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.

August 8, 1986

The Hockey News August 8, 1986

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Everett Sanipass began feeling connected to the Chicago Blackhawks a long time ago.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve liked them since I was a young boy. I saw right away they had an Indian as their crest,&rdquo; said Sanipass, a full-blooded Micmac Indian who was the Hawks&rsquo; first selection in the National Hockey League entry draft at the Montreal Forum.Sanipass, 18, isa6-foot-l, 192-pound left winger from Big Cove, N.B., where his father is the police chief.It&rsquo;s a town with a small population (1,700) but a large percentage of Micmac people. Sanipass grew up speaking his native language, and did not begin learning to speak English until he was nine years old.Sanipass is destined to be the first full-blooded Indian to play for the Hawks since the 1950s, when Fred Saskamoose played part of a season, got homesick and left. It&rsquo;s a problem Sanipass can appreciate.&ldquo;A lot of guys from the east get hom-seick, they&rsquo;re from small towns where they know everybody,&rdquo; Sanipass said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m the only one around home that&rsquo;s been drafted. I just hope a lot of people now are going to take Indians into consideration.&rdquo;Sanipass already has moved away from home to play hockey, into the Montreal area with Verdun in the Quebec League. But the Hawks&rsquo; second-round draft pick is coming right back home.He&rsquo;s Mark Kurzawski, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound right-handed defenseman from Burbank, Ill., who played with the Minor Hawks and the Chicago Young Americans before moving on to Windsor in the Ontario League last year.&ldquo;I live about 10 minutes away from Eddie Olczyk,&rdquo; said Kurzawski, taken 35th overall. &ldquo;I was hoping they would take me, but I wasn&rsquo;t sure. It was a surprise.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03255/5067754-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="116" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>A CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>&ldquo;It feels good. There might be a little pressure. I know a lot of people will be watching me. If I went to another team, I would just be some new guy. I know I&rsquo;ll have a lot more critics in Chicago.&rdquo;With the NHL drafting 18-year-old players, it might take a few years for even a first rounder to mature.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve liked them (the Hawks) since I was a young boy. I saw right away they had an Indian as their crest.&rsquo; &mdash;Sanipass</blockquote>But Sanipass plays left wing, where the Hawks must add to their depth. They must add toughness as well, and Sanipass was regarded as possibly the toughest player in the Quebec League. He had 320 penalty minutes last season.He scored 23 goals and 89 points on left wing with center Jimmy Carson, the Detroit-area product who was taken second overall by Los Angeles.&ldquo;He has a shot,&rdquo; said Hawk coachgeneral manager Bob Pulford. &ldquo;Everybody has a shot. But the main thing is, his skating is very good.&rdquo;It was obvious the Hawks are concerned about left wing, where they have a history of injuries. They drafted five left wingers among their 11 picks.That might have been an indication the Hawks don&rsquo;t expect to sign Mike Donnelly, the free-agent left winger from Michigan State.The Hawks made a couple of unexpected picks.They did not have a third-round pick, having traded it to Buffalo last October for goaltender Bob Sauve. In the fourth round, they picked a Czech&mdash;defenseman Frantisek Kucera of Sparta Praha.The Hawks have yet to spring goaltender Dominik Hasek from Czechoslovakia, though Hasek was drafted in 1983. So their chances of getting Kucera would have to be rated as slim.And in the eighth round, the Hawks drafted University of Minnesota right winger Marty Nanne&mdash;son of Lou Nanne, general manager of the arch-rival Minnesota North Stars.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s certainly a hard working kid,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;At that stage it&rsquo;s a roll of the dice, but I&rsquo;ve always liked him.&rdquo;The Hawks also liked Matt Merton, a 6-foot-3 goaltender from Massachusetts who played Jr. B at Stratford. They bypassed him in the eighth round, and Merton was drafted by Vancouver with the seventh pick in the ninth round.Despite Pulford&rsquo;s earlier statement that the Hawks might have to shift their draft strategy to put more emphasis on U.S. high school players, the Hawks drafted just one player from a U.S. high school&mdash;center Chris Thayer of Kent School in Exeter, N.H., in the 11th round.And the Hawks did not make a trade before or during the draft. Since Pulford usually goes on holiday at the end of June, their prospects of making a trade over the summer are slim.So it looks as if they will open training camp with the same cast as last year. The showings of rookies such as Sanipass and Kurzawski will determine whether they open the season the same way. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Hawks Use First Choice To Acquire A Native Son

<div class="byline">Wayne Gretzky</div>The Great One just gets greater.This year was no exception. Number 99 racked up some huge numbers this season. Gretzky accountedfor a total of 52 goals and 163 assists. No, that&rsquo;s not a misprint.In 80 games this season, Gretzky surpassed in assists alone the point total of the next-highest single-season record not set by him&mdash;Phil Esposito&rsquo;s mark of 152 points in 1970-71.This year marks Gretzky&rsquo;s seventh consecutive THN-Transamerica Life Player-of-the-Year award, an unprecedented achievement.Seven seems to be 99 &rsquo;s lucky number this year. It was his seventh NHL season, and the seventh year he won the Hart Trophy. On second thought, the Oilers were defeated by the Flames in seven games in the playoffs, but who&rsquo;s perfect?Nipping at Gretzky&rsquo;s heels in fan balloting was Mario Lemieux, the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; sensational sophomore center.Last year&rsquo;s Calder Trophy winner and THN rookie of the year, No. 66 scored 48 goals and added 93 assists, making him the No. 2 man in NHL scoring this season.Unquestionably, Lemieux brought renewed interest to the Pittsburgh Civic Arena.THN-Transamerica Player of the Year award goes to veteran Wayne Gretzky. This is the seventh straight year he&rsquo;s won THN&rsquo;s Player-of-the-Year honor.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01170/5067930-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="687" height="1404"></div> &#9632;

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NHL Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">John Paddock</div>When he was informed that he was THN&rsquo;s minor-league coach of the year, his initial reaction was one of subdued gratification. Not that he didn&rsquo;t appreciate the honor. No, Paddock was still mourning his Hershey Bears&rsquo; loss to the Adirondack Red Wings in the Calder Cup championship series.That setback aside, Paddock can certainly be proud of his team&rsquo;s 48-29-3 record&mdash;best in the Southern Division and AHL overall this past season. Adirondack, second overall, finished fully nine points behind. Binghamton, runners-up in the South, were 12 points back of the Big Bad Bears.Paddock, who played in the NHL with Philadelphia, Washington and Quebec, coached the Maine Mariners in the AHL last year and took over the Bears this year.Despite losing one of his best scorers&mdash;Pierre Larouche&mdash;to the New York Rangers during the homestretch, Paddock still managed to steer a clear path for the Bears, taking them through two playoff series before finally succumbing to Adirondack.The International League&rsquo;s Robbie Laird, rookie bench boss of the Fort Wayne Komets, is THN&rsquo;s No. 2 minorleague coach. Despite his inexperience behind the bench, the 31-year-old Laird led the Komets to first place overall in the IHL.Hershey Bear coach John Paddock led his tough and talented team to the American League regular season title and into the Calder Cup finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02125/5068240-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="687" height="1404"></div> &#9632;

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Minor Coach Of The Year

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01630/5067353-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02445/5067346-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="1180" height="3632"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03302/5067339-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="576" height="3620"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01551/5067332-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="1200" height="1216"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02368/5067325-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="1173" height="1206"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03247/5067318-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="574" height="1200"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS AHL

"We don't know if we can get him out yet. He's behind the Haggis Curtain."&mdash;Oiler PR director Bill Tuele on drafting Scotland's Tony Hand 252nd overall. Story on Page 9. &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

In the next issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, which will be coming your way in about six weeks and bearing a cover date of Sept. 5, we'll update you on pro hockey's long, hot summer.Specifically, we'll be taking a look at the labor issue and how it could result in a strike by members of the National Hockey League Players' Association. In addition to reporting the latest in negotiations between the NHLPA and NHL governors, we'll also examine in detail the vital issues in these collective bargaining discussions.Plus, we'll present our annual THN Newsmakers' Roundtable, which gives members of the blue-ribbon panel an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues. The focus of this year's discussion is hockey's developmental system and how itcould be improved, if, in fact, it requires improvement.Don't miss all that, plus any other hockey news that is made this summer, in your Sept. 5 issue of THN. &#9632;

COMING SOON

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011261/5066080-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021031/5066073-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1185" height="1623"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit Red Wing director of player personnel Neil Smith, seated atthe head of the table above, prepares to announce the team&rsquo;s No. selection. Moments later, Joe Murphy, left, meets his new employers: Jacques Demers, Jimmy Devellano and Smith</figcaption></div>There was a new Murphy&rsquo;s Law in effect for the Detroit Red Wings.After enduring a year of anything that could go wrong, going wrong, everything fell into place for the Red Wings during the week of the National Hockey League draft.First, the NHL&rsquo;s worst team lured Jacques Demers, one of the NHL&rsquo;s best coaches, from the St. Louis Blues with a five-year, $1.1 million contract.Second, they chose center Joe Murphy of the Michigan State Spartans first overall at the draft. The nifty center was the one player acknowledged to be a cut above the rest.And third came an unexpected bonus, the availability of Windsor Spitfire forward Adam Graves in the second round.Could it be the Red Wings&rsquo; luck is changing after a season of bad fortune and bad decisions?&ldquo;We&rsquo;re building a dynasty,&rdquo; chuckled Jimmy Devellano, the Red Wings&rsquo; general manager who might have said the same last summer when a spate of free-agent signings was supposed to turn around Detroit&rsquo;s long-time downslide.They didn&rsquo;t and the Dead Wings placed dead last, suffering the most losses (57) and earning the fewest points (40) in club history.&ldquo;This is probably the only day of the year that I&rsquo;ve enjoyed finishing last. We paid an awful price this year to get these players,&rdquo; said Devellano after making Murphy, Graves, University of Denver defenseman Derek Mayer and Saskatoon Blade goaltender Tim Cheveldae his first four selections.Murphy, who scored 61 points in 35 Central Collegiate Hockey Association games this past season, was the prize catch and the object of baited overtures from other clubs. Devellano didn&rsquo;t bite.&ldquo;Not even close,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was contacted by Philadelphia, Edmonton and Minnesota&hellip;They were trying to tempt me with three, four and five players but generally they were players rated seven on down on their rosters.&ldquo;Numbers won&rsquo;t help the Detroit Red Wings. We need quality and Joe Murphy is a quality hockey player.&rdquo;So, in the estimation of Devellano and director of scouting Neil Smith, is Graves.The Wings rated him the best draftable player in the Ontario League and were flabbergasted that he was still available when their second turn came up in slot No. 22.Graves, a center who would best be converted into a left winger according to Windsor coach Tom Webster, counted 64 points in his rookie OHL season and was rated 15th by Central Scouting.Conceding the knock on Graves is incon-sistency, Smith said nonetheless, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got too much talent to pass up.&rdquo;As for Demers, well, he was just plain Demers at the draft meetings.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of negative in Detroit and that&rsquo;s over with,&rdquo; announced the always-optimistic Demers, who was a finalist in coach-of-the-year balloting. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new start. I, as a coach, come out with a great year behind me so now the players will have respect forthat. We&rsquo;re looking for a bright future.&rdquo;The Red Wings, who started the year with Harry Neale as coach and ended with Brad Park, expressed similar feelings last summer.Detroit was but part of the story at the June 21 draft which featured more firsts than an orgy of virgins. It was the most unpredictable in recent memory but still not filled with the excitement of past lotteries.Among the firsts recorded in the 18-year history of the draft as a primary producer of talent were:&bull; No trades of first-round picks.&bull; No team had more than one first-round choice.&bull; Seven Americans were chosen in the first round, besting the previous mark of five set in 1983.&bull; Murphy was the first collegian ever chosen first overall. The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; Craig Simpson, also grabbed from MSU, was the previous highest&mdash;second last year.&bull; The OHL produced just two first rounders, the fewest ever, but still accounted for the most players (66). That number was the highest since 1980.&bull; Tony Hand became the first homegrown Scottish player ever chosen when the Edmonton Oilers made him the final pick of the draft.Expected to be the &lsquo;Year of the Yankee&rsquo;, it was thought as many as 10 Americans could be chosen in first round. But seven was hardly a disappointment considering three more were chosen among the top five in the second round.Tops among the young Americans was center Jimmy Carson, the sharpshooting center (70-83153) from Verdun of the Quebec League who was chosen second by the Los Angeles Kings.Carson proved his willingness to mix it up and play in traffic and, in the process, proved himself to Los Angeles where he may develop into Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s heir apparent.The other first rounders were: center Dan Woodley, an Oklahoma City native who has dual citizenship (Vancouver, 7th); defenseman Brian Leetch, who not only plays hockey but has a 90-mile-an-hour fastball (New York Rangers, 9th); right winger Scott Young (Hartford, 11th); forward Craig Janney (Boston, 13th); right winger George Pelawa, a 6-foot-3, 235 pounder (Calgary, 16th); and center Tom Fitzgerald (New York Islanders, 17th).Pelawa, a slim-waisted, wide-shouldered native of Bemidji, Minn., was the hit of the draft. Calgary is counting on him being the same in the NHL.&ldquo;We think the thought of having a 240-pound winger who can really play the game of hockey out there is going to make a tremendous con-tribution to our team a couple of years down the road,&rdquo; said Flames&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher.The behemoth high schooler, who runs the 100-yard dash in 11 seconds, has committed to play at the University of North Dakota.After Carson, Neil Brady of Medicine Hat became the third consecutive center to be chosen when the New Jersey Devils called out his name.A very creative center, some think the 6-foot-2, 178-pound center will be the best graduate of the class of &rsquo;86.Completing the top five were a pair of Canadian Olympic defensemen. Zarley Zalapski was chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins fourth overall and Shawn Anderson by the Buffalo Sabres fifth.Left winger Jeff Greenlaw, picked 19th by the Washington Capitals, was a third Canadian Olympic team member chosen among the top 21&mdash;making Team Canada the top producer of first-round players.Zalapski will probably return to Dave King&rsquo;s national team. Anderson is given a chance of sticking with Buffalo and Greenlaw, if he doesn&rsquo;t make the Capitals, will likely play in the Ontario League.It was also a big day for the Quebec League, with four of its players being chosen in the first round and 22 overall&mdash;seven more than last year but still 18 short of the QMJHL draft high-water mark.The first rounders were split between Verdun and Laval, both of which had two selections. Carson and rugged left winger Everett Sanipass (14th, Chicago), a full-blooded Micmac Indian, were picked from Verdun. Nifty center/left winger Vincent Damphousse (6th, Toronto) and right winger Jocelyn Lemieux (10th, St. Louis), the even-more-aggressive brother of Montreal&rsquo;s Claude, were chosen from Laval.The Western League provided six first rounders to NHL teams but only 33 altogether&mdash;10 less than last year. There were 40 U.S. high schoolers drafted, 28 Europeans and 22 U.S. collegians. &#9632;

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MURPHY’S LAW

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div>SOME OBSERVATIONS, notes and nonsense on a hockey season and draft finally placed in the past. But, remember, it&rsquo;s only three months until training camp.&bull; The National Hockey League hierarchy got its shorts in a royal knot when a major publication wrote a yarn very critical of the league&rsquo;s lack of control over fighting and violence.But during the entry draft at The Forum in Montreal, guess what the main ingredient of the film clips on the big TV screen behind the podium was&mdash;a succession of the dirtiest checks ever delivered, notably players being slammed into the boards and bleeding from fouls.&bull; Trust the Toronto Maple Leafs to screw up a good thing by not giving head coach Dan Maloney more than a one-year contract and forcing him to move to the Winnipeg Jets. Well, would you want to work for the Leafs on a one-year contract?&bull; George Pelawa, the massive (6-foot-3, 235-pound) forward drafted by Calgary Flames could be a valuable NHL commodity. If he can&rsquo;t convince the league that its ice surfaces are too small, who can?&bull; Good Line I: Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; public relations man Dave Courtney, when asked if the team was producing a highlight film on the &rsquo;85-86 season: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re thinking of a highlight slide.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011290/5066111-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="400" height="424"></div>&bull; Boston Bruins GM Harry Sinden on the strong U.S. list of draft picks: &ldquo;High school hockey in New England and Minnesota is a good cut below major junior. But many of the kids play in summer leagues with some NHL players, minor pros and college players. There&rsquo;s no better hitting so they have a chance to develop their skills.&rdquo;&bull; Good Line II: Western League GM on Pelawa: &ldquo;Only two things will keep him out of the NHL&mdash;a knife and a fork.&rdquo;&bull; Montreal Canadien GM Serge Savard claims he could have made a deal for an early pick in the entry draft if he had traded rookie foward Shayne Corson for a draft choice.&ldquo;A few GMs called and offered their first-round draft pick for Corson,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;But we couldn&rsquo;t claim a player who was better than Corson so I didn&rsquo;t make the deal.&rdquo;&bull; The NHL has high hopes that Toronto and Montreal will have bidding wars for the Hockey Hall of Fame, which will be moved from Exhibition Place in Toronto. The hall will go to the highest bidder, the city that &ldquo;wants it the most,&rdquo; according to the league.&bull; Canadiens&rsquo; Savard on strong defensive play: &ldquo;Being good defensively allows a team to beat better teams. This year, we had the ability to beat better teams because of our good defense.&rdquo;&bull; An interesting part of the &rsquo;86-87 season will be the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; bid to return to the throne room after their early ouster by the Calgary Flames. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to go to camp browned off and we&rsquo;ll do all we can to get back on top,&rdquo; said Oiler ace Wayne Gretzky.&bull; The retirement of referee Bryan Lewis to become an officials&rsquo; supervisor hits a staff thin in experienced hands. In the past few years, Bruce Hood, John McCauley, Wally Harris and now Lewis have departed, a major dent in a small staff.&bull; Unusual! That Bob McCammon didn&rsquo;t land an NHL head coaching or management spot. He&rsquo;s a highly qualified, experienced man. &#9632;

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Only Knife And Fork Will Hold Back Pelawa

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021206/5066149-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Draft choices Benoit Brunet, second from left, and Mark Pederson are flanked by Jean Perron, far left, and Serge Savard.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Serge Savard was relatively pleased.Despite the fact he couldn&rsquo;t reach a deal to get a higher draft choice than the 15th overall selection, he was still satisfied with what he snared.&ldquo;We had Mark Pederson rated seventh or eighth on our list,&rdquo; said Savard, who took the left winger from the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western League as the Canadiens&rsquo; No. I choice.&ldquo;There were no Mario Lemieuxs in this draft,&rdquo; Savard added. &ldquo;It was a good draft. A lot of guys were equal and that&rsquo;s why we didn&rsquo;t have too much (trade) movement in the first round or second round.&ldquo;We felt at 15th, our pick would be just as good as eighth, ninth or 10th. That&rsquo;s why we didn&rsquo;t want to move.&rdquo;Savard had expressed definite feelings before the draft that he wanted a shot at Joe Murphy, drafted first overall by Detroit. However, he could not strike a suitable deal with the Red Wings or any of the other teams drafting in the top five.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t know we would have a chance at Pederson at 15, but we knew we would have a good choice at 15,&rdquo; Savard said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big left winger that scores goals in many ways. We are happy to add some scoring punch for the future.&rdquo;It is highly unlikely that Pederson, who had 46 goals and 60 assists in the WHL in 1985-86, will find himself in a Montreal uniform for 1986-87. The Canadiens have Bob Gainey, Ryan Walter, Mike McPhee, Steve Rooney and Dave Maley on their left wing depth chart.&ldquo;We feel very good about our goaltenders, we feel good about our defenseman and at centre we have (Shayne) Corson coming up and (Stephane) Richer who should play more next season.&rdquo; Savard noted. &ldquo;On the right side, we have (Jose) Charbonneau and (Graeme) Bonar coming up.&ldquo;We feel on the left side with Gainey and Walter that within two, three and four years they are going to be getting up there in age and that is where we felt we needed some strengthening for the future.&rdquo;Pederson, who packs 196 pounds on a 6-foot-1 frame, considers himself a good offensive player and says he has done considerable work to improve on his defensive skills.&ldquo;I think I have got a good scoring touch.&rdquo; said Pederson, who is not related to Barry Pederson, recently traded to Vancouver by Boston. &ldquo;I can put the puck in the net.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to work on my aggressiveness and go in the comers more.&rdquo;Pederson, who watched the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup in Calgary on May 24, fully realizes the situation on Montreal&rsquo;s left side. While he would like to make his NHL debut in 1986-87, Pederson will probably either be back in the WHL or with the Canadian Olympic team.Four of Montreal&rsquo;s first five choices were left wingers including Benoit Brunet, the second choice and 27th overall. He played last season for Hull of the Quebec League, scoring 33 goals and 37 assists for the Memorial Cup finalists.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very proud,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The Canadiens were a team I always admired. I wasn&rsquo;t expecting to be drafted by the Stanley Cup champions.&rdquo;Montreal selected Finnish defenseman Jyrkki Lumme as the 57th choice overall and got left winger Brent Bobyck, who played for the Notre Dame Hounds, as 78th choice. Bobyck will be attending the University of North Dakota next season.Eric Aubertin was picked 94th overall after a 37-goal season patrolling the left side for Granby of the Quebec League.Montreal&rsquo;s last choice was Karel Svoboda, who joined his brother Petr last winter after defecting from Czechoslovakia.&ldquo;We did our homework and our crew worked very hard,&rdquo; noted Savard. &ldquo;As you saw in the draft, we didn&rsquo;t take any time out. We got the players we wanted.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031030/5066142-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="108" height="75"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2>The fact that Savard did not make a trade at the draft doesn&rsquo;t mean there might not be a deal before the end of the summer.He&rsquo;ll have nine NHL-calibre defensemen at training camp, if Larry Robinson decides to continue, which it now appears he will.Savard had not signed goaltender Doug Soetaert as June drew to a close and word was that Soetaert had sold his house in Montreal and was bound for Detroit.Draft preparations took priority over any individual cases and Savard was quick to mention to all who asked that if Soetaert were to return to Montreal, it would be at the Canadiens&rsquo; price.&ldquo;He made pretty good money with us last season,&rdquo; Savard added. &ldquo;The only way he&rsquo;ll stay with Us is at a price the team can live with.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender Patrick Roy and right winger Kjell Dahlin were named to the NHL allrookie team&hellip;Michelle Lapointe, who served as marketing director at Sherbrooke for two seasons, has been named director of press relations for the Canadiens&hellip; The Canadiens&rsquo; softball team will tour with the Stanley Cup throughout the province of Quebec during the summer.. Gaston Gingras has signed a two-year contract, plus an option. He could have become a free agent. &#9632;

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Cup Champ Canadiens Improve Left Wing

<div class="byline">By Bob Duff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011162/5066180-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="453" height="456"></div>Q: Could you please settle an argument? Did Doug Favell play with the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1973-74 and 1974-75? Also, could you please list the entire rosters of those clubs?Fred Rowe, Campbellford, ON A: No, Doug Favell did not play with either of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Stanley Cup winners. He was with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the time. Favell&rsquo;s Flyer years lasted from 1967-68 through to the end of the 1972-73 season.As for the rosters, here they are:1973-74&mdash;Goal: Bernie Parent; Bobby Taylor. Defense: Ed Van Impe; Joe Watson; Andre Dupont; Tom Bladon; Jim Watson; Barry Ashbee. Forwards: Bill Barber; Dave Schultz; Don Saleski; Gary Dornhoefer; Terry Crisp; Bobby Clarke (captain); Simon Nolet; Ross Lonsberry; Rick MacLeish; Bill Flett; Orest Kindrachuk; Bill Clement; Bob Kelly; Bruce Cowick; Al MacA-dam. Coach: Fred Shero. General Manager: Keith Allen. Trainers: Frank Lewis, Jim McKenzie.1974-75&mdash;Goal: Bernie Parent; Wayne Stephenson. Defense: Ed Van Impe; Tom Bladon; Andre Dupont; Joe Watson; Jim Watson; Ted Harris; Larry Goodenough. Forwards: Rick MacLeish; Bobby Clarke (captain); Bill Barber; Reggie Leach; Gary Dornhoefer; Ross Lonsberr-y; Bob Kelly; Terry Crisp; Don Saleski; Dave Schultz; Orest Kindrachuk; Bill Clement Coach: Fred Shero. General Manager: Keith Allen. Trainers: Frank Lewis, Jim McKenzie.Q: I have read and heard quite a bit about hockey in England recently and would like to know where I could get some more information on the subject.Darren Whitbread, North Vancouver, BCA: The sport is indeed growing rapidly throughout the British Isles, and not merely in England. Canadian imports are playing an important role in this growth, including former NHLerGarry Unger, who was player-coach of Dundee Rockets this past season. You can get more information on British hockey by writing to the following address: British Ice Hockey Association,20 Bedford Street, London, England WC2E 9HPIfyou want your question answered in the Ask the Duffer column, send the query to:ASK THE DUFFER,125 Sth Ave. North, Apt. 1510 Saskatoon, Sask.S7K 6A5Personal replies to letters are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE DUFFER

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02858/5066211-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"></div>That the NHL players with the best plus ratings during the 1985-86 season were. &#9632;

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Did You Know…

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03601/5066242-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerry McNeil had a career goals-against average of 2.36 during the regular season and 1.89 in the playoffs.</figcaption></div>It was at once a moment of exhilaration and agony.The 1951 Stanley Cup playoffs are best captured in a photograph&mdash;one in which the late Bill Barilko has toppled to the ice moments after scoring the championshipwinning goal in overtime for the Toronto Maple Leafs.Look closely and you&rsquo;ll see the puck flying over the shoulder of Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender Gerry McNeil, who 25 years later doesn&rsquo;t need a picture to remind him of the goal&mdash;he has seen it over and over again in his mind&rsquo;s eye.&ldquo;Of all the memories I have in hockey that is one which I&rsquo;ll never forget,&rdquo; recalls McNeil, a National Hockey Leaguer for seven seasons with the Canadiens. &ldquo;I think that whole series against the Maple Leafs and, even the one before that against the (Detroit) Red Wings, I&rsquo;ll never forget either.&ldquo;Just beating the Red Wings, who had won the Cup the year before, was a thrill. In that series we had won two games in a row in overtime.&ldquo;But that was only the beginning. In all five games we played against Toronto, every one of them went into overtime. Not just one. But all five. It was hard to believe. I don&rsquo;t think that I&rsquo;ve ever seen anything like it since.&rdquo;The final series pitted McNeil versus Al Rollins of the Maple Leafs.&ldquo;Each game was so close that there was never any let up on either of the goalies in the series,&rdquo; says McNeil, a native of Quebec City. &ldquo;It was tough on everyone&rsquo;s nerves.&ldquo;Barilko&rsquo;s shot was not that difficult for me. It was a slapshot. I just simply missed it. At the time I didn&rsquo;t even know who shot it. I never knew who scored most of the goals that were scored against me.&ldquo;I still feel bad that we lost the Stanley Cup that year. But I&rsquo;m proud of the fact that we had beaten the Red Wings and then went into five straight games against the Leafs in overtime.&ldquo;That is an achievement in itself. And with that photo of the winning goal being scored by Barilko, which is something I see just about every year at Stanley Cup time, I will always have that as a reminder of the whole series.&rdquo;McNeil was also involved in a memorable overtime game in the 1954 Stanley Cup finals against the Red Wings. Again McNeil and the Canadiens were on the losing end of the stick.With the Canadiens down three games to one, McNeil took over in goal from a young Jacques Plante. Two games later Montreal had pulled even. All that remained was the seventh game.&ldquo;Believe it or not, that seventh game went into overtime,&rdquo; said McNeil, now 60 and a manager of corporate sales for Seagram Distilleries in Montreal. &ldquo;In overtime, we battled back and forth.&ldquo;Then Tony Leswick broke into our zone with only Doug Harvey between him and myself in goal. Leswick fired a routine shot that I had all lined up.&ldquo;All of a sudden Harvey stuck out his glove to try and deflect the puck out of the way. He deflected it. But right past me.<h2>WHERE ARE THEY NOW</h2>&ldquo;I have seen a lot of strange endings to games. But that was one of the strangest I was involved in. But you have to expect strange things to happen sometimes in overtime.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Overtimes Provide Memories For Montreal Stopper McNeil

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this month in hockey:&bull; Frand Udvari, formerly the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 referee, was appointed as supervisor of league officials.&bull; The AHL&rsquo;s Rochester Americans franchise was purchased for $500,000 from the parent Toronto Maple Leafs club by a civic group headed by attorney Robert W. Clarke.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this month in hockey:&bull; The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto celebrated its 10th anniversary of operation.&bull; Terry Reardon, coach and GM of the AHL&rsquo;s Baltimore Clippers, won the Lou Pieri award, emblematic of coach of the year.&bull; Connie Madigan, veteran defenseman of the Portland Buckaroos of the WHL, was suspended for 30 days and fined $2,000 for knocking out referee Dave Newell in a game at San Diego the previous spring. League president Bill MacFarland deemed the penalty &ldquo;light&rdquo;. &#9632;

THIS WEEK… 20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div>Fact and Opinion:FACT: Jacques Demers abandons the Blues to coach the Red Wings.OPINION: My ears are still ringing from Demers&rsquo; joyful St. Louis press conference last winter. Jacques sweet-talked us into thinking he was wedded to St. Lou for life. Now he&rsquo;s married to Mike Hitch&rsquo;s mint, proving his greed has overwhelmed his loyalty. The moneymongers will tell you he did the right thing but Demers will live to regret it. He had a good thing going with the Blues; good chemistry, good feelings from the fans, a good life and a good high command who gave him his big break. He gave that up for the NHL&rsquo;s Animal House. I still love Jacques and he&rsquo;s still my coach of the year, but he won&rsquo;t make the playoffs next spring. If he does, I&rsquo;ll eat this column over dinner with Demers.FACT: Glen Sather wins Adams Trophy as coach of the year.OPINION: This is the same brilliant leader who couldn&rsquo;t even get his team &ldquo;up&rdquo; for a big game with the Soviets; the same peerless pundit who blamed his players for losing to Calgary instead of seeking out the nearest mirror; the same scholar who&rsquo;d finish in the American League were it not for Wayne Gretzky.FACT: Alan Eagleson agrees to continue as head of the NHL players&rsquo; union.OPINION: That saves John Ziegler&rsquo;s job as NHL president for another three years.FACT: Flames fail to win Stanley Cup.OPINION: GM Cliff Fletcher dealt for John Tonelli to (a) beat Edmonton and (b) that done, win the Cup. Having failed to win the Cup, Fletcher will try to unload Johnny T., and, that done, will eat up part of his big contract.FACT: Larry Robinson talks about retiring.OPINION: And I talk about coaching the Oilers.FACT: Critics claim Claude Lemiuex looks like he&rsquo;s dropping dead after every other tough check.OPINION: The lad is a bit of a cut-up. But he also gets cut up a helluva lot, himself. I predict that Claude will grow up very quickly and become a 30-goal man next season.FACT: Gary Suter wins Calder Trophy.OPINION: This should shut up those paranoids from Calgary and Edmonton who keep ranting about how the eastern media hoses the westerners. And speaking of hosings, can you believe that Mike Ridley wasn&rsquo;t among the top three for rookie of the year?FACT: Jacques Demers still Red Wing coach.OPINION: That means Jimmy Devellano is still the Red Wings manager.FACT: Flyers extend Mike Keenan&rsquo;s coaching contract.OPINION: Another door is closed on Jacques Demers.FACT: Bengt Gustafsson quits the NHL to play in Sweden.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011344/5066297-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="342" height="471"></div><h2>ON THE CONTRARY</h2>OPINION: Goon hockey got the better of this classy hockey player, the likes of whom the NHL still could use.FACT: Calgary Sun columnist Eric Bishop says Kerry Fraser and Bob Meyers are better referees than Andy van Hellemond.OPINION: You can take all three. Me, I&rsquo;ll go for Don Koharski.FACT: Bob Johnson puts down St. Louis hockey fans and says they could take lessons from Montrealers. &ldquo;Nobody throws beer on you in Montreal,&rdquo; says Johnson.OPINION: No, Bob, they don&rsquo;t throw beer. All they do is loot stores, overturn cars and act like a bunch of jerks just because they won their 23rd Stanley Cup.FACT: Jacques Demers still Red Wings&rsquo; coach.OPINION: Give Demers credit. The man is loyal to Mike Hitch&mdash;for three weeks already.FACT: Scotty Bowman to coach the Sabres again.OPINION: I still can&rsquo;t believe it. Scotty must be getting so much money that the Knox brothers simply can&rsquo;t afford&mdash;now there&rsquo;s a laugh&mdash;to hire another coach. The Hartford Whalers sure must be happy.FACT: Phil Russell signs to play defense again for the Sabres.OPINION: That guy could be the next Buffalo coach&mdash;after Bowman. Unless Demers gets there first.FACT: Canucks trade Cam Neely for Barry Pederson.OPINION: Sooner or later Jack Gordon will make a good deal. In this case it&rsquo;s later.FACT: John Ziegler says two per cent of all players account for 20 per cent of all major penalties assessed for fighting.OPINION: It took Ziegler all year to come to grips with what Harry Omest wrote in the New York Times during the season, and Johnny Z didn&rsquo;t even credit Harry O with coming up with the figures first. No matter. The question is: What&rsquo;s the NHL going to do about it? The answer is: Next to nothing. Teams are still searching for bigger, tougher players. Goons will be as prevalent as mosquitoes in New Jersey. Fighting will be epidemic and a big deal will be made about using video replays in next spring&rsquo;s playoffs, as if that will cure the real problems&mdash;dirty hockey and lousy officiating.FACT: Terry Simpson signs as coach of the Islanders.OPINION: He wears the same kind of suits as Al Arbour, which is a good start.FACT: Paul Coffey wins the Norris Trophy.OPINION: Is he ever lucky the voters don&rsquo; t count the playoffs.FACT: Mark Howe is runner-up for Norris Trophy.OPINION: (See Paul Coffey.)FACT: Larry Robinson finishes third in Norris Trophy vote.OPINION: If they count the playoffs, he wins&mdash;easily.FACT: Gil Perreault retires.OPINION: I&rsquo;ll miss his style but not his substance. Here we have one of the classic &ldquo;close-but-no-cigar&rdquo; characters of all time. Maybe if he had played under Jacques Demers, he&rsquo;d have been a real winner.FACT: NHL players balk at drug testing.OPINION: Who cares? Drug prevention. Alcohol-abuse prevention. These are important items. Drug tests are virtually meaningless because it&rsquo;s too easy to cheat on them. What the NHL needs is a meaningful prevention program and rehabilitation for those afflicted. That will happen when John Ziegler pulls his head out of the sand.FACT: Jean Perron says his Canadiens resemble the great Hab teams of yesteryear in that the 1986 edition always reacts well to challenges.OPINION: That&rsquo;s why Montreal&mdash;not Edmonton&mdash;owns the Stanley Cup. That&rsquo;s why Jean Perron is a better coach of the year than Glen Sather. That&rsquo;s why Larry Robinson is a better defenseman than Paul Coffey.FACT: Wayne Gretzky wins the Hart (MVP) Trophy.OPINION: Imagine the Oilers without Wayne Gretzky and the Penguins without Mario Lemieux and you&rsquo;ll understand why picking Gretzky was a mistake.FACT: Michel Bergeron has not been fired as Nordiques&rsquo; coach.OPINION: Le Petit Tigre is the longest-running pure coach in the NHL, and, hopefully, will continue his run. If not, there&rsquo;s always Jacques Demers.FACT: Jimmy Devellano still general manager of the Red Wings.OPINION: He is hockey&rsquo;s version of Lamont Cranston, alias The Shadow. Jimmy D, like The Shadow, has the ability to cloud men&rsquo;s minds. Mostly, the men are Mike Hitch and Jim Lites, owner and son-in-law of the owner, respectively. They like Jimmy D and I like Jimmy D. The difference is I&rsquo;m not spending millions of dollars on a miserable hockey team.FACT: Harold Ballard still owner of the Maple Leafs.OPINION: There&rsquo;s still hope for the Red Wings!. &#9632;

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Jacques Demers: A Coach For All Teams

These really are the best of days for general manager Serge Savard. Thirty-one of them to be exact.Just one month after his Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, Savard was back in the spotlight&mdash;this time as one of three new Hockey Hall of Fame members.Savard, a former defenseman for the Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leaf great Dave Keon and the Boston Bruins&rsquo; bruising Leo Boivin were named to the hockey shrine on June 24.The Canadiens, whom Savard has managed for the past three seasons, clinched the Stanley Cup with a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on May 24.He was no less successful as a player, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy and Bill Masterton Trophy during an outstanding career with the Canadiens.A member of Montreal&rsquo;s legendary &lsquo;Big Three&rsquo;, with fellow rearguards Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson, Savard was a big contributor to eight Stanley Cups as a player.After finishing his career with Winnipeg, Savard, 40, returned to Montreal as GM.Keon, 46, is remembered as one of the best checking forwards to ever play the game. Not that he didn&rsquo;t have scoring talents. He accumulated 396 goals and 590 assists in the NHL and had 102 goals and 189 assists in the WHA.Twice honored for his clean play&mdash;he earned just 137 penalty minutes in 1,597 games in both leagues&mdash;as winner of the Lady Byng Trophy, Keon was also named NHL rookie of the year in 1961 and playoff MVP in 1967 when the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.Keon also played for the Hartford Whalers.Boivin, who turns 54 in August, played for five teams during a bonecrushing career.Just where these three&mdash;and 252 other players and builders&mdash;will eventually be enshrined permanently is a question the NHL is currently considering.Faced with an operating deficit of $250,000 to $300,000 a year and inadequate space at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, the league is seeking a new location.The most likely sites are Toronto and Montreal.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any problem in admitting I have a prejudice,&rdquo; said NHL president John Ziegler. &ldquo;I think it should be in Canada.&rdquo;<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>Labeled &ldquo;Project Enterprise&rdquo; and headed up by former referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison, the league is undertaking an ambitious plan to transform the Hockey Hall of Fame from a museum into a total entertainment package.With Morrison&rsquo;s re-assignment from vice-president, officiating, to vice-president, project development, two men will split the responsibilities of his old job.Jim Gregory, director of Central Scouting, has been named executive director of hockey operations and John McCauley, former assistant director of officiating, the director of officiating.Bryan Lewis, who recently retired as a NHL referee, is now the league&rsquo;s supervisor of officials and co-ordinator of development.Calder Trophy winner Gary Suter of the Calgary Flames and THN rookie of the year Wendel Clark of the Toronto Maple Leafs head up the 1985-86 NHL all-rookie team.Suter, whose 68 points (18-50-68) were the second most ever accumulated by a first-year defenseman, is joined by Dana Murzyn of the Hartford Whalers (3-23-26) on the blue line.Patrick Roy, named MVP in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens, is the all-rookie goalie. He had a regular-season goals-against average of 3.39.Clark (34-11-45), who led all rookies with 34 goals in just 66 games, occupies the left wing, beside New York Ranger center Mike Ridley (2243-65) and Montreal right winger Kjell Dahlin (32-39-71), the leading scorer among first-year players.National Hockey League owners and players will get together July 21 in Toronto for round two in what could become the long, hot summer of negotiations.The NHL-NHL Players&rsquo; Association collective bargaining agreement expires in September and either side would be in a position for a legal lockout or strike, respectively.At round one of the negotiations in mid-June, the NHLPA placed a high priority on more player movement, which is expected to be the most contentious issue.The owners countered with an offer to help set up a career counselling program.In other NHLPA business, executive director Alan Eagleson signed a three-year contract to continue in that capacity.All things considered, the NHL Congress in Montreal were rather quiet proceedings this year.After NHL president John Ziegler announced that he had been offered and accepted a three-year extension on his contract, keeping him in the league&rsquo;s employ until 1991, there wasn&rsquo;t a lot of earthshattering news.However, there were some decisions and discussions.NHL clubs will experiment with the college-type (semi-circle) goal crease in exhibition games.Discussion on video replays to determine contentious goals was put off until September so NHL general managers will have time to analyze the costs involved. &#9632;

Savard, Keon, Boivin Elected To Shrine

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011197/5066408-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02852/5066401-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="1551" height="759"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03592/5066394-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="784" height="3008"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04418/5066387-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="2322" height="840"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-05297/5066380-1-eng-US/f0007-052.jpg" title="f0007-05" width="1107" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary coach Bob Johnson sizes up Flames giant draft pick George Pelawa while Chicago Black Hawk brass Jack Davison</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-06226/5066373-1-eng-US/f0007-062.jpg" title="f0007-06" width="1119" height="789"><figcaption class="caption-body">and Bob Pulford sandwich Everett Sanipass, full-blooded Micmac India</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-07173/5066366-1-eng-US/f0007-072.jpg" title="f0007-07" width="1524" height="1256"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-08141/5066359-1-eng-US/f0007-082.jpg" title="f0007-08" width="764" height="392"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-09109/5066352-1-eng-US/f0007-092.jpg" title="f0007-09" width="741" height="885"></div> &#9632;

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NHL Entry Draft

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011280/5066439-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Foolish Fists</h2>IF YOU HAVE ever travelled abroad to a non-hockey playing nation or had friends or relatives from some exotic place arrive on your doorstep in the midst of hockey season, then you&rsquo;re familiar with the scenario.The discussion eventually turns to the game of hockey and, specifically, fighting. Try as you might, you sound awful foolish trying to justify why grown men see fit to beat each other up with some degree of regularity.You either grin sheepishly and dismiss it as an insigificant part of the sport or you yuk it up, beat your chest and proclaim the rest of the sporting world as wimps since they don&rsquo;t partake in fisticuffs as often as the hockey he-men.Then you beat a hasty retreat into the comfortable confines of the hockey world, where fighting is relatively well-accepted by all but a few pacifists and where no one will put you on the spot.All things considered, hockey would probably be a better game without fighting. Certainly, it doesn&rsquo;t need it as a drawing card. For every fight fan who follows hockey for its fisticuffs, there surely must be another potential spectator out there who would gladly watch a game of skill, finesse and body contact without the punch-ups.This is not intended to be a righteous diatribe aimed at ridding the hockey world of fighting. We could mention that the &ldquo;safety valve&rdquo; theory that says hockey must have fighting because it&rsquo;s such a physical and emotional game is nothing more than a crock. We could explain that players, those who play international hockey or in crucial Stanley Cup playoff matches, for example, can be conditioned to ignore the signal to the brain that causes one to strike out.We could do all that and then call for a ban on fighting, legislation aimed at ejecting any player who drops his gloves to fight.But that is far too simplistic a view of the hockey world. The moment that would happen, it would be open season on the talented players. Pro hockey is a win-at-all-costs business and if a star player could be goaded into a fight by an unskilled cementhead and then be ejected, you can be sure it would happen at the NHL level.No, it seems we are destined to live with some degree of fighting in our midst. But if, as some of the NHL general managers suggest on pages 11 and 12 of this issue, existing rules were strictly enforced by the officials, and with the blessing of the league governors, there&rsquo;s good reason to believe fighting may not even be an issue.In fact, if all NHL rules were strictly enforced&hellip;Oh, well, another subject for another day. &#9632;

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The Hockey News

I WISH TO speak out and clear the names of all the Montreal hockey fans who did not participate in the senseless fracas on our city streets.I live and die with my team and when we won the Stanley Cup, I celebrated, but it wasn&rsquo;t on Ste. Catherine and didn&rsquo;t cause anyone any harm.I have always been a hockey fanatic and rooted my team on. I was at the Stanley Cup victory parade, along with thousands upon thousands of other fans&mdash;most of whom were well-behaved and simply wanted a glimpse of the players.The well-behaved fan was more the rule than the exception and there were more civilized fans than ruffians taking part in the celebrations.Unfortunately, the squeaky wheels of society get the oil (or in this case, the public and media&rsquo;s attention). It is they who spoil things for the rest of us and who provided a sparkling example of poor conduct for people across North America.Linda Whittaker,Montreal, PQTRUE COLORS?I guess all us Ranger fans owe the New York Islanders an apology. We&rsquo;re always knocking them and their organization but after the events of May 29th, we can be proud of them. A few years ago they hired Brian Kilrea and told him to learn from Al Arbour because he, in all likelihood, would become Al&rsquo;s successor. He believed them. Then when Al stepped down from behind the bench they called Brian up and told him to buzz off.Nice going Isles, you showed your true colors.Bill King,Elizabeth, NJDOWN BUT NOT OUTWell, it&rsquo;s been 15 years for me and I&rsquo;m still here. Beaten, kicked and embarrassed but never counted out. I am one of the forgotten (or so it seems) but I&rsquo;m not alone. There are a few of us roaming the aisles. You see, we are Los Angeles King hockey fans!We have had to wallow through names such as Kannegiesser, Komadoski, Venasky and yes, Bart Crashley, but also marveled at the skills of Vachon, Dionne, Goring and the Triple Crown Line. We have sat through more than our share of incompetent GM&rsquo;s and are now working on our second owner who could care less about us, our team, or our sport.<h2>FAN FORUM</h2>Let your voice be heard! Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2. THN reserves the right to edit all submissions.I just want other fans to know that there are real, true, honest-to-God hockey fans in L.A. Not only do we love our Kings but we appreciate and acknowledge the excitement that every visiting team brings to the L.A. Forum. I want this letter to serve as a reminder that L.A. is a major-league hockey town and while a new owner would be welcomed, I hope all Kings fans share my enthusiasm and confidence in Rogie.After all, it can&rsquo;t get much worse (or can it, Detroit?). Competitive hockey is going to return to L.A. (yes, it was once here!!) and when it does, expect sell-outs and plenty of noise&mdash;and maybe even some recognition in THE HOCKEY NEWS. Now wouldn&rsquo;t that be a welcome change?William S. Martin, Los Angeles, CATRUE GRITAfter watching this year&rsquo;s NHL awards ceremony I found myself compelled to write to THN.I am not expecting to change this year&rsquo;s presentation of the Calder Trophy to Gary Suter, only to offer my opinion.I really felt that Wendel Clark was the most deserving nominee for this year&rsquo;s Calder award. This comes from a neutral standpoint because I am an ardent Bruin supporter. This is also not in any way meant to discredit Suter. He is an excellent hockey player.But Wendel Clark has one thing that no NHL rookie has matched in a long time&mdash;the true, raw spirit of the game of hockey. He&rsquo;s rough, tough, got bundles of talent and is an obvious inspiration to his fellow teammates. This is not to mention the fact that his first NHL campaign witnessed his transition from defenseman to left winger.Keep it up Wendel, trophy or no trophy, you are great to watch on the ice where it really counts.Stan Cowan, Willowdale, ON &#9632;

Fan Rues Rowdy Row On Rue Ste. Catharine

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; early story at the 1986 National Hockey League entry draft could be entitled: How The West Was Won.The two-time Stanley Cup champions chose Western League youngsters during the first three rounds of the draft, including first pick Kim Issel of the Prince Albert Raiders. And then they went world-wide.Included among their draft choices were Czechoslovakians Ivan Matulik (Round 7) and Mojmir Bozik (Round 11), along with Brazilian-born Mike Greenlay (Round 9), a goaltender who played midget in Calgary last season under coach Garth Malarchuk&mdash;brother of Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; netminder Clint Malarchuk.The Oilers&rsquo; last pick in the draft, get this, was Tony Hand, a center who accounted for more than 100 goals with the Murrayfield Racers in Scotland last season. Hand was scouted by ex-Oiler Garry Unger, who plays over there.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know if we can get him out yet. He&rsquo;s behind the Haggis Curtain,&rdquo; joked Oilers&rsquo; PR director Bill Tuele.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known about him since he was 14,&rdquo; said chief scout Barry Fraser of the 19-year-old.The biggest Edmonton news, though, was Round 1, not 12.Issel, a6-foot-4, 190-pound right winger, is a Calgary product who was not caught up in Flames&rsquo; fever during the playoff upset of the Oilers.&ldquo;No, I am not a Flames&rsquo; fan,&rdquo; Issel stressed, displaying a touch of public relations genius. &ldquo;In the (Stanley Cup) finals, I was pulling for Montreal. Before that I was hoping for St. Louis to come through.&rdquo;Despite his chilly feelings towards the Flames, Issel was courted by Calgary, Minnesota and Washington.&ldquo;I thought he&rsquo;d go to Calgary. The Flames really liked him,&rdquo; said Issel&rsquo;s agent, Bill Watters, who admitted Calgary general manager Cliff Fletcher had been banking on Issel still being available in the second round.Issel is the second Watters&rsquo; client to go No. 1 to the Oilers in the last two years. Kingston Canadian left winger Scott Metcalfe was Edmonton&rsquo;s top 1985 choice.Issel, whose father operates a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Calgary, scored 29 goals and 39 assists and was tagged with 68 penalty minutes with the Raiders last season.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011261/5066494-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="146" height="120"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2>&ldquo;When he wants to play, he&rsquo;s a very good winger,&rdquo; said Watters.Okay, but 20 teams passed on Issel, right?&ldquo;Apparently some of the other teams were a little disappointed in his playoff performance,&rdquo; said Watters of Issel, who also had knee ligament problems during the 1984-85 season.Fraser stressed Issel&rsquo;s knee is sound and wasn&rsquo;t overly concerned with his playoff performance&mdash;six goals and seven assists in 19 games.&ldquo;Some of our better players didn&rsquo;t have good playoffs either,&rdquo; countered Fraser, not mentioning the names of Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not flashy, but this guy&rsquo;s a good up-and-down solid type of player.&rdquo;After the Oilers took Issel in the opening round, they opted for fleet Jamie Nicholls in Round 2. Nicholls, an 18-year-old out of Chilliwack, scored 15 goals and 52 points with the Portland Winter Hawks last season.&ldquo;He was certainly the best defensive player on our club,&rdquo; said Portland general manager Brian Shaw. &ldquo;We used him against the other team&rsquo;s top winger&mdash;either left or right. He&rsquo;s a very intelligent player. He reminds me of Bob Gainey.&rdquo;St. Albert product Ron Shudra, a 6-foot-1, 180 pounder who played defense with the Kamloops Blazers last season, was the Oilers&rsquo; third pick. An offensive rearguard, Shudra had 10 goals and 50 assists with Kamloops.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be nice. We can be teammates instead of beating each other up,&rdquo; quipped Shudra to Nicholls. &#9632;

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Oilers Seek Helping ‘Hand’ From Scotland

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Philadelphia Flyers took the kid next door, and then quickly went overseas when they selected the first European player in the 1986 entry draft.The kid next door was defenseman Kerry Huffman, 18, of the Guelph Platers in the Ontario League. Huffman is now 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, but was con-sideribly smaller when he lived just up the street from Flyers&rsquo; assistant general manager Gary Darling in Peterborough.It was only a coincidence that the Huffmans shared the same street as the Darlings in Peterborough, but it seems more than a coincidence that the Flyers are continually tapping the OHL for talent.Huffman, whom Flyer general manager Bob Clarke calls a &ldquo;Doug Crossmantype defenseman&rdquo; was one of three OHL products the Flyers selected with their first four picks. The Flyers have now used their first pick to take an OHL product four straight years since 1983. Peter Zezel (Toronto), Greg Smyth (London) and Glen Seabrooke (Peterborough) were the others.Overall, during that period they have selected 18 players from the OHL, Ontario Jr. B League and Ontario high schools, while taking just six from the Western League&mdash;the Flyers&rsquo; previous favorite breeding ground.In addition to Darling, who used to live in Peterborough, coach Mike Keenan used to coach the Peterborough Petes, and the eastern scout Dennis Patterson lives there.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only coincidence,&rdquo; said Darling. &ldquo;We just take the best players available.&rdquo;To prove his point, it&rsquo;s worthwhile noting the Flyers&rsquo; real gem in this year&rsquo;s draft might have come from a lot further away in the name of Jukka-Pekka Seppo, an 18-year-oid Finnish left winger/cen-ter. The Flyers used the 23rd pick in the draft (obtained through a previous deal with Los Angeles) to draft the Finn who is 6-foot-l and 176 pounds.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02949/5066525-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="144" height="117"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2>&ldquo;Our scouts have seen him a lot, and some of them thought he might have been the best player available in the draft,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a physical player for a European, and we&rsquo;re really excited about getting him.&rdquo;The Flyers thought the Edmonton Oilers might have grabbed Seppo with their first-round pick (21st overall), but he slipped through and the Flyers got their man. According to Clarke, Seppo (who scored 33 goals and 34 assists with the Vaasa Sport Club last year) has a year to serve in the Finnish Army, and will be moved onto the best of the Finnish club teams.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to ask about bringing him over to training camp in September for a week,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;Just to help him get acclimated to the hockey over here.&rdquo;Now, seeing that the Flyers took a finesse-type defenseman with their first pick, and a Finn with their second, you had to know some muscle was coming, and it arrived just five picks later when they went back to the OHL to pick center Kent Hawley, 18, from the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s. Hawley is 6-foot-3, 213 pounds, scored 21 goals and 30 assists and accumulated 96 minutes in penalties this past season.The Flyers did not pick in the third or fifth rounds. They gave up those selections in deals which brought Chico Resch from New Jersey and Mike Murray from the New York Islanders, respectively.Also, on the day of the draft they traded their own second-round pick (41 st overall) to the Quebec Nordiques for the Nords&rsquo; second-round pick next season. &#9632;

f0009-02

Draft Picks Hockey Worlds Apart

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div>PERSONALLY, I COULDN&rsquo;T believe the Swedish meatballs were still available when my turn came at the cocktail parties before the NHL entry draft in Montreal.I had the smoked salmon appetizers rated sixth on my list and CraigJanney no higher than I5th. Lou Nanne saw me three ahead of him in line and offered me a bloody mary for an exchange of pates, but l hadn&rsquo;t made up my mind what I really liked best, so I went ahead and ate when it was my turn.I love the draft because it&rsquo;s one big buffet. Some kids can&rsquo;t wait for the circus, but this one thinks the draft is even more fun.Brian O&rsquo;Neill stands at the podium for 12 rounds, intoning, &ldquo;Hartford takes Beau Leggs, goalie from Longueuil&rdquo;. I always picture O&rsquo;Neill in a striped jacket and a straw hat saying, &ldquo;step right up, evvvvvvverybody wins.&rdquo;And they do, too. At least until training camp. Each team manages to convince itself it got exactly what it wanted. Of course, the way some of these clubs have been picking. I&rsquo;m amazed they don&rsquo;t decide, &ldquo;Hey, if we like Steve Mucker, how can he be any good? We haven&rsquo;t had a good first-round pick in four years. If our scouts say Grinder can&rsquo;t play, let&rsquo;s take him instead.&rdquo;Instead, everybody is convinced they&rsquo;ve pulled off a steal. Have you ever heard a team make a pick and say frankly, &ldquo;we were disappointed that Joe Holder was all that was left for us when our pick came up?&rdquo;Have you ever heard Holder say, &ldquo;Winnipeg was the last place in the league I wanted to play. How do I get out of it?&rdquo; Of course not. Holder has always been an admirer of the Jets, who wanted the kid all along.This year some of my colleagues were grousing about both the lack of players of superstar potentail and of a dearth of trading action, but I didn&rsquo;t see it that way. I thought it was a great draft.Zounds! How can you do any better than Zarley Zalapski? Or the Rangers&rsquo; 11th-round pick, Joe Ranger. The Flyers, who already have a Chico and a Groucho (Mike Keenan), selected a Seppo. The Red Wings, for whom everything that can go wrong generally has, took Murphy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011320/5066556-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="354" height="495"></div>Then, there was the long-awaited first human sighting of George Pelawa, Calgary&rsquo;s first pick. In the weeks preceeding the draft, Pelawa had gone from 6-foot-2,220 to about 6-foot-6, 280. When the Flames&rsquo; turn came, I expected Cliff Fletcher to say: &ldquo;Calgary selects from the Nepal Junior Bs&hellip;Bigfoot.&rdquo;Sure enough, Pelawa strode into the Forum, bigger than life. I swear he was 6-foot-8, 365 pounds, and at lunch break, he ate Emile Francis.Other highlights included Harry Omest hugging Jacques Demers in full view of the entire Forum. Later, the Leafs took a kid who burst into tears. Turns out he was overcome with joy at having been drafted, not crestfallen about who took him.A new record was set when two general managers were caught telling the absolute truth before the draft. Jimmy Devellano said he was going to take Joe Murphy and he did. Washington&rsquo;s David Poile, asked the day before the draft whether he liked Jeff Greenlaw, said &ldquo;love him.&rdquo;This was presumed to mean the Caps would take anybody but. Sure enough, Washington selected Greenlaw the next day with the 20th pick. &ldquo;Told you.&rdquo; said Poile, grinning. David&rsquo;s my new hero. He had actually managed to lie while telling the truth. Last time we&rsquo;ll ever not believe that creep.The fun wasn&rsquo;t confined to draft day, either. The league called a press conference to announce Project Enterprise. What they meant to say was that Scotty Morrison was being given something else to do, but you can&rsquo;t call it &ldquo;Hall of Fame Fix Up&rdquo; when Project Enterprise sounds so much more grand.What is Project Enterprise? Is it a plan to launch Jack Evans into orbit? No. it&rsquo;s a glorified way of saying the NHL is going to build a new glass case for Maurice Richard&rsquo;s old jock strap. Project Enterprise! Man, I can Feel The Thunder.The next best thing was the Nordiques&rsquo; announcement of a parade to highlight Rendez-vous &rsquo;87. Personally, I feel &ldquo;Two Games With the Russians&rdquo; is a better way of getting the point of the week across, but Marcel Aubut knows how to throw a party, so I trust his judgment. He could call this thing &ldquo;Freezing Your Butt off in February in Quebec&rdquo; and it wouldn&rsquo;t dampen my enthusiasm. I&rsquo;ve already ordered my bib.Anyway, 21 teams are supposed to enter floats in this parade. I can&rsquo;t wait to see the Leafs&rsquo;. Better yet, I want to see Paul Mooney&rsquo;s face when he gets the Bruins&rsquo; bill.In the meantime, I have some ideas.The Grand Marshall will be that Master of Mirth. Bob Pulford. The Flames&rsquo; float will feature Bob Johnson and Tim Hunter in a bed of flowers. A Tournament of Noses, so to speak.The Canucks will trade their float for a broken down Chevy, which will belch fumes all along the parade route. The Red Wings, arranged in dandelions, will rear-end the Devils, who will be moving too slowly.Only the cynic suggests that there&rsquo;s no big deal about these floats, since some of these clubs have been floating for years.I don&rsquo;t care. Project Expedition has already begun. That means I&rsquo;m coming. &#9632;

f0010-01

Chowing Down At Pro Hockey’s Biggest Buffet

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The announcement was met with silence.Prized potential draft picks Vincent Damphousse and Jocelyn Lemieux were already history by the time the North Stars selected 12th overall at the National Hockey League entry draft, so when general manager Lou Nanne leaned into the microphone on the floor of the Montreal Forum and said, &ldquo;Warren Babe&rdquo;, most of the fans turned their heads and said, &ldquo;Who?&rdquo;Warren Babe. You know, left winger, 6-foot-2, 185 pounds. From Lethbridge in the Western League. Still doesn&rsquo;t ring a bell? Well, most of the Montreal fans didn&rsquo;t know him either, but Minnesota, Boston and Chicago scouts did.The Bruins and Blackhawks, drafting I3th and I4th. reportedly were both interested in Babe, who was rated a second rounder by Central Scouting. But the North Stars took him first, ahead of more publicized wingers Mark Pederson, Everett Sanipass, George Pelawa and Jeff Greenlaw.&ldquo;We sure knew who he was,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;We had him 12th on our list. Boston had him sixth. He&rsquo;s a competitive, tough, physical kid and that&rsquo;s what we were looking for.&rdquo;Size and defense were the order of the day for the Stars. They drafted 13 players&mdash;11 were 6 feet or taller. Eight were defensemen. including second-round picks Neil Wilkinson, a 6-foot-3, 190 pounder from Selkirk, Man. and Dean Kolstad, a 6-foot-6, 200 pounder from Prince Albert in the Western League.&ldquo;We had all three (Babe, Wilkinson and Koistad) projected for the first round,&rdquo; coach Lome Henning said.On a day when optimism always reigns supreme, the North Stars also plucked a Sault Ste. Marie defenseman named Rob Zettler, called the next Larry Robinson by a former coach, and left winger Eric Bennett, who could be &ldquo;the surprise of the draft&rdquo; according to one man. Both were taken in the third round, along with defenseman Brad Turner from the Calgary (Tier II) Canucks.Nanne had wanted Damphousse, but couldn&rsquo;t trade up to get him. Toronto, picking sixth, took him. The Stars also wanted Lemieux and talked to the New York Rangers, who had the ninth pick, about swapping choices. But the Rangers wanted a second-round pick to make the swap, Nanne said no and Lemieux ended up in St. Louis as the I Oth selection. That left Babe next on the Stars&rsquo; list.&ldquo;I was hoping to go in the first round, but I had no idea,&rdquo; said Babe, whose parents didn&rsquo;t travel to Montreal for the draft, staying behind at home in Medicine Hat, Alta, to spray for grasshoppers on the family farm.&ldquo;I had heard anywhere in the first rounds. I talked to Minnesota, but I talked to a lot of teams and no one team seemed any more interested than the other. I came all the way here to Montreal because I hurt my shoulder late in the season and wanted to show everybody that it was fine.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021015/5066587-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="140" height="126"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2>Said Henning: &ldquo;He really came up fast in the ratings the last half of the year. He has everything we need&mdash;great character, strong along the boards. He&rsquo;s not a big goal scorer, but that&rsquo;s not to say he can&rsquo;t score goals. He has good hands. He&rsquo;s probably at least a year away from playing in the NHL. We don&rsquo;t want to rush him.&rdquo;Babe accumulated 33 goals, 57 points and 125 penalty minutes for Lethbridge last season.The Stars used the first of two second-round picks (No. 30) to take Wilkinson, who played with Selkirk in Tier II last year and will attend Michigan State University next fall. Three picks later, the Stars took Kolstad, who at 6-foot-6 was the tallest player selected.Said Kolstad: &ldquo;If I get bigger and heavier and work a little more on my skating, I could be a year or two away from the NHL. What I got going for me is my reach and with my size it&rsquo;s usually easy to move guys out from in front of the net.&rdquo;Bennett, from Wilbraham Monson Prep School in Springfield, Mass., was the Stars&rsquo; first selection in the third round, 54th overall. Bennett, who will attend Providence College next year, scored 30 goals and 69 points in only 20 games, but wasn&rsquo;t high on many draft lists.&ldquo;A lot of people didn&rsquo;t know a lot about him,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t know that much about him, but our scouts liked him and one guy came up to me and said, &rsquo;You got the steal of the draft with Eric Bennett,&rsquo; and he walked away.&rdquo;The Stars also had the next pick, acquired from Boston in last month&rsquo;s trade for Tom McCarthy. The Stars pulled out Zettler, from Nanne&rsquo;s hometown of Sault Ste. Marie. Zettler, 6-foot-2 and 186 pounds, scored five goals and 28 points with 92 penalty minutes in 57 Ontario League games.&ldquo;I liken him to (Montreal defenseman) Larry Robinson,&rdquo; said Terry Crisp, who coached Zettler two years ago and now coaches Calgary&rsquo;s Moncton minor-league team. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t do comparisons too often because it puts a lot of pressure on kids. But he&rsquo;s like Robinson in both class and stature. He&rsquo;s always been a winner and only knows one way to play&mdash;full out.&rdquo;Perhaps the player with the best chance to make the Stars&rsquo; roster next fall is Finnish defenseman Jari Gronstrand, a 6-foot, 183-pound 24-year-old who was taken in the fifth round, 96th overall. He played for Tampere in the Finnish league and played for the national team at the World Championships at Moscow in April. &#9632;

f0010-02

North Star Draft Selection A Mere Babe

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>The fight to ban fighting in the National Hockey League is really no fight at all. Score it as a TKO in the first round. No contest.That&rsquo;s just one of several findings of THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; survey of NHL general managers, the results of which are significant when you consider that these men will gather later this summer to discuss this issue and others related to violence in the game.And when they emerge from their meeting, it&rsquo;s likely that their report to the NHL board of governors will recommend either stiffer penalties for chronic glove-droppers or instructions for the on-ice officials to prosecute players to the letter of the law.That is, one way or the other we will probably see a dramatic increase in the number of penalties assessed to the instigator of a fight. Or, in other words, look for one player to get seven minutes (five-minute major for fighting and two-minute minor for instigating) and the other to receive only a major (for fighting) ora minor (roughing).But that would appear to be as far as the GMs are willing to go.Certainly, the results of the survey indicate there is no widespread movement among the GMs to adopt the existing rules of international and college hockey that call for any player assessed a fighting major to be ejected from the game.Each GM was asked three questions:1. Are you satisfied with current rules regarding fighting in the NHL?2. Should fighting in the NHL be punishable by immediate ejection?3. Should there be increased penalties for repeat offenders?All 21 NHL GMs were polled. Four of them&mdash;Boston&rsquo;s Harry Sinden, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Eddie Johnston, Toronto&rsquo;s Gerry McNamara and Winnipeg&rsquo;s John Ferguson&mdash;declined to participate in the survey. A fifth, Edmonton&rsquo;s Glen Sather, isn&rsquo;t represented in the survey but that was due to a timing error on the part of THN that couldn&rsquo;t be corrected before this issue&rsquo;s deadline.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02919/5066625-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="493" height="382"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brawls such as the one that erupted between Calgary and Montreal in the Cup finals are rarer today than they were 10 years ago.</figcaption></div>The responses to each question and additional comments on the subject of fighting from the remaining 16 GMs can be found on the next page.As for the specific findings of the survey:&bull; Nine of the 16 respondents said they are not satisfied with current rules regarding fighting in the NHL.&bull; Just two&mdash;Montreal&rsquo;s Serge Savard and Quebec&rsquo;s Maurice Filion&mdash;of the 16 GMs called for fighting to be punished by immediate ejection from the game.&bull; Eleven of the 16 said there should be increased penalties for repeat offenders.Additional comments from the GMs indicated that they feel fighting, as long as it&rsquo;s a spontaneous outburst and not a pre-meditated tactic or strategy and doesn&rsquo;t lead to brawling, is acceptable within the confines of the game.However, there has been concern, most recently expressed by NHL president John Ziegler, that fighting majors increased during the 1985-86 season. The president provided statistics which showed two per cent of the league&rsquo;s players are responsible for 20 per cent of the fighting majors.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s an alarming figure,&rdquo; says Ziegler.As for brawling, it has steadily decreased in the last decade, dating back to the wild days of the Broad Street Bullies and Big, Bad Bruins, when bench-cleaming melees were commonplace.&ldquo;The league has done an excellent job in that regard,&rdquo; says New York Ranger general manager Craig Patrick. &ldquo;All the rule changes-&hellip; third-man-in rules, going directly to the bench when a fight breaks out, not passing each other going off the ice at the end of each period, defenseman not being allowed to move deep into the offensive zone after stoppages&hellip;those are the types of things that have cleared up the brawling.&rdquo;Also of concern to the GMs is what effect any fight legislation may have on other aspects of the game. The point is open to a great deal of debate, but many of the GMs insist that if you take fighting out of the game, stick fouls will increase.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011207/5066618-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="1460" height="2032"><figcaption class="caption-body">If for every fight that breaks out one player is penalized more than the other, there would be a drastic reduction in the number of fights, GMs say.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Our game really is unique,&rdquo; says L.A. King general manager Rogie Vachon. &ldquo;Sometimes, and I&rsquo;m not saying this is the case every time, something has to give. There has to be a release and if you&rsquo;ve taken the fighting option away&hellip;well, we&rsquo;re afraid highsticking would become a far greater problem than fighting is.&rdquo;Still, there is an admission of a problem. NHL clubs have been loading up on hired hands and enforcer types at an alarming rate.The most recent Stanley Cup playoffs illustrated that. In the Toronto Maple Leaf-Chicago Black Hawk series, Leaf enforcer Bob McGill and Hawk tough guy Al Secord clashed on numerous occasions. When Toronto upended Chicago, Hawk players, notably star center Denis Savard, publically called for his team to &ldquo;get some more fighters&rdquo; so that Secord, a talented winger who is not only a noted pugilist but a good scorer as well, could be left alone to play hockey.In the Boston-Montreal series, the Bruins sent out tough guy Jay Miller to, in the words of coach Butch Goring, &ldquo;neutralize&rdquo; the Canadiens&rsquo; Chris Nilan. But since Nilan has evolved from a pure brawler to a regular performer for the Habs, Montreal coach Jean Perron countered by sending a new tough guy, John Kordic, out to &ldquo;neutralize&rdquo; Miller.On and on it goes and where it stops nobody knows&hellip;But one quick look at the NHL rule book confirms what many of the GMs believe: the officials have the power to curb fighting as a means of intimidation.Rule 54(b) states the official may call a minor, double minor, major or game misconduct as he sees fit in any incident involving fisticuffs.Two notes after rule 54(b) elaborate on the wide-ranging powers of the official: &ldquo;It is the intent&hellip; of this rule that the referee shall impose the major and game misconduct penalty in all cases when the instigator or retaliator of the fight is the aggressor and is plainly doing so for the purpose of intimidation&hellip; the referee is provided very wide latitude in the penalties which he may impose under this rule. This is done intentionally to enable him to differentiate&hellip; for starting the fighting or persisting in continuing the fighting&hellip;&rdquo;What it all comes down to, says Philadelphia Flyer coach Mike Keenan, is that &ldquo;the officials do not have a good handle on the proper interpretations of the present rules.&rdquo;Well, be forewarned Mike Keenan and your coaching colleagues and the ham-hands of the NHL, those officials just may have a handle on it this season if the GMs recommendations to the governors mirror those of this survey.As for those who see any kind of fighting, spontaneous or not, as a black mark on the game, consider the view of Habs&rsquo; GM Serge Savard, an avowed member of the anti-fight lobby.&ldquo;Until the attitudes of everyone in the NHL change,&rdquo; Savard says, &ldquo;fighting is here to stay. It&rsquo;s just that simple.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-02

Abolitionists Fight A Losing Battle

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011293/5066663-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div>1. Are you satisfied with current rules regarding fighting in the NHL?2. Should fighting in the NHL be punishable by immediate ejection?3. Should there be increased penalties for repeat offenders?4. Additional comments.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021083/5066656-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="1532" height="3820"></div> &#9632;

f0012-01

NHL GMs’ Fighting Survey

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011219/5066694-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York Islander star Mike Bossy takes great pride in winning the Lady Byng Trophy, which goes to the NHL&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player.</figcaption></div>Mike Bossy represents a peaceful oasis in the sometimes-violent world of the National Hockey League.Three times he has won the Lady Byng Trophy as the league&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player.But don&rsquo;t misunderstand. He is no less determined than his more fractious friends and foes&mdash;just focussed differently.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been put down throughout my life as a hockey player for not being more aggressive than I am,&rdquo; Bossy said June 10 at the NHL awards banquet. &ldquo;Numerous times I&rsquo;ve been yelled at for not fighting back. But I really don&rsquo;t look at hockey as a game that needs fighting or needs any of the violence that occurs in many of the games.&rdquo;Bossy is at the forefront of a hockey minority group which believes fighting should be eliminated from the game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not part of the sport,&rdquo; Bossy said simply.Many disagree but that is hardly of concern to Bossy who finds comfort in a different kind of numbers. There are others who share his opinion but more who don&rsquo;t.Even Wayne Gretzky says there is a place for fighting in hockey. Yet, Bossy maintains hockey is plenty physical without fighting and stick swinging.&ldquo;There are times during a game,&rdquo; said Bossy, &ldquo;when emotions run high and players find it necessary to drop their gloves and fight it out. I&rsquo;m more of a talker than a fighter.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s never really been anything done to stop that. So, as long as they can do it, they will do it.&rdquo;Fighting in the NHL is punished by five-minute majors. Three majors in one game&mdash;fight-related or not&mdash;and a player is given a game misconduct. An accumulation of three or more game misconducts leads to brief suspensions.One alternative, already policy in North American collegiate and international hockey, is to immediately eject combatants.Bossy has fought but once during his glittering nine-year career. And that, as he recalls it, was more a fight monologue&mdash;by Behn Wilson&mdash;than it was a dialogue.The right winger said he was the target of intimidation tactics during his early years but learned to cope, deciding to decline with thanks when challenged but not to back down.&ldquo;I think I learned that if I was going to survive in the NHL that I would just have to stand upto it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I did that when we won the Cup against Philadelphia (in 1980). I decided I wasn&rsquo;t going to fight but I was going to stand up to them anyway.&ldquo;Ever since then I&rsquo;ve never really had a problem as far as people wanting to fight me. I think they respect the way I play and respect my decision to keep my gloves on.&rdquo;Barry Beck of the New York Rangers, a heavyweight who has fought often in the past, also thinks that fighting should be legislated out of the game but, like Bossy, does not expect the league to act.&ldquo;The NHL has come up with all these little rule changes&mdash;like adding two inches to the maximum length of a player&rsquo;s stick&mdash;but they won&rsquo;t do anything about the fighting. That&rsquo;s where some new rules should be written,&rdquo; Beck told THN late in 1985.&ldquo;Fighting should be stopped. It&rsquo;s no good for the game. The rule should be that if someone fights, he&rsquo;s ejected from the game.&ldquo;The league talks about speeding up the game. If they want it speeded up, all they gotta do is cut out the fighting. We always hear talk about getting a national TV contract in the United States but it&rsquo;s gonna be tough to get when there&rsquo;s fighting allowed.&rdquo;Still, the glove dropping goes on. Many reasons are offered by its apologists.&bull; Fighting is a safety valve: This one is part of hockey dogma and not only mouthed by oldtime Philadelphia Flyers and Birmingham Bulls.Players and officials point to international hockey, in particular, as an example of what can happen when fighting is all but elminin-ated. They say that European opponents resort to excessive stickwork or other retaliatory measures because they can&rsquo;t square off.Former Chicago and Winnipeg superstar Bobby Hull, who once staged a one-game strike to protest violence in the old World Hockey Association, diagrees.&ldquo;Some players have gone over to Europe and said, &lsquo;They may not fight but they spear, they kick and they spit,&rsquo; said Hull who is not opposed to occasionall fights. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a bunch of crap because they&rsquo;ll play against you exactly the same way you play against them.&ldquo;I have played against the Europeans, the Soviets and the Czechs and I have yet to ever have any one of them ever attempt to spear me or kick me or spit at me. That&rsquo;s an excuse used by North Americans who go over there and get outplayed.&rdquo;Others point out it is the responsibility of hockey officials to crack down on these perceived infractions.&bull; Nobody ever gets hurt in fights: Why wouldn&rsquo;t you get hurt in a fight? Is there something about hockey fights that makes a person invulnerable?Neil Campbell of the Globe and Mail examined that argument and produced statistics to the contrary. Among those sidelined this past season because of fight-related injuries were Detroit&rsquo;s Gerard Gallant (25 games, broken jaw), Philadelphia&rsquo;s Lindsay Carson (17 games, broken knuckle), Toronto&rsquo;s Rick Vaive (17 games, hand injury) and Chicago&rsquo;s Curt Fraser (19 games, shoulder).Others such as Kevin Dineen of Hartford and Brian Sutter of St. Louis, both pivotal men for their teams, missed key stretches after hurting themselves in fights.&bull; Fighting is part of the game&rsquo;s appeal: Hockey fans, we are told, enjoy watching fights as part of the total package.&ldquo;People who talk about banning fighting totally are not being realistic,&rdquo; former referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison was quoted as saying in the June 4 edition of the New York Times. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s seen a dull game where at the end one player bumps another and they&rsquo;re suddenly going at it. It puts every one at the edge of their seats. We&rsquo;re not ready for an outright ban.&rdquo;While there is no denying few people turn away when fights occur, that doesn&rsquo;t make them right. Nor does it mean many people aren&rsquo;t turned off by them.&ldquo;I think there are more people who stay away from the rinks because of the fighting,&rdquo; said Bossy, &ldquo;than there are those who go to the rinks to see the fighting.&rdquo;&bull; To penalize fighting with expulsion from a game would lead to more purpose fights: Some contend that talented players would be targeted for special abuse and thus drawn into ejections were an automatic expulsion rule introduced.That, says Michigan State Spartan coach Ron Mason, is not a problem in college hockey where fighting leads to a game misconduct and one-game suspension. None of the stars on his NCAA championship team&mdash;Mike Donnelly and Joe Murphy, among them&mdash;faced that this season.But Mason points out the stakes are enormously higher in the NHL and acknowledges that tactic could be employed in professional hockey.The best players, points out Gretzky, are generally free from that worry, anyway.&ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s enough respect in the NHL that guys like Mike Bossy and guys like myself aren&rsquo;t having guys jump us and try to have fisticuffs with us guys,&rdquo; says Gretzky.Most hockey people object to excessive fighting but aren&rsquo;t bothered by bouts few and far between.Dave King, for instance, is accustomed to seeing fights in professional hockey. But the Canadian Olympic coach rarely sees them in international competition where fighting leads to immediate ejection.The national coach can accept sporadic fights but still finds them hard to justify.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you ever sit at a game with people who are new to the game&mdash;people from different countries&mdash;and a fight breaks out, it&rsquo;s so hard to explain why it&rsquo;s allowed.&rdquo;Gilles Neron thinks fighting is beyond explanation or justification, agreeing they lead to a cheapening of hockey&rsquo;s image.He is chairman of the committee &ldquo;Fair Play in Sport&mdash;A Campaign Against Violence&rdquo;, a creation of the Canadian federal ministry for Fitness and Amateur Sport.Its mandate is to facilitate a reduction in sports-related violence. Hockey is a primary target. Neron&rsquo;s committee plans to zero in on fighting and excessive stickwork.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re (fights) certainly not part of hockey. And it&rsquo;s a shame we have to put up with them from time to time.&rdquo; said Neron, who is concerned with the negative image violent NHL behaviour projects to youngsters.One means of eliminating fighting from the NHL is a process of progressive conditioning. Attitudes must be altered.Mason, who doesn&rsquo;t think the &ldquo;odd fight&rdquo; harms the game, agrees that fighting could be conditioned out of the NHL but notes that were that the objective it would and should take several years through progressively tougher legislation.That would give players a period of adjustment.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost impossible to legislate it (fighting) out of the game,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neill, who, nonetheless added, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve often said I don&rsquo;t think we need fighting to sell the game.&rdquo;He is aware of image problems that fighting brings on.&ldquo;There is a perception in some areas that our game is borderline roller derby. Certainly some of the media in the U.S. has portrayed it that way&hellip; It&rsquo;s a part of the game that does give us a bad image in some quarters.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Neill said that he is happy with progress made by the NHL&mdash;brawling and benchclearing incidents have largely been eliminated&mdash;but not completely satisfied.The fact that some brawling still does take place appalls NHL president John Ziegler. He was most upset by the free-for-all that followed Montreal&rsquo;s Game Four victory over Calgary in the Stanley Cup finals. Ziegler handed down $42,000 in fines to the two teams but suspended nobody. &ldquo;1 think the fact we had the brawling in the Stanley Cup final is disgusting,&rdquo; said Ziegler.Still, he wasn&rsquo;t encouraging to those who would like to see more stringent penalties against fighting. &ldquo;We just can&rsquo;t find any evidence that the way we penalize fighting is harming our business,&rdquo; he said.Perhaps only its dignity and credibility. &#9632;

f0013-01

The ‘Boss’ Fights The Good Fight

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Al Eagleson admits his expected signing of a new contract as boss of the players&rsquo; union is the result of a power play pulled when a few members questioned Alan&rsquo;s future plans. Some skaters told Eagleson they were concerned he&rsquo;d tum his back on them after the current collective bargaining negotiations are completed to become NHL president. Eagleson says he assured players he&rsquo;d rather head the union. &ldquo;I told them to draw up a multi-year deal,&rdquo; says Eagleson, &ldquo;and they agreed. It&rsquo;ll be for a minimum of three years, or up to five.&rdquo;&hellip;AnumberofNHL types are fearful that Sports Illustrated will publish a second NHL drug expose as a follow-up to its original piece on the subject stating that five Oilers were cocaine-users. But SI managing editor Mark Mulvoy tells BLUELINES that no such follow-up article is in the works. After Mulvoy received a letter from NHL prexy John Ziegler complaining about the drug article&rsquo;s failure to name names, Mulvoy sent a return note to the prez. &ldquo;I told him,&rdquo; Mulvoy tells BLUELINES &ldquo;that most NHL people were delightedthat we didn&rsquo;t mention any names.&rdquo;&hellip;Next question for Ziegler is how he handles the Borje Salming situation, since the Leaf defenseman recently admitted to cocaine use several years ago. Although Salming may be eligible for suspension under the NHL&rsquo;s tough stance on drugs, insiders say Borje will escape any such penalty after pleading the statute of limitations has run out.A major upheaval is expected to rock the Vancouver Canucks with owner Frank Griffiths giving way to David Owen, a club director. If so, Frank&rsquo;s son, Arthur, will move out of the high command&hellip;The Flames figure to deny this but Joey Mullen would like to move to an eastern (U.S.) team, and one highly-placed source reports that Cliff Fletcher would be pleased to accommodate him&hellip;One reason why the Bruins were delighted to unload Barry Pederson was his demand for a $350,000 contract. Another is the fact that he never fully rebounded from arm surgery&hellip;While Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s return to coaching&mdash;as well as managing&mdash;the Sabres took many by surprise, &rsquo;tis said that Scotty was ordered back by the Knox brothers, bosses of the club&hellip;There&rsquo;s a bloc of NHL owners not at all pleased to learn that some of their highest-paid officials, who are supposed to be objective, were rooting for teams during the homestretch and the playoffs. One was seen in a dressing room sharing a triumph with players as if he were working for the team and not the league&hellip;Although Jacques Laperriere has now had considerable experience behind the Canadiens&rsquo; bench, he&rsquo;s not expected to move toward a head coaching job. Laperriere is said to be quite happy in the assistant coaching slot&hellip;Ex-NHLers Mike Rogers, Gary Lupul and Dale McCourt are jetting to Europe where they&rsquo;ll be playing next season.Jacques Demers&rsquo; departure of the Blues for Detroit has split the hockey community. Players&rsquo; union boss Al Eagleson spanks Demers for his ingratitude to both Blues&rsquo; owner Harry Omest and GM Ron Caron. &ldquo;Jacques should have at least given Omest a chance to come back with an offer before taking off for Detroit,&rdquo; Eagleson tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;Caron took Demers out of the minors, gave him a chance and made a man out of him. Then, for a guy (Demers) to tum around and hiss in a guy&rsquo;s face&hellip; Jacques shouldn&rsquo;t have done that.&rdquo; Demers&rsquo; Red Wing shuffle was orchestrated by his attorney, Arthur Kaminsky, who argues that Demers never had a binding contract with the Blues, and furthermore, Jacques&rsquo; attempts to win a substantial raise from Omest were fruitless. &ldquo;Harry did offer him a miniscule raise earlier in the season but I told him, it sucked,&rdquo; Kaminsky tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;After the playoffs, Jacques went in to see him and Harry offered a six-figure contract but it was much less than a coach like Lome Henning was getting. &rsquo; &rsquo; Kaminsky acknowledges that he didn&rsquo;t, as Eagleson points out, go back to Omest to negotiate for more. &ldquo;Normally, I would have gone back,&rdquo; Kaminsky tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;but we wanted a clean deal with Detroit. We wanted to deal straight with them. We knew that &lsquo;tampering&rsquo; was a false issue. The NHL has no jurisdiction over coaches.&rdquo;A highly-placed Joe Louis Arena source tells BLUELINES that Red Wings&rsquo; owner Mike Ilitch became disenchanted with Brad Park over the coach&rsquo;s handling of his two Little Caesar&rsquo;s pizza joints in Boston. Park also lost a few points when he took a playoff TV commentating job when other hockey execs were scouting the Memorial Cup. Park&rsquo;s attorney, Larry Rauch, tells BLUELINES that the charges are &lsquo;.&lsquo;ridiculous&rdquo; and adds; &ldquo;Brad could not coach and run the pizza places at the same time. So it&rsquo;s not surprising that they didn&rsquo;t do as well as Ilitch would have hoped them to do.&rdquo; Park had been under the impression that Little Caesar&rsquo;s execs would have helped run the store while he was running the team&hellip;Pierre Larouche&rsquo;s swipe at ex-goalie-tumed-broadcaster John Davidson did not elude JD. Larouche, who fired his salvo during the playoffs, claims that Davidson has turned management man since going behind the mike. Pierre is especially peeved over Davidson&rsquo;s suggestion that Larouche&rsquo;s Hershey sabbatical last season did him a world of good. &ldquo;Pierre only hears what he wants to hear,&rdquo; Davidson tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;He never hears the good things said about him. He&rsquo;s being narrow-sighted and I think, later on, when he looks back, he&rsquo;ll see things a little differently.&rdquo;&hellip;Hab-watchers say the best psychological move made by Jean Perron was secluding the Canadiens at the Longueuil, Que., hideaway during the playoffs. &lsquo;Tis said it brought the warring factions together. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011272/5066756-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sabre GM-coach Scott Bowman welcomes Buffalo&rsquo;s first-round pick Shawn Anderson on draft day.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;The Buffalo Sabres said goodbye to The Franchise on June 17. On June 21, they welcomed some replacement parts.Gilbert Perreault, the first player ever drafted by the expansion Sabres in 1970, ended a 16-year association with the club by announcing his retirement after scoring 503 goals and 807 assists.It was a bittersweet day for both the player and the organization as memories of 16 glorious seasons clashed with the reality that No. 11 would no longer be on display in Memorial Auditorium.True to form, the always low-key Perreault merely said it was time to go. He did leave the door open to the possibility that he might someday play again, but said for now he is retired.That&rsquo;s hardly the case regarding Shawn Anderson, however.Sabres&rsquo; coach, general manager and director of hockey operations Scott Bowman chose defensemen with six of his 12 picks in the draft and made the highly-regarded Anderson his No. 1 choice.He also selected two beefy wingers, several &ldquo;project&rdquo; forwards, one &ldquo;local&rdquo; of sorts, and a goaltender. Before that he made a trade that sent left winger Gilles Hamel to Winnipeg in exchange for left winger Scott Amiel.All and all, a busy and, quite possibly, extremely productive day.&ldquo;You never know how they&rsquo;ll tum out but we think we&rsquo;ve got some players who can help us eventually,&rdquo; he said.None, of course, can replace the legendary Perreault. This being a draft of 18-year-olds, most of the players are &ldquo;futures&rdquo;, but the Sabres were obviously elated to get Anderson, a player who may be able to play next season.The 6-foot 1, 190-pound Anderson was rated the best defenseman available in this year&rsquo;s talent pool and was, according to one scout: &ldquo;the closest thing to Paul Coffey in the draft.&rdquo; Anderson was rated the third-best player overall in the final rankings from Central Scouting&mdash;behind Joe Murphy and Jim Carson, the two players who went first and second, respectively.It was considered unlikely Anderson would be available at the time Buffalo drafted. Los Angeles, drafting in the No. 2 position was said to be interested. So too were New Jersey and Pittsburgh, the No. 3 and 4 drafting clubs, respectively.There were rumors before the draft that Anderson has an asthmatic condition. Those rumors were later confirmed, but the ailment is said to be only bothersome in particularly warm weather and can be treated by medication.If the ailment is bothersome to Anderson it has never been in evidence.Anderson is praised by virtually everyone for his exceptional skating ability. Despite the fact he scored just two goals and earned only six assists in 33 games for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team, he&rsquo;s known for his offensive ability, playmaking and exceptional passing ability.Another plus with Anderson is that he is not married to the Olympic movement. He said he would explore his opportunity with the Sabres and if it didn&rsquo;t work out he would return to the Olympic program.Buffalo used its second pick to draft another defenseman, Greg Brown of St. Mark&rsquo;s High School near Boston.Brown, 6 feet and 185 pounds, had been expected to go in the first round. He was rated No. 13 in Central&rsquo;s final rankings and in the opinion of several scouts should have been picked higher. In addition to goal-scoring talents (22 in 19 games), he is an excellent playmaker (28 assists) and enjoys a physical game. He is said to be able to bench press 300 pounds.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021001/5066749-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="117" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2>Brown will probably honor a previous commitment to attend Boston College in the fall and is a candidate for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.The Sabres had two picks in the third round and used them both to draft physical forwards.With their third pick, the 47th in the draft, they selected Bob Corkum, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound right winger from the University of Maine.Corkum distinguished himself with his physical play. He is a good forechecker and is very tough and strong in front of the net. Bowman described him as a &ldquo;project player&rdquo; but said that at this stage of his development scouts feel he is ahead of where Jeff Parker was. The Sabres drafted Parker several years ago and are now attempting to lure him out of Michigan State.Before committing to Maine, Corkum was heavily recruited by Boston College for its football team.The Sabres had a second pick in the third round and used it to draft another physical right winger, Kevin Kerr of the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario League.Kerr, no relation to Philadelphia scoring star Tim Kerr, had 21 goals and 51 assists last year, but the 5-foot-10, 172-pound forward is best noted for his penalty minutes, a whopping 266. Bowman described him as being similar to Hartford&rsquo;s Kevin Dineen and said he felt he was the OHL prospect most likely to make the jump to the NHL next year.Central Scouting rated Kerr a good skater, strong on his feet and an excellent passer from the offensive comer and very physical. He is also described as a team leader with great desire and an excellent attitude.The Sabres&rsquo; &ldquo;local&rdquo; selection came in the fourth round when they drafted defenseman David Baseggio, a Niagara Falls, Ont. native who was rookie of the year this past season at Yale University.Baseggio said he would return to Yale next season, but would eventually take a crack at making the Sabres.The Sabres went back to the high school ranks in the sixth, drafting Larry Rooney, a 5-foot-11, 165-pound forward from Thayer High (Mass.) who scored 20 goals and had 35 assists in 24 games.In the sixth round they selected defenseman Miguel Baldris from Shawinigan in the Quebec League. Baldris had just two goals in 67 games but had 101 penalty minutes and said he enjoyed playing a physical game.The Sabres went after yet another right winger in the seventh round, drafting Mike Hartman, a Detroit native who plays for North Bay in the OHL. They selected a left winger in the eighth round, Francois Guay of Laval in the Quebec League. Both are known for their size and strength. Hartman had 217 penalty minutes in just 57 gamesThe Sabres picked Shawn Whitman, a defenseman from Providence College, in the ninth round and Kenton Rein, a goaltender from Prince Albert, in the 10th.Their final defensive selection was another &ldquo;physical&rdquo; player, defenseman Troy Arndt. The 6-foot, 196 pounder played 63 games for Portland, accumulating three goals, 20 assists and 288 penalty minutes.The Sabres surrendered their 12th-round pick to New Jersey as compensation in the deal that sent defenseman Phil Russell to Buffalo late last season. &#9632;

f0014-01

Original Sabre Perreault Retires—But May Return

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER-When the Boston Bruins informed the Vancouver Canucks they would be able to make their first-round selection June 21 in the draft, general manager Jack Gordon was a little surprised.&ldquo;I honestly didn&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;d get it because we had heard they were interested in a couple of players who were still available,&rdquo; said Gordon, who was pleased to take Dan Woodley of Portland seventh overall.Bruin general manager Harry Sinden had the choice of taking Vancouver&rsquo;s first-round pick this year or next after trading the rights to free agent Barry Pederson to Vancouver. The Bruins also received Cam Neely in the deal.Sinden, evidently, is betting the Canucks will finish last in their division and miss the playoffs next year.Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen, though Sinden will be smelling like a rose if the Canucks really slip into the tank and he finds hibiself in the running for the Granby Bisons&rsquo; Pierre-Turgeon, the man expected to be tops overall next year.Assuming Gordon doesn&rsquo;t obtain a high pick next year, Woodley will be Vancouver&rsquo;s first draft choice for not only 1986 but 1987 as well.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got a pretty good prospect, although it&rsquo;s unlikely he&rsquo;ll be able to help us this year,&rdquo; said Gordon. &ldquo;Most of them need at least one year back in junior.&rdquo;&ldquo;I like to think I can play like Bryan Trottier,&rdquo; said Woodley, who had 45 goals. 47 assists and 100 penalty minutes in 62 games with the Winter Hawks last year. &ldquo;I like the way he plays at both ends of the ice. wins faceoffs and really is kind of a leader on the ice. That&rsquo;s the way I want to be. I just try to work hard at both ends of the ice and take the body.&rdquo;While coach Tom Watt is hardly expecting Woodley to come right in and make the team, he&rsquo;s holding out a bit of hope.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be given every opportunity to make the team,&rdquo; said Watt. &ldquo;We were looking for a young center and it looks like he&rsquo;ll be able to fill the bill at that position. He&rsquo;s played all three forward positions and I thought he played pretty well through the Memorial Cup despite the fact he was hurting. He&rsquo;s impressed me.&rdquo;<h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011199/5066787-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="114" height="105"></div>The Canucks had been looking to get Neil Brady from the Medicine Hat Tigers, but New Jersey surprised a few observers taking him third overall. But Woodley looks like he&rsquo;ll almost certainly be a mainstay on the Canucks in a season or two.A citizen of both the United States and Canada because his father, Dave, was playing professional hockey in Oklahoma City when he was bom. Woodley is eligible to play for either the American or Canadian national junior teams.His parents now live in Victoria, across just 35 miles of water from Vancouver.The CanuckS did not have a second-round pick in the draft, that being ceded to Philadelphia in the J.J. Daigneault trade earlier in the month.But with their third pick, they took Don Gibson, a tough winger from Winkler in the Manitoba Junior League. Gibson is already committed to the Michigan State Spartans for next season.The rest of the Vancouver selections were the usual lottery tickets until the final round when they raised a few eyebrows with the selection of Vladimir Krutov of the Soviet Union.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just taking out some insurance in case there is ever an agreement whereby Soviet players could be allowed to come out,&rdquo; said Gordon. &ldquo;There has been a slight thawing in their position and you never know what may happen.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0015-01

Woodley Models Himself After Islander Star

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;All things considered,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden, &ldquo;we did about as well as we expected.&rdquo;What the Boston Bruins did in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s 1986 entry draft was set the stage for a future that won&rsquo;t be determined until after the 1987 draft and the 1988 Olympic games.The Bruins used their first choice, 13th overall, to select Craig Janney, a freshman centerman from Boston College, and their second pick, 34th overall, to take another center, Pekka Tirkkonen of Finland. Both are 18 years old.Janney, who hails from Enfield, Conn., has indicated that he will play at least one more year at BC and then for the U.S. Olympic team. Tirkkonen also will play next year for his Finnish team and then in the Olympics.The Bruins passed up the opportunity to take the seventh overall pick, obtained from Vancouver in the deal for Barry Pederson&rsquo;s free-agent rights, in favor of taking the Canucks&rsquo; first choice in 1987 when the raw material of the draft is expected to be better.Should Vancouver, which is currently undergoing a massive personnel shakeup, finish dead last in the NHL, the? Bruins would then have a crack at Pierre Turgeon, the 17-year-old brother of the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; Sylvain Turgeon. The younger Turgeon is regarded as a franchise player by Sinden.Nevertheless, Sinden was more than satisfied with the Bruins&rsquo; 1986 choices.&ldquo;What you do in the draft,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is look two or three years down the road with almost every player, except sometimes your first-round pick.&rdquo;Janney, said Sinden, &ldquo;is one of the three most skilled players in the draft. He&rsquo;s got a chance to be really something. He&rsquo;s sitting there with a ton of possibilities.&ldquo;He plays the same style as Wayne Gretzky. Now don&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m comparing him to Gretzky. There&rsquo;s only one Gretzky. But their styles have similar elements.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02875/5066818-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="123" height="114"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2>Janney, born Sept. 26, 1967, just as Bobby Orr was about to begin a decade of inspiration to New England hockey, said he was &ldquo;just thrilled to death&rdquo; at being taken by the Bruins.But he&rsquo;s still going to stay in school and play in the Olympics two years hence.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s been a long-range goal for a long time,&rdquo; lie said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to play for my country. There&rsquo;s no better feeling than wearing USA on your jersey and hearing the national anthem after you win.&rdquo;Janney did that already for the national junior team in the world tournament last winter when he suffered a broken collarbone in a game against Team Canada. Ironically, he was knocked into the boards by Alain Cote, the Bruins&rsquo; top draft choice in 1985.&ldquo;I missed three weeks,&rdquo; said Janney. &ldquo;Then I came back too soon. It was a mistake. I missed about three more weeks.&rdquo;As a result, he had only 13 goals and 14 assists to show for 32 games as a freshman at Boston College. But there is little doubt he knows how to put the puck in the net.Janney set all sorts of individual scoring records in leading Enfield High School to three straight Connecticut state titles. His team won 43 gatpes in a row, losing finally when Janney was out with the flu.He transferred for his senior year into tougher competition at Deerfield Academy where he had 33 goals and 35 assists in only 20 games, a feat that earned him a scholarship at Boston College.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;Harry Sinden said he might have exercised Vancouver&rsquo;s No.7 choice if one of three players (excluding Joe Murphy, the obvious top pick) had been available. But Jimmy Carson went second to Los Angeles, Neil Brady third to New Jersey and Vincent Damphousse sixth to Toronto. &#9632;

f0015-02

Olympics Figure In Future Plans

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Bill Torrey was wearing a new bow tie and a tight grin when he faced a multitude of reporters on a bright June morning at the Nassau Coliseum.&ldquo;Thirteen years and eight days ago I introduced a new coach,&rdquo; the New York Islanders&rsquo; general manager said. &ldquo;Hopefully it will be another 13 years and eight days when somebody introduces the next one. Ladies and gentlemen, meet our new coach.&rdquo;And with that Terry Simpson of Prince Albert, Sask., a junior coach with no previous major-league experience, stepped forward and was introduced as Al Arbour&rsquo;s successor.Simpson showed up for his introduction to the New York media looking pale and fidgety.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have to excuse me if I sound nervous,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not used to crowds like this in Prince Albert.&ldquo;This is a big day for me. It&rsquo;s a dream that I never thought possible. Coming here was a difficult decision in a way. I was leaving a position of reasonable security, but the offer came from a quality organization and that made my decision easier.&rdquo;Simpson, 42, gained attention by coaching the Prince Albert Raiders to the Memorial Cup championship in 1985 and to the finals again this year. He also coached the Canadian national junior team to the gold medal in the World Championships two years ago and silver this past season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m prepared to face (the problem) of adapting from the junior level to the pro ranks,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are different ways to motivate players. One compromise I won&rsquo;t make, though, is to (abandon) the work ethic.&ldquo;I have no ties. Names and numbers mean nothing to me. I don&rsquo;t know any of the players.&rdquo;Simpson grinned and added: &ldquo;That could be a plus. Training camp should be a competitive situation. All the spots will be open. 1 have no loyalties to anyone.&rdquo;He smiled again when somebody asked him if he were prepared to conduct a &ldquo;clean sweep&rdquo; of the Islanders&rsquo; personnel.&ldquo;Nobody has given me a broom yet,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not thinking about wholesale changes. I&rsquo;m sure the players were disappointed with last season. They&rsquo;re prepared for a resurgence.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011073/5066849-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="138" height="120"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2>They had better be prepared, according to Torrey.&ldquo;We have a lot of kids we have to make room for,&rdquo; the general manager said. &ldquo;And we have some (veterans) who were given the benefit of the doubt in the past. Some feel we waited too long to move some of them. If they think they have a job because we won the Cup a couple of years ago, they&rsquo;re wrong. All that matters is how they play now. If that sounds ominous, I guess it is.&rdquo;Three days later, Torrey and Simpson were in Montreal for the National Hockey League entry draft. The Islanders picked 14 players, including six U.S.-bom teenagers.The team&rsquo;s first-round pick was Tom Fitzgerald, a 17-year-old center from Billerica, Mass., who will enter Providence College in September. He totaled 35 goals and 73 points in 24 games for Austin Prep last season.Fitzgerald carries 190 pounds on his 6-foot-l frame. &ldquo;Though he&rsquo;s only 17, he&rsquo;s physically mature,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a strong skater and has a good scoring touch. Going to Providence College will be a plus for him and it will be easier for us to keep an eye on him.&rdquo;Fitzgerald also has a good sense of humor. He admitted he went to bed early on the eve of the draft because &ldquo;this is just like Christmas.. the faster you get to bed, the faster you get up.&rdquo;The Islanders picked Dennis Vaske, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound high school defenseman from Rockford, Illinois, in the second round. He did not make the trip to Montreal because he felt he would be ignored in the draft.&ldquo;We called Dennis at his home and he broke down and cried when we told him we had drafted him,&rdquo; Torrey said.Only twoof the Islanders&rsquo; newest draftees are under six feet. The biggest is sixth-rounder Tony Schmalzbauer, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound high school defenseman from Minnesota.ON THE ISLAND&mdash;Terry Simpson said he would pick his assistant coach &ldquo;in a couple of weeks.&rdquo; Asked what type of assistant he would like, Simpson joked, &ldquo;Somebody who can complement my deficiencies, but maybe there&rsquo;s nobody around that good.&rdquo; Bobby Nys-trom, forced to retire because of an eye injury suffered last season, remains a strong favorite for the job. &#9632;

f0016-01

Smalltown Simpson New Islander Coach

THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE&rsquo;S annual entry draft and congress was done in by a missing coffee shop.The absence of a greasy spoon in the headquarters hotel had the league&rsquo;s wheeler-dealer general managers wheeling around looking for a place to settle in for some serious dealing.They didn&rsquo;t find one.Craig Patrick, Bob Clarke and a lot more general managers promised unprecedented trading activities at the meetings, up to and after the draft. What we got was Scott Arniel for Gilles Hamel.There were supposed to be serious runs taken at the first through fifth selections of the first round. Each was available. Each was kept.&ldquo;This is terrible,&rdquo; Clake said at one point. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no coffee shop. How are you supposed to find people?&rdquo;So the GMs retreated to their rooms, sat by the phone and were engaged in far fewer discussions than they expected. Spontaneity was reduced and dealing was dulled.For the first time since the drafts became truly universal in 1969 each club selected a player in its own first-round position.Certainly many clubs made an effort to change position.Just ask the family of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; first-round pick, center Jimmy Carson.A front desk clerk with a sense of humor or with poor judgment put the Carson room next to the Kings&rsquo; suite. The night before the draft&mdash;in which Carson was clearly the Kings&rsquo; favored choice&mdash;the Carson clan couldn&rsquo;t help but hear the voice of general manager Rogie Vachon booming through the wall.Vachon was accepting offers for his pick&mdash;essentially for Carson&mdash;and going over them with his staff. There was at least one other mix-up; this time from an organization known for the odd foul-up.Toronto set up a meeting with prospective first-round pick Dan Woodley, a left winger from Portland. Woodley ambled to an empty Leafs&rsquo; hotel room. The Leafs waited in vain in the hotel lobby. The two did cross paths but in separate elevators&mdash;one going up, the other down&mdash;and never did meet.Trade rumors still managed to wander through Montreal from the Forum to the convention center and from the most popular restaurant, Gibbys, to the most popular nightspot, Chez Paree.Of course there was more smoke going around than in a roomful of cigar-chompers Serge Savard, John Ferguson and Rogatien Vachon.<h2>GUEST SHOT</h2>Rod BeatonGuest Shot is a bi-weekly feature which allows THN correspondents and other members of the media community an opportunity to express their views in an open forum.A random survey of NHL scouts revealed the early line on the draft has Detroit, New Jersey, Buffalo, St. Louis, Hartford and Minnesota faring best. It was hard to do poorly. The depth was that good.Detroit grabbed two standout centers off the top. In Steve Yzerman, Joe Murphy, Adam Graves, Adam Oates and Shawn Burr they have what sounds like a pretty dam good long-range center-ice corps.The draft is designed to help weak teams like Detroit get better. It&rsquo;s certainly gratifying to see Detroit, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg resist quick-fix temptation, keep their picks and evidently use them wisely.The draft would be even more helpful if the age were raised to 19 or 20. There would be more certainty about the ability of the picks so the weaker teams would benefit even more from their high drafting positions.That&rsquo;s not to mention the obvious benefits to the junior and college leagues and to the players themselves.Ed Chynoweth, president of the Canadian major junior leagues, and attorney-player rep Brian Burke have been two of the more vocal and visible advocates of fixing the draft.Their ideas center on a hardship rule, like the one in the NBA, being implemented to allow players of exceptional ability to declare themselves eligible for the draft at 18.NHL president John Ziegler and vice-president Gil Stein dismiss the notion of change out of hand with an &ldquo;I&rsquo;m-a-lawyer-and-you&rsquo;re-not&rdquo; air. Ziegler always says &ldquo;If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it.&rdquo; This draft is broke, John. We all know it. If the NHL would adopt a can-do attitude, I can&rsquo;t believe a legally viable way to change the draft could not be found.The merger with the WHA was Ziegler&rsquo;s greatest triumph. Finding a way to amend the 18-year-old draft would be an accomplishment on that level, a great way to start his next five years. The least he can do is give it a try. If he&rsquo;s happy with the draft then the man is daft.Rod Beaton covers hockey for the USA Today. &#9632;

Prospect Of Draft Trades Went Up In (Cigar) Smoke

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>NEW YORK&mdash;The New York Rangers didn&rsquo;t come away from the first round of the 1986 entry draft with the big center they desperately wanted but they gained a highly-skilled defense prospect when they selected prep school sensation Brian Leetch of Cheshire, Conn.Speaking with refreshing candor from the floor of the Montreal Forum, Craig Patrick did what few National Hockey League general managers have done over the years&mdash;admitted that he failed to come away with the man he wanted most.&ldquo;We tried to make a trade to move up in the draft,&rdquo; Patrick reported. &ldquo;We tried everybody (in the top six). I thought we made extremely good offers&hellip;but nobody made a, trade in the whole first round.&ldquo;We would have taken any one of three centers (five were taken before the Rangers picked in the No. 9 position) but none of them were left,&rdquo; the New York GM explained. &ldquo;When our turn came, there was nobody&mdash;at any position&mdash;with a rating close to Brian Leetch. He just has too much ability and potential to pass up.&rdquo;Once again, Patrick displayed the courage of his convictions because he knew full well that the selection would be criticized in some quarters on the same basis that many other past personnel decisions have been criticized.To a large extent, Leetch is a typical Ranger pick, having been based on skill level more than size, strength or toughness.A 5-foot-ll, 175-pound defenseman who collected 40 goals and 44 assists in only 28 games for Avon Old Farms, a Hartford prep school which plays a strong schedule, Leetch is clearly a finesse player.But Patrick stressed that testing and evaluations conducted by the Ranger staff prior to the draft (bone size, family growth history, etc.) led him to project the 17-year-old Leetch as a 6-foot, 195 pounder by the time he reaches his 21st birthday.In addition, Patrick believes Leetch&rsquo;s talent is so exceptional that he might find himself playing both defense and center at some time later in his college, Olympic or pro career.The selection of Leetch was one of the more controversial of the top 10 but Winnipeg&rsquo;s highly-respected talent evaluator, Mike Smith, didn&rsquo;t think there was much room for debate.&ldquo;I believe Leetch is one of six players who have a chance to be remembered as the best player taken in the 1986 draft,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;He has great ability and, drafting No. 9, I don&rsquo;t see how the Rangers could have made any other pick.&rdquo;Defenseman Todd Copeland, who was drafted 24th overall by New Jersey and has played with and against Leetch, all but laughed at the &ldquo;experts&rdquo; who worry that he is too small and lacks exceptional speed.<h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02861/5066904-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="130" height="116"></div>&ldquo;He has great hockey feel and sense,&rdquo; Copeland stressed. &ldquo;He can put a pass through anything&hellip;he can put a move on you., he can do it all. Brian is a natural.&rdquo;The handsome blond defenseman does, in fact, look a little like a hockey version of The Natural and has a definite timetable for reaching the NHL.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to Boston College this fall, I&rsquo;d like to play for the U.S. in the 1988 Olympics and then, if all goes well, join the Rangers after that,&rdquo; Leetch projected.After taking Leetch, the Rangers didn&rsquo;t have another pick until No. 51 overall and they used it to take Bret Walter, a 6-foot-l. 195-pound center from the University of Alberta.Two picks later. New York selected Walter&rsquo;s teammate, hard-nosed winger Shawn Clouston. The Rangers, who found a gem in free agent Mike Ridley from the University of Manitoba last fall, accounted for two of the three players drafted from Canadian universities in 1986.Patrick was so high on Walter, who has played only one year of university hockey, that he said he felt the 6-foot-l, 195-pound native of Calgary had an &ldquo;outside chance&rdquo; of earning a spot on the Rangers this fall.Patrick and his staff were also high on center Mark Janssens, a 6-foot-3, 196-pound center who scored 25 goals and 38 assists while skating for Regina of the WHL last season. Two rounds after taking Janssens (72nd overall), the New Yorkers took a third center, slick Darren Turcotte (114th), a Boston native who scored 35 goals in 62 games for North Bay.Although disappointed with his inability to grab one of the top three centers on his list, Patrick displayed a cool, calm exterior. He continued to shrug off rumors that his job was in jeopardy and didn&rsquo;t sound like a man with travel plans.BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;The announcement of the Rangers&rsquo; 10th-round pick, Joe Ranger of the London Knights, created a stir. The 6-foot-4, 226-pound defenseman played only 22 games last year before quitting because of personal problems&hellip;At least one GM from a competing club suggested that he would be putting in a call to European scout Lars Erik-Sjoberg if the Rangers hesitated any longer in offering him a new contract. The whole scouting and support staff had been, in effect, put on hold by the Garden&rsquo;s strange failure to move, one way or the other, on Craig Patrick&rsquo;s status. &#9632;</div>

f0016-02

GM Must Settle For A Rearguard

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div>TORONTO&mdash;All good things must come to an end. Or so Wayne Gretzky feared.Winner of six consecutive Hart Trophies, a National Hockey League record, Gretzky was aiming for yet another mark&mdash;a seventh MVP honor&mdash;with a certain amount of trepidation.&ldquo;I felt a little uncomfortable,&rdquo; Gretzky admitted. &ldquo;I thought this was the year it was going to end for me.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t.Gretzky received the Hart Trophy for the seventh straight season&mdash;one for every year he has played in the NHL&mdash;on June 10 at the league&rsquo;s annual awards banquet.The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; superstar expected fierce competition from Mario Lemieux, the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; super sophomore, in the media balloting.But it didn&rsquo;t materialize as Gretzky collected 54 of 60 first-place votes cast.There had been considerable speculation that Lemieux would be the choice of voters who chose literal translation of the Hart&rsquo;s terms of reference which reads, &ldquo;player adjudged to be most valuable to his team.&rdquo;And mere weeks earlier, it was announced that Lemieux had been chosen the NHL&rsquo;s outstanding player and winner of the Lester B. Pearson Award in a vote of league players.&ldquo;Mario had a great year,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;And he deserved all the recognition he received. All I was trying to do was the best I can.&rdquo;For Gretzky that meant establishing two more records&mdash;most assists (163) and most points (215). Lemieux, runner-up to Gretzky in the scoring derby, had 141 points&mdash;22 less than No. 99&rsquo;s assist total.&ldquo;Throughout the whole season I went (only) three games without a point,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;I think the regular season was the best I ever had.&rdquo;By winning a seventh Hart, the 25-year-old broke another record&mdash;this one for most MVP honors. Gretzky and former superstar Gordie Howe, the Oiler&rsquo;s boyhood idol, shared the old mark with six each.After winning his sixth last year. Gretzky said he would like one day to score 100 goals in a single season. (He holds the record of 92.) He changed targets, however, when the 1985-86 season began. Instead of shooting for the century mark he concentrated on averaging two assists per game.Asked what he had in mind for himself next year, Gretzky was adamant.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking now at winning the Stanley Cup again,&rdquo; said the center whose Oi lers were upset this year in the Smythe Division final by the Calgary Flames.Two other Oilers also settled for individual honors as consolation prizes in the absence of team playoff honors.Paul Coffey earned his second straight Norris Trophy as top defenseman and Glen Sather received the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year.Other winners were: Gary Suter of the Calgary Flames, top rookie; John Vanbiesbrouck of the New York Rangers, best goalie; Troy Murray of the Chicago Blackhawks, top defensive forward; and Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders, most gentlemanly player.Coffey, 25, was the overwhelming choice of Norris Trophy voters. He was named first on 53 of 60 ballots after scoring 48 goals to break Bobby Orr&rsquo;s record (46) for most goals by a defenseman.Mark Howe of the Philadelphia Flyers, the NHL&rsquo;s plus/minus leader, was first on the other seven ballots.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01944/5066935-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="729" height="1152"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky set a record when he was presented with his seventh consecutive Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.</figcaption></div>Sather, 42, edged former St. Louis Blues&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers (80 voting points to 70) in coach-of-the-year balloting by NHL broadcasters.Ironically, he won the award not after one of his two Stanley Cup-winning seasons, bul after this April&rsquo;s elimination.That setback guaranteed Sather&rsquo;s return behind the bench.&ldquo;After what happened this year,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you couldn&rsquo;t get me out of there with a team of wild horses.&rdquo;The Oilers were the top regular-season team with 119 points.Suter, 22, was a surprisingly easy winner over Wendel Clark of Toronto in the CaiderTrophy race, polling 230 voting points to the Maple Leaf&rsquo;s 165.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s by far the biggest thrill I&rsquo;ve ever had in my life,&rdquo; said Suter whose 68 points (18-50) were second only to Larry Murphy&rsquo;s 76 in 1980-81 for most ever by a first-year defenseman. &ldquo;It even takes some of the sting out of not being able to play in the finals.&rdquo;Suter was sidelined during the playoffs with a knee injury.In the closest vote of all, NHL general managers picked Vanbiesbrouck over the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Bob Froese by a margin of 60-58.Vanbiesbrouck, 22, was the Rangers&rsquo; main man in goal all year and tied for the league lead in victories (31) with Froese who had the best goals-against average (2.55) and most shutouts (5) in the league.Murray, 23, became the highest scorer ever to win the Frank Selke Trophy after a season of 45 goals and 54 assists.His 45 goals were almost twice as many as the previous high&mdash;23&mdash;by a winner. Ron Sutter of Philadelphia was runner-up in voting.Bossy, 29, won his third Lady Byng Trophy in convincing fashion over Jari Kurri of Edmonton, last year&rsquo;s winner. One of the game&rsquo;s most articulate spokesman both in action and words, he scored 61 goals and 62 assists this past season. &#9632;

f0017-01

Take Hart, No. 99’s Status Remains Intact…

When and if the stars come out to play next year, they&rsquo;ll be meeting the Soviets in Quebec City at Rendez-vous &rsquo;87.The two-game, total-goal all-star series, matching the National Hockey League&rsquo;s best against the Soviet&rsquo;s best, has finally been finalized&mdash;almost.It will run from Monday, Feb. 9 to Friday, Feb. 13.The NHL announced plans for Ren-dez-vous &rsquo;87 after this year&rsquo;s All-Star Game in Hartford before reaching an agreement with the Soviets.Negotiations between the two sides began in earnest at the World Championships in April and were completed at the International Ice Hockey Federation meetings at Colorado in early June.That took care of the Soviets.Now, the NHL must satisfy the Players&rsquo; Association whose president Alan Eagleson said recently that there&rsquo;s been no talk of compensation to the players.Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement which expires Sept. 15, players are required to participate. The players&rsquo; prospective involvement in Ren-dez-vous &rsquo;87 is sure to become a NHLPA bargaining chip in current negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.However, Marcel Aubut, president of the Quebec Nordiques and principal organizer of the event, says that getting the players is the least of his concerns.The best indication of who might be included on the NHL &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s Who&rsquo; team next February is this year&rsquo;s all-star aggregation.Center Wayne Gretzky, ho-hum, was named to the first team for the sixth straight year after polling 292 of a possible 300 voting points.Only defenseman Paul Coffey, Gretzky&rsquo;s Edmonton Oiler teammate, came closer to being a unanimous selection with 294 points.Gretzky scored a NHL-record 215 points this year and Coffey accumulated 138, including a record 48 goals for a defenseman.Other members of the first team are goalie John Vanbiesbrouck (3.32 goals-against average) of the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyer defenseman Mark Howe (24-58-82), Quebec Nordique left winger Michel Goulet (53-50-103) and right winger Mike Bossy (61-62-123) of the New York Islanders.Comprising the second team are center Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins (48-93-141), right winger Jari Kurri of Edmonton (68-63-131), left winger Mats Naslund (43-67-110) of the Montreal Canadiens, defensemen Larry Robinson (19-63-82) of Montreal and Ray Bourque (19-57-76) of the Boston Bruins and goalie Bob Froese of Philadelphia (2.55).Vanbiesbrouck, Lemieux, Naslund and Froese are all first-time all-stars. &#9632;

…And His NHL (All-) Star Is Still Burning Brightly

<h2>AWARDS WINNERS</h2>Hart Trophy&mdash;WAYNE GRETZKY. Edmonton.Norris Trophy&mdash;PAUL COFFEY, Edmonton. Byng Trophy&mdash;MIKE BOSSY, NY Islanders. Calder Trophy&mdash;GARY SUTER, Calgary. Selke Trophy&mdash;TROY MURRAY, Chicago. Vezina Trophy&mdash;JOHN VANBIESBROUCK, NY Rangers.Adams Award&mdash;GLEN SATHER, Edmonton.<h2>HOW THEY VOTED</h2>Hart Trophy(Most Valuable Player)(First, second, third votes in brackets. Total points follow players names).1. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton 281 (54,3,2);2. Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh 163 (4,46,5); 3. Mark Howe, Philadelphia 32 (0,5,17); 4. Paul Coffey, Edmonton 29 (1,4,12); 5. John Van-biesbrouck, NY Rangers 16 (1,1,8); 6. Mike Bossy, NY Islanders 5 (0,1,2); 7. Peter Stastny, Quebec 3 (0,0,3); 8. Neal Broten, Minnesota 2 (0,0,2); 9. Tim Kerr, Philadelphia 2 (0,0,2); 10. Raymond Bourque, Boston 1 (0,0,1); 11. Kevin Dineen, Hartford 1 (0,0,1); 12. Bernie Federko, St. Louis 1 (0,0,1); 13. Ron Francis, Hartford 1 (0,0,1); 14. Troy Murray, Chicago 1 (0,0,1); 15. Brian Propp, Philadelphia 1 (0,0,1); 16. Larry Robinson, Montreal 1 (0,0,1).Norris Trophy (Best defenseman)1. Paul Coffey, Edmonton 280 (53,5,0); 2. Mark Howe, Philadelphia 172 (7,44,5); 3. Larry Robinson, Montreal 43 (0,4,31); 4. Raymond Bourque, Boston 25 (0,3,16); 5. RodByng Trophy (Most Sportsmanlike)1. Mike Bossy, NY Islanders 217 (33,16,4);2. Jari Kurri, Edmonton 100 (7,16,17); 3. Mats Naslund, Montreal 99 (8,14,17); 4. Mark Howe, Philadelphia 24 (4,0,4); 5. Bernie Federko, St. Louis 16 (2,1,3); 6. Dave Christian, Washington 14 (1,2,3); 7. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton 13 (2,1,0); 8. Joe Mullen, Calgary 10 (0,2,4); 9. Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo 8 (1,1,0); 10. Rick Middleton, Boston 5 (1,0,0);11. Terry Ruskowski, Los Angeles 5 (1,0,0);12. Neal Broten, Minnesota 4 (0,1,1); 13. Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles 4 (0,1,1); 14. Mike Ramsey, Buffalo 3 (0,1,0); 15. Larry Robinson, Montreal 3 (0,1,0); 16. Charlie Simmer, Boston 3 (0,1,0); 17. Glenn Resch, Philadelphia 3 (0,1,0); 18. Doug Wilson, Chicago 3 (0,1,0); 19. Kjell Dahlin, Montreal 2 (0,0,2); 20. Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh 1 (0,0,1); 21. Clint Malar-chuk, Quebec 1 (0,0,1); 22. Bob Nystrom, NY Islanders 1 (0,0,1); 23. Reijo Ruotsalainen, NY Rangers 1 (0,0,1).Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year)1. Gary Suter, Calgary 230 (35,17,4); 2. Wendel Clark, Toronto 165 (18,22,9); 3. Kjell Dahlin, Montreal 83 (4,13,24); 4. Mike Ridley, NY Rangers 41 (1,8,12); 5. Per-Erik Eklund, Philadelphia 8 (1,0,3); 6. Patrick Roy, Montreal 8 (1,0,3); 7. Petr Klima, Detroit 3 (0,0,3);8. Joel Otto, Calgary 2 (0,0,2).Selke Trophy (Best defensive forward)1. Troy Murray, Chicago 179 (25,16,6); 2. Ron Sutter, Philadelphia 127 (17,11,9); 3. Guy Carbonneau, Montreal 52 (1,10,17); 4. Bengt Gustafsson, Washington 32 (4,3,3); 5. Jari Kurri, Edmonton 25 (3,3,1); 6. Bob Gainey, Montreal 18 (1,4,1); 7. Doug Jarvis, Hartford 16 (2,1,3); 8. Dave Poulin, Philadelphia 14 (2,1,1); 9. Alain Cote, Quebec 11 (2,0,1); 10. Bryan Trottier, NY Islanders 10 (1,1,2); 11. Rick Meagher, St. Louis 6 (0,2,0); 12. Dave Tippett, Hartford 6 (0,2,0); 13. Brent Peterson, Vancouver 6 (0,1,3); 14. Gaetan Duchesne, Washington 5 (1,0,0); 15. Terry Ruskowski, Los Angeles 5 (1,0,0); 16. Mark Messier, Edmonton 4 (0,1,1); 17. Stewart Gavin, Hartford 3 (0,1,0); 18. Paul Gillis, Quebec 3 (0,1,0); 19. Alan Haworth, Washington 3 (0,1,0); 18. Paul Gillis, Quebec 3 (0,1,0); 19. Alan Haworth, Washington 3 (0,1,0); 20. Peter Zezel, Philadelphia 3 (0,1,0); 21. Brent Sutter, NY Islanders 3 (0,0,3); 22. Russ Courtnail, Toronto 2 (0,0,2); 23. Bob Gould, Washington 2 (0,0,20; 24. Doug Gilmour, St. Louis 1 (0,0,1); 25. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton 1 (0,0,1); 26. Dale Hunter, Quebec 1 (0,0,1); 27. Steve Kasper, Boston 1 (0,0,1); 28. Jim Pe-plinski, Calgary 1 (0,0,1).Vezina Trophy (Best goaltender)1. John Vanbiesbrouck, NY Rangers 60 (9,3,6); 2. Bob Froese, Philadelphia 58 (8,5,3);3. Grant Fuhr, Edmonton 32 (4,3,3); 4. Clint Malarchuk, Quebc 15 (0,4,3); 5. Don Beaupre, Minnesota 7 (0,2,1); 6. Kelly Hrudey, NY Islanders 7 (0,2,1); 7. Mike Liut, Hartford 4 (0,1,1); 8. Andy Moog, Edmonton 3 (0,1,0); 9. Tom Barrasso, Buffalo 1 (0,0,1); 10. Al Jensen, Washington 1 (0,0,1); 11. Patrick Roy, Montreal 1 (0,0,1).Jack Adams Award(Coach of the Year)1. Glen Sather, Edmonton 80 (12,5,5); 2. Jacques Demers, St. Louis 70 (9,7,4); 3. Lome Henning, Minnesota 42 (4,7,1); 4. Bryan Murray, Washington 31 (4,7,2); 5. Mike Keenan, Philadelphia 19 (0,5,4); 6. Jack Evans, Hartford 11 (2.0.1): 7. Jean Perron. Montreal 10 (0,3,1); 8. Michel Bergeron, Quebec 9 (0,1,6);9. Bob Berry, Pittsburgh 9 (0,1,6); 10. Ted Sator, NY Rangers 5 (1,0,0); 11. Butch Goring, Boston 1 (0,0,1); 12. Bob Johnson, Calgary 1 (0,0,1).<h2>ALL-STAR TEAMS First Team</h2>Goal&mdash;JOHN VANBIESBROUCK, NY Rangers.Defense&mdash;PAUL COFFEY, Edmonton. Defense&mdash;MARK HOWE, Philadelphia. Center&mdash;WAYNE GRETZKY, Edmonton. R. Wing&mdash;MIKE BOSSY, NY Islanders.L. Wing&mdash;MICHEL GOULET, Quebec.Second TeamGoal&mdash;BOB FROESE, Philadelphia. Defense&mdash;LARRY ROBINSON, Montreal. Defense&mdash;RAYMOND BOURQUE, Boston. Center&mdash;MARIO LEMIEUX, Pittsburgh.R. Wing&mdash;JARI KURRI, Edmonton. L. Wing&mdash;MATS NASLUND, Montreal.<h2>HOW THEY VOTED</h2>GOAL1. John Vanbiesbrouck, NY Rangers 185 (22,22,9); 2. Bob Froese, Philadelphia 138 (17,13,14); 3. Grant Fuhr, Edmonton 129 (19,9,7); 4. Clint Malarchuk, Quebec 31 (1,7,5); 5. Al Jensen, Washington 15(1,1,7); 6. Andy Moog, Edmonton 15 (0,3,6); 7. Don Beaupre, Minnesota 10 (0,2,4); 8. Tom Barrasso, Buffalo 6 (0,1,3); 9. Mike Liut, Hartford 6 (0,1,3); 10. Kelly Hrudey, NY Islanders 4 (0,1,1); 11. Rick Wamsley, St. Louis 1 (0,0,1).DEFENSE1. Paul Coffey, Edmonton 294 (58,1,1); 2. Mark Howe, Philadelphia 272 (47,12,1); 3. Larry Robinson, Montreal 170 (4,47,9); 4. Raymond Bourque, Boston 158 (5,39,16); 5. Rod Langway, Washington 87 (6,7,36); 6. Doug Wilson, Chicago 22 (0,2,16); 7. Brad McCrimmon, Philadelphia 17 (0,4,5); 8. Denis Potvin, NY Islanders 17 (0,2,11); 9. Rob Ramage, St. Louis 10 (0,2,4); 10. Scott Stevens, Washington 9 (0,1,6); 11. Dave Babych, Hartford 7 (0,2,1); 12. Gary Suter, Calgary 6 (0,0,6); 13. Kevin Lowe, Edmonton 3 (0,1,0); 14. Randy Caryle, Winnipeg 3 (0,0,3); 15. Brad Marsh, Philadelphia 2 (0,0,2); 16. Curt Giles, Minnesota 1 (0,0,1); 17. Al Maclnnis, Calgary 1 (0,0,1); 18. Mike Ramsey, Buffalo 1 (0,0,1).CENTER1. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton 292 (57,2,1);2. Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh 179 (2,56,1); 3. Peter Stastny, Quebec 26 (0,1,23); 4. Denis Savard, Chicago 20 (0,0,20); 5. Troy Murray, Chicago 8 (0,0,8); 6. Bengt Gustafsson, Washington 6 (1,0,1); 7. Bryan Trottier, NY Islanders 3 (0,1,0); 8. Neal Broten, Minnesota 3 (0,0,3); 9. Ron Francis, Hartford 2 (0,0,2); 10. Dale Hawerchuk, Winnipeg 1 (0,0,1).RIGHT WING1. Mike Bossy, NY Islanders 246 (33,27,0);2. Jari Kurri, Edmonton 231 (27,32,0); 3. Tim Kerr, Philadelphia 34 (0,0,34); 4. Joe Mullen, Calgary 6 (0,0,6); 5. Dino Ciccarelli, Minnesota 5 (0,0,5); 6. Mike Foligno, Buffalo 4 (0,0,4); 7. Mark Hunter, St. Louis 4 (0,0,4); 8. Brian Bellows, Minnesota 3 (0,1,0); 9. Glenn Anderson, Edmonton 2 (0,0,2); 10. Dave Christian, Washington 2 (0,0,2); 11. Kevin Dineen, Hartford 1 (0,0,1); 12. Mike Gartner, Washington 1 (0,0,1); 13. Mats Naslund, Montreal 1 (0,0,1).LEFT WING1. Michel Goulet, Quebec 214 (32,16,6); 2. Mats Naslund, Montreal 148 (13,23,14); 3. Glenn Anderson, Edmonton 118 (11,17,12); 4. Brian Propp, Philadelphia 37 (2,3,18); 5. Sylvain Turgeon, Hartford 9 (1,0,4); 6. Charlie Simmer, Boston 6 (0,1,3); 7. John Ogrodnick, Detroit 5 (1,0,0); 8. Scott Bjugstad, Minnesota 1 (0,0,1); 9. Wendel Clark, Toronto 1 (0,0,1);10. Terry Ruskowski, Los Angeles 1 (0,0,1). &#9632;

NHL AWARDS WINNERS AND ALL-STAR TEAMS

<div class="byline">BY ALLAN MAKI</div>CALGARY&mdash;The Icebox cometh.What William (The Refrigerator) Perry is to the Chicago Bears, George Pelawa may be to the Calgary Flames. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound right winger from Bemidji, Minn., was unveiled as the Flames&rsquo; No. I selection at the National Hockey League entry draft.For sheer size, there was no bigger choice in the draft than Pelawa, who has been described as a &ldquo;bull in a china closet.&rdquo;Said Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher: &ldquo;We wanted a big winger and we got one.&rdquo;And more.Pelawa, fresh out of Bemidji High School, has proven himself to be a versatile athlete. He was an all-state linebacker and was debating whether to accept a football scholarship from the University of Minnesota.He also played baseball and ran the 100- and 200-yard events in track, excelling in both sports.His lone failure was swimming.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t float. I&rsquo;ve got heavy bones and I keep sinking,&rdquo; Pelawa explained.In terms of hockey ability, big George earned the nickname &ldquo;Great White Shark&rdquo; for the way he devoured the opposition. In a game last year, Pelawa knocked a rival skater unconscious using only his chest. He drew a two-minute roughing penalty on the play.On another occasion, in a game against Tom Fitzgerald, the New York Islanders&rsquo; No. I pick, Pelawa was knocked to the ice. Unaccustomed to such treatment, Pelawa skated over to Fitzgerald and threatened to break his arm.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember that incident, but I probably did it,&rdquo; Pelawa admitted. &ldquo;That sounds like me.&rdquo;Then there was the time Pelawa, 18, went chasing after some bullies who had been harassing his brother. Not his younger brother, but his older one.But Pelawa&rsquo;s biggest impression may have been made last summer at a junior select hockey camp in Colorado. It was there that The Icebox discovered he could compete with the best players his age.&ldquo;When I was in Colorado, I discovered I could play with all those other people. I decided to give up football and go into hockey.&rdquo;As a winger, Peiawa scored 29 goals and 55 points in 26 games. And since fighting wasn&rsquo;t allowed in his high school league, Pelawa&rsquo;s aggressive tendencies were held pretty much in check.<h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01973/5067014-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="147" height="120"></div>&ldquo;I like to work in front of the net and into the comers. I&rsquo;ll have to fight if I play that way. I&rsquo;m not a goon. I can put the puck in the net.&rdquo;One draft observer remarked that only two things could keep Pelawa out of the NHL. A knife and a fork.Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; GM Lou Nan-ne went on record stating he wouldn&rsquo;t waste his first or second pick on Pelawa. but Fletcher was of a different opinion.He said Pelawa&rsquo;s body fat measured in at a scant 10 per cent. &ldquo;He was a good middle linebacker in football. He ran 100 yards in 11 seconds. And he can still grow. He&rsquo;ll be the biggest winger in the NHL when he gets there. Obviously he&rsquo;s not ready to play with us yet. But he&rsquo;ll be an impact player when he steps into our lineup.&rdquo;Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Scotty Bowman lauded Calgary&rsquo;s top choice (l6th overall), saying Pelawa would be given the necessary time to develop with the Flames.&ldquo;For a team that can afford to wait, he might be a very good one,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a project.&rdquo;Built like a housing project, Pelawa said he was most happy about being claimed by Calgary. When asked which hockey player he admired, Pelawa replied: &ldquo;Joel Otto (of the Flames). I used to watch him play at Bemidji State.&rdquo;Pelawa&rsquo;s immediate future may take him to the University of North Dakota. There&rsquo;s also a possibility he could play in the Western League. Pelawa said he is interested in representing the U.S. at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.In the meantime, Pelawa will continue to train and do what he does best&mdash;grow.&ldquo;I run a little, and ride an excercise bike. I also like to sit around, watch TV, and eat.&rdquo;With the rest of the draft, the Flames did little to curb their reputation as one of the biggest teams in the NHL. After making Pelawa the No. 1. pick the Flames claimed an assortment of big forwards and wingers, highlighted by their second-round selection of Brian Glynn. A 6-foot-4, 224-pound defenseman with the Saskatoon Blades, Glynn scored seven goals and 32 points last season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more of a defensive defense man&rdquo; said Glynn, who was bom in Iserlohn, West Germany. &ldquo;I need to work on my puckhandling ability.&rdquo;Calgary used its fourth-round pick on Tom Quinlan, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound right winger. Quinlan was recently drafted in the 27th round by the Toronto Blue Jays and was to enroll at Minnesota on a baseball scholarship. However, Quinlan spoke with Fletcher on the day of the draft and said he was interested in playing for the Flames.Calgary went overseas with its last two picks. Anders Lindstrom, a 6-foot-2, 182-pound center who played for Timra in the Swedish League, was the 11th choice. Antonin Stavjana was Calgary&rsquo;s 12th pick. A 23-year-old defenseman, Stavjana has spent the past three years with the Czechoslovakian national team.Fletcher admitted he had attempted to trade for an earlier pick in the draft. Discussions led him to the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.Unable to make a deal, the Flames used their first-round choice and were extremely happy with the results. &#9632;</div>

f0018-01

Legend Of Pelawa Grows; So Does Pelawa

<div class="byline">Steve Simmons</div>IN HIS QUIET MOMENTS, when the one-liners have slowed and the audience has disappeared, Charles Bourgeois opens his wallet and leaves his sense of humor behind. He pulls out a tiny picture and he stares.He doesn&rsquo;t cry, although sometimes he feels like it. The picture is of his father, Aurelle, the most important man in his life. Corporal Aurelle Bourgeois of the RCMP was shot in the head and buried in a grave he was forced to dig himself.His body was discovered in Moncton, N.B., on Dec. 15, 1974&mdash;the victim of one of the most bizarre murder cases in Canadian history.His oldest son, Charles, now a defensemen with the St. Louis Blues, was 13 at the time. Charlie was alone, skating on the small, choppy ice rink Aurelle had made for him, when he learned of his father&rsquo;s death.&ldquo;I saw my brother-in-law walking towards me,&rdquo; Bourgeois recalled recently. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t have to say a word. He just looked at me and I knew.&ldquo;For three days they searched for him. We didn&rsquo;t know if he was dead or al i ve. That was the hardest part. It was tough not knowing, then so difficult finding out.&rdquo;Aurelle Bourgeois was one of two RCMP officers buried in tiny graves after being shot while investigating a Moncton kidnapping. The kidnapped boy was returned after a $15,000 ransom was paid.The kidnappers were convicted of murder. More than 11 years later, Bourgeois sat in the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; dressing room, wanting to talk about his father. Charlie Bourgeois is not your typical NHL player, and neither is his story.Bourgeois was never drafted, isn&rsquo;t a particularly gifted athlete, but has still managed to make it through five NHL seasons. This past season was his best, as the Blues came within a win of a berth in the Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;At times like this, I wish he was here,&rdquo; Bourgeois said of his father. &ldquo;My father&rsquo;s dream was that I&rsquo;d be a pro player. He would have loved this. He wanted me to play hockey. He did all the things that dads do.&ldquo;I learned to skate on the outdoor rink he made for me. He was an amazing man, really. A lot tougher than I am. But he helped me. He made me into a better person.&ldquo;I carry the picture of him everywhere. It&rsquo;s always with me.&rdquo;A death in the family often causes children to take so many different directions in their lives. Bourgeois buried himself in his hockey. His younger brother wasn&rsquo;t so fortunate. He has had problems with both the bottle and the law.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02734/5067045-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="393" height="468"></div>&ldquo;Nothing was ever the same,&rdquo; said Bourgeois. &ldquo;The entire family structure was upset. Sometimes I think I didn&rsquo;t tyke enough responsibility. You don&rsquo;t know what you should have done for the family but you know it wasn&rsquo;t enough.&rdquo;He couldn&rsquo;t replace his father, although, he knows he tried.&ldquo;He was a quiet, strong man. People in Moncton looked up to him. He was such a giving person. Instead of locking up the drunks, sometimes he brought them home, tried to clean then up and give them a hot meal. He was always doing things for people.&ldquo;When they (the two policemen) died, the people of Moncton were incredible. They raised about $400,000 for the families. And that was a poor town. Some of the people donating money were the drunks and bums my father tried to help.&rdquo;Charles Bourgeois returns to Moncton every summer, to speak at banquets, to do work for Big Brothers, to give something back to a community that gave something to him.He spends his winters in the heat of the St. Louis Arena, playing hockey every other night, trading one-liners with the media on the days he doesn&rsquo;t play.A new Bourgeois one-liner is welcomed like the opening of a broadway show. It&rsquo;s cultivated, reviewed and then repeated until another comes along. In a game played by dull men with dull wit, Bourgeois has become something of a cult figure with the media.&ldquo;I always thought I had two choices,&rdquo; said Bourgeois. &ldquo;I could laugh or I could cry. I chose laughter. I&rsquo;ve always felt my sense of humor was my salvation. It got me through a lot.&ldquo;It kept me sane.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-02

Tragedy Behind Bourgeois But The Memory Lingers

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;The Washington Capitals acted to shore up their weakest position when they made left wingers Jeff Greenlaw and Steve Seftel their first two selections in the National Hockey League entry draft.Both Greenlaw, 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, and Seftel, 6-foot-1 and 183 pounds, are 18-year-olds big enough to play in the NHL. But whether they&rsquo;ll be able to score enough to play in the NHL remains to be seen.Greenlaw managed only three goals in 57 games for the Canadian Olympic team. Seftel had 11 in 42 games for Kingston in the Ontario League.The man the Capitals really wanted, left winger Mark Pederson of Medicine Hat, was beyond the reach of a club choosing 19th. Pederson, who collected 46 goals in 72 games, went four picks earlier to Montreal.It was doubly frustrating to lose out to the Stanley Cup champions, since the National Football League draft is structured so that the two Super Bowl teams choose last, while the NHL sticks strictly to regular-season performance in its order of draft.Nevertheless, the Capitals expressed satisfaction with their selections. Considering the minimal contributions from the left side, particularly during the playoffs, they at least were looking in the right direction.&ldquo;We wanted to take the best player available, but we were hoping for a forward, specifically a left wing,&rdquo; said general manager David Poile. &ldquo;Last year with Yvon Corriveau and this year with Greenlaw and Seftel, we&rsquo;ve taken a big step toward plugging a hole that&rsquo;s been bothersome for a couple of years.&rdquo;Jack Button, the Capitals&rsquo; director of player personnel and recruitment, said of Greenlaw, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the guy I wanted. Looking at his experience, his size, his character, I thought if we could get him, I would know that we had a potentially fine Washington Capitals&rsquo; type of player.&rdquo;Greenlaw, Team Canada&rsquo;s youngest player, was pleased with the choice, too.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a dream come true,&rdquo; Greenlaw told Dave Sell of the Washington Post. &ldquo;The team I wanted to get drafted by was Washington. It&rsquo;s an unreal feeling.<h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03525/5067076-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="184" height="92"></div>&ldquo;I like the Capitals&rsquo; style&mdash;fast, big players who can move the puck. I consider myself a big, fast skater and I really like to hit, so it makes it easier.&ldquo;I was drafted right where I was rated. No one knew where they were going except Joe Murphy, so there were some anxious moments. When you&rsquo;re sitting there, not knowing what&rsquo;s going to happen, it&rsquo;s a relief to hear your name called.&rdquo;Although Greenlaw said he would prefer to play in Washington, it&rsquo;s unlikely he will and looks to be slotted for a return to the Olympic team or, perhaps, even a move to the Ontario League.Team Canada&rsquo;s No. 1 goaltender is Alain Raymond, who has a major role in the Capitals&rsquo; future plans. Although Pete Peeters and Al Jensen are still the big two in net, Raymond has become No. 3 and Bob Mason has permission to look for another team.Because of Mason&rsquo;s situation and the lack of depth in the goaltending area, the Capitals chose two goalies in the third round, Shawn Simpson of Sault Ste. Marie and Jim Hrivnak of Merrimack College. Washington had an extra pick because of the deal that sent defenseman Peter Andersson to Quebec in March.Simpson, 5-foot-ll and 160 pounds, had a 5.88 goals-against mark in 42 games with the Greyhounds. Hrivnak, 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, posted a 3.66 mark in 21 games as a freshman at Merrimack where he is coached by former Capital Ron Anderson.As usual, the Capitals picked a couple of European players. They tabbed Swedish center Stefan Nilsson in the sixth round and Finnish forward Tero Toivola in the ninth round.The Capitals refrained from the exotic picks they made in 1984, when they chose Czech center Michael Pivonka and Soviet defenseman Mikhail Tatarinov. They have been unable to contact either about a career in North America.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a whole bunch of Soviet players who could do very well here,&rdquo; Button said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s hard enough to get into the country to watch them play, much less get them out of the country to play here. The Czechs are in the same boat.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-03

Caps Shore Up Weak Port Side

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Get ready for the Young Lions, four teen-aged stars who could be baring their flashy offensive skills as Los Angeles Kings this coming fall.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting pumped, honest to God,&rdquo; Marcel Dionne, whose mane turns 35 in August, was saying. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very enthused. I can&rsquo;t wait to see these kids.&rdquo;Barring a Players&rsquo; Association strike, the Kings open training camp for their 20th National Hockey League season Sept. 15 in Victoria, B.C.Camp should be hopping with the Young Lions on the scene.Left wingers Luc Robitaille, 20, and Craig Duncanson, 19, right winger Dan Gratton, 19, and center Jim Carson, 18, will bring an impressive array of talent that should keep several veterans on their toes.Carson, the Kings&rsquo; first-round pick and the second player taken overall in the National Hockey League entry draft, is coming off a 153-point season with the Verdun Canadiens of the Quebec League and believes he &ldquo;can step right in.&rdquo;Robitaille, stolen in the ninth round in 1984 by general manager Rogie Vachon, emerged as the Canadian junior player of the year last season. He amassed 191 points in 63 games for the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques who reached the Memorial Cup finals.Duncanson and Gratton, first-round picks in 1985, also had big seasons. Duncanson had 110 points in 61 games for Sudbury and Cornwall of the Ontario League. Gratton, who split his time between Oshawa, Ottawa and Belleville, followed a disappointing 70-point OHL regular season by scoring 20 goals in 24 playoff games.Not including the playoffs, the four combined for 214 goals, 310 assists and 524 points.&ldquo;We need snipers bad, there&rsquo;s no doubt about it,&rdquo; said Dionne, the NHL&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer of all time with 1,599 points spread over 15 seasons. &ldquo;Getting some new blood in the organization has got to help us all. If even one or two of these kids can come through, that will be a big asset.&rdquo;The draft didn&rsquo;t do much to improve the Kings defensive deficiencies, but the offense needed some muscling up after slumping to 284 goals last season&mdash;a 55-goal drop from the previous year and the fourth-lowest total in the NHL.Center was a specific need because, as usual, Dionne and Bernie Nicholls did virtually all of the scoring at that position last season.&ldquo;Hopefully,&rdquo; Vachon said, &ldquo;Jimmy can become a superstar.&rdquo;The choice seemed rather obvious considering Team Canada&rsquo;s Shawn Anderson, supposedly the best available defenseman, told coach Pat Quinn during an interview a month ago that he couldn&rsquo;t play defense very well.&ldquo;I liked Shawn.&rdquo; Quinn said, &ldquo;Especially his size (6-foot-l, 190 pounds). But when he told me he feels his weakness is his defensive game&hellip;1 don&rsquo;t need to spend time with another young defenseman who&rsquo;s probably two or three years away from playing in the NHL.&rdquo;Carson is the first American the Kings have ever taken in the first round. Only Brian Lawton, an American taken by the Minnesota North Stars first overall in 1983, has gone higher in NHL history.&ldquo;I had heard they might go for Anderson,&rdquo; said Carson, a Southfield, Mich., native who had 70 goals and 83 assists in 69 games for Verdun.Carson played in the powerful Detroit Compuware system before moving on to Verdun. It&rsquo;s the same route that was taken by former U.S. Olympian and present New York Islander Pat LaFontaine.&ldquo;Pat gave me lots of advice,&rdquo; Carson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always loved the Montreal Canadiens and they own that team.&rdquo;The knocks against Carson, a 6-foot, 185 pounder, are that he doesn&rsquo;t like contact and is weak defensively. He acknowledges his defensive game still needs work, but believes the other negative has been put to rest.&ldquo;I think that was a little overexaggerated,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m older and I&rsquo;m stronger and I don&rsquo;t shy away at all. People may say I&rsquo;m not tough because I don&rsquo;t fight, but I&rsquo;ll take a bodycheck to make a pass or to score a goal. That&rsquo;s being tough.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01907/5067107-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="200" height="108"></div>Said Vachon: &ldquo;I like the way Jimmy plays, the way he talks and the way he handles himself. He feels very comfortable around people and has a lot of confidence in himself.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been away from home for two years by himself, so it&rsquo;s not like he&rsquo;s never been out of the house. That&rsquo;s important when you&rsquo;re coming to L.A.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The Kings selected in every round but the second, a pick which had been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. They chose five defensemen, three centers, two right wingers and one goaltender. The other choices: defenseman Denis Larocque (6-foot-1, 205 pounds), Guelph; center Sylvain Couturier (6-foot-2, 205 pounds), Laval; center Dave Guden (6-foot-1, 180 pounds), Roxbury Latin (Mass.) High School; goalie Robb Stauber (5-foot-IO, 165 pounds), De-nfield (Minn.) H.S.; right winger Sean Krakiwsky (6-feet, 175 pounds), Calgary; defenseman Rene Chapdelaine (6-foot-1, 195 pounds), Lake Superior (Mich.) State; defenseman TrevorPochipinski (6-foot-2, 187 pounds), Penticton Tier II (B.C.); right winger Paul Kelly (6 feet. 180 pounds) Guelph; defenseman Russ Mann (6-foot-2, 205 pounds), St. Lawrence (N.Y.) Univ.; and defenseman Brian Hayton (5-foot-11, 200 pounds), Guelph&hellip;The Kings are high on Larocque, a physical, stay-at-home defenseman. &ldquo;He has to work on his offensive skills,&rdquo; Rogie Vachon said, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s a pretty tough kid. He&rsquo;s not a bad passer and he takes the man out in front of the net and in the comers. We need that type.&rdquo;&hellip; Guden is on his way to Providence College, Stauber to the University of Minnesota. &#9632;

f0019-01

Will L.A. Become Carson City For Top Pick?

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Gleefully, the Winnipeg Jets went to the draft looking for prospects and found a prospector.Only 72 hours after his rejection of a contract offer from the Toronto Maple Leafs, a resolute Daniel Charles Maloney became the coach of the Jets.&ldquo;I had nothing in my pocket,&rdquo; said Maloney, insisting he had no prior commitment of a job in Winnipeg when he rejected outright the Leafs&rsquo; offer of a one-year contract for $75,000.But, on his way out of Maple Leaf Gardens, he stopped to use one of the phones, called John Ferguson and asked the Jets&rsquo; general manager if he had hired a coach yet.Ferguson was growing impatient, haggling over a matter of compensation with Edmonton Oilers for the privilege of hiring one of their assistant coaches. Bob McCammon.A factor, too, was the cost. There was a gap between the price the Jets were willing to pay and the figure McCammon thought he deserved.McCammon was disappointed to hear the job had gone to someone else.&ldquo;There were three factors involved,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There was the compensation question; money could have been a problem; and the availability of Maloney.&ldquo;There is no animosity on my part. I thought I could do a good job. John was up front with me.&rdquo;Maloney, 35, a veteran of 11 National Hockey League seasons as a player, brings four years of coaching experience to the Jets.For two years, he served as an assistant to Mike Nykoluk before his appointment as coach at the end of the 1983-84 season.His coaching record in Toronto was a less-than-spectacular 45-100-15, though there were credible signs of a resurgence in the Leafs during the playoffs when they swept Chicago and pushed St. Louis to seven games in the Norris Division final.&ldquo;I benefited from my years in Toron to,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I became a better coach. 1 was on the firing line in one of hockey&rsquo;s top centers.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01765/5067138-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="117" height="119"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2>Maloney surprised observers by working as long as he did in an environment complicated by the whims of owner Harold Ballard.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m flattered and honored to be going to Winnipeg,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great challenge to coach a team in a division as strong as the Smythe.Maloney said that one of the major appeals of the Winnipeg job was the opportunity to coach a player such as Dale Hawerchuk.Ferguson began watching Maloney four years ago when he first appeared behind the Toronto bench with Nykoluk.&ldquo;He impressed me,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;I remember Mike Doran telling me what a good coach he would eventually become. He liked his work ethics.&rdquo;Doran was assistant general manager of the Jets until December of 1984 when he suffered serious head injuries in an automobile accident.As a player, Maloney was often compared to Ferguson. People who got in his way were trampled.&ldquo;I would say he has a great deal of intensity&hellip;behind the bench,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a quality I like.&rdquo;Maloney succeeds Ferguson, who acted as coach after firing Barry Long on March 4.Maloney&rsquo;s first official duty as coach was to join the Jets at the draft table June 21.On a day they would take three Finns, a Swede, two Americans and five Canadians, the Jets could barely hide their disbelief as Pat Elynuik, rated sixth by Central Scouting and second by them, became available when their tum came. &#9632;

f0020-01

Maloney In And Out Of Work In Three Days

<div class="byline">Barry Meisel</div>&ldquo;Why should I lie? You&rsquo;ve got to be honest with people or they&rsquo;ll never trust you.&rdquo;&mdash;Jacques DemersWE&rsquo;LL PROBABLY NEVER know what actually happei jd between Jacques Demers, who used to coach the St. Louis Blues and now coaches the Detroit Red Wings, and St. Louis owner Harry Omest, who once employed Jacques Demers and now is trying to convince the NHL he deserves compensation from Detroit for the Wings&rsquo; pilferage.Two entirely different stories emerged from Montreal, where the NHL world met for the amateur (don&rsquo;t ever allow me to call it the entry) draft. To hear Omest tell it, Demers orchestrated his own kidnaping, broke a verbal agreement, and sold his word for better bucks.According to Demers, Omest refused to put anything on paper, offered him a particular three-year extension in one conversation, and quoted different figures at another.I don&rsquo;t know who&rsquo;s right. I wasn&rsquo;t there. I happen to believe that a man&rsquo;s word is his bond and a handshake should stick as firmly as his signature. If Demers did agree to three more years at $100,000 or $125,000 per, and if the Blues did vouch for another $300,000 on the mortgage Demers applied for two months ago, then Demers was wrong for leaving.But if Omest played loose with the figures and looser with Demers&rsquo; request for something in writing, then what did the coach have other than empty promises?What I do know is that while Omest was offering a bunch of &ldquo;no comments&rdquo; and &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you thats&rdquo; in Montreal, Demers spoke frankly and openly about the so-called verbal extension and the reported five-year, $1.2 million contract he signed with the Blues.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t 1.2, it was 1.025,&rdquo; said Demers, decimal points firmly in place. &ldquo;I made $75,000 last year, which was one of the lowest coaching contracts in the league. They offered me an extension, which I accepted. But one time I was told one set of figures, and another time they said something different. I kept asking Harry for a contract. I never got one. Why wouldn&rsquo;t I want something on paper?&ldquo;I loved it in St. Louis. I didn&rsquo;t want to leave. But I had to think of my security. What if something happened to the franchise? What did I have?&rdquo;Omest wanted to know why Art Kaminsky, who Demers hired to negotiate his new contract, only went to one of 21 teams shopping this unsigned mentor. First, very few teams needed a new coach before the draft. Second, how many GMs work with the checkbook Jimmy Devellano works with?&ldquo;Give us some credit,&rdquo; Jimmy D. said on Draft Day. &ldquo;We did a little homework, too. We checked into this with our lawyers, with the league. We knew what we were doing. Do you think we would have signed him if he had a contract with St. Louis?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02517/5067169-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="363" height="474"></div>Jimmy D. tells the truth, too.The Islanders fibbed this spring. After they were eliminated in the playoffs, Al Arbour indicated that he&rsquo;d be coming back for a 14th season as coach. He never bluntly stated that for the record, but he purposely misled the media (myself included) by saying things like, &ldquo;It looks like I&rsquo;ll be back,&rdquo; and &ldquo;All indications are I&rsquo;ll be back.&rdquo; So that&rsquo;s what we wrote and that&rsquo;s what Islander fans were asked to believe.Arbour knew all along he wasn&rsquo;t coming back, he later admitted. So why deceive? He said he wanted to break the news at a press conference. Fair enough. He&rsquo;s had a Hall of Fame career and he deserved his day.Why not tell us he hadn&rsquo;t made up his mind? &ldquo;Because then you&rsquo;d be calling me every day,&rdquo; he said.There&rsquo;s a difference between rumors and untruths. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with Draft Day rumors and rampant speculation. One player agent I trust insisted the Kings had flopped draft picks with the Canadiens. Another not-as-reliable-as-I-thought source told me the Oilers had made a trade with Pittsburgh for the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick.It made for great Friday night conversation on Ste. Catharine Street.I understand why GMs don&rsquo;t release information regarding possible trades (it could hurt bargaining power) and I don&rsquo;t blame teams for not revealing their personal draft lists (it could affect another team&rsquo;s draft plans).But won&rsquo;t the league and its teams ever learn that harmless inside stuff leaked to the outside is good for its game, especially in the U.S. where hockey in the spring and summer often gets buried behind auto racing?Why not make Central Scouting&rsquo;s ratings public information? Why not better publicize the board of governors&rsquo; agenda when it involves rule changes that people care about, like fighting and replays?Who gets hurt, anyway? &#9632;

f0020-02

The Great Coaching Caper: Who Are We To Believe?

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Ken McRae&rsquo;s first moments as a Quebec Nordique were spent bathed in boos.Amidst loud jeering at the Montreal Forum, where the Nordiques represent the Canadiens&rsquo; fiercest rival, Quebec made Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; center Ken McRae its first pick at the entry draft on June 21.Quebec went out of province to choose McRae, a native of Finch, Ont., but quickly returned to its own backyard in the second round.They chose a pair of players from the Quebec League: right winger Jean-Marc Routhier of the Hull Olympiques and defenseman Stephane Guerard of the Shawinigan Cataractes.To get Guerard, a product of the Quebec City minor hockey program, the Nords obtained the Flyers&rsquo; second-round choice in return for theirs next year.In the first round, the Nordiques had their sights set on Jocelyn Lemieux of the Laval Titan. Lemieux is the younger brother of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Claude. But the price to better their 18th selection was too steep. &ldquo;He would have cost us a fortune,&rdquo; said head scout Martin Madden. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t worth the gamble.&rdquo;Instead, the Nords selected McRae 18th overall. McRae, 6-foot-1 and 196 pounds, scored 25 goals and 40 assists in 66 games in Ontario last season and has two more years of junior eligibility.He is described as an offensive player who doesn&rsquo;t mind mixing it up when the going gets tough.&ldquo;I never expected the Nordiques to select me,&rdquo; said McRae. &ldquo;Many teams approached me before the draft, but no one from the Quebec organization. I heard that they had talked to my agent, but the talks were not very serious.&rdquo;&ldquo;We are tickled pink to have been able to select Ken McRae,&rdquo; said coach Michel Bergeron. &ldquo;He was very high on our list and we were more than surprised when he was still around when our tum came. According to our scouting system, he was the 12th best player available. That&rsquo;s why we didn&rsquo;t hesitate to select him.&rdquo;McRae, whose Sudbury teammates Jeff Brown and Max Middendorf are also Quebec draftees, is realistic about his chances of playing in the NHL next year.&ldquo;Iam going to training camp with one goal in mind, and that is to do my best. There is no sense in dreaming that I&rsquo;ll make the NHL this year. All I would be doing is putting unnecessary pressure on myself,&rdquo; he said.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03361/5067200-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="121" height="114"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2>The Nordiques were delighted to draft Routhier and Guerard.&ldquo;Two big boys in who we put all our confidence for the future,&rdquo; declared Nords&rsquo; general manager Maurice Filion.&ldquo;We selected Routhier and Guerard because they are very talented, and not because they are francophones,&rdquo; added Madden. &ldquo;Both players will play someday in the NHL.&rdquo;Known for his roughness and his impeccable defensive play, Guerard is compared to Quebec blueliner Normand Rochefort.Of the 13 players selected by the the Nordiques, five played in the QMJHL this past year. Another Quebecois is playing college hockey in the United States.The Nordiques&rsquo; other choices were goalie Ron Tugnutt of Peterborough in the fourth round, defenseman Gerald Bzdel of Regina in the fifth, defenseman Scott White of Michigan Tech and forward Morgan Samuelsson of Sweden in the sixth, right winger Mark Vermette of Lake Superior State and center Jean-Francois Nault of Granby in the seventh, left winger Keith Miller of Guelph in the eighth, defenseman Pierre Millier of Chicoutimi in the ninth, defenseman Chris Lapin in the 10th, defenseman Martin Latreille of Laval in the 11 th and forward Sean Boudreault in the 12th.Smiles around the Nordiques&rsquo; draft table were also produced by the signing of Peter and Anton Stastny. The draft wasn&rsquo;t even over when the Nordiques announced that they would hold a press conference the following day.&ldquo;I never even thought of leaving Quebec City and the Nordiques,&rdquo; said Peter who was reportedly seeking a contract in the neighborhood of $800,000 a year. &ldquo;My family and I have always been at home here and I wouldn&rsquo;t even consider playing anywhere else in North America.&rdquo;&ldquo;I could have tested the free (-agent) market,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I am very happy here. All I wanted was to be paid according to my performance on the ice.&rdquo;Terms of neither contract were released. Anton was also relieved.&ldquo;It was hard last season, because we knew we had no security if an injury ended our careers,&rdquo; said Anton. &ldquo;Our performance on the ice wasn&rsquo;t affected, but it was very hard not to think about it. My family&rsquo;s security is very important to me and now I can breathe a sigh of relief.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-03

McRae Surprised To Be Nordique

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01565/5067287-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02318/5067280-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="1028" height="3664"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03181/5067273-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="1028" height="3664"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01650/5067266-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="1052" height="3648"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02462/5067259-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1032" height="3612"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03356/5067252-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="1038" height="3615"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01587/5067245-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="1065" height="3630"></div><h2>Final Goaltending Records</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02405/5067238-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="1980" height="336"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03295/5067231-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="2008" height="3124"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS NHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01583/5067398-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02408/5067391-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="1200" height="3676"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03339/5067384-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="572" height="3688"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

THN STATISTICS IHL

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01546/5067443-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="596" height="3664"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02352/5067436-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="1212" height="3656"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03231/5067429-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="568" height="3652"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS OHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01554/5067488-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02389/5067481-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="1200" height="3654"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03282/5067474-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="556" height="3648"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS WHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01475/5067533-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02326/5067526-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="1196" height="1952"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03209/5067519-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="564" height="1944"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS QMJHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04144/5067578-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05126/5067571-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="1220" height="1552"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06104/5067564-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="572" height="1552"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS ACHL

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02400/5067609-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="550" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leaf prospect Vincent Dam-phousse is regarded as a highly-skilled player.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;There was no public indication that hot-tempered Dan Maloney was mad as hell. But, still, he wasn&rsquo;t going to take it any more.So, on June 18 Maloney tendered his resignation as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.Maloney, refusing a one-year contract with a minimal raise, shocked the Leafs by cleaning out his office one day after listening to blustery owner Harold Ballard say he was reluctant to sign both Maloney and general manager Gerry McNamara just in case someone better came along.It was, perhaps, the most ironic twist to a season full of them. Maloney, the subject of firing rumors throughout the year, fought hard to keep his job&hellip;and then quit.Within two days, he was the new coach of the Winnipeg Jets&mdash;satiated by a three-year contract and secure in the knowledge that he no longer had to cope with Ballard, who blamed Maloney for the Leafs losing the seven-game Norris Division final to St. Louis.Maloney, whose contract (about $85,000 a year) had run out, said that he deserved better than a one-year deal&mdash;he sought a two-year extension&mdash;after the Leafs showed great improvement during the playoffs.&ldquo;I came in with a two-year contract,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;Now that that the team is doing well, I don&rsquo;t understand him offering me a one-year deal.&rdquo;Evidently, Winnipeg GM John Ferguson was impressed by the Leafs&rsquo; sidelining of Chicago and strong showing against the Blues.Maloney was with the Leafs four years as a coach, apprenticing for two of them as an assistant to Mike Nykoluk. He led the Leafs to finishes of 21st and 19th overall in the league standings in his two seasons as head coach.His regular-season record of 45-10015 is hardly the stuff of Scott Bowman but players&mdash;Rick Vaive among them&mdash;and league officials alike expressed the opinion that Maloney had shown great improvement as a coach.The leading candidate to replace Maloney is former Eastern League tough guy and longtime coach John Brophy, who served as an assistant to Maloney before being made head coach of St. Catharines in the American League, where he excelled this year.Brophy&rsquo;s re-appointment as coach of the Saints (now located in the Toronto suburb of Newmarket) was confirmed one day before Maloney quit.Jim O&rsquo;Leary of the Toronto Sun was the first to report that Brophy would definitely be Maloney&rsquo;s successor.As one Leaf career ended, another was about to begin.Three days after Maloney left, McNamara made Laval Titan center/left winger Vincent Damphousse the Leafs&rsquo; first choice at the entry draft.Damphousse was the player the Leafs wanted all along and will likely be in the lineup this coming year.&ldquo;He is a highly-skilled player,&rdquo; said McNamara. &ldquo;He really handles the puck well and he&rsquo;s got great timing.&rdquo;Passing is Damphousse&rsquo;s greatest asset. With 110 assists to go along with 45 goals, only midget teammate Luc Robitaille of Hull had more assists in the Quebec League.Damphousse, a three-year veteran of the QMJHL, has impressed more than McNamara.Minnesota GM Lou Nanne had him rated the second best player available and Edmonton scout Barry Fraser said, &ldquo;He can pass the puck as good as anybody. He&rsquo;s got a gift.&rdquo;His skating ability has been questioned but that has improved in the opinion of most.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01544/5067616-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="141" height="145"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Damphousse, a native of Ville D&rsquo;Anjou in Montreal, is determined that junior hockey is now behind him.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m ready,&rdquo; said the 18-year-old who was rated eighth on Central Scouting final list. &ldquo;I want to play for the team next year (1986-87).&rdquo;McNamara said that he&rsquo;ll be given every opportunity to stick with the National League team but wouldn&rsquo;t speculate on whether Damphousse will be used as a center or left winger.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care. The coach will decide for me,&rdquo; said Damphousse. &ldquo;This year 1 played left wing but all my career I played center. I can play both ways no problem.&rdquo;McNamara wouldn&rsquo;t admit it but apparently he&rsquo;s taken to describing Damphousse as a &lsquo;classic French-Canadian center&rsquo;. Mario Lemieux, a &lsquo;classic French-Canadian center&rsquo;, was a teammate of Damphousse in Laval and remains his favorite player.The Leafs have chosen few French-Canadians, none of them classics, in the past and Damphousse is Toronto&rsquo;s high-est-ever selection from the QMJHL.McNamara insisted that the Leafs have not ignored French-Canadian or QMJHL grads by design.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was a conspiracy or anything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care where he&rsquo;s from. If he&rsquo;s the best player avail, able at the time, we&rsquo;ll take him.&rdquo;Damphousse, who handles himself well in English, was very poised in dealing with the Toronto media for the first time.With their second- and third-round picks, the Leafs opted for big defensemen&mdash;Darryl Shannon of the Windsor Spitfires, 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, and Sean Boland of the Toronto Marlboros, 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds.Rounding out the top five were center Kent Hulst of the Windsor Spitfires ana defenseman Scott Taylor of the Kitchener Rangers.The others were left winger Stephane Giguere of St. Jean, center Danny Hie of Ottawa, winger Stephen Brennan of New Prep School in Massachusetts, left winger Brian Bellefeuille of Canterbury High School in Massachusetts, right winger Sean Davidson of Toronto, right winger Mark Holick of Saskatoon and defenseman Brian Hoard of Hamilton. &#9632;

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Hard-Rock Brophy Leading Leaf Candidate

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. What two former first-overall draft picks won their first Stanley Cup with Montreal this season?2. What junior club has had the most players selected in the NHL entry draft?3. What NHL team had five first-round picks in the 1974 entry draft?4. Name the junior team that supplied four of 1972&rsquo;s 16 first-round selections?5. What current NHLer was selected first overall in the 1975 entry draft?6. Name the last NHL team to make back-to-back first-overall selections in the entry draft?7. Name the two players from the 1984-85 NHL first all-star team that were first-round draft choices?8. What American university has supplied the most draft picks among U.S. post-secondary schools?9. What junior team supplied the first-overall pick in both the 1969 and &rsquo;70 entry draft?10. Which junior league supplied the first seven picks of the 1975 entry draft?<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2><h2>BONUS QUESTIONS</h2>1. Rick Green(1976) and Bobby Smith(1978). 2. Peterborough Petes(92). 3. Montreal. 4. Toronto Mariboros. 5. Mel Bridgman. 6. New York Islanders. 7. Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey. 8. Minnesota (41). 9. Montreal Junior Canadiens. 10. Western League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03277/5067647-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="536" height="906"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: A superb shot-blocker, name this defenseman who played for six NHL teams.</figcaption></div>BONUS ANSWER: Don Awrey. &#9632;

f0030-03

CCM HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;Already he is being likened to the Sutter clan and, as one of the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; scouts called him, &ldquo;a long Bobby Clarke.&rdquo;The Devils looked toward the future and selected playmaking center Neil Brady from Medicine Hat of the Western League. Brady, 6-foot-2 and 178 pounds, is a self-described mucker who may be a year or two away from playing in the NHL.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let the baby face and good manners fool you,&rdquo; warned general manager Max McNab. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s kind of a Jekyll-Hyde individual. There&rsquo;s a lot of intensity and some Sutter temperament in him when he plays hockey. One of our scouts described him as &lsquo;a long Bobby Clarke&rsquo;.&rdquo;&ldquo;I like to go into the comers,&rdquo; said Brady, who was considered by many the last player in the Western League. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a mucker. Nothing fancy. I&rsquo;m more of a playmaker than a scorer. I want to become more of a solid hockey player.&rdquo;The Devils, who used their second pick (24th overall) to land defenseman Todd Copeland, a New Jersey native who will play next season at the University of Michigan, are apparently confident they can obtain a goal scorer to complement Brady by the time he reaches the NHL.In the meantime, New Jersey fans are not likely to see much of Brady or Cope-hand in the near future. Copeland, 6-foot--and 200 pounds, has indicated his desire to try out for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.&ldquo;We think of Brady and Copeland as strictly future picks who need time to develop, &rsquo; &rsquo; said director of player personnel Marshall Johnston. &ldquo;But we believe we got some immediate help by taking Anders Carlsson in the fourth round.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02346/5067685-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="561" height="849"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Neil Brady is a &ldquo;winner&rdquo; in the opinion of the New Jersey Devils.</figcaption></div>After drafting Finnish center Janne Ojanen in the third round (45th overall), only the fourth European to be selected in the draft at that point, the Devils chose the 25-year-old Carlsson.The 5-foot-l 1, 185-pound Carlsson, a center from the Swedish Elite League, is believed to be ready for the NHL and contract talks began immediately following the draft. While Carlsson and Ojanen are both expected in training camp, Ojanen will remain in Finland for at least one year to complete his military service obligation.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01497/5067678-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="112" height="100"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2>There was a feeling of surprise when the Devils chose Brady, a native of Calgary who scored 21 goals with 60 assists (104 penalty minutes) in 72 games for Medicine Hat this past season.The player, himself, expected to be in his seat longer despite a visit to New Jersey before the draft.Brady will attend the Canadian junior camp this summer and spend training camp with the Devils primarily to become acquainted with everyone. He is not expected to remain with the team.But hopes are high for Brady&rsquo;s future.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen a 17-year-old (Brady turned 18 in April) so aware of what to do without the puck,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;Next to his character the thing we liked best was the way he sees the whole picture on the ice. It&rsquo;s an intuitive-type thing.&rdquo;&ldquo;In terms of production, Brady won&rsquo;t be among the top scorers on the team,&rdquo; predicted Johnston. &ldquo;But if you&rsquo;re going to have a winner you need a guy like this. He has attitude, competitiveness, desire, loyalty and commitment that really stands out.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Neil Brady was ranked No. 7 by Central Scouting and first gained attention when scouts went to watch teammate Mark Pederson, who was drafted No. 15 by Montreal&hellip;Devils used the third-round pick obtained from the Flyers for Chico Resch (62nd overall) to tab 6-foot-2, 187-pound defenseman Marc Laniel from Oshawa. Laniel was ranked 19th by Central Scouting-&hellip;Devils signed free agents Andy Brick-ley. a left winger who played well at Maine last season, and Jamie Huscroft, a tough defenseman. Both are legitimate candidates to make the club in camp. &#9632;

f0031-02

Devils Grab Mucker With Playmaking Skills

<div class="byline">BY TOM WHEATLEY</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;To say that it was an unusual two-week stretch for the Blues would be something of an understatement.It ended on June 26, when the Blues named 33-year-old Jacques Martin of the Guelph Platers of the Ontario League as the 14th coach in the club&rsquo;s 20-year history.Martin received a two-year contract. His salary is reported to be $100,000 a year. That&rsquo;s $25,000 more than former coach Jacques Demers made last season, when he was the league&rsquo;s worst-paid coach.Martin, an Ottawa native, said he had signed a contract with the Blues.Demers left for a $1.1 million, five-year deal with Detroit because his repeated requests for a written contract were ignored by team owner Harry Omest and executive vice-president Jack Quinn.Martin led Guelph to a 41-33-2 record and the Memorial Cup championship. It was his first year as a head coach in a level as high as major junior.He was an assistant coach the previous two seasons at Peterborough of the OHL.Ron Caron, the Blues&rsquo; director of hockey operations, said he was not bothered &ldquo;a heck of a lot&rdquo; by Martin&rsquo;s inexperience.&ldquo;The game has changed,&rdquo; said Caron three days before officially naming Martin. &ldquo;How do you explain a guy like Goring at Boston? And we&rsquo;ve got such a good group of guys. And the leaders&mdash;Sutter, Federko, Ramage, Reeds and Meagher&mdash;are an easy group to deal with.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01519/5067723-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="562" height="1112"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jocelyn Lemieux says he some-times has trouble &rsquo;controlling himself.&rsquo;</figcaption></div>&ldquo;What I&rsquo;ve seen of the St. Louis Blues is very impressive,&rdquo; said Martin.In fact, the club he inherited missed going to the Stanley Cup finals only by a 2-1 loss at Calgary in Game Seven of the semi-finals.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02382/5067716-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="127" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2>The philosophy of Jacques II certainly seems to mirror that of Jacques I, although Martin is much more low-key than the emotional Demers.At Guelph, said Martin, &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have any superstars. We had a team-oriented squad. We put a lot of emphasis on defensive areas.&rdquo;Demers was a coach-of-the year finalist the past two seasons and extremely popular with players and fans.&ldquo;Those are the facts of life,&rdquo; said Martin. &ldquo;Obviously he was well-respected by his players. He had great collaboration. But he left. Now it&rsquo;s time to look to the future.&rdquo;Here is a Magical Mystery Mini-Tour through the days that led to Martin&rsquo;s hiring:June 12: The Toronto Globe and Mail reveals that Demers is set to jump to Detroit. Blues&rsquo; publicist Susie Mathieu says, &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s ridiculous.&rdquo;Executive vice-president Jack Quinn, who handled the club&rsquo;s negotiations with Demers, says, &ldquo;Jacques signed a contract extension midway through this (past) season.&rdquo;June 13: Demers signs a five-year contract for $l.l million with Detroit. The league has no copy of a contract with Demers&rsquo; name on file.June 13: Omest, stunned by Demers&rsquo; leap, says Demers had verbally agreed to coach the club for three seasons, and that the Wings owe compensation.June 20: Demers and Art Kaminsky, Demers&rsquo; agent, vehemently dispute the Blues&rsquo; claim that their part in helping Demers buy a house in St. Louis shows that a contract existed.Demers says the club offered him a $50,000 loan as a downpayment, not a $50,000 gift.Kaminsky says Demers signed only a loan application, not a contract, and that Omest&rsquo;s claims to the contrary are &ldquo;the Hitlerian big lie.&rdquo;June 21: NHL draft day. The Blues use the 10th choice overall&mdash;their first No. 1 pick in five years&mdash;on winger Jocelyn Lemieux of Laval in the Quebec League.Lemieux is a 5-foot-ll, 207-pound rock who has both toughness and touch. He is also reputed to be more of character than his 20-year-old brother, Claude, who was Montreal&rsquo;s offensive hero in its recent Stanley Cup run.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m as aggressive as he is, maybe more so,&rdquo; says Jocelyn. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not scared to go in the NHL. I know I can fight anybody. I can save my life. Sometimes I have some problems controlling myself.&rdquo;Meanwhile, a source tells THE HOCKEY NEWS that Caron has offered the job to Martin, but the Blues want to wait at least until June 26 to announce it.Martin and Caron confirm that they have met, but say no job has been offered.June 22: At a morning meeting of the NHL Board of Governors, Omest feels faint and is admitted to a Montreal hospital.Doctors say the 63-year-old Omes^^ who is on his third heart pacemaker, is suffering from exhaustion. After one-and-a-half days in the hospital, Omest is released. Total rest is prescribed.June 23: A few hours before Omest is released, the governors postpone the issue of the Demers&rsquo; custody battle, probably until the Toronto labor meetings in late July.June 25: Caron continues to deny that Martin has the job. Addesa removes his name from contention, saying it work clear from his first talk with Caron their Martin was the frontrunner. Caron calls a press conference for the next day, June 26.June 26: Caron announces Martin as head coach, saying the Guelph coach &ldquo;jumped out&rdquo; from the list of candidates right from the start. &#9632;

f0032-01

Blues Get A New “Jacques’ Behind Bench

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;It is something most teams usually trade for. But during the June 21 entry draft, the Pittsburgh Penguins selected future considerations.That&rsquo;s because neither of their first two choices&mdash;defenseman Zarley Zalapski and center Dave Capuano&mdash;give playing for the Penguins a high ranking in their immediate plans.Zalapski said he plans to remain with the Canadian Olympic program while Capuano will enrol) at the University of Maine this fall.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m ready to make the jump to the NHL,&rdquo; Zalapski said. &ldquo;My plans right now are probably to go back to the Olympic team.&rdquo;The Penguins still hope to convince Zalapski to join them this season&mdash;&ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to get him right away,&rdquo; general manager Eddie Johnston said&mdash;but recognize it might be a year or more before he plays a game at the Civic Arena.&ldquo;If he stays there for a year, he might be able to walk right in and play,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t regret the pick&rdquo; even if Zalapski stays with Team Canada.If there is a wait, Johnston contends Zalapski&rsquo;s considerable offensive skills will make it worthwhile.&ldquo;We think that, overall, he can be an impact player like (Edmonton defenseman Paul) Coffey.&rdquo;Zalapski, 6-foot-l and 196 pounds, had 20 goals and 33 assists in 27 games with the Fort Saskatchewan Traders in the Alberta Junior League before joining Team Canada, for whom he scored two goals and four assists in 32 games.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I still want to improve, and the Olympic team looks like the best way to do that.&rsquo; &mdash;Zalapski</blockquote>It is his formidable offensive talent which prompted the Penguins to make him the fourth choice overall, but Zalapski acknowledged several areas of his game require more work.&ldquo;I have to work on my backward skating, and my agility when I&rsquo;m going backward,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The way I look at it, I still want to improve, and the Olympic team looks like the best way to do that.&rdquo;Still, there is a chance the Penguins will sell&mdash;in the most literal of senses&mdash;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01469/5067785-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="124" height="110"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2>Zalapski on the idea of playing in the NHL next year.Capuano, however, almost assuredly will spend at least one season at the University of Maine.Capuano, the 25th player drafted, is 6-foot-2 and weighs 188 pounds. He had 43 goals and 42 assists in 25 games at Mount St. Charles High School in Rhode Island last season.Many scouts believe Capuano had the ability to be one of the top five players drafted, but question his work ethic. The term used most often is brutal in its simplicity: Lazy.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about that (reputation),&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to play for a coach at Maine (Shawn Walsh) who is strict and tough, and he&rsquo;ll get a lot of ice time.&rdquo;Capuano&rsquo;s brother Jack, who was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs two years ago, also will play at Maine.The Penguins&rsquo; third-round pick, Sault Ste. Marie left winger Brad Aitken, has the kind of size (6-foot-3, 202 pounds) and temperament not usually associated with Penguin wingers.&ldquo;Hike to take the body,&rdquo; said Aitken, who had 17 goals and 47 assists in 58 games last year. &ldquo;I try to play a two-way game.&rdquo;The Penguins&rsquo; most intriguing pick probably was Kamloops center Rob Brown, who was taken in the fourth round.Brown had 58 goals and 115 assists&mdash;30 more points than the Blazers&rsquo; No. 2 scorer&mdash;in 69 games last season to rank as one of the most prolific players in the draft.But because he is only 5-foot-11 and weighs just 170 pounds, he lasted until the 67th pick overall.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an excellent passer and playmaker,&rdquo; said Penguin coach Bob Berry, who watched Brown during the Memorial Cup playoffs. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a cocky kid, too, cocky in that he is confident of his abilities.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a dangerous player,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;When he gets to the NHL, he&rsquo;s going to be there for a long time.&rdquo;The same figures to be true of Zalapski and Capuano. The only question is just how long it will take them to get there.NOTES&mdash;The Penguins, as expected, signed goalie Steve Guenette of the Memorial Cup-champion Guelph Platers to a multi-year contract. Guenette, 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, was the overage player of the year in the Ontario League and a second-team OHL all-star during the regular season&hellip;The Penguins had hoped to get defenseman Todd Copeland in the second round, but he was taken by the New Jersey Devils with the 24th pick. &#9632;

f0033-01

ZZ Tops On Pittsburgh’s List Of Draftees

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;Serge Savard thinks maybe the Hartford Whalers have pulled one too many rabbits out of the hat in the last two National Hockey League drafts.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; said Savard, the general manager of the Stanley Cup-champion Montreal Canadiens. &ldquo;1 had Scott Young rated second and Hartford gets him I Ith. Last year they sat fifth and somehow got Dana Murzyn.&rdquo;The roll of the drafting dice remains as unpredictable as the Adams Division itself.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure why it happened.&rdquo; Savard said, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t like it. I think in the last two years that Emile Francis has been a little too lucky at the draft table.&rdquo;Last June, Savard compared Murzyn to a young Larry Robinson. Murzyn reinforced Savard&rsquo;s observation by being named to the all-rookie team. This year, after the Whalers had made Young, a hard-knocking right winger from Boston University their top pick, Savard told Francis, &ldquo;You did it again.&rdquo;The Whalers had a chance to draft Craig Janney, a centerman from Enfield, Ct., roughly 15 miles outside Hartford, but opted instead for Young, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound winger from Clinton, Mass., just outside Worcester.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01491/5067816-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="132" height="123"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t take a Connecticut kid, but we got a New Englander,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re very, very happy. The draft went excellent for us. Getting Young was a big surprise.&rdquo;Central Scouting had Young rated third overall, while the Whalers had him listed fourth.&ldquo;We had him rated as the top right winger,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;To be honest, I didn&rsquo;t think we had any chance of getting him.&rdquo;On the eve of the draft, in fact, the Whalers made Young a promise.&ldquo;They told me if I was available, they&rsquo;d take me,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;When their pick came up, 1 said to myself, &lsquo;they better not have been lying.&rsquo;&rdquo;They weren&rsquo;t. True to their word, the Whalers selected Young, who was named Hockey East&rsquo;s rookie of the year after scoring 16 goals and 29 points in 38 games at BU.As a Massachusetts schoolboy, Young grew up a Boston fan.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been a Bruins fan all my life, but that will change,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hartford is the best place I could go. They had a great year, they&rsquo;re coming on strong and it&rsquo;s close to home. I said to Mr. Janney, wouldn&rsquo;t it be great if Craig played for Hartford? It&rsquo;s even better. It&rsquo;s me.&rdquo;Janney was selected two picks behind Young by the Bruins, 13th overall, thereby completing a rather ironic geographicaLscenario.Janney was admirably gracious throughout the drafting ordeal and said afterward, &ldquo;The Whalers got a great one in Scotty.&rdquo;It may be awhile before Young actually plays in Hartford. Like Janney and Brian Leetch, another Connecticut product who was claimed ninth overall by the Rangers, Young hopes to play for the USA in the 1988 Olympics before turning pro.&ldquo;I plan to stay in school,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;I love BU. It would have to be a really good offer to get me to leave.&rdquo;Francis is prepared to wait.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll let him play in the Olympics,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of good competition there.&rdquo;In the second round, the Whalers picked Marc Laforge, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman from Kingston, calling him &ldquo;the toughest guy in the draft.&rdquo; Laforge, who had 248 penalty minutes, has two years of junior eligibility remaining.His hero? Why, Torrie Robertson, the Whalers&rsquo; policeman, of course.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unofficial fan club, but a guy I know has all these fight tapes that we watch,&rdquo; Laforge said. &ldquo;About 20 guys belong to the Torrie Robertson fan club. When I got a Whalers&rsquo; golf shirt, I had &lsquo;Robertson&rsquo; and &lsquo;No. 32&rsquo; put on the back.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0038-01

Whalers Kept Their Word To BU’s Star Rookie

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03311/5067854-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg"></div>DETROIT&mdash;Pardon the Detroit Red Wings for feeling a little light-headed. The entry draft was a dizzying experience.So were the days preceding it.The Red Wings landed not one, but two, first rounders. In fact, they landed two players they figured belonged in the top 10.They also landed a coach&mdash;Jacques Demers, formerly of the St. Louis Blues&mdash;before the whole thing began.Top-rated Joe Murphy was an automatic as the No. 1 pick overall. No surprise there.Adam Graves is a different story. Big surprise there.Somehow, Graves, the star center of the Windsor Compuware Spitfires, slipped through the first round unclaimed. So the Wings took him with the first pick of the second round.&ldquo;I can hardly think straight,&rdquo; said Neil Smith, the Wings&rsquo; chief scout in charge of his first draft.&ldquo;We got two first rounders. It made my whole draft. If they threw us out of the Forum after two rounds, we would go home smiling. Without a shadow of a doubt, we&rsquo;ve been able to get two NHL players. To think we could get Graves would have been as ridiculous as saying we thought we could get Jimmy Carson or Shawn Anderson in the second round.&rdquo;Make that three first rounders if you count Demers, who was a finalist in coach-of-the-year balloting this past season.General manager Jimmy Devellano couldn&rsquo;t explain Graves&rsquo; availability.&ldquo;I have no way of knowing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think for the other teams. It was a real shock. We had him rated the top player in the Ontario Hockey League. To get him on the second round is unbelievable.&rdquo;As attractive as Graves was, the Wings still had a decision to make with their second pick. Greg Brown, who was rated even higher by the Central Scouting Bureau (he was No. 11, Graves No. 15), was also available. Devellano and Smith didn&rsquo;t expect a defenseman worthy of the 22nd pick overall to be there when their turn came again. But Brown also slipped through the first round.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we considered at length,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;We liked them both, to be very honest. But we&rsquo; seen Adam so often across the river in Windsor, at least 100 times, that we were a touch more comfortable with him.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02388/5067861-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="165" height="117"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2>Smith said New Jersey&rsquo;s selection of center Neil Brady third overall &ldquo;threw a monkey wrench into things.&ldquo;It moved a lot of people around and it threw Adam Graves into our lap.&rdquo;Graves said he wasn&rsquo;t sure what to expect.&ldquo;I thought maybe I&rsquo;d go in the first round, but going to Detroit makes me very happy,&rdquo; said the 5-foot-ll, 185 pounder from Toronto who was the No. 1-rated Ontario midget a year ago.Demers&rsquo; availability was almost as surprising as Graves&rsquo;.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe we got him,&rdquo; said owner Mike Hitch. &ldquo;I like his (Demers) aggressiveness, his enthusiasm and his sincerity. Signing him is beyond my wildest dreams. He&rsquo;s just what we neede-d&hellip;a crazy Frenchman.&rdquo;Demers was signed to a five-year pact worth $1.1 million, a significant raise for the man who was paid well below the average NHL coaching salary of $125,000. He is believed to be the highest-paid coach in the league, excluding those who hold dual positions.&ldquo;The best coach in hockey,&rdquo; Devellano said of Detroit&rsquo;s fourth bench boss in a year. &ldquo;I was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call earlier this week from Art Kaminsky (Demers&rsquo; attorney) asking me if the Detroit Red Wings would be interested in Jacques Demers. I don&rsquo;t have to go over his record. It speaks for itself.&rdquo;The loss of Demers, whose Blues lost in seven games to Calgary in the Campbell Conference final, has been the source of much consternation for St. Louis owner Harry Omest.Omest, who has filed a complaint with the NHL, contests Demers was not free to join the Wings although he had not formally signed a contract with the Blues.The Blues&rsquo; owner has demanded compensation from the Wings but nothing has been worked out. The league&rsquo;s board of governors will deal with the matter at a hearing, likely later this summer. No date has been set.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to Hany (Omest) about it,&rdquo; said Hitch. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not happy about it. But he didn&rsquo;t cuss at me. Hopefully, there will be a good ending to it all.Demers explained, &ldquo;From Aug. 17, 1983, to Dec. 14, 1984, I had only a verbal agreement with the Blues. On Dec. 14, 1984, they gave me a sheet of paper and said, &lsquo;Here&rsquo;s your contract.&rsquo; So for three years I was working for the Blues under a verbal agreement. How long does a guy have to wait? I like Harry. Always did.&ldquo;But he had to show me a little bit of security, and he was not willing to do that. It&rsquo;s easy to say we&rsquo;ve had success in St. Louis but if we didn&rsquo;t, he fires me and I have nowhere to go. To be very honest with you, my first priority was to try to work it out with Harry. 1 even bought a house in St. Louis. But the more I started talking to Art Kaminsky I felt I wasn&rsquo;t handled right.&rdquo;Murphy is the only draftee given a shot at making the Wings&rsquo; squad next season. He said he was &ldquo;really happy&rdquo; and looking forward to playing in Detroit.&ldquo;This draft does not provide immediate help,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;Peoplehave to understand that. There&rsquo;s only one who might make it this year, and that would be Murphy, without a doubt.&rdquo;The rest of the draft was predictable. Devellano had hoped to use his third-round pick for a defenseman and the fourth for a goaltender, provided the two players he wanted were still on the board.Derek Mayer, a defenseman from the University of Denver and former teammate of Murphy, and goaltender Tim Cheveldae of Saskatoon were those players. Mayer was rated 80th, but the Wings had him much higher and selected him 43rd.&ldquo;We took Mayer where we had to, to make sure we got him,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;The whole staff had a lot of feelings for him. We wanted to make sure. Cheveldae was our No. 1-rated goaltender all season. We made the decision to take Mayer there and gambled that Cheveldae would be available in the fourth round. We really got nervous. We jumped for joy, actually, at getting him. We gambled he would still be there, and he was.&rdquo;WINGS WIRE&mdash;Tier II right winger Marc Potvin, a second cousin to Denis, was the Wings&rsquo; pick in the ninth round. He playetffor Stratford Jr. B&hellip;Peter Ekroth, a 26-year-old defenseman from Sweden, was a surprise choice in the 12th. The Wings believe he has a chance to make the club next season.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04239/5067847-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="1188" height="1212"><figcaption class="caption-body">No NHL team is unhappy on draft day, but the Hartford Whalers and Detroit Red Wings had good reason to be elated. Emile Francis, above right, welcomes highly-touted Scott Young, above left, and new Wings&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers, below left, is all smiles with the No. 1 pick overall Joe Murphy.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-03

Wings Scoop Up Demers, Add Two ‘First Rounders’

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div>TORONTO&mdash;There&rsquo;s more to Mike Donnelly than impressive numbers.That&rsquo;s the word from Ron Mason, coach of the NCAA-champion Michigan State Spartans.&ldquo;Whatever NHL team gets Mike Donnelly will get more than a goal scorer,&rdquo; insists Mason. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll do whatever he has to to help the chemistry of the team.&rdquo;Be that as it may, it&rsquo;s Donnelly&rsquo;s goalscoring ability that will ultimately lead him to the National Hockey League.It&rsquo;s hard not to be overwhelmed by the left winger&rsquo;s accomplishments during the 1985-86 season.After three good, but inconspicuous, seasons at MSU, Donnelly exploded for a NCAA-leading 59 goals this season. He was all but unstoppable, particularly on the power play where he scored nearly half of his goals.The most important marker, however, came in an even-strength situation. With less than three minutes remaining in the NCAA championship game, Donnelly converted a loose puck into a 6-5 victory over Harvard and a national championship for the Spartans.&ldquo;It was almost like a storybook ending to the season and my college career,&rdquo; Donnelly said at THE HOCKEY NEWS awards luncheon June 26 when he accepted the Bauer U.S. college player-of-the-year award.But his story, Donnelly hopes, is only just beginning. Undrafted, the Livonia, Mich., native is one of the most sought-after college free agents this summer.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve narrowed it down to four teams,&rdquo; said Donnelly. &ldquo;Detroit, Edmonton, Washington and Chicago.&rdquo;Mason is convinced that his star 22-year-old will be a good investment.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a NHL scoring touch and he&rsquo;s got NHL skating ability,&rdquo; says Mason, who credits maturity with bringing out the best in Donnelly.Whether, at 5-foot-ll and 185-pounds, he has NHL size remains to be seen.A walk-on in his rookie season, Donnelly has come a long way&hellip; and expects to go further. So does John LeBlanc, the University of New Brunswick scoring star who was named THN-Bauer Canadian university player of the year.LeBlanc, who set an Atlantic University Athletic Association record this year by scoring 38 goals in 24 games, has already signed with the Vancouver Canucks.The 22-year-old joins an organization in transition and isn&rsquo;t intimidated by the NHL. He attended the Calgary Flames&rsquo; training camp last year but returned to UNB.The right winger has but one thing left to prove and he knows it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a goal scorer,&rdquo; he says, before adding realistically, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I can do it in the NHL.&rdquo;Donnelly and LeBlanc, a native of Campbellton, N.B., were two of the 12 people honored at THN&rsquo;s annual gathering.Among the others was the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Glen Sather, coach of the year. Sather, still smarting over THN&rsquo;s frontpage photo coverage of Sports Illustrated accusations of drug use on the Oilers, scolded THN after receiving his award.Sather objected to the May 23, 1986 cover which depicted the Oilers&rsquo; logo amidst drug paraphernalia and a substance which had the appearance of cocaine. The photo was headlined &ldquo;Oilers on cocaine? Sports Illustrated says yes. Glen Sather says no.&rdquo;Still, Sather attended the function, saying &ldquo;I owe it to myself because I&rsquo;ve worked my ass off to get this (award).&rdquo;Sather left one thought with the nearly 250 people in attendance at Four Seasons Hotel: &ldquo;Please don&rsquo;t believe everything you read, because it&rsquo;s not always true.&rdquo;<h2>THN 1985-86 ALL-STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01207/5067899-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="798" height="429"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02132/5067892-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="832" height="441"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

Pro Contract Next On Donnelly’s Honor Roll

<div class="byline">Glen Sather</div>Glen Sather, THN&rsquo;s coach of the year, is as slick an Oil man the province of Alberta has ever seen.Not only does he coach and administer the current Edmonton Oilers in the NHL but he also guided them during their days in the World Hockey Association. In the IWHA, he led them to the Avco Cup finals and in the NHL, he has guided them to three Stanley Cup final appearances. Twice his teams have won the Stanley Cup.And although the Oilers didn&rsquo;t win the Stanley Cup this year, losing to the Calgary Flames in seven games, Sather did lead the Oilers to the first-ever President&rsquo;s Cup. That&rsquo;s the award for finishing first roverall during regular-season play. Edmonton, with 119 points, was an easy winner.Doubtless Lord Stanley&rsquo;s great silver champagne chalice would have been the sweeter prize, but it would be difficult not to be proud of the Oilers&rsquo; 56-17-7 record this year. Sather was also chosen NHL coach of the year by league broadcasters.Second to Sather in THN coachrof-the-k&rsquo;ear voting is 41-year-old Jacques Demers. The ex-coach of the St. Louis Blues is famed for his ability to squeeze every last drop of performance out of his players.Edmonton Oiler bench boss Glen Sather received some long overdue recognition when he was chosen over Jacques Demers as THN-NHL Coach of the Year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0375/5067961-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="684" height="1398"></div> &#9632;

f0041-03

NHL Coach Of The Year

<div class="byline">Emile Francis</div>Maybe he should be called &ldquo;Top Cat&rdquo;.It would be an appropriate addendum to his nickname.Emile (Cat) Francis, general manager of the Hartford Whalers, had a super season and has been honored as THN&rsquo;s NHL executive of the year.Trading for some excellent team players, Francis acquired John Anderson, Doug Jarvis and Stew Gavin plus David and Wayne Babych. And previous to that he nabbed first-rate rookie defenseman Dana Murzyn in the 1985 draft.For the first time since what must have seemed like the Stone Age for long-suffering Whaler fans (actually, it was 1979-80), Hartford managed to make their way into the playoffs. The Whalers bumped off Adams Division-champion Quebec Nordiques and then took the Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens to seven games before bowing out in overtime. Maybe the 1986-87 season will be known as &ldquo;The Year of The Cat&rdquo;.Runner-up to Francis was Calgary Flame GM Cliff Fletcher.Fletcher&rsquo;s Flames did what many considered to be the impossible&mdash;they dethroned the Stanley Cup-champion Edmonton Oilers, and his smart trading for John Tonelli and Joe Mullen were major reasons for it.&rsquo;Cat&rsquo; Francis had a super year and was largely responsible for Hartford&rsquo;s emergence as a playoff contender in the ultra-competitive Adams Division.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02103/5067992-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="680" height="1392"></div> &#9632;

f0041-02

NHL Executive Of The Year

<div class="byline">Wendel Clark</div>The 19-year-old native of Kelving-ton, Sask, burst upon the National Hockey League with all the subtlety of a wolf at a sheep&rsquo;s convention.Clark, a former Saskatoon Blade, was the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 1985 NHL entry draft. The Maple Leafs, by finishing last in the NHL in 1984-85, had the dubious honor of choosing first. They expected great things from young Clark. And he delivered. In spades.First of all, Clark moved from defense to left wing, joining fellow Notre Dame College (Wilcox, Sask.) graduates Gary Leeman and Russ Courtnail on the Hound Line.With flying fists, a wicked wrist shot and the bodycheck of a battering ram, Clark scored 34 goals and 45 points as well as earn 227 minutes in 66 games.He provided plenty of spirit and leadership to the lacklustre Leafs, and was runner-up to Calgary&rsquo;s Gary Suter in Calder Trophy voting. Suter was the runner-up in THN fan balloting.Suter, a freshman defenseman for the Calgary Flames, scored 18 goals and 50 assists for 68 points&mdash;the second-highest total ever accumulated by a NHL rookie rearguard. Only Larry Murphy, with 76 points as a Los Angeles King in 1980-81, scored more during his first campaign.THN-Quaker State rookie Wendel Clark, the No. 1 pick of the 1985 draft, turned heads, (and rolled a few others) with his robust and skilled play.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0461/5068023-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="684" height="1398"></div> &#9632;

f0041-04

NHL Rookie Of The Year

<div class="byline">Marcel Dionne</div>He&rsquo;s represented Canada abroad more than any other player in NHL history.Marcel Dionne (The Little Beaver) from the Los Angeles Kings, has been a magnificent Canadian ambassador of international hockey for over 14 years.He was a member of the legendary Team Canada squad that narrowly defeated the group from the Soviet Union in 1972. He&rsquo;s played for Canada Cup teams, the Challenge Cup all-stars, and has been an active member during countless World Championships.This year was no exception. In a year when other players were reluctant, or just plain refused to go to Moscow, the 35-year-old Dionne was among the first to join the team. He scored four goals and four assists in 10 games.Although he is the second-highest scorer in NHL history, his international exploits are too rarely recognized. That&rsquo;s why Labatt&rsquo;s and THN are delighted to honor Dionne with THN-Labatt&rsquo;s International Personality-of-the-Year award.Second to Dionne was Cliff Ronning, who with Dave King&rsquo;s Olympic team scored 55 goals and 118 points in 71 games.Marcel Dionne, this year&rsquo;s THN-Labatt&rsquo;s International Personality, has represented Canada overseas more than any other player in NHL history.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01174/5068054-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="681" height="1407"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

Intemat’l Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Luc Robitaille</div>How can you follow an act like that of last year&rsquo;s THN-Micron Junior Player Danny Hodgson?Simple. Be Luc Robitaille. If anyone is fit to fill Hogdson&rsquo;s skates, it&rsquo;s the left winger from Hull.This year, Robitaille tied for the lead in the QMJHL league points race with teammate Guy Rouleau. Scoring 68 goals and 123 assists, Robitaille helped the Olympi-ques massacre opposition teams in the Quebec League and scored eight goals and five assists in the Memorial Cup playoffs.Named CMJHL Player of the Year, the 20-year-old Robitaille is considered an excellent prospect for the Los Angeles Kings. Robitaille, who has scored 155 goals and 270 assists in three seasons, wasn&rsquo;t drafted until the ninth round (171 st overall) of the 1984 entry draft, a genuine steal by the Kings if his success as a player continues, and there&rsquo;s no doubt the Kings hope it does.Runner-up spot goes to Ray Sheppard of the OHL&rsquo;s Cornwall Royals.Despite the mediocre showing the Royals had, the same can&rsquo;t be said for Sheppard. Scoring 81 goals and 61 assists, Sheppard led the league in scoring, nearly equalling the Ontario League mark of 87 goals scored by ex-Windsor Spitfire Ernie Godden.Hull Olympiques&rsquo; Luc Robitaille, the THN-Micron Junior Player of the year, tied for first place in Quebec League scoring with teammate Guy Rouleau.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0385/5068085-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="675" height="1392"></div> &#9632;

f0042-03

Junior Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Jeff Harding</div>There&rsquo;s determination, and then there&rsquo;s determination.THN-Jofa&rsquo;s minor player of the year, 11-year-old Jeff Harding of Fredericton, N.B., is one determined young man.While other boys his age have been skating for five or six years already, this is only the third year that Jeff has been on skates.From the time he was five years old until he turned seven, Jeff had to wear leg braces, and eventually required bilateral reconstructive hip surgery at Sick Children&rsquo;s Hospital in Toronto.He has since recovered remarkably well. Coached by father Ron, and Paul Stewart, he played center for Nashwaaksis Atom Electrics in his hometown this past season.After 30 games, the 4-foot-10, 80-pound Grade 6 student at Park Street School had 22 goals and 45 points. Jeff is a regular at Fredericton Express games in the American League. His favorite team in the National Hockey League is the Edmonton Oilers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little nervous,&rdquo; he said shortly before receiving his plaque, but showed no signs when he stood to accept it.And, as the recipient of the award, Jeff also had a chance to meet his favorite hockey player&mdash;Wayne Gretzky.Overcoming major hip surgery, THN-Jofa Minor Hockey player Jeff Harding has successfully stepped on the ice as a hockey player in Fredericton, NB.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02115/5068116-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="681" height="1416"></div> &#9632;

f0042-02

Youth Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Mike Donnelly</div>He&rsquo;s still a free agent, but with the way he played this year, that probably won&rsquo;t be the case much longer for Michigan State Spartans superwinger Mike Donnelly.Possessed of a near-unerring eye for the net this season, and equipped with nifty hands, he was a key player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association finals. In fact, Donnelly, this year&rsquo;s THN-Bauer U.S. College Player of the Year, scored the championship-winning goal in the 6-5 win over the Harvard Crimson.After three good, but unspectacular seasons, this was a fine finish for Donnelly.A native of Livonia, Mich., the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Donnelly was the second-highest scorer in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, putting away 46 goals and 26 assists, second only to THN&rsquo;s U.S. college runner-up Dan Dorion.Dorion, a draft pick of the New Jersey Devils back in 1982 (232nd overall!) wrapped up a distinguished four-year NCAA career this year with a total of 42 goals and 104 points, making him the leading scorer in the NCAA.After the college season ended, Dorion played three games with the Devils, and while that wasn&rsquo;t long enough to tear the league apart, he acquitted himself well, scoring a goal and an assist.Mike Donnelly, with 59 goals in his final season, is a free agent, but THN-Bauer U.S. college player&rsquo;s status will soon change when an NHL club signs him.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0466/5068147-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="675" height="1401"></div> &#9632;

f0042-04

College Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">John LeBlanc</div>From Sea To Sea. Sounds like a national motto, doesn&rsquo;t it?But for John LeBlanc, winner of THN-Bauer Canadian University Player of the Year, it might just be the right thing to tack onto his locker.LeBlanc, the leading scorer in the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association, has signed a contract with the Pacific coast Vancouver Canucks.In only 24 games with the University of New Brunswick this year, LeBlanc had 64 points, including an AUAA-record 38 goals.Although Vancouver general manager Jack Gordon signed him, Canada&rsquo;s westcoast squad wasn&rsquo;t the first team that LeBlanc tried out for. Last year, he attended the Calgary Flames&rsquo; camp as a free agent, although he decided to go back to school.On a team woefully lacking in offense, LeBlanc&rsquo;s cross-country flight may be just the ticket for the Canucks to exit the lower steps of the Smythe division.Tim Lenardon, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound forward with Brandon University, finished second to LeBlanc in balloting. He lead the entire CIAU in scoring with 27 goals and 40 assists this year.Lenardon surprisingly, is still a free agent, but there&rsquo;s a possibility that he might sign with someone before the end of the summer.THN-Bauer&rsquo;s Canadian University player John Leblanc recently signed a contract with the Vancouver Canucks. He led the AUAA in goal scoring last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01174/5068178-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="696" height="1414"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

University Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">Paul Gardner</div>Paul Gardner is the first man to be named minor-league player of the year in consecutive years.Gardner, a 30-year-old center, set an AHL points record (130) with the Binghamton Whalers last season. For an encore, he established a goal-scoring record this year with the Rochester Americans.Playing 71 games, Gardner popped in 61 markers and added 51 assists, making him the only player in the league to score more than 100 points this year.A capable goal scorer in the NHL, Gardner accounted for 201 goals in a total of 447 NHL games. In the minors, Gardner becomes Gretzky. He has scored 174 goals and 210 assists in only 237 games.He announced his retirement at the end of last year, but was coaxed back in a player-assistant coaching capacity by Rochester. Citing a chronic back problem, Gardner recently announced his retirement again.Runner-up Ron Hextail, son of ex-NHLer Bryan Hextail and grandson of ex-NHLer Bryan Hextali, Sr., backstopped A the Hershey Bears to the AHL final. He had a regular-season goals-against average of 3.41. A Philadelphia Flyer prospect, Hextali may be a third-generation NHLer.For the second consecutive year, American League scoring ace Paul Gardner copped the HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Minor League Player-of-the-Year award.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03103/5068209-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="686" height="1388"></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

Minor Player Of The Year

<div class="byline">King Clancy</div>The hockey man for all seasons.All-star player, three-timeStanley Cup champion, referee, fine coach both in the American and the National Hockey Leagues, Hall of Famer, and, of course, vice-president of the Toronto Maple Leafs.King has done it all.And that&rsquo;s why Francis Michael (King) Clancy is the first recipient of the THN-Itech Hall of Fame award, presented for his contributions to the sport both on the ice and off.He began his long career in 1921 with the old Ottawa Senators, and dazzeled the fans, foes and teammates alike with his rink-length dashes, his scoring touch, and especially, his joyful approach to the game.Once, 1932-33 as a Maple Leaf, Clancy actually took a tum in net, because goalie Lome Chabot took a penalty, and in those days goalies had to sit off the ice like anyone else.Grinning, King grabbed the puck, scooted down the ice, shot, missed the net and raced back to his own goal.The coach and fans nearly had a heart attack.He will always have a place in hockey history, and fans&rsquo; hearts.After more than 60 years in hockey, THN-ltech Hall of Famer King Clancy has been an all-star player, a referee a coach and Maple Leafs Vice-President.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0483/5068271-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="676" height="1400"></div> &#9632;

f0043-04

Hall Of Fame Award

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>BINGHAMTON&mdash;While the National Hockey League general managers mingled in Montreal for the selection of the top amateur prospects, another prospect&mdash;this one already a pro&mdash;stayed dt home to happily count off the final days of his contract with the Hartford Whalers.Paul Fenton, a 53-goal scorer last year with the Binghamton Whalers, officially became a free agent on June 30. In his three years with Binghamton, he scored a total of 130 goals in only 190 games.Despite the impressive credentials, Fenton saw only limited duty with Hartford the past two seasons, a point the high-scoring center/wing did not hesitate to make in his last face-to-face confrontation with Hartford president and GM Emile Francis.&ldquo;I asked him why I wasn&rsquo;t getting a chance and he said something about not being strong enough and my skating. Those are the oldest lines in the books. I told him if you&rsquo;re not going to use me, please replace me. Just get rid of me. He ended up kicking me out of his office.&rdquo;Following that stormy session, Hartford offered Fenton a termination contract, a pact the former Boston University star had no intention of accepting.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why he&rsquo;s not in the NHL,&rdquo; said Rochester coach John Van Boxmeer, one of several who dismiss Fenton&rsquo;s long-time problems with Francis as a personality conflict. &ldquo;1 only have so much input, but when I was asked to submit my report on players who could help our organization, Fenton was one of the players at the top of the list.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a quality player. I took some time to dig in and find out what I could about him as a person, too. And everything I heard about him is positive. He comes to play every night. He not only can score goals, but he can clean up in his own end, too.&rdquo;Fenton, now 26, said he&rsquo;s not demanding to be handed a spot in the NHL and would be willing, if necessary, to start the year again in the AHL.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t really expect to step in and take somebody&rsquo;s job unless you&rsquo;ve had a fantastic training camp,&rdquo; said Fenton.&ldquo;All I want is for somebody to say that if I&rsquo;m playing well during the season, they&rsquo;ll give me a chance. I don&rsquo;t have any fear of going back to the AHL and not playing well. I have enough confidence to know that I can perform again in the AHL.&rdquo;Fenton was named to the first-team of the AHL all-star squad after registering 53 goals (the first American-bom player to score 50 goals in league history) and 35 assists for 88 points. He accounted for 10 game-winning goals, tops in the league and four more than the closest teammate.After finishing his collegiate career, Fenton scored 60 goals in 82 games for the Peoria Prancers of the IHL. In doing so, he was named as the winner of the Ken McKenzie Trophy as the top U.S.-born IHL rookie. In 1983-84, he was signed as a free agent by the Whalers and scored 41 goals in 78 games in Binghamton. In 1984-85 he added 26 goals in 45 games. Injuries in Hartford enabled him to get into 33 games with Hartford where he scored seven goals and five assists.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;d make a better winger than a center,&rdquo; said Van Boxmeer.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a good shot and he likes to score. That makes him more suited to the wing position. A center has to be more of a playmaker. And physically, he&rsquo;s not a shy player. He can handle himself.&rdquo;AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;The Edmonton Oilers are rumored to be selling their Nova Scotia franchise to local owners&hellip;The Pittsburgh Penguins will be taking a more active interest in the Baltimore franchise, placing some of their own staff in the Skipjacks&rsquo; office&hellip;Look for the AHL to adopt any rule changes implemented by the NHL, including the larger goal crease. The AHL usually goes along with any major changes made in the NHL&hellip;Garry Lariviere is considered one of the leading candidates for the Newmarket Saints coaching job with John Brophy rumored to be headed for Toronto. Meanwhile, some AHL followers are concerned about Newmarket&rsquo;s ability to draw. The town does not have a daily newspaper and the general feeling is that the team won&rsquo;t be covered by the Toronto newspapers. &#9632;

‘Cat’ Fight Leaves Fenton Looking For Work

BUFFALO&mdash;Gilbert Perreault, C, announced retirement from hockey. Gilles Hamel, RW, traded to Winnipeg for Scott Arniel, RW. Phil Russell, D, signed new one-year contract. Paul Brydges, C, from Guelph of OHL, signed as free agent to pro contract. The Sabres recently signed following draft picks to NHL contracts: Ray Sheppard, RW, from Cornwall of OHL, Keith Gretzky, C, from Belleville of OHL, James Gasseau, D, from Drummondville of QMJHL, and Benoit Hogue, C, from St. Jean of QMJHL.DETROIT&mdash;Claude Loiselle, C, traded to New Jersey for Tim Higgins, RW.MONTREAL&mdash;Gaston Gingras, D, signed to new two-year contract. Alfie Turcotte, C, traded to Edmonton for future considerations.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Ed Hospodar, D, signed as free agent after being released by Minnesota.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Steve Guenette, G, from Guelph of OHL, signed as free agent to multi-year contract.QUEBEC&mdash;Following players were signed to new contracts: Peter Stastny, C, Marian Stastny, RW, and Pat Price, D. Draft choices Jason Lafreniere, C, from Belleville of OHL, and Max Middendorf, RW, from Sudbury of OHL, both signed to NHL contracts.VANCOUVER&mdash;Barry Pederson, C, signed to new multi-year contract.COACHING CHANGESDETROIT&mdash;Jacques Demers of St. Louis named new coach to succeed Brad Park. Don MacAdam from S.S. Marie of OHL, appointed asst, coach.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Terry Si mpson of Prince Albert of WHL named new coach to replace Al Arbour, who retired from the position.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Jacques Martin from Guelph of OHL named new coach to replace Jacques Demers.WINNIPEG&mdash;Dan Maloney resigned as coach of Toronto Maple Leafs to take over head coaching job with Jets. Maloney replaces interim coach John Ferguson.ONTARIO LEAGUEOTTAWA&mdash;Brian Kilrea, whose contract as asst, coach with the NY Islanders was not renewed, has returned as head coach of the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s, replacing Bob Ellett.SUDBURY&mdash;Guy Blanchard, asst, coach of North Bay of OHL, appointed head coach by the Wolves to replace Wayne Maxner, who was fired.WESTERN LEAGUEMOOSE JAW&mdash;Harvey Roy named general manager and coach to succeed Barry Trapp.SPOKANE&mdash;Peter Esdale appointed head coach, replacing Marc Pezzin.VICTORIA&mdash;Wayne Naska named coach to replace Al Patterson, who remains as team GM. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01152/5068364-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="924" height="1104"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02103/5068357-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="960" height="1110"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0368/5068350-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="933" height="1113"></div> &#9632;

f0044-01

The NHL’s Leading Performers For 1985-86

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Indianapolis Checkers are investigating the possibility of obtaining a franchise in the National Hockey League.The International League&rsquo;s Checkers approached NHL officials about expansion into Indianapolis within the next two to four years at the recently concluded summer meetings in Montreal.&ldquo;We know the criteria and we&rsquo;re well on the way to meeting those criteria,&rdquo; said Checkers&rsquo; owner Larry Woods. &ldquo;We must first prove Indianapolis would provide a market that would be feasible geographically and demographically.&rdquo;Woods believes Indianapolis is ideally situated to be included in the Norris Division of the Campbell Conference.&ldquo;Playing against Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Minnesota and Toronto would provide terrific rivalries,&rdquo; he pointed out. He said he was confident central Indiana could support a NHL franchise and pointed out the excellent support given the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League and Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association.One of the biggest selling points, I Woods says, is the presence of Market Square Arena. &ldquo;We feel it provides as fine a facility as this country has to offer for hockey,&rdquo; he observed.He acknowledged San Francisco and Dallas have shown interest in joining the NHL, but added, &ldquo;neither city has a minor-league franchise such as we have and I feel that&rsquo;s a disadvantage for them in proving their cities will support hockey.&rdquo;Woods is confident he can entice sports fans in Indianapolis to become solid hockey fans with proper marketing and public relations.The city has been home in the past to the Caps and Chiefs of the IHL, and to the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association.NHL President John Ziegler has admitted he gets feelers all the time about groups seeking franchises. The league expansion committee, however, has indicated a 22- or 24-team league is years away.Ziegler says he sends form letters back to such groups, pointing out he thinks the league learned some lessons by expanding too rapidly from 1972 to 1976.The IHL board of governors finished off some business from the 1985-86 season during its meetings at the NHL conclave and then started discussions on the upcoming season.The unfinished business was the selection of the league&rsquo;s top executive and coach of the year. Both those honors went to the Fort Wayne franchise.Bob Britt, who took over the Komets as owner and general manager last season, was singled out as the top executive.The coach of the year was veteran Komet forward Robbie Laird, who just completed his first season behind the bench.The Komets introduced more than a new logo and front-office look to Fort Wayne fans. The team finished first in the West Division and the league overall with a record-tying 52 victories.With Rick St. Croix and Pokey Reddick in the nets, and fronted by an aggressive offense, the Komets allowed the fewest goals in the IHL (266), the lowest total since 1972-73.Fort Wayne battled into the Turner Cup finals for the first time since 1980, but lost four straight to the Muskegon Lumberjacks. It marked the only time all season the Komets lost four straight games. Their longest losing streak was two games prior to the playoffs.At the league level, the IHL governors voted to keep the overtime/shootout rule for at least another season.Teams which are tied after 60 minutes will again play five-minute overtime sessions. If the score is still knotted at the end of that time, each team selects five shooters to go one on one with the opposing goaltender.Should the shootout end in a tie, another five shooters from each side attempt to break it. The winning team in a shootout receives an extra point in the standings for the victory. Each team gets one point for a regulation-time tie.In more than 30 shootouts last season, only one contest was undecided.Along the same lines, the governors discussed the possibility of not giving a loss to the team which is beaten in a shootout. The concern was that such an action increases the loss column statistics and results in sub-.500 figures.The board failed to arrive at a ruling on that subject. It would appear the easiest way around the situation would be to award the winning team in a shootout an extra point, but credit each team with a tie.The league also briefly reconsidered doing away with the red line with regard to two-line passes. A brief experiment last season was curtailed in December and next season the red line will remain in play.A league spokesman indicated there are plans to hold a rookie tryout camp in Peoria sometime in August. IHL coaches would supervise and coach during the practice sessions and a draft held at the end of camp.A decision on that proposal is expected during the July meeting.The same 10 teams are expected to return for the 1986-87 season, with the same two-division lineup. The newest face in the coaching ranks belongs to Rick Dudley, who will take charge at Flint.Dudley, who played at Buffalo and with the former Cincinnati Stingers of the old World Hockey Association, has succeeded Doug McKay as manager and coach for the Spirits.Dudley coached the Carolina Thunderbirds to the Atlantic Coast League championship the last two seasons.Flint, which operated last season without the benefit of NHL affiliation, will be connected to Buffalo this season.Indianapolis also announced a new affiliation for the upcoming season. In addition to the Checkers&rsquo; association with the New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars, Indianapolis will be aligned in 1986-87 with the New Jersey Devils. The Devils last season worked with Fort Wayne.&ldquo;This (affiliation) will help us in getting a couple of more free agents,&rdquo; observed Checker coach and general manager Ron Ullyot. &ldquo;We should be able to get a pro goaltender and add a couple of other pro players to our lineup as a result of this decision. That should strengthen us considerably.&rdquo;Indianapolis is the third IHL team to have affiliations with three NHL squads. Kalamazoo had ties to Detroit, Philadelphia and Vancouver and Muskegon is affiliated with Pittsburgh, Quebec and Edmonton.The Checkers are attempting to retain the services of goaltender Mike Zanier.At Saginaw, meanwhile, the Generals announced they have hired Marc She-lanski to handle play-be-play duties on radio. Shelanski, who spent last season with Indianapolis, will be director of communications for Saginaw, replacing Doug Pettit, who accepted a position with the Milwaukee Admirals.Indianapolis announced that Rick Burns, who had been with the Checkers since they arrived in Indianapolis in 1979 and who last year served as assistant G.M., had left the team.The IHL&rsquo;s annual meeting will be continued July 14-15 in Indianapolis. &#9632;

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August 8, 1986

Hawks Use First Choice To Acquire A Native Son

NHL Player Of The Year

Minor Coach Of The Year

THN STATISTICS AHL