretzky Tourney

Ontario Hockey League Midget Draft