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 4, 1998

The Hockey News September 4, 1998

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01930/7004889-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011539/7003627-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="410" height="578"></div>Good-bye and good riddance to pucks with blue and red streaks. But even with $600 million from Disney about to go into the NHL&rsquo;s pockets, hockey on major U.S. network television continues on its long losing streak.Color-coded or not, the puck has always been much easier to track than what channel the game is on. Since 1967, when the NHL expanded for the primary reason of establishing a coast-to-coast television window, the national contract has been held by CBS, NBC, USA, ESPN, SportsChannel America, ABC and Fox.The game has been passed around more than Paul Coffey, been undertaken as a growth project almost as many times as Chris Joseph. The NHL is going back to ABC now, thanks to a $600-million bid not as eye-opening as it first seems. About $599.99 million of the deal is being offered by the parent Walt Disney Company to save ESPN 2 from having to show six hours a day of RPM Tonight.No question, $4.5 million per team is a decent chunk of change, considering that last year&rsquo;s ratings on Fox averaged 1.4. A rating point represents 980,(XX) households. In North America, at least 800,000 houses are inhabited by Sutters. Thus, the over-the-air value of the contract-roughly comparable to the value the Sharks get from Joe Murphy&rsquo;s contract-is best reflected by Fox&rsquo;s decision to let it go. The network was about as sad as Alexei Kovalev was to say good-bye to Colin Campbell.&ldquo;Cable programmers remain ravenous for local hockey and advertisers continue to like the relatively high purchasing power of the game&rsquo;s devout followers. Still, on a given Saturday or Sunday, America as a whole still would rather watch Audie Murphy than Gordie Murphy.The more things change, the more they stay the same. It is now 32 years since the NHL went to the West Coast, six seasons since it went into Florida, five since it moved to Texas, two years from the time it got to Phoenix. And the national ratings are as pitiful as ever.A generation inspired by the Lake Placid miracle has swelled the number of Americans in the NHL from one in 1967 to 102 in 1998. In-line skating has exploded and the minor leagues have made a spectacular comeback. Yet the NHL remains what it was after NBC bailed out in 1974, a business driven by gate receipts and local cable deals, still less popular than car racing.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021084/7003620-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="546" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Bettman</figcaption></div>Gary Bettman argues the NHL is still paying for an almost two-decade-long blackout on national television. The Sun Belt has barely sprouted a first generation of new fans, Michael Jordan plays for the competition and making hockey a real national sport is a longer, more laborious, haul than Luke Richardson leading a rush.We understand four straight finals sweeps haven&rsquo;t helped, that the VCR and the proliferation of cable services have cut ratings of all major network programming and that baseball&rsquo;s game of the week format, too, has had an on-again, off-again life. But we&rsquo;ve also been hearing all this for almost 20 years without much sign that the NHL has inched very far out of its comer of the market.There is no question the false spring that five years ago had Sports Illustrated declaring the NHL chic and the NBA passe was almost entirely a manifestation of the 1994 Ranger spring. Certainly, the 1998 playoffs suffered terribly from no New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia or Chicago presence after Round 1. Luck doesn&rsquo;t get much worse than that, except when some goalie puts out his stick to block a passout and Wayne Gretzky banks the puck in.Point is, you make your own good fortune. If there were enough stars to support 26 teams soon to be 30, you wouldn&rsquo;t need Eric Lindros&rsquo; and Gretzky&rsquo;s teams playing in a semifinal to avoid a ratings&rsquo; disaster.To jump start a property it was certain had growth potential, Fox held its breath and turned the puck blue waiting for people to watch. It was the most innovative and well-intentioned appeal to the unwashed since NBC took a bath with Peter Puck.Sixteen more NHL franchises dot the U.S. map than in 1966, most of them playing to more than 90 per cent of capacity, just like they did 32 years ago. And yet the NHL remains what it always was. &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

Don’t be fooled by new NHL TV deal

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div>A few days after shelling out $53,000 to renew his Toronto Maple Leaf season tickets in mid-August, Doug Gilmour was recalling his financial game plan as a first-year NHLer with the St. Louis Blues back in 1983.It was a plan that seemed to make sense at the time.&ldquo;I figured if I could get six or seven years in the league and put about $500,000 away, I&rsquo;d be set for life,&rdquo; said the 35-year-old center. &ldquo;I made $80,000 (U.S.) my first year and we had guys on our team like Bernie Federko and Mike Liut making $350,000 each. I just hoped one day I&rsquo;d make as much money as them.&rdquo;How times have changed.The Chicago Blackhawks signed Gilmour, who was an unrestricted free agent, to a three-year, $18-million contract this summer. Clearly, as is the case with most unrestricted free agents, the Blackhawks are paying dearly for what Gilmour has already accomplished. But both the Hawks and Gilmour obviously feel he still has enough to make his mark in Chicago.If his performance in last year&rsquo;s playoffs, when he scored five goals and seven points in six games for the New Jersey Devils, is any indication, they could be right.The Blackhawks were eighth in goals allowed last season, but ranked only 24th in goals scored. It is hoped Gilmour can give the offense a boost. With the Devils, Gilmour&rsquo;s first obligation was to prevent goals.&ldquo;I was never told not to take chances on offense, but it was very clear to everyone Jacques (former coach Lemaire) had a defensive system and I&rsquo;m not the type of player who will go against the system,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;Besides, we were winning.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011637/7003658-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="622" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Hawks hope Doug Gilmour gives them second line scoring.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;With Chicago, I&rsquo;ve been assured there is going to be an emphasis on scoring goals. I expect they&rsquo;ll keep (Alexei) Zhamnov and (Tony) Amonte together on one fine and put me with (Eric) Daze.&rdquo;There was a time, not so long ago, when Gilmour was considered by many to be the most complete player in the game. In 1992-93 and 1993-94 Gilmour led the Maple Leafs to appearances in the conference final. He finished eighth in league scoring in 1992-93 with 32 goals and 127 points in 83 games and the following year placed fourth with 27 goals and 111 points in 83 games. In 39 playoff games over those two seasons he managed 16 goals and 63 points.There was a substantial decrease in scoring in the NHL last season and Gilmour certainly did his part, contributing 13 goals and 53 points in 63 games. Twenty-five centers outscored him in 1997-98. Gilmour isn&rsquo;t concerned though.The Blackhawks narrowed their wish list down to two unrestricted free agents, Gilmour and Brett Hull, who wound up with the Dallas Stars.&ldquo;If you add Doug Gilmour to. your lineup and look at your lineup and if you add Brett Hull to your lineup and look at your lineup, we&rsquo;re better off with Doug Gilmour,&rdquo; GM Bob Murray said. &ldquo;We have two lines now. We&rsquo;ve been a one-line team for too long.&rdquo;The $6 million Gilmour will earn this year places him among a group including Wayne Gretzky of the New York Rangers, Mark Messier of the Vancouver Canucks and Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche in a tie for sixth among the highest paid in the league. Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings is No. I, scheduled to make $14 million ($2 million base salary, $12 million signing bonus) in 1998-99. Gilmour made $3.55 million with the Devils last season.&ldquo;There is some pressure involved with signing with Chicago, but that doesn&rsquo;t worry me,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;The better I play, the better the team will play and the better the team plays, the better I play.&rdquo; &#9632;

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FEATURES

Gilmour’s goals? Goals

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01966/7004465-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="168" height="169"></div>San Jose Sharks&rsquo; goalie Kelly Hrudey has traded his mask and pads for a microphone.Hrudey, 37, closed the book on his 15-year NHL career when he announced his retirement July 30. But he plans to stay close to the game by working as an analyst for Hockey Night in Canada.&ldquo;I have no formal training (in broadcasting), but I sure enjoy it,&rdquo; Hrudey said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to tackle this as enthusiastically as 1 have my hockey career.&rdquo;Hrudey, who also played for the New York Islanders and Los Angeles Kings, announced his retirement after the Sharks acquired goalie Steve Shields from the Buffalo Sabres.&ldquo;I have no regrets,&rdquo; Hrudey said. &ldquo;My retirement is a celebration, not a sad event.&rdquo;Hrudey posted a career record of 271-265-88 with a goals-against average of 3.43 and 17 shutouts. He played in the Stanley Cup final in 1993 with the Kings and stopped 73 of 75 shots to lead the New York Islanders to a dramatic 3-2, four-overtime Game-7 victory over the Washington Capitals in the 1987 playoffs.Still, Hrudey said the most memorable moment of his career came at the start. &ldquo;The No. 1 highlight (was being) told I had made the New York Islanders (in 1983). What a thrill that was. They were four-time defending Stanley Cup champions. I remember going out in the parking lot and raising my arms in the air like in the movie Rocky, at the top of the stairs.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Sharks reached agreements in principle on contracts for defenseman Bryan Marchment and forwards Stephane Matteau. Murray Craven and Tony Granato&hellip;Defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson was awarded a two-year $1.675-million contract in arbitration. The breakdown is $750,000 this season and $925,000 in 1999-2000&hellip;The Sharks obtained goaltending prospect Johan Hedberg from Philadelphia Aug. 6 for a seventh round pick in the 1999 draft. Hedberg was 15-6-3 with a 2.61 goals-against average last season for Detroit and Manitoba of the International League&hellip;Goalie Sean Gauthier and defensemen Jon Rohloff, Steve Lingren. Garrett Burnett and Christian Gosselin signed free agent contracts. &#9632;

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San Jose

Enthusiastic Hrudey retires with no regrets or sadness

<h2>NHL will be less without greats</h2>1.Hand for Pat Head injuries finally get better of classy Rangers&rsquo; center Pat LaFontaine.2.From Russia with love Russian warrior Slava Fetisov joins coaching ranks after brilliant career.3.The defense rests Solid defender Kevin Lowe and his six Stanley Cup rings call it a career.4.Hockey&rsquo;s loss&hellip;TV&rsquo;s gain Goalie Kelly Hrudey hangs up pads to continue career in broadcasting.5.Lightning strikes Tampa Bay makes a number of off-season moves in attempt to climb out of basement.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0230/7003121-1-eng-US/c0002-022.jpg" title="C0002-02" width="346" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">Slava Fetisov</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0321/7003114-1-eng-US/c0002-032.jpg" title="C0002-03" width="346" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kelly Hrudey</figcaption></div><h2>Greensboro no temporary digs</h2>1.Greensboro blues Carolina Hurricanes may be forced to remain in Greensboro longer than expected.2.Pierre Gauthier Ex-Ottawa GM said he didn&rsquo;t quit Senators to work for Mighty Ducks; now he&rsquo;s president and GM.3.Where will it end? First ownership troubles, now there&rsquo;s talk Pittsburgh might relocate to Kansas City.4.Hockey void With suspension of IHL Rafales, hockey fans in Quebec City once again have no pro hockey.5.Group II glut With training camp just around comer, many Group II (restricted) free agents still on market. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0411/7003152-1-eng-US/c0002-042.jpg" title="C0002-04" width="367" height="462"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Raw Grabowski)</figcaption></div>Jari Kum has left the NHL and continent with the same understated dignity that was the trademark of his Hall of Fame career and was so richly captured one summer day in 1990.Scant weeks after helping lead the Edmonton Oilers to their fifth Stanley Cup, Kurri was greeted by spontaneous applause as he walked down a cafe-filled boulevard in his native Helsinki. Groups of people would suddenly begin clapping as they realized the greatest player in Finnish hockey history was passing by. For the ever-stoic Finns, it was the equivalent of a ticker-tape parade.Some believe that Cup, Kurri&rsquo;s fifth, and the preceding 102-point season, were his most significant individual achievements because they were accomplished in the absence of Wayne Gretzky. Kurri was never just Gretzky&rsquo;s highly accomplished sidekick. But the right winger&rsquo;s many scoring marks (four straight 50-goal seasons, five straight 100-point seasons) and single-season records (19 playoff goals, 71 goals by a right winger) were under-appreciated because Kimi had the good fortune to play with the foremost playmaker in hockey history. Gretzky and Kurri formed the best scoring partnership ever.Kurri, now 38, departed the NHL not with a bang, but a wimper-scoring just five goals in 70 regular season games and none in four playoff games. Five goals was a night&rsquo;s work, not a season&rsquo;s, for Kurri in his prime. He scored five times Nov. 19,1983, in an Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; rout of the New Jersey Devils. It was after that 13-4 victory Gretzky called the Devils a &ldquo;Mickey Mouse operation.&rdquo; For 10 seasons during the 1980s, Kurri was among the NHL&rsquo;s very best, earning two berths on the first all-star team and three on the second. He won the Lady Byng Trophy once and should have won the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward.Kurri is but one of a clutch of Goodbye Guys who have retired this year after distinguished careers. It includes Pat LaFontaine. Kevin Lowe and Viacheslav Fetisov. Kurri retires with 601 NHL goals (the ninth-highest total in history), 1,398 points (the most recorded by a European) and the satisfaction of having come full circle in hockey. Kum played in the 1980 Olympics before entering the NHL and played in the 1998 Olympics before leaving. It was last February, with the bronze medal on the line against Canada, that Kurri issued a verbal challenge, urging his teammates to pay the price of victory. Finland proceeded to beat Canada. For Kurri. it was a rare departure: the consummate pro always believed actions speak louder than words. His career was played at the highest volume. &#9632;

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Volume of Kurri’s career louder than mere words

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011701/7003183-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pavel Bure won&rsquo;t elaborate on why he&rsquo;s desperate to leave the Vancouver Canucks. (photo by Bill Wippert)</figcaption></div>Although Pavel Bure made it clear last season he wanted out of Vancouver for unstated &ldquo;personal reasons,&rdquo; the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; star right winger waited until early August before going public with his demand.Bure chose to release his statement through a newspaper columnist and then drop out of sight rather than stand before the cameras to explain why the team and city no longer suits his professional desires. He told new GM Brian Burke he will not report to training camp if he is not moved before Sept. 12. Bure, 27, has one year remaining on his contract.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to play for the Canucks for personal reasons,&rdquo; Bure said. &ldquo;The reasons are my own and everyone has personal reasons for doing things and I don&rsquo;t really want to discuss them.&ldquo;I love the fans here and I love the city. I&rsquo;m going to keep my house for a few years because I want to spend some time here in the summer. It&rsquo;s a beautiful place and the fans have treated me really well. I really want to thank them for the seven years they supported me, but I really feel it&rsquo;s time to move.&rdquo;Bure&rsquo;s words rang hollow, however, because one of his known complaints is that Vancouver is too small for him and that he has no privacy. He was not willing to give GM Burke a chance to rectify the situation. Burke said that a month of trying to appease the &rsquo; Russian Rocket&rsquo; proved fruitless.&ldquo;I would categorize Pavel&rsquo;s feelings as sincere, but I also want to state clearly that I do not understand fully, nor do I agree with his reasons,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;I had offered to try and help cure some of the problems he cited and he reiterated he would like to be traded. I said, &rsquo;Is there anything at all I can do or say that would want to make you stay in Vancouver?&rsquo; and he said no.&rdquo;Bure is undoubtedly the greatest player to wear a Canuck uniform since the franchise was born in 1970-71. He surpassed the 50-goal plateau three times and reached 60 twice. He was NHL rookie of the year in 1991-92 and a first-team NHL all-star in 1993-94.Burke said he will not be rushed into trading the Russian and made it clear Bure will be suspended without pay if he is not traded before the season begins.&ldquo;So far, there has not been much interest,&rdquo; Burke said in mid-August. &ldquo;I think this will take time. I will talk about him the first day of training camp and then I won&rsquo;t talk about him again until I trade him. He will not be a circus sideshow to this team.&rdquo;The Canucks, who are without a No. 1 goaltender, obviously hope to obtain one in any trade involving Bure. With the Toronto Maple Leafs shopping Felix Potvin, there is a natural fit there and the Maple Leafs are capable of paying Bure, although it is doubtful they would want to add his approximately $8 million (U.S.) salary to the $7 million (U.S.) they will pay Mats Sundin and the $6 million (U.S.) for Curtis Joseph.If the Leafs are serious about acquiring Bure, they would have to send Potvin and another player, a center or defenseman, to Vancouver. The Canucks certainly would not be keen on a 1-for-1 swap.Other possible destinations for Bure are the Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, New York Islanders or New Jersey Devils. The Canucks would likely ask for players of the following caliber as a match for Bure in return. (Keep in mind the Canucks are in dire need of a No. 1 goalie, as well as a second-line center and defenseman.):&#9633; Los Angeles desperately needs a goal scorer and gate attraction. The Kings also possess precisely what the Canucks need-a goalie in his 20s (Stephane Fiset or Jamie Storr), young defensemen (Aki Berg) and a No. 2 center (Ray Ferraro).&#9633; From the Rangers, the Canucks would seek at least two players from a group of Adam Graves, Alexei Kovalev, Niklas Sundstrom and Dan Cloutier.&#9633; From the Islanders, the Canucks would like one of Ziggy Palffy, Bryan Berard or junior goalie Roberto Luongo.&#9633; From the Devils, the Canucks would seek Scott Niedermayer or Bobby Holik and another player.Burke said he will not necessarily trade Bure for a package and will entertain all proposals, including a straight 1-for-life another marquee player is offered in return. He did make it clear that Bure will not have a say on his ultimate destination.&ldquo;He has got no vote on where he goes,&rdquo; Burke said. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

For sale: Pavel Bure

<div class="byline">By Dave Pollard</div>Jesse Boulerice was ordered to stand trial on charges that could see him land in jail.Boulerice, formerly of the Plymouth Whalers, will stand trial on the charge of assault to do great bodily harm less than murder to Guelph Storm forward Andrew Long. The felony offense carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.At a preliminary hearing Aug. 17 in Wayne County (Mich.) court that lasted less than an hour, Long told his side of the story regarding an attack in an Ontario League playoff game in Plymouth, Mich., that left him bloody and convulsing on the ice.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t stop shaking,&rdquo; Long told court. &ldquo;I was trying to get a breath. I was choking. Blood was everywhere.&rdquo;Prosecutors say Boulerice, a 20-year-old from Moders, N.Y., grabbed his stick with two hands like a baseball bat and hit Long in the face. The hit, which Long testified he didn&rsquo;t see coming, was bad enough to leave the20-year-old Newmarket native with a blood spot on the brain, a broken nose, nasal cavity and cheekbone, and a cut to his lip that required 20 stitches.&ldquo;Once I got through it, I was glad,&rdquo; a relieved Long said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I wanted to do for a long time. I said my words on the stand, I&rsquo;ve done my part.&ldquo;There is times I&rsquo;ve said, &rsquo;Geez, I&rsquo;ve put this guy through hell.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m not here to nail someone to the wall. But that five to 10 seconds, he wasn&rsquo;t thinking.&rdquo;Long, a Florida Panthers&rsquo; prospect, filed a complaint against Boulerice with Plymouth police early in June. After a four-week investigation, Boulerice was charged.&ldquo;What people do in a hockey game is not what you do on a date,&rdquo; Boulerice&rsquo;s lawyer, Jim Howarth, told the Associated Press. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like boxing in that regard. Are we going to start arresting boxers?&rdquo;During the court proceeding, Long testified he was looking away when he was hit, which led to a one-year suspension by the OHL. Boulerice, a Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; prospect, was also ruled ineligible to play in the American League until Nov. 15. That means he will miss 12 games with the Flyers&rsquo; affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms.Long said Boulerice phoned him in an Ann Arbor hospital the next day and apologized. Prosecutors, however, said Boulerice intentionally tried to harm Long, a point that both sides agree will be a key issue in the trial.Boulerice will be arraigned in Wayne County circuit court Aug. 31. Long said he was told it could be four to six months before the case goes to trial. &#9632;

Boulerice to stand trial for on-ice attack

<div class="byline">By David Langford</div>NHL referee Paul Stewart is expected to make a full recovery after undergoing colon cancer surgery in June.The three-hour surgery took place June 10 and Stewart spent the next 10 days in hospital. The 43-year-old Boston native proceeded with chemotherapy treatments, but hopes to make it back in time for training camp Sept. 10 in Toronto.Stewart said he first noticed bleeding around Christmas, 1997. He thought it was hemorrhoids, a condition he said occurs often with NHL players and officials because of all the hours they spend skating and sitting on planes.Then Stewart saw a news item about NBC&rsquo;s Today Show host Katie Couric losing her husband to colon cancer.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I thought this may be more than a hemorrhoid,&rdquo; said the veteran of 13 NHL seasons. &ldquo;This is different.&rdquo;After his first round Stanley Cup playoff officiating duties were completed at the end of April, he went for an examination. Prostate cancer was ruled out and a colonoscopy was planned.While he was not given the results until two days later, he could tell looking at the technicians that something was up. &ldquo;They were shocked. I could tell by their faces.&rdquo;Stewart since discovered his type of cancer has a history on his mother&rsquo;s side of the family. His grandmother was diagnosed with the disease, but lived another 27 years after the surgery.The doctors told him his cancer was 2-1/2 on a scale of four. Because Stewart is in good health otherwise, doctors recommended a double dose of chemotherapy to rid his body of any lingering cancer cells.Down 25 pounds at one point, he was back up to 197 in mid-August, close to his normal weight. He says he has learned two things from his ordeal.&ldquo;One is that when someone tells you he or she has cancer, the party isn&rsquo;t over,&rdquo; Stewart said from his weekend home in Hyannis Port, Mass. &ldquo;And the other is when the car doesn&rsquo;t start or when something is giving you a hard time about something, that isn&rsquo;t stress. Stress is waiting for your biopsy results.&rdquo;Stewart is already looking forward to his first game back. It&rsquo;s uncertain whether he&rsquo;ll be ready in time for the start of the regular season Oct. 9.&ldquo;It has been an emotional rollercoaster since May and now the tough part is over. God just gave me a wakeup call and after this, I have defined appreciation for getting up every day.&rdquo; &#9632;

Referee Stewart battling cancer

<div class="byline">By Stu Hackel</div>The NHL has a new U.S. network TV home beginning this season.The NHL board of governors approved Aug. 20 a $600 million five-year deal from the Disney Corp., which would divide its coverage among ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.The new contract will go into effect this season, which was supposed to be the final year of the NHL&rsquo;s contract with Fox.The new deal calls for annual payments of $50 million by ABC and $70 million by ESPN. Combined, that&rsquo;s 2.6 times more than the average rights fees Fox and ESPN were paying under the old deal. Fox&rsquo;s five-year pact was worth $155 million to the NHL.The new deal might mean fewer NHL games on U.S. broadcast network TV. Sources indicated ABC would carry only between four and seven regular season games and a weekly playoff game. Fox had carried up to 12 weeks of regular season coverage. ESPN2 would see its inventory of games rise from about 75 to 100. ABC would also televise Games 4 through 7 of the Stanley Cup final.One industry analyst called the Disney bid &ldquo;wildly out of line.&rdquo; Another wondered why Disney would shell out this sum for programming that is performing poorly on broadcast TV.The new deal brings to a close the most controversial era of televised hockey ever. Over the past four years, Fox&rsquo;s NHL viewership dropped by a third to an all-time low last season (1.4 rating), indicating core fans may have been abandoning the sport.According to Nielsen Media Research, most of the loss in audience came in key demographic areas. Ratings among men 18-34 fell 41 per cent since Fox&rsquo;s first year. Innovations such as the Fox Trax electronic puck polarized fan sentiment and failed to attract new viewers. Industry sources said Fox lost up to $15 million on NHL hockey last season. Fox projected $20 million in losses next season. &#9632;

Enter Disney, exit Fox as NHL inks new deal

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff </div><div class="byline">-With a file from Tim Campbell</div>Some goalies will be in the market for new, smaller equipment this season.GMs approved criteria that defines the maximum dimensions of chest and arm pads, pants and sweaters for goaltenders. The new standards will be implemented this season.The chest and aim protection will have to be more form-fitting with no raised ridges on the front, sides or tops. The pant legs may not be wider than 11 inches across the front of the thigh and the sweater may not be wider than 29 inches across the chest, 30 inches across at the hips, nine inches wide at the wrist and 14 inches from the front of the shoulder to the back.The standards were established through a group effort with the league and NHL Players&rsquo; Association.&ldquo;We appreciate the goalies&rsquo; input on standards that will provide shooters a little more scoring space,&rdquo; said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.BURNETT RESIGNS: One day after Canada&rsquo;s national junior team program wrapped up the summer evaluation camp in Winnipeg, coach George Burnett resigned his post to accept an assistant coach&rsquo;s job with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.Canadian Hockey Association officials returned to the applicants&rsquo; list to seek Burnett&rsquo;s replacement.During the camp, defenseman Bryan Allan of the Oshawa Generals, a Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; draft pick, sprained his right knee ligament, while defenseman Joey DiPenta of Boston University, a Florida Panthers&rsquo; pick, broke his ankle.The camp served to identify frontrunners for playing jobs when the World Junior Championship begins Dec. 26 in Manitoba.Canada, which finished eighth at last year&rsquo;s tournament, begins its schedule against Slovakia Dec. 27 in Brandon.Meanwhile, at the USA Summer Challenge in Lake Placid, N.Y., Sweden beat Finland 5-4 in the gold medal game Aug. 15.USA Team West beat Switzerland 4-1 in the third place game. Andy Hilbert and Dave Tanabe each scored three goals in the tournament for USA Team West. USA Team East finished fifth in the five-team tournament with a 0-3-1 record.USA Hockey announced national coach Jeff Jackson signed a contract extension through 1999-2000.The USA Hockey Women&rsquo;s National Festival is Aug. 23-30 in Lake Placid. Seventy-two players were scheduled to attend the identification camp.NEW MAN: Former NHL winger Claude Loiselle was appointed the league&rsquo;s manager of hockey operations.Loiselle, 35, will serve as a liason with league GMs, monitor NHL agreements with junior hockey and participate in administering the salary arbitration process.Loiselle replaces David Nonis. who joined the Vancouver Canucks.SAME NAME: Saturday nights in Canada will still be Hockey Night In Canada this season.Even though Molson is no longer the corporate sponsor of the CBC sports event-rival Labatt Brewing Co., now takes over-the title name Molson Hockey Night In Canada, will revert back to Hockey Night In Canada. &#9632;

Goalies facing ‘tighter’ rules

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011643/7003334-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="408" height="543"></div>Pierre Gauthier is the first to admit it-he has dug himself a huge hole.Once the respected GM of the Ottawa Senators, a savior of sorts in Canada&rsquo;s capital city, he is now viewed as a tumcoat-and even worse, a bold-faced liar.Gauthier&rsquo;s reputation has taken a hit as the result of his abrupt departure from the Senators, a team he saved from possible extinction, and one that is actually thriving now. It&rsquo;s not so much that he walked out on the final two years of his contract, citing &ldquo;personal family-related reasons,&rdquo; but he flatly denied his intention was to return to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He was the Ducks&rsquo; assistant GM prior to his joining the Senators Dec. 11,1995.As we all know, a few weeks after leaving Ottawa he was named president of the Mighty Ducks and then he proceeded to fire his &ldquo;old friend&rdquo; Jack Ferreira and is now the GM, too.Rumor is, it was Gauthier&rsquo;s plan all along to return to the Mighty Ducks and the NHL backed, even encouraged, his taking the job in Ottawa with the promise he could walk away from it at any time, no questions asked. Here is what some hockey people are saying:In 1995, the NHL was very concerned about the fate of the sadsack Senators, who entered the league three years earlier and had just 33 wins to show for it Having already lost the Quebec Nordiques and with the Winnipeg Jets on life support, the NHL didn&rsquo;t want to lose another Canadian franchise, especially a team with a new building in the works and the backing of Ogden Corp.Ogden just happened to run the Pond in Anah Ogden, that Gauthier be brought in as GM of Ottawa. Rumor has it NHL commissioner Gary Bettman even phoned Gauthier twice, encouraging him to take the job.Which Gauthier did, the story continues, as long as he was given an out clause to be exercised at his option. In other words, he&rsquo;d save the sinking ship in Ottawa, but he wanted to have the freedom to leave-presumably to re-join the Ducks-at his discretion.Did you happen to notice the Ducks were not required to pay compensation to the Senators to sign Gauthier? You&rsquo;d think the Senators would be screaming bloody murder, demanding at the very least a first round draft pick in return-especially since he had two years remaining on his contract with the Senators at the time of his resignation. But there wasn&rsquo;t a peep out of Ottawa.&ldquo;I am very flattered that people think I can just step in and fix franchises,&rdquo; Gauthier said, &ldquo;but that isn&rsquo;t the case. If it was, why would I have bought a house in Ottawa?&rdquo;(Umm, because you needed a place to live?) &ldquo;My biggest mistake in this whole thing was being too honest, closing the door on re-joining Anaheim,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;When I said that, at the time it was true. I wanted to be fair to Jack. I didn&rsquo;t leave for Anaheim; I left for nothing. I explained to my bosses that I intended to work again as soon as possible, but not in Ottawa. There were GM openings in Vancouver, Atlanta and Minnesota at the time and I enquired about those jobs. The Senators were very good to me. They wished me good luck and let me go. That&rsquo;s why there was no compensation.&rdquo;Until this incident, Gauthier was generally viewed as a hard-working, successful executive with a solid understanding of the game. Nobody was surprised when he was named GM in Ottawa because most assumed he would eventually rise to prominence. And Gauthier gave a once laughable franchise credibility.Fans in Ottawa are outraged now-with good reason. Gauthier has admitted he bed when asked last February about his imminent departure. Had he been up front back then, perhaps he wouldn&rsquo;t look so bad now.Even if everything he says about his departure from Ottawa is true, his reputation has been tainted. &#9632;

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Gauthier: Turncoat or Sens’ savior?

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>So now, after six years, it&rsquo;s finally out in the open. The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; expectation for franchise player Eric Lindros made its way around the hockey world July 31 when team president Bob Clarke put forth a challenge.Until that day, Clarke and the Flyers had never really come out and stated it in perfectly clear fashion. Team owner Ed Snider had hinted at it last December when he said the next Lindros contract would hinge somewhat on his ability to take his team to a title.But Clarke took away any doubt in mid-summer on the eve of talks toward a new deal.&ldquo;If you want to be the highest-paid player in the game or close to it, you&rsquo;ve got to play that way,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not a kid anymore.&rdquo;Clarke followed that up by indicating the Flyers are short on patience.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t keep paying someone on potential,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to have to be playing at that (top) level all the time.&rdquo;Lindros, who received $7.5 million last year, endured one of his most disappointing seasons, scoring 30 goals and missing 18 games due to a concussion. Clarke&rsquo;s candid remarks were still echoing when he flew to Toronto Aug. 13 to present to Lindros a five-year contract offer (to start in 1999) believed to be worth $45 million.He told Carl Lindros, Eric&rsquo;s father and agent, and Gordon Kirke, the family&rsquo;s lawyer, that they have until Sept. 11, the first day of training camp, to accept the structure of the proposal.If the deadline isn&rsquo;t met, Clarke said he would let Lindros play out the remaining year of his contract-at $8.5 million-and wouldn&rsquo;t rule out a possible trade. The Flyers don&rsquo;t want to repeat the scenario they went through last year when talks dragged on until mid-December.Both Eric and Carl Lindros expressed initial &ldquo;confusion&rdquo; over Clarke&rsquo;s statements. But they refused to fire back publicly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to sit here and hold an open forum in the media about the things he said,&rdquo; Eric said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a lot of respect for Clarkie.&rdquo;In his July 31 evaluation, Clarke also took shots at Lindros&rsquo; leadership ability, expressed uneasiness with the father-son, player-agent arrangement and questioned Lindros&rsquo; passion.&ldquo;(Passion) is a hard thing,&rdquo; said Clarke, a three-time MVP and Hall of Earner. &ldquo;Some players never learn it. That&rsquo;s why they never get better.&rdquo;The two sides then made attempts at reconciliation in early August conversations and in the Aug. 13 meeting to discuss the contract.Lindros insisted he wants to remain with the Flyers and said he is &ldquo;dying to get back and flying&hellip;let&rsquo;s go to camp and get ready to roll.&rdquo;In addition, he called Philadelphia his &ldquo;hockey home. I really do enjoy it here. I have a great time. I want to keep it that way. Ideally, yes, I would finish my career here. In a perfect world&hellip;but as you know, this isn&rsquo;t always a perfect world.&rdquo;Clarke came away from the Aug. 13 meeting with optimism. But after an Aug. 18 conference call with Clarke to discuss clarifications in the approximately 200-page contract, Kirke said the Lindros negotiating team wouldn&rsquo;t be rushed into anything.<h2>Top 10 salaries</h2>Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; center Sergei Fedorov will be the top paid player this season at $14 million (U.S.). That&rsquo;s $2-million in base salary and a $12-million signing bonus. Here is a list of the top 10 paid players for 1998-90. Of note, Pavel Bure&rsquo;s contract calls for his salary to be the average of the top three in the league:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021182/7003365-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="632" height="522"></div> &#9632;

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Clarke issues Lindros challenge, offer

Upon learning that Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s wonderful career had come to a premature end due to repeated concussions, one thought immediately came to mind.It&rsquo;s a sad day for hockey.Joy Simpson, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.<h2>Big on Bolts</h2>A cheer to the Tampa Bay Lightning for revitalizing its organization.With the additions of Wendel Clark, Bill Ranford, Craig Janney and Benoit Hogue, there are the makings of a team that can shoot for the playoffs and become a contending team the following season.The Boston Bruins went from 26th overall to ninth last season and with first overall pick Vincent Lecavalier and defense prospect Paul Mara, I can seen Lightning coach Jacques Demers building a team that could definitely contend in the Southeast Division.It&rsquo;s a job well done by new owner Art Williams. Teams such as the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers could use owners such as him.Brad Ciaverelli, Langhorne, Pa.<h2>What&rsquo;s biting him?</h2>What exactly is Pavel Bure&rsquo;s problem anyway? He&rsquo;s a fantastic player, but I can&rsquo;t see why, after all the Vancouver Canucks have done for him, he can&rsquo;t use his skills to give the Canucks and his fans something back instead of complaining.Candace Jackson, Clairmont, Alta.<h2>Put icing on ice</h2>With all the recent rule changes designed to decrease obstruction and increase scoring, there has been one obvious change I haven&rsquo;t heard that I think would be pretty effective.When a team is shorthanded, why not eliminate its right to ice the puck? This will put more pressure on the shorthanded team and presumably will lead to more time spent in the offensive zone for the team with the extra man.This should lead to more goals and, presumably, the power play will become an even bigger advantage. This would also lead to players taking fewer obstruction penalties.Ranjan Bhaduri, Honolulu, Hawaii<h2>Thanks, Wendel</h2>I would like to take this opportunity to thank former Toronto Maple Leaf Wendel Clark for his 11 unforgettable and enjoyable years in a Leaf uniform.Over the years, Clark thrilled Leaf fans with his aggressive and determined play. It&rsquo;s sad to see him leave for a second time with likely no chance of him coming back.My only wish was that Clark could have gone to a Stanley Cup contender because after all he did in Toronto, he deserves a Cup.John Waswasarian, Cambridge, Ont.<h2>Good luck, Cujo</h2>An open letter to Curtis Joseph:Hey, Cujo, I&rsquo;m truly happy you are getting the opportunity to go home to Toronto and play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I am also happy that all your hard work over the years has finally paid off for you in the form of a four-year, $24 million contract.I know that things weren&rsquo;t going well with the Edmonton Oilers and the Maple Leafs offer you a great chance at winning. I know this was truly a hockey decision and was by no means made by economics.But it&rsquo;s players such as you whom I can&rsquo;t figure out. Wasn&rsquo;t that you on television at the end of Game 6 after upsetting the Colorado Avalanche with a smile from ear to ear as the Oiler fans chanted your name? I really thought this would be the summer when a true team player would finally step forward and show some loyalty by staying in a city that loved him and staying with an up and coming contender.Once again I was wrong. Good luck in Toronto, Cujo. You&rsquo;re going to need it.David Stern, Egg Harbor City, N.J.<h2>Still confused</h2>I&rsquo;m still waiting for someone to explain to me how Nicklas Lidstrom did not win the Norris Trophy last season.He led all defensemen in points with 59 and his plus-22 was tied for fifth highest among defensemen. Despite trying to make up for the loss of Vladimir Konstantinov, his offense didn&rsquo;t suffer and his defensive play was top-notch.Every article I read calls him the best all-round defenseman in the league. So I ask again, why didn&rsquo;t Nicklas Lidstrom win the Norris?Melanie Smith, Shady Cove, Ore.<h2>This is the Pitts</h2>I am saddened by the way new owner Roger Marino has handled the Pittsburgh Penguins and their star players.It has been reported that he feels today&rsquo;s athletes are overpaid and he won&rsquo;t fall into that trap. I wish him luck running the team with that philosophy.It repulses me that Marino refuses to pay Mario Lemieux the money that is owed to him. Marino didn&rsquo;t sign Lemieux to that contract, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean he isn&rsquo;t responsible for the contract.Mark my words, if he continues to go to war with Mario, the fans will support Lemieux and turn on the team.Then the Penguins made only a token effort to sign unrestricted free agent Ron Francis, who ended up signing with the Carolina Hurricanes. Without Francis, the Penguins have a huge hole at center and have lost a valuable mentor for superstar Jaromir Jagr.The team played all last season without Petr Nedved and his absence was certainly felt. Nedved may have overpriced himself, but the team has made little effort to re-sign him since the first contract rejection. The team needs him, but of course today&rsquo;s athletes are overpaid.It&rsquo;s a fact that today&rsquo;s athletes are paid very well, but it&rsquo;s also a fact that professional sports teams also make a lot of money. If Marino wants a mediocre team, the fans will refuse to support it.You have to spend money to make money in today&rsquo;s NHL and if Marino continues to refuse to spend it, the Igloo will soon become as desolate as an iceberg.Bill Westerman, Muskegon, Mich.<h2>Uniformly bad</h2>A raucous, ear-splitting cheer for those NHL teams which have stayed close to their original logos and uniform styles. A thundering chorus of boos to teams that keep changing logos and uniforms while greedily chasing an elusive market.With promises of a &ldquo;classic&rdquo; and&ldquo;not cutesy&rdquo; new sweater, the Los Angeles Kings changed to one that includes the following elements: a shield with crossed hockey sticks (gee, that&rsquo;s original), a sun, a really bad crown, a lion wearing sunglasses (not the cutesy kind) and the city name with gang lettering along the bottom stripe.Needless to say, the Kings lost themselves a core customer with season tickets while trying to capture youth sales.Bill Perry, Garden Grove, Calif.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 340-1641&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, 777 Bay St, Suite 2700, Box 148, Toronto, Ont, M5G 2N8&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, THN, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. E-mail us at campbellk@transcontinentaLca Include home and business phone numbers. THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Loss of LaFontaine leaves hole in NHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011825/7003420-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mark BrenderStatt Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011661/7003458-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div>Winning is not the &rsquo; most important thing, it&rsquo;s the only thing.What a crock.Winning all that matters? Tell it to Pat LaFontaine. Try to tell him that based on the number of games his team went in the tank last season, he would have been better off renovating an office above the garage in his Connecticut home. It would have been done by now, and Lord knows there can&rsquo;t be any news clips from the 1997-98 debacle he&rsquo;d actually want to file away for safekeeping. Tell him he wasted his time. Then maybe he&rsquo;ll tell you what that phrase is for him. Winning is everything for those with the good health and luck-yes, luck-to afford it.When the biggest worry for a player is blow-torching the proper curve on his stick blade, you can see why it&rsquo;s possible for him to get caught up in all of that stuff. Wait until life throws him a curve of its own and his world is blown apart, and then see how much the score means.The mightily-paid New York Rangers won 25 of 82 games last season, third-fewest in a 26-team league. LaFontaine. who during the late 1980s and early 1990s was among the elite three or four centers in the game behind Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux-the brightest r American beacon in what was even a decade ago a decidedly Canadian league-was in a detached state of bliss all season long.For the first time in his career, he was able to let the projector slow long enough for him to savor every frame-the first game of the year, the Olympics, his 1,000th career point: &ldquo;I just really took it all in.&rdquo; LaFontaine learned that even when you&rsquo;re part of a horridly underachieving, embarrassing team, appreciation is not a crime. He can admit enjoying six months of NHL life as the losses mounted and the playoffs pulled away from the Rangers like a bus splashing slush on their collective galoshes. This does not make him a selfish lout. It is a sign of maturity.Growing up in St. Louis and Detroit, all LaFontaine wanted to do as a kid was pay his way through college. He ended up having a standout junior career in the Quebec League, where he battled Lemieux for the scoring title. He was named to one NHL second all-star team, played in two Olympic Games and 15 spectacular NHL seasons, scoring 40-or-more in six straight, Sure he would have liked to tie&rsquo;em on for another year or two, but he&rsquo;s not in a position to complain. He has already made his Big Comeback.As it turned out, the hit that was supposed to finish his career, from Francois Leroux of the Pittsburgh Penguins Oct. 17, 1996 while LaFontaine was a member of the Buffalo Sabres, didn&rsquo;t. It eventually ended his season after only 13 games, gave him headaches the likes of which not even Gary Suter deserves to experience, made him question getting out of bed in the morning let alone out of the house let alone into a hockey arena. Eventually, he got a clean bill of health from his doctors, was traded to the Rangers for a second round draft pick and made it back.That&rsquo;s why last season meant so much, and, in the grand scheme of things, winning so little.&ldquo;When something hits you as hard as that, and you never think you&rsquo;re ever going to play for the longest time&hellip;1 think there was a part of me that said I didn&rsquo;t want that hit to get the best of me,&rdquo; said LaFontaine, 33. &ldquo;I was always the youngest, the smallest&hellip;and you kind of go through those adversities your whole life. And those were challenges to me.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel like I was supposed to be done playing. I really felt that it wasn&rsquo;t my time to move forward. I really had that desire and passion to go back and I&rsquo;m so glad I listened to that.&rdquo; He has repeatedly expressed his appreciation to Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith for giving him the opportunity.The same neurologist who gave LaFontaine the green light to return a year ago, brain injury expert Dr. James Kelly of Chicago, told him in late June this summer he would be at greater than minimal risk of doing serious damage to his brain if he returned again. The career-ending blow was a fluke head-on collision with teammate Mike Keane last March 16 that resulted in LaFontaine&rsquo;s sixth recorded concussion4n seven years. He announced his retirement at a news conference in New York Aug. 11.Keane and LaFontaine, the two smallest skaters on the Rangers, went up against each other several times during the year-back-to-back. They had season-long debate over who was taller. (LaFontaine is listed at 5-foot-10, Keane at an overinflated 6-feet, which says something about the accuracy of the NHL Guide and Record Book). The hit settled the matter. Not the part about LaFontaine later telling Keane he&rsquo;d be forgiven if he conceded, but a teammate&rsquo;s quip later-the one that said LaFontaine had to be taller, otherwise he would have seen Keane coming.Dressing room humor, har, har. LaFontaine said he&rsquo;ll miss that.The reality is his slight size when combined with no-fear attitude probably contributed to his fate. His head was at about the same height as the shoulders of defenseman he was determined to beat. He came at them with the acceleration of a rock fired out of a slingshot. Something had to give.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t use that speed in safe areas,&rdquo; said Smith, who took a two-year, $9.6-million gamble on LaFontaine last summer when the Sabres, refused, citing medical concerns. (See pg 21 for more on LaFontaine&rsquo;s salary.) &ldquo;I think at the end of the day, it&rsquo;s the style of game that he had, with his blinding speed, that ended his career. His disrespect for his own safety ended his career prematurely.&rdquo;LaFontaine wouldn&rsquo;t change a thing.&ldquo;I always loved that speed type of game, that fast-paced game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Just the freedom of being out there and being in tune and being focussed. It&rsquo;s just a special feeling to be out there in the environment that you&rsquo;re in, and so focussed that you don&rsquo;t hear anything around you other than those plays and those moments that are occurring. Those are great times.&rdquo;So they&rsquo;re over. Fine. Spill no tears. He leaves with 468 goals and 1,013 points in 865 games. His career goals-per-game ratio of .541 is the NHL&rsquo;s eighth-best.&ldquo;Knowing what I know and what I&rsquo;ve gone through with concussions, there&rsquo;s a part of me that&rsquo;s relieved, too, that I don&rsquo;t have to experience that again,&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s what the game has done for me, not what it hasn&rsquo;t done.&ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t been easy at times,&rdquo; he said a week after announcing his decision to retire, &ldquo;but I know it&rsquo;s the right thing to do.&rdquo;Knowing the right thing to do is not always this easy when it comes to head injuries. Was it the right thing, in hindsight, for LaFontaine to come back a year ago, now that we know one mid-grade concussion was all it took to end his career? Was it the right thing for the Sabres to say they weren&rsquo;t satisfied it was safe for LaFontaine to play despite his having Kelly&rsquo;s blessing, thus drawing criticism from fans (and LaFontaine&rsquo;s agent, Don Meehan) who said all the Sabres wanted to do was dump salary as the team underwent a change in ownership?It&rsquo;s hardly a cut and dried case. Even LaFontaine, who was bitterly upset with the Sabres at the time, but now says he holds no hard feelings against the team, said of his current status: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of in a grey area where (doctors) don&rsquo;t know a whole lot, but they do know it doesn&rsquo;t get any better.&rdquo;Meehan is more blunt: &ldquo;To see what Buffalo did in the name of business, or what they attempted to do, was in my view disgraceful.&rdquo;Sabres&rsquo; GM Darcy Regier was on the job less than three months when the LaFontaine situation landed on his desk. He came from the New York Islanders, where he was involved in the concussion issue with, among others, Brett Lindros, who was eventually forced to retire after two seasons.&rsquo;Tor me, it was medical and I have no problem stating that,&rdquo; Regier said. &ldquo;And with respect to money, financial, if it had got beyond medical, it could have been financial. But before you get to the business you have to get past the medical.&rdquo; Regier said he never did.As for the fact that one more concussion did end LaFontaine&rsquo;s career, Regier said: &ldquo;It contributed significant credibility to our concerns.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011717/7003451-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="2038" height="1860"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sometimes the only way to stop Pat LaFontaine was to grab hold and never let go. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>The tragedy would be if the debate over LaFontaine&rsquo;s departure from Buffalo obscured what was a brilliant career. Only five years ago, LaFontaine, Alexander Mogilny and Dave Andreychuk were poised to become the first line in history to have three 50-goaI scorers before Andreychuk was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Andreychuk finished with 54, LaFontaine, 53 and Mogilny, 76. Without LaFontaine, Mogilny&rsquo;s production hasn&rsquo;t been close since.&ldquo;He revolutionized to some extent what you thought of when you thought of an American star player,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;He was a superstar regardless of his nationality.&rdquo;With all due respect to Joe Mullen, LaFontaine was the first American of his stature in the game and today, the finest American player yet to retire.That Brian Leetch or Chris Chelios may surpass him does nothing to diminish his record. In 1983, when he was drafted third overall by the Islanders, Meehan&rsquo;s first significant client, one spot ahead of Steve Yzerman, he was a trailblazer.&ldquo;I can honestly say I&rsquo;ve been a part of that generation of players that really watched the game grow to a tremendous level,&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;And it was quite a generation of hockey players.&rdquo;Here&rsquo;s how long LaFontaine has been around: In his second NHL game, he scored five points in an 116 win. (Anyone seen that kind of score lately outside of a football stadium?) At one point, Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Jim Korn hit him from behind and the two got into a shoving match. LaFontaine heard a voice of one of his linemates. &ldquo;Kid, just go to the penalty box and don&rsquo;t ask any questions.&rdquo; And then the voice had it out with Kom, and LaFontaine thought: &ldquo;Wow, here I am 19 years old, just hoping to get a college scholarship, I played for the United States in the Olympics in Sarajevo and sitting on the bench in the penalty box with Bobby Nystrom.&rdquo;The Islanders lost in the Stanley Cup final that season, their Drive for Five ended by the beginning of the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; dynasty. Eight years later LaFontaine was dealt to the Sabres in a blockbuster deal for Pierre Turgeon. But LaFontaine still remembers the words spoken by teammates Mike Bossy and Denis Potvin that first season: Enjoy your time, kid, it goes by fast.Now LaFontaine has people telling him to make sure he takes the time to enjoy his own kids-daughters Sarah, 7, and Brianna, 5, and son Daniel, 3. That&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;ll be doing this fall. The time goes by fast.LaFontaine will continue to work with the American Academy of Neurology and equipment company CCM on concussion awareness and safety strategies, but beyond that he is noncommittal on his future.No one ever accused Pat LaFontaine of not wanting to win. But after he says his goodbyes and hangs up on a 40-minute phone conversation, you realize the Stanley Cup was never mentioned. The question never crossed your mind. Nor his. &#9632;

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Ooooh La-La American dream fulfilled

Pat LaFontaine is not the first elite player to have his career cut short due to injury. Here&rsquo;s a list of other allstars whose bodies gave out before their talent. The player&rsquo;s age as of retirement appears beside his name.Toe Blake, 35 At the time of a career-ending broken leg in 1948, Blake was 21 points from tying Bill Cowley for the NHL&rsquo;s career point lead of 548. He was the left winger on one of the top units of hockey&rsquo;s Original Six era-the Montreal Canadiens Punch Line with right winger Maurice Richard and center Elmer Lach.Mike Bossy, 30 One of greatest goalscorers ever, Bossy had an NHL record nine consecutive 50-goal sea sons (1977-78 to 1985-86) in his first nine years with the New York Islanders and reached 100 points seven times. He slumped to 38 goals in his 10th year, then was forced to retire because of a bad back. His .762 goals-per-game average is second only to Mario Lemieux in the modern era.Michel Goulet, 34 Goulet&rsquo;s decision to wear a wafer-thin helmet takes some of the blame for the concussion he suffered after slamming into the end boards with the Chicago Blackhawks in March, 1994. He never played again. The five-time all-star left winger and class act spent his prime years with the Quebec Nordiques.Mario Lemieux, 31 Lemieux retired on his own volition, but suffice to say back injuries sustained over his 12 seasons were a contributing factor. His magnificent legacy with the Pittsburgh Penguins: 613 goals and 1,494 points in just 745 games.Rick Martin, 30 Martin, the left winger on Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; famed French Connection line of the 1970s, won a $2.5-million medical malpractice lawsuit in 1994 against an orthopedic surgeon who treated an injury to his right knee. The jury decided he could have played another five seasons had his knee been properly treated.Cam Neely, 31 The prototypical power forward retired following the 1995-96 season due to a degenerative right hip. He played only one way-straight ahead, right through anyone who stood in his way-and goes down as one of the greatest Boston Bruins ever.Bobby Orr, 30 The greatest defenseman in history revolutionized his position despite playing only nine full seasons because of knee injuries. He captured eight consecutive Norris Trophies with Boston, had six consecutive 100-point seasons and won the NHL scoring title twice-a feat no other defenseman has accomplished. &#9632;

Injuries have taken toll on stars over years

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell Senior Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011625/7003520-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Coupal has been railroaded out of two leagues and served a record-setting suspension in a third. He has tried to get his career on track, but his stick still betrays him. (Photo by David Wiewel)</figcaption></div>CAPREOL, Ont.-In the bowels of Ray Coupal&rsquo;s home across from the Capreol Arena, there is a shrine. Gary Coupal, Ray&rsquo;s son, is sitting in an easy chair, just to the left of his Most Improved Player Award for the Columbus Chill and a plaque commemorating his franchise-record 408 penalty minutes in 1995-96. Close by is the Doug Mohns Award as Capreol&rsquo;s Athlete of the Year. Surrounded by monuments to his achievements, Coupal recounts his most heinous crimes.&ldquo;On the Wesenberg slash I just went back like this,&rdquo; he says, jerking his arms in a backward motion. &ldquo;But with Downey,&rdquo; he says, lifting his arms over his head and chopping them downward like a railway man driving in a spike, &ldquo;I came right down like that.&rdquo;Coupal (pronounced cou-PAL) can&rsquo;t explain why he does these things, but problems with anger management might be a good place to start. Each indiscretion has come on the heels of frustration over bad play or a lack of playing time. Some players. demand a trade when they&rsquo;re not playing or stay out longer in practice when they&rsquo;re slumping.Gary Coupal clubs people over the head.Or at least he used to. Banned from two leagues and suspended 49 games in another as a result of vicious stickwork, Coupal claims he has finally realized he&rsquo;s one slash away from Palookaville.While playing for the Muskegon Fury last season, the 23-year-old left winger was banned for life from the United League for throwing a broken stick into the stands. He finished the year playing for $500 a week with the Central Texas Stampede of the Western Professional League, where most teams play in refurbished rodeo arenas and players dress in parking lot portables. Coupal remembers a game that his teammates stood in full gear in pouring rain waiting to enter the rink.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing at a level where kids dream of playing,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Even if it&rsquo;s not the NHL, it&rsquo;s still pro hockey and you&rsquo;re treated first class all the way. If I get another suspension, that will be it.&rdquo;UHL commissioner Richard Brosal, who banned Coupal for life, has said he&rsquo;ll never endorse a contract with Coupal&rsquo;s name on it. The East Coast League, which gave him a league-record 49 games for hitting Aaron Downey of the Hampton Roads Admirals in 1996, has said he&rsquo;ll be held to a different standard than other players in the future. &ldquo;With a guy like that, the rope would be a lot shorter than it would for other guys,&rdquo; said ECHL director of hockey operations Andy Van Hellemond.Coupal&rsquo;s former junior coach, Glenn Merkosky of the Adirondack Red Wings, tried to get him on the American League roster last season, but team executives were skittish about having someone as unpredictable as Coupal in the lineup. In fact, he may be going to training camp in Adiron dack this season, with an eye to playing for the Toledo Storm of the ECHL.Only in hockey can the same characteristics that cause a man to self-destruct also make him a valuable commodity. At 6-foot-l and 190 pounds, he has taken on heavyweights at all levels, never backs down and has an uncanny ability to take punches to the head. He keeps teams on edge because they never know when he&rsquo;s going to lose it.When he played junior hockey for the hometown Sudbury Wolves, Coupal would occasionally remove his helmet, point to his chin and allow his foe a free punch before he started throwing.&ldquo;There was no man big enough to intimidate Gary Coupal, which meant there was no team big enough to intimidate the Sudbury Wolves,&rdquo; says former Wolves&rsquo; GM Todd Lalonde. &ldquo;With him in the lineup, we were three inches taller and 20 pounds heavier. He was as important to us as (Ontario League defenseman of the year) Jamie Rivers and (50-goal scorer) Zdenek Nedved.&rdquo;Lalonde is now coach-GM of the Waco Wizards of the WPHL, the league in which Coupal finished 1997-98. Lalonde has recruited a host of small, talented players and would like to sign Coupal to protect them this season.&ldquo;He made us better because he put the fear of God into a lot of people,&rdquo; says Paul Kelly, coach of the UHL&rsquo;s Muskegon Fury. &ldquo;And he was good defensively. He drove the net hard and he came to play on the road.&rdquo;Merkosky, among others, is convinced Coupal could play in the AHL or International League. Before being thrown out of the UHL, all eight of his goals for Muskegon came on the road.&ldquo;He was in some of the most amazing fights I&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; Kelly says. &ldquo;Most fights are about 45 seconds, but one night I saw him in one that lasted two minutes. For the first 40 seconds, the other guy was just teeing off on him, but after a minute-and-a-half, the other guy was down and screaming for the linesman to break it up.&rdquo;But Coupal&rsquo;s stick is the weapon that has been most dangerous to his opponents and himself. Inexplicably, almost all of his coaches claim he&rsquo;s not a maniac with his stick, but his three most serious suspensions suggest otherwise:&#9723; In 1994, Coupal was banned for life from the OHL after slashing Brian Wesenberg of the Guelph Storm in the face, then poking at Wesenberg while he was down. He then swung at the Guelph bench. He had already been suspended three times, twice for stick offenses, for a total of 20 games. His reason? He had one goal in 17 games and was frustrated at his own play."(OHL commissioner) David Branch said it looked like a scene out of Slap Shot,&rdquo; Merkosky recalls, &ldquo;and when you look at the tape, it really did.&rdquo;&#9723; In 1996, as a member of the Columbus Chill, he received a 49-game suspension in the ECHL for knocking Downey unconscious with his stick. Coupal, sitting on the Chill team bench, reached over to the Admirals&rsquo; bench and clubbed Downey. Coupal was upset at a lack of ice time. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t him, it was me,&rdquo; Coupal says. &ldquo;After I thought about it, it was pointless and stupid.&rdquo;&#9723; In December of last season, Coupal reacted to a game misconduct by breaking his stick over his knee and throwing it over the boards, narrowly missing a man and his young daughter. The UHL is notorious among players as a bad stick league and Brosal, tiring of hearing terms such as the &lsquo;Useless Hockey League,&rsquo; banned him for life.Coupal didn&rsquo;t do anything that fans in the UHL haven&rsquo;t seen before. A few years ago, Kevin Kerr threw his stick blueline to blueline before it hit a player in the head and ricocheted into the stands. But Coupal encountered a fed up commissioner, and committed his act in Moline, Ill., home of the Quad City Mallards, where people actually go to the games. In a lot of other rinks his stick wouldn&rsquo;t have come within an area code of fans.&ldquo;What hurt me most is that I honestly thought I was getting through to him and he was making the change,&rdquo; says Muskegon coach Kelly. &ldquo;I honestly thought this would be his year and I thought we turned the comer.&rdquo;Including the 10 games he played for Central Texas, suspensions have limited Coupal to 45 games the past two seasons, not including the old-timers games he played in Capreol in 1996 after his ECHL suspension.&ldquo;In junior and pro, you&rsquo;re getting better and better with every practice and game,&rdquo; Coupal says. &ldquo;When I came (back home) I kept getting worse and worse. When I first got here I was skating around guys and by the end I was just like everybody else.&rdquo;Four-week old Ally has just woken up from her nap and her father is toying with her soother, pulling it away just as she manages to get it between her lips. Whether it&rsquo;s tapping his chin before a fight or teasing his newborn daughter with her soother, Coupal loves to needle.The dichotomy between on-ice demeanor and off-ice personality is almost always immense in hockey enforcers. Coupal is no different.&ldquo;Gary is basically a big suck,&rdquo; says his girlfriend, Jaimie Richards. &ldquo;He likes attention. When he does these things, I don&rsquo;t look at him and say, &rsquo;You&rsquo;re such an idiot. Why do you do these things?&rsquo; Sometimes I don&rsquo;t like the player, but I fell for the person.&rdquo;Not far away is Ray Coupal, who defends his son like a mother bear protects her cub. The father feels the son hasn&rsquo;t been treated fairly, but knows where Gary gets his fighting spirit. Ray&rsquo;s father was an early union organizer against Sudbury nickel giant INCO and fought in some of the most bitter strikes in the history of the labor movement. Ray followed in his footsteps and was one of 12 men fired by the company in 1969 for organizing a wildcat strike by 2,000 men. He was hired by rival Falconbridge a year later and serves as a union steward.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011692/7003513-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="628" height="1156"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coupal&rsquo;s best days were with Columbus in the ECHL.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud to be a union member who fights for my rights and the rights of others,&rdquo; Ray says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never back down. If I&rsquo;m wrong, I&rsquo;ll apologize. But if I&rsquo;m right, look out.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s only when Gary Coupal draws the family analogy that he gives you a hint of what goes through his mind when he reacts.&ldquo;When I lace up the skates, I think of everybody as family,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll do anything to win and sometimes I go overboard. My emotions are way too high on the ice sometimes.&rdquo;Sometimes Gary Coupal sits in his cab and waits outside the Sudbury Arena for a customer. It wasn&rsquo;t long ago that 6,000 people chanted his name in that building. He probably lost as many fights as he won, but that didn&rsquo;t matter to fans in Sudbury. &ldquo;He could have run for mayor,&rdquo; Lalonde says.This summer, he has been cutting grass, repairing small engines and working the 4 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift three times a week for a local cab company. Few of his customers recognize the former local hero. &ldquo;Most of them aren&rsquo;t into hockey,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Actually, they&rsquo;re not into much of anything.&rdquo;When he took the job, veteran drivers warned him he should have a plan in the event of a robbery. The flashlight under the seat is good for hitting people over the head and the hand radio can make a punch lethal.&ldquo;I told them I don&rsquo;t need a plan,&rdquo; Coupal says. &ldquo;If somebody tries to rob me, I&rsquo;ll beat them to a pulp.&rdquo;Actually, Coupal needs a plan more than ever before. Now that he&rsquo;s a provider, he can&rsquo;t afford any more suspensions. The nickel mines that have employed thousands over the years haven&rsquo;t hired for 20 years and even if they did there&rsquo;s still a layoff list as long as an underground shaft. The railway is the biggest employer in Capreol, but the days of local hockey heroes such as Fred Boimistruck being handed jobs are long gone.Coupal&rsquo;s rap sheet indicates he has a tough time learning from his mistakes, but he claims he&rsquo;s reformed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to calm my emotions down and keep them down,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to think of it now more as a job. I&rsquo;ve got to wake up and say, &rsquo;This is my job and I won&rsquo;t be doing it much longer if I keep going the way I&rsquo;m going.&rsquo; &ldquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Baddest man in hockey

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div>And to think, Pierre Turgeon was actually nervous about his contract situation.It turns out the 30-year-old St. Louis Blues&rsquo; center need not have worried after all.An independent arbitrator awarded Turgeon the biggest settlement in NHL arbitration history, a one-year deal worth $4.65 million (U.S.) Aug. 13. That&rsquo;s $150,000 more than the record sum Mark Recchi of the Montreal Canadiens was awarded two days earlier.&ldquo;I was a little bit nervous, but (GM) Larry Pleau phoned me a few days before the hearing and said, &rsquo;Let&rsquo;s do what we have to do and when it&rsquo;s over with, let&rsquo;s turn the page and get back to playing hockey&hellip;no hard feelings,&rsquo;&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;Then a few days after the hearing he called me and said he just wants me to go out and play my game; that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;Turgeon, who made $3 million last season, will be the 19th highest paid player in the league this season and if he has a good year, can seek a raise next year. Sergei Fedorov&rsquo;s $14 million leads the pack.Although he said he had butterflies going into the hearing, Turgeon wasn&rsquo;t totally shocked with the outcome.&ldquo;Perhaps just a little,&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;On one hand it&rsquo;s a lot of money; on the other hand you have to look at how the market has adjusted.&rdquo;A total of 29 players filed for arbitration, but only 11 went the distance. The others, including forward Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour who accepted a three-year, $11.25-million deal from the Philadelphia Flyers at the last second, came to agreements before their hearings took place.Players who meet certain qualifications based upon their age when they signed their first contract and the amount of professional experience they have are allowed to select salary arbitration. Players must be restricted free agents and must not have signed an offer sheet. Teams are allowed to walk away from one arbitration ruling per year, making the player an unrestricted free agent.No team faced potentially more upheaval this off-season than the Blues, who had a number of key players become free agents. Two, right winger Brett Hull and defenseman Steve Duchesne, signed with other teams. Right winger Jim Campbell also went to arbitration and was awarded a two-year deal worth $900,000 next season and $1 million the following year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011523/7003558-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="606" height="853"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Turgeon</figcaption></div>After a very successful season last year, the Blues must re-group. Unquestionably, they are pleased to have Turgeon, who was second in team scoring with 22 goals and 68 points in just 60 games (his 1.13 points per game was sixth best in the NHL), back in the fold.&ldquo;With Hull gone he has got to be the guy on the power play,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; defenseman Chris Pronger. &ldquo;Everybody will be trying to take Al (Maclnnis) out of the play, so Pierre will be the important guy down low.&rdquo;Turgeon entered the NHL as an 18-year-old in 1987-88 with the Buffalo Sabres and was paid a then-handsome stipend of $105,000 his first year.&ldquo;I thought that was amazing, Turgeon said. &ldquo;Back then Wayne Gretzky was making $300,000 a season and everybody thought that was unbelievable. The year before in junior I was paid $35 every two weeks.&rdquo;In 810 career games with the Sabres, New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Blues, Turgeon has 366 goals and 932 points-an average of 1.15 points per game. His points per game dips slightly in the playoffs, but is still fairly impressive at .93 (55 points in 59 games).Despite the fact he has scored close to a point a game in the playoffs throughout his career, Turgeon still carries the label of playoff underachiever.&ldquo;I like the way he competed in the playoffs last year,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; coach Joel Quenneville. &ldquo;The numbers might not have been there (four goals, eight points, minus-5 in 10 games), but I thought he played hard every game for us.&rdquo;&ldquo;He finds the open man,&rdquo; added Pronger. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really shifty; goalies are never sure if he&rsquo;s going to pass or shoot. A lot of the great playmakers in the league are not big scorers, but with Pierre, just when you think he&rsquo;s going to pass&hellip;he shoots.&rdquo;Turgeon said he doesn&rsquo;t expect there to be additional pressure for him to do anything more than he has in the past simply because of his contract. And the Blues agree.&ldquo;No&hellip;no,&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in this league for 11 years now and I know what I am supposed to do. I won&rsquo;t change. I got to this place because of something good I have done so I won&rsquo;t change.&rdquo;&ldquo;You make a big mistake by doing that,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t put undue pressure on a player. Pierre is a great player-he can make plays, he can score goals, he can deke, he can shoot. He likes to camp out behind the net so it will be interesting to see how the change (the nets will be,. moved two feet out from the boards this season) affects him.&rdquo;<h2>ARBITRATION SITUATION</h2>Pierre Turgeon of the St. Louis Blues was the biggest winner with a record-breaking ruling in the NHL&rsquo;s arbitration process, but 10 others also took that route this summer. And all of them weren&rsquo;t as fortunate as Turgeon. Here is a look at the final results of the 11 players who went to salary arbitration this summer-what the players were paid last season and what they were awarded. Arbitration hearings were held in Toronto Aug.1-15<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021087/7003551-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="1020" height="677"></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

Turgeon hits paydirt

<div class="byline">By Mark Brender Staff Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011649/7003589-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">I Former NHL and WHA goalie Ai Smith drives the streets of Toronto to pay the bills, but the theatre is his passion. (Photo by Mark Wilson)</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s 7:45 on a Saturday night in downtown Toronto, 15 minutes to showtime.You can&rsquo;t help but think how three decades and maybe 30 pounds ago, this must have been a time Al Smith cherished. But standing outside the Alumnae Theatre, you&rsquo;re just perplexed. The front door is locked, the sidewalk bare and the prospects for a performance dimming with each passing moment.After a minute or so, alerted by pounding, a man peeks out the window and rushes down the stairs. As the door swings outward, he offers apologies as he grabs a stand-up wood placard and places it on the sidewalk: &ldquo;Confessions to Anne Sexton, by Al Smith, 8:00.&rdquo; Sheepishly, he says he thought someone else would have opened up by now.Up the stairs, the lobby is bare and quiet save for a ticket-seller behind the counter. No one else, it seems, has come to see this play penned by a 52-year-old cab driver and struggling artist in his own hometown. The novelty, in a country where hockey is the greatest art form imaginable, is that this particular cab driver spent 15 years as an NHL and World Hockey Association goalie.In Canada, hitting Broadway doesn&rsquo;t get much bigger than that. The legacy eats away at him, fuels his frustration. The promotions people who convinced Smith to put a goalie mask on the ads which he soon regretted doing, the media which portray his work as a sorry offshoot to a once-successful career, they won&rsquo;t let him get on with his life.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re finished at 34 years old?&rdquo; he asks with exasperation. &ldquo;Thirty-four! Come on, be fair, you a-holes!&rdquo;The stage and 140 unfilled seats are undisturbed behind another set of closed doors. The ticket-seller says the doors will be opened when the play is about to begin.Five minutes to showtime, the playwright sits alone in a long, narrow corridor behind the theatre balcony. He&rsquo;s leaning back on the rear legs of his chair, feet crossed on the window sill in front of him, a coffee mug in his hand. He&rsquo;s wearing a black golf shirt, brown pants and loafers.After greeting a visitor, the former goalie asks if anyone else is waiting in the lobby. He accepts the answer as a confirmation of his thoughts, much like a student&rsquo;s reaction on finding out he received an F on the test he didn&rsquo;t bother to study for. But there is a melodramatic fatalism to his speech and every so often the disappointment comes to the fore.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never played on a team like this,&rdquo; he says wistfully. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think of a rink this empty, I really can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;,Smith, 52, has put some bulk on since his days in the nets-he retired from the Colorado Rockies, his eighth team, in 1981-but driving a cab for 13 years will do that to anyone. He says he has been in the car all day just to scrape enough money together to pay the four actors. He&rsquo;s spent his &ldquo;Carl Brewer money&rdquo; from the NHL pension settlement-$34,862-to finance the project.The young director of the play appears at the end of the hallway. Smith tells him this night&rsquo;s performance will be cancelled, but the matinee show tomorrow afternoon will go on and that will be the end of it. The actors go through their lines for a final time on June 21, their anticipated four-week run already cut down to three, whether anyone shows or not. Then Al Smith will go back to writing when he can, driving his cab because he must. In another 13 years, perhaps he&rsquo;ll have the money to do it all again.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an awful thing,&rdquo; Smith says of his aspiration, his compulsion to write. It broke up his marriage years ago. &ldquo;And if you&rsquo;re not good at it&hellip;&rdquo; and here he pauses, and laughs. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of oldtimer hockey out there, but I couldn&rsquo;t bear to watch.&rdquo;Confessions is Smith&rsquo;s second self-financed play. The first one two years ago played to an empty house for two nights before Smith tore the set down. A review in the Toronto Globe and Mail described the play as &ldquo;an interior monologue in several voices, written in allusive, repetitive, strenuously poetic language.&rdquo; Smith says it&rsquo;s a play about the middle-aged problems of two middle-aged men, one of whom happens to be an ex-hockey player.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good, lefty play. You know, John Kennedy and all that stuff, Jane Fonda. It was a good play. It was a good play to squander on this type of situation. There are a few hippies out there and the hippies came and enjoyed it. There just aren&rsquo;t as many as I thought.&rdquo;He feels awful for the actors. They&rsquo;ve had to bear regrettably few nights of applause and untold hockey stories from old buddies who came to see him. The real stars in this play, he says, are in the audience; Brewer, writer Alan Abel, Florida Panthers&rsquo; scout and friend Paul Henry, Skip Stanowski, &ldquo;an old hippie from Cornell&rdquo; and son of former NHLer Wally Stanowski; two of his three children, including a daughter who helped him.Opening night provided the biggest draw: 17 people, including his mother. Overall there were 21 shows, six shutouts. A good performance was a show when the people who did come, stayed. These were the real theatre people. Smith says. The ones who heard a familiar name from a generation ago and came looking for some sort of hockey epiphany walked out at intermission, he says. It happened more than once.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s the sports world and the aesthetic and they don&rsquo;t often get along,&rdquo; Smith says. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not discouraging because it&rsquo;s such a creative experience and it was something I was just bound to do.&rdquo;But he cannot, and is not, attempting to grow new roots. He has been submitting scripts to local theatres for years and as a playwright, he says the sports imagery and hockey context &ldquo;is my shtick.&rdquo; Goalies have so much time to observe and form opinions, he says. It&rsquo;s why Greg Millen and John Garrett and others make such good television commentators.He will not give up what he is doing. He says it&rsquo;s a ridiculous existence and later mentions something about retired hockey players belonging on golf courses. Al Smith doesn&rsquo;t want to be a retired hockey player.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t cheated, I&rsquo;ve put in my time. I&rsquo;ve made enormous sacrifices,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not some delusion, it&rsquo;s not some fantasy.&rdquo;His definition of success: &ldquo;To have all these a holes you call the culture of this country to finally accept the fact that I&rsquo;m a writer. Whenever they do that, I&rsquo;ll be satisfied.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

It’s all write for Al

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011508/7003696-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="407" height="580"></div>Robbie Ftorek got his first lesson in NHL Coaching 101 in 1988. He was behind the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; bench during a pre-season game with the Vancouver Canucks and the crew-cutted New Englander thought he was prepared.&ldquo;I had my lines written on the back of a popcorn box,&rdquo; Ftorek recalled. &ldquo;Then the game starts and on the second shift there&rsquo;s a big brawl. Half of my guys have been kicked out and the other half are in the penalty box. I said, &rsquo;Here we go, let&rsquo;s wing it.&rsquo; And we did.&rdquo;Relaxing at his Wolfeboro, N.H., lakefront home, Ftorek chuckles at the irony of re-winging his head-coaching career with the New Jersey Devils. Wasn&rsquo;t it at the Meadowlands where he head-coached his very first NHL game for the Kings?&ldquo;How can I forget it?&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;We were down by a goal with two minutes left so I called an illegal stick against Jersey. I was right on the illegal stick, but we didn&rsquo;t score and lost by a goal. Next night I did the same thing in Boston. I called an illegal stick and was right again, but we ended up losing that game, too-by a goal.&ldquo;Some people didn&rsquo;t like what I did with the sticks but, hey, if you&rsquo;re not using all the rules, then you&rsquo;re not trying.&rdquo;If there are two things Ftorek never will be accused of it&rsquo;s lack of trying and lack of candor. Ask him a question, you get an answer. Maybe it&rsquo;s not a headline reply, but he talks. And now that he&rsquo;s in the New York glare, the talk invariably gets to his long-ago split with Wayne Gretzky.Pulp history has it that Gretzky authored Ftorek&rsquo;s firing after the 1988-89 season. Although the coach insists the myth is as good as an NHL mile, it&rsquo;s still a myth.&ldquo;One night in Detroit, Wayne broke one of my rules and I sat him down,&rdquo; Ftorek recalled. &ldquo;We talked about it between periods and it caused a hullabaloo. Still, Wayne was very easy to coach.&rdquo;Since Ftorek was anointed Jacques Lemaire&rsquo;s successor with the Devils, Gretzky has said he had nothing to do with Ftorek&rsquo;s firing after his first season in L.A. Ftorek absolves him as well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021054/7003689-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="546" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robbie Ftorek</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I had been hired to coach one of the NHL&rsquo;s youngest teams. When Wayne came in, they got older players who complimented Gretzky and the other players who came in that trade,&rdquo; Ftorek said. &ldquo;To win the Cup, management felt they needed someone with that experience and I wasn&rsquo;t the guy.&rdquo; Now Ftorek has that experience, having paid his dues in the American League with the Halifax Citadels, Utica Devils and Albany River Rats, not to mention a two-year Jersey stint as Lemaire&rsquo;s assistant.Whispers to the contrary, Ftorek will not be a Lemaire clone. Far from it. In his acceptance speech, Ftorek respectfully-nay loyally-defended Lemaire&rsquo;s conservative approach. But those who know Ftorek best expect a more relaxed dressing room and a less rigid game plan.&ldquo;You have to have fun,&rdquo; he said.The most fun will be had by left winger Brian Rolston and defensemen Scott Niedermayer and Kevin Dean, who chafed under Lemaire. Given free rein to do his thing, the fleet, ubiquitous Niedermayer has Norris Trophy potential.There&rsquo;s only one problem; Ftorek dislikes the term&ldquo;potential.&rdquo; &ldquo;Overachieving&rdquo; is another that tends to stick in his craw. &ldquo;I have been accused of being an overachiever,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t know what overachieving is. Just because somebody doesn&rsquo;t believe I can do something doesn&rsquo;t mean I can&rsquo;t do it.&rdquo;Ftorek speaks from experience. When he and his Needham, Mass., high school sweetheart, Wendy Bray, decided to get married, Wendy&rsquo;s father expressed doubts that Ftorek could support his daughter.&ldquo;I told him I was going to be a professional hockey player,&rdquo; Ftorek recalled. &ldquo;Then, he pointed out I was small-and an American. I said, &rsquo;This is what I&rsquo;m going to do.&rsquo; So, it doesn&rsquo;t matter what others believe, it&rsquo;s what you believe and if you believe in yourself, you will achieve.&rdquo; Bottom line: believe in Robbie Ftorek. &#9632;

f0015-01

Ftorek keeps on disproving doubters

<div class="byline">By Cammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011424/7003727-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="171" height="170"></div>When the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim named Pierre Gauthier team president July 16, Gauthier vowed the rumors were not true that he was hired to replace his very good friend. GM Jack Ferreira.But after three weeks of evaluations, Gauthier changed his mind. He announced Aug. 6 he was demoting Ferreira to vice president, hockey operations and taking over the GM duties himself. (See pg. 5 for more on Gauthier.)&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to be the president who was telling the manager how to manage, or to be involved in the everyday decisions of hockey management.&rdquo; Gauthier said.Ferreira did not accept the demotion immediately. He took four days to think about it before accepting the new position. Ferreira will now be the team&rsquo;s professional scout and Gauthier&rsquo;s &ldquo;main advisor on all personnel decisions.&rdquo;Gauthier, who left the GM&rsquo;s job with the Ottawa Senators for &ldquo;personal reasons&rdquo; and joined the Ducks shortly after, realizes everything looks fishy.&ldquo;I left Ottawa for very legitimate personal reasons,&rdquo; Gauthier said Aug. 18. &ldquo;There were a lot of rumors, but I told people 1 was not going to steal Jack&rsquo;s job. I sincerely meant that.&rdquo;Gauthier, who has been great friends with Ferreira since their scouting days in the early 1980s, would not say what he found in his three-week evaluation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying anything negative about Jack Ferreira,&rdquo; Gauthier said. &ldquo;He is a very good hockey man.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: One of Craig Hartsburg&rsquo;s first acts as new coach was to meet with captain Paul Kariya, about whom he had made disparaging remarks in February while he was coaching Chicago. The remarks were made following the concussion Kariya received due to a crosscheck in the face by then-Chicago defenseman Gary Suter. A team spokesman said the meeting went well and Kariya seems pleased with the addition of Hartsburg&hellip;The Ducks added Newell Brown. Hartsburg&rsquo;s assistant the past two seasons in Chicago, and George Burnett, former Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; coach, as assistants. &ldquo;We were fortunate late in the summer to get Dave and George, who bring a lot of experience and success,&rdquo; said GM Pierre Gauthier. &#9632;

f0016-01

NHL TEAMS

Gauthier does about-facein demoting GM Ferreira

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03818/7003758-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="621" height="973"><figcaption class="caption-body">Donald Audette</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021097/7003765-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="169" height="166"></div>The Buffalo Sabres had a reasonably successful summer bringing their unsigned players back into the fold.But then the big challenges were still to come.Rob Ray, Paul Kruse, Geoff Sanderson and Brian Holzinger all agreed to terms, but the Sabres still had to sign defensemen Alexei Zhitnik and Mike Wilson and forwards Miroslav Satan and Donald Audette.&ldquo;One of the problems is that there have been relatively few restricted free agent signings,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; GM Darcy Regier. &ldquo;There seems to be a lot of waiting to see who&rsquo;s going to establish the market.&rdquo;In Zhitnik&rsquo;s case it&rsquo;s relatively simple. He&rsquo;s asking for in excess of $3 million per season and his camp has said if the Sabres are unwilling to pay it, they should consider trading him. However, they said that last summer before signing a one-year deal and there&rsquo;s a sense both sides are looking for a long-term relationship.It&rsquo;s a different situation with Audette. The veteran right winger is looking to either come in well in excess of the NHL average or below it. Should Audette post one more season below NHL rates, he would become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. In order to combat that, the Sabres have offered $1.4 million. Audette is looking for about $1.2. The NHL average is expected to be in the $1.3-million neighborhood.&ldquo;I want to stay in Buffalo,&rdquo; Audette said, &ldquo;but I have to protect myself too.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Signing scorecard: left winger Rob Ray signed a two-year deal worth roughly $1.5 million; left winger Geoff Sanderson signed a one-year deal for $1.5 million; center Brian Holzinger agreed to a two-year deal worth about $1.8 million; left winger Paul Kruse signed a two-year deal worth $1.15 million&hellip;The Kruse deal was worked out during a lunch break at the player&rsquo;s arbitration hearing. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s better than going all the way through and waiting 48 hours for an arbitrator&rsquo;s opinion,&rdquo; said GM Darcy Regier. &ldquo;We were both better off doing it the way we did it."&hellip;The Sabres will spend part of their training camp in Europe, visiting Austria and playing in a series of exhibition games with Tampa Bay. &#9632;

f0016-03

Big fish still left to catch

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04603/7003796-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="169" height="166"></div>It was shaping up as a long, uncertain summer on the contract front for the Boston Bruins and their free agents, with one exception.Tim Taylor, who scored a career-best 20 goals and centered a topnotch checking line after arriving from the Detroit Red Wings through the waiver draft, signed a one-year deal that nearly doubled the $425,000 he earned last season.Taylor hopes the contract, signed the night before he was scheduled to face the Bruins in an arbitration hearing, is just the first step in a process that ultimately will allow him to put down real roots in Boston.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come into a really nice situation here,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;Things have gone so well for me in Boston and everything about the team seems to be moving in the right direction. I&rsquo;d like to be a part of this team growing together.&rdquo;Taylor is so willing to become a long-term Bruin that for the right deal he could be talked into passing up a once-in-a-lifetime situation a year from now. He&rsquo;ll finish the 1998-99 season as a 10-year pro earning less than the NHL&rsquo;s average salary, which makes him eligible for unrestricted free agency. But he hopes to sign a long-term deal before then.&ldquo;We needed to get at least a one-year deal to avoid arbitration,&rdquo; Taylor said, &ldquo;but we had talked about doing something longer. We&rsquo;ve left the door open for the next couple of months.&rdquo;Bruins&rsquo; assistant GM Mike O&rsquo;Connell, who was happy to cross at least one of Boston&rsquo;s three arbitration hearings off his list, said he hopes to discuss an extension with Taylor before long.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ve talked about,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t blame Tim if he plays (the new contract) out and chooses unrestricted free agency, though. It takes 10 years to get that right and he hasn&rsquo;t made a lot of money in that time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Neither side was completely satisfied by arbitrator Claude Foisy&rsquo;s Aug. 13 decision in right winger Dmitri Khristich&rsquo;s case. Khristich got a salary bump from $1 million to $1.95 million, but that was still below the $2.85 million he sought. The Bruins, meanwhile, weren&rsquo;t thrilled at having to pay a half-million dollars more than their $1.4 million offer, but decided against walking away from the judgement, which would have made Khristich an unrestricted free agent.. Boston also couldn&rsquo;t avoid its Aug. 14 hearing with backup goalie Rob Tallas. who came away happy with the judgement: a coveted one-way deal which will pay him $625,000 for the 1998-99 season. &#9632;

f0016-04

Taylor signs for one year, wants longer

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06368/7003827-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="612" height="974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Smith</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05440/7003834-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="171" height="168"></div>Like a lot of players forced into a premature exit because of injuries, Steve Smith never lost the urge to play.He spent the better part of his first season as a Calgary Flames&rsquo; assistant coach doing the drills in practice, the same as if he were a player. Once, when the Flames tested their players for fitness levels, Smith completed the process on a lark and came in near the top of the team.So when GM Al Coates broached the subject of a possible comeback with Smith in July, he had a one-word reply: Yes. Smith, 35, will try to win a spot on the Flames after signing a one-year, incentives-laden contract based mainly on games played.&ldquo;When you get an opportunity to add somebody like that, you&rsquo;d be nuts not to,&rdquo; said Flames&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter. &ldquo;He went on a new program last year, one he&rsquo;d never been on before, and he&rsquo;s absolutely pain-free.&rdquo;The back problems that forced Smith to retire after 12 years in the NHL could recur the first time someone fries to run him through the end boards. In his final year with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1996-97, Smith needed virtually a full day of exercise, stretching, massage and other treatments in order to get into the lineup.Smith said he found the urge to play again in a number of different ways. &ldquo;Some of the players my age and older carrying the Stanley Cup over their heads was certainly a motivation when I watched the finals and Detroit winning,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: To replace defenseman Steve Smith on the coaching staff, GM Al Coates suggested that the next assistant coach would come from within the organization, which means either development co-ordinator Jamie Hislop or scout and former assistant coach Guy Lapointe will likely get the post&hellip;For now, defenseman Phil Housley is the highest-paid Flames&rsquo; player at $2.75 million (U.S.), although negotiations to extend Theo Fleury&rsquo;s contract were to resume again in late August. According to Coates, the Flames brought in Housley mainly to raise the team&rsquo;s powerplay efficiency. Housley, who had a no trade contract, was acquired on waivers by Calgary. The final year of his contract, at $3 million, will be at Calgary&rsquo;s option. &#9632;

f0016-06

Smith back for Year 13

<div class="byline">By Steve Pollti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-07338/7003865-1-eng-US/f0016-072.jpg" title="f0016-07" width="170" height="163"></div>The threat of a third season in the Greensboro Coliseum looms large for the Carolina Hurricanes.That&rsquo;s easily the worst thing that could happen to a franchise struggling to establish itself in a new market. Raleigh&rsquo;s new arena, $26 million over budget and several months behind schedule, will not open in time for the start of the 1999-2000 hockey season if the Hurricanes refuse to ante up an extra $14 million toward the building&rsquo;s construction, arena officials said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re almost at the point where we might have to plan on staying in Greensboro another year,&rdquo; said Dean Jordan, president of the team&rsquo;s parent company. Gale Force Holdings. &ldquo;If we have to come up with $14 million with no way to get our money back, we&rsquo;ll have to analyze it and see if we&rsquo;d be better off in Greensboro.&rdquo;The team lost more than $30 million in its first season at the Greensboro Coliseum. averaging an NHL-low 9,100 fans in the cavernous 21,000-seat arena. The Hurricanes already have contributed $20 million to help pay the cost of re-designing parts of the 20.000-seat new arena for the team. The arena&rsquo;s governing board is blaming the team&rsquo;s changes to the building&rsquo;s design for the construction delays.&ldquo;If they want to make us the bad guys, 1 guess we&rsquo;re an easy target,&rdquo; Jordan said. &ldquo;But the $20 million that we gave is more than enough to cover the improvements required.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The team is preparing to buy out the contract of right winger Steve Rice and might do the same for right winger Steve Leach. Rice scored 21 goals in 199697, but just two last season, while Leach was a team-worst minus-19 and missed half the season with injuries&hellip;New team president Dean Jordan is changing the team&rsquo;s ticket policies. Unlike last season when the &rsquo;Canes inflated their attendance by giving away thousands of tickets, they won&rsquo;t give away any this year. Also, the team will cap its capacity at about 12,000 by lowering black curtains around the upper deck of the Greensboro Coliseum. Jordan said they will not raise the curtains, even if a crowd of 21.000-the building&rsquo;s actual capacity-wants to see the game. &#9632;

f0016-07

’Canes facing a third year of play in cavernous arena

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011307/7003896-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="168" height="166"></div>The Chicago Black hawks flunked chemistry in 1997-98, which went a long way in explaining why they missed the playoffs for the first time in almost three decades.Finding the right mix was the primary off-season goal of GM Bob Murray and new coach Dirk Graham.The Hawks&rsquo; management team thinks it took positive steps toward getting players with the right kind of attitude in the acquisitions of Doug Gilmour, Paul Coffey and Mark Janssens.Murray also has weeded out some of the bad seeds from last year&rsquo;s debacle in the nine players now gone from the roster that finished the Hawks&rsquo; miserable season.&ldquo;The attitude of the whole team must get better, but it won&rsquo;t happen overnight,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;People who resist the change of attitude won&rsquo;t be here.&ldquo;I love our chemistry now. We&rsquo;ve got a bunch of gritty competitors now. Think what that&rsquo;s going to do for our younger guys. Think what they have to watch.&rdquo;The grittiness and hunger to win that Murray is searching for starts right at the top with Graham, one of the most respected and hard-nosed captains in Hawks&rsquo; history.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll see Dirk Graham or (assistant coach) Denis Savard take too much crap,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;My coaches are happy people with the changes we made. First and foremost we needed to change the attitude of this hockey club and I think we&rsquo;ve taken important steps to do that.&rdquo;Graham certainly expects to see players with the same commitment to playing that he had. That&rsquo;s mostly what he will ask as a first-year head coach.&ldquo;If asking players for commitment is being hard on them, then so be it,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t want to commit, obviously they don&rsquo;t want to be in Chicago.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Jeff Shantz and defenseman Cam Russell agreed to terms on new contracts, but hadn&rsquo;t formally signed&hellip;Forwards Eric Daze, Chad Kilger and Ethan Moreau remained unsigned. Daze&rsquo;s negotiations were slowed by his change of agents from Gilles Lupien to Bob Sauve. The Hawks were planning to offer Daze a long-term deal&hellip;A total of 57 players were invited to training camp. Rookies report Sept. 5 and veterans Sept. 12&hellip;As usual, the Hawks were having trouble getting dates in the always-busy United Center for training camp. They were planning to hold the first week of camp at a suburban Chicago facility, later spending five days training in Ottawa. &#9632;

f0018-01

Hawks hope added grit nets results

<div class="byline">By Adrian Qatar</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011211/7003927-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="171" height="166"></div>If Colorado Avalanche defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh doesn&rsquo;t show up when training camp opens Sept. 13, it won&rsquo;t be the first time.The smooth-skating Latvian defenseman didn&rsquo;t report to the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; camp in 1995 because he didn&rsquo;t have a contract. That&rsquo;s the same situation in which he found himself as September approached.Ozolinsh, a Group II restricted free agent, made $1.5 million last season, one in which he posted 13 goals and 51 points in 66 games and a team-worst minus-12.Ozolinsh&rsquo;s agent. Paul Theofanous, has preferred to keep his client&rsquo;s contract demands private. But in today&rsquo;s NHL market, an argument could be made for Ozolinsh making anywhere from $3 million to $5 million a year.The Avalanche hasn&rsquo;t been much more revealing than Theofanous. GM Pierre Lacroix has continually refused to discuss specifics of the Ozolinsh negotiations and would only volunteer the following: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll do everything in our power to get a fair deal for everyone.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not known exactly how far apart the two sides are.Ozolinsh was traded to Colorado for power forward Owen Nolan in October. 1995, shortly after signing the deal with San Jose which expired after last season.He told the media during the 199798 regular season that he wanted a new contract with Colorado before the season was over so he didn&rsquo;t have to &ldquo;worry about it.&rdquo;But that didn&rsquo;t materialize, since negotiations between Theofanous and Avalanche management were sporadic.If Ozolinsh refuses to report, he will join a list of restricted free agents who have done the same thing in Colorado the past three seasons, including Chris Simon, Scott Young, Martin Rucinsky, Wendel Clark and Valeri Kamensky.NOTEBOOK: The Avs re-signed 23-year-old right winger Shean Donovan to a one-year, $470,000 contract. Donovan was a disappointment to many with the Avs last season after coming in a trade for popular center Mike Ricci. Donovan scored five goals and 12 points in 47 games for the Avs and didn&rsquo;t play at all in the playoffs. But Avalanche assistant GM Francois Giguere said the team remains high on Donovan&rsquo;s potential&hellip;Colorado also signed 1998 20th overall draft pick Scott Parker to a contract. Parker, a right winger, has a shot at being the team&rsquo;s main enforcer this year&hellip;The Avs said they would not attempt to re-sign enforcer left winger Francois Leroux for the coming season. &#9632;

f0019-01

No contract may mean no Ozolinsh

<div class="byline">By Mike Heike</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011095/7003958-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="168" height="169"></div>In a game of inches, how much difference will a couple of feet make?The Dallas Stars are hoping a lot.With the NHL moving the net two feet out from the end boards and shaving the crease down two feet on each side, offense-minded players should get the opportunity to make more plays around the net and also be able to get in the face of opposing goalies more often. And for players such as Stars&rsquo; right winger Pat Verbeek, that can only help.&ldquo;Beeker is the kind of player that should benefit from the rule changes,&rdquo; said coach Ken Hitchcock. &rsquo;1 think anyone who is willing to charge the net hard is going to be helped by this.&rdquo;And that should include Verbeek&rsquo;s projected linemates, Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner.&ldquo;I think a player like Joe will be able to take advantage of the extra room behind the net, because that&rsquo;s an area where he has been comfortable in the past,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;I think you&rsquo;ll see a definite increase in goals where a player is behind the goal line and his stick is in front of the net.&rdquo;What&rsquo;s more, Nieuwendyk should be able to create plenty of offensive opportunities for his wingers by taking the attention of the defenseman back to what will now be a cavernous area of the ice.&ldquo;It could be something that helps both of us,&rdquo; Verbeek said. &ldquo;But you&rsquo;re still going to have to work for everything you get.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Joe Nieuwendyk. who had the anterior cruciate ligament in both knees replaced in April, was recovering well and said he would like to play in the season opener Oct. 10 against Buffalo&hellip;Defenseman Richard Matvichuk, who had the ACL in his left knee replaced in June and was expected to miss the first two months of the season, was expected to sign for one more year at $870,000. The following season, he can become a Group II free agent&hellip;New Stars&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull has settled on No. 22. Right winger Pat Verbeek has worn No. 16 his entire career and won&rsquo;t be asked to change. Hull, meantime, said he didn&rsquo;t want to wear a high number such as No. 61&hellip;The Stars begin training camp Sept. 13 in Vail, Colo. &#9632;

f0020-01

Changes should benefit Verbeek and linemates

<div class="byline">By Cynthia Lambert</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03502/7003989-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="620" height="973"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scotty Bowman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02741/7003996-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="168" height="165"></div>At this time of the year, GMs are usually most concerned with which players may be late arrivals at training camp. For Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; GM Ken Holland, the primary worry was the status of coach Scotty Bowman.While it looks good Bowman will return, it was unclear when he&rsquo;ll be ready for duty.Before he tackles one more season, which would complete the coaching portion of his contract, there is the issue of his left knee replacement surgery with which to deal. It is essential Bowman undergo the surgery not only because of the deteriorating condition of the knee; he also needs to be able to participate in cardiovascular exercise to help alleviate various other health issues, including high blood pressure and cholesterol.&ldquo;The doctor said it has to be done,&rdquo; Bowman said.Bowman underwent preliminary testing Aug. 17 for the surgery, which could keep him out until mid-October.Despite that, the likelihood of Bowman returning for one more season grows. &ldquo;As the days go by the odds increase that Scotty is behind our bench this season as the head coach,&rdquo; Holland said.Holland has said Bowman will give him a decision by Sept. 12, the day before training camp opens. If Bow-man is forced to miss any time at the start of the season, associate coaches Dave Lewis and Barry Smith would share co-coaching roles until Bowman is ready to return.NOTEBOOK: Agent Mike Barnett, who helped Sergei Fedorov become the highest-paid player in the NHL last season, was dismissed by the center in favor of the Advantage International agency. Former NHLers Brian Lawton and Mike Liut are among Advantage&rsquo;s player representatives. The Detroit Free Press, citing a source, said Fedorov&rsquo;s switch was prompted by his good friend and tennis star Anna Kournikova, who also left International Management Group for Advantage. Neither Fedorov nor Barnett could not be reached for comment&hellip;GM Ken Holland has begun trade talks to move either goalie Kevin Hodson or Norm Maracle. If Holland doesn&rsquo;t trade one of them, he risks losing one of them for nothing in the waiver draft &#9632;

f0020-03

Late return for Bowman?

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04318/7004027-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="171" height="167"></div>Kevin Lowe didn&rsquo;t spend a day in the minors as a player and he wasn&rsquo;t about to make that trip as a coach.The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; first-ever draft pick and all-time leader in games played made it perfectly clear at the end of last season that should he decide to hang up the blades this summer in favor of a coaching post, it wouldn&rsquo;t be with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American League.That ruffled some feathers throughout the organization, but he was true to his word. Lowe, 39, retired after 19 seasons on the blueline with Edmonton and the New York Rangers and jumped straight to the Oilers&rsquo; bench as an assistant to head coach Ron Low.&ldquo;It involved a lot of soul-searching,&rdquo; Lowe said. &ldquo;I wanted to play 20 years like Wayne Gretzky, (Mark) Messier, Ray Bourque and Mike Gartner. But this is where 1 wanted to begin my coaching career. This is where my heart is and where I choose to be with my family. But it wasn&rsquo;t an easy decision.&ldquo;I played my whole career on instinct and heart. That&rsquo;s what I had to use to make my decision.&rdquo;It came after a bitterly disappointing season that saw an inner ear infection limit him to just seven games. Still, he was around the room and shared his considerable experience to anyone who wanted an opinion. It hadn&rsquo;t been determined exactly what role he&rsquo;d take on the staff, which includes Ted Green, another former defenseman.&ldquo;Kevin has been the consummate pro and his career has defined what being an Oiler is all about,&rdquo; Low said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he will continue to show his leadership skills as a coach.&rdquo;Oilers&rsquo; GM and former coach Glen Sather knew Lowe wanted to coach after the kid&rsquo;s second NHL season. &ldquo;He always wanted to know how things worked and why they worked,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a terrific coach.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The final statistical line I on Kevin Lowe&rsquo;s career reads: 1,254 regular season games, 84 goals, 431 points. 1,488 penalty minutes and six Stanley Cups&hellip;Bob McCammon was pushed out of his assistant coaching spot to make room for Lowe. McCammon was offered a scouting position, but hadn&rsquo;t formally accepted it as of late August&hellip;The Oilers signed right winger Pat Falloon. 25, to a contract Aug. 21. Falloon was released by Ottawa earlier this summer&hellip;Goalie Bob Essensa accepted a one-year deal with a club option on another season. He&rsquo;s the early favorite to start, ahead of restricted free agent Eric Fichaud. &ldquo;Bob should not be typecast as a backup goalie,&rdquo; Sather said. &#9632;

f0020-04

Lowe joins Low behind Oiler bench

<div class="byline">By Dave Joseph</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-06137/7004058-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="613" height="978"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Whitney</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05174/7004065-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="168" height="167"></div>While many NHL teams spent the summer months wheeling-and-dealing, the Florida Panthers stood pat and appeared to be heading into training camp with virtually the same cast of characters that scraped the bottom of the Eastern Conference last season.Instead of executing a major move, GM Bryan Murray focused on his own key players and tried to make sure there would be no distractions once camp started. He did that by avoiding arbitration and signing restricted free agents Ray Whitney and Viktor Kozlov.Whitney, who tied a team-record with 32 goals after being claimed off waivers in November, agreed to a two-year deal worth $2.6 million, a hefty increase over his $300,000 salary of a year ago. Kozlov, who Murray believes can be a franchise-type player, signed a one-year deal worth $1,045 million. Kozlov, who scored 17 goals with the Panthers and San Jose Sharks last season, made $950,000 in 199798.&ldquo;We really feel (Kozlov) has a chance to be an important player for our organization,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We saw at the end of last year that he was growing into an all-around leader.&rdquo;As for Whitney, who tied for 10th in the league in goals, Murray said it was important to avoid arbitration.&ldquo;I felt going to arbitration with him was taking a bit of a risk,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Confidence is a big part of his game and we didn&rsquo;t want to shoot him down in any way.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Panthers signed free agent center Viacheslav Butsayev, who spent last season with Fort Wayne of the International League. Butsayev, 28. led the Komets in scoring with 36 goals and 87 points in 76 games. Assistant GM Chuck Fletcher called Butsayev a &ldquo;big, strong kid who has a nasty streak to him.&rdquo; Drafted by Philadelphia in 1990 (the 109th overall pick), Butsayev has played in 124 NHL games with the Flyers, San Jose and Anaheim, scoring 17 goals and recording 129 penalty minutes&hellip; Left winger Mike Brown, the Panthers&rsquo; first choice (20th overall) in the 1997 draft, signed a contract. The 19-year-old had 23 goals and 305 penalty minutes with Kamloops of the Western League last season. &#9632;

f0020-06

Murray signs key forwards

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-07122/7004096-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="169" height="164"></div>The Los Angeles Kings will have a new building and more seats to fill in 1999-2000 and they don&rsquo;t have a superstar who might help them sell all those tickets.The Vancouver Canucks have one unhappy right winger by the name of Pavel Bure, an unquestioned star who has asked to be traded.Put one and one together and the logical answer to the Kings&rsquo; and Canucks&rsquo; problems would seem for the Kings to acquire the prolific but mercurial &lsquo;Russian Rocket&rsquo;, perhaps for a goaltender and one of the defensemen the Kings have steadily stockpiled over the past few years.But one unhappy winger and one team that lacks a big scorer doesn&rsquo;t necessarily equal two happy parties. At least, not in this case.Kings&rsquo; GM Dave Taylor acknowledged he would like to add some offensive punch and he has talked to the Canucks and other clubs. However, no deal appeared imminent. Taylor said his focus is on re-signing restricted free agent defenseman Rob Blake and on continuing discussions on a contract extension for coach Larry Robinson.In discussing Bure, Taylor was careful not to mention the Russian winger by name. &ldquo;Looking at our team, if we could add another player to our lineup in the scoring area, that would be an improvement,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not uncomfortable with the lineup we have.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Kings avoided arbitration with defenseman Sean O&rsquo;Donnell by agreeing on a three-year contract and with left winger Craig Johnson by signing him to a two-year deal. Goaltender Jamie Storr, defenseman Aki Berg and forwards Steve McKenna. Nathan LaFayette and Matt Johnson remained unsigned, but GM Dave Taylor said initial discussions on deals for them had taken place&hellip;The Kings and the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Los Angeles Lakers announced they will share a practice facility in El Segundo, near Los Angeles International Airport. It&rsquo;s scheduled to open in 1999. The Kings most often practice at Iceoplex in North Hills, a considerable distance from the Forum and from the area in which most players live. &#9632;

f0020-07

Bure deal makes sense, but trade not imminent

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01864/7004127-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="166" height="168"></div>Vincent Damphousse and Mark Recchi were the first of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; free agents to re-sign, but GM Rejean Houle still has plenty of work ahead of him before his team reports for training camp.Damphousse. the Canadiens&rsquo; captain. agreed to a one-year. $3.275-million (U.S.) contract for a second consecutive season, while right winger Recchi was awarded a one-year, $4.5million (U.S.) deal by an arbitrator.Recchi, the Canadiens&rsquo; leading scorer last season with 32 goals and 74 points in 82 games, becomes the highest-paid player in franchise history.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with the settlement,&rdquo; said Recchi, who has played in 543 consecutive games and is the league&rsquo;s current ironman. &ldquo;Obviously, I was asking for more and they wanted to pay me less. But we got what we expected.&rdquo;Recchi is believed to be seeking a four-year, $24-million contract. Both he and Damphousse are eligible to become unrestricted free agents next summer.Damphousse is coming off a disappointing season. The 30-year-old was held to 18 goals and 59 points in 76 games. &ldquo;My deal is good for the club and good for me and we&rsquo;ll see what happens next summer,&rdquo; Damphousse said.The Canadiens still had eight unsigned restricted free agents: Saku Koivu, Vladimir Malakhov, Martin Rucinsky, Brian Savage, Turner Stevenson, Scott Thornton, Patrice Brisebois and Jose Theodore.NOTEBOOK: GM Rejean Houle denies he has soured on Vladimir Malakhov after the defenseman scratched himself from the final game of the playoffs against Buffalo due to a sore neck. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t base decisions on one incident,&rdquo; Houle said. &ldquo;The bottom line is that he was our best defenseman."&hellip;The Canadiens reportedly made a bid for free agent goaltender Curtis Joseph, who signed with Toronto. The Canadiens also reportedly remain interested in signing free agent netminder Sean Burke, who remained unsigned. Houle won&rsquo;t comment on rumors, but did say, &ldquo;Right now I&rsquo;m not interested in making major changes. I&rsquo;m interested in getting players signed. I feel very confident that everything will be fine.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-01

Houle gets key pair signed; eight more waiting in line

<div class="byline">By Jeff Legwold</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03281/7004158-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="615" height="971"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Dunham</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02488/7004165-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="169" height="165"></div>The Nashville Predators think they&rsquo;ve selected the best-albeit unproven-goalie they could in the expansion draft when they grabbed Mike Dunham from the New Jersey Devils. They have now brought in the person they believe is the best to help Dunham make the transition to his new job in which he figures to face more than his fair share of shots.Mitch Korn, who had been with the Buffalo Sabres for the past seven years, was hired in large part to help Dunham grow from being a quality backup to a full-timer.Korn has been given some of the credit for the development of Sabres&rsquo; superstar Dominik Hasek as well as the transformation of Steve Shields from a marginal prospect to an NHL-caliber goaltender.&ldquo;Everybody he works with improves and that&rsquo;s the kind of thing we were looking for,&rdquo; said coach Barry Trotz. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t try to change what guys do, he works with them.&rdquo;Hasek won the Hart Trophy twice in Kom&rsquo;s time in Buffalo as well as a gold medal for the Czech Republic in the 1998 Winter Olympics. Shields was 16-9-12 over the past two years as Hasek&rsquo;s backup and was being eyed by the Predators as a probable expansion pick until the Sabres shipped him off to the San Jose Sharks just before the expansion draft.Korn will spend about 10 to 14 days a month with Predators&rsquo; goalies Dunham and Mikhail Shtalenkov and will also work with team&rsquo;s International League affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.NOTEBOOK: The Predators have signed a working agreement with Hampton Roads of the East Coast League as their secondary affiliate. Hampton Roads could, however, become the club&rsquo;s primary affiliate in 1999-2000 if the Admirals jump to the American League as has been speculated&hellip;Goalie Frederic Chabot, selected from Los Angeles in the expansion draft, was waived and subsequently reclaimed by the Kings&hellip;GM David Poile has had preliminary discussions with Pat Morris, agent for top pick, center David Legwand&hellip; Defenseman Jamie Heward, who played with the Calder Cup champion Philadelphia Phantoms last season, signed a contract. His NHL experience consists of 25 games with Toronto. &#9632;

f0021-03

’Tenders get talented tutor

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04204/7004196-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="169" height="165"></div>Even as he reluctantly hung up his skates to end a career as one of hockey&rsquo;s true pioneers, Viacheslav Fetisov believed he could still play defense capably enough to help the Detroit Red Wings pursue a third straight Stanley Cup.At 40, he was certain he still had enough left to play at least one more season without having to accept Detroit&rsquo;s offer of a 50 per cent pay cut from $1 million.&ldquo;I can still play five more years,&rdquo; Fetisov said forcefully, &ldquo;but I have to look forward and the last year was so emotional for me, I feel it is time.&rdquo;And so on July 28 he accepted a three-year deal with the New Jersey Devils to serve as new coach Robbie Ftorek&rsquo;s assistant.By returning to the Devils, the NHL team he first joined back in 1989 to open the door for today&rsquo;s Russian-born players, Fetisov looks to help Ftorek transform a team fixated solely on defense into a creative unit that more closely resembles the Red Wings. It is another trail to blaze for the man many feel will eventually become the first Russian-born and trained NHL head coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure our defensemen will be happy,&rdquo; Ftorek said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve had to listen to me, a forward, and Chris Nilan, a forward, the last few years. Now, instead of me saying I&rsquo;ll have to look at the videotape, they can get output from Slava right away.&rdquo;GM Lou Lamoriello, whose efforts in 1989 aided Fetisov in getting his release from the Russian hockey federation, compared Fetisov with former Devils&rsquo; assistant coach Larry Robinson.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the same type of individual,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;Slava was at the top of our list.&rdquo;Fetisov played 13 seasons with the Central Red Army and served as that team&rsquo;s longtime captain before joining the Devils and subsequently Detroit. He finished his NHL playing career with 36 goals and 228 points in 546 regular season games.NOTEBOOK: Assistant coach Viacheslav Fetisov said his deal with the Devils does not include playing. However, he seemed intrigued by the idea he could return to the ice if the Devils run into injury problems. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t thought about it, but 1 wouldn&rsquo;t say no,&rdquo; he said&hellip;GM Lou Lamoriello was still looking for a veteran backup goalie for Martin Brodeur. Mike Dunham, who had held that job, was selected by Nashville in the expansion draft&hellip;There is interest to see how the Devils, who do not promote individual players, will handle the publicity surrounding 1998 pick Scott Gomez as the first Hispanic player to be chosen in the first round of the draft. Gomez is of Mexican and Colombian ancestry. &#9632;

f0021-04

Fetisov back to NHL roots as assistant

<div class="byline">By Jim Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-06123/7004227-1-eng-US/f0021-062.jpg" title="f0021-06" width="610" height="976"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ziggy Palffy</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-05152/7004234-1-eng-US/f0021-052.jpg" title="f0021-05" width="166" height="167"></div>New York Islanders&rsquo; GM Mike Milbury said he was happy he did not have the day-to-day headache of negotiating new contracts for his top three players-restricted free agents Ziggy Palffy, Trevor Linden and Kenny Jonsson.But since Milbury also is their coach, he was starting to worry they would not be re-signed by Sept. 12, when training camp opens in Lake Placid, N.Y.&ldquo;At some point before it&rsquo;s over,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;ll be asked for involvement. Obviously, we&rsquo;d like to have all three signed.&rdquo;Milbury was stripped of contract negotiating responsibility May 18 in a front office shuffle. Club president David Seldin is handling the chore. Seldin did not return a telephone call to discuss the negotiations.Palffy, 26, is the Isles&rsquo; top gate attraction. In the past three seasons, he has scored 43, 48 and 45 goals while ringing up 87, 90 and 87 points. The Islanders had an 81-132-33 record in that span, during which none of Palffy&rsquo;s current teammates totaled more than 62 goals with the club.Since the offense depends on Palffy, he has considerable leverage. He and his agent, Paul Kraus, were seeking a four-year contract similar to the one center Mats Sundin signed (averaging $6.8 million annually) with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Seidin&rsquo;s best offer as of Aug. 20 was said to average $4.3 million a year.Palffy made $1,825 million last season.NOTEBOOK: The Isles signed defenseman Eric Brewer, 19, their first round 1997 draft pick, to a three-year, $2.775-million contract with bonus clauses under which an NHL source said he could earn another $8 million. GM-coach Mike Milbury said Brewer will compete for a job with the Isles this season. Brewer missed two months when his right shoulder popped out in a Jan. 11 game, but said he felt fine in Canada&rsquo;s summer camp for the World Junior Championship&hellip;As insurance against a no-show by defenseman Kenny Jonsson, the club re-signed defenseman John Namestnikov to a two-year contract and signed free agent defensemen Barry Richter. Dean Malkoc. Mike Gaul and David Harlock. &#9632;

f0021-06

No signings a bad sign

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpinlello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-07105/7004265-1-eng-US/f0021-072.jpg" title="f0021-07" width="168" height="165"></div>The New York Rangers didn&rsquo;t have nearly enough offense or speed last season and now that Pat LaFontaine has retired they have even less.LaFontaine&rsquo;s absence also means the Rangers have an entire second line to assemble.The questions, then, are whether the Rangers will add forwards Pavel Bure or Petr Nedved, or if they will keep left winger Adam Graves.Coach John Muckier has said he plans to keep his No. 1 line of Niklas Sundstrom, Wayne Gretzky and Alexei Kovalev together.Graves may not be a Ranger when the season begins, or shortly thereafter. The left winger was offered to the San Jose Sharks at the entry draft and remains one of the few remaining marketable Rangers.Bure, 27, who has demanded a trade from the Vancouver Canucks, has been telling friends he wants to play in New York. But the price tag for the superstar right winger figures to be teep, both in terms of what the Canucks want in return and what Bure will add to the payroll, likely between $8.5 and $11 million. (See pg. 3 for more on Bure.)The Rangers, meanwhile, have expressed interest in re-acquiring Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; restricted free agent Nedved. who sat out all of 1997-98 without a contract. The 26-year-old center reportedly wants about $4 million this season.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Johan Lindbom has left the Rangers&rsquo; organization to play in his native Sweden. Lindbom&rsquo;s decision was based on the Rangers&rsquo; refusal to offer him a one-way contract&hellip;The Rangers will be responsible for about 20 per cent of the remaining $4.8 million left on center Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s contract, with insurance covering the rest&hellip;The subtractions of forwards LaFontaine, Mike Keane. Brian Skrudland and Shane Churla and defensemen Bruce Driver and Doug Lidster since last March has left the Rangers&rsquo; payroll at about $38 million. Early last season it was tops in the NHL at $44.5 million. That leaves room for the Rangers to re-sign defenseman Brian Leetch to a long-term extension. &#9632;

f0021-07

Bure, Nedved possibilities to help boost weak attack

<div class="byline">By Bruce Garrloch</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01883/7004296-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="168" height="170"></div>The Ottawa Senators are confident they&rsquo;ll get their five remaining restricted free agents under contract. They&rsquo;re just not sure when.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really see any major problems in signing these players,&rdquo; said GM Rick Dudley. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to have a bit of a problem with one or two players and they may not be at camp. This is something we&rsquo;re working at.&rdquo;While there are no big names among the unsigned Senators-forwards Andreas Dackell. Vaclav Prospal, and Chris Murray; defenseman Stan Neckar; and goaltender Frederic Cassivi-each is important to the organization. But with few Group II free agents having signed deals around the league, standards for their value had not been set.&ldquo;Until some Group II free agents start signing, then it&rsquo;s going to be a wait-and-see situation,&rdquo; said agent Rich Winter, who represents Prospal and Neckar. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say what everybody is worth.&rdquo;Prospal and Neckar, meanwhile, may be the most difficult signings for Ottawa. Prospal&rsquo;s value could be hard to determine because he was injured for much of last season. Historically, Neckar&rsquo;s negotiations have never been easy.After missing most of the 1996-97 season with a knee injury, Neckar was inconsistent last year. He was one of the club&rsquo;s best defensemen at mid-season, but was hampered by a knee problem in the playoffs.NOTEBOOK: Talks on a new contract I for coach Jacques Martin dragged through the summer. The lowest-paid coach in the NHL, who is scheduled to make $350,000 (Cdn.) in the final year of his contract this season, is seeking a three-year deal close to the $2.1 million (U.S.) Joel Quenneville received from St. Louis. Martin and Toronto-based agent Rob Campbell recently met with GM Rick Dudley and team president Roy Mlakar. but no progress was made. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still optimistic we can get a deal done.&rdquo; Campbell said&hellip;A new deal for Martin was holding up the hiring of an assistant coach. The job has been offered to former Toronto coach Mike Murphy, but he&rsquo;s unwilling to sign a two-year contract until Martin&rsquo;s situation is settled. &#9632;

f0023-01

Dudley plays wait-and-see with five unsigned Senators

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03395/7004327-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="616" height="975"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02570/7004334-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="169" height="166"></div>The last person who want ed to see Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s salary case go to arbitration was Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour.The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; ironman felt uneasy about going outside to let someone decide his worth.So, minutes before a scheduled hearing with arbitrator Rolf Valtin Aug. 14. Brind&rsquo;Amour leaned over to agent Ron Perrick and told him to accept a three-year, $11.25-million contract offer from GM Bob Clarke.Judging by the one-year, $4.65-million award made to Pierre Turgeon of the St. Louis Blues a few days earlier, Brind&rsquo;Amour probably could have won more than the $3.5 million, $3.5 million and $4.25 million totals he will receive for the next three years.&ldquo;Our people wanted to go to arbitration,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;But I always wanted to settle.&rdquo;The 28-year-old center/left winger expressed relief that the process was over. As late as the night before, it appeared that the difference between the two sides was too great.But the Flyers apparently moved their number up a bit, especially after Clarke saw the $4.5-tnillion award to Mark Recchi of the Montreal Canadiens, which he called &ldquo;very fair.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think either side was afraid of arbitration, but I don&rsquo;t think either side was looking forward to it.&rdquo;Brind&rsquo;Amour, who scored 36 goals and ran his team-record consecutive games streak to 402, moves into a tie with goalie John Vanbiesbrouck for third-highest paid player on the team.NOTEBOOK: The Flyers&rsquo; home arena will have a new name this season. Exit the CoreStates Center, enter the First Union Center. First Union Bank recently took over CoreStates. Also changing names will be the American Hockey League Philadelphia Phantoms&rsquo; arena from the CoreStates Spectrum to First Union Spectrum&hellip; Left winger Daniel Lacroix remained the only unsigned Flyer for next season. Talks continued and agent Steve Bartlett believed a deal would be reached before the season starts. A dozen Flyers are potential free agents after the upcoming season&hellip;Right winger Trent Klatt was awarded $900,000 by an arbitrator for the 1998-99 season. Klatt was asking for $1.2 million. The Flyers were offering about $800,000. &#9632;

f0023-03

Brind’ Amour avoids duel

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04279/7004365-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="169" height="166"></div>After suffering through nearly 500 man-games lost to injury last season, the Phoenix Coyotes were hoping for a calm and restful summer.They almost made it.Promising young defenseman Jason Doig didn&rsquo;t. The third-year pro from Montreal suffered a tom pectoral muscle while lifting weights and will miss training camp, pre-season and part of the regular season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really unfortunate because I was in great shape,&rdquo; Doig, 21, said after having the injury surgically repaired by team physician Matt Maddox. &ldquo;I guess I just pushed myself too hard. It could be worse. It&rsquo;s probably better that it happened now than during he season.&rdquo;The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Doig was expected to stage a training camp battle with fellow defensemen Deron Quint. Sean Gagnon and recently-acquired Bryan Helmer for the club&rsquo;s sixth blueline spot alongside veteran Gerald Diduck.Now, all bets are off. And Doig, who recently signed a one-year contract, is also out of options, meaning if he is sent back to the minors after an expected rehabilitation assignment, he is subject to being exposed to waivers.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t make me very happy, 1&rsquo;11 tell you that,&rdquo; said Coyotes&rsquo; GM Bobby Smith. &ldquo;Training camp, preseason games and this season are very important for Jason Doig. This does not come at a very good time for him.&rdquo;Likewise, Smith can&rsquo;t be very happy with Los Angeles-area fitness guru T.R. Goodman, who was supervising Doig&rsquo;s workouts and those of several other Phoenix players during a summer conditioning program at Gold&rsquo;s Gym.A few weeks before Doig&rsquo;s injury, Goodman popped off in a newspaper article, harshly criticizing the Coyotes&rsquo; overall training methods. He has since tried to back off those charges, but Smith privately was still steaming.NOTEBOOK: The Coyotes avoided arbitration with all three players who were scheduled for hearings, signing right winger Dallas Drake, center Bob Corkum and left winger Louis DeBrusk. Drake agreed to a two-year deal worth $2.1 million. Corkum and DeBrusk settled for one-year contracts worth $675,000 and $440,000, respectively&hellip; After a month of no discussion, GM Bobby Smith re-opened negotiations with star left winger Keith Tkachuk regarding a contract extension. Smith unloaded on Tkachuk while discussing the subject with The Arizona Republic. He said he isn&rsquo;t afraid to let the captain sit out the season if he doesn&rsquo;t honor (he final two years of his existing contract. &#9632;

f0023-04

Doig injury big concern for GM Smith

<div class="byline">By Joe Starkey</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-06181/7004396-1-eng-US/f0023-062.jpg" title="f0023-06" width="609" height="980"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stu Barnes</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05221/7004403-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="168" height="169"></div>Roger Marino owns 50 per cent of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he&rsquo;s going about business as if the franchise is all his.Soon, it probably will be.Marino was believed to be on the verge of buying out partner Howard Baldwins. In the meantime, Marino was running the team on his own. The relationship has soured to the point where two barely speak.On July 31, Marino hired J. Garvin Warden as the Penguins&rsquo; interim CEO. Baldwin was not consulted. Warden, a corporate turnaround specialist, was charged with devising a business plan for the debt-plagued Penguins, whom Marino says have lost nearly $40 million the past two seasons.Then on Aug. 10, Marino made an impromptu visit to Kansas City, Mo., where he was given a guided tour of Kemper Arena and wooed by local leaders there. Kansas City was rejected in its bid for one of the NHL&rsquo;s four expansion teams, but is hoping to a lure a team.Baldwin found out about the visit second-hand. &ldquo;This is such an absurd thing,&rdquo; he said.Marino, who is at odds with Pittsburgh-area political leaders on financial support for the Penguins, said he was pursuing a private business opportunity in Branson, Mo., when Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver called to invite him for a visit.&ldquo;I got the royal carpet treatment.&rdquo; said Marino, a Boston businessman. &ldquo;My intentions are to stay in Pittsburgh, but I&rsquo;m looking into all possible alternatives.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Stu Barnes signed a one-year contract July 20 that will give him a base salary of $ 1.5 million with scoring-related bonuses that could push the deal to more than $2 million. Barnes scored a career-high 30 goals&hellip;.Right winger Rob Brown signed a two-year contract Aug. 11 that will pay him more than $1 million total. The Penguins wanted to sign Brown for one year, but he lobbied for two&hellip;Tony Kondel. agent for center Petr Nedved, said his client will not return to Pittsburgh &ldquo;under any circumstances&rdquo; and demands a trade. GM Craig Patrick said he still hopes to sign Nedved, but Nedved&rsquo;s contract demands appear way out of the Penguins&rsquo; price range. Nedved, a restricted free agent, sat out last season in a contract dispute. &#9632;

f0023-06

Marino looks to take over

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecklng</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-07162/7004434-1-eng-US/f0023-072.jpg" title="f0023-07" width="169" height="166"></div>With Brett Hull barely out the door, the pressure already had begun to mount for Jim Campbell, Hull&rsquo;s heir as the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; top sniper on right wing.At a charity golf outing a couple of weeks after Hull&rsquo;s departure, someone suggested that Campbell should ask for Hull&rsquo;s old No. 16.Someone else cracked that the Blues probably would designate it for Campbell because they were so happy to get rid of Hull.The affable Campbell laughed off both suggestions, just as he shrugs off the suggestion that pressure is mounting on his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready for the challenge,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to it. I wished the season started right now.&rdquo;Campbell got a head start on training camp by working out with Boston University fitness coach Mike Boyle.&ldquo;I worked even harder than 1 did last summer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hopefully, it&rsquo;ll pay off. If I score one more goal than last year, I know I&rsquo;ve improved.&rdquo;With Hull drawing the checking attention a year ago, Campbell tied for third on the team with 22 goals and was eighth in points with 41-in 76 games. Playing in eight fewer games two years ago as a rookie, Campbell had 23 goals and 43 points.However, he led the Blues in playoff scoring last year with seven goals and 10 points, a vast improvement over his rookie year when he scored only one goal in four games.NOTEBOOK: Jim Woodcock, the Blues&rsquo; director of marketing, said Brett Hull&rsquo;s No. 16 will not be worn until the Blues can officially retire the number after Hull&rsquo;s playing days are over. &ldquo;Brett&rsquo;s uniform number will never be worn again,&rdquo; Woodcock said. &ldquo;To have someone wear No. 16 again is unthinkable. No way. no how will No. 16 ever be stitched on a uniform again, unless we draft (Brett&rsquo;s son) Jude Hull in 15 years."&hellip;GM Larry Pleau&rsquo;s son Steve joined the staff of the Blues&rsquo; American League affiliate in Worcester as an assistant coach&hellip; Robb Rogers. 39, has been hired as the Blues&rsquo; new fitness coach. His background is in college football, where he worked at Missouri, Southern California and Baylor. &#9632;

f0023-07

Campbell looking forwardto filling void left by Hull

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03425/7004496-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="612" height="969"><figcaption class="caption-body">Benoit Hogue</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02653/7004503-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="168" height="166"></div>The question free agent forward Benoit Hogue heard most frequently after signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning was a natural one.Why leave the successful Dallas Stars for a last-place club?The reasons are plentiful, said Hogue, who on July 29 signed a one-year contract with a base salary of $1.2-million plus incentive clauses that could bring the value of the deal to $2 million.Increased ice time was one lure the Lightning used to land Hogue. Another was the presence of coach Jacques Demers. And there was the notion, at least in Hogue&rsquo;s mind, the Lightning is headed in the right direction.&ldquo;Going there,&rdquo; said Hogue, who spumed offers from four teams to sign with the Lightning, &ldquo;I knew I would have the ice time I&rsquo;ve had with teams in the past, plus the opportunity to work under Jacques.."Tampa is going to give me the chance to be the player I was three years ago. With the ice I get in Tampa, I think I could get back to close to 30 goals and a 70-point season.&rdquo;. Hogue, 31, had three straight 30-or-more-goal seasons with the New York Islanders in the early 1990s.Demers hopes to get similar production out of Hogue by playing him at center, possibly between second-linersStephane Richer and Sandy McCarthy. The Lightning&rsquo;s likely top line has captain Mikael Renberg alongside two other newcomers, center Craig Janney and left winger Wendel Clark.NOTEBOOK: Center John Cullen returned from a check-up visit to Boston&rsquo;s Dana Farber Cancer Institute in early August with more good news: he remained in remission from non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma&hellip;The Lightning re-signed restricted free agent goalie Corey Schwab to a one-year deal worth $500,000 Aug. 12 and said Schwab will serve as protection against the health woes of Daren Puppa, who will compete with Bill Ranford for the No. 1 goaltending job&hellip;The Lightning signed free agent center Jesse Belanger, who spent last season with Las Vegas of the International League, to a one-year, two-way contract July 30&hellip;The Lightning has invited former NHL center Adam Creighton to training camp. &#9632;

f0024-03

Hogue aims for 30 goals

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04271/7004534-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="168" height="166"></div>The Toronto Maple Leafs have barely had time to fully digest their purchase of the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Toronto Raptors and the Air Canada Centre, but there&rsquo;s talk the growing empire may be hungry for more.There was speculation in early August Major League Baseball&rsquo;s Toronto Blue Jays were not only up for sale, but that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment might be an interested suitor. Such a purchase would likely also include the Canadian Football League&rsquo;s Toronto Argonauts since they, like the Jays, are currently owned by Belgium-based Interbrew, an international beer maker.Both Leaf chairman Steve Stavro and director Larry Tanenbaum denied any current interest in the baseball or football teams. They also denied interest in purchasing the Raptors last year.The concept is that with the Leafs, Raptors, Blue Jays and Argonauts, the organization would be able to put together a cable TV conglomerate similar to that of the MSG network in New York, or that which Dallas Stars&rsquo; and Texas Rangers&rsquo; owner Tom Hicks has planned for his sports properties.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in that business, the sports entertainment business, so obviously it would make sense,&rdquo; said Tanenbaum of the Blue Jay rumors. &ldquo;(But) actually our top priority is getting the Air Canada Centre-up and running. Nothing to do with the Blue Jays. Certainly not at this time.&rdquo;In August, the Leafs began assigning new seats in the Air Canada Centre to their season ticket holders. The reviews were mixed as there were complaints from fans that their new seats were far removed from their old vantage points, while others who toured the facility suggested it appears to be cozier and more fan friendly that some of the larger new rinks.The Leafs will play their last game at the Gardens Feb. 13 against the Chicago Blackhawks and their first game at the Air Canada Centre a week later against the Montreal Canadiens.NOTEBOOK: Terry Simpson was fired as assistant coach Aug. 4 and replaced by Rick Ley&hellip;The Leafs faced a hearing at NHL offices in New York Aug. 21 for tampering charges. Anaheim claimed Toronto talked to European scout Thommie Bergman before his Ducks&rsquo; contract expired June 30. The Leafs say they hired Bergman to be their European scout in early July. Bergman is a former World Hockey Association teammate of Toronto assistant GM Anders Hedberg&hellip;Former Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; assistant Alpo Suhonen is expected to join the Leafs&rsquo; staff, while fitness expert Phil Walker has been added to the training staff&hellip;The Leafs re-signed center Darby Hendrickson to a two-year contract. &#9632;

f0024-04

Leafs might get into the old ball game

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-06152/7004565-1-eng-US/f0024-062.jpg" title="f0024-06" width="608" height="976"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Burke</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05187/7004572-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="167" height="167"></div>In his first two months as Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; GM, Brian Burke accomplished little in the way of player acquisitions, but went a long way towards setting up his regime&rsquo;s front office.Burke&rsquo;s key hiring was 32-year-old Dave Nonis, a one-time Canuck employee who spent the past four seasons as the NHL&rsquo;s manager of hockey operations working under Burke.Nonis, a native of Burnaby, B.C., will again be Burke&rsquo;s right-hand man in Vancouver, only with the more lofty title of senior vice-president, hockey operations. He will negotiate all contracts and oversee the Canucks&rsquo; American League farm team, the Syracuse Crunch.&ldquo;(Nonis) is a big-time hire for us,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;Five teams wanted him; I think we&rsquo;re getting a valuable guy.&rdquo;Nonis, a former captain at the University of Maine, said he did not accept the Vancouver job simply because he is comfortable working with Burke. &ldquo;There were other jobs that did appeal to me, but when I put them together with what I&rsquo;d be doing here, who I&rsquo;d be working for and coming back into my home town, there really wasn&rsquo;t any question,&rdquo; said Nonis, who is under contract for three years.In other moves: Steve Tambellini was moved from senior vice-president to vice-president, player personnel; Mike Penny was moved from assistant GM to amateur scouting; Shawn Dineen was hired as an eastern-based pro scout; and pro scout Murray Oliver and amateur scout Noel Price were let go.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman-tumed-winger Steve Staios was awarded a one-way $460,000 (U.S.) contract through arbitration. Staios made $357,500 (U.S.) in &rsquo; 1997-98, but was on a two-way contract&hellip;Left winger Markus Naslund and defenseman Adrian Aucoin, both Group II free agents, accepted their qualifying offers and the mandatory 10 per cent raises that came along with them. Naslund will earn $798,600 (U.S.) in 1998-99 while Aucoin will live on $621,500 (U.S.)&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; 1998 first round pick, defenseman, suffered a mild knee sprain at Canada s August World Junior Championship camp, but was expected to be ready for Vancouver&rsquo;s main camp that opens Sept. 12. &#9632;

f0024-06

Nonis back at GM’s side

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-07128/7004603-1-eng-US/f0024-072.jpg" title="f0024-07" width="166" height="165"></div>The most intriguing concert surrounding the Washington Capitals during the offseason was who they would get to back up Olie Kolzig.After looking around for a new player, the Caps finally opted for a former one, Rick Tabaracci, whom they acquired from the Calgary Flames for future considerations. Tabaracci played 46 games for the Caps in the early 1990s, posting a 17-19-4 record and 2.80 goals-against average.&ldquo;We made an attempt to acquire a backup through the free agent market so we didn&rsquo;t have to give anything up,&rdquo; said GM George McPhee. &ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t seem to make any headway with those players so we started looking at some clubs that had extra goaltenders.&rdquo;Tabaracci, 29, is an 11-year NHL veteran who has also had stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Winnipeg Jets and Tampa Bay Lightning. He didn&rsquo;t have a lot of good luck in his first-go-around with the Caps. He had to battle Don Beaupre for playing time whenBeaupre was on a roll. He opened the lockout season with a severe groin problem which limited his ice time, time that all but vanished when Jim Carey arrived on the scene.And he has to fight for time again when camp starts. Kolzig, 28, is coming off a season which ended with his name on more than a few Conn Smythe ballots. Then again, Kolzig is a guy who can tell Tabaracci anything is possible in this league.NOTEBOOK: Former NHLer Mark Kumpel will take over for Bryan Trottier as coach of the Caps&rsquo; top farm team in Portland of the American League&hellip;Right winger Brian Bellows turned down what he said was more money elsewhere to stay with the Capitals for another season&hellip;Left winger Joe Juneau signed a qualifying offer&hellip;Center Mike Eagles, a 14-year veteran, was re-signed&hellip;The team picked up the option on left winger Chris Simon, who missed 54 games last season after undergoing shoulder surgery&hellip;Frank Costello, the Capitals&rsquo; longtime strength and conditioning coach, was named 1998 winner of the Stan Jones Award, presented annually to the top man in his profession by the International Sports Science Association. &#9632;

f0024-07

Tabaracci back with Caps as backup to No. 1 Kolzig

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>When Mark Kumpel decided to give coaching a try, he told himself there would be a five-year trial period.If things went great the first year or two, he still wouldn&rsquo;t consider himself a career coach. If life behind the bench was horrible after one year, he wasn&rsquo;t going to go sell insurance.&ldquo;At the end of five years, I told myself I&rsquo;d rethink what I was doing,&rdquo; Kumpel said. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m a good coach, I&rsquo;ll keep doing it. If not, I&rsquo;d move on to something else.&rdquo;Kumpel cut his plan short by one year. That&rsquo;s because it took him only four years to realize he enjoys coaching. In early August, he earned a promotion to the American League.After four years in the East Coast League, the 37-year-old Kumpel was hired to coach the Portland Pirates by their parent team, the i Washington Capitals.Kumpel replaces Bryan Trottier, who left the Pirates after one season to become an assistant under Bob Hartley with the Colorado Avalanche. The only other coach in Portland&rsquo;s five-year history was Barry Trotz. now coach of the expansion Nashville Predators.&ldquo;Those are tough shoes to fill, just looking at where the coaches before me have gone,&rdquo; Kumpel said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s good. I love the pressure. You have to get the job done.&rdquo;Kumpel spent the past two seasons with the ECHL&rsquo;s Dayton Bombers. The club was 36-268 last season, finishing third in the Northwest Division. He coached the Nashville Knights in 1994-95 and 1995-96.&ldquo;After my first three years in the Coast, I didn&rsquo;t pursue an opportunity at the next level because I didn&rsquo;t think I was ready,&rdquo; said the Wakefield, Mass., native.He made inquiries for AHL openings after last season and had his first interview with Capitals&rsquo; GM George McPhee at the NHL draft. He has no ties to McPhee.&ldquo;The only tie I might have had with George is that he might have slashed me when I skated by him once,&rdquo; Kumpel said.Kumpel played 10 pro seasons, including 288 NHL games over six seasons with two teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01863/7004634-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="456" height="457"></div>STOCKING UP: The Hartford Wolf Pack lost two top-flight AHL goalies, but managed to pick up two more.With Dan Cloutier expected to earn a job with the New York Rangers and Robb Stauber having signed with the International League&rsquo;s Manitoba Moose, the Wolf Pack restocked by signing J.F. Labbe and Kay Whitmore.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen teams that could score a ton of goals, but they didn&rsquo;t win because they couldn&rsquo;t stop the puck,&rdquo; said Tom Mitchell, Hartford&rsquo;s executive director of operations.TURNING A NEW LEAF: With a new 6,000-seat Civic Centre in the works, the Toronto Maple Leafs extended their working agreement with the city of St. John&rsquo;s, Nfld., through 2004-05.The Leafs have been the parent team in St. John&rsquo;s since the franchise shifted from Newmarket, Ont., in 1991-92. But because of, the small ice surface and small capacity (3,700) of ancient Memorial Stadium, the Maple Leafs said they wouldn&rsquo;t stay unless a new building was constructed.The new Civic Centre will be managed by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which also manages Maple Leaf Gardens, the new Air Canada Centre and SkyDome.NEW HEAD PIRATE: The Portland Pirates are being sold to New York-based Mentmore Holdings Corp., for more than $3 million.The Pirates were to be sold to W. John Hathaway, a Kennebunkport, Me., businessman. But his financing fell through and the new buyer stepped forward.Mentmore has holdings in steel mills, textile companies and real estate. A division of the company, Family Ice Enterprises, is in the rink-building business. Mentmore hopes to spearhead the construction of a new arena in Portland. The Pirates&rsquo; current home, the Civic Center, is 21 years old and has virtually no amenities.AHL TIDBIT: Frank Miceli, chief operating officer for the Philadelphia Phantoms, won the James C. Hendy Award as the league&rsquo;s top executive. The Phantoms set AHL single-season records for total attendance (472,392) and average attendance (11,809). &#9632;

f0025-01

New Portland boss Kumpel ready to take on challenge

<div class="byline">By Kevin lole</div>Another International League franchise ceased operations when a last ditch effort to sell the Quebec Rafales failed due to a lack of financing. The team announced Aug. 7 it is suspending operations.Earlier this summer, the San Antonio Dragons announced they were leaving the IHL to join the Central League and become the Iguanas. The Rafales become the third IHL franchise on suspension, joining the San Francisco Spiders and the Phoenix Roadrunners.The league desperately wanted to keep a franchise in Quebec City and gave the Rafales numerous opportunities to find suitable local buyers. A group headed by local businessman Michel Page stepped forward July 16 and announced it had signed a letter of intent to purchase the franchise.Page announced the team would change its nickname to the Bulldogs and would hire Lucien DeBlois as its director of hockey operations and Mario Marois as coach.Page, however, was unable to come up with the financing and the league, desperate to get its schedule out, announced Aug. 10 the Rafales would not operate for 1998-99.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re disappointed there won&rsquo;t be any pro hockey in Quebec City this season,&rdquo; said IHL president and chief executive officer Doug Moss. &ldquo;We took exhaustive measures up to the 11th hour, which included concessions by the Rafales&rsquo; ownership. In the end, the financing was just not there.&rdquo;MOSS ON TOP: As expected, the league put Doug Moss in charge of its day to day affairs, replacing Bob Ufer, who had resigned as commissioner June 26.Moss was named president and chief executive officer of the league and was given the authority Ufer had as commissioner. He was previously the league&rsquo;s chief operating officer after joining the league in October.FRANKE WINS AWARD: David Franke of the Fort Wayne Komets was voted GM of the year for his efforts in building the team that won last year&rsquo;s Central Division title.Fort Wayne improved by 33 points and compiled 100 points, despite having the league&rsquo;s lowest payroll.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02551/7004665-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="738" height="300"></div>OTHER GM NEWS: Ex-Fort Wayne coach John Torchetti, who was voted as the league&rsquo;s top coach, was hired as GM of the Detroit Vipers, replacing Rick Dudley, who left to become GM of the NHL&rsquo;s Ottawa Senators.Grant Sonier, Torchetti&rsquo;s assistant last year, will replace him as coach in Fort Wayne.The Kansas City Blades gave GM Doug Soetaert a two-year contract extension and the Houston Aeros gave Dave Tippett the title of GM. Tippett was the Aeros&rsquo; coach and director of hockey operations last year and performed the functions of the GM. He will remain as coach.PLENTY OF SIGNINGS: Signings were abundant throughout the league as a number of top players changed teams.The Utah Grizzlies signed center Fred Knipscheer and center Brad Lauer; the r Orlando Solar Bears picked &rsquo; up defensemen Ken Sabourin. who had been with the Milwaukee Admirals, and Fredrik Oduya; Detroit signed Fedor Fedorov, younger brother of Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; star Sergei Fedorov; the Las Vegas Thunder inked defenseman Brad Miller and center Stefan Ustorf; Kansas City re-signed left winger Dave Chyzowski, acquired center Eric Perrin from Quebec and signed winger Ryan Mulhern; Houston re-signed center Brian Wiseman and left winger Cam Stewart; and Manitoba signed goaltender Robb Stauber and defenseman Justin Kurtz.I-OPENERS: Ex-Michigan K-Wings&rsquo; coach Claude Noel was hired as an assistant coach to Al Sims in Milwaukee&hellip;Las Vegas and the Long Beach Ice Dogs announced plans to play two exhibition games in Omaha, Neb., which is significant because the Thunder is contemplating a move to Omaha for 1999-2000 if it cannot come to terms on a new lease at the Thomas & Mack Center&hellip;The Chicago Wolves hired ex-National Basketball Association executive Jeff Morander as their chief operating officer&hellip; Orlando goalie Allan Bester, who played 219 NHL games with three teams, announced his retirement. He had played with the Solar Bears since their inception in 1995. &#9632;

f0025-02

Quebec Rafales take hiatus after financing falls through

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>The East Coast League&rsquo;s reputation of producing coaches for the next level was enhanced this summer.Three coaches took jobs-two in the American League, one in the International League.Peter Laviolette, who led the Wheeling Nailers to a 37-24-9 record during one season, left in mid-July to become coach of the Providence Bruins in the AHL. He served as player-assistant coach with Providence in 1996-97 season.Mark Kumpel, who directed the Dayton Bombers for two seasons, resigned Aug. 5 to become head man of the AHL&rsquo;s Portland Pirates. The Bombers made the playoffs both years under Kumpel, compiling a 72-52-16 record.Bruce Cassidy, who guided the Jacksonville Lizard Kings to a 50-54-10 record in 1-1/2 seasons, was named coach of the IHL&rsquo;s Indianapolis Ice July 10. He spent three seasons with the Ice and was with the parent Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; organization for eight years.Cassidy was replaced by Brian Curran, 34, who was a player-assistant for the Monroe Moccasins in the Western Pro League last year. He played 381 NHL games over 10 seasons.Chris Jensen, 34, who was Wheeling&rsquo;s player-assistant last season, succeeded Laviolette.Replacements for Kumpel and Shaw &ldquo;hadn&rsquo;t been named as of mid-August.Meanwhile, the Huntington Blizzard announced Ray Edwards would be the club&rsquo;s coach and director of operations. He replacedCharlie Huddy, who resigned to accept an assistant&rsquo;s job with the New York Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03357/7004696-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="408" height="426"></div>Edwards was a player-assistant for the Blizzard for the four seasons and, at 28, is the youngest coach in the ECHL.BOMBS AWAY: The Dayton Bombers have been sold to a group headed by John Gagnon, who is also majority owner of the ECHL&rsquo;s Mississippi Sea Wolves.Gagnon said the cost of the team was about $2.5 million, which included about $1 million left on the cost of having ice at the Nutter Center, where the Bombers have played home games for the past two seasons.Previous Dayton co-owner Bud Gingher said he club never lost money at 5,500-seat Hara Arena, where the club played its first five seasons, but lost about $300,000 in each of the past two seasons at the 10,000-seat Nutter Center.Before he struck a deal with Gagnon, Gingher told the Dayton Daily News he was considering folding the team.WORKING AGREEMENTS: The Boston Bruins moved their secondary affiliation from the Charlotte Checkers to the expansion Greenville GrtTowl. One reason is coach John Marks went from Charlotte to Greenville. Meanwhile, Huntington struck a working agreement with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.COAST LINES: Wheeling named Fred Traynor GM Aug. 13. Traynor spent six seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, most recently serving as director of group sales and corporate season ticket sales. He replaced Marty Nash, who resigned to pursue business opportunities. &#9632;

f0025-03

Trio of ECHL coaches advance to greener pastures

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Geoff Ward was in the right place at the right time.Stepping off the plane Aug. 17 fresh from a second straight gold medal with the Canadian under-18 team, Ward figured the phone call from the Guelph Storm office was for a pretraining camp meeting the next day with coach George Burnett and GM Alan Millar.Instead, just two weeks after being hired as associate coach of the defending Ontario League champions, Ward was promoted to head coach.With Burnett leaving after one season to return to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Storm looked to Ward, said team president Jim Rooney.&ldquo;Geoff knows our kids better than anybody,&rdquo; Rooney said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d coached almost four years only 20 miles away (in Kitchener). And we&rsquo;ve watched him develop over a period of time.&rdquo;Ward was dismissed earlier this summer by the Kitchener Rangers after 3-1/2 years&rsquo;when the two sides couldn&rsquo;t agree to contract terms. He was coach of this year&rsquo;s under-18 team and was an assistant coach last year.Ward is the Storm&rsquo;s third coach in as many years after EJ. McGuire left after 1996-97.GM Mike Kelly also left after 1996-97, but the Storm hasn&rsquo;t blinked. It has been to the OHL final three of the past four years and advanced to the Memorial Cup final this year, where it lost in overtime to the Portland Winter Hawks.&ldquo;This came out of the blue,&rdquo; Ward said.&ldquo;I was looking forward to working under George. My aspirations are to coach at the pro level, but I have no experience there as a player. Working with George was going to provide great pro development for me.&rdquo;Rooney said with notice of Burnett&rsquo;s departure only two weeks before training camp, he was fortunate to have someone such as Ward on staff.Former Storm assistant coach Rick Allain, who was the heir apparent, left earlier to become coach of the Peterborough Petes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01950/7004727-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="749" height="254"></div>NEVER SAY NEVER: With NHL veteran and Sarnia Sting minority owner Dino Ciccarelli at the table, Cory Brekelmans couldn&rsquo;t say no to the OHL.Brekelmans decided to say no to some lucrative scholarship opportunities at three major U.S. universities to sign with the Sting Aug. 18.The lure of NCAA-champion Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame a year down the road was strong, but Brekelmans, 17, a highly regarded defenseman, decided it&rsquo;s better to advance his career now in the OHL rather than wait.He played Jr. B with Strathroy, Ont., last season and was rated 12th overall by the OHL. When he said he was going to school, OHL teams shied away, until the Sting gambled and selected him in the fifth round, 100th overall. The Sting worked all summer on recruiting him.MAPLE LEAF FOREVER: Maple Leat Gardens will continue to be a home for hockey after the Toronto Maple Leafs vacate for the new Air Canada Centre next February.The Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s College Majors signed a two-year deal with the Gardens to play a total of 34 games. The Leafs will also take on a significant role in the operation of the Majors, who struggled at the gate their first year playing in the school&rsquo;s old and cramped arena.The Gardens will assume all event-related expenses and work with the Majors&rsquo; business and marketing departments.The Majors will also play one game in the Air Canada Centre, March 4, 1999.&ldquo;There has been a rich history between the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Michael&rsquo;s,&rdquo; said MLG director Brian Bellmore. &ldquo;This arrangement offers the Majors an opportunity to play to a growing audience in a historic arena.&rdquo;The Gardens hasn&rsquo;t had a regular OHL tenant since the Toronto Mariboros were sold by Harold Ballard in 1989 and moved to Hamilton. &#9632;

f0026-01

Ward latest coach to guide Storm’s winning tradition

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Moncton media is already calling Dmitri Afanasenkov the &rsquo;Russian Rocket&rsquo;.The 6-foot-l, 183-pound left winger, who was the sixth overall pick by the Moncton Wildcats at this year&rsquo;s import draft, arrived in Moncton July 13, giving himself more than a month to get accustomed to life in North America before training camp opened Aug. 15.&ldquo;If I want to play in the NHL, I must learn English and the North American lifestyle,&rdquo; he said.Afanasenkov was selected 72nd overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning at this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft after scoring 19 goals and adding 11 assists in 45 games with Yaroslavl in the Russian junior league. He was named the best player at this year&rsquo;s Six Nations Tournament in Europe.But Afanasenkov might not even be the best Russian player in Moncton this season. The Wildcats selected defenseman Dmitri Kalinin with the third overall pick (acquired in a trade with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens). The 6-foot-2, 198-pounder was the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; first round pick (18th overall) at this year&rsquo;s NHL draft.But the Wildcats can&rsquo;t expect much offense from Kalinin, who has failed to score a goal in. 66 games over the past three seasons with Chelyabinsk.LOOK MA, NO VINCENT: The Rimouski Oceanic opened training camp Aug. 15 without } Vincent Lecavalier.And coach Doris Labonte doesn&rsquo;t expect to see the first overall pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning at this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft back in the Quebec League this season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not expecting to see him again&hellip;certainly not before the (Christmas) holidays,&rdquo; Latbonte said. &ldquo;Tampa Bay is going to give him: every opportunity to make the team. It would be a big surprise here if he came back.&rdquo;Labonte expected to have 20 players from last year&rsquo;s team among the 65 at training camp. The problem is that 10 of the returning players are 20 years olds and the team can only keep three.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02633/7004758-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="555" height="511"></div>&ldquo;There are going to be a lot of question marks here this season,&rdquo; Labonte said.Labonte was still holding out hope that Derrick Walser, who was named the Canadian Hockey League&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman last season, would return as a 20-year-old. Walser set a QMJHL record for defensemen last season when he scored 41 goals.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible that he&rsquo;ll be back because he hasn&rsquo;t signed with a professional team yet,&rdquo; Labonte said.Lecavalier and Walser combined for 225 points last season. If both don&rsquo;t return. Brad Richards, who had 33 goals and 82 assists while playing on a line with Lecavalier, will be counted on to carry the offensive load.Lecavalier also skipped the Canadian national junior team summer evaluation camp to concentrate on building up his strength for his first NHL training camp.NEW HEAD EAGLE: Bruce Campbell is the new coach of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, replacing Danny Dube, who will keep his GM position while adding the title of vice-president, hockey operations.Campbell was Dube&rsquo;s assistant coach last season when Cape Breton finished with a 1946-5 record. Dube will live in Quebec, where he has many contacts, while working for the Screaming Eagles.HENRY STAYS IN HULL: After an meeting in early August with the Hull Olympiques&rsquo; new ownership group, Charlie Henry has decided to return for a 14th season as team governor and director of hockey operations.There had been speculation that the 59-year-old Henry, who pondered retirement after the Olympiques won the Memorial Cup in 1997, wouldn&rsquo;t be back.Henry, considered one of the best executives in junior hockey, has won the QMJHL championship three times with the Olympiques. &#9632;

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Wildcats counting on boostfrom talented Russian duo

<div class="byline">By Bob Vanstone</div>There are a few owners in junior hockey who think they can coach, but Terry Simpson is a little different. He really can coach.Simpson, part-owner of the Red Deer Rebels since they joined the Western League in 1992, will be the team&rsquo;s coach and director of hockey operations this season.Simpson&rsquo;s appointment was announced Aug. 10. The team also announced that Peter Anholt, the first head coach in franchise history, will return as an assistant.Simpson&rsquo;s brother, Wayne, will remain the Rebels&rsquo; GM. Wayne Simpson will concentrate on scouting and administrative and league matters. The Simpsons are the Rebels&rsquo; majority owners.Terry Simpson-who won a Memorial Cup with the Prince Albert Raiders in 1985-had spent the previous two seasons as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was dismissed by the Leafs six days before assuming the Rebels&rsquo; coaching job. &rsquo;&ldquo;Wayne and I had talked about what &rsquo; we&rsquo;d do if the situation in Toronto turned out as it did,&rdquo; said Simpson, 55. &ldquo;I had one year left on my contract with Toronto. I was prepared, willing and able to honor that. It was a matter of seeing whether Toronto wanted me back.&ldquo;(The Leafs) made a decision to go another way. When I got that news, I decided to come down (to Red Deer) and start seriously talking with Wayne.&rdquo;Simpson has NHL head coaching experience with the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and Winnipeg Jets. He has a WHL coaching record of 205-145-10.The Rebels&rsquo; coaching job became available May 28 when the team announced that Doug Hobson and his assistant, Kurt Lackten, would not return. Hobson was promoted to head coach when Rick Carriere was fired Nov. 1.Last season, Anholt coached the Kelowna Rockets, who announced May 26 that they would not renew his contract.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03505/7004789-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="410" height="414"></div>MALARCHUK THE MAN: Peter Anholt was replaced in Kelowna by Garth Malarchuk, who was named the Rockets&rsquo; coach July 9.Malarchuk, who signed a three-year contract, spent the previous seven years as a scout with Toronto. He has previous head-coaching experience with the Alberta Junior League&rsquo;s Calgary Royals.McCrimmon joins blades: Former NHL defenseman Brad McCrimmon is the Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; new coach.McCrimmon, 39, succeeded Willie Desjardins July 24. Desjardins had resigned two weeks earlier to become an assistant coach with Canada&rsquo;s national team.McCrimmon, who spent 18 years in the NHL, retired after the 1996-97 season and became an assistant coach with the Islanders. McCrimmon was re-assigned to the scouting staff when GM Mike Milbury fired coach Rick Bowness during the 1997-98 campaign.| &ldquo;One of the big things about this job was getting head coaching experience,&rdquo; McCrimmon said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s so &rsquo; important. Plus, it&rsquo;s an opportunity to work with some great people.&rdquo;McCrimmon&rsquo;s older brother. Kelly, is the Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; GM.HAROLD THE NEW ARRIVAL: Another longtime NHL defenseman, Harold Snepsts. was named the Portland Winter Hawks&rsquo; coach July 28.Snepsts replaces Brent Peterson, who left Portland to become an assistant with the NHL&rsquo;s expansion Nashville Predators after coaching the Winter Hawks to the 1998 Memorial Cup title.Snepsts and incumbent assistant Mike Williamson both signed two-year contracts.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited, especially since I&rsquo;ll be working for an organization with such a tremendous reputation and tradition,&rdquo; said Snepsts, 43, whose 17-year NHL career ended after the 1990-91 season.Snepsts isn&rsquo;t a stranger to the Winter Hawks. He is a minority investor in the team. &#9632;

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Simpson Rebel with causeafter ouster from Toronto

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01831/7004827-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01941/7004820-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="3377" height="4004"></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

1998-99 NHL SCHEDULE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01868/7004858-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL TRAINING CAMP ROSTERS

<div class="byline">By Janet Del Tuto</div>Chris Nelson is one of the most out-going of all professional in-line hockey players.His chiseled physique has graced magazine covers, while his handsome smile has been spotted in several movies, television shows and commercials.To say the least, Nelson&rsquo;s life has not run the same course as most; how many people have appeared in hit movies such as Batman and Robin, or television shows like Baywatch.But even with his celebrity status, Nelson has never been afraid of the hard-hitting hockey grind and has proven this fact while in his role of captain of team Dawg Pac in Pro Beach Hockey.&ldquo;PBH is a radical sport which doesn&rsquo;t try to have a lot of conservative elements, meaning, guys like the Hammer are types of players with very radical personalities that are not quite the norm,&rdquo; Nelson said. &ldquo;This kind of attitude fit into the structure of our team, as this team was not of the typical roller hockey fashion. We did what we could make a name ourselves and that is helping us to make an impact at PBH.&rdquo;Playing at the beach has been a perfect fit for Nelson, especially with his aptitude for performing stunts. While some players on the court have shied away from some of the more risky moves, this is one player who fully enjoys these daring techniques.&ldquo;My ability to use the ramps is something that I have been able to perfect and make use of,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As far as skating and ball movement, I&rsquo;ve been able to skate behind the net with the ball and shoot the ball off the ramp. It goes off the glass about four feet in front of the goaltender, which leads to scoring opportunities.&rdquo;Nelson has obviously been blessed with an abundance of professional excitement, so it&rsquo;s not surprising to see him at PBH. He easily relates this experience to that of a day on the set.&ldquo;When I&rsquo;m shooting a film, every day I come to the set and say, &rsquo;I can&rsquo;t believe I&rsquo;m doing this. This is unreal and fantastic.&rsquo; I mean, what a great opportunity to be able to work on a set with actors and get paid for it. It&rsquo;s the same thing for playing Pro Beach; here we are playing outdoors, in front of ESPN.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01943/7004934-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="597" height="813"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Nelson</figcaption></div>Even so, this is hockey and like stunt work, it takes exertion. However, this is not an effort that Nelson finds distasteful, as a day on the PBH job contains only ideal and satisfying elements.&ldquo;PBH is different because it&rsquo;s full contact; outdoors; at the beach; and there&rsquo;s nothing else like it. It has been a fantastic experience to play roller hockey with the women all around and the sun on your back. And when the game is over, you go surf for a couple of hours. What else can a guy ask for?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02654/7004927-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="189" height="173"></div><h2>Player Profile: Chris Nelson</h2>Occupation: Consultant for Franklin Sports; Actor; Model; Stunt PersonAge: 29Marital Status: SingleFavorite Moment in In-line Hockey: Winning the 1997 IIHF In-line Hockey World Championship gold medal.Greatest Accomplishment in Life: Keeping out of trouble and attending the University of Wisconsin.Favorite Movie: Jerry MaguireFavorite Athlete: Willie O&rsquo;Ree, and Nelson&rsquo;s brother, Berk, a 22-year-old junior, who plays hockey at Colorado College.Favorite Food: ChineseHometown: Born in Philadelphia, but resides in Manhattan Beach, Calif.Future Goal: Continued success and the opportunity to pass on to others the type of opportunities that have been bestowed upon him.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01891/7004920-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3426" height="4114"></div> &#9632;

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September 4, 1998

TRANSACTIONS

Don’t be fooled by new NHL TV deal

Gilmour’s goals? Goals

Enthusiastic Hrudey retires with no regrets or sadness