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 8, 1989

The Hockey News September 8, 1989

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01687/5807898-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ex-St. Louis Blues&rsquo; center Cliff Ronning will get an estimated $160,000 U.S., tax free, to play for the Division I team in Asiago, Italy.</figcaption></div>At 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, Cliff Ronning has never been the center of attention on an NHL rink.So when the Division I team in Asiago, Italy, offered him the opportunity to be its star attraction, he jumped at the chance.Ronning, 23, signed a one-year contract with Asiago July 27, ending, at least temporarily, a five-year association with the St. Louis Blues. The Blues, who picked him in the seventh round of the 1984 entry draft, retain his NHL rights.Asiago offered the free-agent center a good salary, as much as $160,000 U.S. (tax-free) and the chance to play regularly. The Blues made a competitive offer&mdash;$150,000 per year for three years&mdash;but they could not promise the playing time Ronning felt he deserved.&ldquo;The money was not the main factor,&rdquo; Ronning said. &ldquo;The offers were much the same, but I knew I would get to play there,&rdquo;At best, Ronning would have been the Blues&rsquo; fourth center this season and would have played much the same role as he did last year, specializing on the power play and playing the odd shift. Even with Ronning&rsquo;s departure, the Blues have five centers&mdash;Peter Zezel, Adam Oates, Rick Meagher, Tony Hrkac and Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour.&ldquo;The question with Cliff is that he loves to play a lot,&rdquo; general manager Ron Caron said. &ldquo;We made a reasonable offer, but he has to understand that&hellip;until he&rsquo;s a complete player, he has to accept a certain amount of ice time.&rdquo;Ronning said going to Italy would help him become a complete player because he&rsquo;ll receive more ice time.&ldquo;By going to a team that will give me time to play I&rsquo;ll definitely improve,&rdquo; Ronning said.Ronning improved immensely last season, establishing career highs with 24 goals and 31 assists for 55 points, fourth-best on the team. He also tied Brett Hull for the team lead with 16 power-play goals. He did all this in 64 games, having started the season with Peoria of the International League.In 132 career games, Ronning had 40 goals and 53 assists for 93 points. He accomplished that as a bit player since joining the Blues from the Canadian pre-Olympic team, where he scored 55 goals with 63 assists in 71 games in &rsquo;85-86.&ldquo;If you add all my shifts together, you would not disagree that my points per shift (average) is pretty good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the kind of person to brag and talk about myself, but there comes a point when you feel you have to.&ldquo;My stats prove I can play a regular shift&hellip;If stats mean anything, I deserved a little more. Maybe stats don&rsquo;t mean a lot.&rdquo;Neither Ronning nor Caron discounted the possibility of Ronning returning to the Blues when his Italian season ends in February.&ldquo;My heart will always be with the Blues, from the players to the coaches to the front office to all the diehard fans,&rdquo; Ronning said. &ldquo;I spent a lot of time there. It&rsquo;d be nice to return and add a spark if that&rsquo;s what they need.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll find out how they do and maybe they might need me down the road.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 27: Clift Ronning, C, signed one-year contract with Asiago, Italy.Aug. 4: Darwin McPherson, LW/D, free agent, signed two-year contract &#9632;

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THE NHL

RONNING WILL FINALLY GET ICE TIME—IN ITALY

Due to an error at The Hockey News, final Quebec League statisticspublished last issue were incomplete. Verdun and Victoriaville were omitted. The QMJHL&rsquo;s complete statistics are listed below..<h2>FINAL STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01694/5808357-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="577" height="1380"></div><h2>CHICOUTIMI</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02497/5808350-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="579" height="770"></div><h2>DRUMMONDVILLE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03341/5808343-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="579" height="672"></div><h2>GRANBY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04223/5808336-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="579" height="711"></div><h2>HULL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05153/5808329-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="579" height="687"></div><h2>LAVAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06122/5808322-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="579" height="226"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-07102/5808315-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="574" height="602"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0889/5808308-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="562" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Lebeau&rsquo;s 149 points were tops on St-Jean.</figcaption></div><h2>LONGUEUIL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0977/5808301-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="576" height="788"></div><h2>SHAWINIGAN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1072/5808294-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="573" height="83"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1165/5808287-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="578" height="527"></div><h2>ST-JEAN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1262/5808280-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="578" height="713"></div><h2>TROIS-RIVIERES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1357/5808273-1-eng-US/f0032-132.jpg" title="f0032-13" width="573" height="742"></div><h2>VERDUN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1453/5808266-1-eng-US/f0032-142.jpg" title="f0032-14" width="573" height="341"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1547/5808259-1-eng-US/f0032-152.jpg" title="f0032-15" width="580" height="445"></div><h2>VICTORIAVILLE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1645/5808252-1-eng-US/f0032-162.jpg" title="f0032-16" width="576" height="2084"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

QUEBEC LEAGUE STATISTICS

<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Contract negotiations between the Wings and captain Steve Yzerman are moving slowly. A source familiar with the talks said Yzerman wasn&rsquo;t budging from his demand of a $10 million deal&mdash;$2 million for five seasons&mdash;after his 65 goal, 155-point season earned him Player-of-the-Year honors from The Hockey News and a third-place finish in MVP voting. By mid-season, the Wings were promising to re-negotiate Yzerman&rsquo;s seven-year deal. Last season, the fourth year of the contract, Yzerman was paid $380.,000 plus bonuses&hellip;Former Wings&rsquo; assistant Don MacAdam was named head coach of Cape Breton, Edmonton&rsquo;s American League affiliate. After leaving the Wings to seek an NHL job, MacAdam joked that he was &ldquo;bringing down the image&rdquo; of the Wings&rsquo; coaching staff, which also includes former players Colin Campbell and Dave Lewis. &ldquo;Now everybody on the staff drives a Mercedes,&rdquo; MacAdam said. &ldquo;My van just didn&rsquo;t fit the image.&rdquo;<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>North Stars&rsquo; coach Pierre Page was in Orlando, Fla., Aug. 14 to help promote the Sept. 24 exhibition game against the New Jersey Devils&hellip;Page and GM Jack Ferreira flew to Tampere, Fin. Aug. 15 to do some scouting before making an expected trip to Latvia in the Soviet Union. The Stars are discussing the possible release of goalie Artur Irbe, a 10th-round pick in the June draft, and working out details for 37-year-old Helmut Balderis, a 12th-rounder in June, to come to training camp&hellip;Defenseman Ken Leiter, who the North Stars claimed from the New York Islanders in the waiver draft last fall despite his announced plans to retire, has been talking about playing this season and is close to reaching a contract agreement.<h2>BLUES</h2>General manager Ron Caron likens contract time to the holiday season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like sending Christmas cards,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The only thing is the return does not always have the same feeling as Christmas.&rdquo; The Blues have 14 players entering their option years, and Caron mailed offers Aug. 10, the league deadline. Brett Hull, Gordie Roberts, Rick Meagher, Paul MacLean, Todd Ewen, Doug Evans and Dave Richter are the key players on Caron&rsquo;s list&hellip;Free agents Dave Lowry and Robert Dirk are close to re-signing with the Blues.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Free-agent left winger Al Secord signed a one-year contract Aug. 7 to rejoin Chicago. Terms of the pact were not disclosed, but part of the deal includes the Hawks promising to protect him in the waiver draft. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t only money involved in my decision to go back to Chicago,&rdquo; said Secord, who played seven seasons with the Hawks before being traded to Toronto in September, 1987. &ldquo;I still have a lot of friends on the team and I always loved playing before the great fans in the Stadium. &ldquo;&hellip;GM Bob Pulford said defenseman Bob Murray, 34, a free agent without compensation, would be offered a contract for the coming season. Murray has played 14 seasons and 959 games for the Hawks, both club records for a defenseman&hellip;Bill Watson has announced his retirement. Watson, the Hawks&rsquo; fourth-round pick in 1982, won the Hobey Baker Award in 1985 as the top U.S. college player while at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Watson, 25, informed the Hawks of his plans in mid-July. He will be returning to school at UMD, where he will help out with the hockey team and scout for the Hawks&hellip;Center Bill Gardner has left the Hawks&rsquo; organization to play in Austria. Gardner&rsquo;s contract with the Hawks expired after last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02971/5807750-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="564" height="1061"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Secord is back In Chicago, where he played seven years.</figcaption></div><h2>LEAFS</h2>The Leafs received a scare when first-round pick Rob Pearson went down with a dislocated right knee during the Canadian national junior team evaluation camp in Kitchener, Ont., Aug 15. Fortunately, the knee went back into place shortly after and he was skating two days later. The Leafs used their second pick (12th overall) to take the Belleville Bulls&rsquo; right winger at the entry draft in June&hellip;Acting general manager Floyd Smith was expected to meet with agents representing defenseman Al laffate, right winger Gary Leeman, center Ed Olczyk and goalie Allan Bester, all of whom are entering the option year of their contracts. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who we&rsquo;re supposed to deal with any more, but I&rsquo;m not going to worry about it,&rdquo; said Bester. &ldquo;Things will work out.&rdquo; &#9632;

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YZERMAN CONTRACT TALKS GOING SLOWLY

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01802/5807929-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="486" height="622"></div>In his first two months as general manager of the New York Rangers, Neil Smith was called a wimp, marionette and incompetent; not to mention a colorless successor to Phil Esposito.That&rsquo;s the bad news. The good news is, after all those insults, the 35-year-old Smith now has nowhere to go but up.As for the putdowns&mdash;Smith has broken all unofficial records for taking bull before he&rsquo;s even started a season&mdash;he has no problem dealing with them.&ldquo;If anybody perceives a niceness on my part as a weakness,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;they are confusing two issues. If you want to say I&rsquo;m low key, then say it because I&rsquo;m proud of it. I can name many low key general managers who&rsquo;ve been successful. On the other hand, I can counter that with more aggressive people who&rsquo;ve been successful, like Glen Sather. When all is said and done, you are what you are.&rdquo;Smith is infinitely more insightful and self-confident than many realize. Still, he pales as a dominant personality when compared with the flamboyant Esposito.&ldquo;My feeling about Phil,&rdquo; said Smith, &ldquo;is that, above all, he was an honest person. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a phony bone in his body. Phil was his own man and I might not be the great news copy or as flamboyant or as outgoing as Phil. Neil Smith is jus a guy who happened to get Esposito&rsquo;s job.&rdquo;Esposito&rsquo;s nickname was Trader Phil. It may turn out that Smith&rsquo;s sobriquet will be No-Trader Neil.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be a big trader,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My philosophy is that to depend on other people to make mistakes would be a mistake of my own. For example, if I make a trade with you, then you&rsquo;re depending on my making a mistake in the evaluation of talent and I&rsquo;m depending on your making a mistake. For me to depend on that kind of thinking to build my hockey club would be a mistake. Nobody will be calling me Trader Neil.&rdquo;But they have been calling him Puppet Neil. The whispers began at Smith&rsquo;s introduction to the New York media in July. He was introduced by Ranger boss Jack Diller, the man who spent what seemed like an eternity finding a new general manager. Diller proceeded fo upstage Smith and the unfortunate scene inevitably suggested Smith would be a marionette manipulated by Diller.&ldquo;I know that (manipulation) talk has come up,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;Obviously, I can&rsquo;t stop that kind of stuff from being written. Jack Diller couldn&rsquo;t have been better to me in the whole process, right from the start. He interviewed me and I interviewed him. He answered every question I had about this job with the most utopian answers I could ask for. I certainly would not have left a tremendous situation in Detroit (as assistant general manager of the Red Wings) if I were going to be a puppet held by Jack Diller&rsquo;s string.&rdquo;Smith insisted his departure from Detroit was filled with a lot more concern and sadness than people realize, although the impression was he broke all speed records getting to New York.&ldquo;What held me back,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is the Red Wing that&rsquo;s on the cheek of my ass. Leaving the Wings was the most emotional thing I ever went through. &ldquo;Smith makes no bones about Detroit general manager Jimmy Devellano&rsquo;s influence on his thinking.&ldquo;I was connected with Jimmy D for 10 years. What rubbed off on me was his never-say-die spirit. He&rsquo;d never sleep if he could help his team. He also demonstrated to me the importance of the entry draft; how the future of the organization revolves around the entry draft. And how to patch until the entry draft bears fruit.&rdquo;Smith has spent enough time in the New York area&mdash;he played two seasons in the Islanders&rsquo; system and was a scout for the team from 1980 to 1982&mdash;to appreciate the Ranger-Islander rivalry. In fact, some Blueshirt followers aren&rsquo;t pleased with the fact the Rangers selected a man who still wears a diamond-studded Islanders&rsquo; Stanley Cup ring.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to take it off,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;because that would be like putting my pride in the drawer. I&rsquo;m going to keep on wearing it because it symbolizes winning and that&rsquo;s what my whole job is going to be about.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll notice that I&rsquo;m also wearing a (Adirondack Red Wing) Calder Cup ring. What I&rsquo;ve been able to accomplish with them and the Islanders is my pride.&rdquo;As proud as Smith may be, he also is singularly inexperienced as an NHL general manager. Even before he was officially named to his Ranger job, Smith was drawn and quartered by a New York hockey writer who urged the Rangers to select a more experienced man, such as Scotty Bowman.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if I said I wasn&rsquo;t nervous when they (the Rangers) were doing the choosing because the search was long and a lot of names came up. But when I inevitably became the chosen one it made me even more confident going into this situation.&ldquo;Hey, these guys have researched more extensively than people thought they should have. After researching and evaluating over and over they still came up with me. They looked at Herb Brooks. They looked at Scotty Bowman and whoever else they looked at, they still came back with me. That tells me they had tremendous courage in their convictions and a great amount of confidence in me.&rdquo;As the new Ranger boss, he quickly placed an International League farm team in Flint, Mich., and named Roger Neilson as the Blueshirts&rsquo; coach.How far Smith goes remains a moot point and will continue to be questionable for some time to come. But this much is certain: he&rsquo;s going to continue to be razzed as an inexperienced noname.That doesn&rsquo;t bother Smith. He likes where he&rsquo;s at and knows how he got there.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t call it luck,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but rather awfully good timing.&rdquo; &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

RANGERS’ YOUNG GM ANSWERS CRITICS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011291/5807282-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="565" height="652"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce McNall</figcaption></div>The next issue of The Hockey News marks a return to our weekly publishing schedule. It will be cover-dated Sept. 15 and coming your way in two weeks.In it, we&rsquo;ll take a team-by-team look at National Hockey League training camp rosters for the opening of the 1989-90 season.Specifically, we&rsquo;ll investigate why professional hockey is reaching the crossroads and how the future of the game is inexorably linked to decisions that will be made in the near future.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021053/5807275-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="562" height="645"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Ziegler</figcaption></div>The leadership of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and NHL expansion are two issues which, when resolved, will have impact for many years to come.And we&rsquo;ll examine an apparent air of militancy being exhibited by both players and owners.Find out how the actions of power brokers John Ziegler, Alan Eagleson and Bruce McNall, to name only a few, will effect the future of the NHL. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NEXT ISSUE

The retirement of Bob Gainey from the NHL leaves a void much larger than his individual statistics would indicate.Gainey, much like Bobby Orr, revolutionized his position. He demonstrated the usefulness of a defensive-minded forward. Gainey not only won four consecutive Seike Trophies as the league&rsquo;s top defensive forward, he virtually forced the NHL to create the award as a way of recognizing his contributions and achievements.But perhaps more importantly, what set Gainey apart was his quiet dignity as a sportsman and competitor. The Montreal Canadiens always recognized Gainey&rsquo;s value to the team. I hope the Hall of Fame voters recognize his value to the game.John Attey&nbsp;Seattle, Wash.<h2>GAINEY TOPS</h2>Just as Wayne Gretzky is renowned for setting new standards offensively, Bob Gainey will be long remembered as the prototypical defensive forward of the 1970s and 80s.Despite limited offensive skills, Gainey could control the tempo of the game. In his prime, he was called the best player in the world by Soviet coach Anatoli Tarasov. In his book. The Game, former teammate Ken Dryden calls him &ldquo;the player&rsquo;s player. If I were a forward, I would want to be Bob Gainey.&rdquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t we all?Brian Hunsberger&nbsp;Waterloo, Ont.<h2>PLAY BALL</h2>The only way the NHL can become a first-class league in the United States is if baseball changes its rules.Just think: First they can restrict who can watch games on television to about 10 per cent of the country; then, they can tell the umpires they don&rsquo;t have to call all strikes as strikes, all balls as balls and all outs as outs. They can just say the unwritten rule is they must call the same number of outs against each team to keep it fair.Then they could allow pitchers to be called into the game to intentionally hit the best hitter on the other team or send a pinch-hitter to the plate to punch the pitcher.And finally, they could change the league structure. All but the last-place team in each division could make the playoffs. They would still still have 162 regular-season games but the real season would begin in October and end in December.Stan Pearson&nbsp;St. Louis, Mo.<h2>BAD SHOT</h2>I felt Eric Duhatschek&rsquo;s one-liner which made fun of former Washington Capital Lou Franceschetti was uncalled for and unnecessary (THN, August).It certainly takes no rocket scientist to see Franceschetti is no Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux or Sergei Makarov. But in terms of character, Franceschetti keeps up with the top talents in the league.If the truth be known, the Capitals are probably richer for picking up a middle-round draft pick. But I&rsquo;m not so sure they&rsquo;re not poorer in many other ways.Lou Franceschetti is no Dennis Maruk. Mike Gartner, Rod Langway or Scott Stevens, but he&rsquo;s also no Bengt Gustafsson or Bobby Carpenter&mdash;two players the Capitals were poorer for having.Warren Arbogast&nbsp;Charlottesville, Va.<h2>TONY&rsquo;S GREAT</h2>As a longtime fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, I must disagree with Jay Greenberg&rsquo;s recent criticism of the way general manager Tony Esposito is running the team. Yes, he has traded away young talent and prospects in an effort to win now.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011449/5807337-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="567" height="1061"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Esposito&rsquo;s moves impressed one THN reader.</figcaption></div>Why not? Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey are teammates now, not in 1994. Having two world-class players together is a golden opportunity not to be missed. As the people in Edmonton have learned, they won&rsquo;t be together forever.The Penguins are very close to making a legitimate run at the Stanley Cup. Last year&rsquo;s playoff loss to the Philadelphia Flyers should prove to be an invaluable learning experience.I sat through a 38-point season in 1983-84. This is the future the Penguins have been building for and I think Esposito should go for it.Dave Steinberg&nbsp;Pittsburgh. Pa.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News,&rsquo;85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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GAINEY RETIREMENT LEAVES BIG VOID

<div class="byline">BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021174/5807375-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="528" height="620"></div>Scratch Hall-of-Fame netminder Ken Dryden as a possible successor to Alan Eagleson as executive director of the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association. Asked if he had any interest in the position, which may be available in the near future, Dryden emphatically replied: &ldquo;No.&rdquo; Dryden&rsquo;s name continually pops up because of his hockey background and law degree. &ldquo;I had the best job in hockey,&rdquo; the former Montreal Canadien netminder said. &ldquo;I kind of enjoy the things I&rsquo;m doing now.&rdquo;Dryden&rsquo;s current projects include putting the finishing touches on his book. Home Game, which will be released in November. He&rsquo;s also deeply involved in a video version of the book with six one-hour shows to run on the CBC network in prime time in January. Home Game is the follow-up to his 1983 effort. The Game, which set new standards by which to judge sports books in Canada. There&rsquo;s no reason to believe this one won&rsquo;t be a bestseller, too.Michigan-based lawyer and player agent Bob Goodenow is another touted by some as a potential NHLPA boss&hellip; Of course, the NHLPA may opt to go for dual leadership: hire a hockey unknown who&rsquo;s strong in labor law and pair him with an ex-player who knows his way around the sport&hellip;Edmonton lawyer/agent Rich Winter, one of three insurgents trying to overthrow Eagleson, reiterated that neither he nor L.A. agent Ron Salcer or U. S. labor lawyer Ed Garvey are interested in filling the position. &ldquo;I would imagine we&rsquo;ll have some input on the decision regarding a replacement but none of us want the job or are the right people for it,&rdquo; Winter said&hellip; Winter is now acting as the agent for Philadelphia Flyer netminder Ron Hextall. Hextall&rsquo;s former agent? None other than Eagleson&hellip;Garvey on the anti-Eagleson movement: &ldquo;I heard Alan say we put him through hell. Well, to paraphrase Harry Truman, Alan just heard the truth and thought it was hell.&rdquo;When Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard offered Eagleson the general manager&rsquo;s job with the NHL team, many rejected the notion out of hand. Don&rsquo;t be so quick to discount Eagleson joining the Leafs. But if he does, it wouldn&rsquo;t be as GM. The Eagle is said to have his eye on the president&rsquo;s title, which would become available after either a corporate takeover or declining health by Ballard&hellip;Eagleson went on a Toronto radio station with former col-league-turned-arch-enemy Bill Watters to discuss the NHLPA situation. Maybe peace in the Mideast is possible after all&hellip;New Leaf coach Doug Carpenter is undoubtedly a big improvement over George Armstrong, but those familiar with him are watching to see if he&rsquo;s changed his act since his days with the New Jersey Devils. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good enough coach,&rdquo; says one observer in Jersey, &ldquo;but his people skills are almost non-existent. He was perceived by the (Devil) players as a guy who never met a mirror he didn&rsquo;t like and that wore on them.&rdquo;Sources within USA Hockey suggest executive director Bob Johnson is getting his contract rewritten and re-defined to more clearly reflect what he actually does. A coaching clause is said to be a part of it, opening the door perhaps for the Badger to coach the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, but so is a no-chasing-every-NHL-job edict. USA Hockey officials were more than a little unhappy with Badger&rsquo;s public pursuits of NHL jobs. He was, according to one source within USA Hockey, in his Colorado Springs office only once in a 60-day period&hellip;NHL scouts attending Canada&rsquo;s national junior team evaluation camp in Kitchener in August came back with rave reviews for two prodigies. Peterborough&rsquo;s Mike Ricci. No. 1-rated prospect for the 1990 draft, was &ldquo;almost unstoppable the first three days of the camp.&rdquo; a scout reported. Toronto native Eric Lindros, the 16-year-old boy-man (6-foot-4, 215 pounds), was touted by more than one scout as &ldquo;physically ready to step in and play on any NHL team this season..&rdquo; He&rsquo;s draft-eligible in 1991. The caution is that he&rsquo;s not an offensive whiz in the same superstar class as Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux. He does, however, compare favorably to Mark Messier.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03765/5807368-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1776" height="891"></div> &#9632;

f0003-02

KEN DRYDEN HAS NO INTEREST IN NHLPA

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Herb Brooks is miffed over the suggestion he was only &ldquo;considered&rdquo; for the New York Rangers&rsquo; GM job. According to Brooks, Ranger president Jack Diller faxed him a 14-page contract two days before Neil Smith was hired. &ldquo;I still have the contract on my desk,&rdquo; adds Brooks. &ldquo;They interviewed me four times for the job and then they gave me only an hour to make a decision on whether or not I wanted the job after sending me the contract. I needed more time than that.&rdquo;&hellip;Scott Bowman on the Rangers&rsquo; shortcomings: &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a new guy (Smith) coming in, all the scouts have been re-signed for a year and there aren&rsquo;t many he would want to keep. Why should the guy be saddled with putting the axe to them now?&rdquo;&hellip; Smith managed to sandwich his honeymoon between his massive front-office reshuffle and a Madison Square Garden corporate meeting. &ldquo;The honeymoon was only two days,&rdquo; Smith confesses, &ldquo;but it was the best two days of my life.&rdquo;&hellip;Only hours before Roger Neilson was named Ranger coach, John Ferguson appeared on New York radio suggesting that Neilson was not the best choice. Fergie was rooting for Dan Maloney.<h2>NO EXPANSION</h2>A little-mentioned reason why NHL governors will reject expansion in December is the league&rsquo;s collective bargaining agreement with the players&rsquo; union, which has two years to go. Some owners figure to take the position that expansion should wait until a new CBA is hammered out. But if expansion is okayed for 1991-92, there&rsquo;s always a possibility the union will want some cut of the expansion windfall&hellip;A San Jose-San Francisco battle is shaping up over which city is most qualified for an expansion club. San Jose hockey leader James Hager ridicules Frisco&rsquo;s inability to put arena plans in place while San Jose is well ahead with a rink design completed. &ldquo;If you have lived in the Bay Area as long as I have,&rdquo; says Hager, &ldquo;you know that San Francisco has talked about building an arena for the last 20 to 25 years.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011354/5807406-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="725" height="1475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Philadelphia Flyer coach Paul Holmgren, insiders fear, will suffer burnout.</figcaption></div><h2>BURNOUT COMING?</h2>The feeling among some Philadelphia insiders is that John Paddock will be coaching the Flyers within two years. They fear Paul Holmgren will suffer a Terry O&rsquo;Reilly-type burnout.&hellip;A sleeper among 1989-90 hockey books will be San Franciscan David Gowdey&rsquo;s&nbsp;Riding On The Roar Of The Crowd (Macmillan of Canada), an anthology of hockey writing as well as other goodies. One of the best excerpts comes from ex-Leaf Jim Dorey: &ldquo;If you work in an office you never tell people personal things that will let them know you. We all want to, but we&rsquo;re afraid someone might laugh or walk away, so we kept it inside. But once you get on the ice, things happen so fast you can&rsquo;t keep anything inside. You don&rsquo;t have time to present a facade. A man can find out what he&rsquo;s got inside him, whether he&rsquo;s a bad guy, a coward, a good guy, whatever. Hockey gives a guy a chance to be himself.&rdquo; Marshall McLuhan, Bruce Kidd and Don Cherry are others who appear in Gowdey&rsquo;s work.<h2>GRETZKY BOOK</h2>Wayne Gretzky has designated Sports Illustrated&rsquo;s&nbsp;Rick Reilly to author his autobiography, which supposedly will play down the hockey angle&hellip;Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall is so intoxicated with his Gretzky bonanza he&rsquo;s now chasing down the possibility of buying either a baseball, football or basketball franchise. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d do what he did in hockey,&rdquo; says one well-placed source, &ldquo;and that is buy a superstar and build around him. &ldquo;&hellip;Some members of the Edmonton media have accused player agent Rich Winter of being &ldquo;confrontational&rdquo; in his handling of the Grant Fuhr and Esa Tikkanen negotiations with the Oilers. Fuhr&rsquo;s retirement and Tikkanen&rsquo;s move to free agency angered many Edmontonians and as a result, Winter has become a target. Winter counters the dispute is as much Glen Sather&rsquo;s fault. He adds one of his other clients is Islander David Volek and he has had no confrontations with Isles&rsquo; GM Bill Torrey. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have that (confrontational) relationship with him and I don&rsquo;t have it in my show business or other negotiations,&rdquo; adds Winter. &ldquo;I can prove in the Tikkanen and Fuhr cases that the confrontation comes from the Oilers at least as much as from me.&rdquo;<h2>AHL IN ALBANY?</h2>If Albany gets the American League franchise it dearly covets, the nearby Adirondack (Glens Falls) Red Wings will receive an indemnity fee for territorial rights. Albany is within a 50-mile radius of Glens Falls. One report places the figure at $200,000 per year for 10 years. Although the New York Rangers have placed their top minor-league affiliate in Flint of the International League, it&rsquo;s conceivable they could relocate to Albany for 1990-91, when a new 15,000-seat rink will be ready. &#9632;

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BROOKS WAS FAXED GM CONTRACT BY RANGERS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>NHL on-ice officials Don Koharski and Wayne Bonney were fined $ 1,000 each Aug. 18 and assigned to the minors for two weeks for their curfew violation during last season&rsquo;s playoffs.NHL vice president of hockey operations Jim Gregory met with both before deciding on the fine and demotion&mdash;the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and its Officials&rsquo; Association.The two will have to work seven games each in either the American or International Leagues.Koharski, a referee, and Bonney, a linesman, broke curfew May 10, the night before game six of the Wales Conference final between the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers at the Spectrum.The investigation was sparked May 12, when a radio talk show caller said he saw Koharski in a Philadelphia bar after the league&rsquo;s 11 p.m. curfew for officials. Flyer general manager Bob Clarke heard the show and, upon further investigation, made a complaint to the league.Koharski officiated the game&mdash;a 4-2 win by the Canadiens to end the series&mdash;and Bonney was a backup official. Koharski was one of five referees scheduled to officiate the final between the Canadiens and Calgary Flames but was dropped after the complaint.NHL Officials&rsquo; Association president Terry Gregson said the punishment was fair.&ldquo;I think Don and Wayne realize they have to pay for what happened,&rdquo; said Gregson, an NHL referee.Koharski and Bonney were not available for comment.<h2>BALLARD BATTLE</h2>Bill Ballard and business partner Michael Cohl have filed a $70-million lawsuit against Ballard&rsquo;s father, Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard.The two are challenging the June transfer of shares in the holding company Harold E. Ballard Ltd., that cemented Harold Ballard&rsquo;s ownership in the Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens.Ballard purchased 33.3 per cent of HEB Ltd. for $25 million from his other son Harold Jr. on June 20. That gave the elder Ballard 66.6 per cent ownership in the company, which owns 80.3 per cent of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. Bill owns the remaining 33.3 per cent.The moves gave Harold Ballard a total of 58.3 percent interest in MLG, while Bill owns 26.5 per cent. The other 19.7 percent is owned by public shares. HEB votes on all Gardens&rsquo; affairs in one block.Bill Ballard and Cohl, owners of Concert Productions International, filed the suit in Ontario Supreme Court Aug. 2. They claim they had an option, which expired June 30, to buy Harold Jr.&rsquo;s shares for $20 million. Had they been able to buy the shares, they would have gained majority control (67 per cent) of HEB Ltd. and the Gardens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011535/5807437-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="573" height="893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Mellanby&rsquo;s left arm was damaged by a beer bottle.</figcaption></div>Harold Jr., meanwhile, was released on $1,000 bail and charged with breaking and entering, possession of stolen property over $ 1,000, and assault with intent to resist arrest after his father reported a break-in at his Etobicoke home Aug. 18. Harold Jr. is accused of removing about $18,000 in furniture and Maple Leaf memorabilia from the home. He was scheduled to appear in Toronto provincial court Aug. 24 to set a trial date.<h2>MELLANBY OUT</h2>Philadelphia Flyer right winger Scott Mellanby will be out of the lineup for the first two or three months of the season after undergoing surgery Aug. 20 to repair a severed nerve and tendon damage in his left forearm.Mellanby received the injury during an altercation at the Muskoka Sands Hotel in Muskoka, Ont., Aug. 19. A friend of Mellanby&rsquo;s became involved in an altercation with two other patrons at the hotel&rsquo;s bar. Mellanby came to his friend&rsquo;s aid and was slashed with a broken beer bottle.Ontario Provincial Police charged Frank Chapple of Missisauga, Ont., with assault causing bodily harm and sent out a warrant for his arrest Aug. 20. No other charges were laid.Mellanby is expected to be in a cast for a month and will then require eight to 12 weeks of rehabilitation.&ldquo;Scott is a responsible individual who saw a friend in trouble and felt he had to help,&rdquo; said Flyer general manager Bob Clarke. &ldquo;All indications from the doctors are that the injury will have no effect on Scott&rsquo;s ability to resume his playing career following rehabilitation.&rdquo;Mellanby, who posted 21-29-50 totals last season, refused comment on the incident.<h2>JUNIOR CAMPS</h2>The Canadian and U.S. national junior teams have taken their first steps toward the 1990 World Junior Championships, to be held Dec. 26 to Jan. 4 in Helsinki, Finland.The Canadians invited 40 hopefuls to their evaluation camp Aug. 13 to 20 in Kitchener, Ont. Thirty-five will be invited to another evaluation camp Dec. 10 to 17 in either Kitchener or Ottawa before the final cuts are made. Eighteen of the invitees will make the squad and two spots will be left open for late additions.Head coach of this year&rsquo;s Canadian junior entry is pre-Olympic National Team assistant Guy Charron. He&rsquo;ll be assisted by Peterborough Petes&rsquo; head coach Dick Todd and Perry Pearn, head coach of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.The United States national junior camp was held Aug. 20 to 27 in Lake Placid and attracted 28 players. For the second straight season, this year&rsquo;s camp featured the Friendship Series, a four-game set against junior team candidates from the Soviet Union.<h2>COURT NEWS</h2>A teenage player who hit an opponent over the head with his stick was placed on probation for six months and ordered to do 30 hours of community work in Samia (Ont.) provincial court Aug. 11.The player, who can&rsquo;t be identified because of the Canadian Young Offenders&rsquo; Act, was sentenced by Judge Louis Eddy. The player is now 18 years old but was 17 at the time of the incident. Eddy found the player guilty of assault with a weapon at a trial in June.The player, a defenseman for the Mooretown Flags of the Great Lakes Junior C Hockey League, hit Louis Fehr, 19, of the Petrolia Jets on the helmet during a stoppage in play in a game played Nov. 12, 1988 at the Moore Sports Complex in Mooretown. Court was told the victim received a concussion and a cut over his eye.<h2>CHARGES DROPPED</h2>Former Indianapolis Ice (International League) right winger Brent Sapergia received some good news June 8, when charges of disorderly conduct against him and teammate Don Herczeg, 24, were dropped in an Indianapolis court. Sapergia and Herczeg were arrested Feb. 12 after an incident at an Indianapolis apartment building.<h2>PLAYER DIES</h2>Mike Morrison, a graduate of the Clarkson Golden Knights, was killed July 27 when he fell as scaffolding collapsed on a building he was painting near his Bellingham, Mass., home. He was 24. &#9632;

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OFFICIALS FINED, DEMOTED FOR VIOLATING CURFEW IN STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011379/5807468-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leafs&rsquo; owner Harold Ballard and ex-GM Gord Stellick parted company Aug. 11, starting a chain reaction of moves in the Toronto front office. (Photo by stove somerville)</figcaption></div>GordStellick, like all good Toronto Maple Leaf fans, dreamed of the day the beleaguered National Hockey League franchise would roll merrily along the road to respectability.Stellick is now the Leafs&rsquo; ex-general manager. He escaped the Nightmare on Carlton Street with his brains and dignity intact, and he has a message to pass along.&ldquo;As long as Mr. (Harold) Ballard is there, it&rsquo;ll never happen,&rdquo; Stellick said, after becoming the assistant GM of the New York Rangers.In the space of one week, the confounding Leaf owner sat in his Maple Leaf Gardens executive suite and listened to, or had a meddling hand in, a staggering litany of misadventures.It began with the GM tendering his resignation. Then two replacements rejected the job, the head coach quit while being fired, the chief scout offered to become interim GM, and a new coach agreed to terms while still under contract to another organization. Finally, criminal charges were pressed against the owner&rsquo;s youngest son, who is alleged to have broken into his father&rsquo;s house.(For more on activity in the Leaf camp, see page 18.)The week, the 4,475th in the bizarre life of the 86-year-old Harold Ballard, was obviously eventful. But it wasn&rsquo;t shocking. Nor was it unique. Not in Toronto. Actually, it was more a microcosm, though perhaps a wee bit busier than usual, of the 17 years Ballard has owned the Maple Leafs.All of this unsavory business arrived, too, just weeks after Ballard had humiliated Stellick by refusing to allow him to announce the team&rsquo;s draft picks, sentenced a reluctant coach (George Armstrong) to another two seasons behind the bench without telling him, headed off an unfriendly corporate takeover of his empire by his eldest son, then testified in court that same son punched his girlfriend.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lived through it for a while now,&rdquo; said one Leaf player. &ldquo;You pick up the paper every day and you never know what to expect. But after a while you almost become immune to it. Nothing surprises you.&rdquo;Sometimes, it seems Ballard is more concerned with winning battles with his brood and gaining headlines, than winning games with his hockey team. His record with the former is far more impressive than the latter. And he&rsquo;s supposedly not as interested in his hockey team as before.In the 17 years Ballard has been majority owner, the Leafs have missed the playoffs five times, advanced beyond the opening round only three times, have been better than .500 just five times, have had a dozen coaches, five GMs, and a collective .439 win percentage (just. 385 in the past decade). Other teams have struggled, of course, but there remains no apparent hope for a turnaround with the Leafs, whose constants the past two decades have been losing, turmoil, and Ballard, all of which might actually be redundant.Few men, too, seem to exult so in undermining those they&rsquo;ve hired, of playing one man against the other, of flexing control, and of seemingly being so hell-bent for power and publicity that winning becomes secondary. Remember, he once fired Roger Neilson as coach, then begged him to return two days later&hellip;with a bag over his head.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s weird,&rdquo; said a Leaf player. &ldquo;We (players) get treated so well, but when it comes to putting together a winning team, well, it just doesn&rsquo;t happen. Nothing goes right.&rdquo;Several years ago Ballard allowed the late Punch Imlach to dismantle the last Leaf team to have a winning record, then began to fight with Imlach himself, halting any reconstruction. A few years later, former coach Dan Maloney appeared headed in the right direction, but Ballard refused to give him a two-year contract. Maloney left, and the Leafs again floundered.It has been suggested that one of the greatest myths of our time is that no one wants to win more than Ballard. If it isn&rsquo;t a myth, then he&rsquo;s an utter incompetent.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve got the money, you can buy the joint,&rdquo; thundered Ballard, responding to the notion that the franchise is in less than capable hands. It&rsquo;s not a new retort. Once, during a Maple Leaf Gardens annual meeting, he offered the same answer to a shareholder who lamented the sorry lot of the Leafs, but added, &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t have the money, then shut up.&rdquo; A few minutes later, shareholders, including the one just maligned, lined up for autographs. Such is the incongruity of the Ballard persona, his ability to alternately anger and charm.However, there isn&rsquo;t anything incongruous about the operation of his hockey club. It&rsquo;s abysmal. Ballard runs it on a shoestring budget, hiring people who otherwise wouldn&rsquo;t have positions of prominence in the hockey business, limits their power, pays them inferior wages, and forever tests their loyalty and resolve. In failing health and in advanced years, it seems Ballard&rsquo;s most consuming challenge the past decade has been to remind one and all of his power. Obedience, not competence, is preferred. Not since Imlach, in fact, has Ballard surrounded himself with a general manager experienced, respected and strong enough of character to be considered a threat. Stellick evolved into that role and interim GM Floyd Smith might, too.In the operation of the team, Ballard keeps his scouting staff to a bare minimum, has never employed three coaches (until this coming season, thanks to Stellick), and has a skeleton staff in the front office. Once considered a grand meddler, Ballard has limited his involvement to the appointment of the head coach (Armstrong), which is why Stellick is gone and the search for a replacement has been fruitless. As Gerry McNamara, himself a former Leaf GM, put it, &ldquo;He (Ballard) will tell (the GM) he has got carte blanche, that he&rsquo;s running the entire show, all that. But you better accept that, in the end, he&rsquo;s going to hire the coach, no matter what he says.&rdquo;Ballard, though, is hardly aware of what&rsquo;s happening in the hockey world. Part of the reason why he hires within, is because he knows few outside.The demise of the franchise on the ice is only a reflection of the lack of order off it, of course. As winger Dave (Tiger) Williams suggested once, the fish smells from the head down. It&rsquo;s because of Ballard&rsquo;s frugality with staff, and his instence on hiring and promoting within, that the team has been stagnant over the years.He simply doesn&rsquo;t hire enough good people, then give them the power and space to do their job. Why? It&rsquo;s inexplicable, except that Ballard covets space in the press with the same regard he reserves for money and power. Be it player, coach, or manager, if they supplant Ballard from the front page, their employment is terminated.Stellick had more success than most in at least attempting to bring the team out of the dark ages. Ultimately, though, lunacy always returns. Stellick became too popular. He stole headlines and soon became the favorite target of the owner. So he quit before Ballard could totally ravage his reputation, and accepted the position with the Rangers. It was during the press conference in New York that he lamented not realizing his goal in Toronto of turning around the team.&ldquo;As long as Mr. Ballard is there it&rsquo;ll never happen,&rdquo; Stellicksaid. &ldquo;If he could only understand what&rsquo;s going on with the players and the staff, the team could turn it around one day, if&hellip;&rdquo;Strangely enough, there are qualified, talented hockey people who would gladly work for the Leafs, and some who already do, despite the turmoil, losing, and Ballard.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like in high school,&rdquo; Stellick said of the mysterious allure. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s this best-looking girl, you know she&rsquo;s going to dump you after two weeks, but you&rsquo;ve just got to go for it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

TURMOIL IN TORONTO

<div class="byline">JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011465/5807499-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="465" height="628"></div>So long sucker.No, not you, dear reader. You obviously must know and care a great deal for this sport, or else you wouldn&rsquo;t buy this publication. Thus, you are not easy to fool.Granted, we&rsquo;re talking about a captive audience here, chained to The Hockey News by a devotion to a great game, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean you don&rsquo;t have fine taste and good sense. In other words, I give you considerably more credit than I ever did George Maguire. You know your stuff, and if I didn&rsquo;t, I wouldn&rsquo;t have lasted any longer than Andre Savard.No, the dupe I am referring to is Bob McKenzie, editor-in-chief of The Hockey News, and a good friend. At least he was a good friend until he read this, my last column for THN.I wondered about how to approach this. There were obviously a few different ways to go. No question, this is a rare and glorious opportunity to do what Terry Harper always did: Hit and run. You know, take some last shots, get on my high horse, and ride off into the sunset.Or maybe the easier and smarter thing to do would be to write my final column on the enigma that is Hannu Jaarvenoaa and then go gently into the night. Or perhaps support my argument that Tim Trimper could have been a great one had eight teams handled him differently. And then sit back and wait for my last paycheck.But the compulsive truth-teller in me won&rsquo;t allow that. And sorry, Bob, if this embarrasses you but these, the reflective hours between jobs, have turned into a private screening of This is Your Life, Jay Greenberg. All the people who had so much of an influence on my career&mdash;Robin Burns, Harvey Bennett, Bo Berglund&mdash;flash before my eyes. And the guilt is getting to me.So I must confess. All these years, McKenzie, you paid me for something I would have done for free. Gladly.Boor that I am, I once marched McKenzie around my house showing him all the things that I had purchased with my THN money. He thought I was showing off, but actually I was just throwing him off. I would have gladly sacrificed my Brian O&rsquo;Neill model VCR (for industrial-strength use), my Rudy Poeschek cuckoo clock, or my Ray-Neufeld-as-Venus-de-Milo stone statuette just for the privilege of reaching the readers every week. Yep, I even would have thrown in my Doug Crossman Special Edition La-Z-Boy rocker. All my earthly possessions&mdash;even the dog that I once sicked on McKenzie in a vain attempt to get a raise&mdash;I would have given up if I could keep my column in The Hockey News. It meant that much to me.It gave me a voice. And it gave me a face. No cracks, please, about the face. I was blessed at birth with a nose for news.Actually, after being sentenced to 14 years of my presence, the Philadelphia Flyers are undoubtedly well tired of looking at me. Every once in a while somebody on another team would recognize me because I was in The Hockey News. When violence did not result, this was a good thing for me.I may be exaggerating the importance of this familiarity because hockey players, in general, are the most approachable of the professional athletes. And I may even be exaggerating how interesting this column is, too, because after all, I&rsquo;m the one who is saying goodbye here, not you. It&rsquo;s entirely likely that you could care less who fills this space from now on. But before I go, I do want to make it clear that I always cared how I did.Though my mail sometimes complained that I was cruel to make fun, that wasn&rsquo;t really what I was trying to do at all. The purpose was to have fun. I sincerely believe that is what most of us want from sports and thankfully, what most of us still get.Alas, as the salaries, ticket prices, and monthly cable fees increase, so do the demands and the tendency to take this all far too seriously. Re-sponsibilty demands that the columnist deal with the critical problems of the day&mdash;drugs, violence, the collective bargaining agreement, George Armstrong taking out his teeth on national TV&mdash;and I took my turn at bat when I felt I had some perspective to offer.Deep down, however, I always wished that a column here and there on the curvature of Ron Hextall&rsquo;s stick would satisfy my social responsiblity. The rest of the time I wanted to capture some drama, when there was some. And have a few laughs because there was always plenty of those.This was an excellent forum, because I&rsquo;ve never had to explain to you who Jim Nill is. You know. We shared the knowledge that hockey is, despite occasional lapses of humanity, a great game played by great athletes and essentially good people. The bad news for them&mdash;see, I tricked you into reading this far because you were so anxious to see just how far away I was going&mdash;is that they are not yet rid of me. One of the best parts of my new job at Sports Illustrated is that I still get to write about hockey and hang around hockey people.The best deal of all, however, belongs to you. Despite all previous indications of my indispensability, it turns out that I am not that way at all. Egads, who ever would have thought: The Hockey News will continue without me.It will thrive, too, because McKenzie, as much money as he threw down the rathole at me, has steadily upgraded this paper to the point where it is clearly the most professionally done of its type.He made it clear this was no longer just a place where tired beat guys looking for some extra easy bucks could dump their carbons. Standards were created. Features on Mike Busniuk were no longer acceptable. Later, came a blessed event&mdash;the birth of Inside HOCKEY. Thanks to the energy and good judgment of IH managing editor Steve Dryden, it reads far above a two-year-old level.I have taken the risk of being considered pretentious for writing a goodbye column. On the contrary, I don&rsquo;t expect you to miss me at all. I just had to let you know that I&rsquo;m going to miss you. &#9632;

f0008-01

GOODBYE, THN; PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW

<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Negotiations between Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s agent, Tom Reich, and Carmen Policy, a DeBartolo Corp, attorney, still have not produced a new contract for Lemieux. The deal, when completed, is expected to pay Lemieux about $10 million over five years. &hellip;Coach Gene Ubriaco signed a two-year contract that runs through the 1990-91 season. &ldquo;He deserved it,&rdquo; general manager Tony Esposito said. &ldquo;He came into a tough situation last year and he produced.&rdquo;&hellip;Les Binkley, a former Penguin goalie, joined the team as a scout. He will work in the Ontario and Quebec leagues and U.S. colleges&hellip;John Welday, 30, is the Penguins&rsquo; new strength and conditioning coach. He served in that capacity at Dartmouth College for the past five years&hellip;Ken Schinkel, who had been with the Penguins since they entered the NHL in 1967, resigned as director of player development and was expected to go to Hartford in a similar capacity.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>When the Capitals train at Karlstad, Sweden, from Sept. 6-13, they will be sharing the ice with center Bengt Gustafsson&rsquo;s new team, Farjestads. Gustafsson, who departed amicably after his two-year contract expired, has been involved in the arrangements for Washington&rsquo;s practices. The Capitals will play Farjestads in an exhibition Sept. 12 and also will face Brynas at Gavle Sept. 13&hellip;Chimik, the Soviet team that will play at the Capital Centre Dec. 12, made a preliminary visit Aug. 16. Chimik, which represents the Soviet chemical industry, is on a goodwill tour. The team worked out at Mount Vernon Aug. 15.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Flyers&rsquo; left winger Glen Seab-rooke will be out of action for at least the first two months of the season because of shoulder surgery which was set for Aug. 18. Seabrooke, the club&rsquo;s first-round draft selection in 1985, has spent the past two seasons with Hershey of the American League&hellip; It appears the Flyers will begin training camp with nine goaltenders. In addition to NHL vets Ron Hextali, Ken Wregget and Pete Peeters, the Flyers also have highly-regarded rookie Bruce Hoffort, Mark Laforest, Marc D&rsquo;Amour, Darryl Gilmour, Jocelyn Perreault and Dominic Roussel &hellip;The Flyers are trying to negotiate a new contract with veteran defenseman Mark Howe. Although there have been many reports the Los Angeles Kings want Howe, the defenseman wants to finish his career with the Flyers.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Although he never announced it, Neil Smith terminated the services of Phil Esposito&rsquo;s assistant GM, Joe Bucchino, five days before introducing his new staff Aug. 15. On July 17, Smith said, &ldquo;he had no intention of firing Bucchino&rdquo; but said the two had decided mutually after a short trial period, that they were not comfortable working together&hellip;Roger Neilson said his first disappointment upon taking over as the Rangers&rsquo; 24th head coach was to learn Chicago&rsquo;s free-agent defenseman Doug Wilson had decided to remain with the Blackhawks. Neilson also revealed he would have liked to have been able to bring in Detroit assistant coach Colin Campbell as his co-coach. He said he would consider holdover assistant coaches Wayne Cashman and Eddie Giacomin&hellip;Smith said former Hartford scout David McNab was &ldquo;a very serious candidate&rdquo; to join the Ranger scouting staff in the near future.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Newcomers Sylvain Turgeon and Walt Poddubny met the media July 20 at the Meadowlands Arena. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been looking forward to training camp as much as 1 am this one,&rdquo; said Poddubny. &ldquo;I want to thank Lou (Lamoriello, Devils&rsquo; general manager) for having confidence in me. He has one happy hockey player on his hands and I haven&rsquo;t been happy in a long while.&rdquo; Turgeon disputed the notion he&rsquo;s a moody player. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a quiet guy. It&rsquo;s my nature,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some people keep more inside of them and, finally, when they go out on the ice, everything comes out-.&rdquo; &hellip;Lamoriello has an interesting proposal to put forward, should the NHL decide it does want to go ahead with expansion. His plan is to take away two home games from each team and play them in cities considered for expansion. That would give the NHL a reading on season-ticket potential in those cities. But he said they must be regular-season games&mdash;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if an exhibition game gives us a true idea.&rdquo;<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The Isles acquired free-agent goaltender Glenn Healy Aug. 16 as insurance, should either Jeff Hackett or Mark Fitzpatrick show he&rsquo;s not quite ready for the NHL. Healy was 25-19-2 with Los Angeles last year, posting a 4.27 goals-against average. Compensation to the Kings will be a fourth-round draft pick&hellip;Negotiations between two stubborn men, GM Bill Torrey and right winger Alan Kerr, a free agent whose compensation is a first-round pick, appear hopelessly stuck. Torrey guaranteed himself a No. 1 pick as compensation by offering Kerr $165,000 for the 1989-90 season. Kerr, 25, wants $200,000. &ldquo;It appears that the likelihood of the Islanders and Alan reaching an agreement are not very high,&rdquo; said Kerr&rsquo;s agent Herb Pinder. Torrey was unavailable for comment&hellip; The Islanders announced a working agreement with Erie of the East Coast League Aug. 15. Erie will serve as a second farm club for the Isles. Their top club is in Springfield of the American League. &#9632;

LEMIEUX WAITING FOR NEW CONTRACT

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL AND WALT MacPEEK</div>A coach doesn&rsquo;t have to grow red in his face or blue in his language to be colorful. He doesn&rsquo;t have to roar like a little tiger or rhyme like a sweet poet to motivate. Finding the right guy to run a team isn&rsquo;t black and white.And neither is Captain Video.The New York Rangers got their colorful coach Aug. 15 when new general manager Neil Smith introduced Roger Neilson, a well-traveled 55-year-old. The curly-haired Neilson, who signed a three-year contract, showed up for the press conference in a conservative gray suit. He spoke very softly, very coolly.And then the stories sprung to life.There was Vancouver in April, 1982. Neilson became the coach of the Canucks because he went 4-0-1 while Harry Neale served a season-ending five-game suspension. In a playoff game against Chicago, he waved a white towel at the referee in mock surrender. It caught on immediately. Throughout the Canucks&rsquo; improbable ride to the Cup final that spring, Pacific Coliseum became a sea of white.This is a guy who started watching his opponents on video tape before anybody knew what VCR stood for; who used a dog to help his players learn his approach to forechecking; who used a defenseman to stop penalty shots by charging out of the crease and sliding at the shooter; who once ordered the goalie to lay his stick on the ice in front of the net before leaving for a sixth attacker; who, as a baseball coach, used a peeled apple ploy to dupe and pick off unsuspecting baserunners.If there&rsquo;s no rule against it, then Neilson is likely to give it a shot.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011415/5807554-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="711" height="1034"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roger Neilson becomes the New York Rangers&rsquo; eighth coach in the 1980s.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a teacher, developer, innovator with extensive hockey experience,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s tailor-made for our situation.&rdquo;This late in the summer, anybody with the word coach on his resume would&rsquo;ve been. The Rangers&rsquo; training camp opens for physicals Sept. 8. Captain Video had better be running on fast-forward for a while.&ldquo;A month is time enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;d be nice to have more time. Going into training camp I want to know all I can about the players.&rdquo;When Smith first contacted Neilson at his Lakefield, Ont., home in early August, the GM wanted to consider Neilson for a pro scouting job.&ldquo;I told Neil I was only interested in the head-coaching job,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m here beause this is such an exciting challenge. I realize New York isn&rsquo;t exactly known for this, but Neil and the people who run the Garden are taking a patient, long-range view. Neil has put together a good management team and that made it pretty tempting for me.&rdquo;Neilson, who was born in Toronto, actually began his coaching career at the age of 17 with a neighborhood baseball team. His teams, often made up of nine- and 10-year-olds, won 20 championships.Turning to hockey, Neilson coached the Peterborough Petes from 1966-67 to 1975-76 and won the Ontario League championship once. He made his professional coaching debut with the Central League&rsquo;s Dallas Black Hawks in 1976-77. He was named head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1977-78 and that year choreographed a stunning upset of the heavily-favored New York Islanders, a series in which Leafs Dave (Tiger) Williams and Jerry Butler committed enough muggings to open the ice for Lanny McDonald&rsquo;s overtime winner in Game 7.In 1979-80, he became Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s associate coach in Buffalo. Neilson coached the final 26 games that season and all 80 the next. He moved to Vancouver in 1981-82, stayed there until the middle of the 1983-84 season, joined the Los Angeles Kings for the final 28 games that season and served as Chicago&rsquo;s co-coach from 1984-85 through 1986-87.He spent the last two seasons as a pro scout with the Chicago Blackhawks and as an analyst-color commentator on The Sports Network in Canada.As a head coach, Neilson is 187-166-74. He is 24-24 in the playoffs.After being fired four times as an NHL head coach, what made Neilson come back for a fifth try?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said the Rangers&rsquo; 24th head coach. &ldquo;What a crazy thing it is that gets inside you. Once you&rsquo;re a coach, you always would like one more chance.&rdquo;He is the eighth coach to take a chance on the Rangers in the 1980s, following Fred Shero, Craig Patrick (twice), Herb Brooks, Ted Sator, Phil Esposito (twice), Tom Webster and Michel Bergeron.Smith described Neilson as the &ldquo;perfect man for our situation&rdquo; and offered a theory why he has bounced around.&ldquo;I think Roger has been able to put his teams in a position to over-achieve&mdash;the way Vancouver did when it went to the finals in 1982 and in &rsquo;78 when the Leafs upset the Islanders.&ldquo;Instead of receiving the credit he should have for those accomplishments, people&rsquo;s expectations shot up unrealistically high and&hellip;&rdquo;Smith also introduced three other members of his new management team, each of whom reportedly received three-year contracts:&#2936; Gord Stellick, assistant GM (operations): At 32, he was the NHL&rsquo;s youngest GM, an honor which now falls to the 35-year-old Smith. Under fire from Toronto owner Harold Ballard, Stellick resigned his position in Toronto on Aug. 11 and was out of work for only three days. &#9632; Larry Pleau, assistant GM (player development): Spent 17 years as a player, head coach, assistant GM, director of operations, director of player personnel and minor-league coach and GM for the Hartford Whalers. &#9632; Paul Theriault, head coach of the Rangers&rsquo; new IHL affiliate, the Flint Spirits: A highly-respected junior coach with a 384-278-22 record in the OHL, mostly with Oshawa.Jack Diller, executive VP of the MSG Sports Group and the man who set the reorganization wheels in motion May 24 when he fired Phil Esposito, endorsed his GM&rsquo;s approach.&ldquo;There is one thread that runs through all these recent hirings,&rdquo; Diller said. &ldquo;That is teaching and development. When we decided to change our system, we found that the consistently-successful franchises not only draft well, but do a more thorough, patient job of developing their players.&rdquo;Smith, who worked as Detroit&rsquo;s chief scout until he was hired by Diller July 17, continued to stress patience and planning, avoiding any promises of instant success.&ldquo;We are putting something together here that is-going to last a long time,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We want people who work well together and who know what the long-term goals are.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 10: Cory Millen, C, signed multi-year contractAug. 15: Named Roger Neilson head coach, Larry Pleau assistant general manager (player development). Gord Stellick assistant general manager (operations), and Paul Theriault coach of Pint (IHL) affiliate. &#9632;

f0009-01

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>When the Washington Capitals return from their exhibition tour of the Soviet Union, they hope to bring a couple of Soviet players with them.Defenseman Mikhail Tatarinov and center Dmitri Hristich are the objects of the Capitals&rsquo; desire. While neither carries the profile of Sergei Makarov or Viacheslav Fetisov (signed in the off-season by Calgary and New Jersey, respectively), both could help the Capitals.Tatarinov, an 11th-round pick of the Caps in the 1984 entry draft, plays for Dynamo Moscow, which entertains Washington Sept. 17. Hristich, a sixth-rounder in 1988 is a standout for Sokol Kiev, which faces Calgary Sept. 16. He had 17-8-25 totals in 42 games last year.General manager David Poile will meet with both players during the Capitals&rsquo; Sept. 14-21 visit, making a special flight to Kiev while the Capitals are touring the Kremlin. More importantly, Poile will sit down with Viacheslav Koloskov, executive director of the Department of Football and Ice Hockey, State Committee for Physical Education and Sports. Koloskov&rsquo;s approval is vital for Soviet hockey and soccer players to join foreign clubs.The Poile-Koloskov meeting was arranged by Lew Strudler, the Washington Capitals&rsquo; vice president for marketing. Strudler, the Caps&rsquo; advance man in the USSR, brought Koloskov a letter from Poile.&ldquo;Koloskov seemed very receptive,&rdquo; Strudler said. &ldquo;He seemed pleased that we were taking such an above-board approach. There is a real openness now on the part of the Soviet Union regarding release of players and cooperation with the NHL. Government funding for sports is ending and they need to find money elsewhere, so sending players overseas obviously is one solution.&rdquo;Strudler found that glasnost extended far beyond the Soviets&rsquo; government offices. During a 10-hour train ride from Leningrad to Riga, he gave a Capitals&rsquo; puck and some candies to a little girl. Learning that Strudler had two children at home, the child&rsquo;s mother gave him two dolls for them. Later, hearing the girl crying softly, he learned they were the only toys she owned.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011494/5807585-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="711" height="787"><figcaption class="caption-body">David Poile is negotiating for the release of two Soviet players.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I insisted she take them back, but I thought it was a remarkable gesture,&rdquo; said Strudler, who was accompanied on his trip by NHL representatives Joel Nixon and Phil Scheuer. &ldquo;Everybody we met was the same. The people are showing tremendous excitement over the tour by the Capitals and Flames.&rdquo;Despite the high average price of 10 rubles ($16 U.S.), five to 10 times higher than Soviet league games, all tickets were quickly sold for the NHL tour. In Riga, where the rink holds only 4,000, officials distributed 200,000 lottery tickets, with the winners able to buy seats for the game there.Arrangements have been completed for Washington coach Bryan Murray to participate in practices by both the Central Red Army and Dynamo Riga. In exchange, Army coaches Viktor Tikhonov and Igor Dmitriev will join Murray for a Capitals&rsquo; workout in Moscow.All games on the tour will be televised in the Soviet Union.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 27: Jack Barzee named chief United States scout and Jack Ferguson named chief eastern scout. Barry Trotz promoted to chief western scout. Bruce Hamilton named scout for western Canada. &#9632;

f0010-01

CAPS WANT SOVIETS TO INVADE WASHINGTON

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Roland Melanson had visions of his fourth Stanley Cup triumph when he signed a three-year contract with the New Jersey Devils Aug. 10.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m definitely excited about signing with the Devils,&rdquo; said Melanson, 29, who signed as a free agent without compensation. &ldquo;I had a couple of other teams that were interested. I actually took a little bit of a pay cut to come to New Jersey. I really feel in the next three years New Jersey will be hoisting a Stanley Cup and that&rsquo;s what made my decision.&rdquo;Melanson hoped to realize that goal with the Los Angeles Kings last season, but he suffered a sprained left knee on opening night, fell out of favor with former coach Robbie Ftorek and wound up spending most of the season with the Kings&rsquo; American League minor-league affiliate in New Haven.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all water under the bridge now,&rdquo; said Melanson, who won three Stanley Cups (1981-83) as Billy Smith&rsquo;s backup with the New York Islanders. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t really matter what happened in the past. I think New Jersey is a lot closer to winning a Stanley Cup than L.A. is, even with all the superstars they have.&ldquo;L.A-was a situation of circumstances. Whatever friction was there, I tried to play through it. I tried to have fun just the same. I was caught up in a little politics and I couldn&rsquo;t do anything about it.&rdquo;Although the Devils were interested in acquiring Glenn Healy to fill the void left by Bob Sauve, who retired on July 13, general manager Lou Lamoriello decided to sign &lsquo;Rollie the Goalie&rsquo; as Sean Burke&rsquo;s probable backup. Healy ended up signing with the New York Islanders.After hurting his knee on opening night (an 8-2 victory over Detroit Oct. 6), Melanson missed the next four games. He returned Oct. 17 to face 40 shots in an 11-4 loss in Calgary and reinjured the knee. He did not play in the next 11 games and, on Nov. 18, was sent to New Haven for conditioning.While he was there, the Kings placed him on waivers without right of recall. He went unclaimed and on the day he cleared waivers (Nov. 29), Melanson blasted Ftorek.Melanson was 1-1-0 for the Kings with a 6.40 goals-against average. His two decisions came in the team&rsquo;s first six games of the season and, when the Kings acquired Kelly Hrudey from the Islanders Feb. 22, Melanson was on his way back to New Haven for good.At New Haven, Melanson posted an 11-15-2 record with a 3.67 GAA. He led the Nighthawks to the AHL finals with a 9-8 mark and 4.36GAA in 17 playoff games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a minor adjustment from the minors to the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everything is a little quicker and the players are a little better. I&rsquo;ve been there before. It&rsquo;s not like I&rsquo;m 20 years old and stepping into the NHL. I know the players fairly well. I definitely feel strong now physically and mentally. A lot stronger mentally than when I was 21 or 22.&rdquo;The addition of Melanson was bad news for goalies Chris Terreri and Craig Billington, who had hoped to fight for the backup job instead of spending another season on the AHL farm team in Utica.&ldquo;Under no circumstances should this be viewed as us lacking confidence in our young goaltenders,&rdquo; said Lamoriello. &ldquo;We have four good goaltenders in our organization now. Rollie will be No. 2 or No. 3 or No. 4. At training camp he will compete with Terreri and Billington for the backup spot to Sean Burke.&rdquo;In reality, Melanson will have to lose the backup job. His value will be his effectiveness after sitting for long stretches.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not an easy thing to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think as you get older with experience, you learn to handle it a lot better. I had stretches in L.A. when I sat out for three weeks and came in and played well. I&rsquo;m confident I can do whatever role Lou Lamoriello and Jim Schoenfeld have for me.&rdquo;He is also confident the Devils will win the Stanley Cup before his former Los Angeles teammates.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 10: Roland Melanson, G, signed from Los Angeles to three-year contract, as free agent without compensation. &#9632;

‘ROLLIE THE GOALIE’ ROLLS ON TO DEVILS

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>Trying to get in touch with Philadelphia Flyer right winger Mike Bullard has not been an easy task this summer. Call his home, and you&rsquo;ll get one of two messages&mdash;either Bullard is working at a hockey camp, or Bullard is simply working out.Those who watched Bullard play early in his career in Pittsburgh might get a chuckle out of that idea&mdash;Bullard dedicating the off-season to getting in shape. But he has impressed a lot of people in the Flyer organization with his dedication to a work-out program this summer.&ldquo;After the season we told Mike that we wanted him in better shape for the next season,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke, who acquired Bullard from the St. Louis Blues in a trade for Peter Zezel last December. &ldquo;It was up to him, and from what I&rsquo;ve been told, he&rsquo;s really responded.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s taken great pride in getting himself in shape, and proving that he wants to continue his career, and continue it here.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t much of a secret that Bullard wasn&rsquo;t exactly an Iron Man for the Flyers last season. He arrived from the Blues weighing about 225 pounds, and he stayed there through most of the season&mdash;about 35 pounds heavier than what the Flyers considered his ideal weight. There wasn&rsquo;t much made of it at first. After all, Bullard, now down to 198 pounds, scored points in nine of his first 10 games as a Flyer and the team went 8-1-1 to climb out of the Patrick Division cellar.Bullard had 23 goals in 54 games as a Flyer, but he was a non-factor in the playoffs. The Flyers knew he could be in better shape.It&rsquo;s not unusual for a player to come to the Flyers from another organization and find out he&rsquo;s well behind in conditioning. The club&rsquo;s conditioning coach, Pat Croce, has developed an international reputation for his skills, and he demands that each player arrive at his office with no more than 13 per cent body fat. Bullard arrived at about 18 per cent.When a player is acquired in a trade, he&rsquo;s told the Flyers demand more than most other teams in the area of conditioning. For a player to stay with the Flyers, he has to meet their standards.Therefore, the Flyers were quite interested in just how Bullard would approach this off-season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been just great,&rdquo; said Croce. &ldquo;He comes in weekdays, weekends, and he&rsquo;s really into it. I&rsquo;ve got one of my staff members, Jim McCrossin, working with him full-time. We even did a supermarket tour with him and his wife, to show them how to shop nutritionally. We do it with all the players who have an interest.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was so much that Mike was out of shape, as it was a case of Mike not knowing how to get in top shape. We want elite athletes, and Mike is finding out what it&rsquo;s like to be an elite athlete.&ldquo;His percentage of body fat is all the way down to about 14 per cent, and our goal is to get him down to 190 pounds. Then he&rsquo;d really be in the elite class. And he&rsquo;s already increased his aerobic capacity by 60 per cent. So, I think it&rsquo;s pretty obvious that Mike Bullard is serious about getting in top shape.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re really counting on him,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a veteran player, and a natural goal scorer. We can use his talents for an entire season.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we had any real worries that he would not respond to our request (to get in better shape). I know he had kind of a bad rep when he played in Pittsburgh, but that was a long time ago. We got nothing but good reports about him from when he played with Calgary, and we certainly didn&rsquo;t find him a problem last season with us.&ldquo;I think this could be a big year for him. He&rsquo;s been working hard, and I think it will pay off during the season.&rdquo; &#9632;

FLYER SNIPER SHEDDING EXTRA BAGGAGE

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>The players are younger. The depth chart is thinner. Houses within a 30-minute drive of Nassau Coliseum are much more expensive. And the dynasty died the year after he left.But Lorne Henning felt an assistant coaching position with the New York Islanders under Al Arbour was too promising an opportunity to let escape. That&rsquo;s why Henning, whose old contract with the Minnesota North Stars had recently expired, agreed Aug. 4 to rejoin the team that drafted him in 1972 and made him a coach in 1980. He signed a two-year contract to join Darcy Regier and part-timer Billy Smith on Arbour&rsquo;s 1989-90 coaching staff.Henning, 37, hadn&rsquo;t worked in the NHL since the North Stars fired him with two games left in the 1986-87 season. He applied for the Winnipeg job, was interviewed, lost out to Bob Murdoch. He applied for the Hartford job, was interviewed, lost out to Rick Ley.He was one of a dozen names on new Ranger GM Neil Smith&rsquo;s long list of candidates for that coaching job, but Roger Neilson won out. The only promising hockey call he received in July came from Arbour, a few days after Islander assistant Rick Wilson resigned July 14 to become an assistant to coach Tom Webster with the Los Angeles Kings.Henning decided not to wait for the Ranger call that wasn&rsquo;t going to come. He chose the Island.&ldquo;I had been through a couple of those (hiring processes) and they&rsquo;re long, drawn-out processes,&rdquo; Henning explained from his Minnesota home, a few days before he and wife Cathye prepared to fly east for their second house-hunting jaunt. &ldquo;The Islander opportunity was there. I knew the system. If I went through the other thing, if it had gone down to the end and I didn&rsquo;t get it, I could have lost the (Islander opportunity.)&rdquo;And so Henning, the overachieving defensive center-turned coach with the bald pate, returned to the team that, in 1972, drafted him from New Westminster of the Western League in the second round. He played 544 games for the Islanders, nine in 1980-81 when he became Arbour&rsquo;splayingassistant coach. He won one Stanley Cup as a player, one as a playercoach, two as a full-time assistant.Henning spent the 1983-84 season as Arbour&rsquo;s assistant, too, then became head coach of the American League Springfield Indians, then an Islander-North Star joint venture.Minnesota hired him for the &rsquo;85-86 season, and fired him the following season after problems with GM Lou Nanne. His coaching record with the Stars was 68-72-18 and the team finished second in the Norris Division in &rsquo;85-86.Since then, opportunities arose, teams passed. Arbour was surprised the Rangers hadn&rsquo;t pursued Henning. The Islanders&rsquo; undying loyalty brought him back to the NHL.&ldquo;I know him well,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be used mostly in offensive areas, with Darcy (formerly a defenseman with the Islanders) handling the defensive areas. But they&rsquo;ll interrelate.&rdquo;In December, Henning was considered a prime candidate to replace Arbour this season after Arbour replaced Terry Simpson last season, but Arbour decided to stay for&hellip;who knows how long?Is Henning next in line?&ldquo;That was never discussed,&rdquo; Arbour insisted. &ldquo;It never came about at all. We wanted Lorne for this opportunity, at this time.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 4: Lorne Henning named assistant coach and signed two-year contract.Aug. 15: Announced working agreement with Erie of the East Coast League. Discontinued working agreement with Indianapolis of the International League.Aug. 16: Glenn Healy, G, signed as free agent. Fourth-round draft pick given to Los Angeles as compensation. &#9632;

HENNING REJOINS ISLES’ COACHING STAFF

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Hockey is still an 80-game season but for a growing number of Pittsburgh Penguins it has become a 12-month job.Not so many years ago, most players didn&rsquo;t do anything more strenuous than work on their putting between the end of one season and the start of the next training camp. The only time Penguins were spotted at the Civic Arena during the summer was if they were attending a rock concert.Lately, however, many have put almost as much effort into off-season workouts as they do into games. The memory of their 4-1 loss to Philadelphia in Game 7 of the Patrick Division final was still agonizingly fresh when some began preparing for camp, which opens Sept. 8 at Mt. Lebanon, Pa.&ldquo;More guys are taking (off-season conditioning) seriously,&rdquo; defenseman Randy Hillier said. &ldquo;This area of the sport has really grown, and a lot of guys have taken advantage of it.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to get away and take time off,&rdquo; center Dave Hannan said. &ldquo;But when you&rsquo;re in this job, you always want to make sure you&rsquo;re in condition so you can be the best you can be.&rdquo;Right winger Jay Caufield has been perhaps the most diligent worker, putting in as much time at the Arena as some front-office workers. But the dedication of defenseman Jim Johnson cannot be overstated.Johnson has spent the summer working days in the office of an engineering firm, then working out in the evening. It has been a gruelling routine, but has had at least one unexpected benefit.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;ve had a frustrating day (at the office), it gives me a release,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been having great workouts.&rdquo;Most of the players have been following programs put together by Doug McKenney, the former conditioning coach who resigned earlier this summer to join ex-Penguins&rsquo; general manager Eddie Johnston in Hartford. The emphasis has been on weightlifting, riding a stationary bike and, in many cases, tennis. The Penguins&rsquo; new conditioning expert is John Welday.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011444/5807688-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="568" height="588"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Johnson was on a gruelling summer conditioning program.</figcaption></div>It is no coincidence the Penguins&rsquo; collective passion for off-season conditioning has risen in conjunction with their status in the Patrick Division. This year&rsquo;s camp figures to be the most competitive in franchise history and any edge gained&mdash;or lost&mdash;during the summer could be decisive when the final roster is compiled.The battle for jobs on defense, where there are more than a dozen names on the depth chart, figures to be particularly fierce.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to get stronger, I&rsquo;ve got to get quicker,&rdquo; Johnson said, &ldquo;because these young kids who are coming in are getting bigger. I&rsquo;ve got to look out for myself. If I don&rsquo;t keep this up, there&rsquo;s no sense of me playing anymore because I&rsquo;m not the kind of guy who can just put &lsquo;em on a week before camp and expect to be ready and make the team.&ldquo;I think most guys realize it&rsquo;s no longer an eight- or nine-month season. Guys realize that if you&rsquo;re going to keep your job, you&rsquo;ve got to put your time in.&rdquo;<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 28: John Welday named strength and conditioning coach.July 31: Les Binkley named scout. Angelo Bumbacco named special adviser to the general manager.Aug. 1: Gene Ubriaco, coach, signed two-year contract.Aug. 15: Ken Schinkel, director of player development, resigned. Fred Gore, scout, resigned. &#9632;

f0014-01

PENGUINS MAKE GREATER COMMITMENT TO FITNESS

<div class="byline">BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011226/5807719-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="508" height="638"></div>I worry for Neil Smith. Despite the trying-to-look sincere press conference babble about stability and commitment from the corporatoids who hired him, I worry that car phones are going to be ringing the first time the Rangers blow a two-goal lead.I worry for Roger Neilson and Larry Pleau and Gord Stellick and Paul Theriault and whoever else&mdash;David McNab as chief scout?&mdash; Smith adds to an impressive new Ranger regime that still wasn&rsquo;t complete three weeks before training camp.I worry because I don&rsquo;t trust the various Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf + Western) men in the $1,000 suits who, for the past decade, have run the Rangers. I don&rsquo;t trust owners who&rsquo;ve produced more annual videos (2) than division winners (0).Call me crazy, but three presidents, fourGMs and eight coaches in 10 years makes me wonder who has earned more of Paramount&rsquo;s money&mdash;Eddie Murphy or the recent flock of ex-Ranger bosses.Consider the off-season. It was anything but 48 Hrs.On April 1, with two games left in the regular season and second place at stake, general manager Phil Esposito got permission from his bosses to fire coach Michel Bergeron. Esposito became the coach.On April 9, after two regular-season losses pointed the Rangers to third place, four straight playoff losses to the Penguins pointed them to the first tee.On April 11, Garden sports boss Jack Diller, who&rsquo;s been in charge since July 1987, gave Esposito a conditional vote of confidence and began an overall evaluation of the Rangers.On May 24, Esposito was fired.On June 17, with Diller at his side, interim GM Joey Bucchino ran the Rangers at the entry draft. Diller got permission from the Red Wings to interview Smith, Detroit&rsquo;s chief scout, for the Rangers&rsquo; GM vacancy.Exactly one month later, after we media scoundrels chronicled how Diller offered the GM job to Smith (July 5), Scotty Bowman (July 11, with Smith to be assistant GM), Herb Brooks (July 14, the day after the Wings withdrew permission, complaining the Rangers had taken too long) and Smith again (July 15, after the NHL ruled the Wings couldn&rsquo;t withdraw permission), Diller held his press conference.He held it in the Garden&rsquo;s Felt Forum, where blue curtains tried to hide the boxing ring, because MSG&rsquo;s main arena is undergoing renovations that are replacing some of the blue seats with sky boxes (that&rsquo;s another story).Before Diller asked Smith to step out from behind the curtain, the Garden sports boss scolded the media for ridiculing his selection process. Maybe it made him feel better, I don&rsquo;t know.Anyway, Smith stepped out from behind the curtain with a plan that took 29 days (counting the three Smith and his fiancee, Katia, spent in the Virgin Islands getting married) to unfold.He wanted head coaches at the NHL and minor-league levels with winning resumes and the ability to teach, communicate, and work well with others. He wanted assistant GMs in charge of business, scouting and player development.He wanted Terry Simpson or John Paddock as his NHL head coach but, on Aug. 7, Simpson rejected a two-year offer. The former coach of the Islanders considered the Rangers&rsquo; unsteady situation, his daughter Kelly&rsquo;s schooling and the value and length of the contract. He decided to stay in Prince Albert, Sask.Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke nixed Smith&rsquo;s next choice. Citing the lateness of the off-season, Clarke refused Smith&rsquo;s request for permission to talk with Paddock, who, in the spring, had signed a three-year contract to become Philly&rsquo;s assistant GM.Smith then chose Neilson over Dan Maloney. Either would have been a fine choice considering it was now mid-August.Smith got the guy he wanted all along to be his assistant GM/player development, Pleau, and the minor-league coach, Theriault. But three different attorney/agents turned him down because attorney/agents with the right clients make much more money than assistant GMs.Smith was on a St. Thomas, V.I., beach Aug. 12, when he read Stellick had resigned as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two days later, Stellick agreed to become his friend&rsquo;s &ldquo;right-hand man.&rdquo;The press conference was Aug. 15 at the Southgate Hotel (no boxing ring). Neilson admitted he would have liked a little more time to prepare for training camp. Pleau, Stellick and Theriault said they needed time to familiarize themselves with the players and contracts they now control. Smith said it was time to focus on the scouting department.Again, it is a very impressive staff. I&rsquo;d feel even better if one of the men came from the Patrick Division, but you can&rsquo;t have everything. I wouldn&rsquo;t bet on the Rangers making the playoffs this season, but Smith&rsquo;s got a four-year contract and his people all have three-year deals. Their idea is to build from the bottom up, through the draft and the nurturing process of their developmental system.They won&rsquo;t win it all this year, or next year, or the next. But it took Cliff Fletcher 17 years to win a Cup, Bill Torrey eight. Heck, it even took Glen Sather five years and he started with Wayne Gretzky.Patience, people, patience.I started worrying again at the press conference after Diller, looking very proud, tried to convince me the Rangers hadn&rsquo;t fallen behind the Patrick Division teams who had started working toward the 1989-90 season.But then I looked around and saw the four men in the shiny blue Ranger jackets. I decided that if Eddie Murphy makes a few more funny movies, and the Rangers don&rsquo;t start the season 0-6, and Diller keeps his word and lets Smith run the Rangers, this star-crossed team might not celebrate the 60th anniversary of its last Stanley Cup. &#9632;

f0016-01

ANATOMY OF A FRONT-OFFICE SHUFFLE

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>Doug Wilson said all along he wanted to remain a Chicago Blackhawk.On Aug. 16, the 12-year veteran defenseman proved he meant it when he agreed to contract terms with the Hawks.The Hawks and Wilson, a free agent without compensation, agreed on a three-year pact that will pay him more than $400,000 a season, making him the second highest-paid Hawk behind center Denis Savard.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a Blackhawk and I wanted to stay a Blackhawk,&rdquo; said Wilson, 32. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a tough decision for me. I respect (general manager Bob) Pulford so much I knew we could come to an agreement. Chicago is the best in the league&mdash;best city, best fans.&rdquo;At least six teams expressed an interest in the 32-year-old Wilson&mdash;Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, the New York Rangers, Detroit, Hartford and Vancouver. But it would have taken a blockbuster offer to lure him away from Chicago, a place he and his family consider home.Throughout the negotiations. Pulford remained confident Wilson would be back for his 13th season on the Hawks&rsquo; blue line.&ldquo;Sometimes it has been a little frustrating, but I respect Wilson and certainly he&rsquo;s done what he said he said he was going to do,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t think I was ever concerned about (losing him). I would have been concerned if we had a disgruntled player. But with Wilson, he never said at any time to me in person that he ever wanted to leave here.&rdquo;Wilson and his agent, Ottawa lawyer Larry Kelly, listened to the other offers in order to see what Wilson&rsquo;s market value was. Wilson felt he owed it to himself and to his family to do that. Once an approximate salary base had been established, it was a simple matter of the two sides coming together on a figure and length of contract.The Hawks&rsquo; initial offer to Wilson was considerably less than the final figure, but the club upped the ante once it saw what some of the other teams were willing to pay the five-time all-star and 1982 Norris Trophy winner. Wilson had 15-47-62 totals in 66 games last season.An extremely important negotiating point with Wilson was the length of the deal. He&rsquo;ll be 35 when this three-year contract runs out and felt he had earned the right for some security after going through the uncertainty of playing out his option last season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pleased with the number of years the Hawks gave me,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just glad it&rsquo;s all over.&rdquo;Pulford said Wilson&rsquo;s loyalty to the Hawks and the city of Chicago gave him confidence a deal could be struck to keep Wilson in a Hawks&rsquo; sweater.Now that Wilson is in the fold. Pulford plans to turn his attention to signing free-agent goaltender Alain Chevrier.Pulford has been talking nearly every day with Larry Rauch, Chevrier&rsquo;s agent.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a negotiation that&rsquo;s in full swing now. Hopefully we can get it done,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;Like all negotiations, they take time and there are differences of opinion, but they&rsquo;re honest and I think we&rsquo;ll eventually get it done. There&rsquo;s a difference, but I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s the end of the world.&rdquo;Like Wilson, Chevrier has expressed no desire to leave Chicago.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 7: Al Secord, LW, signed from Philadelphia as free agent without compensation.Aug. 16: Doug Wilson. D, signed three-year contract. &#9632;

HAWK STALWART TO REMAIN IN CHICAGO

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>Doug Carpenter jumped at the chance to become the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.He had to. Leaf owner Harold Ballard didn&rsquo;t give him any other choice. When he offered Carpenter the job over the telephone Aug. 16, he insisted on an immediate answer.&ldquo;You have to make up your mind now,&rdquo; Ballard reportedly told Carpenter. &ldquo;If you tell me you have to think it over and call me back, don&rsquo;t bother. It&rsquo;s a two-year contract and if you don&rsquo;t like me, you can quit. If I don&rsquo;t like you, I will fire you.&rdquo;Carpenter hastily accepted the job that night and succeeded George Armstrong, who was fired the day before, as the Maple Leafs&rsquo; 20th head coach. Considering the circumstances that preceeded Carpenter&rsquo;s hiring, it was just another day at the office for the Leafs and the bombastic Ballard.&#9632; General manager Gord Stellick, his authority diminished and his competency publicly questioned by Ballard, resigned as general manager Aug. 11 and resurfaced as assistant general manager of the New York Rangers Aug. 15.&#9632; Ballard&rsquo;s choice as head coach all along, the 59-year-old Armstrong, was fired by the owner Aug. 15. Armstrong took over as interim coach when Ballard fired John Brophy last December, and told anyone who would listen he wasn&rsquo;t interested in the permanent job. Armstrong will remain with the Leafs&rsquo; management team in an unspecified role.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011120/5807805-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="714" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Carpenter was still under contract to the Quebec Nordiques</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not something that displeases me a great deal,&rdquo; said the former Leaf captain. &ldquo;I had tried to be loyal to the organization and do whatever they asked of me. It wasn&lsquo;t the job of my choice.&ldquo;I think they (the players) will be better off without me. It&rsquo;s been stuck in their heads that with me it&rsquo;s no good. Now, they&rsquo;ll have to look at themselves.&rdquo;The same day, Ballard appointed chief scout Floyd Smith as interim general manager.&#9632; In a surprise move, the Leafs hired Carpenter Aug. 16. Carpenter was Smith&rsquo;s choice for the job and Ballard agreed. Ironically, Smith was the last Leafs&rsquo; coach to be hired from outside the organization.&ldquo;(Carpenter) was our first choice,&rdquo; said Smith, who will likely become the Leafs&rsquo; permanent general manager. &ldquo;I know he&rsquo;ll have our guys ready for every game, that they&rsquo;ll be well taught and in good physical condition. I also know that he doesn&rsquo;t take losing lightly.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s another challenge in my life,&rdquo; said Carpenter, 46, who spent last season coaching the Halifax Citadels, the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; No. 1 affiliate in the American League.Carpenter took the Devils&rsquo; job in 1984-85, a season after he was cut loose from the Leafs&rsquo; organization by then-general manager Gerry McNamara. Carpenter coached the Leafs&rsquo; AHL farm team in St. Catharines the two previous seasons and was expected to succeed Mike Nykoluk behind the Leafs&rsquo; bench. But McNamara fired Carpenter and chose Dan Maloney to guide the team.Carpenter spent almost three seasons with the Devils&mdash;he was fired midway through the 1987-88 campaign&mdash;before guiding the Citadels to a 42-30-8 record last season. He also coached Team Canada to a silver medal at the 1984 World Championships in Czechoslovakia.Carpenter was fired by the Devils shortly after Lou Lamoriello took over for Max McNab as general manager. The Devils were 21-23-5 when Jim Schoenfeld took over and Schoenfeld guided the team to a 38-36-6 record and within one win of the Stanley Cup finals.&ldquo;We had some success in New Jersey. The 41-point team became a 68-point team,&rdquo; said Carpenter, a native of Cornwall, Ont. &ldquo;A year and a half after I went there, we had the youngest team in the league and we had high hopes for the future.&rdquo;Noted as a teacher with a knack for developing young players, Carpenter is the kind of coach the Leafs have lacked for years. His most important task will be getting the youthful group of Leafs to realize their potential and play a defined system.&ldquo;My biggest concern was that they&rsquo;d wait until the last minute and then bring in a guy who didn&rsquo;t have a system ready for us,&rdquo; said defenseman Todd Gill.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to know we&rsquo;ve got a base to start from with Doug as coach and Floyd as GM,&rdquo; said center Ed Olczyk. &ldquo;A few guys I know played under him in New Jersey and they have mixed reactions about him. But nothing is carved in stone. We&rsquo;ll have to see.&rdquo;Carpenter didn&rsquo;t have a chance to discuss the job with the Nordiques. They claim Carpenter doesn&rsquo;t have an escape clause in his contract and is under obligation to them until May 31, 1990. The Nordiques say they want to be compensated for the loss of Carpenter.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 8: Mike Kitchen named assistant coach. Greg Terrion, C, retired.Aug. 11: Gord Stellick, general manager, resigned.Aug. 15: Floyd Smith named acting general manager. George Armstrong, coach, fired.Aug. 16: Doug Carpenter named head coach. &#9632;

f0018-01

CARPENTER NEW RINGLEADER OF LEAF CIRCUS

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>The Minnesota North Stars got more than they bargained for when they acquired Mike Gartner to replace Dino Ciccarelli as the team&rsquo;s big gun on right wing.While the Stars were happy at Gartner&rsquo;s ability to score at a Ciccarelli-like pace, they aren&rsquo;t as pleased with the way he has replaced Ciccarelli as the source of a summer contract controversy.Gartner, apparently unhappy with the North Stars&rsquo; delay in granting him a new contract, has asked to be traded. If that doesn&rsquo;t happen, he has threatened to end his 10-year NHL career.&ldquo;I regret having to reach this decision,&rdquo; Gartner said in an early August statement read by Gus Badali, his agent in Toronto. &ldquo;However, the North Stars have failed to keep their agreement (to provide a new contract) and show little concern for me or my family.&rdquo;A year ago, Ciccarelli demanded to be traded if he didn&rsquo;t get the contract he wanted. The matter was settled after a 24-day holdout, but not before Ciccarelli aimed several insults at the team that finally agreed to pay him more than $300,000 in the first year of a four-year deal.Gartner, 29, came to Minnesota with Larry Murphy in the March 7 trade that sent Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse to Washington. He is entering the option year of his current contract and will not become a free agent until next spring. Even then, any team that signs him would have to give the North Stars two first-round draft picks, and $100,000 as compensation. One of those two picks must be in the top seven, as stipulated by the players&rsquo; bargaining agreement. If a team doesn&rsquo;t have a pick in the top seven, it can&rsquo;t sign him.Ironically, the North Stars used Gartner&rsquo;s salary (then an estimated $225,000, about $100,000 less than he makes now) in their arguments last summer against giving Ciccarelli the money he wanted.&ldquo;Mike feels that if the North Stars don&rsquo;t do what they promised then Minnesota is not the place to be and now is the time to make a change,&rdquo; Badali said. &ldquo;Mike likes Minnesota but he doesn&rsquo;t have any emotional ties to the team or the area like he did in Washington. If he&rsquo;s going to have to change teams again, he feels now would be best for his family.&ldquo;At this point, he doesn&rsquo;t want to play for the North Stars and if it means ending his career early, then he&rsquo;s ready to do that.&rdquo;The North Stars, having learned from the Ciccarelli ordeal, are trying to keep the talks from deteriorating.&ldquo;We told Mike and his agent that we would negotiate a new contract and we&rsquo;re doing that,&rdquo; general manager Jack Ferreira said. &ldquo;We offered him a contract but apparently he&rsquo;s not happy with it. We will continue to negotiate.&rdquo;Gartner, a first-round pick by the Caps, fourth overall in the 1979 draft, has averaged better than a point a game for 10 NHL seasons, all but the last 13 games with Washington. He scored a career-high 50 goals and 102 points during the 1984-85 season and has scored at least 33 goals and 68 points every year. He played in the NHL All-Star game in 1980, &rsquo;85, &rsquo;86 and &rsquo;88.Gartner had seven goals and 14 points in 13 games with the North Stars last spring, but did not score a point in five playoff games.The North Stars mailed a second contract proposal to Badali late during the second week of August but he did not respond with a second counterproposal before Ferreira left for a scouting trip to Finland.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re making progress by the fact that we&rsquo;re talking,&rdquo; Badali said, &ldquo;but it really doesn&rsquo;t change anything until we get an agreement.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 28: Dave Gagner, C, signed multiyear contract. &#9632;

SAME OLD SUMMER STORY FOR NORTH STARS

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; owner Mike Hitch, whose team has been ravaged by drug- and alcohol-related problems, is urging the NHL to re-define its substance abuse policy.&ldquo;I think the players want more discipline,&rdquo; Hitch said, after a news conference Aug. 4, during which the Wings introduced players acquired since the end of last season. &ldquo;I think they need to have things laid out a little clearer, what the end results are going to be. The rules have to be specific. They can&rsquo;t be gray or vague.&rdquo;NHL officials argue the league&rsquo;s drug policy is very clear: Use drugs and you&rsquo;re out of the league. NHL president John Ziegler expelled Detroit&rsquo;s Bob Probert on March 4, two days after Probert was arrested for smuggling a packet of cocaine into the United States from Canada. Probert has pleaded guilty to the charge and is awaiting sentencing.But Hitch, working in tandem with Dave Barr and Peter Tagliannetti, the player representatives for Detroit and Winnipeg, respectively, said he believes the policy ought to be defined in more specific terms so players who have problems can come forth to seek treatment without fear of extreme punishment.The committee is expected to submit its plan to the NHL Players&rsquo; Association meeting in Toronto Aug. 21-23, with the league&rsquo;s board of governors considering the proposal at its December meeting.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01915/5807867-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="720" height="931"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Chiasson is the latest Wing to be charged with drunk driving.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; Wings&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m all for it. I think it will benefit the league.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Hitch is also promising swifter and more decisive measures against his own players caught abusing drugs and alcohol. No longer, he said, will club officials simply lament that a player has a disease and leave it at that. However, he was not specific about how the club will react to such problems in the future.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02614/5807860-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="720" height="926"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Wings&rsquo; owner Mike Hitch believes players want more discipline.</figcaption></div>Club insiders said the owner snapped when Steve Chiasson, a promising young defenseman, was arrested for drunk driving in late July.Chiasson, who led the team&rsquo;s defensemen in scoring last season (12-35-47 in 65 games), was the fourth Red Wing in less than a year arrested for an alcohol-related offense.&bull; Probert, arrested four times previously for drinking-related problems, was drinking heavily the night he was arrested on the drug charge. He was residing in a substance abuse treatment center while awaiting sentencing.&bull; Petr Klima was jailed for a month before entering a treatment center after he was arrested a third time for drunk driving in late May. That case is pending.&bull; Joe Kocur was in court in suburban Detroit and Boston on separate assault charges brought against him by women he had met in bars. He pleaded to disorderly conduct in the Michigan case, but still faces a civil case brought by the woman. The Boston case is pending.&bull; Ail four players were among seven Wings caught breaking curfew at an Edmonton nightclub during the Campbell Conference finals two springs ago. The others were John Chabot, defenseman Darren Veitch, since traded to Toronto, and goaltender Darren Eliot, released shortly after the incident.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 26: Dave Barr, RW, signed two-year contract. &#9632;

f0020-01

WINGS’ OWNER WANTS NEW DRUG POLICY

<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Veteran defenseman Craig Ludwig said he is prepared to play out his option if he doesn&rsquo;t get a reasonable offer from the Canadiens. Ludwig spoke with Larry Robinson after the latter signed with Los Angeles and got a better idea of his market value&hellip;Two University of Minnesota Golden Gopher stalwarts signed two-year, plus an option, contracts with the Canadiens. Left winger Tom Chorske and defenseman Todd Richards will be at the Habs&rsquo; rookie camp&hellip;Bob Gainey worked out with former Canadiens&rsquo; coach Claude Ruel two days before leaving for France&hellip;There are rumblings Finnish defenseman Jyrki Lumme will not be back with the Canadiens this fall. Lumme was demoted to Sherbrooke (AHL) last February after a curfew violation in St. Louis with Claude Lemieux.<h2>SABRES</h2>Soviet defector Alexandr Mogilny was given another 90-day extension of his temporary visa, an extension that should carry him into November. No reason was given for the continued delay in granting Mogilny permanent status, but the holdup appears to be related to procedures within U.S. Immigration. The 20-year-old recently completed an intensive six-week crash course in English and has improved his conversational skills&hellip; Roger Neilson&rsquo;s signing with the Rangers brings to three the number of ex-Sabres&rsquo; coaches currently coaching in the NHL. Neilson coached the Sabres for a part of the 1979-80 season and all of 1980-81. New Jersey coach Jim Schoenfeld coached in Buffalo from June &rsquo;85 until January &rsquo;86, and newly-named Bruins&rsquo; assistant coach Ted Sator coached from midway through the 1986-87 season until last spring&hellip;Injured goalie Daren Puppa (broken right arm) said he has rehabilitated himself to the point where he is ready to resume skating. Puppa broke the humerus bone Jan. 27 in a game against Montreal.<h2>WHALERS</h2>Larry Pleau, fired by the Whalers as coach in May, negotiated the release of the final year of his contract and found employment Aug. 15 as the New York Rangers&rsquo; director of player development. This allows Pleau, who was courted by New Haven to coach their American League team, to work out of his South Windsor, Conn., home. Dave McNab, fired as director of player evaluation in July, as part of the Whalers&rsquo; purge, is in line to be named as a Ranger scout, possibly the chief scout&hellip;Ken Schinkel quit his job as Pittsburgh director of player development and will be named to a similar post with the Whalers&hellip;General manager Eddie Johnston came to multi-year agreements with Jim Thomson and Brian Lawton, both of whom are free agents with compensation<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Jeff Brown has announced he&rsquo;ll play out his option. The 23-year-old defenseman doesn&rsquo;t see eye-to-eye with Nords&rsquo; management and feels he&rsquo;s been slighted by their last offer, a four-year deal worth far less than he expected&hellip;While negotiating for the release of Soviet goalie Sergei Mylnikov, Nordique president Marcel Aubut invited Vladislav Tretiak and his family to spend some time at Aubut&rsquo;s summer home. Tretiak was in Quebec taking part in several hockey schools.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02561/5807960-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="548" height="1423"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Jeff Brown is unhappy in Quebec and wants out</figcaption></div><h2>BRUINS</h2>Shayne Stevenson, Mark Montanari and Rick Allain, the three Kitchner Rangers drafted by the Bruins in June, were flown to Boston Aug. 7 to see the city as well as undergo fitness testing. At 19, Stevenson will be the youngest player at the Bruins&rsquo; camp which opens Sept. 8 in Wilmington, Mass&hellip;Equipment manager Bob Crocker Jr. resigned. He was replaced by veteran equipment man Ken Fleger. who was with the New Jersey Devils last season&hellip;As of Aug. 13, left winger John Carter was the lone unsigned Bruin. The free agent expected to remain a Bruin, however, although he admitted having discussions with several other teams&hellip;Center Bob Sweeney and defenseman Bruce Shoebottom re-signed with the Bruins. Contract details for the two free agents were not released. &#9632;

f0022-02

LUDWIG READY TO PLAY OUT OPTION

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01720/5807991-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios could be chatting up a few more referees this season&mdash;he&rsquo;s a leading contender for the Habs&rsquo; captaincy.</figcaption></div>And who shall lead them?That is the question many Montreal Canadien fans are asking on the eve of training camp.Gone is team captain Bob Gainey to coach in Epinal, France. So is 17-year veteran defenseman Larry Robinson, to the silver and black of the Los Angeles Kings. Thirteen-year veteran defenseman Rick Green is also expected to announce his retirement.&ldquo;We are going to have the veteran players select the team captain,&rdquo; managing director Serge Savard said, adding that Norris Trophy-winner Chris Chelios is the new leader of the Canadiens&rsquo; defense.There are also those who feel Chelios has a shot at becoming team captain, but he is going to have some competition for the job.&ldquo;If the whole team could have the success we had last year I would be happy with that,&rdquo; said Chelios. &ldquo;The one thing I can do is go out and keep working the way I do, don&rsquo;t change a thing and don&rsquo;t try to do too much.&rdquo;There is no question Chelios developed into an on-ice leader for the Canadiens last season. He seemed to be in charge when he was on the ice and found himself used in most of the critical situations along with defensive partner Craig Ludwig.Chelios, who is in the midst of a contract renegotiation, has some good leadership qualities because of his work ethic. He has taken over Chris Nilan&rsquo;s old role of looking after newcomers to the team.Center Guy Carbonneau, who won the Seike Trophy for the second straight season, is one of the most intelligent players on the Canadiens and is a good candidate as well.The 29-year-old from Sept-Isles, Que., is quite outspoken. There are undoubtedly some referees who would probably rather not see the veteran center with the captaincy. They don&rsquo;t appreciate his yapping.During the 1988 pre-season, Carbonneau was the captain for a game and appeared to relish the role. When Gainey announced his plan to leave for France, Carbonneau was tabbed right away as a viable replacement.&ldquo;Bob is going to be tough to replace,&rdquo; Carbonneau said. &ldquo;He was very special for us in the dressing room. He always seemed to be there at the right time.&rdquo;The only other candidate for the captaincy might be Bobby Smith, who has expressed interest in the task.The articulate Smith, who is a vice-president of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, is viewed as a solid citizen, but has an outside chance at best to win the players&rsquo; vote.&ldquo;It would be a great honor to be the Canadiens&rsquo; captain,&rdquo; the bilingual Smith told Le Journal de Montreal. &ldquo;I know that Guy would do an excellent job in that role as well.&ldquo;We were spoiled with Bob Gainey in that role during the last few years.&rdquo;A longshot candidate might be former Washington captain Ryan Walter. Mats Naslund, an assistant in the Gainey regime, would probably not get much support. This could be the last year in the organization for the Swedish left winger.As training camp draws near, Carbonneau would seem to have an edge over Chelios and Smith for the job. Certainly, the majority of fans would like a French-speaking captain.However, the fans aren&rsquo;t voting. The players are that&rsquo;s why the race is bound to be at least as interesting as the Quebec provincial election in September.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 17: Tom Chorske, LW, and Todd Richards, D, signed two-year contracts, with an option year &#9632;

f0023-01

WITH VETERANS GONE, CANADIENS LOOK FOR LEADER

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>The Quebec Nordiques were eager to land Soviet goaltender Sergei Mylnikov, and they were willing to go to great lengths to do it.Bogged down in negotiations since June to secure the release of Mylnikov from the USSR, president Marcel Aubut and general manager Martin Madden left secretly for Moscow Aug. 15. The trip paid off when they managed to sign the 30-year-old goalie to a two-year contract Aug. 18. It&rsquo;s believed Mylnikov, one of seven Soviets expected in NHL training camps this season, will receive $300,000 per season, with the same amount going to the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation.&ldquo;The new season was getting closer and closer and negotiations weren&rsquo;t going as smoothly as we would have hoped,&rdquo; said Aubut. &ldquo;So we packed our bags and went to where we would get more work done.&ldquo;We used every contact in the book and it paid off,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Most people thought we didn&rsquo;t have a chance in a hundred in getting our hands on Mylnikov. But we proved them wrong.&rdquo;A large factor in Mylnikov&rsquo;s release is that he is not a member of the Red Army and didn&rsquo;t have to obtain a release from the military. For the past three seasons, Mylnikov has been the No. 1 goalie on the national team, posting a 1.87 goals-against average in 62 games. With Traktor Chelyabinsk, he had a 3.41 GAA in 391 Soviet League games. The Nordiques chose Mylnikov in the seventh round (127th overall) in June.Madden said Mylnikov will likely play in about 40 games this season. Ron Tugnutt, Mario Burnetta and Stephane Fiset will battle for the other starting spot.&ldquo;When I discussed the matter with him, he told me he would like to play every game. His enthusiasm really impressed me,&rdquo; said Madden. &ldquo;Sergei&rsquo;s arrival fills a big void at a most important position. His experience will fit in great with the younger goalies of our organization.&rdquo;&ldquo;Four NHL organizations will have one or more Soviet players in their lineup when the next hockey season starts,&rdquo; said Aubut. &ldquo;In order to bounce back as one of the league&rsquo;s more competitive teams, we simply had no choice but to go all out and get an athlete of Sergei&rsquo;s caliber.&rdquo;Aubut credits the contacts he made during the Rendezvous &rsquo;87 extravaganza when asked what contributed most to the historic signing.Madden said Mylnikov&rsquo;s biggest adjustment will be off the ice because he doesn&rsquo;t speak English or French. But he said the team will have an interpreter to help him.Some contend Mylnikov will have problems adapting to the NHL because he has the tendency of staying far back in his net.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that will really be a problem,&rdquo; said Nordiques&rsquo; chief scout Pierre Gauthier. &ldquo;The only aspect of his play that I&rsquo;m anxious to see is his ability to play the rough stuff. As you know, forwards in the NHL love to run at the goalie. It will be interesting to see how he reacts.&rdquo;Head coach Michel Bergeron doesn&rsquo;t anticipate any communication problems.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve coached European players before&mdash;players who couldn&rsquo;t speak the language very well&mdash;and everything worked out fine,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;And in Sergei&rsquo;s case. I&rsquo;ll pickup a puck and place it in front of his pads. He&rsquo;ll understand that I want him to stop it.&rdquo;Nordiques&rsquo; captain Peter Stastny, a Czechoslovak emigre, said Quebec players will accept Mylnikov into the fold.&ldquo;The arrival of the best Soviet players will only help in making the NHL a better league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In our business, you have to think of the team first. And with Mylnikov in the net, we&rsquo;ll have a better team.&rdquo;Mylnikov is expected to arrive in Quebec City Sept. 2.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 16: Doug Carpenter, coach at Halifax (AHL), resigned to become head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.Aug. 18: Sergei Mylnikov, G, signed two-year contract. &#9632;

NORDS JOIN NEW WAVE WITH MYLNIKOV

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>The original tear was in the left knee of Ulf Samuelsson. He was injured jumping over a rock.But an even bigger tear was left in the defense of the Hartford Whalers for several months to come. And new general manager Eddie Johnston couldn&rsquo;t have been hurting any worse if the aforementioned rock conked him on the head.Samuelsson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while doing exercises in Sweden July 16. Following successful major surgery in Goteborg Aug. 4, it was estimated Samuelsson could be sidelined anywhere from six to eight months. He is in a cast for nearly a month.&ldquo;Missing eight months would be really depressing for me,&rdquo; said Samuelsson. &ldquo;This could be really bad for me. Really brutal.&rdquo;It will be even more depressing for the Whalers, already hurting for big, aggressive defensemen.&ldquo;Doug McKenney (the strength and conditioning coach Johnston brought over from Pittsburgh) has done some great things, so I&rsquo;m hoping we can bring Ulfie along in less than six months,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;This is a tough loss.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for a stop-gap in a trade and counting on Sylvain Cote to help us more, and for Adam Burt to move up from junior and make the team.&rdquo;For now, however, six months is considered a conservative estimate. It would mean the durable Samuelsson, who has missed only 15 games because of injury or illness while anchoring the Whalers&rsquo; defense the past four years, would be lost for 50 games. Eight months would mean missing the entire season.Samuelsson had arthroscopic surgery in Sweden immediately after being injured. When it became evident the damage was not fully repaired, the Whalers brought Samuelsson back to North America for further examination.Whalers&rsquo; physician Vincent Turco offered Samuelsson a non-operative alternative of two month&rsquo;s rest and then wearing a knee brace to test it. If this didn&rsquo;t work, Turco said, an operation then would be performed.&ldquo;Ulfie opted for surgery immediately with doctors he is familiar with in Sweden,&rdquo; Turco said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to rehabilitate back here. Basically, it&rsquo;s a twisting injury and it happens in skiing quite frequently and more in football.&rdquo;Samuelsson said he injured his knee jumping back and forth over a rock in pylometric training. It put an immediate end to a joyful summer. He had married Jeanette Pellas July 1 in Sweden and had just returned from a honeymoon in Monte Carlo.The injury puts a heavy onus on Dave Babych to continue his outstanding play of the second half of last season and in the playoffs. In the meantime, beyond Grant Jennings&mdash;who had shoulder surgery in the spring&mdash;the Whalers&rsquo; defense definitely lacks big men with mean streaks.&ldquo;Dave Babych played as well as &lsquo;almost anybody in hockey the last 40 games of last season,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;And this is an opportunity for others to step forward.&rdquo;Although Samuelsson&rsquo;s play tailed off at times last season, he led the club with a plus-23 rating and an average playing time of 21 minutes, 59 seconds per game. His nine goals were the most among defensemen, and he had 35 points in 71 games. He also was the most penalized Whaler with 181 minutes.Babych was named the Whalers&rsquo; top defenseman last season, but Samuelsson was selected the previous two years and played for the NHL All-Stars against the Soviets in Rendez-Vous &rsquo;87. His teammates picked him as the club&rsquo;s best player in 1987-88.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 21: Doug McKay named coach of the Binghamton Whalers (AHL).Aug. 14: Larry Pleau released from the final year of his contract.Aug. 17: Kay Whitmore, G, Jim Thomson, RW, signed multi-year contracts. Brian Lawton, C, had contract extended through 1989-90 season. &#9632;

ROCKY SUMMER FOR WHALER DEFENSEMAN

<div class="byline">BY KAREN GUREGIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01739/5808070-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston Bruin defenseman Gord Kluzak, whose injuries limited him to three games last season, will undergo a 10th operation on his left knee.</figcaption></div>Gord Kluzak is still clinging to the hope his hockey career isn&rsquo;t finished, but the prospects do not look great.The Bruins&rsquo; defenseman, who played in just three games last season, underwent knee surgery Aug. 7. It was the 10th operation performed on his tattered left knee. Over the last five seasons, injuries have limited him to just 139 games.Surgery in April hadn&rsquo;t quite corrected the long-standing problem with Kluzak&rsquo;s kneecap, so Bruins&rsquo; team physician Dr. Bert Zarins went in one more time to see if he could alleviate the pain in the joint.&ldquo;The doctor seems to think (the surgery) is going to help me. But until I really see the proof of the pudding, I&rsquo;m not going to get excited one way or the other,&rdquo; Kluzak said.What Zarins did this time was move the tendon in front of Kluzak&rsquo;s kneecap to a different position in the hopes of having the joint track, or slide, better.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll change the tracking of my kneecap a little, pull it a little more to the inside of my knee,&rdquo; said Kluzak, who has become a quasiorthopedic expert.&ldquo;A lot of my pain comes from the lateral side on the knee joint, so by pulling it to the medial side, hopefully it will alleviate some of the pain.&rdquo;Kluzak had spent much of July skating and working out, hoping he&rsquo;d be able to take part in the Bruins&rsquo; Sept. 8 training camp.While his knee had shown some improvement from the previous months, he knew it still wasn&rsquo;t up to hockey standards. So he opted for further surgery.Under the projected timetable for recovery, he probably won&rsquo;t know how well this latest surgical venture fared at least until the regular season begins.So it&rsquo;s more waiting and agonizing for Kluzak, who has missed three of his seven NHL seasons with left knee woes.The 25-year-old defenseman, selected first overall by the Bruins in 1982 from Billings of the Western League, made a remarkable return to the line-up during the 1987-88 campaign after suffering through four knee surgeries the season before.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t gone through all of this solely because I want to play hockey again,&rdquo; Kluzak said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m rehabilitating myself so I can become more active in my life again. Right now, I&rsquo;m very limited in what I can do, so the two go hand-in-hand.&rdquo;Kluzak would not rule out further surgery should this latest operation not work out.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really sure what I&rsquo;ll do, but there are a couple other options. There&rsquo;s always the possibility of having a patellectomy, which is taking the kneecap right out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just have to wait and see. I&rsquo;m not going to think too much down the road. I&rsquo;m just going to go with what I have right now and do the best I can with it.&rdquo;Kluzak&rsquo;s optimism and desire to play remains unwavering. He isn&rsquo;t ready to throw in the towel just yet.&ldquo;The bottom line is I really love the game. I really want to play,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;There have been times before when I thought 1 was done, and through the doctors and hard work, I was able to get back.&rdquo;The Bruins hope he has one more comeback left in him.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 11: Bob Sweeney, C, Bruce Shoebottom, D, re-signed as free agents. Dave Buda, LW, Todd Lalonde, C, Jim Wiemer, D, Lou Crawford, D, signed contracts. &#9632;

f0026-01

KLUZAK UNDERGOES KNEE SURGERY AGAIN

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>New Buffalo Sabre coach Rick Dudley already has one big advantage over his predecessor, Ted Sator: He has the support of team captain Mike Foligno.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to a lot of people who told me things about Rick Dudley long before he was even being mentioned as a candidate to coach here,&rdquo; Foligno said.&ldquo;All they said about him was that he was a tremendous coach and that his players would do anything for him and that he in turn would do anything for them.&rdquo;Foligno said that Dudley&rsquo;s background&mdash;an ex-NHL player with extensive minor-pro coaching experience, most recently with Flint of the International League&mdash;would certainly command the players&rsquo; respect. He also said it&rsquo;s likely Dudley would respect what the players could do, as well.&ldquo;We as players have to have respect for him just because of the way he got here,&rdquo; Foligno said.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t come here riding anybody&rsquo;s coattails and he wasn&rsquo;t in (general manager) Gerry Meehan&rsquo;s back pocket. He got where he is by hard work and Gerry had to go out and get him. When you get a coach like that you have to welcome him with open arms.&rdquo;Foligno&rsquo;s arms weren&rsquo;t open last spring, but his mouth was. He criticized Sator&rsquo;s coaching abilities during the Sabres&rsquo; Adams Division semifinal series loss to the Boston Bruins.Without mentioning Sator by name, Foligno made it clear he thought the Sabres were outcoached in the playoffs and the team was not given the proper guidance and direction to deal with the Bruins.Sator was fired in June, then caught on as an assistant with the Bruins. But Foligno insisted his comments had little to do with Meehan&rsquo;s decision to release the coach.When it was pointed out that as a veteran and a team leader his words would undoubtedly carry a lot of weight, he said he was only truthful in both his feelings and his commitment.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard what people say,&rdquo; said Foligno. &ldquo;Right away they were saying that the players &lsquo;won&rsquo; again. That&rsquo;s not the way it is. I think anyone who says so doesn&rsquo;t know what he&rsquo;s talking about.&rdquo;Foligno and the Sabres were singled out for that exact criticism by Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry, a former NHL coach. But Foligno didn&rsquo;t mention Cherry&mdash;or any other critic&mdash;by name, in defending himself and other teammates who spoke out against Sator.&ldquo;People who don&rsquo;t know the business don&rsquo;t understand that one of the hardest things for a player to do is speak out,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to just keep your mouth shut, pick up your paycheck and leave. You have to realize what&rsquo;s at stake whenever we open our mouths. What we say to you guys (the media) or anywhere in public is not something we can treat lightly.&ldquo;The reason any of us said any thing is because we care.&rdquo;How much?&ldquo;There are guys on this team who have put a lot into it, who do all the things that maybe you don&rsquo;t really have to do&mdash;live here year-round, make public appearances for the team, things like that&mdash;but you do it because you want the team and the city to be a winner.&ldquo;We said things, but only pertaining to our game. How and why we lost. We weren&rsquo;t trying to make moves for the team, that&rsquo;s (Meehan&rsquo;s) job. I wasn&rsquo;t trying to do his job. I wouldn&rsquo;t want his job. Gerry has to make the decisions whether it&rsquo;s a player or a coach.&ldquo;I said some things at that time because there was a certain frustration at not being able to accomplish anything. I didn&rsquo;t say anything that I didn&rsquo;t say to anyone&rsquo;s face. It&rsquo;s just at that point I didn&rsquo;t think we were playing the way we had to play to win. I didn&rsquo;t think the fans were getting their money&rsquo;s worth.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 15: Grant Ledyard, D, signed multiyear contract. &#9632;

NEW COACH GETS CAPTAIN’S SUPPORT

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div><h2>IHL</h2>The NHL&rsquo;s former Ironman is the first coach of the Phoenix entry in the International League.The Roadrunners signed former NHLer Garry Unger to a one-year contract as head coach Aug. 17. Unger, who played 16 seasons with Toronto, Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Edmonton, set the NHL record for consecutive games played when he appeared in 914 straight from 1968 to 1979. The record was broken by Doug Jarvis, who played 962 consecutive games with Montreal, Washington and Hartford from 1975 to 1987.Unger, 41, retired from the NHL after the 1982-83 season and spent the next two seasons as a scout with the Edmonton Oilers. In 1985-86, he became a player-coach in Scotland with the Dundee Rockets of the Premier Division of the British Ice Hockey Association, leading them to the Scottish Cup national championship. He then became a player-coach with the Peterborough Pirates in England in 1986-87 and has coached the Pirates the last two seasons.&ldquo;It was a great experience for me because I was able to start coaching out of the limelight and I was able to make my mistakes,&rdquo; said Unger. &ldquo;I got some great experience in Peterborough. There I was managing and coaching the team, managing the ice rink, managing the junior development program and I was even driving the Zamboni.&rdquo;Unger said he won&rsquo;t measure this season&rsquo;s success in wins and losses but in how the team comes together.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt that this year is going to be very difficult for this team no matter who comes in here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The IHL is a strong league and I have a tough job ahead.&rdquo;Unger&rsquo;s biggest task initially will be screening potential players for a team without direct NHL affiliation. By mid-August the Roadrunners had received 50 requests from players wanting to tryout for the team. Roadrunners&rsquo; general manager Adam Keller said he expects to invite about 35 players to training camp.Keller had hoped to land an affiliation with the New York Rangers but they decided on the Flint Spirits. But the Roadrunners have working agreements with the Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, which could supply up to 15 quality players.<h2>COMEBACK</h2>The Vancouver Canucks appointed Ron Lapointe head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals Aug. 7.Lapointe, 39, resigned as coach of the Quebec Nordiques last December after a cancerous tumor was discovered on his left kidney. The tumor has since been removed and Lapointe is ready to resumer his career.&ldquo;Ron is a career coach with a positive background in all levels of hockey,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; president Pat Quinn. &ldquo;We received very positive feedback from our players about his work in Fredericton.&rdquo;Lapointe coached the Fredericton Express of the American League in 1987-88. The Express was the farm team for both the Canucks and Nordiques at the time.In another coaching move, the New York Rangers appointed Paul Theriault coach of the Flint Spirits Aug. 15. Theriault, 39, spent the last nine years as head coach of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals and had just agreed to a three-year contract with the team. Asked how he would adjust to coaching pros, Theriault said he didn&rsquo;t plan any major style changes.&ldquo;I see the players having to adjust to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very successful doing things my way and I&rsquo;ve never had any problems communicating with junior players.&ldquo;Most of the players I&rsquo;ll be coaching at Flint will be coming right out of junior hockey anyway. I don&rsquo;t see a problem.&rdquo;The Salt Lake Golden Eagles also announced the hiring of assistant coach Jamie Hislop. Hislop, 35, retired as a player from the Calgary Flames in 1983-84, after an eye injury hampered his effectiveness.Following his retirement, Hislop worked briefly with the Flames on special assignment, then quit hockey to go into teaching. This is his first coaching job. &#9632;

ROADRUNNERS NAME UNGER FIRST COACH

<div class="byline">BY PAUL AMBRAM0WITZ</div>The coaching ranks of the American League will have a decidedly new complexion this season.Going into the 1989-90 campaign, eight of the league&rsquo;s 14 teams will have new head coaches. Binghamton, Cape Breton and New Haven were the latest teams to make changes.The Binghamton Whalers named Doug McKay coach July 28. McKay, 36, replaces Claude Larose, who was reassigned as a scout by the parent Hartford Whalers. McKay spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils but was fired during the off-season and replaced by John Cunniff. McKay was also an assistant coach in Toronto in 1981-82.&ldquo;The Binghamton Whalers have a quality teacher and motivator,&rdquo; said Hartford general manager Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an enthusiastic person, a disciplined worker and a fine addition to the organization.&rdquo;The Cape Breton Oilers named Don MacAdam coach Aug. 3. MacAdam, 39, replaced Ron Lowe, who accepted a job as an assistant with the Edmonton Oilers. MacAdam spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings.&ldquo;I left the Red Wings to advance my career as a head coach in professional hockey,&rdquo; said MacAdam.New Haven made its announcement Aug. 11 when Marcel Comeau became the Nighthawks&rsquo; coach and director of hockey operations. Comeau, 37, coached the Saskatoon Blades of the Western League the last five seasons and led the Blades to the Memorial Cup final last year. He also played in Flint of the International League for 11 seasons.Comeau takes over for Rick Dudley, who led the Nighthawks to the Calder Cup finals for the first time in 10 years. Dudley was hired in June to coach the Buffalo Sabres.Earlier in the summer, Barry Melrose took over for Bill Dineen with the Adirondack Red Wings, Kevin McCarthy replaced John Paddock with the Hershey Bears, Rick Bowness succeeded Mike Milbury with the Maine Mariners and Dave Farrish replaced Alpo Suhonen with the Moncton Hawks. The Halifax Citadels had to replace Doug Carpenter, who left to join the Toronto Maple Leafs as head coach.<h2>NEW MAN</h2>The Binghamton Whalers&rsquo; loss is the AHL&rsquo;s gain.Less than two months after marketing director Mike Cole left the AHL for the Continental Basketball Association, the league named Bob Ohrablo to the job. The appointment was announced Aug. 17.Ohrablo, 31, spent the last three seasons as the director of marketing for the Binghamton Whalers. In that time, Binghamton&rsquo;s attendance increased by an average of 600 per game and last season the last-place team attracted 3,792 per game.Ohrablo also established the New York State Lottery Cup, which involves the Whalers, the Rochester Americans, the Adironack Red Wings and the Utica Devils. The team accumulating the most points in games against its New York rivals wins the Cup and all teams receive lottery tickets based on their performance in the games. Any winnings from the tickets then go to local charities. &#9632;

COACHING RANKS GET FACELIFT

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>Neil Carnes, a center-left winger for the Quebec League champion Laval Titan, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Plymouth Township, Mich., July 30.A third-round choice (46th overall) of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1988 entry draft, Carnes was 18.Carnes and a male passenger, who wasn&rsquo;t seriously injured, were reportedly travelling 70 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone at 2:12 a.m., when their motorcycle crossed the median on a curve and struck an oncoming automobile. Although Carnes was wearing a helmet, he died instantly. The motorcycle was borrowed from a friend and Carnes had no license to drive it.Police won&rsquo;t know whether alcohol was involved until they receive results of the autopsy done on Carnes.Carnes is survived by his father Neil Sr., mother Lois and brothers Alan and Kenneth. The family lives in Farmington, Mich.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone one step back, and it&rsquo;s a huge step,&rdquo; said Titan owner Jean-Claude Morissette. &ldquo;He won&rsquo;t be replaced this year.&rdquo;Morissette said the team will retire Carnes&rsquo; No. 19 jersey.Carnes, who was named the left winger on the 1989 Memorial Cup all-star team, played two seasons with the Verdun Junior Canadiens, scoring 85 points as a rookie in 1986-87. He had 31-57-88 totals in 1987-88.He quit the Baby Habs for six weeks last season. Although he eventually returned. Carries was subsequently traded to Laval along with defensemen Marc Picard and Steve Parent for right winger Marc Talbot and a second-round draft pick (Marc Savard). In 31 games he was 9-24-33.The 5-foot-9, 184-pound Carnes was at his best in the playoffs, going 9-9-18 in 10 games as the Titan captured the QMJHL title. In the Memorial Cup, Carnes had four goals and four assists in four games.&ldquo;We bet a lot on him,&rdquo; said Morissette. &ldquo;We bet he would bring us to the Memorial Cup, and he did. We&rsquo;re going to have a big hole without him. Every time we think about it, it creates a bigger hole.&rdquo;Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; scout Eric Taylor, who convinced Carnes to play in the Quebec League, said Carnes was definitely part of the Habs&rsquo; future.&ldquo;He would have been in the NHL by the time he was 20 for sure,&rdquo; said Taylor. &ldquo;I know the Canadiens thought very highly of him. He had a great shot, speed on the outside and he was strong.&rdquo;Carnes&rsquo; tenure in Verdun was marred by problems with management, but Taylor said that was due in large part to the misgivings of youth.&ldquo;I had heard a few things about him and I know he didn&rsquo;t get along too well with (former Verdun general manager) Carol Vadnais,&rdquo; said Taylor. &ldquo;But in my mind, Neil Cames was an angel. He was a really good kid but he was a follower.&rdquo;The fatal accident occurred during the United States Olympic Festival &rsquo;89 in Oklahoma City. The four-team tournament, which helps USA Hockey identify talent for the national teams, attracts the best American prospects. Cames, a member of last year&rsquo;s U.S. entry at the World Junior Championships, was suprisingly omitted from the Festival roster.<h2>BATTLE BREWING</h2>The Hull Olympiques are set to do legal battle with the QMJHL over 15-year-old center PhiLlipe Boucher.The Olympiques knowingly violated a league rule when they chose the Quebec City bantam in the fourth round of the annual midget draft in May. Until the rule was changed June 23, teams were not allowed to draft 15-year-old players from Quebec in the first five rounds of the draft. They were allowed to draft 15-year-olds from outside the province.The incident prompted the league to change the rule but league president Gilles Courteau said the new ruling doesn&rsquo;t come into effect until 1990-91. Because of that, Boucher will be ineligible this season and will be draft-eligible again next year. &#9632;

TITAN’S CARNES KILLED IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT

<div class="byline">BY ED WILLES</div>The Saskatoon Blades weren&rsquo;t worried about Terry Ruskowski&rsquo;s lack of headcoaching experience when they hired him to replace Marcel Comeau Aug. 18.Ruskowski, 34, retired from the Minnesota North Stars at the end of the 1988-89 season after a 10-year NHL career and was working in the North Stars&rsquo; sales and marketing department. Ruskowski also played with Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh but was limited to three games this season. He also played four seasons in the WHA, winning Avco Cup championships with Winnipeg and Houston.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt he can do the job and I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll be in junior hockey very long,&rdquo; said Blades&rsquo; GM Daryl Lubiniecki. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been captain of almost every team he&rsquo;s played for and he&rsquo;s played under some pretty good coaches.&rdquo;Comeau signed with the New Haven Nighthawks of the American League Aug. 10, less than a month after signing a two-year contract extension with the Blades. But his contract did contain an escape clause.Comeau&rsquo;s move came three months after taking the Blades to the Memorial Cup championship game against the Swift Current Broncos. The Blades received an automatic berth as host team but finished first in the round-robin with a 2-1 record before losing 4-3 in overtime to the Broncos in the final.Ruskowski, a native of Prince Albert, played for the Broncos from 1972 to 1974.<h2>NEW T-BIRD</h2>Former Prince Albert Raiders&rsquo; head coach Peter Anholt was named coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds Aug. 9.Anholt, who signed a two-year deal, replaces Barry Melrose, who left July 20 to join the AHL&rsquo;s Adirondack Red Wings. Anholt led the Raiders to a 33-35-4 record as head coach but agreed to become an assistant coach and assistant general manager when Terry Simpson signed as the team&rsquo;s head coach and GM in June.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01620/5808197-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="714" height="803"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marcel Comeau left Saskatoon for the coaching job in New Haven of the AHL.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I let everyone know I was content to work with Terry for a year,&rdquo; said Anholt. &ldquo;But this opportunity was too good to pass up.&rdquo;Anholt, 28, became the fifth member of the Raiders&rsquo; organization to leave since the end of the 1988-89 season. General manager Brad Tippett became head coach of the Regina Pats in May, assistant coach Roy Sommer took the head-coaching job of the Minot Americans of the Saskatchewan Junior League, assistant coach Rob Robson was named head coach of the British Columbia Junior League&rsquo;s Penticton Knights and scout Wayne Meier left to become the Portland Winter Hawks&rsquo; director of player personnel. Meier was replaced by Bob Tory.However, Meier wasn&rsquo;t at his new job very long. Meier resigned from his position with the Winter Hawks Aug. 9 to become a scout with the Detroit Red Wings. Meier will take over the Wings&rsquo; scouting duties in Eastern Canada, a position that became vacant when former head scout Neil Smith became the general manager of the New York Rangers.The Raiders replaced Anholt by signing Bob Daum Aug. 14. Daum was previously head coach and general manager of the SJHL&rsquo;s Nipa-win Hawks. &#9632;

f0029-01

EX-NHLER RUSKOWSKI TAKES OVER BLADES

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>No matter what happens in the Ontario League this season, one thing is certain: the Dukes of Hamilton will play in the 1990 Memorial Cup.At the OHL&rsquo;s summer meetings in Sudbury Aug. 9, league governors voted to make Hamilton the host city for the tournament. The Dukes, formerly the Toronto Marlies, will be joined by the OHL playoff champion and the winners from the Quebec and Western Leagues. If the Dukes win the league title, they will be the sole OHL representative.This will be the Dukes&rsquo; first year in the league and they will play out of the 17,500-seat Copps Coliseum. Hamilton won over bids by London, Kitchener, Sudbury, Peterborough and North Bay.London Knights&rsquo; coach-general manager Wayne Maxner lashed out at the board of governors, saying the league chose the Dukes simply because of their facility.&ldquo;Us and Kitchener were first and second in attendance last season,&rdquo; said Maxner. &ldquo;Weboth play in big, clean buildings, we both figure to have teams in the upper echelon this season and Hamilton waltzes back in and gets the Memorial Cup. What make it worse is that they are rated to finish no higher than fifth over there (Leyden Division) this season. I guess having a big building counts for everything.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s terrific. A fifth-place team is going to the Memorial Cup.&rdquo;The tournament opens May 5, 1990, with the final being played May 13.<h2>GENERAL HAVOC</h2>One of the most stable front offices in the OHL is undergoing a radical facelift.Two weeks before training camp, the Oshawa Generals lost head coach Paul Theriault to the Flint Spirits of the International League. Theriault, who coached the Generals for the last nine years, recently signed a three-year contract, but had an escape clause allowing him to leave for a pro position.Rick Comacchia, who served as Theriault&rsquo;s assistant the last four seasons, was named head coach Aug. 21.Last May, general manager Sherry Bassin resigned after 12 years. He later joined the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds as part owner and director of operations. In mid-June, director of scouting David Mayville left after four years with the Generals to become Bassin&rsquo;s assistant in the Soo.The Generals&rsquo; filled the void created by Bassin&rsquo;s departure by naming Frank Jay director of hockey operations and Scott Clark business manager. Jay, a scout for the New Jersey Devils and elementary school teacher, was the Generals&rsquo; chief scout prior to Mayville. The Generals&rsquo; vacant chief scouting post was filled Aug. 16, when veteran OHL scout Jim Cherry moved over from the Dukes of Hamilton.The Generals followed their pattern of promoting from within by hiring Comacchia, but Jay said the new head coach had some stiff competition for the post.&ldquo;The fact he&rsquo;s familiar with the organization was a positive for him,&rdquo; said Jay. &ldquo;But the job certainly wasn&rsquo;t given to him. We interviewed anumber of other hockey people we felt were capable but we think Rick is the best man for the job.&rdquo;<h2>NEW MAN</h2>The Cornwall Royals dug into their past for new head coach Marc Crawford. Crawford, who played for the Royals from 1979 to 1981, was named to the post July 20.Crawford, 28, replaced Brent Loney, who served as interim coach last season when Orval Tessier left the job for health reasons. Tessier will remain with the Royals as general manager and assistant coach.Crawford, a player-coach with the IHL&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals last season, is the son of former Royals&rsquo; coach Floyd Crawford, who guided the team during the 1984-85 season. The elder Crawford is now a scout with the Kingston Frontenacs&hellip;After eight years as director of the OHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau, Jack Ferguson left the job July 21 to join the Washington Capitals&rsquo; scouting staff. Ferguson signed a two-year deal to be the Capitals&rsquo; chief eastern scout. No replacement has been named. &#9632;

HAMILTON PUTS UP ITS DUKES FOR MEMORIAL CUP

<div class="byline">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01703/5808388-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="535" height="615"></div>Among their many other worthwhile functions, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta will, when asked, issue advisories to travellers heading to exotic destinations around the world.I called about Leningrad.Unless you&rsquo;ve been in a coma alongside Harold Ballard all summer, you probably remember two of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s better teams, the Calgary Flames and Washington Capitals, will be participating in a goodwill tour of the Soviet Union in mid-September.Nominally, the goal is to complete an exchange of games that has been strictly one-way over the past two decades. Soviet teams pop up in North America as regularly as Santa Claus, but apart from a handful of appearances&mdash;the 1972 Super Series, the WHA&rsquo;s 1974 tour, the 1986 World Championships&mdash;the NHL rarely returned the favor.The other reason for going, of course, is the almighty ruble. The NHL&rsquo;s expanded licensing division sees the Soviet Union as a vast, untapped market for its many products. The tour&mdash;to be repeated by other NHL teams in subsequent years&mdash;is a way of promoting the league and its products in the world&rsquo;s largest hockey-playing nation.But we digress. Today&rsquo;s topic is water, something indispensable to an NHL team trying to run a training camp. And the water in Leningrad is, for North Americans, undrinkable. It is rife with a protozoan parasite of the small intestine known as the giardia lamblia.The giardia is a hardy little bug that can exist in cold water for up to two months and in tap water for several days. It is resistant to the chlorine routinely used to disinfect municipal water supplies. Its incubation period is anywhere from one to 14 weeks and the duration of the illness, when untreated, can vary from two weeks to several months.The CDC has identified giardiasis in travellers returning from the Soviet Union since 1969 and strongly advises to drink only bottled water.Even then, the chances of coming down with it are rated as fairly good.So what happens if half the Flames or Capitals get infected?Apparently, it&rsquo;s difficult enough to rid the body of the giardia parasite. It&rsquo;s another matter for a player to regain his strength and conditioning once it&rsquo;s out of his system.A year ago, the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association toured the Soviet Union. One player. Doc Rivers, came down with giardiasis. He wasn&rsquo;t right for half a season.Is it worth it? If you&rsquo;re NHL president John Ziegler, looking at the big picture, your answer is likely yes.Presumably, the tour will revive interest in hockey in the Soviet Union as well as cement the growing ties between the Soviets and the NHL. Except for the most xenophobic observers, people agree the exchanges between Europe and North America are a good thing.If you&rsquo;re someone like the Flames&rsquo; Jim Peplinski. open to new experiences, the answer is also yes. The tour gives you a chance to shake the fishbowl existence of professional athletics and see how the other half lives. It&rsquo;s the closest we&rsquo;ll ever come to time travel in our modem society. Step off the plane and step back into 1952. Sometimes, it seems like 1852.But if you&rsquo;re a general manager, Cliff Fletcher or David Poile, there&rsquo;s a real downside for the guinea pigs chosen for the first trip. Even if the Soviet hosts do their best to ensure teams are comfortable and well looked after, unforeseen contingencies are a way of life there.And troubleshooting is not a Soviet strong suit. To begin with, some problems can&rsquo;t be corrected. There&rsquo;s the severe shortage of basic foodstuffs&mdash;fresh fruits and vegetables, readily identifiable meat products, milk. You just can&rsquo;t get it.Then there&rsquo;s the barnstorming nature of the tour. In the past. North American teams hunkered down in Moscow until a siege mentality set in. Everybody pooled their crackers and peanut butter, laughed off the difficulties they faced and counted down the days.This is different. The teams will be on the move all the time on Aeroflot, an airline whose equipment dates back to Orville and Wilbur Wright. An Aeroflot charter means you get first choice of seats. Then they fill the plane with Soviet citizens. Delays are inevitable and can be interminable.Two injuries, two illnesses to star players and suddenly a couple of strong teams can become very ordinary very quickly. It&rsquo;s a real chance to take coming off the kinds of seasons Calgary and Washington had.Is it worth it? Check back with the Flames and Caps in October. &#9632;

f0034-01

WARNING: DON’T DRINK THE WATER

<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Former NHL defenseman Barry Beck has expressed an interest in making a comeback with the Canucks. Beck, 32, is a Vancouver native and said he would like to play close to home. Beck&rsquo;s agent Ron Ingraham hopes to have talks with both the Canucks and Los Angeles to work out a deal conditional on Beck being able to play again. Beck hasn&rsquo;t played since &rsquo;85-86, when he retired from the New York Rangers. In his nine-year career, he scored 103 goals and 244 assists in 563 games&hellip;The Canucks hired former Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; coach Ron Lapointe to handle their International League team in Milwaukee Aug. 9. Quinn liked his work with the Vancouver prospects when he was in Fredericton, working under the dual Quebec-Vancouver franchise in the American League two years ago&hellip;The Canucks hadn&rsquo;t signed free-agent center Brian Bradley, but weren&rsquo;t anticipating any problems.<h2>KINGS</h2>Goalie Glenn Healy, a free agent with compensation signed with the New York Islanders Aug. 16. Healy, 27, was the Kings&rsquo; No. 1 goalie for most of last year, but he didn&rsquo;t play much after Kelly Hrudey was acquired from the Islanders Feb. 22. &ldquo;They (the Kings) are going for the Stanley Cup, they went out and got a guy (Hrudey) with experience, and they&rsquo;ve got to use him,&rdquo; said Healy. &ldquo;We needed to get off to a good start last year and I feel I was a factor in that we did. If we hadn&rsquo;t, people would have said, &lsquo;They&rsquo;ve got the best player in the world (Wayne Gretzky) and they still stink.&rsquo;&rdquo;&hellip;The New Jersey Devils signed Kings&rsquo; free-agent goalie Rollie Melanson Aug. 10&hellip;Wingers Jim Fox, Ron Duguay and Phil Sykes signed termination contracts July 25. Fox missed all of last season following surgery on both knees. Duguay had seven goals and 17 assists in 70 games. Sykes had only one assist in 23 games and rarely played under former coach Robbie Ftorek.<h2>OILERS</h2>Ron Low was elevated from Cape Breton (AHL) to join head coach John Muckier and co-coach Ted Green on the Oilers&rsquo; staff. Low, who operates a farm in Foxwarren, Man., during the off-season, has been named assistant coach and goaltending coach&hellip;Don MacAdam, an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings the last three seasons and author of three books on hockey conditioning, will replace Low with the Oilers&rsquo; farm team. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a well-educated guy,&rdquo; said Sather&hellip;Oilers&rsquo; defenseman Kevin Lowe announced he will wed double bronze-medal winning Olympic skier Karen Percy next summer. The two met at Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s softball tournament in Brantford, Ont., in June. &ldquo;It just happened,&rdquo; said Lowe. &ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s pretty fast. But we both feel we could do it now or wait six months. We both feel the same.&ldquo;<h2>JETS</h2>Winnipeg&rsquo;s fight to regain the services of defenseman Fredrik Olausson from Farjestads of the Swedish Elite League continues to get messier. The NHL club attempted to get a ruling on the validity of Olausson&rsquo;s NHL contract&mdash;he has an option year left in Winnipeg but signed a five-year deal with Farjestads&mdash;in Manitoba Court of Queen&rsquo;s bench but by Aug. 15, the case had twice been adjourned. It appears as if a civil suit against Olaus-son will now be launched by the Jets, meaning the 22-year-old will play his hockey in Sweden while the matter is being resolved&hellip;Now that the rumor mill has stopped, it&rsquo;s clear Winnipeg captain Dale Hawerchuk will not be traded. Hawerchuk met with Jets&rsquo;GM Mike Smith and had his contract rewritten to include a variety of performance bonuses. That, combined with a new coaching staff and the acquisition of Randy Cunneyworth and Greg Paslawski, has apparently soothed Hawerchuk&rsquo;s dissatisfaction.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03411/5808419-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="554" height="630"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fredrik Olausson likely won&rsquo;t be with the Jets in &rsquo;89-90.</figcaption></div><h2>FLAMES</h2>Lanny McDonald, 36, put off a decision on his future until the end of August, in part to help Alan Eagleson in his fight to stay on as the NHLPA&rsquo;s executive director. As a vice president of the association, McDonald considers himself an Eagleson supporter. If McDonald had announced his retirement prior to the Aug. 20-21 meetings, he would not be allowed to attend as an active player&hellip;Some guys will do anything to get out of a trip to the Soviet Union. Center Doug Gilmour broke a bone in his right foot while jogging with teammate Gary Roberts. His foot was placed in a cast Aug. 12 that was scheduled to come off just before the team headed overseas in early September. As of late August, Gilmour was still supposed to travel with the team, even if he couldn&rsquo;t go on the ice right away&hellip; Jamie Hislop, a former Flame, has been named an assistant coach for the Flames&rsquo; International League team in Salt Lake City&hellip;The Flames will go on tour to Europe with 27 players, five of them Europeans who will meet up with the team in Czechoslovakia. &#9632;

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BECK WANTS BACK IN NHL

Defenseman Ron Greschner is going into his 16th NHL season&mdash;all with the New York Rangers. No current NHL player can boast a longer stretch of service with only one team. Tied for second on the list with 15 seasons are New York Islander center Bryan Trottier and Chicago Blackhawk rearguard Doug Wilson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02527/5808450-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="698" height="402"></div> &#9632;

f0034-02

NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>One down, two to go.Although the signing of goaltender Bill Ranford doesn&rsquo;t relieve the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; biggest headache, it will enable general manager Glen Sather to focus on his two migraine situations.The Oilers announced the signing of the 22-year-old Ranford to a three-year contract, leaving free-agent Esa Tikkanen and the &lsquo;retired&rsquo; Grant Fuhr as Sather&rsquo;s major off-season projects.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re all coming around,&rdquo; Sather said confidently from his offseason home in Banff, Alta. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have them all taken care of, contrary to popular belief.&rdquo;In fact, Sather, back from his annual fishing excursion to the Arctic, appeared so assured the muddled Fuhr situation will be cleared up he said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad Billy has signed. You need two goaltenders to play in the NHL and I&rsquo;m happy we&rsquo;ve got two first-rate goalies.&rdquo;With the exception of Fuhr and Ranford, there aren&rsquo;t any others in the organization with NHL credentials.Ranford was a free-agent with compensation. His agent was surprised he re-signed with the dethroned Stanley Cup champions.&ldquo;When Billy retained me last year, I felt we were going to have to move for him to get paid what he is worth,&rdquo; said Toronto agent Bill Watters. &ldquo;I knew he didn&rsquo;t want to move, but the fact he signed with Edmonton showed that Glen was accommodating and reasonable.&ldquo;Everything worked out, it&rsquo;s a good deal, and Slats was his usual philanthropic self.&rdquo;Philanthropic?&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; chuckled Watters,&rdquo; someone who is infinitely wealthy, but gives money to the poor.&rdquo;Ranford compiled a respectable 3.49 goals-against average in 30 appearances (1,511 minutes) last season. Included among his 15 victories (15-8-2) was a 6-0 shutout of the eventual Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames Jan. 8.&ldquo;We hope he gets to play a little more, but we have no control over that,&rdquo; said Watters, who looks forward to Ranford starting 30 or more games. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing in the contract that says he has to play any games. He&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s backup and that&rsquo;s it&hellip;and he&rsquo;s comfortable with that.&rdquo;While Sather said Ranford&rsquo;s workload will be determined by head coach John Muckier, he agreed more playing time would be ideal.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t play as much as he should have or could have last year because we were trying to get Grant in a groove,&rdquo; said Sather, referring to a minor knee injury that plagued the start to Fuhr&rsquo;s topsy-turvy season. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t anticipate any problems like that this year.&rdquo;Oiler lawyer Bob Lloyd has had discussions with Fuhr&rsquo;s new legal counsel, local lawyer Ramon McKall. McKall wouldn&rsquo;t say what they involved, but Sather stipulated there are no legal problems.The question is still a matter of Fuhr deciding if he wants to reconsider his June retirement.&ldquo;I suspect we&rsquo;ll have that problem solved before too long,&rdquo; said Sather. Sather wouldn&rsquo;t talk with Fuhr&rsquo;s agent Rick Winter on the goaltender&rsquo;s situation, but negotiations were ongoing with Winter in the Tikkanen case.Sather made an offer to Tikkanen in early August. Tikkanen, who scored 31 goals and 47 assists in &rsquo;88-89, earned a reported $265,000 last season and was seeking considerably more than a 15-per-cent raise ($305,000).&ldquo;I made him an offer, a good offer, and he (Winter) said he&rsquo;ll get back to me,&rdquo; said Sather.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 24: Bill Ranford, G, signed three-year contract.Aug. 3: Ron Low named assistant coach and goaltenders&rsquo; coach. Don MacAdam named coach of Cape Breton (AHL) &#9632;

IT’S MIGRAINE TIME FOR SATHER

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>When Bruce McNall talks, so does his wallet.The Los Angeles King owner made another bold and expensive move July 25, when he signed Montreal Canadien stalwart defenseman Larry Robinson to a two-year contract with a one-year option. The signing added an additional $1.5 million to the club&rsquo;s skyrocketing payroll. Robinson, 38, was a free agent without compensation.Giggling at the notion he has money to burn, McNall said, &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to sign a free agent, he has to be a player who can take us beyond where we were. But it also has to make economic sense.&rdquo;McNall, who paid $20 million for a franchise that may be worth as much as $70 million today, is convinced Robinson still has much to give and he can play a major role in bringing a Stanley Cup to Southern California.&ldquo;This brings us a step closer,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very, very important key to the whole thing, one more piece to the puzzle. When you get a legend it&rsquo;s an incredible thrill. I can&rsquo;t wait to see him skate onto the ice. I&rsquo;ll have the same feeling as when No. 99 went out there.&rdquo;He was referring, of course, to Wayne Gretzky, who was acquired Aug. 9, 1988 from the Edmonton Oilers. That deal cost McNall $15 million in cash.When Robinson skates onto the Great Western Forum ice, he&rsquo;ll be wearing his familiar No. 19. Right winger Jim Fox, previous owner of the number, surrendered it at Robinson&rsquo;s introductory news conference the day of the signing.&ldquo;When I found out Larry was going to be here for sure, I felt he should have it,&rdquo; said Fox, a King since 1980.&ldquo;It was kind of touching,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy to give up a number. I hope I don&rsquo;t screw it up.&rdquo;When asked about his age, Robinson said, &ldquo;People have been saying for three years that I should retire. But every time there&lsquo;s been a crucial situation, I&rsquo;ve been on the ice. I believe I can help the Kings.&rdquo;Defense is one area in which the Kings desperately need help. The Kings scored a league-high 376 goals last season but tied the Chicago Blackhawks for 17th place in goals-against with 335.McNall was so intent on landing the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Robinson that he was willing to guarantee all three years of the contract, making it more difficult for Montreal to match the offer. The Canadiens, who had the opportunity to match the Kings&rsquo; contract, offered a one-year contract worth $500,000. Montreal also normally rewards career players with a bonus of one-year&rsquo;s salary after retirement.&ldquo;Any move we make that brings us closer to the Stanley Cup makes sense to me,&rdquo; McNall said.He&rsquo;s also counting on making dollars with his investments. Aside from Gretzky and Robinson, the Kings have six other members of the million-dollar club. Bernie Nicholls signed a five-year deal worth $3.5 million over the summer, and Dave Taylor has three years remaining on a four-year, $2.8-million contract. Luc Robitaille has three years to go on a five-year, $2-million pact while Kelly Hrudey, Steve Duchesne and Mike.Krushelnyski have three years left on their four-year, $1.2-million deals.But largely due to the Gretzky deal, ticket sales went up by $4.1 million last season, television revenue jumped by 40 per cent and the sale of licensed merchandise shot up by 500 per cent. Home attendance was up by 142,440 last year and sellouts jumped from five to 24.The Kings expect to make in the neighborhood of $ 1 million during the coming exhibition season, with a barnstorming tour that includes stops in Quebec, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Phoenix, San Diego, Edmonton and Calgary.Robinson became the fifth free agent to sign with the Kings in the span of one year. He joins Keith Crowder, Mario Gosselin, John Tonelli and Tim Watters.Had McNall struck out with Robinson, he most likely would have gone after Chicago free-agent Doug Wilson, who re-signed with the Hawks.&ldquo;Whatever it takes to make us a better team, that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ll do,&rdquo; McNall said.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>June 26: Ron Duguay, RW, Jim Fox, RW, and Phil Sykes, LW, signed termination contracts.July 26: Larry Robinson, D, free agent without compensation from Montreal, signed two-year contract with an option year.Aug. 7: Nick Salata hired as director of media relations.Aug. 10: Roland Melanson, G, free agent without compensation, signed three-year contract with New JerseyAug. 16: Glenn Healy, G, free agent with compensation, signed multi-year contract with the New York Islanders. The teams agreed on a fourth-round draft pick as compensation. &#9632;

BIG BIRD FLIES SOUTH FOR THE WINTER

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>The best team in the NHL last year just got better.The defending Stanley Cup-champion Calgary Flames filled what was perhaps their only weak spot&mdash;a second goal-scoring right winger behind Joe Mullen&mdash;when they signed 31-year-old Soviet superstar Sergei Makarov.Many believe Makarov is the best of all the Russians who will be coming to the NHL this year.Makarov signed a two-year contract July 1 to play with the Flames, but did not visit the city until early August. Makarov was accompanied by his wife Vera and their 1 O-year-old son Arten.&ldquo;He is the most dangerous player on the KLM line,&rdquo; Dave King, general manager and coach of Canada&rsquo;s national hockey team said. &ldquo;They (linemates Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov) are going to miss him more than he misses them.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01550/5808529-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="566" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sergei Makarov has been called the best of the Soviets.</figcaption></div>King, of course, is highly qualified to assess Makarov&rsquo;s talent, having coached against him more than a dozen times in the 1980s. He described the 5-foot-8, 170-pound Makarov as a composite of smaller, scrappy players such as Ken Linse-man or Theoren Fleury, with one exception&mdash;he&rsquo;ll score more goals.&ldquo;He has the best personality and more mental toughness than the others,&rdquo; added King. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the most persevering of all the Russians.&rdquo;That, in turn, is what the Flames need. With a gap on their right side created by 27-goal scorer HakanLoob&rsquo;s decision to return to Sweden, the Flames expect Makarov to bolster their scoring totals.General manager Cliff Fletcher said he would not sign Makarov unless he was convinced he wanted to play.In his meetings with Makarov, Fletcher came away impressed with his desire to help the Flames defend the Stanley Cup. Makarov&rsquo;s countryman, Sergei Priakin, joined the Flames in March as the first Soviet permitted by his federation to play in the NHL. But he did not really participate in the championship run, getting into only three games last year.Makarov addressed the news conference through an interpreter, but spoke a few words of English and appeared to understand quite a bit of what was going on around him. Makarov&rsquo;s son, Arten, has also been taking English-language lessons the past two years and will be enrolled in a regular Canadian public school.&ldquo;When we drafted him originally, we weren&rsquo;t sure we would ever get him,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;But we drafted him (12th round, 1983) because if the day ever came that he was available, we didn&rsquo;t want him going anywhere else. At 31 years of age, he has a lot of hockey left in him.&rdquo;Makarov said he probably would have played two more years in the Soviet Union had Viktor Tikhonov not been kept on as the national coach. Tikhonov&rsquo;s rigorous training measures were a source of frustration, not just for Larionov and Viacheslav Fetisov, his most vocal critics, but to Makarov as well.&ldquo;He (Tikhonov) figures he plays the game,&rdquo; said Makarov. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s the team that plays and the coach who coaches. That&rsquo;s why I wouldn&rsquo;t play for him another year.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 1: Sergei Makarov, RW, signed two-year contract.Aug. 2: Jamie Hislop named an assistant coach with Salt Lake (IHL). &#9632;

f0037-01

RICH GET RICHER AS FLAMES GET MAKAROV

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL AND TONY GALLAGHER</div>With Soviet center Igor Larionov signed, sealed and delivered, comrade Vladimir Krutov is next on the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; wish list.And just as the acquisition of Larionov was an arduous task fraught with false alarms, getting the man they call &lsquo;Tank&rsquo; will undoubtedly be as difficult for Canuck general manager and president Pat Quinn.The Canucks said Krutov, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound left winger, has yet to be discharged from the Soviet Red Army, where he holds the rank of major. But the Aug. 17 edition of The Globe and Mail reported Krutov, 29, had been discharged and was expected to sign a contract within days.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve heard so many conflicting stories about how Krutov has been given his release, but none of them are true,&rdquo; said Brian Burke, the Canucks&rsquo; director of operations. &ldquo;As of right now, he&rsquo;s still in the Soviet army and we have no idea when he&rsquo;ll be released.&rdquo;Canuck management speaks from experience.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned one thing, and that is you can&rsquo;t rush these people,&rdquo; said Quinn, who practically had to jump through hoops to get Larionov. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s our understanding Krutov applied for his release later than Larionov and that is one of the holdups.&rdquo;The Globe and Mail reported friends of Krutov&rsquo;s in Moscow were told he didn&rsquo;t express his desire to leave the army as forcefully as did his teammates.Quinn remained optimistic he&rsquo;d be able to sign Krutov, but said he may not be able to get him for the beginning of the season.&ldquo;From a social standpoint, it may not be a bad thing for Krutov to join us in the middle of the season,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;If (Larionov and Krutov) were to come together, they may spend too much time with each other and not really become part of the team as quickly as they would coming over one at a time. From a hockey standpoint, of course, it would be better if they could both start the season here.&rdquo;Quinn also said he isn&rsquo;t prepared to travel to Moscow until he&rsquo;s certain Krutov has been discharged and Sovintersport&mdash;the body that negotiates the players contracts&mdash;is ready to discuss a deal for Krutov.If the Canucks do land Krutov, it&rsquo;s been reported they&rsquo;ll make a serious bid to reunite the KLM line by making a deal for right winger Sergei Makarov. Makarov recently signed with Calgary, but Flame GM Cliff Fletcher said he&rsquo;s not interested in trading the Soviet.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll see the KLM line reunited.&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d never say that I&rsquo;d never listen to any proposal because that would be foolhardy, but we have no intention of trading Sergei Makarov.&rdquo;It was originally believed Krutov would not be allowed out of the Soviet Union because of an alleged drinking problem. While it has never been fully substantiated. Larionov alluded to it just before signing with Vancouver in July.It was reported that Krutov left the Red Army training base in Archangelskoe last summer and was reprimanded for an alcohol violation.The Canucks were at first a little leery of that situation, but they are now convinced the reports have been overstated. They&rsquo;re keen to bring him in.&ldquo;Send him over. I&rsquo;ll drink with him,&rdquo; joked coach Bob McCammon. &ldquo;Getting these guys has to make us a better hockey team.&rdquo;Larionov, meanwhile, arrived in Vancouver Aug. 16 with his wife Helena, a former international figure skater who may do some teaching while she&rsquo;s in Canada.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 9: Ron Lapointe named head coach of No. 1 affiliate club in Milwaukee (IHL). &#9632;

CANUCKS STILL HOPING TO LAND KRUTOV

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01601/5808584-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston Bruin teammates Derek Sanderson (left) and Bobby Orr copped two NHL awards in 1968. Sanderson won the Calder Trophy as top rookie, while Orr captured the Norris as best defenseman. It was the first of eight consecutive Norris Trophies for Orr.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

WAY WE WERE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02422/5808622-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS</h2>1. The Kings&rsquo; owner, pictured.4. Sells tickets at inflated prices.9. Birthplace of both Ron Hextall and Ken Wregget.10. Nickname of Smythe Trophy winner Reg Leach.11. Throw out.12. He netted four goals in the second period of a 1985 playoff game against the Rangers (3,4).13. Number worn by both Jean Beliveau and Aurel Joliat.15. Frank Mahovlich was one late in his career.18. He was acquired by the Kings in the deal that sent Marcel Dionne to the Rangers.21. The Isles&rsquo; ----- Makela.23. Boston-born Ranger, he attended Northeastern University.24. An NHL award is named after this former Canadian prime minister.25. Nick Fotiu hails from ------ Island, N.Y.26. Crouches.<h2>DOWN</h2>1. Crowded around and jostled.2. A commentator with Hockey Night in Canada, once coach of the Canucks.3. Canuck defenseman schooled at Colorado College.5. Rebound.6. One of eight Canadiens named Smythe Trophy winner.7. Jabs an opponent with one&rsquo;s stick blade.8. Forward line.14. Home of the 9973 Allan-Cup winning Terriers.15. This former Jack Adams award winner is now an assistant with a Smythe Division club.16. Shuts out.17. Ankles, knees, etc.19. Former Ranger and Oiler --- Nethery.20. Beat badly, ---- out.22. Ranger previously with the Red Wings.Crossword solution in Classified on page 33.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01619/5808615-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="561" height="556"></div> &#9632;

f0039-02

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Bob Murdoch knows this could be one of the more trying years of his life. But the new coach of the Winnipeg Jets has no intentions of making it any more taxing than necessary.That&rsquo;s why he and Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith went for the two most experienced and level-headed prospects they could find when searching for assistant coaches.&ldquo;I did not want to hire a young player that came in and wanted to get into coaching and had very little experience,&rdquo; said Murdoch, who takes over a team that has cleaned house after winning just 26 hockey games last year. &ldquo;He would be riding on emotion all the time and, when we lost a couple of games, he&rsquo;d be ready to jump off a bridge.&ldquo;I wanted guys with experience who have been there, who know how to teach, who know how to make players better people and better players.&rdquo;Enter Clare Drake and Alpo Suhonen.Murdoch and Smith figure they explored every conceivable avenuewhile looking for assistants. They settled on Suhonen, who was already in the Jets&rsquo; organization, and Drake, who Murdoch met at a coaching seminar.Days later&mdash;on July 17&mdash;Drake and Suhonen were officially named to succeed Bill Sutherland and Bruce Southern, both fired after last season.&ldquo;They both have such great experience and have had such great success,&rdquo; Murdoch said.&ldquo;I want some good strong coaches who are strong in principle and strong in their own confidence that will stay with what we&rsquo;re trying to do right through the tough times and make better players because of it.&rdquo;Suhonen, 41, was scouting Europe for the Jets when he was called upon to be interim head coach at Moncton of the American League last spring. He took over from Rick Bowness&mdash;who became the Jets&rsquo; interim head coach&mdash;and led the Hawks to the AHL semifinals.A coach for 18 years, Suhonen retired as a player in 1971 after Pori won the Finnish championship. From 1974 to 1986, he was head coach of the Finnish national B team. He coached the Finnish entry in the 1984 Olympics. And his under-18 team, which included Edmonton&rsquo;s Jari Kurri, became the first team from Finland to win an international title.Drake is the most successful college coach in North America. At 60, the former University of Alberta coach has won six Canadian university national championships, 17 Canada West conference championships and has a lifetime record of 697-296-37 (a .695 winning percentage).Twice he has been Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union coach of the year, four times Canada West coach of the year and twice Edmonton sportsman of the year. He is in the Alberta Sports Hall Of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall Of Fame. He has coached a variety of international teams and the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association.Drake retired from the U of A to accept his first NHL job.&ldquo;The opportunity was simply too good to pass up,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;These coaches haven&rsquo;t been hired to pick up pucks,&rdquo; said Murdoch, whose team opens training camp Sept. 8 at Saskatchewan Place in Saskatoon. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to have specific responsibilities that they&rsquo;ll have to cany through with.&rdquo;Murdoch, whose one year as a head coach (1987-88 with Chicago; the Hawks went 30-41-9 and finished third in the Norris Division) pales in comparison to the experience of his two assistants, hopes the threesome will prove to be a winning combination.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>July 24: Shawn Cronin, D, acquired from Philadelphia for future considerations.Aug. 14: Jim Ramsay named athletic therapist. &#9632;

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September 8, 1989

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