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.

September 5, 1986

The Hockey News September 5, 1986

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Rich Preston always did come back.In his best National Hockey League years with the Chicago Blackhawks, Preston was a noted defensive forward. He always came back and picked up his man.Preston has come back again, this time returning to the Hawks as a free agent from the New Jersey Devils.&ldquo;Two months ago, I would have never thought this would happen,&rdquo; said Preston, 34, who was traded from the Hawks to the Devils in June, 1984. &ldquo;I assumed I would finish my career in New Jersey, that 1 would sign a two-year contract before next year.&ldquo;I was going into my option year. They offered me a termination contract, which I never thought they would do. I think my age entered into it here. But that allows you to become a free agent. Bob Pulford (the Hawks&rsquo; general manager and coach) was real interested, and the offer was too good to pass up.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I know I don&rsquo;t have too much time left. Chicago has a chance to win it all, and at this point in my career that&rsquo;s most important.&rsquo; &mdash;Preston</blockquote>Pulford and Preston go back a long way. The Hawks originally signed Preston away from the Winnipeg Jets during the sorting-out process of the 1979 merger with the World Hockey Association.He was a hit with the Hawks from the start, asoiid-two-way forward who could play the left or right side. He scored 31 goals his first NHL season, the second-highest total of a pro career that began with the WHA&rsquo;s Houston Aeros in 197475. A take-charge guy, he was nicknamed &ldquo;Sarge&rdquo;&mdash;also a play on the old &ldquo;Sgt. Preston of the Yukon&rdquo; TV character.But Preston had knee surgery the following season. He bounced back in 1982-83 with.25 goals while the Hawks were piling up 104 points, but he also had his differences with fiery Hawk coach Orval Tessier.Tessier was fired in 1985, but Preston had been dealt to the Devils at the 1984 draft in a complicated deal with the second-choosing Devils agreeing to bypass Ed Olczyk in the first round. The Hawks then took Olczyk, a native son, third overall.In his two years with the Devils, Preston did his usual tight checking job and chipped in with 12 and 19 goals. But he missed the playoffs both years, the first two times he has ever missed them. At 34, he felt that was a high price.&ldquo;1 still want to play,&rdquo; Preston said. &ldquo;I know 1 can still play. Last year proved it. 1 know 1 don&rsquo;t have too much time left. Chicago has a chance to win it all, and at this point in my career that&rsquo;s most important.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01504/5064672-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="126" height="120"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>The Hawks will be giving more ice time to more of their young forwards, but there is a place for Preston to fit in and a role for him to play. A strong defensive winger, especially on the right side, is something the Hawks felt they lacked all year.&ldquo;1 know they were kind of disappointed with their goals against last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hopefully lean helpout in that department. And I can get my share of goals.&rdquo;A defensive winger might seem like a small addition to a team that was as unceremoniously dumped from the first round of the playoffs as were the Hawks last year. But Preston thinks the first-round bye-bye wasn&rsquo;t a true measure of Chicago&rsquo;s worth.&ldquo;It was a funny year, with three first-place teams upset in the first round,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame. First-place teams should be rewarded a little more.&ldquo;But it wasn&rsquo;t just them* And look what happened with Montreal winning the Stanley Cup. It&rsquo;s going to be wide open (this year).&rdquo;Preston is looking forward to being right back in the hunt.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be great to get back and get the old fire going, get the old adrenalin going,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With the fans and all our friends back there, and the way we loved the city, there were just too many intangibles not to go back to Chicago.&rdquo;When Preston comes back, he will bring some intangibles the Hawks dearly need. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Presto! Preston Returns To Blackhawks

"I told Louie (Nanne) if one of us has to go over there and get shot it wouldn't be me because I don&rsquo;t make enough money. But if I was going to get shot over a player, this would be the guy."&mdash;North Stars' Glen Sonmor on Czechoslovak defector Frantisek Musil. &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01481/5064751-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="816" height="616"></div>If the palms of your hockey gloves are worn-out or torn&mdash;don&rsquo;t throw those gloves away! Do what the pro hockey stars do. Send them to us. We&rsquo;ll replace those torn palms with our fabulous FlexPalm.With FlexPalm you&rsquo;re in complete control of the stick. You&rsquo;ll play like you never played before!FlexPalm is so unique, so different, so unusual that it was granted patents by both the Canadian and U.S. governments.It is made of an extremely soft but very tough horsehide that&rsquo;s perspiration and water repellent. So it stays soft, stays flexible. You never have to dunk a FlexPalm in hot water to soften it! This means you don&rsquo;t have to fight stick slippage. You&rsquo;re more comfortable, more relaxed and more in control!Now you know why the big league stars send their gloves to us. Do what they do. We&rsquo;ll replace both your worn-out palms with our FlexPalm for only $49.95. Please enclose check or money order, or BankAmericard, Visa and Master Charge accepted. Please give your card number and expiration date. We&rsquo;ll return your gloves within two weeks. Prepaid.FlexPalmSince 1954BRUCKER GLOVE CO.6949A La Tijera Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045 (213) 776-1340 &#9632;

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Don’t throw away your glove!

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this month in hockey:&bull; Ace junior defenseman Bobby Orr signed a record rookie contract with the Boston Bruins. Agent Alan Eagleson said it was worth approximately $60,000 for two years.&bull; W.A. (Billy) Hewitt, well-known sports journalist and father of legendary broadcaster Foster Hewitt, died at the age of 91.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this month in hockey:&bull; Junior sensation Guy Lafleur was signed to the highest-paying contract for a rookie in NHL history. Excluding bonuses, the figure was estimated to be $70,000 for two years. Meanwhile, Bobby Orr, who held that distinction five years earlier, became hockey&rsquo;s first-ever $1,000.000 player, signing a Bruin contract for $200,000 a year over five years.&bull; Jim Mahon, a promising 19-year-old star with the Peterborough Petes in the OHA, died after being electrocuted while working on a water pump that was still turned on. The league later established a trophy in his memory. &#9632;

THIS WEEK… 20 Years Ago

In the next issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, which will have a cover date of Sept. 12, 1986 and be coming your way in three weeks, we'll profile this year's Hockey Hall of Fame inductees.In addition to a tribute to Leo Boivin, Dave Keon and Serge Savard, as well as the others in the builder and media sections of the Hall, we'll also take a look at Project Enterprise, the National Hockey League's ongoing search for a new site for the Hall of Fame.Plus, we provide you with training camp rosters of all 21 NHL clubs.And, we'll also take you to Calgary, home of the Canadian National Team that is preparing for the 1988 Olympics, for an in-depth progress report on Dave King's young squad.Don't miss all that, plus updates on the NHL-NHLPA collective bargaining agreement and much, much more. &#9632;

COMING SOON

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET AND JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011260/5063338-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Washington Capitals&rsquo;general manager David Poile, Czechoslovakian center Michal Pivonka, who will right, proudly shows off his latest acquisition&mdash;wear No. 20 in his rookie NHL season.</figcaption></div>Scant days apart in July, two of Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s best young hockey players&mdash;center Michal Pivonka and defenseman Frantisek Musil&mdash;left behind their pasts for futures in North American professional hockey.Here are their stories.A two-year tale of intrigue that encompassed eight countries concluded July 18 when Czechoslovakian center Michal Pivonka reached the United States and joined the Washington Capitals.Pivonka, 20, and fiancee Renata Nekvindova defected during a vacation in Yugoslavia. They reached the Italian port city of Trieste and traveled to Rome, where they were granted temporary refugee status by an examiner of theU.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.They were flown to New York by Washington general manager David Poile and Jack Button, the Capitals&rsquo; personnel director who had been instrumental in maintaining contact with Pivonka since the Capitals drafted the Czechoslovakian in the third round of the 1984 entry draft. Button met Pivonka at a hunting lodge in northern Sweden later that year and began the courting process.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021030/5063345-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="180" height="104"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2>&ldquo;I told him he had been drafted by Washington and asked him if he was interested in playing,&rdquo; Button said. * &lsquo;The same question was repeated at each future meeting and each time he was enthusiastic.&rdquo;Poile met Pivonka for the first time in Hamilton during the World Junior Championships in December. At that time, details of a five-year contract with Pivonka were worked out and it was decided to make the break for the West in July.Pivonka met a member of the Washington organization, usually Button, in Finland, West Germany, Austria and the Soviet Union as well as the aforementioned countries. At one point, Button divided a five-dollar bill and gave half to Pivonka, so that he could identify any Capital contact who was forced to meet him on short notice.Pivonka was introduced at a Capital Centre press conference July 22, at which time he said, &ldquo;I had many personal reasons for leaving Czechoslovakia and I don&rsquo;t think they should be discussed,&rdquo; Pivonka said.The next day, Pivonka was lifting weights at the Severna Park (Md.) Racquetball and Nautilus Club. He drove one of Poile&rsquo;s cars to the session and, asked whether he was upset by bad drivers on the busy highway, replied, &ldquo;No, it was fun. There are bad drivers in Czechoslovakia, too.&rdquo;Pivonka and Nekvindova, temporarily living with Poile, went apartment hunting and the young Czechoslovak attended a Baltimore Orioles baseball game, where he was interviewed on television.Pivonka&rsquo;s arrival was timely, coming six weeks after center Bengt Gustafsson announced his intention to remain in Sweden this winter.&ldquo;This was a two-year plan that was designed to culminate in July, but there&rsquo;s no question the loss of Bengt Gustafsson made it more important to do this year,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;Gus is the biggest loss we&rsquo;ve had.&ldquo;Gus is a better player than Michal right now and Michal will need to make some adjustments to the NHL style of play, but he is a very skilled, offensive hockey player.&rdquo;Pivonka played for the Czech team that won the World Championship in 1985 and he was a standout in Hamilton where he was named to the first all-star team.&ldquo;Pivonka arguably was the best player available in the draft after Mario Lemieux in 1984,&rdquo; Poile said.Although Pivonka is believed to be the 17th player to defect to a North American pro team from Czechoslovakia, the Washington connection made him something of a cause celebre and a spokesman for the Czechoslovakian Embassy chastised the Capitals for not going through proper channels.Four days before Pivonka&rsquo;s unveiling in Washington, Frantisek Musil arrived in Minnesota wearing a North Star jersey and carrying a small shoulder bag which contained all of his possessions.Forty-eight hours earlier, he had been just another Czechoslavakian vacationing at a Yugoslavian seaside resort. But Musil, a 21-year-old defenseman who has played for the Czechoslovakian national team the past four years, walked away from his hotel July 17, leaving his girlfriend behind without any notice to join North Star general manager Lou Nanne and Edmonton lawyer Rich Winter.After almost two days of driving about Yugoslavia looking for a legal way out, Nanne and Winter whisked Musil to the West on a Friday morning thanks to a temporary American work visa.By late afternoon, they were in London. A few hours after that, they were on a Concorde en route to New York. And in the hours just before midnight. Musil stepped off a plane in Bloomington, his new home, with a big grin on his face.Musil, a second-round pick in 1983, told no one he was defecting&mdash;not even his parents.Officially, the United States does not consider Musil a defector. He was allowed into the country on a H-l temporary work visa, primarily because it permitted entry into America much faster than if Musil had been classified a political refugee. Officials at the St. Paul office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service say they understand Musil is here only for the one year his visa permits, but they also add that the visa can be renewed for years.Musil, who signed a multi-year contract with the Stars, may not have defected according to the U.S. government, but he knows the Czech government may never allow him to go home. If he does go back, it will probably be only after he becomes a U.S. citizen.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to lose my parents,&rdquo; said Musil, who had studied English in preparation for his defection. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to forget my country or my parents, but I want to play in the NHL. I have won the World Championship (with the Czech national team in 1985) and now there&rsquo;s one thing left&mdash;the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Said Nanne: &ldquo;Frantisek is the guy I always have wanted. He reminds me of a (Rod) Langway (Washington Capitals). He&rsquo;s played in four World Championships, one World Junior Championship, one Olympic team and he&rsquo;s only 21.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03678/5063331-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="147" height="126"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2>Nanne had been planning for Musil&rsquo;s escape since 1983. The adventure began when the Stars drafted Musil and shortly thereafter filed papers with U.S. Immigration.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been Louie&rsquo;s No. 1 project for the last year,&rdquo; Sonmor said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d sit around and talk and I told Louie if one of us has to go over there and get shot it wouldn&rsquo;t be me because 1 don&rsquo;t make enough money. But if I was going to get shot over a player, this would be the guy.&rdquo;Winter, a 29-year-old, didn&rsquo;t meet Musil until they rendez-voused July 16 in a hotel in Umag, on the Adriatic Sea. Musil met a friend of Winter&rsquo;s while he was in West Germany last year with the national team and Winter and Musil kept in touch occasionally through that contact.Musil told the Stars three years ago that he wanted to leave Czechoslava-kia and play in the NHL. But he had to wait until he fulfilled his military duty. If caught defecting while in the army, he would have been considered a deserter and may have faced execution.He was dropped off the national team this spring after refusing to sign a five-year contract that promised he would not defect and play in North America, but he still received a holiday visa to visit Yugoslavia once he completed his military obligations in June.&ldquo;I know it will be very different here,&rdquo; said Musil, who had been to North America three times previously. &ldquo;To go where you want, when you want&hellip;I think I will like that.&rdquo; &#9632;

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THE DAYS OF DEFECTIONS

The irony, no doubt, was not lost on Czechoslovakian sports officials. Mere days before tennis super-star Martina Navratilova&rsquo;s brief return to her homeland on July 19, 11 years after defecting to the United States, hockey stars Frantisek Musil and Michal Pivonka stole away from Czechoslovakia to play in the National Hockey League.They are, by THN&rsquo;s count, the 29th and 30th Czechoslovakian hockey players to come to North America. Not all of them have been Stastny-like successes, some of them not even advancing to pro hockey. Only nine of them were given permission to leave. Below is a listing of all 30. They are grouped into two categories&mdash;those granted permission to seek employment in the NHL and those who did it their way:<h2>PERMISSION GRANTED</h2>BUBLA, Jiri&mdash;Vancouver, 1981-82 to present.CERNIK, Frantisek&mdash;Detroit, 1984-85. CHALUPA, Milan&mdash;Detroit, 1984-85.DVORAK, Miroslav&mdash;Philadelphia, 1982-83 to 1984-85.HLINKA, Ivan&mdash;Vancouver, 1981-82 to 1982-83.JIRIK, Jaroslav&mdash;St. Louis, 1969-70NOVY, Milan&mdash;Washington, 1982-83.POUZAR, Jaroslav&mdash;Edmonton, 1982-83 to 1984-85.TAJCNAR, Rudy&mdash;Edmonton (WHA), 1978-79<h2>THE DEFECTORS</h2>CRHA, Jiri&mdash;Toronto, 1979-80 to 1980-81.DURIS, Slava&mdash;Toronto, 1980-81 to 1982-83.FARDA, Richard&mdash;Toronto and Birmingham (WHA), 1974-75 to 1976-77.FRYCER, Miroslav&mdash;Quebec and Toronto, 1981-82 to present.IHNACAK, Miroslav&mdash;Toronto, 1985-86 to present.IHNACAK, Peter&mdash;Toronto, 1982-83 to present.KLIMA, Petr&mdash;Detroit, 1985-86 to present.KOPTA, Peter&mdash;Oshawa and Lethbridge, 1983 to &rsquo;84.LUDVIG, Jan&mdash;New Jersey, 1982-83 to present.MAGLAY, Martin&mdash;Markham, Ont., Cincinnati and Moncton (Toronto), 1980-81 to 1982-83MALY, Miroslav&mdash;Springfield (Minnesota), 1984-85.MUSIL, Frantisek&mdash;Minnesota.NEDOMANSKY, Vaclav&mdash;Toronto and Birmingham (WHA), Detroit, New York Rangers and St. Louis, 1974-75 to 1982-83.PJVONKA, Michal&mdash;Washington.PONER, Jiri&mdash;Springfield, Indianapolis and Muskegon (Minnesota), 1983-84 to present.STASTNY, Anton&mdash;Quebec, 1980-81 to present.STASTNY, Marian&mdash;Quebec and Toronto, 1981-82 to present.STASTNY, Peter&mdash;Quebec, 1980-81 to present.SVOBODA, Karel&mdash;Montreal.SVOBODA, Petr&mdash;Montreal, 1984-85 to present.VINOPAL, Rene&mdash;New Westminster, 1985-86. &#9632;

‘Czeching’ Specialists

<h2>Shuffle At The Top Signals A New Start</h2>BY WALT MacPEEKNEW YORK&mdash;When someone asked Phil Esposito at his first press conference as the New York Rangers&rsquo; new general manager whether he planned to be &ldquo;a wheeler dealer&rdquo;, the Hall of Fame center laughed at the suggestion&hellip;and then went out and acquired four new players in the next 15 days.In addition to obtaining center Kelly Kisio, right winger Lane Lambert and defenseman Jim Leavins from Detroit in exchange for goalie Glen Hanlon and two third-round draft choices, Esposito signed free-agent goalie Doug Soetaert, re-signed left winger Jan Erixon and announced that defenseman Reijo Ruotsalainen will be playing in Switzerland next season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not always going to be like this,&rdquo; Esposito said after completing the trade with Detroit. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not part of our plan to make changes just to make changes. All we&rsquo;re doing is trying to put our house in better order so we can be ready for training camp.&rdquo;Esposito left no doubt that he believes the Rangers are already well prepared for the 1986-87 season in terms of its coaching staff of Ted Sator. Reg Higgs and Jack Birch.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned,&rdquo; said the 44-year-ofd Esposito at his July I4 press conference, &ldquo;Teddy is still the coach if he still wants to be. The man will do anything to win and his ability to handle the bench is in no doubt after the playoffs.&rdquo;After signing a three-year contract, the Rangers&rsquo; new vice-president also said that he was going to take a &ldquo;long look&rdquo; at Sator&rsquo;s pact. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s only one year left on it&mdash;I haven&rsquo;t even seen it yet&mdash;we&rsquo;ll have to talk about extending it. I want everybody to understand that I really want Ted here; I think we can do great things together.&rdquo;Esposito, acknowledging that he will probably make &ldquo;a ton of rookie mistakes,&rdquo; said he will review the rest of the organization thoroughly before deciding whoelse is to be retained. One of his early moves was to add his former Boston teammate. Wayne Cashman, to the Rangers&rsquo; much-maligned scouting staff.New York Ranger president Jack Krumpe, whose future with the club became uncertain after announcing (after the Esposito hiring) he has accepted a position outside hockey, offered no real explanation for the delay in choosing the 44-year-old Esposito. Insiders, however, said the Rangers&rsquo; surprising playoff surge, which saw a sub-.500 regular-season team skate all the way to the semi-final round, delayed his timetable.&ldquo;It was our inability to win a Stanley Cup, the ultimate goal of the organization,&rdquo; Krumpe answered when asked what had caused him to replace Craig Patrick. &ldquo;We also felt we needed a burst of new enthusiasm in the organization and we believe Phil can give us that.&rdquo;Krumpe, who may or may not remain with the club in some capacity after assuming his new posting as the manager of the Jacob Javits Convention Centre in New York, repeatedly praised Patrick for his &ldquo;loyal and tireless&rdquo; work over six years in which the Rangers played more playoff games than all but one Patrick Division foe (the New York Islanders).Although Esposito went out of his way to avoid directly criticizing Patrick, he was unable to sidestep completely when asked how his hockey philosophy differed from that of his predecessor, who was often criticized for his low-key style and apparent indecisiveness.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t know which way he (Patrick) went,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;And that might have been the problem.&rdquo;How will the new GM be different?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to run away from things,&rdquo; the five-time NHL scoring champion declared. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to do appearances, talk about the Rangers, appear on TV&hellip;and do a lot of things that he (Patrick) didn&rsquo;t really like to do. And I&rsquo;m going to be aggressive&hellip;very aggressive.&rdquo;The man who collected 717 goals and 873 assists in 1,282 regularseason games spent much of the winter denying rumors that he was in line to take over as GM but he admitted that the subject had, indeed, come up before.&ldquo;I had a brief talk with Jack back in February and I told him if the opportunity ever presented itself that, sure. I&rsquo;d be interested,&rdquo; he explained, &ldquo;and then I was contacted on July 2 or 3 but it was almost like a surprise because my mother died late in June and, naturally, my mind had gotten away from thinking hockey.&rdquo;Holding up his hands, Esposito showed off the two Stanley Cup championship rings he earned as a member of the Boston Bruins in the early 1970s. &ldquo;Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll be able to retire one of these by replacing it with one from a Ranger Stanley Cup,&rdquo; he declared. &ldquo;I will dedicate myself and the entire organization to producing a championship team.&rdquo;BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;Phil Esposito became the eighth GM in the 60-year history of the Rangers. He was the fourth straight Ranger GM to be hired with no previous experience (John Ferguson, Fred Shero and Craig Patrick preceded him)&hellip; Rangers were 204-196-60 during the regular season with Patrick running the organization. Rangers were 27-30 in playoffs over the same span&hellip;After completing his 18-year playing career, Esposito served for about three weeks as an assistant coach and, shortly after, moved into a job as color man for Ranger broadcasts&mdash;a job he maintained until being named GM.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011289/5063407-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="980" height="2284"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Esposito wasn&rsquo;t happy to learn that Reijo Ruotsalainen, above, has left the Rangers to play in Switzerland. He was, however, happy to pose with several newcomers and coach Ted Sator. Below, from left to right, are Doug Soetaert, Sator, Jim Leavins, Kelly Kisio and Lane Lambert.</figcaption></div><h2>The Moves Are Many Early In Espo Regime</h2>BY WALT MacPEEKNEW YORK&mdash;Even though Phil Esposito, the broadcaster, was often critical of Reijo Ruotsalainen. there was no joy in the voice of Phil Esposito, the Ranger general manager, when he announced that the defenseman had turned down a contract offer and will play in Switzerland next season.&ldquo;It puts us back a little,&rdquo; Esposito said of Ruotsalainen&rsquo;s decision, which came less than two weeks after he succeeded Craig Patrick. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a slap in the face. It&rsquo;s not what I wanted&hellip;at all. I never even got a chance to talk to him, personally.&ldquo;I called and called,&rdquo; a frustrated and disappointed Esposito revealed on July 25, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s out on a boat or something and his agent says he&rsquo;s going to Switzerland this weekend to sign the contract.&rdquo;Over five seaons, Ruotsaiainen collected more assists (217) than any other Ranger and ranked No. 2 in points over that span behind his close friend Mark Pavelich (3I8-316), who also hopes to play in Europe next season.Despite early-season differences with head coach Ted Sator. Ruotsalainen led the Rangers in plus-minus rating (plus-22) and ranked second in points (59) and assists (42).&ldquo;I know I picked on him a lot when I was a broadcaster,&rdquo; Esposito said, &ldquo;but one reason was because I thought he had more talent than he used. I really believed that if I could sit down with him and go over my philosophy with him that he could have been more effective.&rdquo;Ruotsalainen. a 5-foot-8, I70-pound native of Oulu, Finland, had asked Patrick for a &ldquo;termination&rdquo; contract, which would have made him a free agent (without compensation) after this season. He also sought a no-trade clause.&ldquo;He had indicated to Craig that he wouldn&rsquo;t be back unless he got a termination deal,&rdquo; Esposito revealed. &ldquo;Craig said&lsquo;No&rsquo; to that and so did I. We&rsquo;re trying to build something long-term here; we can&rsquo;t have a guy buzzing off on us after a year.&rdquo;Esposito, who was not happy with New York&rsquo;s power play last season, now has even more work on his hands to rebuild it.&ldquo;You know how I am about the power play; it&rsquo;s a sore spot with me.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Rexi was really important there. There were some things I wanted to do with him and. well. I&rsquo;m bleeped off about losing him.&rdquo;Esposito&rsquo;s mood was more upbeat when he signed free-agent goalie Doug Soetaert and. as a result, was able to trade goalie Glen Hanlon and two third-round draft choices to Detroit for center Kelly Kisio, right winger Lane Lambert and defenseman Jim Leavins.Kisio, who will be 27 in September, was the key player, at least in the short term, from the Rangers&rsquo; standpoint. The Alberta native collected more points last season (69) than any player on New York&rsquo;s roster (Mike Ridley led the Rangers with 65) and has missed only 19 games over the last three seasons.Lambert, who will be 22 in November, scored 20 goals as a rookie for Detroit in I983-84 but has slipped significantly since then.A 5-foot-l l, 178-pound right winger, Lambert spent last season shuttling back and forth between the AHL and Detroit. At Adirondack, he collected 16 goals and 25 assists in 45 games but accounted for only two goals and three assists in 34 games with the Wings.Leavins. 26. is a 5-foot-l 1, 182-pound defenseman who collected two goals and 11 assists in 37 games for the Red Wings last season as a rookie. A former Denver University star, Leavins was playing for Fort Wayne in the International League two years ago.Soetaert, 31. who fashioned an 11-6-2 with the Stanley Cupchampion Montreal Canadiens last season, owns a winning record (108-96-42) for his 11-year NHL career and was 33-33-13 over parts of six seasons (I975-I981) with the Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021205/5063400-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="1968" height="912"></div> &#9632;

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Patrick Is Out, Esposito Is In

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011161/5063445-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="378" height="393"></div>Hall of Famer Phil Esposito made all the right moves during a spectacular National Hockey League career. A five-time scoring champion and two-time most valuable player he set standards that only Wayne Gretzky has eclipsed.Now, he must prove capable of making all the right moves off the ice. The New York Rangers&rsquo; new general manager, named July 14 as Craig Patrick&rsquo;s successor, has a clear mandate&mdash;to take the Rangers to a Stanley Cup championship for the First time since 1940. Of the original six NHL teams, no other has gone so long without a celebratory sip of champagne.Esposito, 44, talked with THN contributing editor Stan Fischler soon after becoming GM. He was typically candid in conversation about himself and his team.THN: I&rsquo;d hate to be the Madison Square Garden accountant when you start throwing away money on huge salaries. You might break Gulf & Western.ESPOSITO: If I think a guy is worth big money, he gets it. I will never lie about it; I&rsquo;m more than generous. But if 1 believe a guy is overpaid right now&mdash;and he&rsquo;s in his option year&mdash;and he comes back for the same money, he&rsquo;s not going to get that. Likewise, if a guy is underpaid, he&rsquo;ll be treated fairly. But he has to earn it. I want my players on incentives for extra money. I&rsquo;ll give them a base pay they can be happy with but they&rsquo;re going to (have to) earn anything over that.THN: Your first big negotiating session was with goalie John Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s agent. Bill Watters. 1 bet you gave him a bundle.ESPOSITO: Mel Lowell is the financial fellow at the Garden and he sat in on the Vanbiesbrouck negotiations. You can ask him. After it was over he said to me, &lsquo;Phil, I&rsquo;m amazed at how fair you and Billy Watters were.&rsquo; I have an advantage with these agents because most of them know me. They realize that I&rsquo;m not going to B. S. them. I&rsquo;m not going to chisel them down. I want the players to be happy but I don&rsquo;t want them to steal my back teeth. The bottom line in negotiating is this&mdash;it&rsquo;s not my money, but it could be my job!THN: You realize that people are putting the rap on you&hellip;ESPOSITO: (interrupts) Already!THN: Why not? The point is that one criticism&mdash;which is valid&mdash;happens to be that you have no experience as a general manager.ESPOSITO: (snarling) Well, where does everybody start? Did Bill Torrey have experience when he started? He&rsquo;s the best. Louie Nanne, did he have experience? Listen, you know what my experience is&mdash;it&rsquo;s playing in the game for 19 years, or thereabouts. My experience studying the game since I was four years old. My experience is loving the game. My experience has been watching the game as a broadcaster. Frankly, I&rsquo;ve got more experience than any general manager that&rsquo;s been around&mdash;when they first went in.THN: You&rsquo;re too cocky. Do you know that? You think you know too much.ESPOSITO: You bet. That&rsquo;s the absolute truth. I&rsquo;m not going to deny that. I always used to tell myself when I went on the ice: &lsquo;I gotta believe. I gotta believe I&rsquo;m the best out there.&rsquo;THN: Another strike against you, Phil, is that you&rsquo;re too emotional.ESPOSITO: That I am, too, but&hellip;I&rsquo;m not too emotional to trade a guy. I traded Glen Hanlon right after I got the job. Too emotional to fire somebody? Obviously, not. I&rsquo;ve done that (he fired P.R. director Vince Casey.) Yes, it bothered me tremendously to fire somebody. It really did because I&rsquo;ve never really done that before. But, you know what&mdash;I&rsquo;ve grown up! I really have grown up in business. I know now that you have to do what you think is right and if it hurts somebody else&mdash;that&rsquo;s tough! If you believe that it&rsquo;s right&mdash;and you&rsquo;re the boss&mdash;you gotta go with it.THN: You made the Hanlon deal with the Red Wings almost as soon as you got into your office. How long had you been thinking about it?ESPOSITO: I had that trade in mind before I even had the job&hellip;The first guy I called was Jimmy Devellano (Detroit general manager).THN: When you got Kelly Kisio, Lane Lambert and Jim Leavins from Devellano, you should have been arrested for grand larceny.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02857/5063438-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="1992" height="1996"></div>ESPOSITO: (laughing) What are you talking about? I&rsquo;ve been involved with two of the biggest deals in hockey history and I&rsquo;ll tell you; you never know, about who won the deal until after six months or until after a season. But I don&rsquo;t think I can go wrong (on this trade). I can&rsquo;t go wrong but Glen Hanlon will help Detroit.THN: Over the years there have been whispers that you&rsquo;re anti-Scandinavian. What about it?ESPOSITO: (disgusted) That is so stupid. So dumb&mdash;so dumb! Tomas Sandstrom is one of my favorite players and one of my favorite people. In fact, I just told his agent Don Baizley to get his buns in here. I said I want to sign Tomas and give him a new contract because he was underpaid. Baizley said, &lsquo;Are you kidding me?&rsquo; 1 said, &lsquo;No! I think he&rsquo;s underpaid.&rsquo; And I signed Jan Erixon. He&rsquo;s a good hard-nosed, hard-working guy. This criticism that I don&rsquo;t like Scandinavians is because I said some negative things about Reijo Ruotsalainen when he was playing and I was broadcasting. Oh, s&mdash;! Nobody ever mentions the good things I said about him. I praised him plenty but everybody remembers the bad things I mentioned.THN: You&rsquo;ve hired your old buddy Wayne Cashman as chief scout. Critics say the Esposito regime will be filled with cronyism.ESPOSITO: Wayne&rsquo;s a great guy. I love Wayne Cashman. He gave his body for me. I think Wayne can do the job. What other friends am I hiring?THN: In terms of personality and, it would seem, strategically, you and your coach, Ted Sator, are like oil and water.ESPOSITO: I wouldn&rsquo;t say we&rsquo;re like &lsquo;oil and water. &rsquo; Ted and I agree on a lot of things about hockey. In fact it scares me, we agree sometimes so much. I&rsquo;ll say something and he&rsquo;ll look at me and say, &lsquo;Jeez, you&rsquo;re right.&rsquo; Or he&rsquo;ll say something and I&rsquo;ll say &lsquo;God, I was just thinkin&rsquo; the same thing.&rsquo; That bothers me to a point because I don&rsquo;t want us to agree too much. I want us to disagree. I want Teddy to be able to come to me and say, T don&rsquo;t like this. I don&rsquo;t think this is right.&rsquo; In turn I want to be able to go to Ted and say &lsquo;Geez, I dunno, why don&rsquo;t you try this guy at center?&rsquo; It&rsquo;s up to him to do it. I&rsquo;ll suggest. Then it will be up to Ted Sator. It&rsquo;s his job to make the final decision. I&rsquo;m not going to jeopardize Ted&rsquo;s authority with the players.THN: The feeling in some NHL quarters is that you&rsquo;re going to interfere with Sator quite a bit.ESPOSITO: You want the truth. I will not travel with the team like Craig Patrick did. I may show up. If they&rsquo;re going bad, I&rsquo;ll be around a lot. If they&rsquo;re going good, they probably won&rsquo;t even see me. I will not interfere with the day-to-day operation. In fact, I&rsquo;m putting a new office in at Rye, N.Y. (the Ranger practice headquarters) away from the dressing room. I don&rsquo;t believe that the general manager should be in the dressing room. I will not, probably, go down to the dressing room after games, like most general managers do. I believe in being away from it. The room is the players&rsquo; and coaches&rsquo; domain. If the general manager shows up, it&rsquo;s either for tremendous credit or tremendous s&mdash;.THN: You inherited a coach. If you had your choice of coach, who would you have picked?ESPOSITO: If I had gotten the job and there was nobody to coach, the first thing 1 would have done is the coaching myself for a couple of months. Then, I would have been able to look at the players&rsquo; eyes when they&rsquo;re coming off the ice. Then, I would have been able to judge them better. Then, I would have gone looking, and I probably would have looked for a coach who fit the personality of the team. I really don&rsquo;t know the personality of this team totally yet. I&rsquo;m going to study this Ranger team like crazy for the first two months.THN: What worries you about this club?ESPOSITO: The cliques. Europeans go over in one comer by themselves and talk Swedish or Finnish and all that. We&rsquo;re going to try to separate that as fast as possible. We&rsquo;re going to integrate them with each other.THN: How long were you a serious candidate for the job?ESPOSITO: Last February, Jack Krumpe (Ranger president) and I had lunch and I said, &lsquo;Look Jack, if you are serious about making a change I may be interested. (But) I&rsquo;d have to talk it over with my wife.&rsquo; I was sort of getting bored doing the television&mdash;no reflection on television because I loved doing it but I felt that I had to do more. If I had been more involved with the team in helping them out, I wouldn&rsquo;t have wanted to do this general managing.THN: What do you think was wrong with Craig Patrick&rsquo;s regime?ESPOSITO: I don&rsquo;t think there was all that much wrong. I think during the latter part of Craig&rsquo;s regime, he became a lame duck so to speak. I don&rsquo;t know if he had authority or not. Personally, I didn&rsquo;t think Craig was aggressive enough. This is New York and I believe that here you have to be aggressive.THN: A new Esposito saga begins.ESPOSITO: If the team loses, people will say I&rsquo;m not doing my job. And if the team wins, no one will give a s&hellip; &#9632;

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Talking With The Talk Of The Town

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div>ONE SENTENCE SUMS up reasons for the National Hockey League labor peace leading to a promising 1986-87 season.&ldquo;We did as well or better than we could have done with a strike and we miss all the fuss and bother,&rdquo; said Alan Eagleson, executive-director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association.Late on a July evening, less than 24 hours after team owners accused the workers of bargaining in bad faith, a claim that made Eagleson and the players very angry, a five-year collective agreement was reached.That cancels a strike that would have started with a boycott of training camp in September. Indications pointed to a long strike and some influential owners were adamant about extreme measures to combat labor unrest.An owner with clout claims several peers were prepared to close the arena doors if the skaters based their stand on the acquisition of total free agency, something owners say the game can&rsquo;t survive.Fortunately for the sport, the players know that total free agency, the right to move from one team to another with no compensation in players, draft choices or cash, is a pipedream and something the game can&rsquo;t survive.The players won concessions on the compensation required if they want to switch teams. The big change&mdash;and the one that might increase free-agent flow a little&mdash;removes players from the compensation picture. Now, draft choices will pay for free agents.Owner concessions on that point were critical in the new deal. When the meeting appeared to be disintegrating in ill will, Eagleson went to his hotel room. He returned later with a list of 14 points of disagreement.Realism time had arrived, and with hard-nosed negotiations the players&rsquo; 14 points were reduced to three. No. 8 was total free agency for any player over 30 who was not offered $200,000 per season. No. 9 asked that every player be granted free agency at one point in his career by the age of 29. No. 10 suggested players not be part of compensation.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011343/5063476-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="378" height="438"></div>&ldquo;The owners said they would give us No. 10, the really important one, if we would forget about Nos. 8 and 9,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;We did, and we had a deal.&rdquo;While both sides entered the negotiations with liberalized free agency as top priority&mdash;from opposite extremes, of course&mdash;that wasn&rsquo;t the pivotal point. Strangely, very few hockey players want to change teams as free agents and, instead of making a big push for something they probably wouldn&rsquo;t use much, anyway, the workers won concessions from the owners that will allow them to parlay a modest career into lifetime fiscal security.A man who plays 400 games, the equivalent of five seasons, could have approximately $60,000 per year for the rest of his life from age 55 in pension fund payments and interest on a $250,000 lump-sum payment. A 10-year veteran would receive $85,000.&ldquo;A big surprise for us, too, was that the owners turned the administration of the pension fund over to the players,&rdquo; Eagleson added.Some oldtimers will benefit from the new deal, too. A $5 million fund will be used to upgrade the pension payments to players who retired prior to the NHL&rsquo;s 1967 expansion.Eagleson again was happy about the attitude of his union members towards the negotiations. The players took a hard-nosed approach on free agency at first but slowly adjusted that outlook.Some player agents aren&rsquo;t happy with the establishment of a draft for free-agent college players, which will eliminate repeats of the bidding wars that made such chaps as Ray Staszak and Dwight Mathiasen rich before they proved they could play in the NHL.Like a true labor leader, Eagleson claims he was thinking of his union&rsquo;s members when he agreed to that one. He lists a strong.precedent for the college free-agent rule&mdash;the legislation a few years ago that forced all European players to be drafted before they could sign with an NHL team.&ldquo;Why should European players have the right to negotiate with all 21 NHL teams when the vast majority of Canadian and U.S. players had to be drafted by one club?&rdquo; Eagleson said.The part of the new agreement that could have the biggest influence on the game is a possibility of changes in the NHL entry-draft rules. Most hockey people feel that the claiming of players as young as 18 is not good for the game&mdash;or the players.The change would establish an &ldquo;apprenticeship&rdquo; system in which a player must play a set amount of time in junior, college, high school or European hockey before being eligible for the draft.The logical question here? What right does Eagleson and the NHLPA have to become mixed up in this issue? Well, their involvement probably is the only way changes can be made in that area. Drafting 18-year-olds came about because not doing it was a violation of their civil rights and the NHL was open to legal action if it didn&rsquo;t claim the teens.&ldquo;The only way the draft rules could be changed without breaking the law is through the collective bargaining process,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;Other professions have an apprenticeship program in which a young man must serve preparation time before he can become a journeyman and a full member of the union.&rdquo;Thus, the NHL has welcomed labor tranquility for the next four years. Come to think of it, could you really picture Wayne Gretzky, wearing a sandwich board sign, picketing Northlands Coliseum? &#9632;

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NHL’s Icy Waters Become Sea Of Tranquility

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Gilbert Perreault on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri.It could happen.Perreault, the recently-retired captain of the Buffalo Sabres could well be the first true beneficiary of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s new collective bargaining agreement.The orginal Sabre (Perreault was the first player selected by the 1970 expansion club) says he has been contacted by Edmonton Oiler coach-general manager Glen Sather and that the two discussed the possibilities.&ldquo;He called, we talked, but it was just a good talk,&rdquo; said Perreault. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t made up my mind about anything. Right now I&rsquo;m still retired.&rdquo;Perreault maintained that the conversation with Sather was preliminary and that no contract negotiations are currently underway. He did, however, concede that Sather held out the possibility of playing Perreault on a line with Gretzky and Kurri.&ldquo;He did mention that,&rdquo; said Perreault.Gretzky, seven times the league&rsquo;s scoring leader, finished with a record 215 points last season. Kurri was the league&rsquo;s leading goal scorer (68) and finished with 131 points. Perreault, who will be 36 during the coming season fell below his career averages last season but still managed breakthrough performances that netted him his 500th career goal and 1,300th career point.That Perreault can be openly courted by the Oilers is a direct result of the new collective bargining agreement.He comes under the new guidelines that permit players over the age of 31 to exercise the option of either having his old club keep its right of first refusal or having an arbitrator decide between compensation offers by the old club and the club competiting for his services.-In the past, teams could retain free agents 33 or older simply by matching an offer from any competing team.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02970/5063507-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="130" height="116"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2>NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson had made the Sabres&rsquo; hold on Perreault something of a rallying point during the most recent contract negotiations and said afterward that Perreault could well be the first benifici-ary of a loosening of the first-refusal clause.Perreault would not commit himself to a comeback with the Oilers or any other NHL team, but he has made it clear since he retired from the Sabres in June that he had not signed retirement papers and that he would wait and see what his options were and how he felt after the new agreement was ratified.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t made up my mind about anything. Right now, I&rsquo;m still retired.&rsquo; &mdash;Perreault</blockquote>He also said he had been running and lifting weights this off-season and would begin skating daily with a college team near his home at Victoriaville, Que.&ldquo;It (playing again) is something I&rsquo;ll have to think about some more,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a decision you just don&rsquo;t make overnight. I retired and I&rsquo;d have to be sure in my own mind that I wanted to play-again.&rdquo;Thanks to the new agreement, it&rsquo;s largely his decision.SABRE POINTS&mdash;Montreal Cana-dien general manager Serge Savard had been downplaying any interest in Gilbert Perreault. Savard recently said he was more inclined to work some of the Cana-diens younger players into the lineup rather than go with the older Perreaul-t&hellip;After an initial spurt of signings and one trade, the Sabres, who talked of making changes in the off-season after failing to make the playoffs, have been remarkably quiet. They did sign several drafted players from one and two drafts ago and one free agent before the draft. Exceptfor the trade announced on draft day that brought Scott Arniel from the Winnipeg Jets for Gilles Hamel though, the team is essentially the same one that finished in fifth place in the Adams Division last season. The Sabres must find a replacement for Perreault, an intregal part of their offense, power-play and penaltykilling units, but did get some help for their defense when veteran Bill Hajt announced he would play another season. &#9632;

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Is Original Sabre Set To Join The Oilers?

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Gibert Perreault may be headed for his 36th birthday, but that doesn&rsquo;t seem to bother Glen Sather.The manager-coach of the dethroned Stanley Cup champions would love to see the veteran Buffalo Sabre forward clothed in the silks of his Edmonton Oilers.In fact, Sather could even envision Perrault filling the role of Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s left winger.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d have any trouble playing with Wayne and Jari (Kurri),&rdquo; said Sather of the semi-retired Sabre who has left the door open to possibly performing once again&hellip;likely somewhere else than Buffalo.Say, for example, in Edmonton, Montreal or Quebec.&ldquo;Of course, he can still play,&rdquo; said Sather, who doesn&rsquo;t think the 16-year National Hockey League veteran will be back in Buffalo. Plus, it only stands to reason the Sabres would like to see their first-ever draft pick and long-time cornerstone of their franchise outside the Adams Division.Perreault has stated he&rsquo;s undecided concerning his future, but left a broad hint by revealing his plans are to practise with a college team in Victoriaville. Que. throughout August.In the meantime, it&rsquo;s been a long&mdash;although not necessarily hot&mdash;summer for Gretzky.And, the lengthy off-season has had nothing to do with the seasonal monsoons that engulfed this neck of the woods during July.&ldquo;The summer has seemed so long that I skated for a few days a couple of weeks ago&hellip; I never do that,&rdquo; said Gretzky ata recent press conference to officially announce his third annual charity golf tournament is set for August 9th at the Edmonton country club. Weather, of course, permitting.If the summer has brought about any heat for Gretzky and his Edmonton teammates, it has, of course, centered around the two-time Stanley Cup champions&rsquo; second-round playoff dismissal at the hands of the Calgary Flames back in late April.Considering the unsubstantiated cocaine-use rumors in a Sports Illustrated story plus rumors of assistant coach Bob MacCammon and/or assistant manager Bruce MacGregor deserting the Oilers in favour of greener NHL pastures, rookie Steve Smith&rsquo;s fatal faux pas in Game Seven seems an eternity ago.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011196/5063538-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="128" height="114"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2>&ldquo;I ran into one of the Flames at my tennis tournament (last month in Brantford, Ont.) and he joked that I&rsquo;ve had plenty of time to get my golf game down.&rdquo; said Gretzky, refusing to name Doug Risebrough as the culprit.The Oilers&rsquo; setback was their third such derailment over the last five years.The first two&mdash;the infamous prelimin-ary-round loss to the Los Angeles Kings in 1982 and being swept by the New York Islanders during their first peek at the final the following year&mdash;only served as detours along the road to the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;This year means for a long summer of answering questions,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s as bad as (the loss to) L.A. There was a lot of things said about us that we were never winners and we were chokers.&ldquo;But, we were still young then. That&rsquo;s what makes this loss so disappointing and frustrating. We didn&rsquo;t win when we were supposed to. We had the best record (over the regular season) and we had the talent&hellip;and we had won before.&rdquo;Gretzky admits the 1983 setback at the hands of Billy Smith and the four-time champion Isles was simply part of the Oilers&rsquo; learning experience.IN THE CREASE&mdash;In a combined effort to bolster their farm team in Nova Scotia and add some depth to their organization, the Oilers acquired centers Alfie Turcotte and Murray Eaves for &ldquo;future considerations.&rdquo; Turcotte was picked up from the Montreal Canadiens and Eaves from the Winnipeg Jets. Both played with Sherbrooke last season. &#9632;

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New Line Could Be No. 99, Kurri, Perreault

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Roger Neilson has been vindicated.The former Vancouver Canuck coach was awarded $173,500 in a B.C. Supreme Court judgment which found the National Hockey League team owed him all the money he would have been paid had his employment not been terminated a season and a half early.With costs and interest added, the amount of the settlement&mdash;handed down Aug. 6&mdash;was more than $250,000.Neilson said he was &ldquo;naturally very pleased with the decision,&rdquo; adding he felt all along his contract had been guaranteed and that &ldquo;the judge obviously felt the same thing.&rdquo;Neilson was fired by the Canucks on Jan. 18, 1984 after a particularly humiliating loss in Edmonton. During the hearing in late June of this year, lawyers for the Canucks argued that subsequent earnings made while coaching the Los Angeles Kings and as an assistant in Chicago should offset any award.&ldquo;We were very pleased with the judgment,&rdquo; said Neilson&rsquo;s co-counsel David Church. &ldquo;It constitutes the maximum reward we could hope for in this case. We simply got everything we wanted.&rdquo;The award is composed of $53,500 that Neilson&rsquo;s lawyers said he was owed for the balance of the 1983-84 season and $120,000 for the following year.Garth McAlister, co-counsel for the Canucks, said he would review the judgment and said it is premature to say whether he would advise the club to launch an appeal.&ldquo;Basically what the judge decided was where you have a guaranteed contract there is no obligation on the part of the employee to mitigate his damages,&rdquo; said McAlister.Neilson was offered the coaching job in L.A. for the 1984-85 season, but decided not to remain with the Kings when the opportunity to become general manager wasn&rsquo;t present.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02851/5063569-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="116" height="104"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2>He is currently co-coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.The Neilson announcement brought to an end quiet times in and around the Canucks.Until then, there had been only the signing of free-agent defenseman Robin Bartel from Calgary and a surprising press release to stir fan interest.Amidst much speculation that general manager Jack Gordon was about to be replaced, the Canucks decided to make an announcement. They issued a press release informing the public that nothing was happening. It said that Gordon was in fact not going to be moved.The Canucks have earned just 59 points the last two seasons.The acquisition of Bartel rings very much the bell of the Tom Watt connection. Bartel, 25, played for the Canuck coach while both were with the Canadian Olympic program.Bartel was not with the Flames most of the season but when Calgary ran short of bodies in their run to the Stanley Cup final last season, he came in as something of a replacement for Gary Suter. A defenseman who can handle the puck well, Bartel will be a help only if he stays at home, a place where the Canuck defense has usually been absent over the past two seasons.The Canucks also signed tough guy Craig Coxe to a three-year contract after the native of Chula Vista, Calif., had become a free agent without compensation. Coxe had originally begun negotiations with the club by himself, but was advised to get an agent. North Vancouver lawyer Ron Perrick came to his assistance. &#9632;

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Neilson The Big Winner In Lawsuit

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Giving Thanks</h2>IT CAUGHT EVERYONE more than a little off guard. It was the dead of summer, late July, a time when even the most ardent hockey enthusiast puts the game on the back burner and enjoys a brief respite.Yet it is a landmark agreement that will shape the game at all levels for many years to come.We talk, of course, of the National Hockey League-NHL Players&rsquo; Association collective bargaining agreement, a five-year pact that was first agreed to on July 24 and officially ratified on Aug. 12. (See stories on Pages 10 and 11).When such a significant achievement is made, the tendency is to try and absorb all of the terms and conditions and determine the likely effects on the game. Aside from the obvious problem of trying to assimilate too much important information in too short a time span&mdash;information overload&mdash;there is another, more valid reason for waiving the standard practice of combing through it with a critical eye.Simply, it is a time for celebration.Let us celebrate the fact that the NHL will conduct business as usual in September when training camps open. Let us appreciate this brand of labor peace enjoyed by no other professional sport.Let us give thanks to the negotiating teams from both sides, management and union, for adopting a reasonable approach to the talks.Certainly, the impending introduction of a supplemental draft for amateur free agents&mdash;which seems to be the most contentious issue since one lawyer/player rep is already investigating a legal means of overturning it&mdash;is a subject worthy of comment.And undeniably the restructuring-of the NHL entry draft is well worth taking a position on.There&rsquo;s no question that the new equalization and compensation rules governing player movement between teams will have to be looked at long and hard to determine its impact on the game.Examine them we will, but not today.For now, we echo the sentiments of New York Islander general manager Bill Torrey: &ldquo;The players like it, the owners like it. What more can you ask for?&rdquo;But the final word goes to NHL president John Ziegler, Jr.&ldquo;Each side made concessions in order to achieve what is best for the game of hockey and for the business of hockey.&rdquo;Amen to that. &#9632;

The Hockey News

THE ST. LOUIS hockey fans are slapped in the face again and people wonder why the support for hockey is not what it should be here.In the beginning it was Sid Salomon&rsquo;s trading of popular players and firing of Al Arbour.After that was Ralston&rsquo;s attempts to sell the team or disband it, which cost the team a year&rsquo;s worth of draft choices. The Harry Ornest era has featured some good and some bad.But the ultimate slap in the face is the recent move of Jacques Demers to the Detroit Red Wings.Demers was always an up-front, honest, positive man&mdash;someone who was easy to trust because of his personality. He had the support of every hockey fan in St. Louis because he was up front and told it like it was, or so we thought!Demers had problems while he was in Quebec which led to his demotion to the minors. Now he has created a problem in St. Louis. I wonder what&rsquo;s in store for Detroit? He seems to be setting a pattern and it looks like he is taking the problem with him.Jacques Demers was a great coach, but I question his sincerity. He talks about loyalty yet he has none himself. He&rsquo;s proved that! Harry Omest cannot take the full blame for this one, Jacques. You sold out the fans of St. Louis, the players and mostly, Ron Caron, for whom you owe everything because he took a chance on you, and you just walked away.Thanks for the memories Jacques, it is too bad you had to ruin them.Chris MacLellan, St. Louis, MO.<h2>PRO JACQUES TALK</h2>Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings!You have picked the best choice ever in the selection of your new head coach!I remember Jacques Demers visiting Rochester as the coach for the visiting Fredericton Express and I also remember what a class act he was at that time (as the entire Fredericton organization seems to be). His ability to do the impossible is well established and if there was ever a secret ingredient needed by the Red Wings for success, they have found it now. Although I was never a Red Wing fan, you can rest assured I&rsquo;ll be cheering for them now because of Mr. Demers. The Red Wings appear ready to fly once again!D. Richard Cobb, Rochester, NY.<h2>MORE JACQUES TALK</h2>I guess a lot of people are either happy or PO&rsquo;d at Jacques Demers for leaving the St.Louis Blues and going to Detroit.No matter&mdash;as a neutral in the affair and a Chicago Black Hawks fan I can promise we&rsquo;ll whip Demers&rsquo; team no matter what team he coaches.Come on, Jacques, we&rsquo;re waitin&rsquo; for you!B.S. Jeffreys, Philadelphia, PA<h2>A SELL-OUT?</h2>Let&rsquo;s hear it for the great sell-out artist Jacques Demers. All season long and during the plyaoffs he talked about how loyal he was to &ldquo;Mr. Caron and Mr. Omest.&rdquo; So much for loyalty.Also, Mr. Demers said that he had not signed a new contract. If you look back to the Feb. 14th issue of THN Jacques Demers, you would think otherwise. After benching five players for one game, the next day it was announced that Demers had agreed to a contract extension through 1988-89. Here is a direct quote from the article: Accepting the extension &ldquo;proves the loyalty I have for the organization. I want to stay and build what I started.&rdquo;Taal S. Martin, New York. NY<h2>KEEP FEDS OUT</h2>All we hear from sports stories about hockey is just how violent and terrible hockey has become: What garbage!I can&rsquo;t believe what the (Canadian) federal government is doing in setting up a panel to discuss violence in hockey.What&rsquo;s going on here? For years hockey has been played the same and the majority of people have enjoyed it just the way it has been played.I don&rsquo;t know if many of you remember six-team hockey and early-expansion days but it was 10 times rougher, tougher and, at times, dirtier than it is now. Nobody seemed to complain&mdash;at least not all of these so-called experts and whiners who used to enjoy it just the way it was.The feds should mind their own business.Michael J. LaFlamme,Nepean, ON<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. &#9632;

The Demers Defection: Disillusion And Delight

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Two pieces of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; puzzle for the 1986-87 season have fallen into place.No. 19 will be back. No. I will not be.Larry Robinson, No. 19, and the Canadiens came to terms on a deal which will keep the two-time Norris Trophy winner playing at least through the 1986-87 season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be back for one more season,&rdquo; said Robinson. &ldquo;After that, we&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;However, goalie Doug Soetaert. No. 1, has moved on after two seasons with the Canadiens. He has returned to the New York Rangers, the team which originally drafted him in 1975.There had been speculation, some of it fueled by Robinson himself, that the 35-year-old defenseman would retire after the Canadiens captured their 23rd Stanley Cup in May.Robinson had said two months earlier that he would like to win one more championship before retiring. At the time, Montreal was an underwhelming favorite to win the Cup.The native of Marvelville, Ont., who finished third in 1985-86 Norris voting and was named to the second all-star team, was critical to the Canadiens&rsquo; playoff success. Although not used as a penalty killer by coach Jean Perron he was used in ail other important situations. Had he not been at his peak the Habs would not have been able to challenge for the Cup.While he&rsquo;s had his share of injuries during a 14-year career, Robinson hasn&rsquo;t had the serious knee or leg problems endured by others such as Bobby Orr and Serge Savard. Guy Lafleur was never the same after a knee injury suffered during a 1980 playoff series with the Hartford Whalers. He retired in I984.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02948/5063655-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="564" height="810"><figcaption class="caption-body">All-star defenseman Larry Robin-son was encouraged to return by his teammates.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I still think Guy left too early,&rdquo; said Robinson, who scored 19 goals and 63 assists last season. &ldquo;1 didn&rsquo;t want to do something like that and regret it later.&rdquo;The decision to continue came after a Robinson family vacation. While the majority of Canadien players were together in Bermuda, Robinson and his wife, son and daughter were in the southern United States.Teammates may also have had some influence on the veteran defenseman.&ldquo;Every time I mentioned that I was going to quit, they told me they hoped I would come back,&rdquo; said Robinson.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011260/5063648-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="148" height="98"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2>Managing director Serge Savard was sure that Robinson would return and modified his contract which had two option years remaining.Savard now has an interesting dilemma on his hands. With Robinson&rsquo;s return and Gaston Gingras under contract for two years (and an option), Savard has a bundle of defensemen&mdash;-Robinson, Gingras, Craig Ludwig, Chris Chelios,Mike Lalor, Tom Kurvers. Rick Green and Petr Svoboda. In addition, there is Scott Sandelin of North Dakota, who appears ready to become a National Leaguer.A deal is likely in the offing.There isn&rsquo;t as much depth in goal with Patrick Roy and Steve Penney, playoff heroes in 19X6 and 1984, respectively, listed Nos. I and 2 on the depth chart. Vincent Riendeau, who played for Drummond vi lie in the Quebec League last year, is expected to be the top man in Sherbrooke.Soetaert. who played out his option for the second consecutive season, was looking for a long-term deal which Savard was not prepared to give the 31-year-old native of Edmonton.IN PASSING&mdash;Two U.S. collegians, left wingers Scott Harlow of Boston College and Ernie Vargas of Wisconsin, have signed with the Canadiens. Both are on standard two-year-plus-option contracts and are expected to play in Sherbrooke&hellip;Montreal begin the 1986-87 season on Oct. 9 with its only visit of the year to Toronto. Two nights later the Canadiens play host to Edmonton&hellip; Gene Gaudet has replaced Yvon Belanger as the Canadiens&rsquo; athletic therapist. &#9632;

f0009-02

Robinson Returns For At Least One Season

<div class="byline">BY AL STRACHAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011319/5063686-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">There were fears a September strike would make the sight of Montreal celebrating its 23rd Stanley Cup the last NHL hockey memory for quite some time.</figcaption></div>As far as hockey fans are concerned, there&rsquo;s no way to underestimate the importance of the new collective bargaining agreement.In fact, it was probably the most significant development in hockey over the past five years. Sound extreme? Not if you consider that without the accord, the National Hockey League wouldn&rsquo;t be operational.Now that the negotiators have agreed on a contract and the players have ratified it, fans can sit back and follow the ups and downs of their favorite team without having to worry about player strikes, walkouts or other major labor problems.It was a settlement which came as a surprise to most people. Both the owners and players had set aside a number of days in each summer month for negotiations, each thinking that the talks could go on right until the opening of training camp. In fact, there were even those who thought that a strike might be necessary and in that case, the talks could have gone on indefinitely.But in Toronto, on the evening of July 24, both sides reached accord on a collective agreement that seems to exemplify the best kind of compromise&mdash;one that is good for the sport and one that accommodates both sides.The deal is not a simple one. In fact, it&rsquo;s quite complicated in many areas. But THE HOCKEY NEWS prints all the hockey news&mdash;even when that news isn&rsquo;t exciting or easy to understand. And those who do wade through it will see how much hard work went into the proceedings and how much deep thought both sides contributed in order to arrive at an equitable agreement.There are really two parts to the agreement. One part relates to the NHL players and tells them what their rights will be through the 199192 season. The other relates to players who hope to enter the NHL, whether they come from the junior ranks or from college.Let&rsquo;s deal with the current players first. They&rsquo;re the ones who had to ratify the agreement and they did so after receiving a letter from the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. Presenting that communique is probably as good a way as any to spell out the terms of the new agreement.The letter is fairly straightforward and the only thing that might be confusing is the reference to the Vachon-McCourt case. It simply means that in that type of compensation, each side makes an offer and the arbitrator chooses one or the other with no modification.With the exception of a few minor changes to make it more readable, here&rsquo;s the letter that every NHL player received from NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson.<h2>To NHLPA members:</h2>Sixty players met in Toronto all week with NHL owners. After four days of bargaining, the following agreement was approved unanimously by the players.1. A security plan will be structured whereby every player who has played 400 games in the NHL will receive $250,000 (Cdn.) at age 55. Players must play games in 1986-87 to qualify.2. Pension benefits will be doubled with credit given only for games played (players used to accrue pension benefits by just being on a club&rsquo;s reserve list), including those missed through injury and sickness.3. Dental plan benefits by owners will be increased substantially.4. Playoff and awards pools will be increased by 20 per cent.5. Meal allowance increased to $41, $43, $45, $47 and $50 per day over a five-year period.6. Training camp allowance increased to $1,200, $1,400, $1,600, $1,800, $2,000 over the five-year period.7. Owners will continue to work with NHLPA on career counselling and continuing-education programs.8. Equalization compensation (for player movement):GROUP ONE: Players less than 24 years old and with less than five years professional experience (a) must be offered a minimum of $1 10,000 for 1987-88, $110,000 for &rsquo;88-89; $115,000 for &rsquo;89-90; $120,000 for &rsquo;90-91 and $125,000 for &rsquo;9192 or they become free agents without compensation or (b) arbitrated compensation applies as in the Vachon-McCourt case.GROUP TWO: Players 24 years old or more and who have played five years of professional hockey:Category One: Playing in 1987-88 and getting under $110,000; playing in &rsquo;88-89 under $110,000; playing in &rsquo;89-90 under $1 15,000; playing in &rsquo;90-91 under $120,000 and playing in &rsquo;91-92 under $125,000. There is no compensation for these players.Category Two: Players in 1987-88 who get $110,000 to $135,000; in &rsquo;88-89 get $110,000 to $135,000; in &rsquo;89-90 get $115,000 to $140,000; in &rsquo;90-91 get $140,000 to $145,000 and &rsquo;91-92 get $145,000 to $150,000. Compensation is a third-round pick.Category Three: Players in 1987-88 who get $135,000 to $160,000; in &rsquo;88-89 get $135,000 to $160,000; in &rsquo;89-90 get $140,000 to $165,000; in &rsquo;90-91 get $145,000 to $170,000; in &rsquo;91-92 get $150,000 to $175,000. Compensation is a second-round pick and a third-round pick.Category Four: Players in 1987-88 who get $160,000 to $210,000; in &rsquo;88-89 get $160,000 to $210,000; in &rsquo;89-90 get $165,000 to $215,000; in &rsquo;90-91 get $170,000 to $220,000; in &rsquo;91-92 get $175,000 to $225,000. Compensation is a first-round pick.Category Five: Players in 1987-88 who get $210,000 to $260,000; in &rsquo;88-89 get $210,000 to $260,000; in &rsquo;89-90 get $215,000 to $265,000; in &rsquo;90-91 get $220,000 to $270,000; in &rsquo;91-92 get $225,000 to $275,000. Compensation is a first-round pick and a second-round pick.Category Six: Players in 1987-88 who get $260,000 to $400,000; in &rsquo;88-89 get $260,000 to $400,000; in &rsquo;89-90 get $265,000 to $400,000; in &rsquo;90-91 get $270,000 to $400,000; in &rsquo;91-92 get $275,000 to $400,000. Compensation is two first-round picks (one must be in the top 11 picks in the draft) plus $100,000.Category Seven: Anyone who earns $400,000 or more. Compensation is two first-round picks. Both must be in the top seven draft picks.Right of first refusal: For GROUP TWO free agents, the old club shall have the right of first refusal in the following circumstances. (1) The old club must have made a qualifying contract offer that is at least 15 percent higher than the player&rsquo;s prior year&rsquo;s salary. (2) For players in Category Two and Three, the old club will have the right of first refusal only for players who are under the age of 26 on the date they become free agents.The Double Eagle Contract: For equalization, including, where applicable, the right of first refusal to apply to the players in Group One, Two or Three, the old club must offer a one-year, one-way standard player&rsquo;s contract if (1) the free-agent player has actually played (does not include games missed for illness or injury) 180 or more games in the previous three years and (2) has played the entire previous season in the NHL and (3) has not cleared non-recallable waivers in the previous season.The club may, in addition, also offer an alternative longer contract which may be a two-way contract. This one-year, oneway standard player&rsquo;s contract, which shall be called a Double Eagle Contract, shall have no option year and at the conclusion of a one-year term, the player shall be a free agent with equalization.9. Transition (of the new CBA). Clubs will have two weeks after ratification date (Aug. 12) to modify offer (to existing free agents). That offer will remain open and available to the player for at least two weeks.10. First round of the playoffs increased to four-out-of-seven series.11. Training camp increases to 27 days from 23 days provided there are no games and no more than three hours per day in total for training during first seven days.This was the best offer we could negotiate. Everyone who was present for the four days was very happy to recommend it.If it is not ratified, the owners have advised us we will have to strike. They told us that if the season is delayed, training camp will still be held at a later date and the season will be shortened. If the strike lasts one month, training camp will commence one month later than usual and the season will be one month shorter and all salaries reduced proportionately.In Eagleson&rsquo;s letter, there was no real need to mention to the players that there are other aspects to the agreement because those aspects don&rsquo;t affect players who are already in the league.But the new agreement also institutes a number of changes in the drafting procedures. Beginning with next June&rsquo;s draft, any player drafted must have served an apprenticeship to be eligible.The apprenticeship for major junior players and high school players is three years. The duration for college players is one year while the apprenticeship for Europeans is two years&rsquo; service in an elite or first-division league.Although precise details have yet to be worked out, a provision permitting the drafting of exceptional players over the first three rounds is expected to be worked out.In effect, this clause raises the draft age to 19 from 18 for the vast majority of players.The final clause&mdash;and the one which lawyers will fall all over themselves in their haste to attack&mdash;establishes a supplementary draft for players who were passed over in the draft.The owners haven&rsquo;t been thrilled by the free-agent auctions for players such as Ray Staszak in recent seasons and this last clause is an attempt to stop the practice. But the agent/lawyers can be expected to go to court to get the clause&mdash;and possibly the whole agreement overturned.As far as player-owner relations are concerned in the NHL at the moment, that potential lawsuit by a third party is the only dark spot on the horizon.(Ed. Note: Formore details on changes to the entry draft, see Al Strachan&rsquo;s column on facing page. Also, for a general overview of hockey&rsquo;s development system, which relates to the CBA talks, see THN Newsmakers&rsquo; Roundtable on Page 30) &#9632;

f0010-01

There’s Labor Peace In Our Time

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>TORONTO&mdash;The accord was reached early, coming both quickly and unexpectedly in what was supposed to have been a long, hot summer of bitter negotiations.But it may take the cold and snowy days of this and coming winters before the hockey community fully digests the details and ramifications of the National Hockey League-NHL Players&rsquo; Association collective bargaining agreement.The five-year pact&rsquo;s main focus was on:&bull; Players&rsquo; financial security.&bull; Some easing of player movement (limited free agency).&bull; A revamping of the NHL entry draft.&bull; The institution of a supplemental draft (for amateur free agents).NHLPA executive director Alan Eag-leson called a joint management-union press conference in Toronto on Aug. 12 to announce that of the 480 ballots sent out to the membership, more than 300 had been returned. There were only four dissenters among them. Those numbers, more than enough for ratification, obviously speak louder than words.At the opposite end of the spectrum.Boston lawyer and NHL player rep Brian Burke threatened to sue over the inclusion of the supplemental draft for amateur free agents.Most others adopted a much more cautious approach, primarily because they were not fully apprised of the details and also because once they are, they&rsquo;ll need more than a few days, or even weeks, to determine the full impact.As a result, the most common reactions were of relief (no strike) and pride in a collective bargaining process that works far better in the NHL than any other professional sport.Eagleson and NHL president John Ziegler, Jr., issued a joint statement, lauding both owners and players for &ldquo;placing the welfare of the sport ahead of individual considerations.&rdquo;&ldquo;Although the owners had to make majorconcessions,&rdquo; Ziegleradded, &ldquo;we are satisfied we have created a system that will permit our clubs and players to make progress.&ldquo;The major aspect of the agreement is that owners and players have continued in the tradition of using the bargaining table to solve problems. Each side made concessions in order to achieve what is best for the game of hockey and the business of hockey.&rdquo;For others, relief was the order of the day.&ldquo;As a general manager I certainly wasn&rsquo;t looking forward to training camp being clouded and possibly interrupted or delayed by a strike,&rdquo; said Washington Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;As a general manager, there are some things I think are great. There are also some things I&rsquo;m not too crazy about.&rsquo; &mdash;Torrey</blockquote>&ldquo;As for a reaction on the deal itself maybe I&rsquo;ll have a better idea on Friday (Aug. 15) after we (GMs) meet in Chicago and are briefed on the agreement. Even then. I&rsquo;ll need more time to see if it&rsquo;s a fair deal.&ldquo;Five years ago, at the time of the last CBA, you didn&rsquo;t really know exactly what impact it would have. There are always interpretations of certain clauses, particularly regarding compensation, and it takes a while to get those settled in everybody&rsquo;s mind.&rdquo;New York Islander GM Bill Torrey, a member of the management negotiating committee, expressed satisfaction that the deal could be struck without a strike and chose to look at it, for now, in broad terms.&ldquo;The players are happy, the owners are happy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What more can you ask for?&ldquo;As a general manager, there are some things I think are great. There are also some things I&rsquo;m not too crazy about,&rdquo; he added, declining to be specific. &ldquo;But any time you get a five-year deal it allows you to do some planning. Everybody in hockey can chart their course and know that it&rsquo;s going to be that way for the next five years. You can&rsquo;t beat the stability.&rdquo;NHLPA director of operations Sam Simpson, asked to itemize the salient points as far as the players are concerned, said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s three-fold, really. I think the pension deal was very important. Pension payments will approximately double. Next, I would say the security plan that guarantees NHL players with 400 games a $250,000 payoff. And the fact that we&rsquo;ve basically eliminated the the moving of live players in (free agent) equalization and compensation is another big step.&rdquo;Outside the confines of the NHLPA, the most talked-about clauses relate to the revamping of the entry draft and the institution of a supplemental draft for amateur free agents, such as Ray Stas-zak, an unproven college free agent who was the subject of a bidding war that netted him a $l.4-million contract with the Detroit Red Wings a year ago.The entry-draft revisions simply call for apprenticeships to be served by amateurs (three years of major junior, three years of U.S. high school, one year of college or university and two years of European elite level competition) before becoming eligible for the draft. However, there are provisions in the 1987 entry draft for any 18-year-old to be taken in the first three rounds.&ldquo;Eventually, and it would have to be phased in, we want the provision to allow for only one round of 18-year-olds,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;But for now, we can live with three.&rdquo;Canadian Major Junior Hockey League executive vice-president Dave Branch, a staunch critic of the 18-year-old draft, is cautiously optimistic the alterations will produce some benefits for major junior hockey.&ldquo;I just hope it&rsquo;s the first step and that there&rsquo;ll be even bolder measures taken,&rdquo; &bull; he added, emphasizing that the three-round limit must eventually be whittled down. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not fully aware of the all the details yet so it would be best to reserve any further judgment.&rdquo;Burke, who represents Staszak among other collegiate free agents, wasn&rsquo;t so hesitant to speak out on the subject of the supplemental draft.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to go through it point by point under (U.S.) anti-trust law and if there&rsquo;s anything at all I&rsquo;m going to take a kid and challenge it,&rdquo; he told Wayne Parrish of the Toronto Star.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go to court and sue them. It&rsquo;s a needless and harmful restriction on player movement,&rdquo; added the lawyer who, ironically, had months ago suggested curing entry draft problems by negotiating them through the collective bargaining agreement because it would be immune from U.S. anti-trust laws.The supplemental draft would consist of two rounds, the first being open only to non-playoff teams and they would have the opportunity to claim the playing rights of any amateur player who had not been previously drafted. In effect, the draft is a safety net for NHL clubs who don&rsquo;t draft late-blooming players. &#9632;

Pact Has Overwhelming Player Support

<div class="byline">AI Strachan</div>IF THERE IS one problem that has plagued all levels of hockey in recent years, it has been the 18-year-old draft.The National Hockey League didn&rsquo;t like it; the NHL Players&rsquo; Association didn&rsquo;t like it; and the fans didn&rsquo;t like it. The operators of junior leagues went further still. They loathed it.There was general agreement that the 18-year-old draft pushed some players into the NHL before their skills merited such a promotion. Other players, who were drafted but returned to junior hockey, lost much of their incentive, thereby damaging the quality of the junior product. In short, the 18-year-old draft was extremely damaging to the leagues upon which the NHL relies for talent.Like so many of the afflictions&mdash;which contradict the wishes of the majority today&mdash;the 18-year-old draft can be traced to the actions of lawyers.Furthermore, it was the fear of further legal action which kept it alive.But now, under terms of the new collective agreement, the wheels have been set in motion to curb the 18-year-old draft substantially.The owners and players agreed to a new system whereby any player who is eligible for the draft must serve an apprencticeship or be drafted in the first three rounds.In order for major junior players to serve their appren-ticenship, they must play three years. For those playing high school hockey, it&rsquo;s also three years while the col-lege/university players&rsquo; requirement is one year. Europeans need to play on an elite or first-division team for two years.This concept effectively raises the draft age for the average player but takes away the uniformity that once existed.&ldquo;We think that this will bring the avetage draft age up to 19,&rdquo; explained Alan Eagleson, executive director of the NHLPA. &ldquo;Some guys will be drafted at 20 but during the first three rounds, teams can take 18-year-olds.&rdquo;This is a major first step towards solving a difficult problem and it should be noted that both the owners and the players deserve a good deal of credit for their approaches to the matter.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s more of a league problem than an NHLPA problem,&rdquo; conceded Eagleson, &ldquo;but the owners didn&rsquo;t want to run the risk of doing it unilaterally without any discussion with the player reps. It was part of the entire package.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011206/5063741-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="396" height="464"></div>Still, the move is only a first step because the clause which qualifies 18-year-olds for the draft in the first three rounds is likely to undergo further modification.&ldquo;Our suggestion is that it should be phased down,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;The owners were worried about any legal implications, so they decided that up to 63 (twenty one teams drafting through three rounds) 18-year-olds should be enough to justify any position they take. But our position is that it should eventually come down to the first round only.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a step in the right direction for all parties, provided that there is an out for the exceptional player, &rsquo; &rsquo; said Ed Chynoweth, president of the Western League. &ldquo;My gut reaction is that it is a great step forward for junior hockey.&ldquo;Anything that has the effect of allowing us to keep our players longer has us elated.&rdquo;Dave Branch, commissioner of the Ontario League, said, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that this represents a first step and let&rsquo;s hope that it will lead to some larger and bolder steps to bring about more stability in the overall development system.&rdquo;Although no action is so sensible or widely acclaimed that it is immune from lawsuits, Eagleson says that the new program is legally defensible.&ldquo;There is a recent case in the United States involving the National Football League where it was suggested that anything that is negotiated between the union and the owners is probably going to be solid.&rdquo;The hockey establishment&mdash;fans, players, owners, coaches, agents and general managers alike&mdash;hope so. The lifeblood of the sport depends upon it. &#9632;

f0011-01

Finally, Progress Is Made Towards Modifying Draft

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Several NHL execs believe that Dallas&rsquo; 16,800-seat Reunion Arena should be the next NHL expansion site, and now they&rsquo;ll learn whether Texans really care about big-league hockey. The test, which will be carefully eyed by the governors, is a Red Wings-Oilers exhibition game in Dallas, Sept. 30. &ldquo;The eyes of the NHL will be on us because they have to be interested in this type of situation,&rdquo; says Brad Thomas, a partner in Events, Inc., a Dallas-based sports marketing firm. Thomas has pushed Oilers&rsquo; boss Glen Sather for two years to have his Edmonton sextet test Texas&rsquo; hockey interest. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re expecting a sellout,&rdquo; Thomas tells BLUELINES. With little fanfare 4,000 tickets were sold in only 13 days. Among them are special $99 seats called the Gretzky Hat Trick. For that money, a fan gets a seat, an autographed picture of Gretzky and a ticket to a post-game reception with the players&hellip;&ldquo;The Flames look like they drafted for a football team,&rdquo; says Blues personnel director f35Ron Caronwhich might help explain why a 6-foot-l, 185-pound defenseman such as Marc Laniel wasn&rsquo;t drafted until the third round, 62nd overall by New Jersey, although Central Scouting listed Laniel as a first rounder. GM Sherry Bassin, who has Laniel in junior with the Oshawa Generals figures Laniel is a victim of the &ldquo;big, strong brute&rdquo; complex afflicting the NHL once more. &ldquo;Laniel,&rdquo; says Bassin, &ldquo;is as good a rookie defenseman as we&rsquo;ve ever had.&ldquo;&hellip;Bumper stickers in Boston read: &ldquo;BE KIND TO ANIMALS&mdash;HUG A HOCKEY PLAYER.&rdquo;Al Eagleson on the Leafs&rsquo; decision to go with John Brophy over others as coach of Toronto. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why they overlooked Bert Templeton (of the Canadian national junior team and North Bay Centennials). All he (Templeton) does is win.&rdquo;&hellip;One NHL insider close to the officiating scene tells BLUELINES that John McCauley will be more &ldquo;assertive&rdquo; as refs&rsquo; head than Scotty Morrison was during his long tenure&hellip;Those who&rsquo;ve watched the ascendency of bright Neil Smith within the Red Wing hierarchy predict even bigger things for Detroit&rsquo;s asst. GM&hellip;Flyers&rsquo; enforcer Dave Brown admits he deliberately ran down goalie John Van-biesbrouck in the Philly-Rangers playoff. &ldquo;I had a job to do,&rdquo; Brown confides to friends, &ldquo;and they had a hot goaltender. But I did let up on him a little bit.&rdquo; Asked what would happen to his career if thq NHL bans fighting Brown snaps: &ldquo;Hey, I&rsquo;m gone!&rdquo;&hellip;While Bob Johnson generally received good press through the playoffs, some Montreal media types beef that the Badger&rsquo;s egomania has surfaced too often. &ldquo;No one ever beat him,&rdquo; says a Montreal scribe, &ldquo;and he never gives the other team credit.&rdquo;&hellip; A big question perplexing Capital-watchers is what Washington will do with its goaltending following last spring&rsquo;s playoff debacle and Pete Peeters&rsquo; bombing by the Rangers.Vezina Trophy-winner John Vanbiesbrouck, who stands 5-foot-7, will share a life-size poster with New York Knick basketball star Patrick Ewing, who is seven feet tall&hellip;Whalers had hoped to settle their long-running dispute with Connecticut hockey scribe Randy Smith by early summer but it dragged on. Smith wants a clear-cut public apology from coach Jack Evans over the late-winter incident when Smith allegedly was manhandled by the coach. Insiders report that Evans has offered to apologize but not to the scribe&rsquo;s satisfaction. One Whalers&rsquo; source tells BLUELINES the club believes Smith is dragging out the battle for publicity purposes. Smith contends that the Whalers have dragged their feet and that he&rsquo;s fighting the case as a matter&rsquo;of principle&hellip;Here&rsquo;s what a rival NHL official says of Phil Esposito&rsquo;s new role as GM: &ldquo;Phil won&rsquo;t ask permission to go into the dressing room. If the club loses, he&rsquo;ll raise hell and then tell the Rangers how his Bruins used to do it when they won the Cup. The first chance he gets, he&rsquo;ll get rid of (Ted) Sator and bring in Gerry Cheevers or Wayne Cashman&mdash;or both.&rdquo; Cashman, of course, has already been hired as a scout.TV insiders don&rsquo;t believe ESPN&rsquo;s labelling its NHL coverage &ldquo;a definite success.&rdquo; One broadcasting exec with close ties to the sports network tells BLUELINES that American Broadcasting Company (ABC) execs &ldquo;are not impressed with ESPN&rsquo;s ratings.&rdquo; ABC, which oversees ESPN, is said to believe the.9 average rating for ESPN&rsquo;s coverage of 33 regular-season games was a keen disappointment and that the network paid too much ($24 million) for the package. &ldquo;ESPN bought a pig in a poke,&rdquo; one media consultant tells BLUELINES&hellip;League is searching for a new marketing boss to replace Glen Dickout&hellip;Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Bruins make another bid for Bobby Carpenter. The Bs were turned down in June but got hints that Caps&rsquo; GM David Poile might reconsider&hellip;Bruins had hoped Swedish center Tommy Lehman would come to Boston in September but officials of the AIK (Stockholm) team are convincing him to stay&hellip;No truth to the reports that either play-by-play men Gene Hart or Dan Kelly are planning retirement&hellip;Normally the Smythe Trophy winner gets national attention with an annual New York press luncheon and presentation of a new car by Sport magazine. But Patrick Roy, this year&rsquo;s playoff MVP, got shut out. Sport discontinued the prize and refused to invite Roy to the Big Apple. A Sport spokesman tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;It was an internal decision. We gave the award (but no car) to Roy in Calgary.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021082/5063796-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Forward Lane Lambert has been a disappointment since scoring 20 goals during his freshman NHL season.</figcaption></div>DETROIT&mdash;The Detroit Red Wings suffered dearly last season because they didn&rsquo;t have an adequate No. 2 man in goal. Solving that problem was a high priority of the off-season.But capable National Hockey League goaltenders are a precious lot and the Red Wings paid a hefty price to find a man they think fits the job description of Greg Stefan&rsquo;s back-up.General manager Jimmy Devellano acquired goalie Glen Hanlon from the New York Rangers for center Kelly Kisio, right winger Lane Lambert and defenseman Jim Leavins.The deal, Phil Esposito&rsquo;s first as Ranger general manager, also involves draft choices, which will be determined on the basis of performance. The Wings received third-round picks in 1987 and 1988. Those choices will be upgraded to the second round if either Kisio or Lambert has a 30-goal season for the Rangers. The Wings also yielded a fifth-round pick, which would be upgraded to the fourth round if the Rangers must give up a No. 2.In addition, Detroit obtained defenseman Lee Norwood from the St. Louis Blues in return for minor-league defenseman Larry Trader.&ldquo;It is with some reluctance that we traded Kelly Kisio but in order to obtain another first-string goaltender, we had to pay a price,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;&hellip;1 feel that we now have two quality goalies.&rdquo;The Wings&rsquo; goaltending was a nightmare last season and they came to realize. more than ever, the importance of the position When Stefan was out (he was twice suspended and missed 17 games with a back injury), the Wings simply had no chance. They paraded in Mark Laforest, Ed Mio, Corrado Micalef and Chris Pusey, and none of the quartet could win the job begging to be won.Hanlon. 29, is a veteran of nine NHL seasons. The Red Wings will be Hanlon&rsquo;s fourth NHL team. He began his career with Vancouver in 1977.Hanlon started last season in the minors as the Rangers cleared the decks for John Vanbiesbrouck to become the No. 1 man in goal. Hanlon eventually returned to the Rangers but was used sparingly. He posted a 5-12-1 record with a goals-against average of 3.33.In Kisio, 26, the Wings gave up their third-leading scorer. He had 69 points, including 21 goals and a team-high 48 assists. Only Doug Shedden (71 points, all but 11 while playing alongside Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh) and John Ogrod-nick (70) had more points.Even more signifcant, Kisio established himself as a &ldquo;gamer&rdquo;. He played hurt and he played well when few Red Wing players seemed to care about anything but having the season end. It appeared that kind of effort and performance was enough to assure him a spot on the team.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what 1 thought, too,&rdquo; Kisio said. &ldquo;I thought it might keep me in Detroit for a couple of more years, at least.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s a good break for me. The Rangers have a good team and they seem to want me.&rdquo;The Wings also gave up a &ldquo;gamer&rdquo; in the 21-year-old Lambert, their second-round draft pick in 1983. Lambert scored 20 goals as a rookie and 14 the next season. He spent most of last season with Adirondack of the American League.Leavins, 26, was a major surprise last season. A protege of Adirondack coach Bill Dineen, Leavins came to the organization on a try-out basis and wound up with a two-year professional contract.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011292/5063803-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="165" height="114"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2>Devellano noted the signings of free agents Dave Lewis (New Jersey Devils) and collegian Jim Smith (Denver) plus Swedish draftee Peter Ekroth and said the addition of those three defensemen made Leavins expendable. Tim Friday enjoyed an excellent playoff last year as Adirondack won the AHL title.&ldquo;Lew (Lewis) is a solid defensive type of defenseman who has shown leadership qualities throughout his career,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;Dave will help our hockey club.&rdquo;So, new coach Jacques Demers hopes, will Norwood. The 26-year-old native of Oakland, Cal., who grew up in the Detroit area, emerged as Demers&rsquo; best defenseman in St. Louis during the playoffs after an uneven season. He earned five goals. 24 assists and 134 penalty minutes in 71 regular-season games.Trader. 23. was among Adirondack&rsquo;s leading scorers with 10 goals and 46 assists and was an American League second all-star. He didn&rsquo;t play any games for the Red Wings in 1985-86 after playing 40 the previous season but did score three goals in Adirondack&rsquo;s Calder Cupclinching victory over the Hershey Bears.Kisio&rsquo;s departure leaves only Steve Yzerman and Billy Carroll as veteran centers with any appreciable NHL experience. The other centers are No. I draft pick Joe Murphy, Shawn Burr, the top pick in 1984, and Adam Oates. &#9632;

f0012-02

Wings Obtain Goaltender But Was Price Too High?

<div class="byline">BY TOM WHEATLEY</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Owner Harry Ornest is mulling over a $34-million package deal that would transfer the St. Louis Blues and The Arena to local interests.Omest, a Beverly Hills realtor, has made no public comment on the deal. It would net him a profit of from $23-25 million for his three-year reign as owner.Ornest and his family control 92 per cent of the Blues and 100 percent of The Arena.The offer was engineered by Mayor Vincent Schoemehl. who must keep the Blues at The Arena to thwart the building of a multi-raillion dollar sports complex in neighboring St. Louis County.Schoemehl said the city would pay $ 15 million for the 60-year-old Arena. Omest paid about $5 million for the building and says he has spent $3 million to renovate it.The would-be owners&mdash;St. Louis businessmen Michael Shanahan, Jim LaBarbera and W. Raymond Barrett&mdash;offered $19 million for the Blues.Ornest bought the club for $3 million in cash and $9 million in notes. The investor group offered Omest $10 million in cash and would assume the $9 million in notes, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.If Ornest sells, the new ownership would agree to a 20-year lease at the then city-controlled Arena.That would keep the Blues from moving to a proposed domed stadium in the county, which would house the football Cardinals. Without the Blues&rsquo; 45 to 50 home dates a season, a new domed stadium probably would be impractical.In any event, the baseball Cardinals would stay downtown at Busch Stadium, which is owned by their parent company, the locally-powerful Anheuser-Busch Brewery.Ornest has also been approached by county officials, who want to buy The Arena.In the county scenario, the dome would be built, the Blues would move in and The Arena would be sold and knocked down for commercial development.Earlier this year, Ornest reportedly was offered $30 million to move the club to Hamilton, Ont.The mayor&rsquo;s package, though, has an edge to it if Ornest refuses to sell The Arena to the city.Schoemehl said the city then would condemn the property as blighted and take it over, claiming the right of &ldquo;eminent domain.&rdquo;Eminent domain is the right of the government to take private property for public use. The city then would have to pay fair market value for the property, which Schoemehl said is close to the city&rsquo;s current $15 million offer.A decision to blight a property must be okayed by the St. Louis Board of Aidermen. And a first step in that direction came on July 30th, when a city development commission voted to condemn and take over The Arena.The blighting of private property has been used successfully by the city in its major downtown overhaul.But the plan to blight The Arena has its detractors.&ldquo;I think this is crazy,&rdquo; said commissioner Fred Faust after the development agency&rsquo;backed the blighting plan, 5-2. &ldquo;And I think this is a terrible misuse of blighting.&rdquo;But critics of the building&mdash;calling it filthy and insect-ridden&mdash;range from Calgary Flames&rsquo; co-owner Norm Green (&ldquo;an embarrassment to the league&rdquo;), to Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard (&ldquo;the rats&rsquo;ll have it across the street&rdquo;), to former Blues&rsquo; official Cliff Fletcher of Calgary (&ldquo;a pig sty&rdquo;), to officials from the Republican National Committee who said The Arena must be re-painted and drastically cleaned up before they would consider it as the home of their 1988 convention.Schoemehl and Omest have been butting heads for more than a year.Last October, the city threatened to padlock The Arena for the Blues&rsquo; home opener because of Omest&rsquo;s refusal to pay $300,000 in taxes.A judge ordered the Blues to pay up, but Omest has sued the city, saying the tax is unconstitutional.Schoemehl also has been critical of Ornest&rsquo;s take-it-or-leave-it style, which has offended much of the local business community.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011218/5063834-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="135" height="117"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2>Ornest, meanwhile, did win one recent battle.A St. Louis county judge freed the Blues from their year-old broadcast contract with KXOK radio.The judge ruled that KXOK reneged on an agreement to buy 31,000 tickets last season.The Blues may sign with another station.Their longtime carrier, KMOX, is negotiating with the Blues, as is KXOK.BLUENOTES&mdash;For the first time in Harry Omest&rsquo;s tenure, the Blues will have a second assistant coach&mdash;Doug MacLean of the University of New Brunswick. MacLean will work with new head coach Jacques Martin and top assistant Barclay Plager. Former coach Jacques Demers had campaigned unsuccessfully for more help since Plager contracted two inoperable brain tumors two years ago. In June, Demers thought he had persuaded the Blues to hire his longtime friend, Don MacAdam of the OHL&rsquo;s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. But it never came to pass and Demers left the Blues for Detroit&hellip;In a surprise move, the Blues traded Lee Norwood, their top left defenseman and a playoff force last season to Detroit, for minorleague defenseman Larry Trader. In other moves, the Blues bought out the contracts of left wingers Kevin LaVallee and Denis Cyr. &#9632;

f0013-01

Ornest Considering Offer Of $34 Million

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div>What kind of jokes are these?PHIL ESPOSITO NAMED RANGER GM IN MID-SUMMER:These Gulf & Westerners, who run the Rangers, must have been kidding. You&rsquo;ve got to be kidding when you know you&rsquo;re going to be firing your GM (Craig Patrick) and let the lame duck hang around when Espo could have been doing the draft his way. Now that&rsquo;s not dumb, that&rsquo;s absurd. If Madison Square Garden was going to hire Esposito, the time to do it was before the draft. They didn&rsquo;t even have to make a long-distance call to Phil; he was right there in New York waiting for the job.The other part of the joke may be the odd couple&mdash;Esposito and Ted Sator&mdash;now behind the Blueshirts. The GM and coach think along the same wavelengths as Boy George and Pat Boone. When you consider the Espo-Sator combo, you can&rsquo;t help wonder if this is a Broadway remake of Detroit&rsquo;s Brad Park-Jimmy Devellano act that ran for a few months before Jimmy D broke it up.Face it: Espo inherited Sator, a coach he wouldn&rsquo;t have hired had he started from scratch. Saddled with Craig Patrick&rsquo;s coach, Espo will give Sator a couple of months to get well over.500. Otherwise, he&rsquo;ll let Ted hang himself, and then bring in his own entourage.BRAWLER BROPHY BECOMES LEAF COACH AS NHL CONSIDERS BRAWLING BAN:Is this a put-on or what? At a time when the NHL says its disturbed by those few who do most of the fighting, the Torontos bring in Gerry Cooney&rsquo;s ancestor to run the bench.You had to see Brophy in action (as I did many times when he steamrolled for the Long Island Ducks) to understand that he made the Wild Man From Borneo seem tame by comparison.Now Brophy is trying to shake his image as a brawler who ravaged the old Eastern League. But I&rsquo;m waiting for Brophy to hire Jeff Brubaker as an assistant.<h2>THE BUILDING BLOCKS</h2>When the Detroit Red Wings, picking first, named Joe Murphy their premier draft choice, I was waiting to hear somebody call him &ldquo;a franchise player&rdquo;. Nobody has.There are, of course, precious few of them. Denis Potvin was just that for the New York Islanders in 1973, and Wayne Gretzky instantly put the Edmonton Oilers in business. The most recent &ldquo;franchise&rdquo; player was Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh.Here&rsquo;s the question: If you owned a brand-new NHL team and wanted one of today&rsquo;s superstars to build your team around, which ones would you pick? Gretzky, Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Paul Coffey?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011271/5063865-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="342" height="468"></div><h2>ON THE CONTRARY</h2>The question was put to several significant NHL types and here&rsquo;s what they said:Butch Goring, coach, Boston Bruins: l. Gretzky. 2. Ray Bourque. 3. Bossy.Jack Evans, coach, Hartford Whalers: l. Gretzky. 2. Mike Liut. 3. Coffey.David Poile, GM, Washington Capitals: l. Gretzky. 2. Lemieux. 3. &ldquo;After those two,&rdquo; says Poile, &ldquo;a third is unnecessary.&rdquo;Bob Johnson, coach, Calgary Flames: l. Gretzky. 2. Grant Fuhr. 3. Coffey.Lou Nanne, GM, Minnesota North Stars: l. Gretzky. 2. Lemieux. 3. Coffey.Pat Quinn, coach, Los Angeles Kings: l. Gretzky. 2. Coffey. 3. Mark Messier.Scott Bowman, GM-coach, Buffalo Sabres: I. Gretzky. 2. Lemieux. 3. Coffey.NOTE: When asked which player they would select if they could have only one player around whom to build a team, everyone named Gretzky.<h2>ROY WORTH MORE THAN PENNEY?</h2>There are several differences between Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Patrick Roy and maybe-never-again Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Steve Penney. Roy won a Stanley Cup in his rookie year. Penney didn&rsquo;t.At this moment Roy looks like he can carry the Canadiens the way Ken Dryden did in the 1970s. But, then again, Penney emerged from the 1984 playoffs as if he was the second coming of Georges Vezina. And look what happened!So, who&rsquo;s to say Roy won&rsquo;t be more like Penney than Dryden?I&rsquo;ll put my rubles on Roy because, unlike Penney, he was a money goalie when it really counted&mdash;in the third round and the finals. Let&rsquo;s not forget that, for his accolades, Penney won only two playoff rounds in 1984 and then was knocked out of the box.By contrast, Roy saved Montreal in the Wales Conference finals against the Rangers. (His performance in the final minutes of the sudden-death Game Three against New York is a Stanley Cup classic.)Roy had one off-night (Game One) in the finals. Otherwise, he was as good as the Canadiens could have hoped and utterly brilliant in the final minute of the final game when the Flames stormed the Bastille.Yes, Montrealers are looking at the new Ken Dryden (Gallic version).<h2>FANS HAVE THEIR SAY</h2>It&rsquo;s time to deal with some nasty and noteworthy letters:&ldquo;When are you going to say something about all that stickholding baloney that is ruining the game? Never mind the fighting. That&rsquo;s entertainment. I mean a good one-on-one fight.&rdquo;&mdash;Vin DeSantia, Littleton, Col.I&rsquo;ll say it right now: Stick-holding is ruining the game. But that&rsquo;s not all. So is the goalie interference. (Let&rsquo;s see if the NHL goes with the enlarged crease and enforces the rule, thereby showing that it is serious.) So is this agonizing business of players pushing others offside at the blue line without ever getting penalized for the infraction. The NHL has a new boss of refs this year (John McCauley). Let&rsquo;s see what he does about it.&ldquo;The Rangers made it as far as they did last season due to the coaching of Ted Sator and staff. But in the end they just did not have the horses. They have no one in their farm system of note, and their offense consists of Pierre Larouche and Ronnie Gres-chner. The GM is responsible for getting the players. Craig Patrick didn&rsquo;t do this.&rdquo;&mdash;George Grimm, Jersey City, N.J.My good man, you are forgetting that it was Patrick who had the smarts to hire Sator. It was Patrick who drafted Vezina Trophywinner John Vanbiesbrouck; not to mention potential Norris Trophy-winner James Patrick. It was Patrick who unearthed one of the NHL&rsquo;s best Swedes in Tomas Sandstrom. Craig got a bum rap from the media. He dealt plenty, beating Jimmy Devellano on the Willie Huber trade and beating Glen Sather on the Larry Melnyk swap. He wasn&rsquo;t perfect but his clubs never missed the playoffs. I would have kept him.&ldquo;In a recent column you wrote &lsquo;This kudo is for you. &rsquo; Just because kudos ends in an &lsquo;s&rsquo; does not make it plural any more than plus (as a noun) is the plural of plu. I enclose copies of a Greek dictionary and of the Heritage dictionary.&rdquo;&mdash;Geoffrey Bolton, Shirley, Mass.Geoffrey, this kudos is for you! And thanks!! &#9632;

f0014-01

Timing Of Espo Hiring Makes No Sense

The National Hockey League has been accused of discriminating against French Canadians.A University of Ottawa research paper charges that although French Canadians, on average, peform better than their English-speaking Canadian and American counterparts they are disproportionately represented in the NHL.Marc Lavoie, Gilles Grenier and Serge Coulombe note that French Canadians comprise 25 per cent of Canada&rsquo;s population but make up just 12 per cent of the Canadians in the NHL.The NHL, argue the three economics professors, discriminates against French Canadians, principally through ignoring them at the entry draft, reported Bill Houston of the Globe and Mail.These facts and contentions are part of a 28-page paper entitled, Discrimination and Performance Differentials in the National Hockey League.The paper&rsquo;s authors made extensive use of statistical data gathered from the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons to come to such conclusions as: French-Canadian and European players, as groups, had better plus/minus, goals-per-game and points-per-game averages than their English-speaking Canadian and American counteiparts.They contend that all other things being equal, English-speaking Canadians are chosen over French-speaking Canadians at the entry draft because scouts have a preference for anglophones over franchophones.Among the recommendations offered by the paper are that the Canadian federal government form a scouting combine independent of the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau and that Quebec represent itself at the World Hockey Championships held each year.The Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins are at opposite ends of the NHL spectrum according to Fortune magazine.But not because of their on-ice records.Montreal is rated the most valuable franchise in the NHL, its estimated worth about $35 million, in a Fortune survey of 98 professional teams in North America.Pittsburgh, at about $10 million, ranked last among all the franchises in Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Association and the NHL.For the most part NHL teams occupied the lower end of the scale.The rankings were based on insiders&rsquo; knowledge and reflected the size of the team&rsquo;s. home market, market exploitation, competition from other teams in the same sport and win-loss records.<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021000/5063896-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="568" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sean Burke has left the Toronto Marlies to join Canada&rsquo;s preOlympic program.</figcaption></div>Stadium and real estate values were not taken into account.Montreal was joined in the $31-35, million bracket by, in order, Edmonton, Toronto and Calgary. Quebec and the New York Rangers, the highest-ranked American NHL team, were, listed at the bottom end of the $26-30 million bracket.Occupying the low side of the $ 16-20 million group were, in order, Detroit, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Chicago and New York Islanders.The $10-15 million bracket, the lowest, was comprised entirely of NHL teams. In order they were, from top to bottom, Boston, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Washington, Hartford, Minnesota, Buffalo, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Pittsburgh.As an example of the wide variance in estimated value (excluding stadium and real estate deals) and actual market value (including both), St. Louis Blues&rsquo; owner Harry Omest is currently mulling over an offer of $34 million for the Blues and The Arena.The Los Angeles Dodgers, first, and New York Yankees, second, were ranked the top two professional franchises, their worths estimated at between $91 and $100 million.Tim Morarity, recently retired after 40 years in sports journalism, is one of three new members elected to the Media Recognition Section of the Hockey Hall of Fame.Moriarty covered the New York Islanders for Newsday on Long Island and THE HOCKEY NEWS.Dick Johnston and D. Leo Monahan join Moriarty as the newest inductees. Johnston is a retired hockey writer from the Buffalo Evening News and Monahan covered hockey for the Boston Herald-American.Monahan is currently the press officer for University of Massachusetts in Boston. Both Johnston and Monahan are former THN writers.High-scoring Don McLaren is among those attending the Canadian national team&rsquo;s Calgary training camp. Aug. 15-22.McLaren, with 44 goals, was third in scoring on the national team last year.Among the others attending are: goalies Sean Burke of Toronto, Chris Clifford of Scarborough, Ont., Mike Moffat of Cambridge, Ont. and Derril Trakalo of Winnipeg; defensemen Brian Benning of Edmonton, Chris Felix of Bramalea, Ont., Kevan Melrose of Red Deer, Alta., Tony Stiles of Calgary, Tom Thombury of Woodville, Ont. and Trent Yawney of Hudson Bay, Sask.; plus forwards Ray Cote of Pincher Creek, Alta.. Fabian Joseph of Sydney, N.S. and Wally Schreiber of Edmonton.Benning, Felix, Yawney and Joseph also played on the national team last year. &#9632;

f0014-02

Are French Canadians Being Victimized?

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02874/5063927-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull credits his mother and stepfather more than his father, Bobby, for his hockey accomplishments.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;Perhaps because he has faced them all his life, Brett Hull has a good handle on questions relating to his famous father&mdash;Bobby Hull, a National Hockey League legend.Hull, one of the Calgary Flames&rsquo; hottest rookie prospects this season, signed with them during last year&rsquo;s playoffs and made a cameo appearance in the finals against Montreal Canadiens.He showed enough to convince coach Bob Johnson that the &ldquo;Golden Brett&rdquo;&mdash;his dad was the &ldquo;Golden Jet&rdquo;&mdash;could crack the lineup this season, despite the fact that the Flames are loaded on the right side.Until Hull actually hits the ice next month in training camp, the major curiosity is inevitably his bloodline.That in itself is a little unusual because since his parents&rsquo; divorce some eight years ago, the 21-year-old Hull has seen his fatheron only a handful of occasions.On the day he left the University of Minnesota-Duluth to join the Flames, Hull spent the better part of a press conference diplomatically responding to questions about his natural father.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011198/5063934-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="144" height="117"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2>Asked to compare himself to Bobby, Brett replied firmly; &ldquo;1 try not to. I&rsquo;d say we shoot the puck about the same Aside from that, he was a lot more gifted than 1 am. 1 just work hard.&rdquo;Hull called the chance to follow in his father&rsquo;s footsteps to the NHL a &ldquo;thrill&mdash;although during the past few years in college and junior, we didn&rsquo;t see each other that much. It&rsquo;s mostly between my mother and stepfather that I&rsquo;ve come along this far. I&rsquo;d like to say I&rsquo;m my own person. Certainly I hope I don&rsquo;t have to live up to the expectations of his great talent. I don&rsquo;t think there were many players better than he was.&rdquo;Because of the little contact between the two since 1978, the younger Hull said he didn&rsquo;t receive much in the way of coaching from his dad. The skills he passed on were &ldquo;more genetic than anything else,&rdquo; he said.In watching the younger Hull in practice, the most dramatic similarities between father and son are the hair color&mdash;blond&mdash;and the way they shoot the puck&mdash;hard.Hull made his NHL debut against the Canadiens in the third round of the finals and promptly hit the post on his first shot.Johnson used him largely on special teams and came away impressed. So was assistant coach Pierre Page. &ldquo;He was a threat.&rdquo; said Johnson, using one of his favorite words. &ldquo;He made things happen.&rdquo;&ldquo;I was nervous,&rdquo; said Hull. &ldquo;I was glad something good happened on my first shift.&rdquo;Hull, a first-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association all-star at Duluth, decided to tum pro only after he completed a successful tour of duty with Team USA at last spring&rsquo;s World Championships. Hull led the Americans in scoring with seven goals and four assists.The last time a Flames&rsquo; prospect followed that route&mdash;college, world tournament, pros&mdash;he won the Calder Trophy as the League&rsquo;s rookie of the year. The Flames can only hope Hull adjusts to the NHL as well as Gary Suter did.IN BRIEF&mdash;Defenseman Paul Baxter signed a termination contract that will make him a parttime player and assistant coach&hellip;The Flames lost defenseman Robin Bartel, who saw regular duty in the final against Montreal Canadiens, when he signed with Vancouver as a free agent without compensation&hellip;In their annual plunge into the college free-agent waters, the Flames came up with three defensemen: Mike Mersch (Illinois-Chicago); Don Mercier (Denver) and Dale Rivington (Rochester Institute of Technology). The Flames also signed two graduating collegians: Harvard goaltender Grart Blair and Michigan Tech defenseman Dave Reirson. Reirson, who has the best chance of making the team among the incoming rearguards, had 90 points in I5l career games over four seasons. He was team captain the last two years. In four years at Harvard, Blair had a career goals-against average of 2.84&hellip;Coach Bob Johnson is on the verge of signing a contract extension. Bob Murdoch declined an opportunity to become head coach of the University of British Columbia to remain with the Flames as Johnson&rsquo;s assistant. &#9632;

f0015-02

Newcomer Hull Wants To Be His Own Man

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;There was no mention of anyone seeking or signing for a king&rsquo;s ransom but several Los Angeles Kings were conducting negotiations of their own this summer while the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association worked on a new five-year collective bargaining agreement.Assistant player rep Jim Fox, for instance, was deeply interested not only in the NHLPA talks but his own.Fox, coming off an injury-riddled 14-goal, 31-poi nt season, is entering the option year of the contract he signed before the 1984-85 season.He had averaged 30 goals in his previous four seasons with the Kings, never missing more than three games in any of them. So he knows the club can&rsquo;t tab him as injury-prone even though he missed 41 games last year with back and hip injuries.&ldquo;They can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m not a durable player,&rdquo; said the 26-year-old right winger who finished the season with a flourish, scoring 10 goals in the final 10 games.General manager Rogatien-Vachon&rsquo;s busy summer was all but complete by late July. Negotiations with only three players&mdash;Fox, goaltender Bob Janecyk and first-round draft pick Jim Carson&mdash;still had to be concluded.Already signed to new contracts were goalie Rollie Melanson; wingers Phil Sykes, Bryan Erickson and Morris Luko-wich; and defensemen Dean Kennedy and Grant Ledyard.Vachon signed seven-year veteran J.P. Kelly to a termination contract, then bought out the hard-hitting left winger, making him a free agent.The Kings also bought out the remainder of center Len Hachbom&rsquo;s contract and released defenseman Al Tuer, center Bob Mongrain and winger Anders Hakansson, who retired in mid-season rather than report to the minors.Melanson, acquired from the New York Rangers along with Ledyard in a Dec. 9 deal involving the Minnesota North Stars, signed a three-year contract (plus an option). The 26-year-old was 4-16 with a 4.19 GAA in 22 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely pleased,&rdquo; said Melanson, who received a one-way deal&mdash;meaning there are no provisions for lesser pay for minor-league employment. &ldquo;Vachon was more than kind, and I look forward to returning the favor.&rdquo;Erickson, who also had played out his option, and Kennedy, coming off a termination contract, each received two-year contracts (plus an option).Erickson, 26, was acquired from the Washington Capitals last October for minor-league defenseman Bruce Shoebottom. He posted career highs of 20 goals and 43 points in only 55 games.Kennedy, 23, played in a career-high 78 games and was one of the Kings&rsquo; most consistent defensemen.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03664/5063965-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="179" height="111"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to be wanted somewhere,&rdquo; said the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Erickson, who was considered too small by Washington. He also received a one-way contract.&ldquo;I feel reborn. I could have been a free agent, but I wanted to stay in L A. I like the team, the organization and the town.&rdquo;Kennedy could have shopped himself around too, but the physical 6-foot-2, 200-pounder decided against it because &ldquo;Rogie and the coaches showed a lot of faith in me and I think we&rsquo;re going to bring a winner to L.A.&rdquo;KINGS&rsquo; NOTES&mdash;The club also signed center Guy Benoit, the International League rookie of the year with 40 goals and 85 points in 55 games&hellip;Also signed were center Jeff Crossman of Western Michigan, a lOth-round draft pick in 1984; and minor-league defenseman Peter Sawkins, goalie John Fran-zosa and winger Mark Lofthouse&hellip; Morris Lukowich signed a termination contract. After being claimed on waivers from Boston, he had 11 goals and 20 points in 55 games&hellip;The Kings offered left winger Dan Brennan a termination contract, but he refused it and became a free agent. He had eight goals and 30 points in 62 games at New Haven&hellip;The Kings will open the 1986-87 season Oct. 9 against St. Louis at the Forum, the ninth consecutive year they have opened at home. &#9632;

f0015-03

Negotiations Occupy L.A. Summer

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02860/5063996-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Bruin superstar Bobby Orr is with one of the two groups bidding to develop the North Station area.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;New faces will abound in Boston Bruin uniforms next season but the team&rsquo;s most significant addition may be sitting in the front office in a three-piece suit.He is William D. Hassett Jr., the 50-year-old New York real estate developer, who was named in June as the new chairman and chief executive officer of the Bruins and the Boston Garden.Paul Mooney will still be president of the club, supervising the day-to-day business of both the team and the Garden. In fact, he even received a vote of confidence from his new boss.&ldquo;Paul Mooney has been terrific and is terrific,&rdquo; said Hassett. &ldquo;However, I bring a real business background for this type of development.&rdquo;&ldquo;This,&rdquo; said Jeremy Jacobs, head of Delaware North, the Buffalo-based conglomerate that owns the Bruins and the Garden, &ldquo;is the first step in our positive response to public officials concerned with Boston Garden.&ldquo;I have great confidence that he will advance our plan for the Boston Garden Center.&rdquo;It is fair to deduce from those statements that, while the Bruins will still play on Garden ice, a far bigger game is being played in the boardrooms and the back rooms of City Hall and the State House.Last winter, a group headed by Boston financial consultant James Brennan was certain it had purchased the Bruins and the Garden for $45 million from Jacobs and Delaware North.But the deal foundered at the last minute over terms of the agreement which gave Delaware North, whose primary business is concessions, control over the sale of food, drink and other things at the Garden or its successor for 25 years.The Brennan group reportedly lost between $750,000 and $l million in non-refundablc commitments when the deal went under.The Bruins and the 58-year-old Garden. their home since December, 1928, are only small but key components in the high-stakes game that is still being played under their control.Two development groups are in contention for the right to not only build a new Garden or fix up the old one but to develop the whole rundown North Station area.Delaware North is in partnership with Lincoln Properties of Dallas, Tex., in a plan to spend $359 million on two 35-story office towers, a 194-room hotel, 135,000 square feet of retail space, a garage for 1,600 cars and 123 housing units.The plan includes a $20 million renovation of the Garden.H.N. Gorin Associates have advanced a plan costing $1.2 billion for four multistory office towers, a 500-room hotel, retail space, a garage for 3,500 cars, plus three residential high-rise buildings and residential floors in the hotel and office buildings.The Gorin plan includes a new $79 million arena with 15,500 seats.Key figures in the Gorin group are Rosaline Gorin, the developer, former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas and a name well known to Bruin fans&mdash;Bobby Orr.Right now the puck is in Boston mayor Ray Flynn&rsquo;s end of the ice since he will have to make a choice of which firm is to develop the area, much of which is owned by the city.If the mayor picks the Gorin group it will only prolong the battle since Delaware North owns the key property, the Garden, and will not give it up without a fight&mdash;or good profit.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011072/5064003-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="129" height="120"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2>WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;Rick Middleton. the Bruins&rsquo; co-captain who suffered a head injury Feb. 7 when he was struck by a puck in practice and missed the rest of the season with headaches, dizziness and hyperventilation, is back on skates. &ldquo;I hope 1 can pick up where I left off,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Right now my outlook is rosy. My weight&rsquo;sgood. Ijust have to get back the strength and endurance I lost.&rdquo; One thing Middleton will never regain is Barry Pederson, his favorite centerman, who was traded to Vancouver for right winger Cam Neely and a first-round draft choice. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really shocked that Barry&rsquo;s gone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a close friend and a good teammate. We had some good years together. We were both looking ahead to next year and having a good line going. That won&rsquo;t happen.&rdquo;&hellip;D. Leo Monahan, who wrote hockey and covered the Bruins for the Boston Record American for more than 30 years, will be inducted into the media recognition section of the Hockey Hall of Fame on Sept. 10 in Vancouver. He is now director of the news bureau at the University of Massachusetts in Boston&hellip; Defenseman Gord Kluzak, only 22 after four years in the NHL, is finishing up his sophomore yearasapolitcal science major at Salem State College. If one collegiate year equals three in summer school, he&rsquo;ll graduate in 1992&hellip;Ticket prices have gone up a buck&mdash;$22 to $23 for the best seats, $15.50 to $16.50 for the worst obstructed view. &#9632;

f0016-02

Garden Critical Part Of Development Plans

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div>IF I WERE a player, I would probably wonder why Alan Eagleson was in such a rush to settle, seven full weeks before the strike deadline. Everyone knows you don&rsquo;t get reasonable too early in these things. If you talk tough across the table, jump up and down in the press and generally act obnoxious, you might be able to squeeze out a few more pennies, even if you never had any intention at all of walking.If I were an owner, I&rsquo;d wonder why just because my business had finally crept into the black after years of struggling, I now have to give some of it back. I wouldn&rsquo;t see any big network television contract imminent, nor any sign of another league forming and I&rsquo;d wonder what the hell was wrong with an average salary of about $ 170,000 a year. I&rsquo;d make the players sweat all the way up until about 24 hours before the first exhibition game and then make my first serious offer.But I can&rsquo;t play and unless Bob McKenzie, the editor of this fine publication comes up with a big raise, I can&rsquo;t own either. And I can&rsquo;t help but be amazed and impressed that the latest exercise in collective bargaining didn&rsquo;t go to the brink of a strike.The sound reason and good faith that the bargainers apparently brought to the table was overwhelming, really. Some agents, unhappy with what they felt was another quick sellout, raise a few valid points on behalf of their clients. But I know who really won. The fans.They will not be bombarded with self-serving rhetoric. They will not be alienated by the threat of a strike. Their star players, for whom they expended not only the price of tickets, but a degree of devotion, will not, by terms of the settlement, be yanked from their favorite teams.Pardon my middle-of-the-road reason, but I think an excellent balance has been struck. I would like to make more money, too, but I live a comfortable middle-class existence and, in light of a sports writer&rsquo;s contribution to society, believe my salary is just about correct.The same goes for hockey players. I don&rsquo;t think they are pampered and overpaid. On the contrary, from travelling with them, I have an appreciation for the pressures they face and the pain they often endure.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01943/5064034-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="376" height="470"></div>Their careers are short. Most of them are subject to having their lives totally disrupted at a moment&rsquo;s notice. When one considers that NHL players are elite talents&mdash;the 425 best persons, save 30 to 40 communists, in the world at what they do&mdash;I think they have a right to a more-than-comfortable living and the opportunity to put some money away for at least a start towards the rest of their lives.I think even the most marginal of NHL players is worth more than $100,000 a year and the best up to $3-400,000. Beyond that, there&rsquo;s some trouble justifying it all, but I understand the principles of a market-place and allow that these guys can take these sums in good conscience as long as they come to grips with their obligations as celebrities and role models.I think owners have a right to project some reasonable profits over a period of years as long as they are doing the very best they can to reward their fan&rsquo;s loyalty. Yes, they own a business, but when they borrow the city&rsquo;s name to represent it, I also believe they are taking on a public trust.I think both sides met their obligations this time. There&rsquo;s only so much money in hockey&rsquo;s pot and the players got a fair increase in the amount to which they are entitled. The owners realized they had to give something back. And they did.&ldquo;In June it became apparent that nobody wanted to fight,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; owner Ed Snider, a member of the negotiating committee. &ldquo;We thanked the players for everything they had done for us in the last contract. They allowed the league to go from losing a bloody fortune to a point where last year it made a few million dollars for the first time since 1967.&ldquo;That bodes well for the players&rsquo; future, for all the things that are important to a union. It&rsquo;s supposed to work for the benefit of all players, not just stars who could gain a great deal with free agency.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we have such a great situation going. The players aren&rsquo;t stupid. Alan Eagleson (NHL executive director) knows you can&rsquo;t get blood from a turnip. Bryan Trottier (NHLPA president) is a reasonable man. And we weren&rsquo;t going to sign our own death warrant.&ldquo;Movement is not the goal. Fairness is. The players had a point about being stuck on one team without recourse. He may not be happy with the coach or the city, but at least he has the flexibility to increase his salary.&rdquo;&ldquo;Having been in this business long enough, I know that as soon as you do something there&rsquo;s someone there to second-guess you.&rdquo; said agent Bill Watters. &ldquo;But I think Eagleson and the players did a good job.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve substantially upgraded the salary base, moved the qualifying base for free agency down two years, and brought some order to the drafting of junior and college players. They haven&rsquo;t greatly enhanced movement of players, but that&rsquo;s not a criticism, it&rsquo;s a matter of fact.&rdquo;Instead the players made a point of helping those at the bottom end of the salary scale, took care of some already-retired players and gave the owners the rights to make changes in the entry draft that everybody in the game felt were important.In return they gave in again on movement that most of them don&rsquo;t want anyway, free agency for a handful of undrafted college players that they could care less about, gave the owners a couple more playoff games. And spared everyone seven weeks of aggravation.That was not only refreshing but, considering the temper of our times, practically magnanimous. Hockey players are good people. I wholeheartedly recommend you drop a few bucks to watch them play this fall. &#9632;

f0017-01

Negotiations Represent Off-Season Of Reason

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;For Bryan Trottier, the president of the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association, it was an interesting experience. The Islander center and other association representatives spent six days in a Toronto hotel discussing a new collective bargaining agreement with league officials.Among those representing management were John Pickett, owner of the Islanders, and general manager Bill Torrey.Trottier, asked if he felt strange sitting across the negotiation table from Pickett and Torrey, said,.&ldquo;Yes, a little, but I think there was a lot of mutual respect. I understood their position and they understood that I was there to do a good job for the bulk of the association.&rdquo;Torrey admitted that Trottier is just as tough and relentless in a business suit as he is on the ice.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We weren&rsquo;t out to kill them (management) or the league.&rsquo; &mdash;Bryan Trottier</blockquote>&ldquo;Brian doesn&rsquo;t say a lot, but when he does speak it carries a lot of weight,&rdquo; the GM said. &ldquo;He has a lot of respect on his side of the fence.&rdquo;Both Trottier and Torrey expressed satisfaction with the new five-year agreement they helped hammer out.&ldquo;Now that the owners are finally in a position to show a profit rather than losses, well, that made the negotiations easier,&rdquo; Trottier said. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t out to kill them or the league and they responded to some past inequities.&ldquo;In terms of increased benefits and pensions. I feel we did a good job for the average player. As far as the better-than-average player is concerned, we made some concessions.&rdquo;Then both sides were forced to bend a little to avoid a players&rsquo; strike?&ldquo;No question about that,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;That has to happen in these situations. The important thing is that both did bend.&ldquo;The players got a lot of economic benefits. At the same time, some of the measures that allowed us to get healthy will continue. Total free agency would have destroyed that, and the players came to that realization.&rdquo;Torrey admitted that the long negotiation sessions took a toll on both sides. &ldquo;I was there for six days and got out of the hotel only once&mdash;for 15 minutes,&rdquo; he said.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02763/5064065-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="140" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW ISLANDERS</h2>The following Monday morning he was back at his desk in Nassau Coliseum, preparing for the start of the new season.&ldquo;The first thing I have to do is clean off my desk,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t even had time to go through my mail. I also have to return about 100 telephone calls&mdash;from agents, players, reporters, etc.&rdquo;Torrey also was anxious to meet with Terry Simpson, who has succeeded Al Arbour as the Islanders&rsquo; head coach. Still pending was the naming of Simpson&rsquo;s assistant(s). The two most prominent candidates were former right winger Bobby Nystrom, forced into retirement last season because of an eye injury, and/or Darcy Regier, the former defenseman who has been serving as the Islanders&rsquo; director of hockey operations.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had a chance to talk to Terry or Al for more than 10 days,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;We have to get together and finalize who is coming to training camp.&rdquo;Will Bob Bourne be among those on the training camp roster? It was considered common knowledge that the veteran forward, who played out his option last season, had accepted a termination contract. However, there had been no announcement of Bourne&rsquo;s signing.&ldquo;At this point, I expect Bob Bourne will be in camp,&rdquo; Torrey said.ON THE ISLE&mdash;Gordie Lane is back in the Islanders&rsquo; organization. The 33-year-old defenseman has agreed to join Springfield of the American League, the Isles&rsquo; No. I farm club, as a player and assistant to coach Fred Creighton. Lane was released by the Islanders last year and took over as coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings in mid-season. The Wheat Kings barely missed qualifying for the Western League playoffs&hellip;llie Islanders will open their 15th NHL season on the road. They play the Blackhawks Oct. 9 and visit Los Angeles two nights later. The Isles&rsquo; home opener is against the Capitals on Oct. 16. &#9632;

f0017-02

Islander Allies Faced Off During NHL Talks

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;His abilities in such matters have been forged in the most intense of crucibles, when only the stakes involved ran higher than the passion.He received much of the credit for resolving the strike by National Football League players in 1982, and has helped to produce agreements between management and players in the United States Football League and the Major Indoor Soccer League.So it was not surprising Paul Martha, vice-president and governor of the Pittsburgh Penguins, assumed a place on the owner&rsquo;s committee which negotiated a five-year collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players&rsquo; Association.And so, in the days before the talks entered what proved to be the decisive stage, Martha paused to reflect upon both past achievements and the impending challenges.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s basically the same,&rdquo; Martha said of his latest role. &ldquo;A lot of it is deja vu.&rdquo;There is, however, one decided difference Martha detected upon taking an active role in the negotiations.&ldquo;I think hockey, on the labor side, is more rational (than in other sports). I think the approach the players are taking is a mature approach, a rational approach. They have questions and they are demanding answers.&rdquo;The biggest question in the talks, of course, concerned total free agency. The players sought it, while the owners viewed it as nothing more than an effective means of self-destruction.&ldquo;The combination of total free agency and salary arbitration is a killer,&rdquo; Martha said. &ldquo;We have so few players in the NHL, it would escalate our salaries into the stratosphere.&ldquo;It would eliminate markets like Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Hartford&hellip;we couldn&rsquo;t compete with the Chicagos, L.A.&rsquo;s, and New Yorks. That&rsquo;s where the teams would concentrate, because of the combination of gate receipts, local television revenues and advertising revenue.&rdquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03588/5064096-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="128" height="100"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2>Martha said, however, the free-agency precedent established by major-league baseball in recent years might be the biggest reason NHL players are not likely to receive it in the foreseeable future.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve all watched what&rsquo;s happened to baseball, and we&rsquo;re not going to let it happen to hockey,&rdquo; Martha said. &ldquo;Maybe we would have experimented&mdash;to our own detriment&mdash;had we not seen what&rsquo;s gone on in baseball.&ldquo;Even with what appears to be a conscious parallelism in baseball among the owners&mdash;by that, I mean keeping the salaries down&mdash;with salary arbitration, it doesn&rsquo;t make any difference.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Defenseman Zarley Zalapski, the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the June 21 entry draft, is expected to remain with Team Canada through the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. &ldquo;I just want to improve, to get better, and right now, the Olympic team seems to be the best place for me,&rdquo; Zalapski said&hellip;Penguins&rsquo; GM Eddie Johnston said left winger Scott Johnson, a free agent from Lake Superior State, could secure the spot in the lineup as early as this season. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a candidate, definitely a candidate, for a left wing job.&rdquo;&hellip;Johnston has similar hopes for left winger Carl Mokosak, a free agent from Philadelphia&rsquo;s Hershey farm team whom the Penguins signed. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s big, he&rsquo;s tough and he&rsquo;s only 23. We&rsquo;re thinking he has a heck of a chance to stay with our club.&rdquo;&hellip;The Penguins signed right winger Mike Blaisdell and hope to intensify contract talks with agents representing, among others, defensemen Moe Mantha and Doug Bod-ger and center John Chabot. &#9632;

f0017-03

Labor Negotiations Martha’s Forte

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div>TORONTO&mdash;The stories of John Brophy.He is the brand new coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs but his legend precedes him.You think Fred Shero was tough. Forget it. he was a pantywaist compared to Brophy. Or so the story, perhaps unfairly. goes.Unfairly because the outrageous tales associated with Brophy, however true, obscure teaching talents the Leafs hope will take them to the next level&mdash;that of a team which will play equally well in the coming regular season as they did in last spring&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoffs.Brophy, now 52, was among the toughest skaters ever to play in the old Eastern League, as tough a league as there ever was.Dave Schultz, later of the Broad St. Bullies, vividly recalled Brophy in his autobiography. The Hammer.&ldquo;Brophy employed his hockey stick like a samurai uses a sword,&rdquo; wrote Schultz. &ldquo;If he had any scruples he must have buried them the first time he put on a pair of skates.&rdquo;Brophy, the coach, has been no less colorful&mdash;given to stunts that made him well known before he was officially confirmed as Dan Maloney&rsquo;s replacement more than a month ago.This past year as coach of the St. Catharines Saints, for instance, he held a midnight pratice immediately following a loss (no pucks), ripped a phone off the wall and tore his sports jacket into pieces, so disgusted was he by his team&rsquo;s periodic bad play.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01972/5064141-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="563" height="828"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Brophy is hopeful his young Leafs are on the verge of something good.</figcaption></div>The Saints, by the way, were 34-29-5 under Brophy after a 4-8-0 start under Claire Alexander. The two exchanged positions, Brophy leaving the Leafs after more than a year as Maloney&rsquo;s assistant coach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02733/5064134-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="154" height="150"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Brophy, a native of Antigonish, N.S., is not cut out to be an assistant coach.&ldquo;I thought he always had to be a head coach,&rdquo; says defenseman Bill Root, who played for Brophy both in St. Catharines and Toronto. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think he had as much leeway as he might (need) as an assistant coach.&ldquo;He inspires people in different ways and I think Dan Maloney has different ideas on how to inspire people and they really didn&rsquo;t click.&rdquo;Click Brophy did as the Saints&rsquo; coach&mdash;much like he had in four other minor leagues over a decade. He impressed Toronto owner Harold Ballard, who decided on the new head coach, largely because of his loyalty to the organization and ability to bring out the best in several Leaf prospects.Root, who played for Brophy in Nova Scotia, credits the snow-thatched coach with renewing his career.&ldquo;It was in my third year (in Halifax),&rdquo; recalls Root, &ldquo;and Montreal had offered me a termination contract and he turned my career around.&ldquo;He inspired me through some of his methods. Every practice I&rsquo;d skate extra. Every day he sort of harped on me quite a bit. When it came right down to it he played me and had confidence in me.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03524/5064127-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="1179" height="1458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Newcomer Miroslav Ihnacak showed great improvement under John Brophy while playing in St. Catharines of the AHL.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what started me,&rdquo; concludes Root, who joined Chris Kotsopoulos to form Toronto&rsquo;s steadiest defensive pairing last year.The new coach, it can safely be said, has inspired both fear and respect in his players. He is demanding, especially of those who have considerable talent.His own playing skills as a defenseman were far surpassed by his determination. Brophy expects similar devotion from his players.&ldquo;He respects somebody who goes out and gives him I00 percent,&rdquo; says Root.Brophy, coach of the year with the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Birmingham Bulls, likes tough hockey players but&mdash;according to those who have played for him&mdash;no longer tries to force square pegs into round holes.Anxious to downplay his storied past, the soft-spoken Brophy says simply, &ldquo;You coach the players you have. You never ask a player to do something he can&rsquo;t do.&rdquo;Brophy is credited with bringing out the best in Czechoslovakian defector Miroslav Ihnacak, whose timidity led to his demotion from Toronto to St. Catharines last season.Ihnacak, who seemed lost after being walloped by Detroit goalie Ed Mio in a bench-clearing brawl, blossomed under Brophy and is expected to challenge seriously for National Hockey League work this year.Right winger Gary Leeman, too, benefited greatly from an AHL stint under Brophy as did Ken Wregget, the Leafs&rsquo; No. I goalie.There are those who have wondered whether Brophy&rsquo;s style will translate well to the NHL. But Root isn&rsquo;t among them. He says Brophy has &ldquo;matured&rdquo; as a coach.As for the Leafs&rsquo; fourth coach in seven seasons, he&rsquo;s confident both in himself and the team&mdash;pointing out his vast experience and his players&rsquo; budding potential.&ldquo;I sure hope we&rsquo;re on the verge of something good,&rdquo; says Brophy. &ldquo;I like the look of the hockey club. I think we&rsquo;ve got as many good young hockey players as anybody in the league.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s up to Brophy to prove himself right.NOTES&mdash;Garry Lariviere, who acted as John Brophy&rsquo;s assistant coach in St. Catharines, will hold the same position with the Leafs. Norris Trophywinning defenseman Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers largely credits Lariviere, a former teammate, with helping him develop into an all-star&hellip;Vincent Damphousse, the Leafs&rsquo; first-round pick (and sixth overall), wasn&rsquo;t overly impressive at the national junior team&rsquo;s training camp in Calgary. The Leafs are hoping he&rsquo;ll make the NHL this year. &#9632;

f0018-01

Man With Colorful Past Key To Leaf Future

<div class="byline">Terry Jones</div>&lsquo;The first question everybody asks is:&rsquo; What happened in the playoffs?&rsquo; Then they jump into the Sports Illustrated article on drugs.&rdquo;&mdash;Wayne GretzkyEDMONTON, IN MANY ways, is a small town.A major-league town, but a town.You can&rsquo;t hide.And as was the case when the Oilers lost a first-round series to the Los Angeles Kings, they haven&rsquo;t been able to hide this summer.In Edmonton the players not only can&rsquo;t hide from their playoff exit to the Calgary Flames after back-to-back Stanley Cups, but they can&rsquo;t hide from the cocaine allegations.If you have a high profile in Edmonton, you can&rsquo;t go anywhere without being recognized. And if you are of that special species&mdash;the professional athlete&mdash;it&rsquo;s intense.In my business you get phone calls. And people you&rsquo;ve never met, walk up and tell you about the Edmonton Oilers and drinking. And, yes, about the Edmonton Oilers and cocaine.I&rsquo;ve heard them all.I&rsquo;ve heard them so often, there is great temptation to believe them.At the same time, because of the size of my city and the way it is with juicy items on our sports heroes, I know I could easily convince someone that so-and-so was having a romantic relationship with a buffalo. Guaranteed, within 48 hours the story would be back to me, and I would be breathlessly told that so-and-so wasn&rsquo;t having a relationship with one buffalo but the whole herd!I&rsquo;d go so far as to guesstimate that 80 per cent of the season ticketholders at the Northlands Coliseum had heard stories about the Oilers and cocaine long before the SI no-name allegations.But what are the people of Edmonton to believe?That the five unnamed players are innocent until they are proven guilty?How can an &ldquo;unnamed&rdquo; player be guilty, anyway? In Edmonton, the fans figure they know who the cocaine culprits are. To many, they don&rsquo;t have to be named. They&rsquo;ve named them to themselves.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04353/5064172-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="305" height="415"></div>So they haven&rsquo;t been named. But they are guilty. Funny how it works that way.I learned a long time ago that people are going to believe what they want to believe and most people in Edmonton decided to believe it all.And Edmonton isn&rsquo;t any different than any other city in this respect.The way sports drug stories have gone, isn&rsquo;t it true that people have got to the point where they believe there isn&rsquo;t a clean team anywhere on the major-league map?But Edmonton, suddenly, to millions of sports fans, has been identified as being up there with the great cocaine clubs of all time. Now not only are they drunken drivers as a result of convictions to Craig MacTavish, Dave Hunter and Dave Semenko, they are cocaine users.And maybe people are quicker to believe it about the Oilers than anybody.Too much, too soon, too young has been the story line with cocaine in sports. And certainly the Oilers have had alot in a hurry at an early age. Even if the SI story turns out to be fictional, the Oilers certainly qualify as one of the squads most susceptible to drug use.The Oilers earned their city two straight Stanley Cups. But they also earned a reputation for being arrogant and cocky. And with their drinking and driving record, and the SI cocaine allegations, they&rsquo;ve been branded with another reputation. It&rsquo;s a reputation which, the smaller the city, the more the fans feel it reflects on them.If there is one city in all of sport that is ready to stand up and demand they have a clean team, I think it&rsquo;s Edmonton.And as a sports columnist working in Edmonton, I for one wouldn&rsquo;t mind getting back to writing about who&rsquo;s who on ice, instead of who&rsquo;s on snow. &#9632;

f0018-04

Reputation Precedes Oilers And It’s Not A Good One

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02677/5064203-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="558" height="948"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad McCrimmon, above, was second only to Mark Howe among NHL plus-minus leaders.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;A year ago, when Brad McCrimmon finally put together his first wire-to-wire solid season, the Philadelphia Flyers told arbitrator Gary Schreider they wanted to see him do it again.Schreider apparently agreed, setting the defenseman&rsquo;s 1985-86 salary at a figure closer to what the Flyers offered than what McCrimmon and his agent. Herb Pinder, requested.Now McCrimmon and Pinder figure it&rsquo;s time for the team to pay up. McCrimmon went one step better last season, scoring 13 goals and 42 assists and even more impressively, finishing second in the National Hockey League with a plus-83 rating. He and Mark Howe formed the most effective defensive pairing in the league a year ago and of course the Flyers will make the point that Howe had a lot to do with that. Howe led the NHL with a plus-85.But inarguably McCrimmon had something to do with Howe&rsquo;s performance, too. By the most conservative figuring, McCrimmon was one of the NHL&rsquo;s 10 best defensemen last season. And now, being 27 and entering his peak earning years, he wants a longer-term deal that will make up for last year and reflect his value.The Flyers do not disagree in principle. But general manager Bob Clarke and Pinder are far apart in dollars.McCrimmon, who was underpaid at about $165,000 a year ago, has probably been offered a deal in the $180-200,000 range. Pinder has asked for one in excess of $225,000, one that would make McCrimmon one of the better-paid defensemen in the NHL.&ldquo;All I&rsquo;m going to say, at this point, is that we want a contract commensurate with Brad&rsquo;s performance,&rdquo; the Saskatoon-based agent said. &ldquo;Brad loves it in Philadelphia and is the kind of guy who put it all aside last year when it was time to play. He went out and proved that it wasn&rsquo;t just one good season and that plus figure proves his worth.&rdquo;All Clarke would say is that after two discussions that have gone nowhere, he is ready to make another offer. McCrimmon is bound to the Flyers for an option year and then, of course, would be subject to equalization should he decide to test the waters of free agency next summer.Nobody wants it to come to that but Pinder says he was disillusioned with the arbitration process a year ago and ruled out trying it again.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why it can&rsquo;t be worked out,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll keep talking.&rdquo;They are not arguing against McCrimmon&rsquo;s value, but are determined to fit it into a salary structure that they have managed to maintain as one of the tightest in the league. Pelle Lindbergh agreed to a contract in excess of $300,000 before his death in November and an extension of Howe&rsquo;s old $250,000-a-year deal signed last fall will put him over that figure next season.Tim Kerr is entering the third year of a a five-year deal that tops out at $250,000. There is not another Flyer, not even Brian Propp, who makes more than $200,000.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01906/5064210-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="150" height="120"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2>Clarke settled up on deals with a long list of players last year, leaving McCrimmon his most difficlut project this time around. The general manager says he is close to a new deal with Pelle Eklund, who signed a simple one-and-one before his rookie 1985-86 season and that talks are proceeding with Boston-based lawyer Brian Burke about contracts for right winger Dave Brown and defenseman Daryl Stanley.There has also been some preliminary discussions with Burke about upgrading the one remaining year of goalie Bob Froese&rsquo;s contract. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;s reasonable, we&rsquo;ll talk about it,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;But 1 would prefer to get things settled with the players who are going into their option years first.&rdquo;Otherwise, since the early June deal that sent Dave Richter and Rich Sutter to Vancouver for defenseman J.J. Daigneault, it has been a quiet Flyer summer. Despite the shocking first-round loss to the Rangers, Clarke says he is not of the mood to make a great number of changes.&ldquo;I like our team,&rdquo; Clarke said, &ldquo;and I like the kids we have coming.&rdquo;There will probably be only two new faces, Daigneault and right winger Scott Mellanby, who played sparingly after being signed off the University of Wisconsin campus in March. The Flyers do have three defensemen drafted in the first three rounds in 1984&mdash;Greg Smyth, Jeff Chychrun and John Stevens are all junior graduates&mdash;but the deal for Daigneault and the re-signing of free-agent defenseman Ed Hospodar gives the Flyers six veterans at the position. &rsquo;Only an especially strong camp by one of the kids or a training camp injury would put one of them on the parent team to start the season. Smyth&rsquo;s training camp availability is in question anyway. He suffered a broken wrist playing floor hockey this summer.The Flyers have considerable longterm hopes for goalie Ron Hextali, but with Chico Resch signed for another year to back up Froese it would take the unforeseen for Hextail to not start another year at Hershey.ICEBERGS&mdash;Bob Clarke has received written notification from defenseman Thomas Eriksson that he intends to sign with Djurgardens of the Swedish Elite League for next season. &ldquo;Thomas has an option year left on his contract,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;Whether we&rsquo;ll pursue our rights. I&rsquo;m not sure.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-02

McCrimmon Hopes For Big Payoff

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;There was an added sense of triumph for the Devils when free agents Doug Brown, Tim Lenardon and David Anderson put their signatures on New Jersey contracts this summer.Not only did the Devils land three highly-regarded young players, but they also outbid the rival New York Rangers for Brown and the hated Edmonton Oilers for Lenardon.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to sign free agents if nobody else wants them. If somebody else wants them it takes a little longer. We look at this as having three victories in the offseason,&rdquo; said Devils&rsquo; general manager Max McNab. &ldquo;These are three highly-talented and dedicated young hockey players who were courted by a number of NHL clubs.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re delighted they&rsquo;ve chosen to come to New Jersey because we believe they are going to form an important part of the nucleus of pure Devils that will lead us to championship contention.&rdquo;The signings were just the latest moves in the club&rsquo;s continuing push towards youth.The plan has been to solidify the front office with contract extensions through the 1987-88 season for McNab, coach Doug Carpenter, director of player personnel Marshall Johnston, assistant David Conte and Maine Mariners&rsquo; GM-coach Tom McVie while adding an experienced assistant coach to lead the changing roster of players.In a span of one month the Devils allowed 34-year-old right winger Rich Preston to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks and 33-year-oid defenseman Dave Lewis to sign with the Detroit Red Wings.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03475/5064241-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="110" height="90"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2>Both veterans became free agents when they were offered one-year, nooption termination contracts by the Devils. Just prior to the exit of Preston and Lewis, 28-year-old right winger Tim Higgins was traded to the Red Wings for Claude Loiselle, 23.After the draft which landed No. 1 pick Neil Brady, the Devils went free-agent shopping and signed 25-year-old defenseman Timo Blomqvist and left winger Andy Brickley, 24, before signing 1986 draft choice Anders Carlsson and 1983 pick Chris Terreri.The Devils have gone from the NHL&rsquo;s oldest team at one point before last season to perhaps its youngest. In a matter of months Lewis, Preston, Higgins, Phil Russell and, of course, Chico Resch have all departed. In an earlier wave of housecleaning the Devils said goodbye to Ron Low, Don Lever, Hector Marini, Bobby MacMillan and Mike Kitchen.&ldquo;You hate to lose quality people like Rich Preston and Dave Lewis,&rdquo; offered Carpenter. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re very disappointed to lose a leader, someone who was very important in the dressing room like Rich Preston. But as long as those players are here it&rsquo;s taking-playing time away from our younger players.&rdquo;The new faces:SMITH&mdash;He has already worked compatibly with Carpenter during the 1985 World Championships in Prague, leading Team Canada to a silver medal. Smith, 42, was assistant to Roger Nielson in Toronto (1977-78 to 1979-80), Buffalo (1980-81) and Vancouver. Most recently, he worked as Dave King&rsquo;s aide for Team Canada.BROWN&mdash;The 5-foot-11, 190-pound right winger chose to remain at Boston College while the NHL waited. He was a member of Team USA at the &rsquo;86 World Championships. His brother, Greg, was a second-round pick of Buffalo this past summer.LENARDON&mdash;The Trail, B.C. center was Canada West University Athletic Associon Hockey player of the year, scoring 26-40-66 in 26 games for Brandon University.ANDERSON&mdash;A Denver University graduate, the right winger, a brother of Edmonton&rsquo;s Glenn Anderson, collected 33-41-74 in 79 games for Fort Wayne (IHL) after going goalless in his first 23 games because of a bad leg.TERRERI&mdash;The celebrated Providence College goalie will give Alain Chevrier and Craig Billington stiff competition in camp.LOISELLE&mdash;He split last season between Detroit (seven goals, 15 assists in 48 games) and Adirondack of the American League (15-11-26 in 21 games).BRICKLEY&mdash;Regarded as the organization&rsquo;s best player at Maine (AHL) last season (60 points in 60 games). Stronger and trimmer than in his days with Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.HOT STUFF&mdash;Aaron Broten suffered a broken finger slipping on a rock while fishing&hellip;Don Dietrich and Kevin Maxwell, free agents, will play in Europe next season and not for Maine&hellip;Ex-assistant coach Lou Vairo, who was planning to scout for the Devils, has signed a contract to coach one of Holland&rsquo;s top first division teams, the Tilburg Trappers, next season. Vairo will also coach the Dutch National Team in the world championship tournament&rsquo;s B pool&hellip;Bob Hoffmeyer will act as assistant coach and scout this season while Hector Marini will work parttime for the Devils while attending Kean College in N.J. &#9632;

f0019-03

Devils’ Youth Movement Leads To Many Changes

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01564/5064272-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="675" height="897"></div>Cupolo Sports is North America&rsquo;s largest hockey supplier. Having been in business for over 68 years we have the knowledge and experience to give you the winning edge. We are proud to have developed the only guaranteed skate fitting process with our computerized skate fitting.Knowing the high cost involved in playing hockey we are working harder than anyone to give you the guaranteed lowest prices in North America, as well as offering you free freight and special offers.Cupolo&rsquo;s number one priority is providing you with a spectacular selection of quality equipment at affordable prices.Call now and know why we are the first choice of more hockey players than any other hockey retailer.Cupolo Sports 5510 Ferry St. Niagara Falls, OntarioL2G 1S4Canada(416) 356-9240 &#9632;

f0021-01

CUPOLO SPORTS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02317/5064303-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="573" height="756"></div>Special features include:&bull; Complete rosters of all the teams&bull; the full-season NHL schedule&bull; complete NHL, AHL, Junior and College previews and forecasts&bull; team-by-team overviewsThe most complete statistical record, recap and preview of the NHL and all of hockey. In addition t thousands of the most accurate-and most complete statistics about hockey available anywhere.See our ad on page 13 to order your copy today.DON&rsquo;T MISS&hellip;GET RESULTS&hellip; REACH THE 325,000 READERS OF EACH ISSUE OF THE HOCKEY NEWS THROUGH OUR CLASSIFIEDS.CALL JURATE KAKNEVICIUSAT (416) 445-5702 &#9632;

f0021-02

THE HOCKEY NEWS 1987 YEARBOOK

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;The changing face of Canada&rsquo;s national junior team starts not so much with the players as the management.Heading the new regime are head coach Bert Templeton, director of operations Dennis MacDonald and director of scouting Dave Draper.Templeton replaces Terry Simpson, the New York Islanders&rsquo; new head coach who led Canada to gold and silver medal-winning finishes at the last two World Junior Championships.MacDonald and Draper are sharing duties performed most recently by Sherry Bassin. Draper&rsquo;s chief function as a scout will lessen the burden shouldered in the past by head coaches.There are also two new assistant coaches&mdash;Pat Burns from the Hull Olympiques and Tom Webster of the Windsor Spitfires.The management team&rsquo;s goal is simple: return Canada to the winner&rsquo;s circle. Following a world championship in the 1984-85 tournament, Canada slipped to the silver in Hamilton last year, losing in the final game to the Soviet Union.Complicating matters for Templeton is the fact that this year&rsquo;s tournament&mdash;in Prague&mdash;will once again be played on the larger, international ice surface.Accordingly, Templeton ran his week-long evaluation camp, a who&rsquo;s who of the top 43 junior players in the country, at the newly-renovated Father David Bauer Olympic Arena and its internationalsized rink.Midway through the camp. Templeton suggested the newest edition of the national junior team would feature a blend of styles.&ldquo;Our defense has size, strength and mobility,&rdquo; said Templeton. &ldquo;They all checked out well in the agility drills. I would say most of our offense is going to come from back there. I think our personnel lends itself to a fast-break offense.&ldquo;If the game gets physical, we have enough size to play a physical game. But I don&rsquo;t think the physical part is going to be as important as strength or mobility. We&rsquo;re going to need a mobile defense just because we&rsquo;re playing with 15 to 20 extra feet of ice.&rdquo;In discussing his coaching philosophy, Templeton said motivation would be his biggest challenge.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be pulling people together from differerft backgrounds. different leagues, different cultures. I think one of the most important decisions will be selecting the 18th to 20th players. When you get into a competition like this, all the players are stars in the leagues they come from.&ldquo;Some will have to be content to come in and play minor roles. They&rsquo;ll have to fill in up front and on defense, kill penalties, maybe only get two shifts a period. The way they react to that goes a long way to establishing team harmony.&ldquo;You try to keep everybody happy, but you have to convince the players the group objectives are more important than individual objectives. If you win&mdash;or I should say, when we win&mdash;everybody will benefit from it. We win as a team. If we happen to lose, we lose as a team. The &lsquo;we aspect&rsquo; has to override the T aspect&rsquo;.&rdquo;Only two players of the 43 in camp returned from last year&rsquo;s team&mdash;center Joe Murphy, the first player chosen in the 1986 National Hockey League entry draft, and Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; defenseman Dave Moylan.Murphy is a longshot to play for Templeton&rsquo;s team because he is expected to step right into the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; lineup. The Red Wings earned the right to select Murphy by finishing with the NHL&rsquo;s worst record and they need his help. Now.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say I matured a lot in the last year,&rdquo; said Murphy, the Michigan State center. &ldquo;In college, I had to deal with more people, more press and I grew up a lot. I gained a lot of experience.&rdquo;Ideally, Murphy wanted to use the national junior camp simply as a means of getting into shape for the upcoming season. However, if things don&rsquo;t work out in Detroit or if he suffers an injury that requires rehabilitation, he would be available for the World Junior Championships.Murphy was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer last year.Help could come from a pair of excellent 17-year-olds&mdash;Pierre Turgeon of Granby and Brendan Shanahan of London Knights. A week before the national junior camp, Canada&rsquo;s national under-18 team played a three-game series against its U.S. counterparts in Calgary and Shanahan stole the show.In helping Canada win two of the three games, Shanahan was both the team&rsquo;s leading scorer with three goals and four assists and its MVP. He was the only player from the under-18 camp to win an invitation to the national team&rsquo;s camp and he was trying to make the most of it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve felt confident the whole week that I was fitting in,&rdquo; said Shanahan. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s too early to be thinking about the world tournament, but I can&rsquo;t think, T&rsquo;m here to show them something for next year.&rsquo; I definitely want to show them I can play now. I really want to make this team.&rdquo;Of Shanahan, Templeton said: &ldquo;With a couple of players who couldn&rsquo;t come because of injuries, we couldn&rsquo;t find a better player to fill in than him. Since the start of camp, he&rsquo;s shown he belongs here. Both he and Turgeon are younger than the others, but you don&rsquo; t notice that age difference with players of their calibre. They won&rsquo;t be around long at next year&rsquo;s NHL draft.&rdquo;Apart from Murphy, there were 11 other 1986 first-round choices on the roster, including Kerry Huffman (Philadelphia), Zarley Zalaps-ki (Pittsburgh), Shawn Anderson (Buffalo), Jeff Greenlaw (Washington), Warren Babe (Minnesota), Mark Pederson (Montreal), Vincent Damphousse (Toronto), Neil Brady (New Jersey), Pat Elynuik (Winnipeg), Dan Woodley (Vancouver) and Jocelyn Lemieux (St. Louis).Scott Metcalfe, who is aiming for a job with the Edmonton Oilers this year, led all scorers during six intra-squad games. He collected nine goals and five assists.Rob Brown of Prince Albert was second (6-5-11). Roundingout the top five were Benoit Brunet of Hull (3-7-10), Nelson Emerson of Bowling Green (6-3-9) and Craig Endean of Seattle (6-2-8). &#9632;

New Management Team Sets Its Sights On Gold

<div class="byline">BY ROD BEATON</div>HOUSTON&mdash;The North beat the West 5-4 to win the gold medal at the U.S. National Olympic Festival.But two circumstances overshadowed that singular result&mdash;one infinitely more serious than the other.First, the Olympic Festival was intended to be less a triumph of teams than individuals since its primary purpose was to provide the Amateur Hockey Association of the U.S. a chance to evaluate the best American Olympic hopefuls.Dividing the players into regional teams is just an effort to set up a viable, four-team system. There were players from Vermont, Michigan, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Minnesota on Team South. And those aren&rsquo;t exactly Confederate states, y&rsquo;all.This camp was for the talent scouts at AHAUS, especially Dave Peterson&rsquo;s Olympic coaching staff and general manager Art Berglund.And second, one goaltender might have taken himself out of contention for a place on the team&mdash;but not by anything he did on the ice.Rich Burchill, set to enter his sophomore year at the University of New Hampshire, was arrested and charged during the Festival for stealing a radio from a car. Burchill faced felony and misdemeanor counts.NHL player representative Brian Burke, an attorney, stepped in and arranged a plea-bargain for Burchill, a 1985 draft pick of the St. Louis Blues. In exchange for his guilty plea, Burchill was sentenced to five years of probation and a $1,000 fine.His troubles aren&rsquo;t over. Burchill&rsquo;s arrest received widespread publicity, including in his hometown of Roxbury, Mass., and he might not be allowed back on the UNH hockey team.The U.S. Olympic team coaching staff has a good idea who will comprise the core of the team in Calgary in 1988. but won&rsquo;t get into specifics.Talent isn&rsquo;t the only criteria for making the team. Timing is important, too.The players who have just completed their college careers have a year to kill before the team is selected at the next Festival. They can either go to Europe or turn pro to retain theireligibility, but they cannot play more than nine games in the NHL by the time the Games begin.Players who face this tough choice include center Scott Fusco, a Harvard grad and Hartford draft choice who was the 1985 Hobey Baker Award winner and a 1984 Olympian, and center Randy Wood, formerly of Yale, now a free agent.For some, the timing is perfect. They&rsquo;ll complete their college career this season and if they&rsquo;re good enough, skate right on to the Olympic team.Center Tony Granato of Wisconsin, defenseman Scott Shaunessy of Boston University, center Allen Bourbeau of Harvard and left winger Brad Jones of Michigan are examples.The most interesting cases are those of the entry draft classes of 1985 and 1986. The NHL invested heavily in some of these players and many will face pressure to tum pro. Most are saying they&rsquo;d rather wait.One of the players&mdash;Brian Leetch&mdash;who has said he plans to put pro hockey on hold was the most dazzling of all at the Olympic Festival.The New York Rangers&rsquo; 1986 first-round choice stole the show, helping prove that fired general manager Craig Patrick left the Rangers with some talented players. The Rangers had a NHL-high six players at the Festival.&ldquo;What a talent!&rdquo; said Glen Sonmorof the North Stars. &ldquo;That Leetch is amazing, isn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;After some of Leetch&rsquo;s puck-carrying forays, a few scouts used his name in the same breath as Paul Coffey&rsquo;s. Another said: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so good it&rsquo;s scary.&rdquo;Unless they fall on their faces, Wisconsin goalie Mike Richter, BU left winger Clark Donatelli and center Scott Young, Granato, plus Boston College center Craig Janney and teammate Leetch are certainties for the 88 team. &#9632;

Goaltender Pleads Guilty To Charges

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Who was last year&rsquo;s AHL playoff scoring leader?2. Name the Soviet-born player that once played for the Los Angeles Kings.3. What is the nickname of the hockey team at Boston University?4. What former NHL player coaches at Northeastern University?5. What former Canadian Olympian was recently named coach at the University of British Columbia?6. What New York Islander scored two empty-net goals in the 1983 Stanley Cup final?7. Who will be the coach of the U.S. Olympic hockey team at the 1988 Olympics?8. How much per player do the Stanley Cup winners receive?9. What current Philadelphia Flyer players were picked 14th and 15th in the 1979 NHL entry draft?10. Name the last player from a losing Stanley Cup-finalist team to win the Conn Smythe trophy.ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ1. Larry Trader. 2. Victor Nechaev. 3. The Terriers. 4. Fernie Flaman. 5. Terry O&rsquo;Malley. 6. Ken Morrow. 7. David Peterson. 8. $20,000. 9. Brian Propp and Brad McCrimmon. 10. Reggie Leach.<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01474/5064382-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="548" height="948"></div>This Olympic hero later had brief NHL stints with Boston and Atlanta.BONUS ANSWER: Jim Craig. &#9632;

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CCM HOCKEY TRIVIA

f0030-01

THN Newsmakers’ Roundtable

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02381/5064472-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clint Malarchuk, who emerged as Quebec&rsquo;s leading goalie last year, has signed a new contract with the Nordiques.</figcaption></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The outgoing have made room for the incoming this year at the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; training camp.Utility players Jean-Francois Sauve and Alain Lemieux have left for greener pastures in Europe, tough guy Jimmy Mann has simply been dropped by the team, and it would be very surprising if Swede Peter Andersson makes it back to North America.A couple of other players who will be back are not assured of places in the lineup. So the best bet is that a few rookies will be with the Nordiques this winter.Nothing, however, should change in the net.The menage a trois of Clint Malar-chuk. Mario Gosselin and Richard Sevigny worked well together last year and it would be surprising to see any changes made there. Youngster Mario Brunetta, a top prospect, is not ready to challenge.It&rsquo;s on defense that coach Michel Bergeron has a problem.But for once, it&rsquo;s a very pleasant one. He simply has an overabundance of backliners. Veterans Pat Price, Robert Picard, Normand Rochefort. Randy Moller, Gilbert Delorme and Risto Sil-tanen are all back.Last season&rsquo;s revelation at the blue line. David Shaw, has a slot reserved for him and young Jeff Brown showed remarkable poise when he was called up towards the end of last season. Steven Finn will get a look-see, as well as Daniel Poudrier, a Bergeron favorite.Big Gord Donnelly, who pinch hit for Mann on a couple of occasions last year, might get a tryout as a forward now that Mann is gone. But Donnelly stated a couple of months ago that he didn&rsquo;t want Mann&rsquo;s job as enforcer.Up front, the Stastnys, Peter and Anton, are happy as can be with their new contracts, and Michel Goulet, Dale Hunter, Brent Ashton, Alain Cote and Paul Gillis are all certainties. Mike Eagles wasn&rsquo;t supposed to make the team last year but impressed everyone with his unrelenting hustle when he was given a chance to prove himself.Three players from the 1985 draft will be closely watched&mdash;particularly Jason Lafreniere of the Belleville Bulls, who is all but conceded a job at center. Lafreniere was the Ontario League&rsquo;s nominee for Canadian major junior player of the year last season.The others are left winger David Latta of Kitchener and right winger Max Middendorf of Sudbury.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01518/5064479-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="118" height="116"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2>In addition, a pair of 1984 choices&mdash;right wingers Trevor Stienburg of London and Terry Perkins of Spokane&mdash;will be aiming to impress. Stienburg was the Nordiques&rsquo; first pick two years ago.In other news, the Nords announced that they had signed Malarchuk to a new contract, believed to be for two years and an option.&ldquo;I was thinking of playing out my option this year,&rdquo; explained Malarchuk. &ldquo;But with the season I had last year, l knew I could come to terms with (general manager) Maurice Filion. I met with him, explained my situation, and the new contract was signed shortly afterwards.&rdquo;Malarchuk is evidently very happy with his new deal.&ldquo;When a guy decides to play out his option, it&rsquo;s like playing with fire,&rdquo; said Malarchuk. &ldquo;If you play well, you win the jackpot, but if you have an off-year, you&rsquo;re out in the street with your pockets empty.&rdquo;Malarchuk can rest easily now but things are not as good for Gosselin, who will probably have his case solved by an arbitrator. &#9632;

f0032-02

There’ll Be Room For Nordiques’ Rookies

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02336/5064510-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="573" height="1044"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Liut says neither side made the other feel like another brick in the wall.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;In the world of pro sport, hockey has found a separate peace.Money is the root of all evil negotiations, and in the National Hockey League, apparently, wise heads realize there is just enough to go around. Without an abundance of it, owners and players amiably settled on a new five-year contract, pending approval by the players.&ldquo;I foresee absolutely no problem with the vote,&rdquo; said Hartford Whaler player representative and NHL Players&rsquo; Association vice-president Mike Liut. &ldquo;Both sides tried to accomplish something sane and equitable. I feel we have.&rdquo;Liut was one of nearly 50 player reps who, along with NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson and an ownership committee, forged the new agreement.&ldquo;Neither side made the other feel like it was talking to a wall,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;The owners were receptive.&rdquo;Whaler chairman-managing general partner Howard Baldwin took the pact in stride.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m thrilled that both sides worked this thing out, but I&rsquo;m certainly not surprised, not even by how quickly it was accomplished,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;The history of this league is that the owners and players have worked together.&rdquo;Total free agency is not part of the package, but one reason. Liut said, is the players &ldquo;realize the ramifications (of it).&ldquo;I think there is a need to protect the game from a few people who are out of control,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;The superstars aren&rsquo;t going to move. That&rsquo;s good in the sense that they are the major assets of a team and they are compensated by the money they make.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;There is a need to protect the game.&rsquo; &mdash;Liut</blockquote>&ldquo;But this agreement should really help others. We showed the owners that there is a good system that does not include moving existing NHL players.&rdquo;In an attempt to eliminate full-scale, almost uncontrollable free-agent bidding on players such as Ray Staszak and Adams Oates, a supplemental draft of college players who have been bypassed in the draft, was approved.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01468/5064517-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="133" height="119"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2>&ldquo;The agents won&rsquo;t like it, but it&rsquo;s our game and not theirs,&rdquo; Liut said.There will be peace in our time.One matter not included in the agreement is the much-publicized drug-testing program proposed by Eagleson and NHL president John Ziegler.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t even mentioned once,&rdquo; Liut said.Oh.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Season ticket sales have hit an all-time high, reports director Bill Cox. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve sold 8,800, roughly 1,800 more than we&rsquo;ve ever sold before,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d say that puts us in the top half in the league. &rsquo; &rsquo; The Whalers are coming off their finest season in seven NHL campaigns and there is very definitely a sense of excitement around One Civic Center Plaza&hellip;The Whalers have signed Dallas Gaume, a free-agent center from the University of Denver, and Mike Vellucci, a defenseman from the Belleville Bulls, to multiyear contracts&hellip;Paul Fenton, who has starred for Binghamton the last three seasons, is no longer Whaler property. Fenton did not accept a one-year termination deal. Winger Mike Hoffman and defenseman John Mokosak, on the other hand, did. Fenton and Jack Brownschi-dle, who played out his termination pact last year, could wind up with Rochester of the American League.. Veteran Tor-rie Robertson, a left winger, and Canadian Olympian Mike Millar, a right winger, have been signed to multi-year contracts.. Kevin Dineen, who has developed into one of the NHL&rsquo;s biggest impact players, should be the big winner in the summer&rsquo;s annual contract sweepstakes. Dineen&rsquo;s base salary last year was under $100,000, and the Whalers, unquestionably, got their money&rsquo;s worth. Rightfully, Dineen&rsquo;s looking fora significant boost&hellip;Francis said that he&rsquo;s interested in retaining the services of well-traveled defenseman Mike McEwen, less than cheery news for 20-year-old Sylvain Cote, who must be wondering if the Whalers will ever find a spot for him on the blue line&hellip;Scott Young, a right winger who was drafted 11 th overall in June, seems to be leaning toward another season or two at Boston University before turning pro. &ldquo;We would never encourage him to leave college,&rdquo; Francis said. &#9632;

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Hockey Enjoys Separate Peace Of Its Own

<div class="byline">BY Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01533/5064548-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="372" height="432"></div>Q: I was watching sports highlights on our local news a while ago, and they showed an empty-net goal where the puck was shot from the defending end and was heading straight for the open net. A player from the same team caught up with the puck but he let it go so the goal would be credited to the player who originally shot the puck.My question is what if the player who had caught up with the puck interfered with a defending player who had also skated back and was trying to knock the puck away? If nobody touches the puck, isn&rsquo;t this a delayed penalty that cannot be called until someone on the penalized team touches it? Would the goal count?Rick McHaffie,Saskatoon. SKA: If a player interferes with an opposing player who is trying to keep the puck from entering his net. then the play would be blown dead immediately. The rule states that when a team is in possession (in this instance, the team that shot the puck down the ice) and a teammate gets a penalty, play shall be stopped immediately&mdash;no delayed penalty.Q: I&rsquo;ve got two questions. First, in a junior game in Seattle, New Westminster&rsquo;s Alan May skated across the ice to flatten Seattle&rsquo;s Craig Endean with a blatant elbow. After a few minutes, Endean got up, leaving a pool of blood on the ice. The referee gave May an elbowing minor. Since bloody noses are rather common, does it have to be an actual cut to warrant a major penalty?Second, in another game in Seattle, two players fought at the end of the first period. In the fight, the Seattle player yanked off his opponent&rsquo;s jersey and threw it into the stands. He was given a game misconduct for this. Was this right?John Bausano, Seattle, WAA: To answer your first question, the referee has the option in the assessment of many penalties of giving a minor or major. The degree of effort that goes into the check is usually the deciding factor when determining the differenced There are many checks issued in hockey when a player will be cut or injured on the play and no penalty is warranted, so just because there is blood showing does not constitute a major penalty. The only exception is high sticking. If there is an injury the referee has no alternative but to assess at least a major penalty.As for your second question, the NHL rule is a 10-minute misconduct for this act, but the referee has wide latitude when it comes to actions of this type and can assess the game misconduct if he sees fit.It you want your questions answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE16 Martin StreetMilton, Ont.L9T 2P9All questions will be considered, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE REFEREE

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02415/5064579-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg"></div>That the NHL players with the worst minus 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="f0034-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03317/5064617-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Hillman, left, and Allan Stanley were but two of the contributors to four Maple Leaf Stanley Cups.</figcaption></div>New York wasn&rsquo;t the Big Apple to Allan Stanley. It was the Bad Apple.He was the subject of merciless booing from New York Ranger fans who turned sour on the big defenseman during the early 1950s. So bad was it at one point that Stanley played only on the road&mdash;more than three decades before the New York Yankees were forced to do the same with beleaguered pitcher Ed Whitson.Stanley&rsquo;s crime was one of omission rather than commission.Although 6-foot-2 and 191 pounds, his style wasn&rsquo;t that of a heavyweight. Instead, he preferred purposeful bodychecks&mdash;designed to turn a player into the boards not through them.&ldquo;Nobody got it worse than me,&rdquo; said Stanley, who also played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Phildelphia Flyers during his 21-year career. &ldquo;But I wasn&rsquo;t the first, nor will I be the last player to be singled out and booed.&ldquo;They (Rangers fans) liked the slam-bang-type players. I didn&rsquo;t play that way. I could hit players with good bodychecks. But I didn&rsquo;t go looking for a guy from the other teams for deliberate hits.&ldquo;There was a lot of pressure on me.&rdquo; recalled the 60-year-old native of Timmins, Ont. &ldquo;Fans would boo me in the warm-ups.&rdquo;Eventually, there was relief. He was traded to the Blackhawks in 1954.&ldquo;My first game back in the Gardens (with the Black Hawks) I made one of my few slam-like bodychecks into the boards,&rdquo; said Stanley. &ldquo;Suddenly, with everything quiet during a stoppage of play, one lone voice yelled out &lsquo;Hey Stanley, why didn&rsquo;t you play like that when you were here?&rdquo;&rsquo;But if Stanley was a man without a home in New York, he certainly found one when he arrived in Toronto.<h2>WHERE ARE THEY NOW</h2>&ldquo;My years in Toronto were the best of my career,&rdquo; said Stanley, who played on four Stanley Cup-winning teams with the Leafs and was named a second all-star three times. &ldquo;I had a lot of support from the fans and I had a lot of admiration for the team I played on.&rdquo;The late Tim Horton was his partner on the blue line.&ldquo;Tim and I worked so well together,&rdquo; recalled Stanley. &ldquo;We played almost 10 years together back at defense.&ldquo;But that&rsquo;s the way Punch (Imlach, Leaf coach and general manager) did things. He paired Bob Baun and Carl Brewer together at defense as well.&ldquo;Punch believed in the veterans. He put together a nice blend of veterans and youth. And, although he was under a great deal of pressure to go with youth, he kept most of the old guard until the end of his days with Toronto. That&rsquo;s why winning the Stanley Cup in &rsquo;67 met so much to those of us who were veterans. It was the last hurrah most of us had together.&rdquo;It was also a &lsquo;last hurrah&rsquo; for the Leafs. They have not won the Stanley Cup since.Today, Stanley owns and operates a combination resort-golf course in Fenelon Falls, Ont., near Peterborough.&ldquo;I always wanted to go into business and that&rsquo;s what I did when I retired,&rdquo; said Stanley, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. &ldquo;But I went into business just like I played hockey. One hundred per cent.&ldquo;When I played hockey all I did was eat, sleep and play hockey 24 hours a day. That&rsquo;s what I do now with my business. That&rsquo;s what I was taught to do. I really don&rsquo;t know any different.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04222/5064610-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="570" height="1252"><figcaption class="caption-body">Allan Stanley scored an even 100 goals during his 21-year NHL career.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0034-03

Stanley Has Fond Memories Of Years With Maple Leafs

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE AND MIKE KANE</div>NEWMARKET&mdash;The American League&rsquo;s most prolific goal scorer is now the American League&rsquo;s newest head coach.Paul Gardner, who scored 125 goals and 102 assists in two record-breaking seasons with the Rochester Amerks and Binghamton Whalers, has been named head coach of the Newmarket Saints, the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; No. I farm team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited about the opportunity,&rdquo; said the 30-year-old native of Toronto who was the Kansas City Scouts first choice in the 1976 amateur draft.&ldquo;When it became apparent that I would finish out my career in the minor leagues, I started preparing for this chance. That&rsquo;s why I left Binghamton after the 1984-85 season. I wanted to be a player-assistant coach there, but they didn&rsquo;t offer it to me so I went to Rochester.&rdquo;There, Gardner worked as a playing assistant coach under Amerks&rsquo; head coach John Van Boxmeer. But when the season ended&mdash;and Gardner had picked up his second consecutive AHL most valuable player and THN Minor League Player of the Year awards&mdash;so did his playing career.Chronic back problems forced him to retire after a 10-year pro career that included stints with the Colorado Rockies, Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres.It was his intelligent approach to the game, his familiarity with the AHL and Maple Leaf background that led the Leafs to choose him over a host of other candidates who applied for the vacancy created by John Brophy&rsquo;s promotion to the Leafs.Not only did Gardner play in Toronto, but his father, Cal, was a stalwart with the Leafs of the late &rsquo;40s and early &rsquo;50s and his brother, Dave, was a junior star with the Toronto Marlboros.&ldquo;I was a little surprised,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No, actually I was a lot surprised. They called me a couple of weeks ago (late July) to inquire if I might be interested. I hadn&rsquo;t even applied. So I had discussions with (Leaf GM) Gerry McNamara and we worked things out.&ldquo;Now, I&rsquo;m looking forward to getting back to Toronto, finding a place to live and start preparing for the season.&ldquo;I know I don&rsquo;t have a lot of experience as a coach but Gerry told me I&rsquo;d be a part of the organizational team and that I&rsquo;d be able to work closely with Mr. Brophy. Having played against the Saints for the past couple of years, I know some of their personnel. There&rsquo;s some good talent there and I know we&rsquo;ll have a competitive hockey team.&rdquo;The Saints moved from St. Catharines to Newmarket, a suburban community north of Toronto, earlier this summer.In other AHL news, the league&rsquo;s governors named Adironack&rsquo;s Bill Dineen coach of the year, making him the first back-to-back winner.Then they adopted a shootout plan used by the International League last season. The shootout will eliminate ties during regular-season play with a best-of-five penalty shot contest following the five-minute overtime.If a shootout is needed, each team will receive one point in the standings. The shootout winner will earn another point. All individual statistics accumulated in the shootout will not count in league statistics.&ldquo;Sure it&rsquo;s a big departure from tradition, but let&rsquo;s face it the fans wanted overtime in an effort to eliminate tie games,&rdquo; AHL president Jack Butterfield said. &ldquo;Obviously, the five-minute overtime has not accomplished this to any great degree as only 41 per cent of the (tied) games resulted in a decision last year. Rather than lengthen the time of the game we now have a plan that will indeed eliminate all tie games.&rdquo;Dineen, whose Red Wings won the Northern Division crown as well as the Calder Cup playoff title, edged three other contenders&mdash;Larry Pleau of Binghamton, Terry Crisp of Moncton and Hersey&rsquo;s John Paddock for the Louis A. R. Pieri Award. Pieri was a longtime owner of the Providence Reds.In other business conducted at the league&rsquo;s annual meeting, Butterfield was re-elected to three more one-year terms as president and treasurer of the league.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;The governors voted to eliminate the. five-minute overtime period in the playoffs. Henceforth in tied games, there will be an intermission followed by a 20-minute overtime period. The AHL followed the NHL&rsquo;s lead and adopted the larger semicircle goaltender&rsquo;s crease&hellip;Free-agent forward Mark Lamb signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; organization. Lamb was the Moncton Golden Flames&rsquo; leading scorer last season. The Red Wings also re-signed forwards Ted Speers, Geordie Robertson, Glenn Merkosky and defenseman Barry Melrose from Adirondack&rsquo;s championship team&hellip;Veteran defenseman Peter Dineen has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Kings and is likely to be playing for New Haven this season. &#9632;

Scoring Ace Gardner Saints’ New Coach

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>TOLEDO&mdash;The Toledo Goaldiggers are gone but it would be best not to forget them. Remembering the Salt Lake Golden Eagles will be easier.A gloomy financial outlook has left&rsquo; Toledo without the Goaldiggers for the 1986-87 season. But in Salt Lake City the Golden Eagle franchise has been strengthened by the addition of new partners.Toledo general manager Jerry Francis, who said the decision to halt operations was a difficult one, explained the step was taken because Toledo officials could not guarantee the squad would &ldquo;reverse its fortunes&rdquo;.Neither owner, Francis nor Virgil Gla-dieux, is planning to remain permanently out of the International League, where Toledo had iced a team for 23 straight seasons. They are fourth in the IHL in seniority, behind Fort Wayne. Muskegon and Saginaw.It is a situation similar to that of Saginaw a couple of seasons past. That franchise also suspended operations briefly but rejoined the league last year.Commissioner Bud Poile first announced July 25 that the IHL board of governors &ldquo;approved the suspension of the Toledo Goaldiggers franchise for the upcoming season.&rdquo;Poile indicated the Goaldiggers had met the IHL&rsquo;s extension for coming up with the required $50,000 performance bond. That wasn&rsquo;t the problem.Had the Goaldiggers started the season and later been forced to bail out, Gla-dieux would have been responsible for damages, according to IHL rules.Accordingly, Francis did not submit the team&rsquo;s letter of credit to the league. He said he could not bank on a winning team and, if forced to fold during the season, the franchise rights and up to $500,000 could be lost.Francis conceded last year&rsquo;s team was the worst in Goaldiggers&rsquo; history. In 85-86 the Goaldiggers won but 24 games, just four on the road. They finished ninth in the 10-team league.That&rsquo;s a far cry from the Toledo regular-season and playoff championship seasons of l98l-82 and 82-83. Even then, however, attendance was dropping. Francis said the team needs 3,000 fans a game to show a profit, 2,900 to break even.Attendance plummeted to below 2,000 last season. Francis admitted the &rsquo;Diggers &ldquo;played God-awful hockey&rdquo; in 1985-86 and said it was the worst team in Toledo history. &ldquo;The players didn&rsquo;t want to be here and they showed it,&rdquo; he said.With Toledo on the sidelines, the IHL heads into the season with nine squads. There is expected to be little change in the alignment, with Muskegon, Saginaw, Kalamazoo and Flint in the East Division and Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Peoria and Salt Lake in the West.All players under contract to Toledo become free agents but, as Francis noted, there are few players of consequence. Rookie Guy Benoit was leading the Goaldiggers in scoring before a late-season trade to Muskegon, but Benoit is Los Angeles property anyway.If it was a somber Francis in Toledo, though, it was a jubilant Art Teece in Salt Lake City. He announced July 24 the sale of 45 per cent of the Golden Eagles to Dick Hagman, an asphalt contractor with operations in Colorado, Montana and Washington.In addition, local businessman Wils Neiderhauser acquired three per cent of the franchise. It was reported Hagman&rsquo;s share of Golden Eagles is worth about $200,000, which is all Francis said the Toledo franchise was worth.Teece had appealed for financial help last season and received temporary assistance.&ldquo;The team is here to stay,&rdquo; Teece said after the transaction. It will mark the third season in the IHL for Salt Lake, and the 18th consecutive season overall for the Golden Eagles. They played in the now-defunct Central League.Teece, who said he lost about $500,000 over the last two seasons, announced Salt Lake will continue its working agreements with the Calgary Flames and Hartford Whalers. Possible affiliation with the New York Rangers remains up in the air following Phil Esposito&rsquo;s recent hiring as general manager.Teece also stated there will be improved promotion and marketing of the club in the new season. Average attendance dropped below 3,000 last year but Teece says season ticket sales were running ahead of 1985-86.Earlier in the month of July, the IHL completed its annual board of governors meeting, and one of the most significant decisions was to establish a drug-testing program for 1986-87.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t feel we have a drug problem,&rdquo; Poiie explained, &ldquo;but we are not naive enough to think we can&rsquo;t have one. It is a privilege to play in the IHL and any coach, player or general manager convicted in a drug case will lose that privilege.&rdquo;Poile noted the league will have a selfhelp program. He said that he doesn&rsquo;t anticipate any problems in having the players&rsquo; association back that plan.The league will adopt the college and European-style goal crease this season and the limit on players dressing for a game is up from 15 and two goaltenders to 16 and two.Poile stressed that his office will have final approval of all trades made after Feb. I. &ldquo;Last year there was a trade on our deadline that we didn&rsquo;t feel was in the best interest of the league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we passed this rule.&rdquo;He referred, no doubt, to the deal which sent Benoit and defenseman Pat Mayer to Muskegon, further decimating the Toledo franchise and strenghtening the already-powerful Lumberjack offense. Muskegon won the Turner Cup easily over Fort Wayne in the finals. &#9632;

Toledo Won’t Be Digging Any Deeper Into Pockets

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>SAULT STE. MARIE&mdash;There&rsquo;s a new dawn about to unfold in several Ontario League cities..In Sault Ste. Marie, it&rsquo;s Don Boyd taking over as coach and general manager of the Greyhounds after suddenly resigning his &ldquo;Big Green&rdquo; London Knights for the big green offered by Sault owners in the form of a lucrative two-year contract.In Guelph, it&rsquo;s Gary Spoar replacing Jacques Martin as coach of the Memorial Cup champions, who should be a powerhouse again this season.And in Cornwall, Orval Tessier has received a Royal welcome as his coaching appointment was announced to round out the latest shuffling back of the OHL benches.Earlier in the summer North Bay assistant Guy Blanchard took over from Wayne Maxner with the Sudbury Wolves and the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s hired back Brian Kilrea. who had spent the two previous seasons as an assistant with the New York Islanders.The latest round of coaching changes leaves only London without a coach.Bill Long, who coached and managed the Knights from 1972 until moving up to vice-president in I983, has been appointed acting general manager until owner Howard Darwin finds a successor to Boyd. Former National League coach Bill Mahoney, who just opened a Tim Horton doughnut shop about a block from the London Gardens, was among those mentioned as candidates along with Maxner, ex-London junior Reg Thomas, St. Thomas Jr. B coach Skip Cummins, former Cornwall coach Floyd Crawford and London Jr. B coach Jeff Van Vliet.The Emms doormats threw out more than the doormat to Boyd. They threw out the checkbook. Money was the major reason for Boyd&rsquo;s departure after three good years in London, where he was popular with fans who enjoyed his team&rsquo;s physical style of play.In London, he had only a verbal deal and base salary of $28,000 plus bonus money pegged to attendance. Two seasons ago, the Knights drew 85,000 fans and Boyd pocketed an extra $ 11,000. This past season his bonus money was $3,000.In the Sault, he will earn $45,000 plus incentives and has a two-year written contract. Boyd replaces Don MacAdam,. who after one year with the defending-champion Hounds (who slid to 15th out of 15 OHL clubs last season) accepted an assistant coaching position with Detroit Red Wing head coach Jacques Demers.Boyd&rsquo;s departure to the Sault certainly won&rsquo;t hurt the already intense rivalary&mdash;and the large crowds&mdash;the Hounds and London have enjoyed over the past seven years.Darwin said he did not attempt to talk Boyd out of leaving London.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed with Jim McAuley (the Hounds&rsquo; president) and Don Boyd,&rdquo; Darwin said. &ldquo;He hadn&rsquo;t indicated interest in going to any other club. A month ago he could have come and said &lsquo;I want to talk to the Sault&rsquo; and the result would have been the same. He&rsquo;d have been in the Sault.&rdquo;Darwin said he had no replacement in mind.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m as blank as when it first happened,&rdquo; he said.The Platers had been searching for a coach since the St. Louis Blues hired away Jacques Martin to replace Demers. In St. Louis, Martin&rsquo;s salary of $63,000 will be considerably more than the $14,000 he made in Guelph.Spoar, 42, a native of Hamilton, had been assistant under Ron Smith with the Platers for three seasons when they played Tier II Jr. A. During that time, the Platers won two Ontario Hockey Association titles and one Centennial Cup championship. Spoar also coached McMaster(after playing university hock&lsquo;-ey for the school). University of Waterloo and in Italy. Waterloo, in 1983-84, was his last coaching assignment.The tenured mathematics professor at University of Guelph was runner-up for the Platers&rsquo; job last year.Rick Cornacchia, who has coached in the OHL at Kingston and was an assistant in Oshawa last season, was said to be the Platers&rsquo; first pick, but he couldn&rsquo;t see leaving his teaching job in Toronto for the $14,000 in Guelph. He also couldn&rsquo;t devote his full energies to coaching. Spoar has been able to arrange his teaching schedule to lecture only three hours a week.Tessier&rsquo;s return to Cornwall should supply a shot in the arm for the Royals, who have struggled in attendance and in the standings since coming to the OHL four years ago.The Royals had their greatest success in the Quebec League, winning the Memorial Cup in 1972&mdash;under Tessier&mdash;and again in 1980 and 1981&mdash;under Doug Carpenter and Bob Kilger, respectively.Tessier had a 255-115-45 record in Cornwall.Under new ownership since last January, the Cornwall club turned to a familiar face in Tessier to replace Tony Zap-pia. Tessier is already looking forward to the hour-long trips to games in Ottawa against his friend Kilrea.Tessier is calling it the &ldquo;six-pack series.&rdquo;The 53-year-old Tessier has not coached since February in 1985 when he was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks after two-and-a-half seasons. Tessier had received numerous coaching offers and decided between a team in France and the Royals. He last coached in the OHL in 1981-82, taking the Kitchener Rangers to the Memorial Cup final.&ldquo;If the opportunity is here (in his hometown of Cornwall) and the offer is as good or better than anything else. I&rsquo;d be crazy not to take it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My days as a coach in the NHL are over. I doubt at my age I&rsquo;ll ever be back. They&rsquo;re going with younger people now.&rdquo; &#9632;

Hometown Coach Tessier Back With Royals

BUFFALO&mdash;Hannu Virta, D, left Sabres to return to native Finland for military duty. Jeff Parker, RW, 1984 draft pick from Michigan State, signed to NHL contract. Mai Davis, LW, released as free agent, will play in Finland next season.CALGARY&mdash;Paul Baxter, D, signed one-year termination contract as part-time player and asst, coach. Following U.S. college players were signed as free agents: Mike Mersch, D, Ill-Chicago; Don Mercier, D, Denver; Dale Rivington, D, RIT, Dave Reirson, D, Mich. Tech, and Grant Blair, G, Harvard.CHICAGO&mdash;Rich Preston, RW, signed as free agent from New Jersey.DETROIT&mdash;Kelly Kisio, C, Lane Lambert, RW, and Jim Leavins, D, traded to NY Rangers for Glen Hanlon, G, and Rangers&rsquo; 3rd round draft picks in 1987 and 1988. Larry Trader, D, traded to St. Louis for Lee Norwood, D. Dave Lewis, D, from New Jersey and Mark Lamb, D, from Calgary, signed as free agents. Pierre Aubry, C, released as free agent to play in France next season. Mark Gowans, G, 71st draft pick in 1985 from Windsor of OHL, signed to 2-year contract. Jim Smith, D, from Denver Univ, and Steve Chiasson, D, from Guelph of OHL, both signed to 4-year contracts as free agents. Greg Joly, D, announced retirement from hockey.EDMONTON&mdash;Murray Eaves, C, signed as free agent from Winnipeg.HARTFORD&mdash;Dallas Gaume, C, from Denver Univ, and Mike Velucci, D, from Belleville of OHL, signed as free agents. Torrie Robertson, LW, and Mike Millar, LW, 1984 draft pick with Team Canada, signed to multi-year contracts. Paul Fenton, RW, released as free agent. John Mokosak, D, and Mike Huffman, RW, signed son, RW, from Fort Wayne oTlHLaTTsigned to pro contracts as free agents. Larry Floyd, C, signed to new pro contract. Don Dietrich, D, released as free agent to play in West Germany next season.LOS RANGERS&mdash;Doug Soetaert, G, signed as free agent from Montreal. Reijo Ruotsa-lainen, D, declined new contract to play next season in Switzerland. Jan Erixon, LW, signed to new contract.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Kevin Maxwell, C, signed as free agent from New Jersey. Thomas Eriksson, D, declined NHL contract and will remain in his native Sweden to play next season.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Mike Blaisdell, RW, and Willy Lindstrom, RW, signed to new NHL contracts. Carl Mokosak, LW, from Philadelphia, and Scott Johnson, LW, from Lake Superior Univ., both signed as free agents. Ted Nolan, LW, and Mitch Lamoureux, C, released as free agents.QUEBEC&mdash;Clint Malarchuk, G, signed to new NHL contract.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Allan Perry, G, 56th draft pick in 1984 from Windsor of OHL, and Robert Dirk, D, 53rd draft pick in 1984 from Regina of WHL, both signed to NHL contracts. Kevin LaVallee, LW, and Denis Cyr, LW, both released as free agents.TORONTO&mdash;Cliff Albrecht, D, from Princeton and Tim Armstrong, C, from Toronto of OHL, both signed as free agents.VANCOUVER&mdash;Craig Coxe, C, and Stan Smyl, RW, signed new multi-year contracts. Robin Bartel, D, from Calgary, signed as free agent. Tony Currie, C, released as free agent to play in West Germany season. to new NHL contracts.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Peter Dineen, D, signed as free agent. Following players were signed to new contracts: Roland Melanson, G, Dean Kennedy, D, Grant Ledyard, D, Peter Sawkins, D, Guy Benoit, C, Phil Sykes, RW, Bryan Erickson, RW, Mark Lofthouse, LW, Morris Luko-wich, LW, and John Franzosa, G. Jeff Crossman, C, 1984 draft pick from Western Michigan Univ., signed to NHL contract. John Paul Kelly, LW, Dan Brennan, LW, Len Hachborn, C, Robert Mongrain, C, and Al Tuer, D, released as free agents.MINNESOTA&mdash;Ron Wilson, D, signed NHL contract after North Stars completed arrangements to have Craig Levie, D, replace him with the Davos team in Switzerland. Jari Gronstrand, D, 96th draft pick in 1986 from Finland, Mike Berger, D, 69th draft pick in 1985 from Spokane of WHL, and Frantisek Musil, D, 1983 draft pick from Czechoslovakia, all signed to NHL contracts.MONTREAL&mdash;Ernie Vargas, LW, 117th draft pick in 1982 from Wisconsin Univ, and Scott Harlow, 6th draft pick in 1982 from Boston College, both signed to NHL contracts. Bob Gainey, LW, and Serge Boisvert, RW, both signed to new NHL contracts. Guy Rouleau, C, signed as free agent from Hull of QMJHL.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Timo Blomqvist, D, from Washington and Andy Brickley, LW, from Pittsburgh, signed as free agents. Anders Carlsson, C, 66th draft pick in 1986 from Sweden, and Jamie Huscroft, D, 1985 draft pick from Seattle of WHL, both signed to NHL contracts. Dave Lewis, D, and Rich Preston, RW, both released as free agents. Tim Lenardon, C, from Brandon Univ., Doug Brown, RW, from Boston College, and Dave AnderWASHINGTON&mdash;Michal Pivonka, C, 59th draft pick in 1984 from Czechoslovakia, signed to multi-year contract.WINNIPEG&mdash;Hannu Jarvenpaa, LW, 71st draft pick in 1986 from Finland, signed to NHL contract. Larry Dyck, G, from Seattle of WHL, and Yannick Verstappen, G, from Belgium, signed to training camp tryouts.COACHING-EXECUTIVE CHANGESNY RANGERS&mdash;Phil Esposito appointed vice-president & GM replacing Craig Patrick. Wayne Cashman named New England scout replacing Ray Clearwater. Dan Summers, head scout for past 8 years, to remain as scouting consultant.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Coach Doug Carpenter and GM Max McNab given new 2-year contracts. Ron Smith added as new asst, coach replacing Lou Vairo, who will coach The Netherlands National team.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Doug MacLean from Univ, of New Brunswick, named new asst, coach by Blues.TORONTO&mdash;John Brophy named new head coach replacing Dan Maloney. Garry Lariviere appointed new asst, coach.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Gord Lane, D, came out of retirement to become player-asst. coach with AHL team.FLINT&mdash;Rick Dudley former coach-GM of Carolina of ACHL, named to similar positions with IHL team.TEAM CANADA&mdash;Bert Templeton named new head coach replacing Terry Simpson. Pat Burns of Hull of QMJHL, and Tom Webster of Windsor of OHL, appointed asst, coaches. &#9632;

OFF-SEASON TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>BRANDON&mdash;The future of the Brandon Wheat Kings may be cloudy but Jim Foubister believes his fate is crystal clear.Foubister, general manager of the Western League club, said his neck will be on the line whether the struggling franchise remains in the Manitoba city or is moved elsewhere.The Wheat Kings sent up the smoke signals in June by putting the Eastern Division club up for sale. The community-owned team is looking to secure additional funding or new ownership to keep the club in Brandon even though a proposal to purchase and relocate the team in Lethbridge has been put forth.&ldquo;You have to look at the history of franchises and it hasn&rsquo;t been policy in the league to keep the general manager around when there&rsquo;s a change in ownership,&rdquo; said Foubister, who assumed general manager&rsquo;s duties with the Wheat Kings last September from Les Jackson. &ldquo;This would be a precedent, &lsquo;We purchase and you operate the club&rsquo;. I would keel over. I think I&rsquo;ve earned the right to see the thing through.&rdquo;Although the Wheat Kings lost $65,000 last season in finishing seventh in the eight-team division, Foubister said there was light at end of the financial tunnel. The loss was much less than the $140,000 the club dropped in 1985 and $110,00 the previous year.Foubister said the 1986-87 season hinges on the club&rsquo;s board securing $150,000 in loans to help balance the budget.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m personally angered because the board gave a verbal agreement we&rsquo;d operate the club and they won&rsquo;t put up the money,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We went to the annual meetings under the impression we&rsquo;d be operating the club this year.&ldquo;I would think a sale in Brandon is a certainty but it should not be restructured under community ownership. I can see a five or six-man syndicate.&rdquo;There have been preliminary discussions with a group based in Lethbridge but that in itself is ironic. At the end of last season it was the Lethbridge Broncos who decided to move and try their luck in Swift Current, Sask.In the middle of the mess is WHL president Ed Chynoweth.Moving franchises is becoming commonplace in the 14-team league. Last season it was the Kelowna Wings who became Spokane Chiefs. Before that the Winnipeg Warriors became Moose Jaw Warriors. It could happen again but the league doesn&rsquo;t want to bail anybody out of trouble.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re past the days, in my opinion, where the league will buy a franchise without a buyer lined up,&rdquo; said Chynoweth. &ldquo;The Brandon shareholders have given 21 days notice and the earliest date for a meeting is Aug. 8. It sounds like it will be between Aug. 8-11.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s really nothing going on until the meeting. The options are obvious. Number one, put more money into it (franchise); two, sell to local interests or; three, sell to outside interests. At this time of year outside interests are hard to find and in lieu of scheduling it better be done quick.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s obvious the league would like to see the Wheat Kings remain in Brandon. If not, that&rsquo;s where the Lethbridge Tier One Hockey Club group comes in. Even though the city lost its franchise last season, there seems to be renewed interest in the WHL.&ldquo;In fairness to Lethbridge,&rdquo; said Chynoweth, &ldquo;they have a community organization that has raised $l00,000-plus and Lethbridge is approaching this based on the fact that it would be a community-owned team. But it&rsquo;s really too early to comment, there&rsquo;s no sense getting into it.&rdquo;WHL chairman Brian Shaw said he wants the Wheat Kings to stay put because yet another shift would not only tarnish the league&rsquo;s image, it would mean the loss of another fine facility. The Brandon Keystone Centre seats 5,002.&ldquo;It would detract from our image. We are a professional league,&rdquo; said Shaw, who also serves as general manager of the Portland Winter Hawks. &ldquo;Some people say it won&rsquo;t hurt us (Hawks) because we don&rsquo;t play in the other division. But any time you lose a major center with a major building it hurts.&rdquo;Shaw, who runs one of the most successful major junior franchises in the country, believes hockey can still make a go of it in Brandon.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be very surprised if there was a change this season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fact is I have seen it operate for three or four years&hellip; when it was one of the most successful in the league. I&rsquo;ve had my teams in there (Brandon) when you couldn&rsquo;t buy a seat. It was like that once, it can be like that again.&ldquo;I would immediately look for other buyers. They have to make changes, changes at the top. That&rsquo;s what I would do.&rdquo;Not only do the Wheat Kings need money in a hurry, they also need a new coach. Gord Lane has taken an assistant coaching position with Springfield Indians of the American League. And last, but not least, they need to inspire faith among their fans.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01461/5064830-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="564" height="1149"><figcaption class="caption-body">The WHL, says Ed Chynoweth, isn&rsquo;t in the business of buying ailing franchises.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The people in Brandon are very turned off,&rdquo; said Foubister. &ldquo;They look at it three ways: one, we don&rsquo;t know what we&rsquo;re doing; two, they&rsquo;re angered nothing has been done and; three, they&rsquo;re going to wait and see what happens.&rdquo;The scenario makes it tough to sell season tickets and that in itself could cripple the Brandon franchise. Even though the Wheat Kings struggled last season they still averaged 2,160 fans per game, up from 1,712 the previous season. &#9632;

f0039-01

Wheat Kings Left Dangling In Western Wind

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>TROIS-RIVIERES&mdash;At 25, Alain Vigneault is one of the youngest coaches to take on a head coaching position in major junior hockey.The Trois-Rivieres Draveurs of the Quebec League have hired the former Draveur and Hull Olympique defenseman largely because of his involvement in the Trois-Rivieres community after playing out a three-year contract with the St. Louis Blues in 1984.Vigneauit coached the Jr. &lsquo;BB&rsquo; Draveurs to first-and second-place finishes while studying business at the University of Quebec-Trois-Rivieres.Trois-Rivieres general manager Yvon Gendron selected Vigneault, who was born in Quebec City and raised in Hull, over former University of Ottawa coach Michel Boucher and Alain Chenier, coach of Victoriaville&rsquo;s &lsquo;AAA&rsquo; collegiate team.&ldquo;I saw him working with the Jr. &lsquo;BB&rsquo; team at 6 a m. for no pay and all of the kids were there,&rdquo; Gendron said. &ldquo;He handled them well. He&rsquo;s 25 but you would think he&rsquo;s 35.&rdquo;Trois-Rivieres hopes Vigneault can pick up where Jean Begin left off last year.After coaching in Hull, Laval and Verdun, Begin took over from former Philadelphia Flyer defenseman Andre (Moose) Dupont and finished the second half of the schedule with a 2110-2 mark, second only to leaguechampion Hull.Begin will coach in France after guiding the Draveurs to fifth place overall.Vigneault was an aggressive and often undisciplined player who handled the puck well when he began playing with the Olympiques at 16 under coach Marcel Pronovost.He was traded to the Draveurs after two-and-a-half seasons with Hull.&ldquo;I played for Michel Bergeron my first year in Trois-Rivieres and then we reached the league final against (Memorial Cup-champion) Cornwall the next year (1980-81) with Mario Bazinet,&rdquo; said Vigneault.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02319/5064861-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="544" height="1230"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former pro Alain Vigneault is expected to have a physical team in Trois-Rivieres.</figcaption></div>Converted from an offensive role in Hull to a defensive one in Trois-Rivieres, Vigneault still managed 13 goals and 74 assists in one-and-a-half seasons with the Draveurs. He also earned 274 penalty minutes.A seventh-round pick by the Blues in 1981, the 5-foot-11,205 pounder played 42 games for St. Louis his first two years and then retired after splitting 1983-84 between Montana of the Central League and Maine of the American League.Former Montreal Canadien defenseman Guy Lapointe, now general manager of the Longueuil Chevaliers, skated with Vigneault in St. Louis and recommended him to the Draveurs.&ldquo;Even if he didn&rsquo;t have as much talent as he would have liked, he always worked hard,&rdquo; said Lapointe. &ldquo;He was a very physical defenseman, the kind of player who often played better on the road.&ldquo;He mentioned then that he wanted to coach junior hockey. It&rsquo;s going to be a big experience for him and 1 won&rsquo;t be surprised if his team is aggressive. Not dirty, but I think it is going to be a physical team.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lost quite a few players and our objective is to be patient,&rdquo; Vigneault said. &ldquo;We only have two defenseman coming back but we have a new organization and we want to establish a new atmosphere here.&rdquo;QUEBEC CACHE&mdash;Hull left winger Benoit Brunet was a last-minute addition to the national junior team&rsquo;s one-week evaluation camp in Calgary. The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; second rounder wound up third in scoring with three goals and seven assists in six games. &ldquo;All of the players are intelligent and tough,&rdquo; said Brunet, who skated mainly with the Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; Rob Brown at center and Toronto Marlboros&rsquo; Yvon Corriveau on the right side. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s going to be a complete team.&rdquo;&hellip;Granby Bison center Pierre Turgeon, 17, looked good in scoring five goals and three assists and was one of 10 players from Quebec on the 43-man roster&hellip;"The defense has really impressed with its steadiness,&rdquo; said Dennis McDonald, the club&rsquo;s director of operations. McDonald praised the play of the Shawinigan Cataractes&rsquo; Stephane Guerard and his defensive partner, Donald Dufresne of Trois Rivieres, among others&hellip;The national junior squad is expected to play the Hull Olympiques in Hull and in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans following the team&rsquo;s training camp in Orleans, Dec. 12-18. &#9632;

f0039-02

Draveurs Turn Over Reins To 25-Year-Old Vigneault

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;The search for a goaltender who can win continues in a city that expects a lot from its masked men.No fewer than nine netminders have been invited to training camp and each one has a legitmate chance to become Winnipeg Jet&rsquo;s No. I starter.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, our goaltending has to improve,&rdquo; said general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s as simple as that. We are looking for goaltenders.&rdquo;True to his word, Ferguson unveiled two more challengers, including the goaltender who led Belgium to the Group C title at the World Championships last spring.Yannick Verstappen posted wins over Great Britain, Bulgaria, Spain and Hungary en route to the world title.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve signed him to a tryout contract,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s apparently won more more valuable goalie awards in international hockey than anyone else. But, yeah, it&rsquo;s Group C level.&rdquo;Verstappen was trained by the late Jacques Plante. &ldquo;We had enough faith in him (the late Plante) to give him (Verstappen) a good look in training camp,&rdquo; noted Ferguson.Also invited is Larry Dyck, a native of Winkler, Man.. who had a goals-against average of 5.12 and 22-28 win-loss record with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League last year. He led the WHL in shutouts with two and finished second overall in saves with 1,727.He was never drafted.&ldquo;We scouted him a number of times last season and we liked what we saw,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t make it with us, he has told me he is going to play at the University of Manitoba. He&rsquo;ll get good coaching there and be right down the road from us so we can keep an eye on him.&rdquo;If one goaltender in particular excites Winnipeg hockey fans, it&rsquo;s Daniel Berth-iaume. He gave them the finest exhibition of goaltending seen at the Arena last season in the third game of the playoffs. A 4-3 loss to Calgary Flames obscured the fact that he made more than a dozen circus saves.A third-round choice (60th overall) in 1985, the 20-year-old Berthiaume would appear to be the early choice of many fans to be the Jets&rsquo; starter when the 1986-87 season begins. He is from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec League.Brian Hayward is probably a better goaltender than his 13-28-5 record and goals-against average of 4.79 of last year would indicate. An ankle injury which plagued him for 40 games has been corrected.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01176/5064899-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="558" height="1020"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daniel Berthiaume made a favorable impression during a playoff appearance last season.</figcaption></div>He and Dan Bouchard handled the bulk of the Jets&rsquo; goaltending. Bouchard, 35, is entering his 15th season in the NHL. Given his options, Bouchard would like to be around to give Berthiaume the tutelage of a sagacious veteran.Hayward is the same goaltender who won 10 games in the month of March in 1985 and only two in the corresponding month in 1986. He was as big a reason the Jets rose to fourth place overall in 1984-85 as he was a factor in the team&rsquo;s skid to 18th in 1985-86.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-02107/5064892-1-eng-US/c0004-022.jpg" title="C0004-02" width="132" height="117"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2>Hence, the search for goaltenders.This could be Marc Behrend&rsquo;s year to live up to the expectations the Jets have had of him since 1981, the year they drafted him in the fifth round. At the very best, his impact on the organization has been minimal.Pokey Reddick has bided his time in the International League for two seasons. He would seem to warrant a chance to start some games for the Jets this year.David Quigley of Moncton University had an outstanding camp in 1985. A repeat this fall might see him turn pro and start in Sherbrooke. John Blue of the University of Minnesota is a contender, too.Whatever the case, the Jets are leaving their options open. More than ever before they have emphasized the need for a goaltender who can give them the quality of netminding they require to be a contender in the Smythe Division.BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets have signed Hannu Jarvenpaa, a 23-year-old left winger out of Finland. He was their fourth-round draft choice in 1986&hellip; Details of the Jets&rsquo; 1986-87 schedule were released. Sundays (18), Wednesdays (9) and Fridays (9) remain the most popular nights for home games-&hellip;The Jets will be celebrating their 15th anniversary as a team during their home opener, Thursday, Oct. 9th, against the Buffalo Sabres&hellip;Pat Elynuik, the Jets&rsquo; first-round choice (eighth overall) in June, attended the national junior team training camp in Calgary. &#9632;

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September 5, 1986

Presto! Preston Returns To Blackhawks

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Don’t throw away your glove!

THIS WEEK… 20 Years Ago