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 15, 1989

The Hockey News September 15, 1989

<h2>SEPTEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01552/5814672-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="707" height="1078"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02402/5814665-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="698" height="1107"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03312/5814658-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="707" height="1107"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04257/5814651-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="684" height="768"></div><h2>OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05226/5814644-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="680" height="307"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

DEPARTMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>Spread the word: Checking and defensive hockey are back in the Big Apple.When Ron Smith was named assistant to New York Ranger head coach Roger Neilson on Aug. 24, it marked the fourth time the two have joined forces in their coaching careers.Both are known for a defense-first philosophy. Now, all they have to do is sell the concept to the Rangers.It won&rsquo;t be easy.Last season, the team finished seventh in the NHL in goals with 310, but 12th in goals against with 307. The 1988-89 Rangers featured more finesse players than grinders, partially because of injuries that kept Jan Erixon and Chris Nilan out of the lineup for long periods of time.Smith, the first of Neilson&rsquo;s assistants, quickly acknowledged that some give-and-take will be necessary on both sides.&ldquo;You have to adjust and adapt your coaching style to fit your players,&rdquo; said Smith, who coached the Guelph Platers of the Ontario League last season. &ldquo;Adapting is easier to do than to change 15 players, especially in a (late) situation like this.&ldquo;There is no question that a solid, disciplined style of hockey, as opposed to a creative, flamboyant style of hockey is the easiest, surest way to go. Probably the best way to go for most teams.&ldquo;If you have a good defensive game and solid goaltending, you&rsquo;ve got a chance to win every game. And if you can add some high-flying shooters to that, then you&rsquo;ve got a nice mix. That&rsquo;s what I hope we can do here in New York.&rdquo;But what if some of the defensive ingredients are missing when the Rangers open the season? And what if the Rangers&rsquo; talent lends itself to a more wide-open, finesse style than Neilson and Smith would normally prefer?&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no point in beating your head against the wall,&rdquo; said Smith, &ldquo;because the wall will probably win. I don&rsquo;t think you can be so stubborn as to look facts in the face and ignore them.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve really got to analyze what the strengths are. If there is certain way that is better (than defense first) for your team to follow and it will give you more immediate success, then you&rsquo;ve got to do that.&rdquo;While some compromises may be necessary at first, Smith said it is extremely unlikely the Rangers will still be playing wide open hockey a year or two from now.Smith, 45, coached the Platers to a 26-32-8 record and the fifth best goals-against mark in the 15-team OHL last season. Smith was Neilson&rsquo;s assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and spent another two years with Captain Video in Buffalo and 2&frac12; more years with him in Vancouver. After Neilson was fired by the Canucks in 1983-84, Smith spent another 1&frac12; years under Harry Neale and Bill LaForge. He also worked as an assistant with Canadian national team coach Dave King and was an assistant to Doug Carpenter with the New Jersey Devils for almost two seasons.Neilson said when he took the coaching job in mid-August, he was eager to get Smith on board.&ldquo;Finding out if Ron was available was my first thought,&rdquo; said Neilson.&ldquo;I feel very fortunate I could get Ron at this time. We work very well together.&rdquo;Although both Neilson and Smith have stressed the need to find some bigger wingers, the new Ranger assistant believes part of the problem can be solved by adopting a more solid commitment to team defense.&ldquo;The good thing about checkers is that a big part of being able to check is wanting to, check,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;re going to make a goalscorer out of somebody who has never scored goals. But lots of guys have become pretty good checking players out of sheer determination and a little bit of thinking about it.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 23: David McNab named U.S. college and high school scout and signed multi-year contract.Aug. 25: Ron Smith named assistant coach and signed multi-year contract. &#9632;

THE NHL

RANGER COACHING STAFF GOES ON DEFENSIVE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04424/5813164-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0003-04

Elston

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02828/5813759-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Canadian heroes have something in common</figcaption></div>You know an advertisement is successful when people not only want to buy the product the ad is promoting, but when they want to buy the ad as well.That&rsquo;s what has happened with Bauer&rsquo;s latest ad in the Skate of the Art and Skate of Mind advertising series.The ad, which has appeared since August on buses, streetcars and subways, features 11 captains of Canadian hockey championship teams from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, seated side-by-side on a dressing room bench, holding their trophies.&ldquo;The transit authorities have been getting numerous phone calls from people asking, Where can we get the ad, we love it,&rsquo; &ldquo;said Peter Tutlys, vice-president account manager for Ricketts Truman Advertising Ltd., the agency responsible for creating the ad.While the ad features mainly captains of minor hockey teams, its highlight is the man in the middle&mdash;former Calgary Flames&rsquo; captain Lanny McDonald.&ldquo;At first, we were planning to do the ad without an NHL player,&rdquo; said Kirk Sabo, marketing manager of Canstar, Bauer&rsquo;s parent company. &ldquo;We had to think whether having an NHLer would be cost-effective.&ldquo;But once Calgary won the Stanley Cup, we thought there was no one in hockey more recognizable than Lanny, so we decided to try to get him.&rdquo;Getting McDonald proved difficult in the days immediately following the Flames&rsquo; Stanley Cup triumph. Eventually, Bill Stefaniuk, a Canstar representative from Saskatoon, was able to reach McDonald at home. The classy captain immediately agreed to be the crowning touch on a very special ad.&ldquo;He is such a super guy, and what a gentleman,&rdquo; said Sabo. &ldquo;We arranged for him to come down the morning of the NHL Awards banquet (in June) to do the ad. We were very grateful to get Lanny.&rdquo;Getting McDonald was not the only difficult task in putting together the ad.First, Canstar&rsquo;s national salesteam had to recommend a team and league in each area of the country and then coordinate the flying of uniforms and trophies to Toronto on the same day.Meanwhile, the organization of the hockey players had to be done as well. There were difficulties in getting the right players. At times, the whole thing almost appeared to be more work than it was worth.However, after hundreds of phone calls and negotiations with colleges, universities, coaches and players, each salesperson selected a winning team and got the necessary uniforms. The ad was almost ready to be shot.Another problem was the set. It&rsquo;s the same one used in the famous Skate of the Art and Skate of Mind ads. But it needed to be large enough to accommodate 11 players, not just one.Realizing the construction of a set big enough would be too expensive and timeconsuming, it was decided to stagger the photography over three days. One-third of the picture was shot each day, using the same set each time. After, with electronic retouching, the three pictures were put together as one. The wonders of high technology made it all work. The result is a poster which reveals no evidence that it&rsquo;s really three separate pictures.The poster will continue to run until October. Bauer brand manager Jon Hodgins said the end-of-summer/early-fall period is when most skates are purchased.&ldquo;We wanted to hit the players looking for skates over the summer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We wanted subtle advertising. People don&rsquo;t need to be inundated with technical features; they know Bauer is No. 1.&rdquo;The president of Canstar hopes the ad is good enough to cause problems for transit authorities across Canada.&ldquo;We wanted this campaign to have such impact that kids would try to take them from the trains (subways),&rdquo; said Phil Chiarella. &ldquo;We wanted it to be a collector&rsquo;s item.&rdquo;The ad appears destined to become just that. But what about future plans for the ad? A TV commercial, perhaps?Both Sabo and Hodgins said a TV ad is a possibility. However, a more likely possibility is expansion of the ad to include captains from championship teams from all over the world.That would be fitting, since the Bauer ad has been praised worldwide. As Tutlys said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been accepted tremendously. It&rsquo;s just a great ad.&rdquo;A special limited-edition copy of the Bauer Transit Card is available for $14.95 (including postage, handling and tax). Quantities are limited. Available in Canada and U.S. only.Send check or money order, payable to Canstar Sports Group Inc., to:Bauer PosterCanstar Sports Group Inc., 6500 Millcreek Rd., Mississauga, Ont., L5N 2W6 &#9632;

f0017-02

IN THIS ISSUE

BAUER TRANSIT AD POPULAR ITEM

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011293/5813040-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="559" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Lindros</figcaption></div>In the Sept. 22 issue of The Hockey News, we will profile the most wanted man&mdash;or is that boy?&mdash;in the hockey world.His name is Eric Lindros and the 16-year-old phenom from Toronto is the most desirable hockey commodity to come along since Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. It&rsquo;s difficult to find anyone who doesn&rsquo;t believe Lindros couldn&rsquo;t play in the NHL today.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021055/5813033-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="566" height="544"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHL Preview</figcaption></div>Plus, we&rsquo;ll present our annual Canadian Hockey League preview, with in-depth looks at the Ontario, Quebec and Western Leagues as well their complete schedules.In addition to that, there will be our second of three Buyer Guides, featuring a consumer&rsquo;s guide to hockey equipment.We&rsquo;ll also unveil a few new features as we commence a new volume, our 43rd consecutive year of publishing.Don&rsquo;t miss all that and more in next week&rsquo;s issue of The Hockey News. &#9632;

f0002-01

NEXT ISSUE

I think the NHL should limit the number of non-Canadians and non-Americans per team to five&mdash;otherwise, too few young North Americans are going to have a fair, chance to develop and play in the NHL now that the Soviets have been allowed to play.However, in 1992, Team Canada may very well win the (Olympic) gold because the Soviets have lost some of their best players to the NHL.T. PoulsenSonderborg, Denmark<h2>GET REAL</h2>No wonder hockey isn&rsquo;t taken seriously in large parts of the United States. How long is the NHL going to go on giving its most prestigeous award to the most overrated athlete in the history of any sport?Case in point:&#9632; Wayne Gretzky is supposedly a center. Has anyone ever seen him win a faceoff? If anyone took the time to notice the last two years, neither Glen Sather nor Robbie Ftorek would ever have allowed him to take a faceoff in his own zone under any circumstances.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011451/5813102-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="572" height="799"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky is overrated, according to one reader.</figcaption></div>&#9632; Despite earning 22 playoff points, Gretzky was a pitiful minus-4. Most of those goals against were a direct result of his refusal to make any contribution to team defense. When Gretzky is on the ice, his team is in a constant 5-on-4 situation.With their array of talent, the Oilers were able to play over Gretzky&rsquo;s shortcomings. Even with the addition of Larry Robinson, the Kings don&rsquo;t possess that luxury.Perry A. HardenUtica, N. Y.<h2>HE&rsquo;S PUZZLED</h2>The crossword puzzle in your August issue contained the following clue: &ldquo;The only one of the 12 players drafted first overall by NHL teams since 1977 who has played on a Stanley Cup winner.&rdquo; The answer was &lsquo;Smith,&rsquo; referring to Bobby Smith of the Montreal Canadiens, who was drafted first overall by the Minnesota North Stars in 1978.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021176/5813095-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="571" height="793"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Ramage was a member of the 1989 Stanley Cup champs.</figcaption></div>But the first overall pick in 1979 was Rob Ramage by the now-defunct Colorado Rockies. Ramage, of course, played on the 1989 Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames.My question is this: Is Ramage ineligible for this question because the Colorado Rockies are not in the NHL anymore or did the person who put together this crossword puzzle simply goof?Michael FarsidakisDorval, Que.(Ed. note: The puzzle was created before the Flames&rsquo; Cup win and we failed to update the clue correctly in the August issue. Our apologies.)<h2>FUTURE IS NOW</h2>I think that your section which contains &ldquo;future games&rdquo; during the NHL regular season would be more helpful to readers if you would push back by three to five days the listed schedule of coming games.I find that by the time my copy arrives in the mail, most of the &ldquo;future&rdquo; games have already been played.I hope this suggestion proves useful. Keep up the good coverage.Mark J. RatkusPhiladelphia, Pa.(Ed. Note: No sooner said than done. It will happen this season.)<h2>DON&rsquo;T GO, JAY</h2>Jay Greenberg leaving? Please, Bob McKenzie, say it ain&rsquo;t so.No hockey writer has the charisma and humor that Jay possesses. Couple these qualities with his hockey knowledge, and nobody comes close to his level of writing.Sports Illustrated is gaining a truly great hockey writer. He will be sadly missed.Ronald C. ClarkJohnstown, Pa.(Ed. note: We will miss the Johnstown, Pa., native as much as you.) Make your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0003-01

LIMIT IMPORTS, SAYS DANISH READER

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03767/5813133-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="533" height="609"></div>Alan Eagleson went into the Aug. 21-23 NHL Players&rsquo; Association meetings in danger of being fired as executive director. But he emerged from the three-day conflab in Toronto with his title intact&mdash;and a demand for a salary increase.What does that tell you?That the Eagle successfully repelled the most serious challenge to his 22-year reign as the most powerful man in hockey.Yes, the Eagle is back, shootin&rsquo; from the hip and the lip. But to say all is as it was before a revolt, led by the triumvirate of Ed Garvey-Ron Salcer-Rich Winter, would be grossly inaccurate. The bottom line?&ldquo;The players are willing to accept Eagleson if he proves he can run the association the way it&rsquo;s supposed to be done,&rdquo; says Winnipeg player rep Peter Taglianetti, a vocal critic of Eagleson.Safe middle ground has apparently been reached. Eagleson maintained his office, but will have to operate in a more responsive and open fashion.That makes the entire NHLPA membership a winner, but make no mistake that the Eagle scored a big win in August, too.&ldquo;I feel like a load of bricks is off my shoulder,&rdquo; he said.After the stormy annual meeting in Florida in June, Eagleson was on the ropes. He received a hollow vote of confidence, predicated on a plethora of conditions no one believed he would accept.The Garvey-Salcer-Winter faction suggested an independent audit and financial investigation would turn up improprieties in the handling of union money.The report, presented to NHL player reps and executive Aug. 21 and 22, didn&rsquo;t. It gave Eagleson the opportunity to successfully counterattack.In June, Eagleson was told he must give up his law practice, his business as a player agent and his role as chief international negotiator for Hockey Canada.Now, he has agreed to both take a leave of absence from his law practice and close up the agent business (both by Dec. 31, 1989), but he will continue on the international front. And he&rsquo;s imposed conditions of his own.&ldquo;If they want a fulltime executive director, they&rsquo;ll get it,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;But I told them fulltime is 9-to-5 and I&rsquo;m free to do my real estate and other work after that. And I told them they&rsquo;d better not expect me to give up billings of $250,000 a year without me being compensated with a salary increase.&rdquo;Eagleson&rsquo;s annual salary is $185,000 (U.S.), but he said 50 per cent is spent on NHLPA staff and expenses.Anti-Eagleson supporters had vowed to eliminate the NHLPA executive as a voting body, with the rallying cry of one vote, one team. The executive, cut from nine to five members, will continue as a voting body.When the NHLPA met with the owners on Aug. 23, issues that were hot topics in Florida seemed less vital. The urgency to make player salaries public was gone. So, too, was the impetus for a revised rehabilitative drug-and-alcohol policy.&ldquo;Everything went full circle,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;All the policies I was being crucified for in Florida, suddenly the player reps, even the dissidents, were saying, &lsquo;Wait a minute, maybe that&rsquo;s not such a good idea to change.&rsquo; It turns out a lot of what I had been saying was an accurate reflection of how the membership felt.&rdquo;Now, relative calm has descended upon the NHLPA. Eagleson, a survivor, has the bounce back in his step. And the players appear satisfied they can control their union.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like I told Alan at a meeting in May,&rdquo; Taglianetti said. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Alan, don&rsquo;t take it personally. Everyone needs a kick in the ass once in awhile.&rsquo;&rdquo;Losers? Only those whose intent was to purge the NHLPA of hockey&rsquo;s most powerful man. &#9632;

f0003-03

COLUMNISTS

EAGLESON SURVIVES; NOW HE WANTS A RAISE

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>What provokes a general staff to fire its general manager? In Phil Esposito&rsquo;s case, Madison Square Garden insiders insist it was his last major decision&mdash;designating distant Albuquerque, New Mexico, as site of the Blueshirts&rsquo; training base. &ldquo;That,&rdquo; says the NHL insider, &ldquo;was the final nail in Phil&rsquo;s coffin.&rdquo; Better suited for baseball spring training. Albuquerque seemed just too far out for the MSG biggies&hellip;NHL attendance may be at an all-time high, but it certainly hasn&rsquo;t helped ice superstars break into the major U.S. ad markets. Madison Avenue&rsquo;s Marty Blackman, whose business is lining up mega-aces like baseball-football star Bo Jackson and basketballer Michael Jordan for major TV commercials, says only Wayne Gretzky is saleable, continent-wide, from the NHL. &ldquo;The company that takes a hockey player is giving away everything below the Mason-Dixon Line,&rdquo; says Blackman. &ldquo;How can you sell Mario Lemieux to Dallas or Miami?&rdquo;<h2>CHEESY GOAL</h2>When Don Cherry and fellow broadcaster Gerry Cheevers meet, Grapes invariably brings up the time Cheevers let a goal go in on purpose. It was when Cherry coached the Bruins and Cheevers was in goal. &ldquo;We were losing to Chicago in the last couple of minutes,&rdquo; says Cherry, &ldquo;and I send out Rick (Middleton) to take the faceoff in our end. Cheesy was looking at me doing a real boil because he figured Rick wasn&rsquo;t the best man at the draw. When Middleton loses the draw, Cheesy comes right out of the net and lets the guy put it in. Every player on the bench and every one of the 14,000 fans are staring at me.&rdquo; Cheevers adds the postscript, &ldquo;Middleton was a bad choice.&rdquo; But Cherry tops that: &ldquo;When Cheesy becomes coach, he uses Middleton for all important faceoffs.&rdquo;&hellip;Since his relocation in California, Gretzky has become a keen admirer of the Lakers&rsquo; Magic Johnson. &ldquo;What I respect most about Magic,&rdquo; says The Great One, &ldquo;is that he&rsquo;s always ready to play. Over the years I&rsquo;ve seen where too many athletes let all the outside forces take away their business. Magic never does.&rdquo;<h2>HAPPY 20TH</h2>The Canucks are going bananas with 20th anniversary celebrations this fall. On the opening weekend of the season, GM Pat Quinn has already slated a birthday party, carnival, 1970s dance, black-tie dinner&mdash;Jim Robson, voice of the Canucks, will be honored&mdash;barbecue, pancake breakfast and casino-sports auction. It&rsquo;ll all be topped with the re-introduction of the original 1970-71 Canuck team&hellip;The Oilers&rsquo; Randy Gregg outdid himself in the Good Deed Department this summer, playing 10 charity golf tournaments in 10 days. Proceeds went to the Ronald McDonald House. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to be an honorary chairman who did nothing but accept checks,&rdquo; says Gregg.&hellip;Teammate Grant Fuhr didn&rsquo;t help his public relations image after pulling out of the annual Grant Fuhr Charity Golf tourney. Nor was he aided by Stony Plain Golf Club pro Gord Brayton who added, &ldquo;To be honest, there hasn&rsquo;t been much co-operation from Grant through the years-.&rdquo;Flames&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher insists he&rsquo;s not setting any retirement time but the word out of Calgary is new assistant GM Doug Risebrough will be upped to GM in two years, with Fletcher remaining as president.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011449/5813195-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="570" height="775"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Risebrough could be the Flames&rsquo; next GM.</figcaption></div><h2>SHOT-BLOCKER</h2>Selke Trophy winner Guy Carbonneau does as much shot-blocking as any forward but rarely suffers leg or foot injuries. The secret? &ldquo;I put extra protection on my legs. I make my own shin pads and put plastic on my skates. If Bob Gainey had done that, he wouldn&rsquo;t have broken his toe last season.&rdquo;&hellip;Former Rangers&rsquo; scout Ray Clearwater reveals the Blueshirts nearly traded away their shot at Calder Trophy winner Brian Leetch in the 1986 draft to obtain Jimmy Carson. &ldquo;We wanted to give up Tom Laidlaw, Mark Pavelich&rsquo;s rights, another guy and the pick for Leetch,&rdquo; says Clearwater, &ldquo;all to get Carson.&rdquo;&hellip;Lemieux has not only helped fill Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Civic Center, he has also been a catalyst for amateur hockey interest there. Penguins&rsquo; amateur hockey director George Kirk estimates &ldquo;at least 1,000 kids have started playing hockey because of the interest Mario has generated.&rdquo; Lemieux has contributed more than $23,000 to area hockey during his career, including $4,500 last season&hellip;Blues&rsquo; prospect Rod Brind&rsquo;A-mour returned to his alma mater, Michigan State, during the summer and spent considerable time in the weight room. &ldquo;I was with the Blues for so short a time last spring,&rdquo; says Brind&rsquo;Amour, &ldquo;that I still feel like I&rsquo;m part of Michigan State.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0004-01

MOVING RANGER CAMP ESPOSITO’S ALAMO

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021314/5813226-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ex-New York Islander prospect Duncan MacPherson, missing since Aug. 10, is feared to be the victim of foul play.</figcaption></div>Duncan MacPherson, a first-round draft pick of the New York Islanders, has vanished in Europe without a trace, and friends and family suspect he may be the victim of foul play.The Saskatoon native, chosen 20th overall in the 1984 draft, was last heard from Aug. 10. He was visiting friends in Europe before he was to leave for Scotland to take a player-coach job Aug. 12 with the Dundee Tigers.MacPherson&rsquo;s parents, Robert and Linda, traveled to West Germany Aug. 28 to help search for their 23-year-old son, who left Saskatoon Aug. 2. MacPherson&rsquo;s&rsquo;22-year-old brother Derrick, and Duncan&rsquo;s girlfriend Tara Anderson, also joined the search party.Although the family clings to hope MacPherson will be found alive, they know time is not in their favor. Authorities suspect foul play is involved, but are also investigating the possibility of an accident.&ldquo;There are moments we definitely feel he&rsquo;s dead,&rdquo; said Linda. &ldquo;Then we think maybe he&rsquo;s injured and unable to talk.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just so frustrating being here. We feel helpless.&rdquo;The family has conducted an exhaustive search of the area he was last seen in. They&rsquo;ve circulated posters in German, French and Italian and posted a $10,000 (Cdn.) reward for information leading to the discovery of their son.MacPherson arrived in the West German city of Nuernberg Aug. 3 and visited George Pesut, a friend from Saskatoon who plays hockey there. On Aug. 6, Pesut left to play in a tournament in Prague, Czechoslovakia and loaned MacPherson his car.A day later, MacPherson drove to Fussen to visit Roger Kortko, another ex-Islander prospect who played with him on both the Western League&rsquo;s Saskatoon Blades and American League&rsquo;s Springfield Indians. He stayed at Kortko&rsquo;s home that night and left the next day (Aug. 8) to see other hockey-playing friends in Bolzano, Italy.He was expected to return to Nuernberg, then travel to Scotland. But neither MacPherson nor Pesu&rsquo;s red Opel Corsa have been seen since he left Kortko.MacPherson left a jacket and two shirts behind at Kortko&rsquo;s, and borrowed a cassette tape to listen to in the car. Kortko said MacPherson was in good spirits and looking forward to going to Scotland to join the Tigers.&ldquo;He wanted that job. It was a good offer,&rdquo; said Kortko. &ldquo;I roomed with him in Springfield. He was always calling home, sometimes more than once a week.&rdquo;Pesut also expressed grave concern about his friend.&ldquo;The strange thing is he hasn&rsquo;t called,&rdquo; said Pesut. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got my car and he left a bag at my place. For a while I thought he had met up with an old teammate. Obviously something&rsquo;s happened.&rdquo;The last person known to talk to MacPherson is Ron Dixon, the president of the Tigers and owner of the WHL&rsquo;s Tri-City Americans. MacPherson called Dixon Aug. 10&mdash;from where, Dixon said he does not know&mdash;to accept the job with the Tigers. MacPherson had already purchased a train pass to Frankfurt, where he was supposed to catch a plane to Scotland. He was due to meet Dixon in Scotland Aug. 12.&ldquo;It was a very brief conversation,&rdquo; said Dixon. &ldquo;He just called to tell me he had made up his mind about the job and we worked out a few details about where we would meet.&ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t attach much significance to it at the time. When he didn&rsquo;t show up right away we didn&rsquo;t think much of it but, after a couple of days, we started to become concerned.&rdquo;Three of MacPherson&rsquo;s travelers&rsquo; checks totalling about $2,000 cleared on Aug. 11, 14 and 16, respectively, but all three were cashed by him before his disappearance. One of the checks was for his travel arrangements to Scotland; a travel agent in Nuernberg recalled selling MacPherson the ticket.Blades&rsquo; general manager Daryl Lubiniecki was shocked by MacPherson&rsquo;s disappearance.&ldquo;Duncan was one of the first kids I recruited,&rdquo; said Lubiniecki. &ldquo;This is so out of character for him. I don&rsquo;t remember him ever being late for practice and he never missed a curfew.&ldquo;He was very serious about his hockey. He had limited skills but a big heart and he tried hard. If he ever said he was going to be somewhere, he was there.&rdquo;Former Blades&rsquo; teammate Tracey Katelnikoff was supposed to join MacPherson in Dundee this season and last spoke to him Aug. 1.&ldquo;He phoned to see if I wanted to play where he was going to coach,&rdquo; said Katelnikoff, who finished his WHL career with the Blades last season. &ldquo;We talked for about 15 minutes. He said he&rsquo;d get a hold of me about Aug. 15 or 20 and give me all the information about when I should go over to Scotland.&ldquo;I found out he&rsquo;d disappeared when I picked up the newspaper one morning. I was shocked. It&rsquo;s kind of scary.&rdquo;MacPherson&rsquo;s friends are especially concerned that he&rsquo;s been victimized because he was so trusting, the kind of guy who believed everyone was his friend.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re praying for Duncan here,&rdquo; said Rhonda Tkachuk, an ex-girlfriend in Saskatoon. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a pretty trusting guy&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a really down-to-earth guy; a great guy,&rdquo; said Islanders&rsquo; public relations director Greg Bouris. &ldquo;Of all the guys who came to camp, he&rsquo;s my favorite. He&rsquo;s so open and friendly.&rdquo;MacPherson played three seasons on defense with the Blades. Although he was a first-round draft choice, he never played a regular-season NHL game. The last three seasons were spent with the Islanders&rsquo; farm team in Springfield, where he had one goal and five assists in 24 games last season. The Islanders then bought out his contract.With a file from Rob Vanstone &#9632;

f0004-02

MISSING

<div class="byline">BY TOM MCMILLAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011356/5813257-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux&mdash;who has won Canada Cups, scoring titles and MVP honors&mdash;called Aug. 22, the day he signed his multi-million-dollar deal, &ldquo;the greatest day of my life.&rdquo;</figcaption></div>Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. of Youngstown, Ohio, is a behind-the-scenes multimillionaire, a private man who works in private ways.So when he invited one of his finest corporate assets, Mario Lemieux, to Youngstown for a little chat at the end of June, he sought no headlines, no public notice.Before Lemieux had settled in his seat, DeBartolo&mdash;owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;handed him a check for $100,000.&ldquo;It was the (bonus) money he would have made for winning the MVP,&rdquo; said Tom Reich, Lemieux&rsquo;s flabbergasted agent. &ldquo;Mario didn&rsquo;t win it (Wayne Gretzky won the 1989 Hart Trophy) but, in the DeBartolo family&rsquo;s minds, he deserved to be MVP. And I can&rsquo;t emphasize this enough: It was a very classy thing.&rdquo;Thus were the seeds of a new contract sown. DeBartolo, often criticized as an absentee owner who cares little for his hockey team, had offered the kind of goodwill gesture that made Lemieux and Reich jerk forward and take notice. Unearned bonus money talks.By mid-August, the two sides hammered out an agreement that will keep the NHL&rsquo;s two-time scoring champion in Penguin threads for the next five years&mdash;and pay him about $12 million along the way.&ldquo;Not a lot of owners would have done something like that,&rdquo; Lemieux said of the surprise bonus check. &ldquo;It showed me a lot about the DeBartolo family, and about respect. It definitely had a tremendous impact on our negotations. They didn&rsquo;t have to do it.&rdquo;DeBartolo, the shopping mall magnate who has made only rare public appearances in Pittsburgh since saving the Penguins from financial oblivion in 1977, even showed up at the press conference Aug. 22 to give his blessing to the deal.&ldquo;This is much too much to be paying Mario,&rdquo; he deadpanned, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ll live with it.&ldquo;With this signing and with the other players we are going to sign, we hope the Penguins can become a great, great team of all time. There were a lot of fans who stayed with us through the lean years. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m glad to be announcing the signing of this great player today.&rdquo;Lemieux, 23, showed rare emotion during his acceptance speech&mdash;stepping back from the microphone briefly&mdash;before calling it &ldquo;the greatest day of my life.&rdquo;No wonder, Lemieux&rsquo;s base salary in each of the five seasons will be a minimum of $2 million. Readily reachable bonuses push the contract&rsquo;s value to $12 million. If Le Magnifique attains every bonus, he could rake in more than $13 million.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked all my life to get to where I am right now,&rdquo; Lemieux said.The mega-deal is the largest in the history of Pittsburgh sports and makes Lemieux hockey&rsquo;s second $2-million-a-year player, behind Gretzky.It also reinforces how quickly hockey&rsquo;s economic climate is changing. Before Gretzky signed his reported eight-year, $20-million deal with the Los Angeles Kings last summer, no NHL player had ever earned in excess of $1 million a year.Even now, crafty Steve Yzerman is said to be asking for $2-million-a-year status from the Detroit Red Wings. And Lemieux&rsquo;s Penguin teammate, Paul Coffey, would like the DeBartolos and GM Tony Esposito to okay a renegotation. (For more on Coffey negotiations, see page 28).&ldquo;The climate is definitely changing,&rdquo; said Reich, who built his reputation as a baseball agent, &ldquo;and I think it&rsquo;s going to be very good for hockey players in the 1990s.&rdquo;Lemieux took time to thank Gretzky for the financial precedents he has set&mdash;and, surprisingly, for his advice and support over the summer. He admitted to consulting several times with the Great One and the Kings&rsquo; high-profile owner, Bruce McNall.&ldquo;I want to thank both Wayne and Mr. McNall right now,&rdquo; Lemieux said with a devlish grin. &ldquo;I got a lot of information from Gretzky. We talked a few times.&rdquo;Lemieux believed those talks were essential, even though his numbers spoke for themselves. He outdistanced Gretzky for the Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring champion in each of the last two seasons, and posted some outrageous stats&mdash;85 goals, 199 points, plus-41&mdash;in 1988-89.Just as importantly, he helped make the Penguins the hottest ticket in what was once a frosty hockey town. The year before Lemieux arrived as a French Canadian savior in 1984, the Flightless Birds struggled to draw 6,000 fans a game at the 16,000-seat Civic Arena. Last year they played to 97-per-cent capacity and sold out 40 of 46 home games, counting playoffs.Oh yes. They reached the playoffs for the first time since 1982.&ldquo;In Mario&rsquo;s case, he&rsquo;s definitely getting what he deserves,&rdquo; Reich said. &ldquo;His worth is not something I invented. I&rsquo;ve represented MVPs in three sports, and I&rsquo;ve never seen a player have the impact on a franchise that Mario&rsquo;s had.&rdquo;Still, the talks were long and painful, and sometimes testy. They began before last season, at the Penguins&rsquo; suggestion&mdash;because, all things being relative, a player of Lemieux&rsquo;s stature was underpaid at $650,000 a year.When nothing happened through October and most of November, Lemieux&rsquo;s disenchantment grew&mdash;and a victory-starved public sided with its superstar. In the third period of one of his majestic performances at the Civic Arena, the crowd rose as one, pointed defiantly at the owner&rsquo;s box, and chanted, &ldquo;Sign Lemieux! Sign Lemieux!&rdquo;DeBartolo&rsquo;s son, Edward Jr., intervened in late November and the sides agreed to a refurbished one-year deal that granted Lemieux a $1-million raise (to $ 1.6 million) for 1988-89. They vowed to resume serious longterm bargaining at the end of the season, with DeBartolo family attorney Carmen Policy replacing Esposito as the Penguins&rsquo; chief negotiator.&ldquo;We had a goal of getting it done before training camp,&rdquo; Reich said, &ldquo;and, obviously, we reached that goal.&rdquo;The Reich-Policy debates early in the summer centered on the length of the proposed contract. Lemieux and Reich wanted five years. The Penguins wanted maybe double that.In the end, Lemieux and Reich got their wish.&ldquo;In five years, he&rsquo;ll have a chance at what I call an after-contract,&rdquo; Reich said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be 28. And more than likely, because of his strong feeling for Pittsburgh, it will be another Pittsburgh Penguins contract.&rdquo;For now? Lemieux can bank his millions, lean on Reich for investments, and get back to the business of chasing the Stanley Cup. The Penguins, with 87 points, finished second in the Patrick Division and sixth in the overall NHL standings last season. Sixth place tied the high-water mark in franchise history.&ldquo;Hopefully I&rsquo;m going to be in Pittsburgh a long time&hellip;the rest of my life,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;All I want to do in the next five years is keep improving and build a championship team here.&rdquo;The Los Angeles-based Reich&mdash;a Pittsburgh native who still holds Penguin season tickets&mdash;understands.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the whole idea,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To try to get that Cup.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

PEN PALS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Al Maclnnis will stand trial on five assault charges following a brawl in Calgary in July.Maclnnis and his brother Robert were given the order by Judge Hubert Oliver Aug. 31 at a preliminary hearing in Alberta provincial court. Oliver reduced two of the charges from assault causing bodily harm to common assault, because of a lack of evidence. The two will be arraigned on two counts of assault causing bodily harm and three counts of common assault in court later this fall.Maclnnis left with the Flames Sept. 4 for training camp and a series of exhibition games in the Soviet Union. The brothers were charged after a brawl outside a Calgary bar July 3 in which six people were injured. Maclnnis married Jackie Bergel five days later.No trial date had been set.<h2>CAPITAL IDEA</h2>Canada&rsquo;s national capital is trying to get its NHL franchise back, 55 years after it was sold to St. Louis.An Ottawa businessman has launched a campaign to &ldquo;Bring Back the Senators,&rdquo; and hopes to capitalize on the NHL&rsquo;s renewed interest in examining expansion. Bruce Firestone, 37, an Ottawa native, applied to the league June 12 for an expansion franchise and held a news conference in Ottawa Sept. 6 to launch the campaign. Firestone is the chairman and chief executive officer of Terrace Investments Limited.&ldquo;We like our chances,&rdquo; said Randy Sexton, vice president of Terrace Investments and spokesman for the NHL bid committee. &ldquo;We feel we have exactly what is required to submit a serious bid.&rdquo;Sexton said, if successful, Firestone plans to build a 20,000-seat arena in nearby Kanata. Sexton also said the group sold 3,000 non-refundable deposits for season-tickets before the campaign and has 15 corporate sponsors on board.The group has also hired the public relations firm of Burson Marsteller, who assisted Charlotte, N.C., in securing a National Basketball Association franchise and also helped successful Winter Olympic bids for Calgary, Albertville, France in 1992 and Lillehammer, Norway in 1994.&ldquo;We have a first-rate facility in place, a committed ownership and support from politicians and the public,&rdquo; said Sexton.What they don&rsquo;t have is a leg up on the competition. Ottawa is not considered by many to be a front-runner in the derby for an NHL franchise. The most often mentioned sites are Milwaukee, Hamilton, Seattle, San Francisco/San Jose, and Dallas.The Senators were an original member of the NHL from 1917 to 1934&mdash;they suspended operations in 1931-32&mdash;and won four Stanley Cups. Before the formation of the league, the team won Stanley Cups in 1909 and 1911. Their predecessor, the Ottawa Silver Seven, won three straight Stanley Cups from 1903 to 1905.The Ottawa Nationals were in the World Hockey Association for one season and moved to Toronto in 1973. The Denver Spurs moved to Ottawa and became the Civics in 1975-76, but the team folded before the end of the season.<h2>U.S. NATS</h2>USA Hockey selected its 1990 national junior team following a week-long training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., Aug. 20-27.Eighteen players were named to the team which will represent the United States at the World Junior Championships, Dec. 26 to Jan. 4, in Helsinki, Finland. A total of 28 were invited to the camp.Players named to the team include: Chuck Hughes (Harvard) and Jeff Stolp (University of Minnesota) in goal; defensemen Keith Carney (University of Maine), Ted Crowley (Boston College), Sean Hill (University of Wisconsin), Shaun Kane (Providence College), Tom Pederson (University of Minnesota), Doug Zmolek (University Minnesota); and, forwards Tony Amonte (Boston University), Marc Beran (BC), Ted Drury (Harvard), Rob Gaudreau (Providence College), Bill Guerin (BC), Steve Heinze (BC), Jim Larkin (University of Vermont), Cory Laylin (University of Minnesota), Barry Richter (University of Wisconsin) and Bryan Smolinski (Stratford, Ont., Jr. B). &#9632;

MacINNIS TO STAND TRIAL FOR ASSAULT

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011381/5813319-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="528" height="630"></div>On the day Lanny McDonald was to announce his plans for the coming season, the neighbors decided to introduce some suspense into the proceedings.As reporters drove up to McDonald&rsquo;s rambling ranch house outside Calgary, they noticed the &lsquo;For Sale&rsquo; sign. &lsquo;Just listed,&rsquo; it said.We wondered: Was it a gag? Or would McDonald really follow the example of his two contemporaries, Larry Robinson and Borje Salming, and seek greener, more lucrative pastures elsewhere?The answer, of course, turned out to be negative.Even after acknowledging that he was &ldquo;tempted&rdquo; by an offer to play for another team, McDonald said he knew his future lay in the Calgary Flames&rsquo; front office. How come?&ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said McDonald, straightfaced, &ldquo;money cannot buy happiness.&rdquo;The thing is, he meant it, too.Somebody asked the other day how you explain McDonald&rsquo;s enduring popularity. He was, after all, an above-average NHLer for 12 of his 16 seasons, beginning midway through his third year and continuing through to the end of the 1985-86 season, the Flames&rsquo; one-and-only other trip to the Stanley Cup final.From then on, injuries, age and declining ice time turned him from a star into a role player. He finished with 500 goals and 1,006 points, some of the highet totals ever. But they do not approach Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s numbers or Mike Bossy&rsquo;s or Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s.So why, when all the above were present.for last June&rsquo;s NHL awards ceremony, did McDonald receive the biggest ovation?Probably because with McDonald, the image accurately reflects the man. He genuinely likes to be with people. He is unfailingly polite to the people he comes across. The closest he&rsquo;ll ever get to the Betty Ford Clinic is to participate in its fundraiser.He is the only pro athlete I know without a telephone answering machine. His number hasn&rsquo;t changed in years, either.General manager Cliff Fletcher had another thought. &ldquo;Lanny,&rdquo; said Fletcher, &ldquo;represents the workers of our country, the blue-collar workers. He epitomizes what commitment, dedication and effort are all about. Lanny had God-given talent but more importantly, he realized his stature in the game by his effort and determination and hard work. That&rsquo;s what endeared him to Canadians from coast to coast.&rdquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s it. Maybe it&rsquo;s just because he has a long memory. Everybody who meant anything to McDonald throughout his career was invited to the proceeding, beginning with Donna and John Zsovan, the couple he lived with the year he played Tier II junior in Lethbridge. That was 20 years ago. They stayed in touch.The ones who couldn&rsquo;t come&mdash;his longtime friend Darryl Sittler, and his agent for the final 14 years, Alan Eagleson&mdash;telephoned their congratulations.McDonald courteously thanked everyone, including the press corps&mdash;although he did get in a few good-natured shots there.&ldquo;Some of you have been advising me to do this for weeks,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some of you have been advising me to do it for years. I thank you all for your input.&rdquo;Nobody did it to be unkind. But it took time to see McDonald in his new, more limited role. Once you got used to the idea that he wouldn&rsquo;t score 50 goals again, you realized he could contribute in smaller, but legitimate ways.Even his final year, he was the strongest man on the team. He contributed a physical dimension on a change-of-pace line that frequently included Tim Hunter and Gary Roberts. He chipped in the odd goal and his presence in the dressing room lifted his teammates.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02946/5813312-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="705" height="749"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Maclnnis, above, said Lanny McDonald was &ldquo;like a father&rdquo; to his mates.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not old enough to be, but he was like a father to everybody,&rdquo; said defenseman Al Maclnnis. &ldquo;When the younger players came in, he always made sure to bring them out to dinner and make them feel at home. He never made anybody feel like a rookie. He always made sure everybody was treated the same, that they were on the same wavelength, chasing the same goal.&rdquo;There may have been a public perception that McDonald was hanging on for that last chance to win the Stanley Cup, but Maclnnis said there was no resentment towards him in the Flames&rsquo; dressing room.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if people realized that you only get so many chances to win in this game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Deep down, I&rsquo;m sure Lanny felt our hockey club was good enough to win a Stanley Cup. Sure, the personal goals were nice, but I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any question how he&rsquo;d answer if you were to ask him which was most important, the milestones or the Cup. All he wanted was one more kick at the cat.&rdquo;Something nobody begrudged him.&ldquo;He played 16 years in the league,&rdquo; said Maclnnis. &ldquo;Every year goes by faster and faster. Every year, your chances to win the Stanley Cup decrease. The guy put so much into the game that it&rsquo;d have been a shame if he&rsquo;d retired without a Stanley Cup ring. It really would have been a shame.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

LANNY: HIS IMAGE REFLECTS THE MAN

<h2>OILERS</h2>Edmonton mayor Terry Cavanagh declared Aug. 27 Wayne Gretzky Day as tribute was paid to No. 99 for his 10 seasons (nine in the NHL) with the Oilers. A seven-foot statue that will remain outside the main entrance to the Northlands Coliseum was unveiled. The statue depicts the former Oilers&rsquo; captain holding the Stanley Cup over his head. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never forget Edmonton. It will always be a part of my life,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been so nervous for anything&mdash;not my wedding, not a Stanley Cup or even before I did Saturday Night Live.&rdquo;&hellip;According to agent Rich Winter, Esa Tikkanen and the Oilers are $25,000 apart on a new contract for the Finnish left winger, who was declared a free agent with compensation July 1 by an NHL mediation board. Winter said he&rsquo;s been dealing with Oilers&rsquo; legal counsel Bob Lloyd and has been unable to meet directly with Sather&hellip;The big winner at Craig Simpson&rsquo;s first annual &lsquo;Never Say Never&rsquo; golf tournament was the Spinal Cord Treatment Centre of Northern Alberta, which made $14,000 from the tournament, raffle and miniauction. The money will be chinnelled towards purchase of a device to help spinal cord victims walk once again. Earlier this summer, Simpson&rsquo;s celebrity slo-pitch game in London, Ont., raised more than $80,000 for local charities.<h2>FLAMES</h2>Left winger Brian MacLellan, a free agent with compensation, signed a multi-year contract with the Flames Aug. 28 and accompanied the team on its 18-day tour of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Had MacLellan not signed, there was a chance he wouldn&rsquo;t have made the trip&hellip; Defenseman Gary Suter checked in for the Flames&rsquo; medicals at 199 pounds, up about 20 pounds from last season when he was out with a variety of ailments. From early March until the last week of May he played in only seven games, first because of a ruptured appendix, then because of a broken jaw. &ldquo;I was a wreck at the end of last year,&rdquo; said Suter. &ldquo;I had two operations, a back problem, shingles. It was not a year to remember-.&rdquo;&hellip;Doug Gilmour, who broke a bone in his foot while jogging with teammate Gary Roberts in early August, had the cast removed in late August. It appeared to be healing properly, but there was a chance Gilmour would start the team&rsquo;s European road trip on the sidelines.<h2>KINGS</h2>Left winger John Tonelli, who scored 31 goals last season, was without a new contract less than two weeks before the Kings&rsquo; Sept. 7 training camp in Hull, Que. A free agent with compensation, Tonelli was seeking a guaranteed two-year deal. The Kings offered him a one-year contract last spring, but apparently now are willing to give him an extra year. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re negotiating the financial side right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m staying positive. Hopefully, something will happen soon. My first priority is to stay with the Kings.&rdquo;&hellip;Bernie Nicholls, Luc Robitaille, Steve Duchesne and Mike Krushelnyski all purchased new homes in the Los Angeles area this summer&hellip;Wayne Gretzky and Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall are now co-owners of a talented thoroughbred horse named Frankly Perfect&hellip;Scott Bjugstad, a 28-year-old left winger who played briefly for Pittsburgh last season before announcing his retirement, was signed as a free agent without compensation to a multi-year contract Aug. 18. Bjugstad had 43 goals with Minnesota in 1985-86.<h2>JETS</h2>The Jet s have finally come to terms with nine-year veteran Doug Smail. Smail, who missed most of the exhibition season a year ago in a contract dispute, signed a multi-year agreement Aug. 17 after a summer of difficult negotiations with Jets&rsquo; GM Mike Smith. Smail has been with the club since 1980, longer than any other player&hellip;Jets&rsquo; coach Bob Murdoch spent three days in the training camp of the National Football League&rsquo;s New York Giants in August, seeking information on coaching and management techniques. He came away from the experience enlightened. &ldquo;Gawd, it was great. I loved it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They certainly have a great work pthic, they&rsquo;re very well organized&hellip;and I liked a lot of the things they&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo; Murdoch, minus the 11 assistant coaches or the million dollars worth of video equipment, hopes to instill similar values in Winnipeg this year&hellip;Smith concluded his search for a director of scouting Aug. 17 when his former assistant Bill Lesuk was handed the job. A week later, Connie Broden was hired to scout Ontario while Mike Antonovich joined the team as its Minnesota scout.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>With the September advertising push ahead, the Canucks were closing in on the 9,000 mark for season tickets. Last year they sold 6,800. The 15-point improvement last year and the Canucks&rsquo; strong showing in the playoffs against Calgary are likely the main factors behind the renewed interest. &ldquo;We knew we&rsquo;d have a good reaction,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; marketing director Glen Ringdal, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s stronger than I expected.&rdquo; The Canucks averaged 13,772 fans last year compared to 11,044 in &rsquo;87-88&hellip;Free agents Harold Snepsts, Brian Bradley and Kevan Guy were still unsigned in early September. &#9632;

EDMONTON UNVEILS GRETZKY STATUE

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>While saying farewell to Lanny McDonald, Calgary general manager Cliff Fletcher remembered the two most important goals McDonald ever scored for the Flames.They were both scored while McDonald was playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.Fletcher, then the general manager of the Atlanta Flames, met with Leafs&rsquo; GM Jim Gregory at LaGuardia Airport in New York and consummated a deal which would have sent the struggling 22-year-old right winger to Atlanta for Curt Bennett.The idea was to reunite McDonald with Tom Lysiak, his junior center. Maybe then he would show some of the promise that made him a No. 1 draft choice only two years before.&ldquo;The best thing Lanny ever did for the Calgary Flames was something he didn&rsquo;t do,&rdquo; said Fletcher, &ldquo;and that was get traded to Atlanta.&ldquo;We had a deal, it had to be confirmed with Harold Ballard, but Lanny was on his way to Atlanta. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Lanny scored two goals the night the deal was supposed to happen and he never did end up in Atlanta. But you know, if Lanny had come to Atlanta, maybe the Flames would never have moved to Calgary.&rdquo;The Flames did finally move to Calgary and McDonald followed them in 1981 in a trade with the Colorado Rockies for Don Lever and Bob MacMillan. At the age of 36, McDonald announced his retirement from the game Aug. 28. He leaves the Flames with 500 goals, 1,006 points and the Stanley Cup ring he so desperately wanted.He also left a legacy as the most popular player in the franchise, possibly in all of the NHL. He&rsquo;s also a cinch to become the first Calgary Flame player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.&ldquo;We did not have a good team when Lanny came,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;We were not very competitive. In his first year and two-thirds, he scored 100 goals forus. Gradually, he helped turn the work ethic around. He made a team that desperately needed credibility credible.&rdquo;McDonald ended a summer of speculation with the announcement and will immediately step into the Flames&rsquo; front office as vice president in charge of corporate and community affairs. His No. 9 will become the first one retired by the Flames, some time during the season.McDonald said he made the decision to retire before the 1988-89 season, but kept it to himself. Win or lose, this would have been it for him.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why this season will always hold some of the fondest memories and some of the darkest moments,&rdquo; he said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011466/5813381-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="557" height="713"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lanny McDonald will take a job in the Flames&rsquo; front office.</figcaption></div>His best memory: Circling the Montreal Forum with the Stanley Cup. His worst moment: Playing only three shifts in his final Maple Leaf Gardens appearance.McDonald accepted an executive position rather than a hands-on hockey job, partly because his previous glimpses into the business world intrigued him. He took it partly to continue his charity work with children&rsquo;s hospitals and the Special Olympics.But he took it mainly for family reasons. When 5 p.m. rolls around, McDonald wants to be rolling home from the office to wife Ardell and children Andra, Leah, Barrett and Graham. Presumably, 16 years of playing taught him how little time coaches and managers get to spend with their families.&ldquo;Sooner or later, there comes a time when you have to go to work,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;I mean, it&rsquo;s hard work being a National Leaguer, but it&rsquo;s not something I ever looked upon as work. It&rsquo;s been so much fun, not just playing the game and being in the heat of the competition, but because of the many friends I&rsquo;ve met and made over the years.&ldquo;Getting a chance to spend more time with my family, getting to see Christmas concerts, not missing a gymnastics competition, that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ll enjoy the most about this more than you can know.&rdquo;An NHLer since 1973-74 when he broke in with the Leafs, McDonald was traded to the Rockies with Joel Quenville for Pat Hickey and Wilf Paiement in 1979 in a trade that effectively ended Toronto&rsquo;s days as a Stanley Cup contender. The deal enraged Leaf fans.McDonald flourished after his trade to the Flames, establishing the Flames&rsquo; single-season scoring record with 66 in 1982-83. He was the first winner of the King Clancy Humanitarian Award in 1988. He also co-wrote the best-selling book Lanny in 1987, with Steve Simmons. Of his 500 goals, 215 have come in a Calgary uniform.&ldquo;I have had the time of my life,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;I saw the game change about four times since I came in. There were the Broad Street Bullies. Then came the European influence, with more stickhandling and skating. Then Edmonton Oilers took it a step forward with a run-and-gun, all-out-offensive approach. The last time they won the Stanley Cup, they did it with defense. The players are all three to four inches taller and 20 to 25 pounds heavier.&ldquo;All the things that happened to me, I wouldn&rsquo;t change a thing.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 28: Lanny McDonald, RW, retired. Brian McLellan, LW. signed multiyear contract.<h2>McDONALD&rsquo;S CAREER STATISTICS</h2>McDONALD, LANNY KINGBom, Hanna, Alta., February 16, 1953.Right wing. Shoots right. 6 feet, 194 pounds.Last amateur dub: Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL).(Toronto&rsquo;s first choice, fourth overall, in 1973 Amateur Draft).<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021171/5813374-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="1125" height="635"></div>a WHL First All-Star Team (1973)b NHL Second All-Star Team (1977, 1983)c Won Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (1983)d Won King Clancy Memorial Trophy (1988)e Won Budweiser NHL Man of the Year Award (1989)Played in NHL All-Star Game (1977, 1978, 1983, 1984)Traded to Colorado by Toronto with Joel Quenneville for Pat Hickey and Wilf Paiement, December 19, 1979. Traded to Calgary by Colorado with Colorado&rsquo;s fourth-round choice (Mikko Makela &mdash; later transferred to NY Islanders) in 1983 Entry Draft for Bob MacMillan and Don Lever, November 25,1981. &#9632;

f0008-01

LANNY LEAVES FLAMES A WINNER: ‘I WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING’

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Going into this season, Bernie Nicholls has a bit of a problem&mdash;what to do for an encore.The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center enjoyed the best season of his career last year, shattering the team record for goals in a season with 70. His 80 assists gave him 150 points on the season, also a team record&mdash;most points by any King not named Wayne Gretzky.The 28-year-old Nicholls cashed in on his performance in June when he signed a five-year, $3.6 million contract. Despite becoming a member of the swelling millionaire&rsquo;s club with the Kings, Nicholls insists he doesn&rsquo;t feel pressured.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel I have to score 70 goals again to justify (the contract),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As long as I have a good year and the team does well, that will be satisfying enough. Certainly I feel I should score 50 if I stay healthy. But a lot of times, even if the numbers aren&rsquo;t there, you can still have a successful season.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011417/5813412-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="567" height="676"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Nicholls reached the 300-goal plateau last season.</figcaption></div>Nicholls, 300-383-683 in 555 NHL games, dipped to a five-year low of 78 points in 1987-88 before rebounding with his career year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve scored a lot of goals during my career, but I have more pride in the fact that I think I&rsquo;ve developed into a good, all-around player,&rdquo; said Nicholls, entering his seventh full season with the Kings.The Kings will need more improvement on team defense if they expect to contend with the Stanley Cupchampion Calgary Flames for supremacy in the Smythe Division. Last season, the Kings tied for 16th in goals against with 335, the eighth season in a row they&rsquo;ve failed to hold opponents to under 320 (four a game).&ldquo;First of all, with (goalie) Kelly Hrudey and (defenseman) Larry Robinson, I think we&rsquo;ll be that much stronger,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;We also got a taste of what it&rsquo;s like to win, really for the first time. Believe me, it was a lot of fun. Making the playoffs was our goal in the past. That isn&rsquo;t good enough anymore.&ldquo;I think winning becomes more important as you get older. When you&rsquo;re younger, just being in the NHL is a thrill. But that wears out. When you don&rsquo;t win, the game becomes more of a job.&rdquo;Despite the acquisition of Gretzky in the summer of 1988, few expected the Kings to play as well as they did. They&rsquo;ll head into this season without the element of surprise, but Nicholls doesn&rsquo;t believe that will matter.&ldquo;First of all,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t compare this team with Kings&rsquo; teams of the past. There are maybe four or five guys who have been here for more than four years. We&rsquo;ve added a lot of experienced players, and the rest of us learned what it takes to win last year.&ldquo;We have a lot more depth than we had last year, so a lot of guys are going to be fighting for jobs. I know the competition in camp is going to help us. I don&rsquo;t see any reason why we can&rsquo;t be a contender for first place overall.&ldquo;We expect good things to happen and I think other people expect the same thing from us. That&rsquo;s a pleasant change. It gives you a good feeling. My attitude is we can win the Stanley Cup. I really feel we can.&rdquo;Whether Bernie Nicholls scores 70 goals or not.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug. 18: Scott Bjugstad, LW, signed multi-year contract. &#9632;

f0009-01

STANLEY CUP WOULD BE A NICE ENCORE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>Igor Larionov&rsquo;s skill may make him one of the best rookies in the NHL this season, but it probably won&rsquo;t help him when he meets Marty McSorley or Jay Miller in the comer.&ldquo;I have heard that teams in your country have players who sit on the bench until they are told to go out and kill,&rdquo; said Larionov. &ldquo;I will have to remember that if I want to lose no more teeth.&rdquo;Canucks&rsquo; general manager Pat Quinn, who also has a vested interest in the Soviet star&rsquo;s dental well-being, is normally secretive about his trading intentions but admits publicly he&rsquo;s looking for a rugged left winger to protect Larionov from the Rambos of the Smythe Division.In Greg C. Adams and converted defenseman Daryl Stanley, the Canucks have a couple of left wingers who can catch up to the players such as Dave Brown of Edmonton and Tim Hunter of Calgary. But catching up with Larionov will be a different matter.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for a big, tough left winger with some skill, but so is everyone else for that matter,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; director of operations Brian Burke. &ldquo;You can count the number of quality left wingers in this league on one hand. Our situation is the same for most of the 21 teams. It&rsquo;s the biggest need in the NHL right now: Finding a physical left winger who can play.&rdquo;The Canucks would feel a whole lot better about their prospects at left wing if they could get the Soviet army to release Vladimir Krutov, Larionov&rsquo;s linemate. Vancouver&rsquo;s 12th-round choice in 1986, Krutov is called the Tank because he looks like one. Krutov stands at 5-foot-9, the same as Larionov, but weighs about 202 pounds. Larionov weighs 175.&ldquo;When I picked him up at the airport, his first question was, &lsquo;Can I skate tomorrow?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Burke. &ldquo;His second question was, &lsquo;When is Krutov coming?&rsquo;&rdquo;Larionov, 28, stepped on the ice at a suburban Vancouver rink less than 48 hours after arriving with his wife Lena and three-year-old daughter Alenka. Assistant captain Doug Lidster booked the ice time for a series of pre-season workouts.Canucks&rsquo; coach Bob McCammon liked what he saw.&ldquo;The guy has that glitter in his eye,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;You get the feeling he has a lot of pride and is very serious about making an impression over here. You&rsquo;re going to see some good things from him. He&rsquo;s motivated. He&rsquo;s not just here for the money.&rdquo;For the most part, the Canucks have been welcoming Larionov, even though there have been rumblings of discontent about Russians taking North American jobs and talk of some sort of quota being placed on Europeans.Right winger Jim Sandlak, who&rsquo;s looking to feast on Larionov&rsquo;s passes, is taking an internationalist approach.&ldquo;I want to play with the guy,&rdquo; said Sandlak. &ldquo;He can help us put points on the board. The Swedes and Finns have been coming over for years so the fact he&rsquo;s a Russian doesn&rsquo;t bother me.&rdquo;Defenseman Garth Butcher said while he&rsquo;d rather see Canadians playing in the NHL, he can live with having one of the most talented players in the Soviet Union as a teammate. What bothers him more is that a substantial amount of Larionov&rsquo;s money will go to the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation for player development.&ldquo;I have nothing against Larionov,&rdquo; said Butcher. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;d rather see him get the money than the federation. Igor is a good guy. But I don&rsquo;t like those running the federation getting so much money.&rdquo;If there&rsquo;s any resentment toward Larionov&rsquo;s arrival, it&rsquo;s news to management.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had eight forwards on this team express an interest in playing with him and a half dozen others come into my office shaking their heads after marveling at his skills,&rdquo; said Burke.Larionov said he doesn&rsquo;t anticipate any problems.&ldquo;There are some very good players on this team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll get along fine. We&rsquo;ll find a mutual language on the ice.&rdquo; &#9632;

SEARCH IS ON FOR LARIONOV’S BODYGUARD

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Funny how these things always have a way of working themselves out.In early June, Grant Fuhr and the Edmonton Oilers were getting along about as well as Ed Garvey and Alan Eagleson. But after one two-hour meeting between Fuhr and Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather, everything was suddenly hunky-dory, with both sides admitting miscommunication and misunderstanding was the major factor in Fuhr&rsquo;s contract hassles.After a two-month feud with the Oilers, Fuhr announced Aug. 24 that he&rsquo;s coming out of retirement, even though Sather never filed the goalie&rsquo;s retirement papers with the league.&ldquo;Once we had a chance to sit down and I met his lawyer, Brent Gawne, we found out that a lot of these things were misunderstandings,&rdquo; said Sather.Sather said the NHL&rsquo;s policy against advertising on players&rsquo; equipment&mdash;in Fuhr&rsquo;s case Pepsi-Cola on his goal pads&mdash;was the crux of the problem. Fuhr reportedly has a five-year deal with the soft drink company to advertise its product.&ldquo;Once it was explained to him that it is a league policy, not a team thing, he understood and was happy with it,&rdquo; aid Sather.Fuhr seconded the motion.&ldquo;It was just a misunderstanding,&rdquo; said the 26-year-old. &ldquo;Some of the things I heard weren&rsquo;t true. The lawyers got caught up in legal things. I understand English, not legal terms. Something was missing in the translation.&rdquo;It certainly didn&rsquo;t appear that way June 8 when Fuhr, sitting on a golf cart in Wetaskiwin, Alta., announced his intention to retire from the Oilers.&ldquo;The miscommunication was around the Pepsi endorsement on my goal pads,&rdquo; said Fuhr. &ldquo;The league has ruled I&rsquo;m unable to use these pads and my lawyers are pursuing my remedies under the collective bargaining agreement.&rdquo;Winter, who did not attend the reconciliation meeting, claimed NHL written by-laws only prohibit endorsements of alcohol and tobacco products.&ldquo;They tell me anything else is an unwritten league policy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But there are different ways of doing business in the 20th century. We&rsquo;ll pursue it within the next two or three months and I feel it will be resolved in Grant&rsquo;s favor.&rdquo;League spokesmen were unable to shed any light on the specific nature of the by-laws as they pertain to players endorsing products on equipment.There were no discussions about Fuhr&rsquo;s contract, which will pay him $400,000 plus bonuses per season for another five years. All along, Fuhr has stated the contract was not a problem.&ldquo;We never asked for a nickel and we never got a nickel, it&rsquo;s the same contract as last year,&rdquo; said Winter.&ldquo;He said he was happy with it and we left it at that,&rdquo; said Sather, who admitted he entertained trade offers for the 1987-88 Vezina Trophy winner. &ldquo;Sure, I was concerned. We didn&rsquo;t know whether he was coming back or not, and I listened to a lot of offers around the league.&ldquo;There were a lot of conversations with people that gave us an indication how to restructure our team.&rdquo;That won&rsquo;t be necessary, according to Fuhr.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be having another press conference to say I&rsquo;ll retire until I&rsquo;m close to 40,&rdquo; he quipped.<h2>EDMONTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSAug 24: Grant Fuhr, G, announced he is coming out of retirement. &#9632;

FUHR, SATHER KISS AND MAKE UP

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Six months ago, Fredrik Olausson was a promising young National Hockey League defenseman, a bright prospect who oozed talent and drew rave reviews.Today, at age 22, Olausson skates with Farjestads of the Swedish Elite League. His NHL future is in disarray and the Swedish and North American hockey establishments are at war because of it.The Winnipeg Jets believe Olausson owes them one more year of service. Farjestads believes Olausson&rsquo;s five-year contract with them, signed this summer, is binding. NHL president John Ziegler says teams should not pay transfer payments to Sweden until the dispute is settled. The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation has threatened to issue a lifetime ban on any player who signs with an NHL team.The dispute centers on a separate agreement Olausson signed when he first joined the Jets. It gave him the right to return to Sweden whenever he wished. However, when Olausson signed a new contract last November, there was no mention of that separate agreement. Farjestads maintains the separate agreement is still valid; the Jets say it is not.The whole messy affair has given Winnipeg general manager Mike Smith yet another migraine as he attempts to rebuild a floundering franchise.&ldquo;We have been functioning since Aug. 15 on the assumption that he will not be in Winnipeg,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll treat it as if he was injured on the first day of training camp. Professional organizations have to go on.&rdquo;In addition to Olausson&mdash;the three-year pro collected 62 points in 75 games for Winnipeg last year and emerged as a star performer&mdash;the dispute has cost the Jets the services of another Swede, defenseman Arto Blomsten. The 1986 12th-round pick of the Jets, who also plays for Farjestads, doesn&rsquo;t want to risk expulsion by the SIHF.Even though he&rsquo;s never played a game in North America, Blomsten&rsquo;s absence will also be felt on the talentpoor club.&ldquo;Obviously, if we don&rsquo;t get Freddie and we don&rsquo;t get Arto, in Freddie we lose a proven player and in Arto we lose somebody we think can help our hockey team,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an obstacle. There are obstacles in life. We&rsquo;ll get over it.&rdquo;But the issue is much more complicated and of far greater significance than Smith&rsquo;s demeanor would indicate.At issue is the validity of every NHL players&rsquo; contract.And as a result, the dispute has now reached monumental proportions. The Jets took the issue to Manitoba Court of Queen&rsquo;s Bench Aug. 14 in an attempt to reach a solution. The case has twice been put off and barring a settlement outside court, the two sides have agreed to a trial beginning Sept. 8.Ziegler has met with SIHF president Rickard Fagerlund. On Sept. 5 in New York, three days before the Jets open training camp in Saskatoon, all parties will sit down at the same table for the first time.&ldquo;The whole NHL-SIHF question is going to have to be resolved,&rdquo; said Jets&rsquo; president Barry Shenkarow. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s come to a head. The SIHF is going to have to one way or another at some point acknowledge the NHL standard players&rsquo; contract.&ldquo;I think the date of Sept. 8 was picked to give us the opportunity, to afford enough time to get everybody in one place.&rdquo;Farjestads president Kjell Glennert, Olausson, Shenkarow, Smith and a batallion of lawyers will participate in the meeting.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 17: Doug Smail. LW, and Brad Berry, D, signed multi-year contracts. Bill Lesuk named director of scouting.Aug. 24: Mike Antonovich named scout for Minnesota. Connie Broden named scout for Ontario. &#9632;

JETS RESIGNED TO LIFE WITHOUT OLAUSSON

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011458/5813515-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="500" height="637"></div>Objecting to Soviets playing in the NHL this season isn&rsquo;t patriotic, It&rsquo;s bigoted. It&rsquo;s bigoted because Sergei Makarov is no different than Kjell Samuelsson or Randy Velischek or Mikko Makela or Joey Mullen.A hockey player is a hockey player, whether he comes from Moose Jaw or Moscow. The NHL makes money by employing&mdash;for the benefit of its fans&mdash;the people who play the best hockey in the world, not the people who play the best hockey for those countries whose forms of government we agree with.There are communists living in the United States, socialists living in Canada, democrats living in the Soviet Union. Should we ask all the kids eligible for the 1990 entry draft to list their political preferences, next to their dates of birth?The Montreal Expos have on their roster a pitcher named Dennis Martinez, who is from Nicaragua. Shall Major League Baseball ask him if he favors the Sandinistas or the Contras before he is allowed to make his next start?And what next? Expel all goaltenders who are opposed to abortion?Mixing sports and politics is very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed. It&rsquo;s mixing business with pleasure. It&rsquo;s polluting one of the most wholesome parts of society with hatred and prejudice. There&rsquo;s too much hatred and prejudice in the real world already.I remember being taught in elementary school the Russians were our enemies, that communism was evil, that &ldquo;it was better to be dead than Red.&rdquo; I was too young to know then what I know now: That all the talk about Soviet propaganda was coming from our own propaganda machine.I grew up in Brooklyn, a few miles from a neighborhood called Brighton Beach, where a community of Soviet-bom immigrants lived. Occasionally my family shopped there. The folks wore different clothing, spoke with heavy accents, ate a few things I wouldn&rsquo;t consider putting in my mouth. Other than that, they were from Brooklyn.Americans and Canadians should welcome the Soviet Union&rsquo;s decision to free a number of its players to the NHL, because we endorse a free society. If Igor Larionov wants to play two years for the Vancouver Canucks, mail every dollar home, and then use his rubles to buy all the caviar in Kiev, that&rsquo;s his choice.How is that any different than Velischek, the Devils&rsquo; defenseman who publicly disapproved of his team signing defensemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Starikov, saving his New Jersey-earned dollars and buying a Mercedes in Montreal?Velischek&rsquo;s just worried about his job. And he should be. Fetisov and Starikov are in New Jersey, quite ready and able to win a spot on defense. Instead of yapping about foreigners taking away jobs, Velischek ought to be thinking about his team&rsquo;s 1988-89 flop. The fans who pay his salary will accept a defenseman from Iran if it means the Devils don&rsquo;t miss the playoffs again this season.I know Ranger fans would.It&rsquo;s a very exciting time for the NHL, which has courted the Soviets for more than a decade. Remember when the Canadiens made their pitch for Vladislav Tretiak?Makarov and Sergei Priakin, who made his debut very late last season, are in Calgary. Larionov&rsquo;s a Canuck. Sergei Mylnikov will be tending goal for Quebec. Alexandr Mogilny, the lone defector among the bunch, is in Buffalo.I say Makarov&rsquo;s going to win the Calder Trophy.It will be interesting to see how the Soviets are treated on the ice. I have no problem with the Rick Tocchets and Chris Nilans of the world testing these NHL freshmen in a comer to be named later, because a true professional, trying to help his team win, tests the mettle of all newcomers.I&rsquo;m waiting to identify the true cowards, the red-blooded North American chickens who throw snow in Tocchet&rsquo;s direction, but will run a Soviet because he knows the Soviet won&rsquo;t fight back. I hope Fetisov drops his gloves with the first cheap-shot artist and gives us an example of his Red Army training.There will be problems before and after the games, too. There will be demonstrations outside a few buildings led by a few myopic people who will thankfully be ignored by the majority. Harold Ballard will undoubtedly do something boorish at Maple Leaf Gardens. Ed Snider might have something mean to say, too, when a Soviet plays the Flyers.Hopefully, in a few months the paranoia will fade. Fetisov will inadvertently cut an Islander with a high stick and get suspended, Mylnikov will complain about the Canadian tax rate, Mogilny will miss a curfew, Larionov will call Don Koharski fat.And then maybe the bigots will stop and realize the Soviets are just like everybody else. &#9632;

f0012-01

WE SHOULD WELCOME THE SOVIETS WITH OPEN ARMS

<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Defenseman Craig Ludwig agreed to a new two-year contract, plus an option with the Canadiens Aug. 25. Ludwig was unimpressed with the first Montreal offer and had threatened to play out his option but a new deal was arranged&hellip;Claude Lemieux will miss the start of the training camp because of a groin problem. Lemieux was bothered by the injury during the playoffs and it still hasn&rsquo;t healed properly. The Canadiens are hoping Lemieux will not have to undergo surgery, but are taking a wait-and-see approach. Meanwhile, Lemieux has reiterated his desire to be traded&hellip;Center Gilles Thibaudeau had his contract bought out by the Canadiens. Thibaudeau, used sparingly last season, hoped to catch on with the Islanders&hellip;Goaltender Brian Hayward left the bachelor ranks during the summer, marrying Angie Strachan Aug. 15&hellip;Larry Robinson intends to sue the Canadiens for what amounts to one year&rsquo;s severance pay which he feels is due him after 17 years in a Canadiens uniform. The Canadiens don&rsquo;t think the 38-year-old Los Angeles defenseman is serious&hellip;Veteran defenseman Rick Green made it official Aug. 31: he&rsquo;s retiring.<h2>SABRES</h2>Though there has been little fanfare, the Sabres are reportedly negotiating with former captain Gilbert Perreault about his returning to the team in a front-office role. General manager Gerry Meehan said there has been dialogue but refused to comment on the negotiations. There have been reports Perreault would return in a coaching capacity. Perreault coached the Victoriaville Tigres of the Quebec League last season, but resigned&hellip;Right winger Mark Napier will not return to the Sabres this season. He&rsquo;ll play in Milan, Italy. Napier, 32, turned down an offer to be a player-coach with the Sabres&rsquo; American League affiliate in Rochester.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>The Nords hired former Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; coach Robbie Ftorek Aug. 25 to coach their American League affiliate in Halifax. Ftorek replaced Doug Carpenter, who became the Leafs&rsquo; head coach&hellip;The only member of the Nordiques&rsquo; organization who speaks fluent Russian, Peter Stastny, will be the unofficial interpreter between Sergei Mylnikov, his new teammates and Michel Bergeron&hellip;Michel Goulet&rsquo;s bad knee, which kept him at less than 100 per cent last season, is completely healed. At the end of the regular campaign in April, the injured knee was still 30 per cent weaker than the healthy one&hellip;Right winger Alain Cote retired&hellip;Ex-head coach Jean Perron made a successful radio debut in midAugust. &ldquo;I want to demystify the game for the fans,&rdquo; said Perron, &ldquo;help them understand the NHL. And I think I&rsquo;m more qualified than anyone else to do so.&rdquo;<h2>BRUINS</h2>Boston defenseman Ray Bourque, who suffered a sub-par and injury-plagued 1988-89 campaign&mdash;he failed to make a post-season all-star team for the first time in his career&mdash;has worked hard this summer and vows to rebound with a big year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03795/5813546-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="567" height="721"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque is expecting a return to all-star form this year.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The kid will be back, I guarantee it,&rdquo; said Bourque. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready for a big season. I want to have a great year.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger John Carter agreed to contract terms Aug. 25. Once he signs, all Bruins will be under contract&hellip;The Bruins reached a one-year agreement Aug. 25 with the Johnstown (Pa.) Chiefs. The East Coast League team will be sent an unspecified number of players&hellip;The B&rsquo;s were still hoping to acquire rugged right winger Chris Nilan from the Rangers prior to the opening of camp.<h2>WHALERS</h2>Brian Lawton and Jim Thomson, both free agents with compensation, agreed to terms Aug. 17. Lawton, who was nearly traded to New Jersey at the June draft, signed a one-year contract which will enable him to become a free agent without compensation July 1, 1990. The contract gives him a 15-per-cent raise to the $175,000 range. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m content, but calling anyone a free agent in the NHL is kind of ridiculous,&rdquo; Lawton said. &ldquo;Negotiations with other teams didn&rsquo;t get far at all.&rdquo; The Whalers actually offered a multi-year deal below $165,000 (less than first-round compensation) before increasing the money and decreasing the length right before the June 30 deadline&hellip;The Whalers are expected to drop from 10,300 to 9,800 season tickets. The 1986-87 franchise high was 10,600. About half of the 300 seats for the riew Coliseum Club (combination restaurant, sky-view seating) have been sold at $6,000 a season&hellip;The Whalers&rsquo; new training facility at Avon Old Farm rink (Brian Leetch&rsquo;s prep school alma mater) was completed at a hefty cost of $2.7 million to owner Richard Gordon and the club. Gordon called it a &ldquo;tremendous facility.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-03

LUDWIG SIGNS NEW DEAL WITH CANADIENS

Last season, Calgary Flames&rsquo; right winger Lanny McDonald became the 14th player in NHL history to score 500 goals in his career. Look for New York Islander center Bryan Trottier to be the next player to join the exclusive club. He has 487 goals heading into his I4th NHL season&mdash;all with the Islanders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021202/5813577-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="721" height="425"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bryan Trottier</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-02

NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>It would have been difficult to find a Quebec Nordique player who was enjoying his summer any more than Paul Gillis.Not only was 1988-89 the best of his six full seasons in the NHL, he was also looking forward to the return of his favorite coach, Michel Bergeron.The Nordiques&rsquo; player of the year for &rsquo;88-89 was so anxious to have an even better season this year, he began working out as soon as he returned home to Toronto.But Gillis soon found himself in the hospital, on his back, with virtually. no feeling in his extremities.The diagnosis: Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder brought on by a virus.Usually the worst is expected in the case of neurological disorders. But Gillis was fortunate; his case was not as severe.Dr. John J. Humphreys of Toronto General Hospital said his patient will recover fully, without side effects or fear of relapse.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing very well,&rdquo; said Humphreys. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really incredible to see him get so much done after such little time.&rdquo;Gillis&rsquo; recovery was prooressing so smoothly, in fact, that Humphreys gave Gillis permission to start skating Aug. 29.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still hoping to be able to start the season when the team starts,&rdquo; Gillis said. &ldquo;If not, then within a couple of weeks.&rdquo;Certainly, he&rsquo;s under no pressure from management.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s secondary in our minds,&rdquo; said general manager Martin Madden. &ldquo;In a situation like this, you think of Paul&rsquo;s health first. We&rsquo;ll wait and see about the rest.&rdquo;The main problems associated with Guillain-Barre syndrome&mdash;named after the French doctors who discovered it&mdash;are nerve-related. Gillis suffered an inflammation of the nerves of his lower body, from the waist down, and also lost the feeling in his fingers.&ldquo;It all started about a month ago when my toes got numb all of a sudden,&rdquo; said Gillis. &ldquo;Then I lost the feeling in my fingers and in my legs.&rdquo;Gillis said he at first didn&rsquo;t think too much of his problem. But he decided to consult a doctor and that&rsquo;s when Guillain-Barre syndrome was diagnosed.&ldquo;I got worried while I was in the hospital, because my condition got a lot worse during the first few days that I was there,&rdquo; said Gillis.Rumors in Quebec had Gillis confined to a wheelchair. But the rugged center said that wasn&rsquo;t so.&ldquo;It was tough at times, but I got up by myself every day and got around on my own,&rdquo; he said.Gillis resumed training Aug. 15, starting with light weights.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve passed the stage when we thought we had lost Paul for good,&rdquo; Madden said. &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re thinking of getting him back into shape.&rdquo;The Nordiques acquired three centers over the summer, so Madden isn&rsquo;t worried about a lack of depth at the position&mdash;even with Gillis doubtful for the start of the season.&ldquo;With new arrivals Lucien Deblois, Claude Loiselle and even young Kevin Kaminski in the picture, we have lots of depth we didn&rsquo;t have last year at that position,&rdquo; Madden said. &#9632;

GILLIS RECOVERING FROM NERVE DISORDER

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>When the Boston Bruins look at Alfie Turcotte they hope they are looking at another Cam Neely.The Bruins open training camp Sept. 8 in Wilmington, Mass., expecting an all-time high 67 players. One of the most interesting newcomers will be Turcotte&mdash;a 24-year-old center who may be able to add badly-needed scoring punch.At 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, Turcotte will never be mistaken for the bruising Neely.But the Bruins are hoping their careers continue to follow parallel paths. Bom one day apart, both played junior with the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western League. Both were first-round draft picks, both were given up on by their first NHL club.In Turcotte&rsquo;s case, it was the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs selected him 17th overall in the 1983 draft&mdash;then used him in only 85 games during the next three seasons, during which he scored 15 goals and had 23 assists. He was dumped to the Winnipeg Jets early last year for future considerations.Neely, picked ninth overall by the Vancouver Canucks, was sent to the Bruins for Barry Pederson in 1986, with the 1987 first-round draft pick that became Glen Wesley. Neely has proven his early critics wrong, developing into one of the league&rsquo;s finest two-way players.Can Turcotte do the same?&ldquo;We feel he&rsquo;s a guy who could surprise a lot of people,&rdquo; said Boston general manager Harry Sinden, who signed Turcotte July 6, after the Jets let him go.&ldquo;Turcotte was a very high scorer in junior and in the American League,&rdquo; added Sinden. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if the environment in Winnipeg wasn&rsquo;t right for him, or what. But we consider him a very slick centerman and he has a good chance to be on our team.&rdquo;Turcotte was, indeed, a prolific goal-scorer in junior and in the minors. In 107 WHL games he scored 71 goals and 190 points. Turcotte has played 265 AHL games, scoring 119 goals and 301 points.In 14 NHL games last season, he had a goal and three assists. But he&rsquo;s convinced he&rsquo;s ready to stick this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going there to make the team,&rdquo; he said from his Wisconsin home. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited. I think I have a decent chance. I know I&rsquo;m ready to play full-time in the NHL.&ldquo;Is this my last chance? No, I can&rsquo;t say that. I&rsquo;m still only 24. I&rsquo;m not old. It may just seem I&rsquo;ve been playing pro hockey for a long time.&rdquo;Turcotte may have been a victim of the underage draft during his early campaigns in Montreal. More may have been expected than the 18-year-old could give.&ldquo;The pressure is there when you&rsquo;re playing in that city,&rdquo; said Turcotte, then a 5-foot-9, 179-pounder. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I was ready for that.&rdquo;With Winnipeg, Turcotte was the third offensive center on a two-offensive-center team.&ldquo;They had Dale Hawerchuk and Thomas Steen, and they wanted a defensive center on the third line,&rdquo; said Turcotte. &ldquo;The fourth-line guy didn&rsquo;t play much.&rdquo;So Turcotte spent all or most of the past three seasons in the minors, a more-or-less forgotten figure.But when Rick Bowness, who finished last season as interim coach of the Jets, signed as coach of the Bruins&rsquo; Maine (AHL) affiliate, he recommended Turcotte.&ldquo;The game is changing a bit,&rdquo; said Turcotte. &ldquo;The NHL is getting away from the big, rugged stuff. I think this is a good situation for me. I have a very good feeling about the Bruins.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 25: Signed working agreement with Johnstown (ECHL). &#9632;

BRUINS BELIEVE TURCOTTE COULD BE ANOTHER NEELY

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Trivia question: What do Pierre Turgeon and Dave Snuggerud have in common?Answer: They were both taken first overall in the 1987 draft.By virtue of the Sabres&rsquo; last-place finish in 1986-87, Buffalo was rewarded with the first overall choice in the entry draft and the supplemental draft, too.With the first choice in the supplemental, the Sabres took Snuggerud, a relatively unknown left winger from the University of Minnesota. And while that may be a far cry from Turgeon&rsquo;s status as the first overall choice in the entry draft, Snuggerud is hoping to play alongside Turgeon this season after signing a multi-year contract with the Sabres Aug. 18.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not even going to think about position,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just coming to camp with the idea of doing my best and showing them my game. Whatever happens after that is their decision.&rdquo;If Snuggerud makes the team, he will have beaten long odds.Since the supplemental draft of college players was established by the NHL in 1986, a total of 93 players have been selected. Only two, John Cullen of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Shawn Chambers of the Minnesota North Stars, have become regulars in the NHL.After a high school career with Hopkins High School in Minnesota, Snuggerud didn&rsquo;t have any scholarship offers. He then joined the Minnesota Junior Stars and earned a scholarship with the Golden Gophers in 1985. After the Sabres picked him, Snuggerud joined the U.S. Olympic team and had three goals and two assists at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988.Last season, his junior year with the Gophers, Snuggerud led the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season champions with 20 goals and 29 assists in 45 games. The Gophers eventually lost 4-3 in overtime to Harvard in the NCAA championship game. Snuggerud also played for the U.S. national team in the World Championships in Stockholm last spring.The year with the Junior Stars was spent under the watchful eye of former NHLer Dean Talafous. With some encouragement and a great deal of determination, Snuggerud began to get his game in order. He also began to set priorities.&ldquo;When I didn&rsquo;t get a scholarship, I didn&rsquo;t want to just give up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I decided to play one year of junior, give it my best and then see where I stood. I learned a lot about determination and self-discipline that year. I set goals for myself and so far, I&rsquo;ve been able to achieve them.&rdquo;Though not a flashy player, Snuggerud has managed to catch the eye of scouts througout his career. He is a relentless worker who rarely makes the awe-inspiring play but does all the little things that scouts and coaches genuinely appreciate.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the kind of player you probably won&rsquo;t notice at first,&rdquo; said Todd Richards, a Golden Gopher teammate who&rsquo;s trying to crack the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; lineup this season. &ldquo;But when it&rsquo;s the end, he&rsquo;ll be there. He kind of wears on you.&rdquo;If the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Snuggerud, who is foregoing his final year of college eligibility, does make it to the NHL, he&rsquo;ll join defenseman Mike Ramsey, another ex-Golden Gopher and member of the (1980) U.S. Olympic team. Like Snuggerud, Ramsey isn&rsquo;t spectacular, but has built his game on hard work by doing all the little things right.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 18: Dave Snuggerud, LW, and David Littman, G, signed multi-year contracts. &#9632;

SABRES’ DRAFTEE FIGHTS LONG ODDS

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Steve Bartlett suddenly has become an important man in Hartford.Bartlett, a player agent out of Rochester, N.Y., represents both gritty, heralded right winger Kevin Dineen and high-finesse, unheralded center Ray Ferraro in negotiations with Hartford Whaler general manager Ed Johnston.Dineen and Ferraro combined to score 86 of the Whalers&rsquo; 299 goals last season. That&rsquo;s 29 per cent of the club&rsquo;s offense.They combined for 40 more goals (86-46) than they did in the 1987-88 season, while the Whalers scored 50 more overall (299-249). That means the two accounted for 80 per cent of the improvement.Both are entering the option year of their one-year-plus-option deals. Dineen, who scored a career-high 45 goals and led the club with 89 points, made in the upper $200,000s last year. Ferraro, who finished second on the club with 41 goals and third with 76 points, made $145,000.Both want hefty raises.As September rolled around, however, Bartlett reported &ldquo;a fair gap&rdquo; between the sides.&ldquo;Unless there&rsquo;s an abrupt about-face on their part, I see this carrying over into training camp,&rdquo; Bartlett said Aug. 30. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s still good faith on both sides. I like Ed and negotiations have been honest and cordial. I&rsquo;m no militant agent by any means, but I do feel I am accurately representing my clients&rsquo; desires.&rdquo;Dineen, 25, is looking to become the Whalers&rsquo; highest-paid player and take a large jump to around $500,000 this coming season. Ferraro, also 25, is looking to move into the $225,000 range.During a four-hour meeting between Johnston and Bartlett Aug. 25, the Whalers were believed to have offered in the $400,000 range for Dineen.Bartlett said the gap was more than $50,000 and less than $100,000.&ldquo;Kevin is a really good player, but I feel the biggest money should be reserved for first-team (NHL) allstars,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m optimistic.&rdquo;While Dineen never has been selected to the season-ending first- or second-all-star team, he has been the Whalers only All-Star Game representative the past two years and played well for the NHL All-Stars at Rendezvous &rsquo;87 against the Soviet Union. With 168 goals in 345 NHL games, he has averaged a shade under 40 goals a season.Ferraro, meanwhile, has scored 130 goals in 348 NHL games and his improved performance is indicated by the fact his minutes played per game increased markedly from 14:28 to 17:32 last season.Mike Liut is the highest-paid Whaler at $450,000. Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson get about $300,000.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any doubt of Kevin&rsquo;s value to Hartford,&rdquo; Bartlett said. &ldquo;Kevin&rsquo;s not Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky or Steve Yzerman. But would you take one Lemieux or four Dineens (at the same cost of Lemieux&rsquo;s $2 million a year)? I don&rsquo;t know.&ldquo;There is a more indirect, trickledown effect from the Gretzky and Lemieux signings on a player like Kevin. In the sense that six months from now I don&rsquo;t want my client second-guessing what we got versus where he stands in the league.&rdquo;Bartlett said he is less adamant about the length of Dineen&rsquo;s contract than the salary increase.&ldquo;No mention of his (Crohn&rsquo;s disease, an intestinal disorder) has been made,&rdquo; Bartlett said. &ldquo;It was an issue last year, but I think Kevin has put those questions to rest. In fact, if they had signed Kevin last year longer term they wouldn&rsquo;t be looking at these numbers now.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 17: Kay Whitmore, G, signed two-year-plus-option contract. Jim Thomson. RW, signed one-year-plus-option contract. Brian Lawton, C-LW, signed one-year contract.Aug. 18: Ken Schinkel named director of player personnel. Bruce Haralson named chief scout. Fred Gore named scout for Boston area. &#9632;

HIGH-SCORING WHALERS SEEK NEW DEALS

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>In a move that will undoubtedly send traditionalists into apoplexy, the Montreal Canadiens announced in August they will have a new home by 1995.Oh, they&rsquo;ll still play in the Montreal Forum. It just won&rsquo;t be the 65-year-old hockey shrine at the corner of Ste. Catherine and Atwater in the city center. Which is a little like saying the Mona Lisa will be still be the Mona Lisa after an impressionist artist from the 1990s paints a new one.A new Forum is a certainty; it&rsquo;s only a matter of determining the new site. Surprisingly, that, more than the fact the Habs will vacate their traditional home, is sparking the most controversy.&ldquo;We have asked the Lavalin engineering firm to study the feasibility of many sites,&rdquo; said Canadiens&rsquo; president Ronald Corey, who will be in the eye of the storm regardless of the site chosen.Lavalin is reportedly in favor of a vacant site near Olympic Stadium in the city&rsquo;s predominantly Frenchspeaking east end. It is not, however, a preferred choice of the Canadiens&rsquo; management, which would like a more central location.Olympic Stadium is home to baseball&rsquo;s Montreal Expos. Easily accessible by subway, the Olympic site is more difficult to reach by car, especially in the winter.Another potential site is the Carling O&rsquo;Keefe Brewery building at the foot of Peel Street in the city&rsquo;s core. With the approved merger of Molson&rsquo;s and Carling O&rsquo;Keefe, there is speculation the O&rsquo;Keefe plant will fall to the wrecker&rsquo;s ball.The land would become available and since Molson&rsquo;s owns the site, as well as the Canadiens, it&rsquo;s a natural to house the new Forum.&ldquo;We have to look at all possible sites,&rdquo; said Corey, who added more than two are under consideration. Fearing inquiries from land speculators, he did not elaborate.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me today what will be the No. 1 Choice. It is going to be a long process. I don&rsquo;t know today where the new Forum will be built.&ldquo;If people are talking about the Olympic Park, there is nothing I can do about that. I can&rsquo;t blame them. It is, after all, a sports site.&rdquo;The O&rsquo;Keefe site is easily accessible by car&mdash;an expressway exit is two blocks away&mdash;and it is within walking distance of commuter trains, subway and the city&rsquo;s major downtown hotels.&ldquo;I want the best hockey facility for my club,&rdquo; Corey said. &ldquo;I know there are going to be people upset with the fact there is going to be a new Forum. I have been coming here since I was 10 years old. It means a lot to me, too.&rdquo;But the existing Forum has structural and design shortcomings which will only be magnified in the years to come.The major problems include inadequate dressing rooms for visiting teams and game officials; limited storage space and primitive television studios (compared to new state-of-the-art arenas). Office space on the second floor is also inadequate and while the broadcast booths and press box areas are not the worst in the NHL, they are far from being the best.From a revenue-producing standpoint, Hab management would like to see more seats and luxury boxes. When the new Forum is built, all the shortcomings will be addressed.Some consideration was given to remodeling the Forum, but it was deemed impractical by Lavalin. The exisiting structure was built in 1923 and has been expanded twice, with the last major facelift following the 1968 Stanley Cup playoffs.Lavalin determined it would be too costly, and the benefits mimimal, in trying to improve the existing building. One option would have cost $90 million to $130 million and would have resulted in the removal and reinstallation of the air conditioning system, the clock and changes to the electrical and heating system. While 3,000 seats might have been added, none of them would have been prime locations.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s impossible to do anything here,&rdquo; Corey said. &ldquo;Even if we could do something here, it would take too much time. We can&rsquo;t be away from home for a whole hockey season. That&rsquo;s impossible.&rdquo;The new Forum will have a 20.000-seat capacity and at least 100 luxury boxes, Corey said. He has studied buildings such as the Calgary Saddledome and the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association, to get a better idea of what he wants for the Canadiens&rsquo; new home.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 25: Russ Courtnail, C-RW, and Craig Ludwig, D, signed two-year-plus option contracts.Aug. 28: Gilles Thibaudeau. C, had contract bought out.Aug. 31: Rick Green, D, announced retirement. &#9632;

HABS ARE SEARCHING FOR NEW FORUM SITE

The career of one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s quickest and most proficient skaters began in quite an unlikely way.Russ Courtnall of the Montreal Canadiens took his first strides in a pair of girls&rsquo; figure skates.&ldquo;The reason for that was they were hand-me-downs from my sister,&rdquo; said Courtnail. &ldquo;They were the only ones that would fit.&rdquo;The three-year-old Courtnail went from there to figure-skating lessons, something he claims contributed to his success. Although he&rsquo;s never been clocked, Courtnall is easily the most fleet of foot on the Canadiens and is possibly one of the swiftest skaters in the league. Hockey Night in Canada commentator Harry Neale once said Courtnall is the quickest skater with the puck in the NHL.&ldquo;I think I was born a good skater. My dad played a lot of hockey (his late father Archie played for the Cleveland Barons of the American League) and my mom was a good athlete so they passed it along to me,&rdquo; said Courtnall, 24. &ldquo;But I think (figure skating) really helped because when you&rsquo;re young you tend to learn quickly and in figure skating I learned a lot of things about balance and striding techniques.&rdquo;Courtnall added another wrinkle to his childhood regimen that he claims allowed him to concentrate more on technique.&ldquo;When I was young I practised skating a lot without a stick. That&rsquo;s something that I think a lot of kids don&rsquo;t do these days,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I learned to skate just as well without one as I did with one.&rdquo;As a teenager, Courtnall realized how important it was going to be for him to be a good skater. He then focused on the essential part of skating&mdash;getting off to quick start.&ldquo;When I was 14, I was quite small and I saw a lot of the other guys were getting quicker and stronger than I was,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So I concentrated on the first five strides as much as I could. I really beared down on my skating and really worked at it. I think that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;ve been successful.&rdquo;While he doesn&rsquo;t run or jog in the offseason, Courtnall keeps up his leg and cardiovascular strength with extensive workouts on a stationary bicycle. But he said his brother Geoff, who is probably the quickest skater on the Washington Capitals, has come up with a novel approach to offseason training.Geoff has devised a piece of equipment he calls a slide board, a variation on an invention that Olympic speedskating champion Eric Heiden was trying to market after the 1980 Olympic Games. It consists of an eight-foot piece of plexiglass attached to a piece of plywood. Courtnall then waxes the plexiglass and, wearing a pair of wool stockings over his shoes, slides from side to side by pushing off walls.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011076/5813728-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="711" height="673"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al lafrate says his skating skills just came naturally.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve only used it a couple of times when I&rsquo;ve gone to visit him,&rdquo; said Courtnall. &ldquo;But he swears by it.&rdquo;Al lafrate, like Russ Courtnall, is one of the swiftest skaters in the league. The difference is the 23-year-old Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman cranks it up in a much larger vehicle. He&rsquo;s 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, compared to Courtnall, who is 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds.lafrate&rsquo;s speed allows him to take offensive risks that stay-at-home defensemen can only dream about. And with a growing emphasis on generating offense from the blueline, that&rsquo;s a valuable commodity.&ldquo;My style of game has always been to take a lot of chances. I&rsquo;ve been playing that way as long as I can remember,&rdquo; said lafrate. &ldquo;I know I can take more offensive risks because even if I lose the puck to a forward, there&rsquo;s a good chance I&rsquo;ll be able to catch up to him before he gets too dangerous with the puck.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt that skating is the strongest part of my game. I know that when I make a rush there&rsquo;s a decent chance that I&rsquo;ll score or at least be able to create a scoring chance without getting into too much trouble.&rdquo;Like Courtnall, lafrate said he works hard on conditioning and technique but a large degree of skating talent is innate.&ldquo;I ran a bit of track when I was younger and I guess that helped, but I&rsquo;ve been a good skater for as long as I can remember,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I guess I was blessed with good legs because I never really had to work at it when I was young. It just came to me naturally.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

COURTNALL A GREAT SKATER? GO FIGURE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011122/5813797-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Toronto Maple Leaf and St. Louis Blue Inge Hammarstrom is the president of Cag One Ltd. The Swedish company popularized computer-aided skate grinding.</figcaption></div>Improved quality control from the manufacturer in Sweden and a new speed cartridge are now available on the 1990 Cag One skate tuning and sharpening machine. The quality control consists of a new &ldquo;chip&rdquo; and change of belt tension that provides a smoother, more consistent finish and less &ldquo;chatter&rdquo; or &ldquo;skipping&rdquo; marks on blades. Grinding stones have also been improved.The most important new feature is the speed cartridge. When inserted, this device immediately changes the machine from a tuner/profiler to a sharpener. In simple terms, if your blades have already been rockered and only need sharpening, Cag One will follow the existing shape of your blade&hellip;and sharpen only.This process will significantly reduce waiting time.Top players should still profile their skates at the beginning of the season before regular sharpening and have their blade profile checked or touched up occasionally. It is very important to take proper care of your most important tool&hellip;your blades!The Cag One machine also does figure and goaltender skates with amazing results. Cag One has done some Ice Capades&rsquo;skates, and many professional and Olympic team goaltenders&rsquo; skates as well.Goaltenders especially appreciate how their flat surface is done so precisely on Cag One. It takes many years of skate sharpening experience to do a long, flat surface at a 90 degree angle by hand, but Cag One offers this feature at the touch of a button.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02842/5813790-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="716" height="610"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal Canadien Mats Naslund is one of many NHLers to use Cag One.</figcaption></div>Other features include a built-in dust bin, a slot for vacuum hook-up, an owner&rsquo;s cartridge (that keeps count of sharpenings&hellip;and money!), a self-diagnostic keyboard and a travel box.This 50-pound, 26-inch machine travels easily and works from a regular electrical outlet. It is easy to understand and operate and comes with a one-year parts and labor guarantee with extended warranty and leasing plans available.Used by many college, junior and NHL teams.For more information, contact Cag One. &#9632;

f0018-01

CAG ONE INTRODUCES SPEED CARTRIDGE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011040/5813835-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02760/5813828-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="1486" height="1205"></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

HOCKEY SKATE ANALYSIS

Superior quality and technological innovations have made Bauer the leader in hockey skates.Evidence of Bauer&rsquo;s NHL dominance is shown in a recent study conducted by Decima researchers. The study shows that more than three times as many NHL players wear Bauer than that of the closest competitor. And the reason is simple, high-performance features.Bauer&rsquo;s exclusive Flolite ankle pads utilize the latest technology to create the ideal custom fit in the ankle area. Pressure sensitive, Flolite flows around the ankle bones to fill in the anatomical gaps around the achilles tendon, there-by providing you with a true custom fit.A patented three-dimensional Superfeet footbed is yet another innovative performance aspect of Bauer skates. Like the rest of the skate, the Superfeet footbed is designed to ensure the ultimate in comfort and overall performance. It has a deforming slot system that encourages proper alignment by correctly distributing your body weight along the blade axis.And there&rsquo;s also the revolutionary Formfit Plus tongue, anatomically designed to fit your right and left foot individually. The contoured design ensures that the tongue will remain centered on your foot for enhanced circulation, protection and comfort. A unique three-part design improves performance. The lower tongue cradles yourforefoot, firmly holding your foot back in the boot for a snug fit. The middle tongue features a flex point that allows you full freedom of movement. The upper tongue has an innovative insert to reduce lace bite and increase protection against impact.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01917/5813873-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="586" height="488"></div>Bauer has set the standard with its Custom-molded Bauer Skate-thotic footbeds. Bauer&rsquo;s unique footbed can be formed to the individual contours of the foot, thereby providing the maximum transfer of energy from the foot to blade.With Bauer&rsquo;s commitment to continuously improve the quality and performance of their skates, it&rsquo;s not surprising why pros have made Bauer the NHL&rsquo;s choice.Together, fit, comfort and performance carry on the Bauer tradition of product superiority. That&rsquo;s why Bauer skates have truly earned the distinction of being a skate of mind.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02615/5813866-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="558" height="424"></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

BAUER CONTINUES TO BE HOCKEY’S LEADER

The Mega hockey skate is the end result of an unprecedented four-year research study that was conducted in collaboration with Montreal&rsquo;s McGill University.Using modern computer technology and the science of biomechanics, researchers were able to pin-point the problem areas in natural skating motion. With this information, the challenge to create the ultimate hockey skate was set in motion.Today, when a player laces up a pair of Mega 10-90&rsquo;s, he&rsquo;s wearing hockey&rsquo;s most technologically-advanced skate. The Mega is the first skate designed to complement and maximize natural skating motion. And there are six important features that make the Mega Hockey&rsquo;s ultimate high-performance skate.Mega&rsquo;s unique Medial Power Clip improves forefoot control and support during your skating stride, providing a complete energy transfer from boot to blade.A Microthodic Footbed properly aligns your foot, thereby enhancing your performance. Its unique three-dimensional contour cradles your heel and supports the midfoot, allowing for greater control.An anatomicallly contoured tongue fits both your feet individually; improving fit and protection, and eliminating lace bit because of a unique foam insert and thick felt backing.Mega&rsquo;s Asymmetrical Lace Opening has been designed to fit the natural shape of your foot, distributing lace pressure evenly across the high point of your foot for superior control.A Microflex Ankle Support System gives you superb rear foot control, lateral support and forward/backward flex. It is constructed from the toughest, lightweight polyurethane available.To allow you full freedom of movement, a Facing Flex Notch provides less restriction and improved performance which further improves your forward/backward flexibility.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01689/5813904-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="577" height="1052"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque, above, and Wendel Clark use the Mega 10-90.</figcaption></div>Mega has gained praise and recognition by one of hockey&rsquo;s premier goal-scorers, Mario Lemieux. Some of the other notables that wear Mega are Wendel Clark and Raymond Bourque. Players choose Mega because it&rsquo;s made to complement and maximize natural skating motion in a way no other skate has ever before. Because of this, the Mega has quickly become the envy of the skating business. It was the first sewn skate to introduce long-wearing Clarino lining and the only one that has the revolutionary Medial Power Clip.The Mega 10-90 has garnered its reputation as hockey&rsquo;s high-tech skate because of the stringent quality standards in materials and workmanship. And Mega offers a full range of styles and prices to suit the needs of the pro, intermediate and beginner. &#9632;

f0021-01

MEGA IS ON THE OUTER LIMITS OF SKATE-OLOGY

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01804/5813949-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="566" height="537"></div>CCM announces the ultimate in skate fit and performance, with its new 651 Tacks.This is the only skate heat-molded to the exact shape of your foot for sensational fit and maximum performance, using the CCM exclusive Vakutack Fitting System.The revolutionary new skate was launched at the NHL level in the fall of 1988 and has taken the market by storm. Mark Messier, captain of the Edmonton Oilers, Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins and Rick Tocchet of the Philadelphia Flyers are just three of the many players wearing this new skate.The performance and fit of the skate have been getting rave reviews from all corners of competitive hockey. In fact, CCM&rsquo;s market share in the NHL should double during the 1989-90 season, with players wearing the new 651 Tacks.The skates are available at most top-end skate shops throughout North America. These sporting goods retailers have also purchased the Vakutack Fitting System, so they can heat-mold the skate right in their store.The whole fitting process takes about 20 minutes, and you will instantly sem the results of a perfect fit. This process eliminates the traditional break-in period of top-end skates and the instant comfort will appeal to everybody.CCM launched a very aggressive television campaign to promote the 651 Tacks during the Stanley Cup playoffs, and is currently shipping the skates to all authorized dealers throughout Canada and the rest of the world.Look for 651 Tacks at your local hockey dealer now!<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02563/5813942-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="557" height="1176"><figcaption class="caption-body">Feisty Philadelphia Flyer Rick Tocchet favors 651 Tacks.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03410/5813935-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="552" height="1169"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston star Cam Neely is another 651 Tacks wearer.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

CCM’S 651 TACKS MAKING INROADS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01721/5813987-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02465/5813980-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="1496" height="3174"></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

Riedell USA is entering the 1989 hockey season with more strength and enthusiasm than ever before, because of the overall success Riedell has received from the Pro-College Program implemented over the last two years.Riedell has always been recognized as the world leader in the design and manufacturer of top quality figure skates since 1945, and the craftsmanship and success it has known for figure skates continues in the commitment to building the best line of hockey skates available.The Riedell Comp 511 is the topend skate in the line. Through extensive research and design, Riedell is able to build the type of skate needed to withstand the constant abuse that is associated with the game of hockey. Riedell will be concentrating heavily on the promotion of its Comp 511. The skate offers lightweight, durable construction and delivers the finest in performance. The materials and construction methods are such that the boot won&rsquo;t break down prematurely and will keep on performing through the end of the season.Knowing that many top-end skates on the market lose their strength and support before season&rsquo;s end, Riedell&rsquo;s No. 1 goal was to develop a boot that withstood all the damaging effects of the game, such as stress, flex and damaging moisture. By using a nonabsorbent padding system and internal materials that are highly resistent to moisture, the skate automatically delivers performance longer. Together with the latest shoemaking methods, the skate has unsurpassed strength in all areas.With the addition of the new 71 Pro Star, Riedell now has a model to suit all levels of hockey player. Whether it is the Comp 511 like the pros wear, or the inexpensive 71 Pro Star, you can count on Riedell. &#9632;

RIEDELL SKATES TO THE FOREFRONT

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01692/5814042-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="494" height="626"></div>Impertinent thoughts on pertinent subjects&hellip;&#9632; There will be no replacing Phil Esposito&rsquo;s ebullience, but Neil Smith did well in setting up the New York Rangers&rsquo; new high command. On a scale of 1 to 10, the Smith-Roger Neilson-Larry Pleau-Gord Stellick general staff rates a seven. (I never give a 10.)&#9632; If Esa Tikkanen was a Canadian, his name would be Ken Linseman.&#9632; The Dump-On-Ron Hextall Brigade overlooks one fact&mdash;Each member of the anti-Hexy faction would dearly love to have the boisterous one on his team, Chris Chelios included.&#9632; Milestones should be recognized. We&rsquo;re approaching the Rangers&rsquo; Golden Jubilee Year&mdash;50 seasons since they won a Stanley Cup (1940). Shoulder patches are in order.&#9632; If the Ed Garvey gang ever takes over the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, you can figure on the NHL&rsquo;s first strike since 1925, when the Hamilton Tigers staged a walkout.&#9632; Whaddya bet Peter Pocklington sells the Oilers in the not-too-distant future? And whaddya bet the club will be all the better for it?&#9632; If the NHL had a Build-Up-To-A-Letdown Trophy, my choice would be Tony Hrkac of the Blues, with Edmonton&rsquo;s Chris Joseph as runner-up.&#9632; Why don&rsquo;t the Maple Leafs take a one-year sabbatical?&#9632; Paul MacLean succeeds Lanny McDonald in the Best Moustache Department.&#9632; Jimmy Devellano must have been dreaming of Punch Imlach the night before he traded MacLean and Adam Oates for Methuselahs like Bernie Federko and Tony McKegney. Punch won four Stanley Cups (1962, 1963, 1964, 1967) with such Golden Oldies.&#9632; Glen Sather leaves the bench as the most underrated coach of all time. Check the numbers (442-341-99 and a .706 winning percentage in the playoffs.)&#9632; It&rsquo;s a good thing Sather wasn&rsquo;t attached to a lie detector when he uttered the deathless line: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to second-guess the decisions John Muckier and Teddy Green make.&rdquo;&#9632; For a man who has done so much television work, Roger Neilson should speak louder.&#9632; You know Islander top draft pick Dave Chyzowski has his work cut out for him, when the headlines read, &ldquo;Another Bossy.&rdquo;&#9632; Guy Lafleur won&rsquo;t win the Hart Trophy, but he&rsquo;ll give the Nordiques their money&rsquo;s worth. Just don&rsquo;t expect him to perform any better than your average third-liner.&#9632; Vladislav Tretiak is Vladislav Tretiak&rsquo;s best promoter, but there&rsquo;s no way he belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Face it, the guy never showed that he could perform in an 80-game NHL pressure-cooker. (And wasn&rsquo;t Tretiak the one who folded in the stretch during the 1972 Team Canada-Russia series?)&#9632; The Canadiens treat their alumni with suitable reverence. The Maple Leafs can&rsquo;t be bothered and that, Torontonians, tells you a lot about why each franchise is where it is.&#9632; The case of Robbie Ftorek proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that every NHL coach should take a course in public relations. (Make that two courses.)&#9632; Something tells me that the Capitals will regret losing Pete Peeters.&#9632; There are plenty of off-ice nice guys in the NHL, but none top Doug Wilson, Tony Granato, Ryan Walter, Rick Tocchet, Peter Zezel, Scott Steens, Larry Murphy, Alan Kerr, Randy Veliscek and Phil Bourque.&#9632; If I was a member of the NHL player development corps, I&rsquo;d be darned worried about the sharp drop in Canadian youngsters playing the game.&#9632; Michel Bergeron is playing his last NHL credit card in Quebec.&#9632; Best unsung deal of the off-season was the Devils&rsquo; re-unification of Peter Sundstrom with his twin brother, Patrik.&#9632; Hockey is more fun when the Professor, Ron Caron, is lecturing in the press room.&#9632; Already I miss Phil Esposito. I suspect the Rangers do, too.&#9632; It&rsquo;s tough countering John Ziegler&rsquo;s &ldquo;If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it&rdquo; homily when NHL attendance has climbed for the ninth straight year.&#9632; Of all the missing persons in 1989-90, the one whose absence will hurt most is Bengt Gustafsson.&#9632; The Caps wouldn&rsquo;t dare trade Rod Langway.&#9632; Harold Ballard should study under Bruce McNall.&#9632; How about Kelly Hrudey even-up for Grant Fuhr?&#9632; It will be interesting to see what form of psychology the Devils employ to get the engimatic Sly Turgeon back in the groove.&#9632; Icing the puck should be whistled down the instant the puck clears the goal line.&#9632; Mark this name down as the sleeper ace of 1989-90&mdash;the Kings&rsquo; Czechoslovak defenseman, Petr Prajsler.&#9632; Sorry, but the playoffs haven&rsquo;t convinced everyone that Mike Vernon is for real.&#9632; A lot of the stardust will be blown off Patrick Roy now that Larry Robinson, Bob Gainey and Rick Green have gone bye-bye.&#9632; Wonder if the Red Wings realize that Bernie Federko had a minus-57 defensive rating over the past three years.&#9632; Since he brings so much class to the game, it would be nice if Ron Greschner closed with one more really solid season.&#9632; And while on the subject of class acts, you have to be rooting for Gord Kluzak to make a successful return after his umpteenth knee operation. &#9632;

f0025-01

POCKLINGTON WILL SELL, AND OTHER PREDICTIONS

<h2>FLYERS</h2>Czechoslavakian defector Jiri Latal agreed to contract terms with the Flyers Aug. 28. No details were released. The defenseman&rsquo;s rights were acquired from the Leafs in exchange for a seventh-round draft choice in 1990. Latal, 22, played last year with Dukla Trencin of the Czech Elite Division. He was in West Germany recently playing in a series of exhibition games when he defected. Flyers&rsquo; assistant coach Andy Murray was in West Germany to watch Latal play, and accompanied him to Philadelphia&hellip; Although many people expect the Flyers to trade goalie Ken Wregget before the beginning of the season, it now appears the club wants to go into the season with both Wregget and Pete Peeters, and then make a trade when Ron Hextall returns from his 12-game suspension. Of course, the team then runs the risk that Peeters will be claimed in the waiver draft. However, the Flyers think Mark Laforest may be claimed first (possibly by the New York Islanders), and a team can only lose one goalie in the waiver draft. There is concern that if Laforest isn&rsquo;t taken by the Islanders, the Capitals might reclaim Peeters in the waiver draft.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Right winger Andrew McBain, acquired in the six-player deal with Winnipeg, signed a three-year contract Aug. 24. Jim Kyte, part of the same deal, came to Pittsburgh in late August and began working out&hellip; Five players entering their option years had yet to sign new contracts. GM Tony Esposito is still negotiating with the agents for right winger Rob Brown, left winger Bob Errey and defensemen Zarley Zalapski, Jim Johnson and Randy Hillier&hellip;Center Dave Hannan has accepted a one-year contract from the Penguins and will be in training camp. Despite agreeing to the contract, Hannan still has the right to go to arbitration if he wishes&hellip;The Penguins open training camp at the Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center Sept. 8 but head for the Pittsburgh Civic Arena five days later. It will be the earliest they have ever practised at their home rink.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The Islanders will play an exhibition game against the Buffalo Sabres Sept. 29 at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., to benefit the Peter McGeough Trust. McGeough is the 24-year-old defenseman who suffered a spinal injury while playing for the Islanders&rsquo; Springfield (AHL) farm team Oct. 11, 1988. The Islanders are paying for McGeough&rsquo;s care and rehabilitation, but the trust was established for other expenses&hellip;Defenseman Ken Morrow, who finished up a termination contract and was not offered a playing contract by the Isles for the coming season, is hopeful of working for the Rangers&rsquo; IHL affiliate near his home in Flint, Mich., as a player and/or coach. Paul Theriault is Flint&rsquo;s head coach&hellip; Free-agent right winger Alan Kerr remains unsigned.<h2>DEVILS</h2>The Devils made a profit last season for the first time in six seasons in New Jersey, finishing fifth in the league in average attendance (16,900). Owner John McMullen is hoping for an average of 17,500 this season&hellip;Jim Korn, a free agent who chose to re-sign with the Devils, will be fighting for a job in training camp with physical forwards Dave Maley, Steve Rooney and Perry Anderson&hellip; George McPhee, who sat out all of last season after playing only five games in &rsquo;87-88, officially announced his retirement in mid-August&hellip;Jack O&rsquo;Callahan whose contract with the Devils expired, may play in Switzerland this year.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Defenseman Kent Paynter, who played only three NHL games while spending four years in the Chicago organization, was signed as a free agent Aug. 21. Paynter is a native of Summerside, P.E.I., as is Washington assistant coach Doug MacLean. Paynter earned a job following a tour of duty at MacLean&rsquo;s hockey school and is the fourth defenseman added by the Capitals since June, along with Mark Ferner, Dennis Smith and Brian Tutt&hellip;The Capitals passed the 8,000 mark for confirmed season tickets Aug. 25. Last year they did not reach that figure until Nov. 1. With more than 5,700 partial plans sold, the team seems likely to top last year&rsquo;s record attendance average of 17,013.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Ranger GM Neil Smith has vowed not to hire any more people with the last name Smith. He proclaimed that after hiring Ron Smith as an assistant for head coach Roger Neilson. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it; no more Smiths,&rdquo; Neil joked. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to stop hiring my relatives. Maybe I should use my middle name from now on&hellip;except that it&rsquo;s Sidney.&rdquo; Neither Ron Smith, nor the team&rsquo;s medical trainer, Dave Smith, are any relation to the GM &hellip; Long-time Ranger Don Maloney has signed a conditional, one-year deal with the rival Islanders. Maloney said he attempted to reach Neil Smith to talk about the possibility of returning to the Rangers but &ldquo;basically he was too busy. And when he finally got in touch with my agent, they were basically only willing to invite me to training camp.&rdquo; The Rangers have 53 players under contract, three more than the NHL limit of 50. The roster must be reduced before the waiver draft. &#9632;

CZECHOSLOVAKIAN DEFECTS TO FLYERS

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; right winger Scott Mellanby probably won&rsquo;t be playing hockey until December.But when he considers what might have happened, he has to consider himself a lucky man.A short vacation at a resort 150 miles north of Toronto turned into a brush with disaster Aug. 20. Mellanby&rsquo;s friend, Jeff Frazier, became involved in a fracas with a patron at the Muskoka Sands Motel in Gravenhurst, Ont. When Mellanby came to help Frazier, he was badly cut in the left arm with a broken beer bottle. Frazier was reportedly cut in the throat with the bottle.Both Mellanby and Frazier were first treated at a local hospital and later sent by ambulance to the Toronto General Hospital, where Frazier was released and Mellanby remained for treatment. According to the surgeon who operated on Mellanby, the right winger suffered a severed ulnar nerve and ulnar artery. Five tendons were also cut. However, a complete recovery is expected. The Flyers expect Mellanby to be ready to re-join the team by December.&ldquo;Scott is a responsible individual, who saw a friend in trouble and felt he had to help,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke. &ldquo;The outcome was terribly unfortunate, but we trust Scott&rsquo;s judgment and believe he was justified in all of his actions.&ldquo;All indications are that the injury will have no effect on Scott&rsquo;s ability to resume his playing career following his rehabilitation.&rdquo;Mellanby, who would not comment on the incident, was expected to be in a cast until mid-September before taking on eight to 12 weeks of rehabilitation.Ontario Provincial Police in Gravenhurst charged Frank Chapple, 44, of Missisauga, Ont., with assault causing bodily harm and immediately put out a warrant for his arrest. Police found Chapple Aug. 22 in Mississauga and upgraded the charge to aggravated assault. Chapple is due to appear in Ontario provincial court in Bracebridge Sept. 21. No other charges were laid in the incident.&ldquo;A friend of Scott was being set upon,&rdquo; officer Robert Parlardg told the Philadelphia Daily News. &ldquo;Scott went to his aid.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01740/5814097-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="706" height="714"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Mellanby was reportedly on the trade block before his injury.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame that a bunch of good kids can&rsquo;t go up there and have a good time without getting hit by a broken beer bottle,&rdquo; said Mellanby&rsquo;s father Ralph. &ldquo;Scott didn&rsquo;t even want to go up there for a whole weekend because he&rsquo;s in training.&rdquo;According to Flyers&rsquo; team physician Dr. Jeff Hartzell, the injury is in many ways similar to the one suffered by Calgary defenseman Jamie Macoun in an auto accident in 1987. &ldquo;The tendons will heal in about a month,&rdquo; said Hartzell in late August, &ldquo;and the artery will heal even faster than that.&rdquo;Although it could have been much worse, the Flyers will definitely feel the pinch on right wing with Mellanby&rsquo;s absence. Mellanby&rsquo;s 2129-50 totals in 76 games placed him behind Tim Kerr and Rick Tocchet on the right side, but his robust play (183 penalty minutes) will be missed even more.There was also speculation that Mellanby was being offered around as part of a package with goalie Ken Wregget. With the injury, Clarke will have to wait until mid-season if he wishes to deal Mellanby.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 28: Rights to Jiri Latal. D, acquired from Toronto for future considerations. &#9632;

f0026-01

BARROOM BRAWL KNOCKS MELLANBY OUT OF LINEUP

<div class="byline">BY SHERRY ROSS</div>Don Maloney in a New York Islander uniform? The idea of the former New York Ranger playing for the archrival is as ludicrous a notion as Dwight Gooden on the mound for the Yankees or Don Mattingly scooping balls out of the dirt at first for the Mets.&ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure there are going to be a lot of Ranger fans out there wondering how I could be such a turncoat.&rdquo;Maloney, who for 10&frac12; years bled Ranger blue before his trade last season to the Whalers, agreed to a one-year contract with the Islanders Aug. 23. Hartford bought out Maloney&rsquo;s contract but, at 31, the veteran left winger felt he still had some hockey left in him. The Islanders did, too.&ldquo;I came in and talked to Al Arbour and Bill Torrey, and the way they handled everything was very professional,&rdquo; Maloney said of the Islanders&rsquo; coach and general manager. &ldquo;They came back and made me a nice offer. I&rsquo;m thrilled they were interested in me. I&rsquo;m going to go to training camp, and if they want me, they keep me.&rdquo;Maloney, his wife Toni and 20-month-old son Don Jr., live with within walking distance of the Rangers&rsquo; training site in Rye, N.Y. After Hartford cut him loose earlier in the summer, Maloney said he tried to contact the Rangers to see if they were interested, but could not get in touch with new general manager Neil Smith.&ldquo;I met (Ranger coach) Roger Neilson at a coaching clinic in Prince Edward Island before he had the Ranger job,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;We had a long talk at breakfast and he asked me if I still wanted to play or if I was interested in coaching.&ldquo;I did want to play because I finished up so poorly last season, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I thought I was too young and not really qualified yet to be a coach.&rdquo;After taking the Ranger coaching job, Neilson did contact Maloney but, by then, the Islanders and Maloney had agreed to terms. Maloney might well wind up as an unofficial playing coach with the young Islanders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02506/5814128-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="716" height="762"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Maloney played 21 games for Hartford before being released.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve only seen the roster, and I hardly recognize any of the names after Bryan Trottier, Brent Sutter, and Pat LaFontaine,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like an underage junior team. I think they could use some leadership and experience.&rdquo;In his prime, Maloney was regarded as one of the best comer men and clutch players in the NHL. In 1984, his goal in the fifth game of a best-of-five preliminary series against the Islanders tied the game at 2-2 with 39 seconds left in regulation, but Islander defenseman Ken Morrow won it in overtime. Maloney wept in the locker room after the game, and the image of the rough-bearded man reduced to tears symbolized the emotional rivalry between the Rangers and Islanders.On New Year&rsquo;s Eve, 1988, just five days after being traded to the Whalers, Maloney suffered a broken collarbone from a Joey Kocur check. He missed playing the Rangers Jan. 2, but returned to log 21 games as a Whaler. In total, he played 52 games, scoring seven goals and 27 points.Maloney will face his former teammates for the first time Oct. 27 at Madison Square Garden.<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 23: Don Maloney, LW, signed one-year termination contract. Rich Kromm, LW, granted permission to played for Leksand (Swedish Elite Division).Aug. 30: Brad Lauer, RW, and Micka, RW, signed multi Vukot-year contracts. &#9632;

f0026-02

EX-RANGER STALWART NEWEST ISLANDER

<div class="byline">BY TOM McMILLAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01718/5814183-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey says he realizes the Pens have worked hard to get &ldquo;the big guy&rdquo; signed, but now wants his own contract reevaluated.</figcaption></div>Moments after signing a $12million contract that will keep him in Pittsburgh for the next five years, Mario Lemieux turned psuedo-agent.&ldquo;Paul&rsquo;s a great hockey player,&rdquo; he said of his teammate, Paul Coffey, the NHL&rsquo;s highest-scoring defenseman with 113 points last season. &ldquo;I think he deserves a little bit more money than he&rsquo;s making now. I hope the Penguins realize that.&rdquo;Lemieux knows his game inside and out. Like. others in Pittsburgh&mdash;and across North America&mdash;he&rsquo;d heard the rumors Coffey and his agent, Gus Badali, were waiting for Lemieux to wrap up his megacontract before asking for a renegotiation of their own. The rumors were true&mdash;at least in principle.Both Coffey and Badali said they would wait a few days before approaching general manager Tony Esposito about the possibility of a new deal.Coffey, 28, will earn about $500,000 this year. He has one year and an option remaining on the contract he signed after being traded to Pittsburgh from Edmonton in November, 1987.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for Mario,&rdquo; Coffey said from his summer home north of Toronto on the day Lemieux signed. &ldquo;I think he deserves it. I think it&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;But he also hopes there is a trickledown effect.&ldquo;Hopefully, Tony will approach me,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll wait for a couple of days, and if not, I&rsquo;ll give him a shout&hellip;see if we can work something out.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m worth more than I&rsquo;m making.&rdquo;Coffey led NHL defensemen last? season with 30 goals and 113 points.&rsquo;Those numbers ranked him sixth in the overall league scoring stats&mdash;although he had a plus-minus rating of minus-10.He placed second in balloting for the Norris Trophy as the NHLs best defenseman but finished atop his position in a separate poll of league players.&ldquo;I realize the Penguins have had a lot on their minds lately, trying to get the big guy signed,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;I definitely would like something to happen for me&hellip;possibly an extension, because I really like it in Pittsburgh. And I think we&rsquo;re going to have a great team.&rdquo;Badali added a new wrinkle to the Coffey news when he revealed a conversation he had with former Penguins&rsquo; GM Ed Johnston two years ago. Johnston engineered the blockbuster trade that brought Coffey to Pittsburgh&mdash;after Coffey had held out of Edmonton&rsquo;s camp and sat out the first six weeks of the season.&ldquo;Part of my conversation with E.J.&mdash;and there&rsquo;s nothing in writing&mdash;but part of my conversation was that Paul&rsquo;s contract would be extremely close to what Mario was earning,&rdquo; Badali said.But Johnston, now GM of the Hart-&rsquo; ford Whalers, said, &ldquo;I never agreed to pay Paul a percentage of what Mario made.&rdquo;Even with the rapidly changing economic climate of the NHL, neither Coffey nor Badali expect anything close to the $2-million-a-year pact Lemieux signed. But they made it clear they would like an increase over $500,000.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 22: Mario Lemieux, C, signed five-year contract.Aug. 24: Andrew McBain, RW, signed three-year contractAug. 30: Dave Hannan, C, signed one-year contract. &#9632;

f0028-01

COFFEY’S NEXT IN LINE FOR SALARY HIKE

The Washington Capitals will be looking for a miracle when they visit Sweden and the Soviet Union for six exhibition games this month.Although most of the 29-man traveling squad was selected on the basis of seniority, the exceptions were goaltenders Olaf Kolzig and Byron Dafoe, the Capitals&rsquo; top two draft picks in June. The Capitals hope one of them will be the answer to their goaltending question.The position is Washington&rsquo;s potentially weakest link, following the March trade of Clint Malarchuk to Buffalo and the June loss of free agent Pete Peeters to Philadelphia.Don Beaupre and Bob Mason&mdash;signed as a free agent from Quebec during the off-season&mdash;are the only goaltenders with NHL experience in the organization and general manager David Poile is expected to deal for a veteran goalie before the season starts. Meanwhile, he is hoping somebody will take charge in goal.&ldquo;Mason and Beaupre are our two NHL goaltenders,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;Kolzig and Dafoe have junior eligibility left and we must decide whether they will play for the Washington Capitals or go back to junior.&ldquo;We will take them to Sweden and Russia so we can get a good feel on whether they have any chance to play for us. If they do, they will continue when we come back Sept. 22. Otherwise, we will send them back to junior&mdash;and look toward a goaltender assigned to the training camp here, if Mason and Beaupre are not doing the job.&rdquo;Thirty players will participate in the stay-at-home training camp at Columbia, Md., under the guidance of Baltimore general manager-coach Terry Murray. The goalies in that group are Jim Hrivnak, Alain Raymond and Shawn Simpson. Raymond is the only one with any NHL experience&mdash;two periods of a Capitals&rsquo; game in &rsquo;87-88.Sixteen forwards and nine defensemen were scheduled to leave Sept. 5 for Sweden. Poile said the selection was &ldquo;based almost exclusively on whether somebody played for the Capitals last year, or on seniority.&rdquo;Among those assigned to Columbia were forwards Reggie Savage (a first-round draft pick in &rsquo;88), Rob Murray and Jeff Greenlaw (a first-rounder in &rsquo;86), all of whom are given a good chance to stick with the Capitals.&ldquo;A decision is always tough where the cutoff is,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;It is likely that a few players will be sent back after the week in Sweden. On the other hand, when we return from Russia, we have four exhibitions in four nights and we plan to take a long look at those players who have been impressive in the camp here.&rdquo;Forward Michal Pivonka, a Czechoslovakian defector, will make the trip to the Soviet Union, after an initial reluctance to go behind the Iron Curtain.&ldquo;I want to go,&rdquo; Pivonka said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little bit nervous, but the last couple of years there have been a load of changes in Eastern Europe. If they let you in, they&rsquo;ll let you go home. This is a big thing over there and I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;ll do anything to upset it.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 21: Kent Paynter, 0, signed as free agent. &#9632;

CAPS HOPE ONE GOALIE READY TO TAKE CHARGEBY BOB FACHET

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>While the media focuses its TV cameras and trains its microphones on a pair of Soviet defensemen and several other newly-acquired players, the New Jersey Devils will be watching a more familiar face in training camp.The Devils are wondering which Brendan Shanahan they will see this season: The under-achieving kid who was called &ldquo;washed-up&rdquo; at age 19, or the No. 2 overall draft choice from 1987, who tied for the team lead in goals over the second half of last season.General manager Lou Lamoriello is counting on the latter. After scoring four goals and 10 points in his first 33 games last season, Shanahan erupted with 18 and 40 in 35 second-half games. Only Kirk Muller equalled Shanahan&rsquo;s goal production over the second half, and Muller played five more games.&ldquo;No question he figures prominently. No question Brendan&rsquo;s success was a factor in some of the changes we made during the off-season,&rdquo; said Lamoriello, who traded goal-scorer Pat Verbeek to Hartford in June.The pressure will be on Shanahan, 20, who is entering his third NHL season. But it can be no worse than the pressure he felt last January after being benched for three games for disciplinary reasons.After a disappointing start last season, Shanahan&rsquo;s playing time dwindled and there were rumors the Devils would trade him if they could get anything of value in return.Coach Jim Schoenfeld, determined to find out if the young right winger would falter or flourish, pushed Shanahan.&ldquo;Schoeny had a lot on his mind. Schoeny probably had more pressure on him than I did,&rdquo; said Shanahan. &ldquo;At times he was like a father and at times he was like my worst enemy. His means were to get me to play better. I understood that even when he was saying things I didn&rsquo;t like to hear.&ldquo;Schoeny is not a bad person. No matter how much I hated him under my breath that particular day or felt he hated me, I knew deep down he wanted the best for me. He was also a guy who listened to my problems and was very human to me.&rdquo;Shanahan seemed to be sinking and on the morning of Dec. 29, he hit bottom.The Devils stayed in a New Jersey hotel the night before hosting the Boston Bruins at the Meadowlands Arena and Shanahan&rsquo;s roommate, Jim Korn, was up early that morning to have an injury treated by trainer Ted Schuch. There was no wake-up call for Shanahan and Korn failed to reset the alarm.Shanahan arrived late for the morning skate and did not dress for the next three games. Worse, he did not accompany the Devils to Pittsburgh for a New Year&rsquo;s Eve game and the team issued a statement he had been left behind for disciplinary reasons.&ldquo;I was only 10 minutes late for practice, but that wasn&rsquo;t the point,&rdquo; said Shanahan. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s happened to other players who missed an entire practice, but the coaches felt they could still change my habits. They came down on me pretty hard.&ldquo;The thing that scared me most was they said it was a &lsquo;disciplinary problem.&rsquo; Right away my parents and people at home (in Toronto) thought of partying, drinking, drugs. The team didn&rsquo;t specify it was for oversleeping. I had people writing me letters asking if I was drunk at Christmastime.&rdquo;Actually, a team spokesman did specify that Shanahan&rsquo;s situation did not involve drugs. A statement said Shanahan had been fined and disciplined before, but it had not worked.This time, Lamoriello stepped in.&ldquo;Lou called me in and talked to me. Lou was probably the guy through the whole thing who kept my confidence up,&rdquo; Shanahan remembered. &ldquo;He pulled me into his office when things were at their worst and he pulled me out of it.&ldquo;Lou knew how badly I wanted it. He said if he didn&rsquo;t know how badly I wanted it, I&rsquo;d have been gone long ago. Probably after his meeting I changed my habits, which got me back into the lineup, which got me onto the second line with Kirk, which got me onto the first line with Johnny Mac (John MacLean, the Devils&rsquo; leading scorer last year with 87 points).&rdquo; &#9632;

DEVILS CONVINCED SHANAHAN FOR REAL

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>The Halifax Citadels didn&rsquo;t have to wait long to get a substitute for head coach Doug Carpenter, who unexpectedly skipped town for Toronto in late August.All the parent Quebec Nordiques had to do was dig into their personnel file.The man they found was Robbie Ftorek, the first U.S.-bom captain in Nordiques&rsquo; history. Ftorek, fired by the Los Angeles Kings after last season, got the Halifax job Aug. 25. He played three seasons for the Nordiques (1979-80 to &rsquo;81-82) before being traded to the Rangers.Ftorek began his coaching career with New Haven in 1985-86 and got the job with the Kings early in the &rsquo;87-88 season. Ftorek was criticized for the way he handled the Kings&rsquo; superstars and that eventually led to his downfall, despite the team&rsquo;s second-place finish in the Smythe Division and victory over Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs.Ftorek was prepared to sit this season out when he decided to contact Nordiques&rsquo; GM Martin Madden.&ldquo;Madden told me that the front office had a meeting during which they all discussed my candidacy,&rdquo; Ftorek said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll try to create an atmosphere in which my players will applaud callups of their teammates by the Nordiques.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01652/5814262-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="579" height="668"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Sutherland is the new assistant coach in Maine.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I will also tell them that they should play for themselves first, for their linemates second, for the Citadels third and the Nordiques fourth.&rdquo;<h2>CASE CLOSED</h2>After four months, the Moncton Court settled the brawl that took place toward the end of the fourth and final game of the Calder Cup quarterfinal series between the Hawks and Citadels April 12. Moncton swept the series in four games.Two Halifax players&mdash;Greg Smyth and Stephane Guerard&mdash;and one Moncton fan&mdash;Ronald Robert Leger&mdash;each received one-year terms of unsupervised probation and a conditional discharge from Provincial Court Judge Douglas Rice after pleading guilty to assault charges.Smyth pleaded guilty to two summary counts of assault against fans Charles Gillis and Dennis Cyr. Leger threw a puck from the stands at Smyth, who threw it back into the crowd, hitting Gillis in the arm. Smyth then went into the crowd and started swinging. He hit Cyr with a glove and cut him over the eye.A few minutes later, a fan threw a cup of beer at the Halifax bench. Guerard broke his stick on the rinkside glass, which cut fan Mario Savoie for 21 stitches.Another fan, Stephen Gregory Payne, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting Smyth. His trial will begin Nov. 29.<h2>COACHING MOVES</h2>The Maine Mariners hired Bill Sutherland as their assistant coach. Sutherland, 54, spent the last 11 seasons as an assistant coach for the Winnipeg Jets. He was released after last season&hellip;The Sherbrooke Canadiens&rsquo; winning coaching combination was broken up when assistant coach Claude Larose returned to being the team&rsquo;s director of operations. Larose, who did both jobs for one salary last season, asked for a raise and didn&rsquo;t get it. He was told to make a choice of jobs and he picked director of operations. &#9632;

f0031-01

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Al Sims, who succeeded Robbie Laird as coach at Fort Wayne, has added three high-scoring left wingers.The Komets signed 43-goal scorer Ron Handy to a multi-year contract and have invited 38-goal scorer Bob Lasko to training camp. Both played for the Indianapolis Ice last year.The Komets also signed Carl Mokosak, who scored 20 goals in 53 games for Maine of the AHL last season, to a multi-year contract.&ldquo;Getting Handy is a big plus for this club now,&rdquo; Sims said. &ldquo;Handy is a 50-goal, 100-points man who can play at center or wing. And Carl will be a big help, also.&ldquo;They are real impact players and in Mokosak we have a player who&rsquo;s not only legitimately tough but he can also score. He&rsquo;s definitely not a onedimensional player.&rdquo;Mokosak, who played nine games with the Boston Bruins last season, was fourth in penalty minutes in the AHL with 337.&ldquo;We think these are pretty big signings for our independent club,&rdquo; Sims added. &ldquo;And if Lakso makes the club he&rsquo;s another 30- or 40-goal scorer. He and Handy have played together before ind that&rsquo;s a help. They do a good job killing penalties, too.&rdquo;<h2>PLAYER MOVES</h2>Indianapolis is one of two teams who had players become available for reassignment when NHL clubs changed affiliates. The other is the Flint Spirits, who went from being an independent team to serving as the New York Rangers&rsquo; affiliate.The Chicago Blackhawks, who switched from Saginaw to Indianapolis as their affiliate, decided not to keep any players from last season&rsquo;s Ice roster.Handy was the leading scorer for the Ice last season with 100 points. Brent Sapergia also had 43 goals for the Ice and he has been invited to the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; training camp.Ice president Ray Compton said several clubs had been in contact with him regarding the availability of players who were under contract to the Ice last season. &ldquo;The most interest was shown in Handy, Lakso and Paul Houck,&rdquo; Compton said. He expects no problem in recovering compensation for former Ice players who sign elsewhere.At Flint, GM Don Waddell was in a similar situation, as the Rangers have not signed any of last year&rsquo;s Spirits. Michel Mongeau, second in the IHL in scoring last season with 117 points, was signed by St. Louis. Yves Heroux, Flint&rsquo;s second leading scorer, is with the Canadian National team.Waddell said the Spirits will go to the red, white and blue colors of the Rangers this season but will retain the name &ldquo;Spirits.&rdquo; They are awaiting approval from the Rangers to use their logo design on the new jerseys.<h2>WINGING ALONG</h2>The all-time leading scorer in Kalamazoo Wings&rsquo; history has come out of retirement to try to earn a spot on the Wings&rsquo; roster.Right winger Kevin Schamehorn, who was the team&rsquo;s most valuable player in 1982-83, has been granted a tryout with the Wings and will be at the Minnesota North Stars training camp Sept. 7 in Kalamazoo. Schamehom is the Wings all-time points (472) and games (485) leader. He scored 238 goals in his seven years with the club, one shy of the team record held by Mike Wanchuk, who played in Kalamazoo from 1974-75 to &rsquo;79-80.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02448/5814293-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="558" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Sapergia will be at New Jersey&rsquo;s training camp.</figcaption></div>After a September 1985 trade to Milwaukee, he was released by the Admirals and was signed as a free agent by Flint, where he finished the &rsquo;87-88 season.&ldquo;It has been my dream to finish my playing career in Kalamazoo,&rdquo; said Schamehom, who has also received team awards as rookie of the year, most improved player and most popular player.<h2>REFS IN PLACE</h2>IHL Commissioner Tom Berry was relieved to find out the NHL has agreed to provide all the referees for the league and to handle their supervision and assignments. Berry was the league&rsquo;s supervisor of officials last year and had planned to retain that task after succeeding the retired Bud Poile as commissioner. &ldquo;That lends even more credibility to our league as a major developmental organization,&rdquo; Berry said of the referee situation. Linesmen will continue to be supplied by the IHL&hellip;Berry also announced the Canadian National team will play games against Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Indianapolis and Milwaukee in October. One of the four Soviet teams which will be touring the NHL this winter will also play an unspecified number of IHL clubs in December. &#9632;

f0031-02

KOMETS ADD THREE BIG SHOTS TO ATTACK

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>When Ron Smith announced he was leaving the Owen Sound Platers a week before the start of training camp, general manager Rob Holody was ready.Within three days of Smith&rsquo;s departure as head coach Aug. 24, the Platers had a new coach in Len McNamara. Smith left the Platers to become an assistant coach to Roger Neilson with the New York Rangers.&ldquo;When Roger was appointed coach of the Rangers I kind of had an inkling Smitty might be heading there with him,&rdquo; said Holody. &ldquo;After all, they&rsquo;d been together before.&rdquo;Smith, who took over as the Platers&rsquo; coach last season after being fired as an assistant with the New Jersey Devils, worked as Neilson&rsquo;s assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks. He guided the Platers&mdash;then based in Guelph&mdash;to a 26-32-8 record, good for fourth place in the Leyden Division last season.Holody said the 30-year-old McNamara, Smith&rsquo;s assistant last season, was the only candidate for the job.&ldquo;He was the choice from the start. He was with us last season, he knows the players, the players respect him,&rdquo; said Holody.<h2>ING NO LEAF</h2>Former London Knight goalie Peter Ing has spurned a contract offer from the Toronto Maple Leafs and is trying out with the Canadian national team.Ing, 20, was 18-11-2 with a 3.74 goals-against average with the Knights and Windsor Spitfires last season. He was a third-round draft choice of the Maple Leafs in 1988.If he doesn&rsquo;t catch on with the national team, he&rsquo;ll head back to London and play as an overage, said Knights&rsquo; assistant coach Gary Agnew.&ldquo;He likes London but wants to give the Olympic team a shot,&rdquo; said Agnew. &ldquo;Peter had said that if we would have been successful in hosting the Memorial Cup, he would have come straight to London.&rdquo;The Dukes of Hamilton will be hosting the national tournament this year.Ing was reportedly seeking a one-way contract, which would guarantee him the same money whether he played with the Leafs&rsquo; American League affiliate in Newmarket or the NHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01696/5814324-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="717" height="731"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sam McMaster, above, was the subject of Danny&rsquo;s Flynn&rsquo;s verbal jabs.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, the deal (with the National Team) is done,&rdquo; said Ing&rsquo;s agent, Gil Scott.<h2>ALL IN A NAME</h2>For the first time in league history, Ontario League players will wear their names on the back of their jerseys this season. The league&rsquo;s board of governors decided to make the move at the summer meetings in Sudbury Aug. 3 and 4. &ldquo;It makes for quicker and easier identification by the fans,&rdquo; said league spokesman Ted Baker&hellip;As expected, No. 1 draft choice Eric Lindros was a no-show when the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds opened training camp Aug. 30. Lindros intends to play for the Detroit Compuware tier two team in the fall and will weigh his options in the new year. He could continue to play with Compuware, join the University of Michigan or Canada&rsquo;s National Team program&hellip;The Windsor Spitfires obtained overage goalie Ted Mielczarek from the Sudbury Wolves for the $1,000 waiver price Aug. 23. Ironically. Belleville Bulls&rsquo; coach-general manager Danny Flynn offered a fourth-round draft pick to the Wolves for Mielczarek at last season&rsquo;s trade deadline only to be turned down by Sudbury general manager Sam McMaster, who wanted a third. &ldquo;Sam wouldn&rsquo;t take a fourth and now he&rsquo;s settling for $1,000. I wouldn&rsquo;t want him doing my grocery shopping,&rdquo; said Flynn. &#9632;

f0032-01

<div class="byline">HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>Gilbert Perreault, the former coach of the Victoriaville Tigres, could soon be a part owner of the Quebec League team.The former Buffalo Sabre superstar, who resigned as Tigres&rsquo; coach after last season, is part of a 15-person conglomerate believed to be interested in purchasing the Tigres for about $300,000. The group is headed by Quebec construction magnate Pierre Roux, who is also mayor of nearby Arthabaska.But the Sabres are also reportedly negotiating with their former captain about a return to the NHL team in a front-office role. Perreault refused to comment on his future with the Tigres or Sabres.Although Roux has not formally made an offer to purchase the team, an unidentified third party has contacted Tigres&rsquo; president Robert Sirois to tell him of Roux&rsquo;s interest.Sirois, former NHL players Rejean Houle, Gilles Lupien, Pierre Bouchard and Robin Burns&mdash;along with 65 others&mdash;purchased the Longueuil Chevaliers in January, 1986 rather than see the team go bankrupt. The franchise moved to Victoriaville for the 1987-88 season and became the Tigres.Although the Tigres made a small profit for the first time in four years&mdash;believed to be between $15,000 and $40,000&mdash;the former pros want to invest in something more lucrative than a junior team.The Tigres, who have a verbal agreement with the city of Victoriaville to sell to local interests, are entering the option year of their three-year lease at the Colisee des Bois-Francs.<h2>MORE CONTROL</h2>QMJHL president Gilles Courteau wants more control over on-ice officials, but that may not sit well with the Quebec Ice Hockey Federation.The QMJHL hired former NHL linesman Claude Bechard to supervise the league&rsquo;s 10 referees. Courteau wants Bechard to work closely with the officials, overseeing assignments and addressing officials between periods of games, if necessary.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02499/5814355-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="728" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andrew McKim will remain in the QMJHL with the Hull Olympiques.</figcaption></div>The only problem is the federation, which governs all levels of hockey in the province, already does that for the league with QIHF director of officiating Doug Hayward. Hayward has no plans of vacating his position.Courteau said he has no complaints with the job Hayward does, but wants Hayward and Bechard to collaborate, with Bechard&rsquo;s decisions to be final.<h2>NO BULL</h2>Andrew McKim, who said he would join the Ontario League&rsquo;s Belleville Bulls this season, reported to the Hull Olympiques&rsquo; training camp Aug. 24.McKim and center Trevor Boland were traded by the Verdun Junior Canadiens to Hull last May for a third-round draft choice in 1989 (defenseman Serge Labelle).&ldquo;It would have been difficult switching leagues,&rdquo; McKim said. &ldquo;And I didn&rsquo;t want to make a bad name for myself. My main objective was to get out of Verdun.&rdquo; The Canadiens changed ownership and moved to St-Hyacinthe over the summer. They will be known as the Lasers this season.<h2>TITANIC MOVES</h2>Laval Titan coach Paulin Bordeleau signed a one-year contract with the team Aug. 7. Bordeleau guided the Titan to a 43-26-1 record and the league championship last season.The same day. the Titan announced it signed its first-round choice, right winger Martin Lapointe. &#9632;

f0032-02

PERREAULT MAY BECOME PART-OWNER OF TIGRES

<div class="byline">BY ROB VANSTONE</div>The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to wait another year for Jamie Heward.In mid-August, the 18-year-old left winger for the Regina Pats was diagnosed as having mononucleosis. He will miss his first NHL training camp with the Penguins. Pittsburgh drafted Heward in the first round (16th overall) of the 1989 NHL entry draft.&ldquo;This is probably the worst news I&rsquo;ve ever had in my life,&rdquo; said Heward. &ldquo;It was probably going to be the biggest time of my life and it doesn&rsquo;t look like I&rsquo;ll be able to fulfill it. I just have to take it in stride.&rdquo;Heward expects to be out at least until the end of September.&ldquo;It can affect people for six months but as far as I know, I have one of the lighter cases,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bad time, but it&rsquo;s better now than halfway through the season. It&rsquo;s a pain in the butt, but it&rsquo;s not something that&rsquo;s going to affect the whole year.&rdquo;Heward had 31 goals and 28 assists in 52 games for the Pats last season. He missed 20 games with a broken jaw and a partially separated shoulder.&rdquo;&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;d better get a new lucky charm.&rdquo; said Heward. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is. Somebody doesn&rsquo;t like me.&rdquo;<h2>SHORT MEMORIES</h2>It&rsquo;s back to business as usual for the 1989 Memorial Cup champion Swift Current Broncos.Broncos&rsquo; coach Graham James, who expects 16 players back from last year, knows expectations will be high for the team this season.&ldquo;You savor it until the first exhibition game you lose, then the fans start booing again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That may seem a little bit sarcastic or cynical, but that&rsquo;s the way hockey is.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03343/5814386-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="714" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kimbi Daniels is one reason the Broncos are optimistic.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;In October or November&mdash;especially with the great expectations here in Swift Current&mdash;we&rsquo;re going to have to perform or the Memorial Cup will be quickly forgotten.&rdquo;Naturally, James is hoping for more victory celebrations. Despite losing front-line players Tim Tisdale (57-82-139), Peter Soberlak (2533-58), Sheldon Kennedy (58-48-106) and goalie Trevor Kruger (4.01 goals-against average), the Broncos are being picked as top contenders this season. Returnees include centers Peter Kasowski (58-73-131), Brian Sakic (3664-100), Kimbi Daniels (30-31-61) and defenseman Dan Lambert (25-77-102).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping, obviously, that it&rsquo;s not a once-in-a-lifetime thing.&rdquo; said James. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to peak too early in my career. Otherwise, I would have saved it until I was 60.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0032-03

ILLNESS KNOCKS HEWARD OUT OF PENS’ CAMP

<div class="byline">DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01621/5814417-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="476" height="636"></div>Training camp, it seems, is upon us again. Gee, what were the odds? I guess we should have been tipped off when the mercury dipped to broiling and baseball season entered its final six months.This is a time when most dream of what might be, but I prefer to dwell on what could have been. Imagine, for example, that the Pittsburgh Penguins were still involved in the post-season play that began in early April. By now, it&rsquo;s possible that Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s playoff beard would look like more than sporadic smudges of dirt on his cheeks. Well, probably not.If nothing else, we are easing out of a memorable off-season. Three of the game&rsquo;s most venerable and respected performers&mdash;Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson and Jay Greenberg&mdash;took advantage of free agency to change employers. Soviets are in the NHL and Phil Esposito is out of it. Bernie Federko was traded and Brent Ashton wasn&rsquo;t.Not everything has changed, of course. Trying to watch a SportsChannel game in most U.S. cities still will be tougher than catching an Al Maclnnis slapshot with your bare hand.But these are heady and upbeat times for almost everybody. In September, when hopes run significantly higher than the temperature, even the folks in Winnipeg can convince themselves tha, with a break or two, the Jets will cruise past Calgary before winter expires.Reality will descend in a few months, around the time we get the first set of valid Neilson ratings on the Rangers. Young wingers who projected as 35-goal scorers in the NHL will struggle to score 15 in the minors. Goalies who looked as if they could snag a gnat in a wind tunnel won&rsquo;t be able to catch anything but a bus back home.This is training camp for the paying public, too, which is why were are pleased to present this Pre-season Primer. Anyone answering five or more questions correctly will be entitled to attend the exhibition game of their choice by simply paying the face value of a ticket. (Offer void where prohibited and any place else I decide.)1. Any doubts about Los Angeles being one of the oldest teams in NHL history will be exorcised when word gets out that:a) Larry Robinson is known to his teammates as &ldquo;Kid&rdquo;;b) All food served at team meals is pureed;c) Bruce McNall had the whirlpool in the training room tom out and replaced by a Fountain of Youth.2. The new general manager of the Rangers is:a) Neil Diamond;b) Neil Sedaka;c) Kneeling down and praying the Madison Square Garden bureaucrats won&rsquo;t make his job any worse than impossible.3. The best thing about the training-camp Soviet tour by the Washington Capitals and Calgary Flames is:a) Sergei Makarov finally gets to return home, after being away for almost 36 hours;b) The teams will be able to incorporate KGB techniques into their conditioning programs;c) Most of us don&rsquo;t have to go with them.4. The NHL&rsquo;s drug policy is so inspired that:a) Committing it to print is unnecessary;b) Anyone asked if they truly understand the nuances of its application can Just Say No;c) It is enough to drive you to drink. As muchas you can. Which seems to be perfectly acceptable.5. Toronto owner Harold Ballard is often hailed as one of the most progressive thinkers of the decade (the one between 1930 and 1939). That means the leading candidates to comprise his next management team&mdash;which should replace the current one in a week or so&mdash;are:a) Doug McKenzie and Floyd Patterson;b) Bobby Carpenter and Floyd the barber from the Andy Griffith Show;c) Bob Stellick and Neil Armstrong.6. The U.S.-Canada media hockey game scheduled for the all-star break should prove conclusively that:a) Those who can&rsquo;t do, write;b) Hockey can be the slowest team sport in the world;c) Americans should stick to their fortes, like engineering hostile takeovers. Starting with the Canadian team&rsquo;s roster. &#9632;

f0033-01

ONE WRITER’S GUIDE TO THE NHL PRE-SEASON

&hellip;only one of the Montreal Canadiens first draft picks in the 1980s finished the season in Montreal? Petr Svoboda, their first pick in &rsquo;84 is the only player to end last season with the Habs. Of the other eight selections, four didn&rsquo;t play in the NHL last year, and three played with other teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02436/5814448-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="971" height="514"><figcaption class="caption-body">Petr Svoboda</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Talks aimed at renegotiating Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s contract have been very low-key, producing little media attention&mdash;even though a deal expected to pay him in the neighborhood of $2 million per year would make him one of the highest-paid athletes in Detroit history. Neither Yzerman, his agent Gus Badali, nor Wings&rsquo; general manager Jimmy Devellano are saying much when reporters inquire about the negotiations. But a new deal may be announced early in training camp, which begins for the Wings Sept. 9 in Flint, Mich&hellip;With season tickets at the 16,000 level for the second straight season, the Wings opted to widen their route on their annual media tour to points in Northern Michigan suchasSault Ste. Marie and Traverse City, where the club is cultivating an ever-expanding number of fans who watch the team on cable television. Of the 80 regular-season games, 64 will be televised, including 38 of the 40 games at Joe Louis Arena. Their entourage included Gerard Gallant, Bernie Federko, Adam Graves and assistant coach Colin Campbell.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>North Stars&rsquo; general manager Jack Ferreira, with help from team physician Dr. George Nagobads, a native of Latvia, flew to the Soviet Union to complete details that will allow right winger Helmut Balderis, a 12th-round draft pick, to come to training camp&hellip;Fourteen North Stars&rsquo; players and prospects, including Mike Modano. last year&rsquo;s No. 1 pick overall, began a one-week pro-readiness camp at scout Chuck Grillo&rsquo;s Minnesota Hockey Schools near Brainerd on Aug. 28&hellip;Scott McCrady, the Stars&rsquo; second pick in the 1987 draft, and Mike Hiltner will play in Finland this season, through an agreement worked out by Minnesota&hellip;Coach Pierre Page, who scouted games in Sweden Aug. 20 and 21. had arthroscopic surgery performed on his right knee Aug. 24.<h2>LEAFS</h2>Coach Doug Carpenter is considering appointing a captain this season, something the Leafs haven&rsquo;t had since Rick Vaive was stripped of the coveted &lsquo;C&rsquo; four seasons ago, and says the decision will be his, not owner Harold Ballard&rsquo;s. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not something that will be negotiated,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;ll be decided right here (in the coach&rsquo;s room)&rdquo;&hellip;Highly-regarded junior goalie Peter Ing. projected as the Leafs&rsquo; netminder of the future, joined the Canadian Olympic program. He was unhappy with a Leaf contract offer because the club wasn&rsquo;t willing to give him a one-way deal-&hellip;With training camp set to open, the Leafs had yet to sign right winger Gary Leeman, defensemen Al lafrate, Todd Gill and goaltender Allan Bester, each heading into the option year of his contract. Negotiations were proceeding on all three, however&hellip;No official announcement has been made, but Floyd Smith is the Leafs&rsquo; general manager&hellip;Fired coach George Armstrong has been appointed as a scout.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Free-agent goaltender Alain Chevrier is &ldquo;disappointed&rdquo; and &ldquo;frustrated&rdquo; at the progress of contract negotiations with the Blackhawks. Chevrier, a free agent with compensation, wants to stay with the Hawks and recently bought a house in the Chicago area. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go anywhere,&rdquo; Chevrier said. &ldquo;I think the Blackhawks have a lot of potential, I love my teammates, I think Mike (Keenan) is a great coach and I love the city. But I also have to look out for my family.&rdquo; Chevrier&rsquo;s agent, Larry Rauch, said the Hawks&rsquo; early money offers were too low. Rauch said the Blues threw the entire salary structure for NHL goaltenders out of whack in June when they gave free-agent college goalie Curtis Joseph $1.1 million for four years. &ldquo;In looking around the league, we&rsquo;re not convinced that the (Hawks&rsquo;) offer so far is up to par,&rdquo; Rauch said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03317/5814479-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="559" height="709"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Hawks still haven&rsquo;t signed goalie Alain Chevrier.</figcaption></div><h2>BLUES</h2>Left winger Dave Lowry and defenseman Robert Dirk re-signed with the Blues Aug. 23. Lowry and Dirk became free agents with compensation when their contracts expired June 30. Lowry, 24, was one of the Blues&rsquo; better defensive players last season after being recalled from Peoria of the Internaional League. Dirk. 23, had a rough year. He started the season with the Blues, was sent down to Peoria, then broke his right hand. He spent the summer with his hand connected to a machine that electronically stimulated his hand to promote healing&hellip;Free agents Michel Mongeau and Richard Pion also signed with the Blues. A right winger, Pion, 24, played college hockey at Merrimack and led the team with 28 goals and 70 points. Mongeau, 24, played center last season with Flint of the 1HL, leading them with 41 goals and 117 points. Both signed contracts Aug. 21. &#9632;

f0033-03

YZERMAN CONTRACT TALKS LOW-KEY

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>Ed Olczyk says he&rsquo;s committed to Toronto.Cynics say the Chicago-born center should be committed for wanting to be a part of Harold Ballard&rsquo;s hockey circus.&ldquo;Toronto is hockey and I eat, breathe and sleep hockey,&rdquo; Olczyk said after signing a four-year (three years plus an option) deal with the Maple Leafs Aug. 24. &ldquo;I want to win here.&rdquo;Olcyzk, who became a father when his wife Diana gave birth to Ed Jr. June 17, could be a grandfather before the Leafs become a winner again. If it were to happen sootier, much of the credit will probably have to go to Olczyk.Since coming to Toronto from the Chicago Blackhawks in a five-player (Rick Vaive, Steve Thomas and Bob McGill in exchange for Olczyk and Al Secord) 1987 deal, Olczyk has become the club&rsquo;s dominant offensive force.His 80 goals and 85 assists in the last two seasons were by far tops on the team, and his on-ice production has meant off-ice success in Toronto as well. But until he landed his latest deal, which will earn him a base salary in the neighborhood of $350,000 per season, his efforts had gone practically unrewarded.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget, I had scored only 16 goals with Chicago the year before I was traded so I didn&rsquo;t have much bargaining,&rdquo; the 23-year-old said. &ldquo;When I came to the Leafs I told them I wasn&rsquo;t happy with what I&rsquo;d been making in Chicago and Gerry (McNamara, the Leafs&rsquo; GM at the time) promised to sit down with us after the season.&rdquo;That meeting never took place. In. February of Olczyk&rsquo;s first year in&rsquo; Toronto, Ballard axed McNamara and formed a triumvirate of John Brophy, Dick Duff and Gord Stellick to run the show. Olczyk was unable to get an audience with any of them to hash out a new deal after his 42-goal season.&ldquo;I kind of got the impression that they thought I&rsquo;d had a fluke year and I was determined to prove it wasn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said the former U.S. Olympian, who responded with a career-high 90 points (38-52) last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01705/5814510-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="564" height="675"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Olczyk&rsquo;s new contract comes after a 90-point season.</figcaption></div>Olczyk was set to enter the option year of his contract, meaning he could I become a free agent after the &rsquo;89-90 season if he hadn&rsquo;t signed a new deal. Still, Leaf management kept putting off his request for contract talks all summer. The club had to concentrate on the draft, he was told, and after that would be the hiring of a coach. Finally, when August rolled around, out went Stellick and in came Floyd Smith.Shortly thereafter, Smith and agent Rick Curran hammered out a deal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m committed to Toronto,&rdquo; said Olczyk. &ldquo;In my first season here, even though we lost to Detroit in six games in the playoffs, the people in Toronto were still going crazy. I can&rsquo;t&rdquo;imagine what it would be like if we were ever competitive through a whole season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve made some really good friendships on the team. I like the city. My wife likes it here. My son was bom here. I don&rsquo;t want to pack up and move again. I&rsquo;ve been here while we&rsquo;ve struggled and I want to be here when we win.&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 24: Doug Carpenter signed two-year contract as head coach. Ed Olczyk, C, signed four-year contract.Aug. 28: Rights to Jiri Latal, D, traded to Philadelphia for seventh-round pick in 1990 entry draft. &#9632;

f0034-01

OLCZYK FINALLY GETS HIS FINANCIAL REWARD

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>When goaltender Greg Millen returned to St. Louis in the middle of August from his home in northeast Ontario, one of the first things he did was appear at a Blues&rsquo; publicity function.There, he signed his autograph on the 198889 Blues&rsquo; team picture, taken less than six months ago and already severely outdated.Six of the 27 players in the photograph are gone: Bernie Federko and Tony McKegney, who were traded to Detroit for Adam Oates and Paul MacLean; Greg Paslawski, who was traded to Winnipeg for a draft choice; Cliff Ronning and Gaston Gingras, who went to Europe; and Tim Bothwell, who retired.With Federko and Paslawski out of the picture, no one has been with the Blues longer than Millen, acquired from Hartford Feb. 21, 1985, with Mark Johnson for Mike Liut and Jorgen Pettersson. After Paslawski was traded at the NHL draft, it didn&rsquo;t look like Millen would have a long reign as the Blues&rsquo; elder statesmen.Millen, 32, became expendable when the Blues signed free-agent hotshot Curtis Joseph from the University of Wisconsin. General manager Ron Caron offered Millen as trade bait to improve the Blues&rsquo; defense.If the Blues could have improved their defense, they would have been willing to trade Millen and go into training camp with youngsters Joseph, Vincent Riendeau and Pat Jablonski battling it out for two spots on the Blues&rsquo; roster.However. Caron was rebuffed in his attempt to land either Jeff Brown or Randy Moller from Quebec, or Kevin Hatcher from Washington. Millen will go into camp as the veteran incumbent tutoring his eventual successors.When told he was safe, Millen said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re never safe in this game.&rdquo;Millen said he&rsquo;s looking forward to working with the youngsters. He seemed to relish working with his rookie backup&mdash;Riendeau&mdash;last season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m willing to help the young kids,&rdquo; he said.There&rsquo;s still a chance the Blues could trade Millen, one of their more marketable players. But as camp neared, Caron seemed less willing than before to make any deals.This is good news for Millen, who said early this summer he was thinking of making St. Louis his permanent home.&ldquo;Whatever happens is for the best,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We like our home and our friends in St. Louis, It would be very difficult to leave St. Louis. I always hoped to finish my career there.&rdquo;But Millen is aware of the business side of sports.&ldquo;I understand hockey well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;After you get traded once, you get a good feel for the business side. I hope I don&rsquo;t get traded, but that&rsquo;s why we get paid so well. There&rsquo;s always the chance.&rdquo;Millen said the toughest time for him was during the NHL meetings in Minnesota in midJune when rumors were &ldquo;flying all over Canada.&ldquo;I know I was being shopped around by the Blues, but I didn&rsquo;t know what was going through their minds,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When they signed Joseph, I knew something was up.&rdquo;Caron confirmed that in a call to Millen&rsquo;s agent Frank Caputo. Millen said although the possibility of leaving St. Louis was unpleasant, he was thankful Caron had kept him and his agent informed.Millen is coming off perhaps his best season in the NHL, 22-20-7 for a team that finished below .500, with a career-best 3.18 goals-against average. Only one team, Washington, had more shutouts than his league-leading six.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 21: Michel Mongeau, C, and Richard Pion, RW, signed as free agents.Aug. 23: Dave Lowry, LW. and Robert Dirk, D, re-signed as free agents. &#9632;

BLUES’ GOALIE MILLEN WILL BE STAYING PUT

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>For Ken Leiter, the decision to retire from the New York Islanders before the beginning of last season was an easy one. The decision to return to hockey was made with considerable more difficulty.&ldquo;When I left the Islanders a year ago, I had had enough; I was sick of the whole process,&rdquo; Leiter said after signing a two-year contract to play for the Minnesota North Stars. &ldquo;At the time, it was easier for me to leave the game than to continue.&rdquo;The North Stars wound up taking a big gamble by exposing defenseman Curt Giles in last year&rsquo;s waiver draft to claim Leiter even though he had announced his plans to retire.Fortunately for the Stars, they didn&rsquo;t lose Giles. Despite scoring only five goals and 10 assists in 76 games for Minnesota, he became the heart and soul of the Stars&rsquo; defense. Leiter became a carpenter, remodeling kitchens and bathrooms.&ldquo;Thank God we didn&rsquo;t get burned on that one,&rdquo; assistant GM Dean Lombardi said. &ldquo;Somebody up there was looking out for us.&rdquo;Now the gamble may be about to pay off. Leiter, 28, had just completed his second full season in the NHL when he chose to swap his skates and stick for a hammer and saw. A stayat-home defenseman, he scored nine goals and 27 points during the 1986-87 season with the Islanders and scored four goals and 17 points while playing just 51 games in &rsquo;87-88.His agent during those seasons was Lombardi, who joined the management side last fall and then tried to talk him out of retirement. Lombardi and Leiter negotiated the contract with the North Stars, but across the table from each other instead of as a team.&ldquo;Ken must have listened well when I was his agent because he was using arguments against me that I had used for him in talks with the Islanders,&rdquo; Lombardi said, before giving way to his self-deprecating sense of humor, &ldquo;It was strange, but it worked out okay, I&rsquo;m a lawyer so I&rsquo;m used to being two-faced.&rdquo;Lombardi contacted Leiter after the waiver draft and again on a scouting trip to Boston early in the season. He didn&rsquo;t talk to Leiter about playing for the North Stars again until after last season, when he asked Leiter&rsquo;s wife, Kathy, if she thought he was ready to return.Two weeks later, Leiter called Lombardi.&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t have done any good to try to talk Ken back into hockey before he was ready,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the kind of guy who the more pressure you put on him the more stubborn he gets.&ldquo;He had gotten tired of the gamesmanship with the Islanders. He had a pulled stomach muscle and was worn down from being in and out of the lineup.&rdquo;When the North Stars called during the summer, Leiter decided that he&rsquo;d try to train, just to see if he could do it again. &ldquo;I skated and it felt great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been skating for over a month now and I can&rsquo;t believe how great I feel.&ldquo;I was ready for that challenge again. Mentally, I feel a lot clearer and physically. I&rsquo;m 100 per cent for the first time in a while and I feel like I&rsquo;m just about back to where I was before I left the Islanders.&rdquo;When Leiter decided to return to hockey, he turned over nearly two months of work to another contractor.&ldquo;The real world is tough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m proud that I went head to head with it and was reasonably successful. One year away (from hockey) is no reason to celebrate but I&rsquo;ve learned a lot. It would be good for a lot of guys to get away, to get a look at life the way it really is.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to use the word &lsquo;retired&rsquo; because I probably worked more hours than anyone in hockey.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 18: Perry Berezan. C, signed three-year contract Ken Leiter. D and Warren Babe, LW, signed two-year contractsAug. 23: Steve Gotaas. C. signed two-year contract.Aug. 24: Curt Giles, D. agreed to terms on a three-year contract.Aug. 25: Don Barber, LW, signed three-year contract. Dean Kolstad, D, signed two-year contract. &#9632;

STARS GET THEIR MAN—ONE YEAR LATER

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>When the Detroit Red Wings finish renegotiating Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s contract, which may be in the $2-million-a-year vicinity, Gerard Gallant figures he should be next in line.Gallant, Yzerman&rsquo;s left winger most of last year, earns barely one-tenth of what Yzerman stands to make from his new contract.At the outset of the Wings&rsquo; recent four-day media tour around Michigan, Gallant reluctantly discussed his financial future.&ldquo;Detroit has been fair with me all along,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I had a good year three years ago, they renegotiated my contract. I just want to be paid fair&hellip;what I&rsquo;m worth.&rdquo;Yzerman is widely acknowledged to be hockey&rsquo;s third-best player but on par&mdash;at least in terms of value to his team&mdash;with Los Angeles&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky and Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux, both of whom will earn in excess of $2 million a season. Gallant, a second-team NHL all-star last season after his best year, is conceded to be the Wings&rsquo; second-best player.But it isn&rsquo;t Yzerman&rsquo;s new contract that has Gallant wondering if he&rsquo;s not a little underpaid these days. It&rsquo;s what the Wings have agreed to pay some of the players acquired over the summer&mdash;defenseman Borje Salming from Toronto ($450,000), center Bernie Federko from St. Louis (about $400,000) and center Marc Habscheid from Minnesota ($240,000).While Salming and Federko reserved themselves a spot in the Hall of Fame for their work with other teams, Habscheid scored just 23 goals in his first full NHL season last year. Gallant, despite a poor final quarter that continued into the playoffs, finished the season with 39 goals and 93 points, both carper highs.And now, in the third year of a four-year contract that pays him a base salary of $210,000, he&rsquo;s about to inquire about a little something for the effort. He has asked general manager Jimmy Devellano for a meeting to discuss renegotiating his contract. Devellano, whose door is always open for such talks, had a meeting set for the week of Sept. 4.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01669/5814589-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="721" height="719"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerard Gallant scored a career-high 39 goals and 93 points.</figcaption></div>What Gallant is worth in today&rsquo;s fastchanging hockey talent market will be the essence of his discussion with Devellano. Gallant, who doesn&rsquo;t have an agent, will handle negotiations himself. He has statistical bargaining power&mdash;he&rsquo;s topped 30 goals three straight seasons&mdash;and is taking a realistic approach.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s touchy.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Any day now, Stevie&rsquo;s going to sign the big one, and he deserves everything he gets. He&rsquo;s in a different class, with Gretzky and Lemieux. And I can&rsquo;t say Gerard Gallant is worth a million a year based on that. It&rsquo;s not right, and I know a player like me doesn&rsquo;t get that kind of money. But&hellip;&rdquo;For Gallant, who has improved in each of his six NHL seasons, it may simply be a case of pay me now or pay me later. Should the Wings demand he honor his contract. Gallant need only improve a tad more&mdash;say 40 goals and 100 points, neither of which are unreasonable for him&mdash;and then he&rsquo;ll hold all the negotiating cards next year at this time.If that happens, don&rsquo;t expect Gallant to be bitter this year. He&rsquo;s not the type to sulk&mdash;no matter how unfairly he thinks he&rsquo;s being paid.Devellano was not available for comment. &#9632;

f0035-01

WINGS’ WINGER WANTS HIS FAIR SHARE

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE TRAINING CAMP ROSTERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01603/5814703-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; goalie Rogie Vachon hides in his net as players mill about in this 1972-73 contest against the Buffalo Sabres. Vachon, now Kings&rsquo; GM, is happy to stay put&mdash;at least until Sabre rearguard Jim Schoenfeld gets out of the way. No. 5 is Kings&rsquo; defenseman Harry Howell.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

WAY WE WERE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02424/5814741-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS</h2>1. Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s hockey club.4. Canadian Football League great Normie Kwong is a co-owner of this Smythe Division club.9. Ron Hextali was suspended following the 1987 playoffs after slashing this former Oiler.10. Devil netminder once with Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team.11. Hunch up one&rsquo;s shoulders.12. This Minnesota town is home of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.13. An Ontario League division.15. Former Whaler coach, Larry18. Both Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were credited with 114 last season.21. This former University of Alberta coach is now a Jet assistant.23. Jari Kurri once played for Jokerit of the Finnish &mdash; Division.24. Surprise gold medalist in hockey at the 1936 Olympics.25. Cup won by the Muskegon Lumberjacks in 1989.26. NHL teams play an 80-game<h2>DOWN</h2>1. Former Blues&rsquo; owner, he now owns Canadian football&rsquo;s Argos.2. Defenseman signed by the Canadiens as a free agent in 1983, Mike.3. Gives up a position.5. The only Cap to have his number retired, Yvon &mdash;6. Goals.7. Cap tough guy schooled at Harvard, he was a Flame for several seasons.8. Joint susceptible to injury..14. Stan Fischler said this Oiler was the best player in hockey in 1987 and would remain so for five more years.15. Busher Jackson, Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher made up the &lsquo;--- ---&rsquo; (3,4).16. The last goalie to register a shutout in the concluding game of the Stanley Cup final.17. He started every game for the Flames during the playoffs.19. Veteran linesman &mdash; Knox.20. Spares.22. The Maple Leafs were members of this NHL division until 1981.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02499/5814734-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="564" height="552"></div> &#9632;

f0039-02

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>It was a decision Bill Watson was hoping he wouldn&rsquo;t have had to make so soon.After only four seasons in the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; organization, the 25-year-old right winger retired from pro hockey in mid-July to continue his education at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and assist with the school&rsquo;s hockey program.&ldquo;Hey, some people retire after 20 years and some people retire after five or four likeI did,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way it works out.&rdquo;It never really worked out with the Hawks for Watson, who came from UMD with a world of promise in 1985, after winning the Hobey Baker Award the previous year as the top college player in the U.S.Watson, a fourth-round draft pick in 1982, played two full seasons with the Hawks (1985-86 and 1986-87), scoring 21 goals and 56 points in 103 games, but never really developed into the kind of player he was in college when he scored 81 goals in his last two years. Watson spent most of the last two seasons with Saginaw of the International League. He played in just three games for the Hawks last year, scoring no goals and one assist.&ldquo;A lot of things went into my decision to retire,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just a little tired of playing hockey. I also had some problems with my shoulder and figured this was as good a time as any to hang &rsquo;em up instead of beating around playing in the minors like I did the last couple years. I&rsquo;m just going to go a different way now.&rdquo;Watson said the thought of retiring I first crept into his head last fall, when he failed to stick with the Hawks.&ldquo;I thought about it probably all of last year since right after training camp when it was pretty clear that I wasn&rsquo;t going to make the hockey club,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;Teams have a good idea of whose going to make the club even before training camp. I wasn&rsquo;t in their plans and could see the writing on the wall. Unless the Blackhawks were going to trade me, that&rsquo;s the only way I was going to play regularly in the NHL again.&rdquo;Watson said he never asked the Hawks to deal him. He knows of no interest in his services around the league.&ldquo;I left it up to the Blackhawks, whether they wanted to trade me or not,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;I never flatly went out asked them to trade me. I always thought in the back of my mind I was in their plans somewhere down the road.&ldquo;This is just a case where I made a decision to go on and do something else in life. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d come out of retirement if another team was interested. Not at this moment. My goal now is to finish my degree and help out with the program at UMD.&rdquo;Watson said he holds no grudges against the Hawks for the way things worked out.&ldquo;The Blackhawks are a first-rate organization,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They treated me and my wife (Molly) well. I enjoyed my stay in Chicago and I enjoyed all my teammates. They&rsquo;re a good group of guys.&rdquo;Watson said he won&rsquo;t be spending much time thinking if his career might have gone differently if he had been drafted by a team other than Chicago. He spent much of his career with the Hawks being shuffled between left and right wing, and never did get to play on a set line.&ldquo;I think if I would have went to a different club things might have been different, but you can&rsquo;t look back on that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I say that all my life I&rsquo;ll be kicking myself in the rear.&rdquo;Watson wants to stay in hockey, hopefully as a head coach on the college level.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what this post at UMD does,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;It allows me to get coaching experience. I&rsquo;d like to stay on the college level. I&rsquo;ve played in the NHL, in junior and in college and I can tell you the college level is a lot more fun.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 21: Tom Finks named director of community relations. &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

September 15, 1989

NATIONAL LEAGUE PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE

RANGER COACHING STAFF GOES ON DEFENSIVE

Elston

BAUER TRANSIT AD POPULAR ITEM