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 24, 1999

The Hockey News September 24, 1999

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="SC0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sc0002-014/7434037-1-eng-US/sc0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bret DeCecco and his Seattle teammates will top the standings and the scoring race.</figcaption></div>Bret DeCecco is a leading MVP candidate-on his team. Whoever emerges as the top player ona talent-laden Seattle Thunderbirds&rsquo; squad could also cop Western League honors.DeCecco is the best bet. The 19-year-old right winger is coming off a 57-goal, 100-point sea-son. That has him thirsting for more.&ldquo;Scoring 20 more goals this season is probably my personal goal, but another 10 would benice,&rdquo; DeCecco said. &ldquo;You have to set your goals higher than anyone else would expect because it gives you something to shoot for. &ldquo;The T-birds are shooting for a WHL title.&ldquo;Our goal is to go to the Memorial Cup and we can&rsquo;t be afraid to talk about that,&rdquo; said DeCecco, whose team had a 37-24-11 record last season. &ldquo;But we can&rsquo;t get ahead of ourselves.&rdquo;Seattle will be leading the pack, given a nucleus of superb forwards. The Thunderbirds&rsquo;top three scorers from last season-DeCecco, Oleg Saprykin and Scott Kelman-are expected to return. They combined for 266 points last sea-son and should easily top 300 in 1999-2000.Saprykin and Kelman were chosen in the first round of the 1999 draft-Saprykin 10th by the Calgary Flames, Kelman 15th by the Phoenix Coyotes. The 5-foot-ll, 191-pound De Ceccowent in the seventh round to the Buffalo Sabres.DeCecco&rsquo;s skating deficiencies and lack of size deterred teams from making him an earlier pick this year (he went unclaimed in the 1998entry draft.) His strength, however, isn&rsquo;t a concern. He can bench press 355 pounds.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tremendously strong guy,&rdquo; Seattle GM Russ Farwell said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s focused. Heknows he has something to prove because he&rsquo;s not a big guy or a tremendous skater.&rdquo;DeCecco was third among marksmen last sea-son, behind Calgary Hitmen gunners Pavel Brendl (73 goals) and Brad Moran (60).&ldquo;He might have had 70 goals,&rdquo; Farwell said. &ldquo;He had a lot of chances.&rdquo;Here&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s in the cards for Seattle and the WHL&rsquo;s other 17 franchises. Teams are listed in predicted order of finish. Last year&rsquo;s records, division finishes and playoff fortunes are in parentheses. Eight teams from the Eastern Conference (which combines the East and Central Divisions) make the playoffs. The top six West Division teams qualify for post-season play.<h2>EAST DIVISION</h2>1. Prince Albert Raiders (45-22-5, first, third round). Coach: Kevin McClelland. GM: Rick Valette. Kingpin: Clever Czech center Milan Kraft, 19, will surely improve upon a 40-&rsquo; goal freshman season. Fresh face: Michal Sivek, Washington&rsquo;s second round pick in 1999, is a power forward expected to play alongside Kraft. Outlook: Prince Albert is clearly the class of the East and will challenge Seattle.2. Moose Jaw Warriors (39-31-2, third, second round). Coach: Len Nielsen. GM: Ralph Schmidt. Kingpin: Eighteen-year-old center Jamie Lundmark is headed for a monster offensive season. Fresh face: Nielsen expects skilled left winger Ben Knopp, who was considering NCAA options during training camp, to excel with the Warriors. Outlook: A solid Warriors&rsquo; team will be in the hunt.3. Brandon Wheat Kings (39-29-4, second, first round). Coach: Bob Lowes. GM: Kelly McCrimmon. Kingpin: Versatile forward Aaron Goldade, 19, is ready to become a featured per former. Fresh face: Center Jordan Tootoo had 16 goals and 251 penalty minutes as a 15-year-old in the Manitoba Junior League last season. Outlook: Brandon has won at least 39 games in each of the past seven seasons. No. 8 is likely.4. Swift Current Broncos (34-32-6, fourth, first round). Coach-GM: Todd McLellan. Kingpin: Center Layne Ulmer, 19, will likely net 50 goals after scoring 40 times last winter. Fresh face: Right winger Duncan Milroy had 70 points in 34 games as a 15-year-old in Alberta midget last season. Outlook: The Broncos don&rsquo;t have much firepower aside from Ulmer, but coaching and team defense are strengths.5. Regina Pats (24-43-5, fifth, missed playoffs). Coach: Tim Tisdale. GM: Brent Parker. Kingpin: Center Brett Lysak, 18, had 39 goals in 61 games despite the absence of a sup porting cast. Fresh face: Czech defenseman Filip Novak will quarterback the power play. Outlook: A lack of depth up front will prevent the Pats from doing any better than .500.6. Saskatoon Blades (16-49-7, sixth, missed playoffs). Coach: Brad McCrimmon. GM: Brent McEwen. Kingpin: Center Jon Bark man, 20, had 35 goals on a bad team last season. Fresh face: Center Adrian Foster will be one of the WHL&rsquo;s top rookies if he doesn&rsquo;t opt for the U.S. college route. Outlook: The Blades are almost certain to improve, but by how much?<h2>CENTRAL DIVISION</h2>1. Calgary Hitmen (51-13-8, first, league title). Coach: Dean Clark. GM: Kelly Kisio. Kingpin: Left winger Brad Moran, 20, will enjoy a third 50-goal season if he returns from Buffalo. Fresh face: Calgary traded up to pick lanky center Anders Lovdahl in the CHL&rsquo;s import draft. Outlook: Calgary can ice a strong team even if Moran and Rangers&rsquo; first-rounder Pavel Brendl do not return.2. Kootenay Ice (30-35-7, fourth, first round). Coach: Ryan McGill. Director of operations: Bob Tory. Kingpin: Offensive defenseman Steve McCarthy, 18, has game-breaker potential going into his third season. Fresh face: Defense man David Tanabe, also offense-minded, left the University of Wisconsin for major junior experience. Outlook: A young, talented team will only get better as the season progresses.3. Lethbridge Hurricanes (31-32-9, third, first round). Coach-GM: Bryan Maxwell. King pin: Brady Block, 18, had a 2.91 goals-against average. He&rsquo;s the key to Leth bridge&rsquo;s fortunes. Fresh face: Winger Darren Lynch has outstanding speed and terrific hands. Outlook: The Hurricanes do not have an abundance of firepower, but Maxwell will make them competitive.4. Red Deer Rebels (34-33-5, second, second round). Coach-GM: Brent Sutter. Kingpin: Center Brad Leeb, 20, will be the unquestioned team leader if he returns as an overage from the Vancouver Canucks. Fresh face: Center Joel Stepp, 16, provides both skill and grit. Outlook: The Rebels could slip to fifth if Leeb gets a pro contract. There are too many holes.5. Medicine Hat Tigers (15-56-1, fifth, missed playoffs). Coach-director of operations: Rick Carriere. Kingpin: Paul Elliott, 19, is one of the league&rsquo;s top defensemen. Fresh face: Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester-the first pick in the 1998 bantam draft-will make an immediate impact. Outlook: The Tigers will be better, but a marked improvement is still a year away.<h2>WEST DIVISION</h2>1. Seattle Thunderbirds (37-24-11, third, second round). Coach: Don Nachbaur. GM: Russ Farwell. Kingpin: Right winger Bret DeCecco, 19, has 100 WHL goals in three seasons. Fresh face: Center Jason McKee, a nifty skater, left Michigan Tech. Outlook: Seattle&rsquo;s depth and experience should prevail, providing league MVP goalie Cody Rudkowsky can be replaced.2. Prince George Cougars (34-32-6, fourth, first round). Coach: Ed Dempsey. GM: Daryl Lubiniecki. Kingpin: Left winger Tyler Bouck, 19, is a fine two-way player who shoulc excel alongside center Blair Betts. Fresh face Strapping Slovakian winger Roman Takac will make an impact. Outlook: Prince George will ice a strong team if workhorse goalie Scot Myers returns from Pittsburgh as a 20-year-old.3. Tri-City Americans (43-23-6, second third round). Coach-GM: Don Hay. Kingpin Winger Jaroslav Kristek, 19, is the top returning scorer with 38 goals. Fresh face: Winger Milar Bartovic, like Kristek, is a Buffalo second round draft pick and could be a top scorer. Outlook Tri-City will miss three of last season&rsquo;s top four scorers, but a Hay-coached team will compete.4. Kamloops Blazers (48-11-13, first fourth round). Coach: Dean Evason. GM: Mike Moore. Kingpin: Kamloops will look for t repeat from Kenric Exner, whose 2.31 GAA was the lowest in league history. Fresh face: Centei Mark Rooneem could be one of five 16-year-olds. Outlook: Strength in goal and depth or defense won&rsquo;t overcome a lack of scoring.Kelowna Rockets (25-42-5, sixth, first round). Coach: Garth Malarchuk. GM: Bruce Hamilton. Kingpin: Kelowna is hoping 22-goal-man Vernon Fiddler, 19, can double that output. Fresh face: Defenseman Richie Regehr-younger brother of Kamloops&rsquo; stalwart Robyn Regehris an intelligent player. Outlook: The youthful Rockets could have as many as 19 returnees, but need time to grow.Spokane Chiefs (19-44-9, seventh, missed playoffs). Coach: Mike Babcock. GM: Tim Speltz. Kingpin: After one goal as a 16-year-old rookie two years ago, center Lynn Loyns, 18, led Spokane in scoring last season. Fresh face: Center Jeff Lucky will be one of the finest 16-year-olds and team hopes he lives up to his name. Outlook: Welcome to Year 2 of rebuilding project.Portland Winter Hawks (23-36-13, fifth, first round). Coach: Harold Snepsts. GM: Ken Hodge. Kingpin: Goalie Jason LaBarbera, 19, will face a plethora of shots. Fresh face: Center Luke Moloto sky&rsquo;s size and good hands prompted Port land to pick him in the 1998 bantam draft. Outlook: The Winter Hawks have less or oven talent than last year. &#9632;

SC0002-01

IN THIS ISSUE

Fabulous Thunderbird

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03444/7433620-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="348" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bryan Berard</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02609/7433627-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="161" height="158"></div>Another day, another dollar. Or in the cases of Bryan Berard and Dimitri Yushkevich, thousands of dollars.The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken a hard-line approach with the restricted free agent defense men that could cost the players serious cash.The Leafs&rsquo; stance is simple: During training camp, they&rsquo;ve threatened to deduct $50,000 (U.S.)a week from their offers($1.2 million U.S. to Berard, $1.5 million U.S. to Yushke vich). Once the season begins, the club will then chop 1/192 per day from the adjusted offers. So for every day he misses, Berard will theoretically be more than $5,000 out of pocket. The figure is more than $6,500 for Yushke vich.The latest policy concerning free agents is just another twist in what has become a shocking turnaround for a franchise presumably awash in money. Despite the fact they moved into the revenue-generating Air Canada Centre last season and played eight lucrative home playoff dates, the Leafs are sticking to their budget with a zealous conviction.Team insiders have said the budget for player salaries has been set at $34 million (U.S.), which is what the Leafsspent last year, but team president KenDryden said the figure is closer to $35million (U.S.).Coach-GM Pat Quinn, meanwhile, said the team is serious about its threat.&ldquo;1 thought a lot about this,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;If back off how, what am telling the 60 other players we have? When their contract comes up they can sit at home and not expect to pay the price?&rdquo;What Quinn failed to mention was that Berard was at home in Woonsocket, R.I., and Yushkevich in Russia with Yaroslavl because the Leafs told them they were not welcome at camp without contracts.NOTEBOOK: Conditioning coach Phil Walker said the Leafs scored better in fit ness testing this season than last and captain Mats Sundin was among those making the greatest gains. The slight paunch Sundin was carrying around at the end of the 1998 99 season now resembles a washboard and he had excellent jump in scrimmages early in camp. &ldquo;I think everybody saw what it took to be successful last year and we want to go further this year,&rdquo; Sundin said. &ldquo;I think we all worked a little harder over the summer.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;The Maple Leafs announced Sept 8 their former home, Maple Leaf Gar dens, has been put up for sale&hellip;Left winger Darrin Shannon, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, was in camp trying to win a job. &#9632;

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NHL TEAMS

Leafs plan to reduce offers if no-shows don’t re-sign

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01964/7433844-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011525/7432741-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr came back strong last year and could help the Flames make the playoffs.</figcaption></div>He walked into the building on his fifth day as a Calgary Flames&rsquo; player and that&rsquo;s when the first real test occurred.Grant Fuhr had already waived his no-trade clause with the St. Louis Blues; he had passed his medical moments before. Now, they handed him his new sweater and asked him to pull it over his head for a photo shoot.Fuhr, showing the same lightning-quick reflexes that have marked his NHL career to date, showed no hesitation. Up and over and all of a sudden, there he was, resplendent in the Flaming &lsquo;C.&rsquo; Now, the significance of this may be lost on anyone who doesn&rsquo;t know that Fuhr was born in Spruce Grove, a suburb of Edmon ton; that he played 10 seasons for the Flames&rsquo; archrivals, the Oilers; and in that time, he helped the Oilers win five Stanley Cups.For Edmonton, the road to Lord Stanley often ran through Calgary, so for the better part of a decade, Fuhr was a maddening, frustrating obstacle on the Flames&rsquo; path to post-season glory. The fact Fuhr was here, after NHL stops in Toronto, Buffalo, Los Angeles and St. Louis, joining the enemy seemed almost unthinkable. Naturally, the first question put to Fuhr was how he liked the new look.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to see the pictures first, but otherwise, it feels pretty good,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;So far, so good. It&rsquo;s definitely different. Ten years ago, I&rsquo;d never have thought this was possible.&rdquo;In Fuhr, the Flames believe they have a goal tender that will help them end their three-year playoff absence. After they lost Ken Wregget as an unrestricted free agent to Detroit and were unable to coax Ron Hextall out of retiring, the Flames were startlingly short on experience, heading into training camp. (See pg. 7 for more on Hextall.)There was Fred Brathwaite, who was sparkling in the second half, posting 11 wins, plus a pair of up-and-comers, Tyler Moss and J.S. Giguere. Season-ticket sales were hovering at about 9,000, a considerable dropoff from the previous year. As a result, the Fuhr acquisition made a lot of sense on a number of levels-marketing, psychological and, most importantly, on the ice. The one caution they need to exercise revolves around Fuhr&rsquo;s birth certificate. He&rsquo;s 37, not 26.&ldquo;What are our expectations of him?&rdquo; repeated coach Brian Sutter. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy who&rsquo;s always played a lot. But I&rsquo;m not stupid. I use the Smitty (Steve Smith) scenario. Smitty is a guy who really likes to work. You want to keep them where they want to play all the time, but you may have to pull the reins in a little.&rdquo;Clearly, Fuhr has been able to do it for nearly two decades. He begins the season with 398 career wins, sixth on the all-time list. He needs nine to tie Hall-of-Famer Glenn Hall for fifth.&ldquo;As a hockey club, we don&rsquo;t want to put pressure on Grant to perform, but he has the ability to win a hockey game on his own,&rdquo; said Smith, a former teammate in Edmonton. &ldquo;And there is a very, very short list of goaltenders in this league with that ability.&rdquo;The risk is Fuhr&rsquo;s shoulders and knees will not hold up to the demands of the 82-game schedule. As recently as 1995-96, he established a record by appearing in 79 games for the Blues. Fuhr got into 73 games the next season, but since then, his appearances have dropped off markedly-58 games two years ago and 39 last season. He had surgery to repair cartilage in his right knee two years ago and the knee bothered him again last year.In the end, he finished with a 16-11-8 record and a 2.44 goals-against average, the lowest of his career, last season.Fuhr was asked to describe his play down the stretch last season, after surgery. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the most consistent I&rsquo;ve played,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t supposed to play much, then I played something like 30 of the last 32 or 33. It was a lot-and that&rsquo;s what I like.&rdquo;And for the upcoming season?&ldquo;I start at 82 and work down from there. A lot will depend on what the body allows me to play. I&rsquo;d like to play as much as I can, but that depends upon Brian and how well I play. How well you play dictates the kind of ice time you get.&rdquo;Although he was 6-6 for St. Louis in the play offs with a 2.35 GAA, the Blues determined Fuhr was expendable after they acquired Roman Turek from the Stanley Cup-champion Dallas Stars last June. Fuhr had a no-trade clause in his contract, but he relinquished it after the Blues warned him he&rsquo;d be put on waivers if he didn&rsquo;t.As for his physical condition, he described himself as being in, &ldquo;probably the best shape I&rsquo;ve been in the last five, six years, going into camp. It&rsquo;s happened every year. The one summer I decide to work out a little bit, they trade me.&rdquo;For now, the Flames are a team aiming for respectability, not a championship.&ldquo;You need to establish respectability before you can win a Stanley Cup,&rdquo; Fuhr said. &ldquo;If we can accomplish the first goal, that takes us to the next level.&ldquo;Winning is all a team thing.&rdquo; &#9632;

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FEATURES

Fuhr to Flames’ rescue

<h2>Labonte makes junior history</h2>1. You go, girl! Charline Labonte, 16, is first female to sign with a major junior team, Acadie-Bathurst of Quebec League.2. Hextail leaves mark First NHL goalie to actually score, Ron Hextall retires after influencing way position is played.3. Refs rule Referees, not video replay, will determine if player in crease obstructing goalie when goal is scored.4. Memorial Cup pick Quebec Rem parts of QMJHL are our pre-season favorite to win Memorial Cup.5. Rocket flying Superstar Pavel Bure looks recovered from serious knee injury at Florida Panthers&rsquo; training camp.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0256/7433882-1-eng-US/c0002-022.jpg" title="C0002-02" width="342" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body">Charline Labonte</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0348/7433875-1-eng-US/c0002-032.jpg" title="C0002-03" width="339" height="489"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pavel Bure</figcaption></div><h2>MLG may face wrecking ball</h2>1. History&hellip;for sale Storied Maple Leafs Gardens put up for sale, could be tom down.2. Petr Sykora Skips opening of New Jersey training camp, finally arrives with no explanation for absence.3. Real team player Detroit&rsquo;s Slava Kozlov concerned switch to center will hurt production in contract year.4. What&rsquo;s the deal? NHL, players slow to agree to terms on participation at 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.5. Run down Flyers&rsquo; 50-year-old beat writer bests four of 13 players at camp who participate in six-mile race. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden EdItor-in-Chief</div>It&rsquo;s a Wednesday night in the heart of industrial Mississauga and Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s first great foil is leaning on a corridor wall telling John Brophy stories.John Goodwin is the coach of the Oshawa Generals. He is 38 and many years removed from a gifted amateur career. In the first major story written about Gretzky, Oct. 28,1971, appearing under John laboni&rsquo;s byline, Good-win was described as the best player on the other team. Goodwin would go on to be the best player on many more teams, crossing paths with Gretzky twice before finally following him to the Ontario Major Junior League in Sault Ste. Marie.Gretzky and Goodwin were both in Quebec City for the world&rsquo;s most prestigious peewee tournament. Goodwin&rsquo;s team won the grand championship, but it was Gretzky who received all the attention. &ldquo;He was the talk of the tournament,&rdquo; Goodwin recalls. &ldquo;He was getting 10-11 goals a game.&rdquo; Later, they played against each other for the second and only other time in a bantam exhibition game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0431/7433913-1-eng-US/c0002-042.jpg" title="C0002-04" width="358" height="454"></div>Two seasons later. No. 99 was named OMJHL rookie of the year in 1977-78, his only full major junior season. Goodwin, meanwhile, joined the Greyhounds in 1978 79 and was named the league&rsquo;s top rookie. Had Gretzky not left for the WHA, Goodwin would most certainly not have succeeded him as best first-year player. Goodwin says he wouldn&rsquo;t have had the opportunity to pile up 129 points playing behind Gretzky. In fact, he might not have made the team if not for the departure of Gretzky, a center slight of frame and blessed with sleight of hand-a description that fit both pivots, albeit to different degrees.But while Gretzky marked the end of hockey&rsquo;s most eccentric pro league and the dawn of hockey&rsquo;s most electric pro career, Goodwin shone in the OMJHL. They were already worlds apart, but shared one more distinction before officially entering different orbits. Neither of the 1961-bom players was drafted by an NHL team. Of course, the Edmonton Oilers were permitted to protect Gretzky, shielding him from the draft when the WHA and NHL merged in 1979. Goodwin, small and slow, attracted no interest even after finishing his amateur career with a flourish, winning the scoring championship in 1980-81. The Montreal Canadiens signed Goodwin as a free agent, but consigned him to the minor leagues and dressed him for just one exhibition game over three training camps. Tree to form, Goodwin collected two assists against the Boston Bruins. Then it was back to Halifax and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs. Goodwin was a reliable scorer in the American League and International League, aver aging more than a point per game. He played three seasons for Brophy, one of hockey&rsquo;s all-time bad boys and a first rate coach. True, Brophy was a maniac. once evicting a player from the team bus-leaving him at the side of the road to find his own way to the next destination. But Brophy was exceptional at teaching his players to play a professional game and didn&rsquo;t ask his charges to be something they weren&rsquo;t. Skill players weren&rsquo;t asked to be skull-and-crossbones players. Brophy never asked him to scrap although the coach did suggest from time to time that Goodwin would look better with some &ldquo;blood on his sweater&rdquo; and &ldquo;snot in his nose.&rdquo;<h2>People kept asking him, &rsquo;Are you that John Goodwin?&rsquo;</h2>More than a decade later, Goodwin divides his work life between Ontario Hydro, where he is Union Trade Super visor, and the Generals. He never made it to the NHL, but is proving to be as crafty a coach as he was a player.The tenuous connection to Gretzkywas severed long ago. It was briefly reattached when the laboni story was reprinted after Gretzky retired last April. &ldquo;People kept asking me, &rsquo;Are you that John Goodwin?&rdquo; says John Goodwin.The Great One and The Good One, together again, one last time. &#9632;

C0002-04

The Good One, The Great One connect again

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div>Let the Games begin? Oh, the games have already begun, on the issue of NHL participation in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.It was hoped a final decision would be reached by Sept. 15-a date set by the International Ice Hockey Federation. But clearly, that deadline will be extended to at least late October or mid-November amid speculation NHL players won&rsquo;t be going to Salt Lake.The reason? The NHL and NHL Players&rsquo; Association can&rsquo;t agree on the terms.Surprise, surprise.Whether the two oft-feuding factions are en route to a legitimate impasse or just playing negotiating games remains to be seen.For now, we&rsquo;ll assume it&rsquo;s the latter.But the notion of the NHL passing on Salt Lake City is not out of the question.From a business perspective, the NHL&rsquo;s participation in the 1998 Nagano Winter Games was a complete bust.The league closed up shop for an unprecedented 17 days. Neither North American entry-Canada or the United States-won a medal. The U.S., which failed to even make it to the medal round, made news for all the wrong reasons (a couple of trashed hotel rooms).The Czech-Russia final was met with indifference in North America and, to make matters worse, NHL regular season TV ratings and popularity waned in the wake of the Olympic shutdown.NHL commissioner Gary Bettman must have felt like the captain of the Titanic. And the NHL wants no part of any sinking feeling this time around.&ldquo;If it makes sense to go (to Salt Lake City), we&rsquo;ll go,&rdquo; said Bettman during the Stanley Cup final in June. &ldquo;If it doesn&rsquo;t, we won&rsquo;t (go).&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011804/7432376-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="348" height="474"></div>The league put together an Olympic plan it believes &ldquo;makes sense&rdquo; for NHL players to participate in 2002. It delivered that plan to the NHLPA last spring, but now has two gripes.One, the NHLPA&rsquo;s response didn&rsquo;t arrive until late August. Two, the players&rsquo; association&rsquo;s counter-proposal was worlds apart from the original.Both sides are digging in. Publicly, they&rsquo;re saying &ldquo;no comment.&rdquo;Privately, the league is accusing the NHLPA of using the Olympics as leverage on non-related labor issues.The NHLPA, mean-while, feels the league isn&rsquo;t being serious about the Olympics and is trying to make the players&rsquo; association look like the spoiler.Stuck in the middle is IIHF president Dr. Rene Fasel, who is under pressure from various international federations wanting to know whether they have to put together national team programs.&ldquo;I think all hockey fans hope (NHL players) will be there (in Salt Lake),&rdquo; Dr. Fasel told The Hockey News. &ldquo;But when you get so many parties with different interests, it&rsquo;s difficult to get consensus.&rdquo;Fasel is hoping some headway will be made Sept. 21 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., when the IIHF stages its semi-annual congress. The expectation is both Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow will meet Fasel there.&ldquo;Maybe we can agree on a date for a final deadline,&rdquo; Fasel said.&ldquo;It has to be soon, late October or mid-November. We&rsquo;re running out of time.&rdquo;There has been dialogue between the NHL and NHLPA, but that&rsquo;s not to be confused with progress.Sticking points, THN has learned, are plentiful.The NHL wants a 10-day tournament, with no more than a 12-day shutdown of the regular season.That would mean NHL games would be played on a Wednesday night and Olympic players would travel on Thursday and begin Olympic games on Fri day. The Olympic tourney would conclude on a Sun day, players would travel on Monday and resume NHL games on Tues day.The NHLPA wants an extra travel day, front and back, for a 14-day shutdown.The association also wants provisions for players not on the top teams (Germany, Slovakia, etc.) to be able to participate in the preliminary round.The league is opposed to that concept Further, the NHL views the 2002 Olympics as a stand-alone event.Not the NHLPA. It wants to set an international calendar that includes both t h e Olympics in 2002 and a World Cup tourney in September of 2004.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021446/7432369-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1739" height="2894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Will NHL all-stars like Brian Leetch participate in the 2002 Olympics?</figcaption></div>The players&rsquo; association has also requested changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement in return for its Olympic endorsement. The NHL is opposed to using the Olympics for leverage on the CBA, although the eague reportedly raised the possibility of concessions to its plan if the NHLPA would re-open the current CBA.That&rsquo;s not going to hap pen.In fact, that may be a large part of the whole problem. The NHLPA negotiated an extension of the CBA, from 2001 to 2004, in return for its Nagano participation.That was a bad deal for the NHL on two fronts.One, as it turned out, there were no tangible benefits from Nagano.Two, the NHL was I saddled for another three I years with a CBA that several owners and GMs believe is not economically responsible.How badly does the NHL want to participate at Salt Lake City? That&rsquo;s debatable, but if the league does go, it wants to go on its own terms.Right now, that&rsquo;s not good enough for the NHLPA.To say nothing of the IMF&rsquo;s significant concerns, including who&rsquo;ll ante up potential millions in player insurance.&ldquo;The IIHF paid $1.2 million last time,&rdquo; Fasel said, &ldquo;and it could be two or three times that much this time. I can&rsquo;t solve those money problems and I have to tell you, they have me very nervous.&ldquo;I think we need a hard deadline to see if (the NHL) is going or not.&ldquo;If they are, great, it&rsquo;s good for our game. If not, we have to move on because we&rsquo;re playing hockey in Salt Lake City no matter what.&rdquo; &#9632;

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YES or NO?

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy Senior Writer</div>Wave bye-bye to the eye in the sky.The NHL has re-introduced the no harm, no foul rule for crease infractions and has returned decision power to the referee regarding whether or not a goal should stand when an attacking player is in the crease.That&rsquo;s one change the NHL has in store for this season.Following numerous controversies last season, the NHL decided to allow referees to make the call on question able goals. Replay cameras nullified 137 goals (of 289 reviewed) last sea son and the league was embarrassed on Brett Hull&rsquo;s controversial Stanley Cup winning goal.The referee has the option-even if a player is in the crease-to allow the goal to count if he feels the goalie is not being obstructed. It&rsquo;s back to the no harm, no foul standard.&ldquo;The judgement has been given back to our officials and they&rsquo;re positive about that,&rdquo; said Bryan Lewis, director of NHL officiating.The NHL cracked down on crease invaders because it felt too many goalies were being injured. NHL senior vice-president Colin Campbell said the league will still monitor action around the crease closely in an ongoing effort to protect goalies.The NHL also promoted eight officials from the American League because it will use two refs in 700 games this year. That&rsquo;s up from 270 last year. By 2000-01, it&rsquo;s expected all games will have two refs.The NHL announced two main focuses for this season: reduce the length of games and maintain a high standard for calling obstruction. The league will attempt to speed up games by reducing the amount of time between faceoffs. Previously, the visiting team was allowed eight or nine seconds to make a line change following a stoppage in play. That will be reduced to five seconds this season.Campbell was quick to point out the league won&rsquo;t compromise the importance of the faceoff in its preoccupation to end games more hastily.&ldquo;As a coach, I wouldn&rsquo;t want a hurry-up faceoff in Game 7 of a playoff series,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s a lot of jockeying that goes on when it comes to changes. We want more discipline.&rdquo;In a minor rule change, only the player on the bench will be penalized if he throws a stick on the ice to a teammate whose stick has broken. Previously both players got a penalty.Meanwhile, a report out of Edmon ton told of an inventor who has developed a &lsquo;smart whistle,&rsquo; which when blown by the referee will immediately stop the time clock.The whistle utilizes microchips, sensors and radio frequency transmitters and is called the Sure-Stop Timing System. It will be discussed at a meeting of NHL GMs in February and may be approved in time for the 2000 01 season. &#9632;

Referees gain more decision power

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>He was the man.For hockey fans in Quebec, Rene Lecavalier, who passed away Sept. 6, was the voice of hockey for more than three decades, the pre-eminent French broadcaster of the past half-century.The 81-year-old was inducted into the Quebec Sports Halls of Fame, recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame (winning the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 1984) and described as one of the most brilliant broadcasters in radio and television history.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sad day,&rdquo; Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; legend Jean Beliveau told the Montreal Gazette. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know of anybody who was respected more in all of the years he was the voice of the Canadiens.&ldquo;When I think back to his broadcasts, the word &lsquo;perfectionist&rsquo; comes to mind. He educated his audience, made them understand the game better.&rdquo;Lecavalier joined Radio-Canada in 1937 and became a war correspondent in North Africa. Following his return, he moved into the sports department and was the Canadiens&rsquo; radio commentator.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re talking about hockey broadcasters,&rdquo; Dick Irvin told the Gazette, &ldquo;I guess three names come to mind. Danny Gallivan is one. Foster Hewitt is another. Then, there&rsquo;s Rene.&ldquo;They set the standard. Nobody matched them.&rdquo;<h2>PUCK BRIEFS</h2>Lecavalier became the on-air television voice of the Canadiens in 1952 and held that position until he retired in 1986. During his tenure, he won several awards for his contribution to the French language and commitment to excellence in journalism.&ldquo;I told myself that one must look at a game as if it were a story with a beginning and end,&rdquo; Lecavalier said a few years ago. &ldquo;That means tackling the points the viewers who don&rsquo;t know the game might miss. It should be done in a way that (the story) holds together, so that when you reach the third period, there is kind of a climax.&rdquo;He was revered for the style in which he called games. His use of the French language, coupled with his knowledge of the sport and cool demeanor, painted brilliant pictures in living rooms across the country. He received the Order of Canada in 1970.GARDENS FOR SALE: Less than seven months after losing its primary tenant, Maple Leaf Gardens has lost its viability.The former home of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been put up for sale by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., the group that owns the Leafs, the NBA&rsquo;s Toronto Raptors and the Air Canada Centre, their new home.MLG currently houses lacrosse&rsquo;s Toronto Rock and the Ontario League&rsquo;s Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors. &ldquo;It can&rsquo;t exist in this form,&rdquo; said MLSEL president-CEO Richard Peddie. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t work.&rdquo;A realtor has been hired to solicit bids and a package for possible investors could be ready by October. Possible options for the building and site include an entertainment complex, condominiums or a shopping mall. Estimates peg the value of the building and land in the $12- to $21-million range.Peddie said since the Leafs moved to the ACC, the Gardens has racked up losses in excess of $1 million.MLG was built by former Leafs&rsquo; owner Conn Smythe in 1931 and housed the Leafs until last February. It was declared a heritage building by the city of Toronto in 1991, meaning it can&rsquo;t be totally destroyed without a hearing.REICHEL SCORES: Unable to agree on a contract with the Phoenix Coyotes, restricted free agent Robert Reichel started the season off on the right foot scoring a goal as the Czech Republic blanked Finland 3-0 to win the Pojistovna Cup in Zlin.Reichel will play for his home club, Litvinov, in the Czech Extraleague this season.Meanwhile, the Russian national junior team established itself as a favorite to defend its World Junior Championship by holding four teams scoreless in winning the Five Nations Tournament in Moscow. &#9632;

Lecavalier was French voice of hockey

Hie goal stick of Ron Hextail was used for more than just stopping low shots between his pads.The former Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; goalie is remembered as one of the most flamboyant stoppers in the game. Hextail was especially effective handling the puck and became the first NHL goalie to score a goal by shooting it the length of the ice (he did it twice).When he wasn&rsquo;t using his stick to stop pucks or shoot them, Hextail would often chop opponents who wandered through his crease.Hextall is remaining with the team as scouting director.The Hockey News is making a deposit each issue to our Millennium Time Capsule to mark the final year of the millennium. This week THN deposits Ron Hextall&rsquo;s goalie stick. Here&rsquo;s a list of recent submissions.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011733/7432486-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="779" height="667"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021229/7432479-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="767" height="1009"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Hextall</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THN’s Millennium TIME CAPSULE

I&rsquo;m tired of Boston GM Harry Sinden taking every Bruin to task over contracts.It started in 1993 when he took underpaid Ray Bourque, a future Hall-of-Famer, to arbitration and won. In some cases, maybe Sinden is correct, but I have seen it happen too often.Now, I have to watch unenthusiastic players worry more about their future than the game at hand. Boston has one of the NHL&rsquo;s best coaches in Pat Bums, but a great chef still needs quality ingredients and Sinden refuses to provide this. While Boston has been raking in the profits ($14 million last season), they refuse to re-invest in talent. Sinden consistently overlooks big-time free agents for players in their declining years.Bruins&rsquo; players, who are talented and could easily be plucked by another team, deserve to be treated better.Bill Newman,&nbsp;Peabody, Mass.<h2>Stanley-worthy Star</h2>You guys got it right in giving a &lsquo;Minus&rsquo; to the NHL for not allowing Brent Severyn&rsquo;s name on the Stanley Cup (THN, Sept. 17). His name belongs there because of the heart and championship character he showed throughout the season.Dallas newspapers detailed Severyn&rsquo;s pain when he was a healthy scratch during the playoffs. Despite this, he motivated the Stars and was instrumental in keeping the team&rsquo;s spirits high, especially after critical post-season losses.But what impressed me about Severyn is he chose to spend his day with the Cup by taking it to local children&rsquo;s hospitals. Doctors said he refused to leave until every child had a chance to meet him and touch the Cup. He is a rare commodity in today&rsquo;s jaded world of high-paid superstars-an unselfish pro.Maybe the league numbskull who refused the Dallas Stars&rsquo; request to put Severyn&rsquo;s name on the Cup will read this. But it won&rsquo;t matter-it&rsquo;s probably the same numbskull who allowed so many Hitch family members&rsquo; names on the Cup when the Detroit Red Wings won it twice.Rob Leasman.,&nbsp;Fort Worth, Tex.<h2>No goalie controversy</h2>This is in response to the letter &ldquo;Goalie stats padded&rdquo; (THN, Sept. 17).I have watched hockey footage from the 1940s through to the 1990s and it was easier to score against lesser-talented goalies in the early days. Today&rsquo;s goalies are in better shape and are better athletes.Tune in to ESPN Classic sometime and watch. The goalies never went down, they tried to make every save from a standing position. How many of Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s goals were scored when he skated around a goalie still on his feet? I&rsquo;m not trying to take anything away from the goalies of yesterday. They did the job in their era. But you could take a backup goalie from any of today&rsquo;s teams and he would be unbeatable against past generations. The game has simply evolved.Michael Rakoska,&nbsp;Olean, N.Y.<h2>Signed, Sen, delivered</h2>I have a long-standing subscription to The Hockey News, but I demand a renegotiation.I refuse to buy THN unless it is four pages longer this year, eight the following year and 12 the year after that.Oh&hellip;and I want Alexei Yashin to personally deliver it to my door.Mel Powell,&nbsp;Los Angeles<h2>(Door)Matt Johnson</h2>I am enraged you printed the &ldquo;Attack deserved&rdquo; letter (THN, Sept. 10).No one deserves to be sucker-punched. Matt Johnson should have been suspended for a full year for ending Jeff Beukeboom&rsquo;s career. As for Johnson&rsquo;s right to defend a teammate, that&rsquo;s garbage-a true enforcer would have faced Beukeboom like a man.Johnson is a coward and he punched Beukeboom from behind to ensure Beukeboom wouldn&rsquo;t be able to get up. He was afraid Beukeboom would have beaten him in a fair fight.Beukeboom&rsquo;s slew-footing of Glen Murray did not appear to be intention al. If it was, he deserved to be sus pended; he did not deserve what he received. The only one who has not received what he deserves is Johnson.But if fate balances the scales, Johnson may find his career cut short.Suzanne Metaxas,&nbsp;Bay side, N. Y.<h2>Decidedly undeserved</h2>In response to &ldquo;Attack deserved&rdquo; (THN, Sept. 10); Jeff Beukeboom may have taken liberties with Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; players, but he did not &ldquo;deserve&rdquo; to have his career ended.Beukeboom wasn&rsquo;t looking to end anybody&rsquo;s career-neither was Matt Johnson, I&rsquo;m sure-but this kind of aggressive play has been going on for years. It is how the game has developed and it won&rsquo;t stop unless you slow play down to a near standstill.Bottom line, no player &ldquo;gets what he deserves&rdquo; when his career is ended due to injuries caused by an opponent. Beukeboom, a 13-year veteran, would have loved to have ended his career on his own terms, just like anybody else.Matt Stewart,&nbsp;Merrick, N. Y.<h2>Expect crash landing</h2>You&rsquo;ve got to be kidding-Eric Lindros can&rsquo;t possibly be ready to lead the Flyers to a championship (THN, Sept. 17).All the money in Philadelphia&rsquo;s payroll will never make Lindros what he isn&rsquo;t and probably never will be: A leader.Look for him to leave the team after the Flyers bow out ungracefully in the first round of the playoffs next spring&hellip;.once again.Lindsay Samson,&nbsp;Pittsburgh<h2>Hunter-rific</h2>Thank you for giving Dale Hunter the respect he so richly deserves (THN, Sept. 3).Hunter is the only NHLer ever to score 300 goals, 1,000 points and amass 3,000 penalty minutes. It&rsquo;s too bad one of the game&rsquo;s most spirited players will be remembered by some only for his heat-of-the-moment hit on a notoriously soft Pierre Turgeon. Let it go, Isles&rsquo; fans, it happened six years ago.Dale Hunter is a hero in his home town, an idol to young players and a trooper that teammates could count on when heading into war. When he is elected into the Hall of Fame, perhaps then he will be remembered for his stellar career and not his one glaring error.Jake Clarke,&nbsp;Petrolia, Ont.<h2>The game, the good</h2>Many letters on this page consist of a complaint about the game or a player, how to improve this, why to change that, etc.It seems like we are all forgetting the most important thing: The game itself. Hockey fans, remember how you feel after a goal is scored, a big save, a pretty pass, a clean hit, a rookie&rsquo;s first goal, a veteran&rsquo;s last shift and a come-from-behind victory.I could keep going with this list, but I don&rsquo;t want to use up too much space here. I know this area is used to discuss the more important aspects of the game. My apologies.Eric Oterson,&nbsp;Long Island, N. Y.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.&nbsp;E-mail us at mccaigs@trans-confine ntaLca Include hometown as well as home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Bruins won’t contendwith tightwad ways

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011932/7432541-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011757/7432579-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Hextali influenced a generation of goalies with his mobility and penchant for playing the puck.</figcaption></div>Some players leave their mark on their chosen sport and a select few actually alter the way their game is played.Ron Hextall did both.Not only did the abrasive netminder carveout a reputation as an intense, nasty individual prone to fits of violence-he was suspended twice in his career, eight games for slashing Kent Nilsson and 12 for attacking Chris Chelios-his participation in the play and puck-handling skills revolutionized the role of the goaltender.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021168/7432572-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="404" height="571"></div>Others before him, most notably Jacques Plante, dabbled in crease wandering and playing the puck, but Hextall took it to a whole new level. When he was at his prowling best, he was like a third defenseman on the ice.Hextall retired from the Philadelphia Flyers Sept. 6 after turning down the chance to join the Calgary Flames.Though he will forever be remembered as the first goalie to rifle the puck the length of the ice into an empty net for a goal, on Dec. 8,1987 against the Boston Bruins (he added another in a 1989 playoff game against the Washington Capitals), it was his ability to clear the puck or set up a teammate with a perfect outlet pass that best defined Hextall. Some of his contemporaries, like Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche and Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils, have followed his lead.&ldquo;He influenced me a lot,&rdquo; said the 27-year-old Brodeur, who scored an empty-net goal against the Montreal Canadiens in the 1997 playoffs. &ldquo;I watched what he did with the puck, I tried it and oh boy, was it difficult. He made it look so easy. I always felt a lot of pressure when I played against him, not only in terms of goals against, but also in handling the puck.&rdquo;Like most innovators, Hextall often had to convince skeptics his way was the best way.&ldquo;I had a coach in junior who told me there would not be a place for me in the National Hockey League if I continued moving the puck the way I was,&rdquo; Hextall recalled. &ldquo;The fact is, it was the first day of camp and I wasn&rsquo;t on my game yet, so I can understand how it looked to him. I said, &rsquo;Look, I think I can keep our team in the game better if I play the puck&rsquo; and about a month later he was all for it.&rdquo;When Hextall made it to the NHL, after a two-year apprenticeship in the minors, Mike Keenan was his coach. Though Keenan was one of the few individuals who could match him temper tantrum for temper tantrum, Hextall found an ally in &lsquo;Iron Mike.&rsquo;&ldquo;He gave me the platform to play my style and I took the ball and ran with it,&rdquo; Hextall said. &ldquo;And because of that, I never really hada problem with coaches after that.&rdquo;The grandson of Hall-of-Famer BryanHextall and son of former NHLer BryanHextall Jr.-both forwards-Hextall established himself as an impact player as a rookie in 1986-87 when he led all goalies in wins (37), games (66) and minutes (3,799). He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best goalie and, although the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Flyers in seven games in the Stanley Cup final, Hextall won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, becoming only the fourth losing player to do so.His great first year did not translate into superstardom. Rather, he was a solid No. 1 goalie for most of his career dogged by a penchant for allowing untimely soft goals.After six years with the Flyers, Hextall was part of the eight-for-one trade with the Quebec Nordiques for Eric Lindros. He played one year in Quebec and another in New York with the Islanders before being brought home to Philly in 1994. In 1995-96 he led the NHL in goals-against average at 2.17, but in &rsquo;97 the Flyers were dismantled in four straight by the Detroit Red Wings in the final and Hextall had been reduced to backup duty ever since.He will scout for the Flyers this year and has aspirations to pursue a career in management.&ldquo;In a perfect world I&rsquo;d play another 10 years, but this isn&rsquo;t a perfect world,&rdquo; Hextall said. &ldquo;I thought about going to Calgary and my family said they&rsquo;d back me all the way, so. that wasn&rsquo;t a factor. But I&rsquo;m 35, I&rsquo;ve had a long career and I&rsquo;ve had problems with my hip. I wasn&rsquo;t convinced my body could take an 82-game schedule and playoffs. My mind was into it, but my body wasn&rsquo;t. I never wanted to be the kind of guy who was just hanging on.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Hextail leaves crease

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011824/7432610-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>Nicklas Lidstr&ouml;m knew the money was waiting, a Brinks&rsquo; truck worth of financial security for a simple &lsquo;Yes.&rsquo; As for the other part of the equation, he already realized he and his wife Annika would have to decide the future of their children&rsquo;s education by themselves.Lidstr&ouml;m had just about enough data for a decision on staying with the Detroit Red Wings or returning to his native Sweden. He needed one more bit of information from GM Ken Holland and took advantage of an open-door policy to find the answer.The pointed question: Were the Red Wings still committed to being one of the NHL&rsquo;s elite?&ldquo;They told me they still wanted to be competitive,&rdquo; Lidstr&ouml;m said. &ldquo;I got the right answer for me.&rdquo;And Lidstr&ouml;m was persistent.&ldquo;I asked more than once,&rdquo; he said.After years of defining quiet excellence, Lidstr&ouml;m, 29, has finally allowed one quick look at what drives him. Forget the money, a large chunk of which was available last season. And the pursuit of Norris Trophies (&ldquo;a bonus,&rdquo; he says).Or even a career that could rival that of Sweden&rsquo;s greatest defenseman, Boije Salming-his boyhood hero. Lidstr&ouml;m just wants to win-again-in the next three sea-sons that he&rsquo;s guaranteed of spending in Detroit after signing a three-year, $21.75-million deal Aug. 20.&ldquo;I want to get back to winning the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; Lidstr&ouml;m said. &ldquo;We all remember those two years we won it, how good you feel about yourself and how good the city feels about the team. That&rsquo;s what I want to get back to.&rdquo;In Lidstrom-speak, that amounts to a passionate speech, a sign the topic touched a nerve.What Holland failed to tell Lidstr&ouml;m is the Red Wings&rsquo; chance of staying competitive improved dramatically when he decided to stay.Lidstr&ouml;m dismisses such talk. His, teammates, in what amounts to honest reverence, don&rsquo;t.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the one guy we can&rsquo;t be with-, out,&rdquo; said captain Steve Yzerman.The next hole found in Lidstrom&rsquo;s game will be the first. He may lack some flash, but his all-around game is impeccable.&ldquo;Game in and game out for the last two or three years,&rdquo; said coach Scotty Bowman, &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say any one (defenseman has) been better.&rdquo;While Lidstrom&rsquo;s offense-he has scored 63 goals the past four seasons-gets attention, other parts of his game are just as important. He plays positional defense so well, he received just 14 penalty minutes and was the runner-up for the Lady Byng Trophy last season. A defenseman hasn&rsquo;t won the Byng since Detroit&rsquo;s Red Kelly in 1954.To Red Wings&rsquo; defense prospect Jesse Wallin, Lidstr&ouml;m is a one-man tutorial on playing the position.&ldquo;This is my third training camp and I have yet to see him get beat 1-on-l,&rdquo; Wallin said.Or take the word of one of many forwards Lidstr&ouml;m has frustrated.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always there, always around you, not letting you do what you want,&rdquo; said Phoenix Coyotes&rsquo; captain Keith Tkachuk.Now all he has to do is continue to play at a high level with the scrutiny of a contract which makes him the second-highest paid defenseman, just behind Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers. Lidstr&ouml;m is due to receive $6 million this season, $7.25 million in 2000-01 and $8.5 million the year after.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t look it at that way,&rdquo; Lidstr&ouml;m said in reference to the contract. &ldquo;My ice time will be the same. I think the responsibility will be the same as the last two or three years.&rdquo;Lidstrom&rsquo;s excellence has been recognized-the past two seasons he has been the Norris Trophy runner-up and a first team all-star-but his profile remains relatively low. Part of the reason is his personality, part-Swede, part-Vulcan. Emotions? Forget about it. A raised eye brow is Lidstrom&rsquo;s version of a hissy fit.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s quiet,&rdquo; Yzerman said, &ldquo;and then there&rsquo;s Nick.&rdquo;He finally did make some off-ice noise two seasons ago when he first talked of returning to Sweden to raise his sons, Kevin, 5, and Adam, 3. For nearly 18 months, he kept his own counsel while keeping the Red Wings nervous.While some called the extended public drama nothing but a negotiating ploy, Lidstr&ouml;m said he wanted to make the best choice for his children.Finally, the Lidstroms found a Swedish couple who had lived in Detroit on business for several years. They, too, had small children.&ldquo;Like us, they felt it was important to raise their families in Sweden,&rdquo; Lidstr&ouml;m said. &ldquo;But they agreed there was no problem with their kids living (in the United States) longer than what we already have.&rdquo;Lidstr&ouml;m assures his indecision had nothing to do with misgivings about American education, culture or school violence.&ldquo;I think the schools here are great,&rdquo; Lidstr&ouml;m said. &ldquo;(But Kevin) was starting to think in English. I don&rsquo;t want them getting away from Swedish, forgetting about Swedish.&rdquo;Lidstrom&rsquo;s decision to stay was a cause for celebration among Detroit sports&rsquo; fans. It was especially welcome news so soon after Lions&rsquo; running back Barry Sanders announced his retirement from the National Football League.&ldquo;A lot of people on my street and in my neighborhood have thanked me for coming back,&rdquo; Lid str&ouml;m said.Yes, the natives are doing everything they can to make the Lidstroms feel right at home.<h2>Stalking Salming</h2>Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstr&ouml;m must play almost seven more seasons at his current scoring pace to pass Borje Salming and become the highest-scoring European-born defenseman of all-time. Dallas Stars&rsquo; Sergei Zubov has the highest points-per-game average among active European defensemen (.81). Mark Hardy was born in Switzerland, but grew up in North America. An asterisk denotes a retired player. &#9632;

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A Win-Win Situation

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011794/7432648-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leading the way for Mississauga this season are owner Don Cherry, Jason Spezza and coach Jim Hulton.</figcaption></div>For a boy blessed with vision considered out of this world-and what is a 16-year-old if not still a boy?-it is with great ease Jason Spezza imagines himself as the youngest player ever to play for Canada at the World Junior Championship.Picture this: It&rsquo;s Christmas Day, 1999, in northern Sweden. Spezza (pronounced SPET-za), the 6-foot-3, 200-pound man-child, takes to the ice with Canada for its first game of the Y2K WJC against Finland.At 16 years, six months old, he is younger than Wayne Gretzky in Mon treal in 1977 or Mario Lemieux in Leningrad in 1982 or Eric Lindros in Helsinki in 1989 or Paul Kariya in Fussen, Germany, in 1992.Just picture it, because Jason Spezza can. Clearly.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only personal goal I&rsquo;ve set for myself this year,&rdquo; said the Missis sauga IceDog center who has everything required to become Canada&rsquo;s next big thing in hockey. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to me to make it happen. I will have to play my way onto that team.&rdquo;Of that there is no doubt. Spezza was deemed by the Canadian Hockey Association too young to be invited to the national junior team evaluation camp in August at York University in Toronto. And yet there he was in the stands every day, with dad Rino by his side, watching intently, soaking it all in and sizing up the challenge ahead.&ldquo;Jason really loves the game and he likes to study it,&rdquo; said Rino, a City of Toronto building inspector who played goal in Jr. B against a 15-year-old Gretzky.National junior coach Claude Julien took time to speak to the prodigy: &ldquo;He just told me they would be watching me this season and if I played well enough I would get a chance to try out&rdquo; Spezza said.This introductory story-Spezza&rsquo;s dream to be the youngest Canadian to play in the WJC, his showing up every day just to watch practice and his insatiable desire for skill development-goes a long way towards establishing why it&rsquo;s not presumptuous to mention his name in the same breath as Gretzky, Lemieux, Lindros or Kariya. Or, for that matter, Bobby Orr, who just happens to be the kid&rsquo;s agent.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a helluva player,&rdquo; Orr said. &ldquo;He has talent, but more than that, he has an incredible passion for the game. It&rsquo;s a tough go, I know that. Injuries, things can happen so we&rsquo;ll just have to wait and see. Everyone tries to get me to compare him to this great player or that great player, but I won&rsquo;t do it. He&rsquo;s Jason Spezza and he has a chance to be a special player.&rdquo;His performance last season, as a 15-year-old rookie with his hometown Brampton Battalion of the Ontario League, suggested as much. He scored 22 goals and 71 points in 67 games. At the same age in Oshawa in 1963-64, Orr had 29 goals and 72 points in 56 games.But it is Spezza&rsquo;s performance this year, and next, for Don Cherry&rsquo;s Ice Dogs, that will define what limits, if any, should be put on the potential of a prospect who is the clear favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 NHL entry draft.Spezza is an IceDog this season because, at 16, he had to submit to the OHL draft, of which he was the No. 1 pick. His family moved from Missis sauga to Brampton prior to last season so he would be eligible to play as an undrafted 15-year-old for die Battallion, not the IceDogs.But now he&rsquo;s fully committed to giving some credibility to a franchise that won only four games during the 1998-99 season.&ldquo;I keep saying, &rsquo;This can&rsquo;t be,&rsquo; because this kid is unbelievable,&rdquo; Cherry said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great player, but he&rsquo;s also a great kid. You think he&rsquo;s 21, not 16. I coached Bobby Orr so I know something about special. This kid is special. But we have to be careful, too. He&rsquo;s only 16.&rdquo;At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds-he bulked up over the summer while working out with New York Ranger center Manny Malhotra-the Grade 11 student looks as much a man as a boy, though his muscle tone is not as sculpted as, say Lindros, at the same age. Mind you, Spezza&rsquo;s feet are size 13 &frac12;. But he has the face of a 16-year-old-a big, toothy smile and a few teenage trademark pimples.By all accounts, he comes from a close and well-grounded hockey family-dad Rino, mom Donna and twin siblings-13-year-old Matthew and Michelle.Spezza started this season in fine fashion. In the first public first training camp scrimmage with the IceDogs, he scored on the first shot of his first shift, 22 seconds into the contest. He scored on his second shot, on his second shift, beating Nick Foley.&ldquo;This kid is so far ahead of any player I&rsquo;ve seen come into this league,&rdquo; Foley said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a dominant player this season.&rdquo;In the Dogs&rsquo; first pre-season game, a 9-2 win over Oshawa, Spezza&rsquo;s performance was spotty. He had two assists, but his effort lacked consistency. Spezza did make several spectacular moves that drew oohs and aahs from fans at the Hershey Centre. Not all of them, however, worked and some resulted in turnovers.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll make mistakes,&rdquo; said linemate and Mississauga captain Scott Page, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;ll try to make plays I wouldn&rsquo;t dream of trying. Most kids are afraid to make a mistake or do something daring, but not Jason. You have to admire that. He has a real desire to be creative.&rdquo;NHL scouts are well aware of Spezza&rsquo;s presence and potential. They also realize he&rsquo;s a work in progress.&ldquo;His quickness, speed and power need work,&rdquo; said Paul Henry, who scouted last sea son for the Florida Panthers. &ldquo;But this kid has vision and creativity that sets him apart. He finds players on the ice no one else even sees.&rdquo;Henry hasn&rsquo;t seen another 2001 prospect to rival Spezza. But Henry thinks Lindros was more of a complete package at the same age and the scout is even more blown away by another player bom in 1983-Edmonton&rsquo;s Jay Bouwmeester, an offensive defenseman who&rsquo;ll play in Medicine Hat of the Western League this season. Bouwmeester isn&rsquo;t eligible for the draft until 2002.&ldquo;He is the most complete and perfect player in terms of overall excellence I&rsquo;ve seen,&rdquo; Henry said. &ldquo;For me he conjures up visions of a young Bobby Orr.&rdquo;The scouts will also be keeping an eye on another 1983-bom prospect, who like Spezza is 2001 draft-eligible. His name is Ryan Hollweg, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound from Los Angeles who&rsquo;ll play for Langley of the B.C. Junior League this season.While it&rsquo;s not surprising to hear Toronto area behemoths Lindros and Spezza compared, they couldn&rsquo;t be more different.&ldquo;Eric was and is a physically dominant player,&rdquo; said IceDog coach Jim Hulton, who played against a 15-year-old Lindros. &ldquo;Jason is a big kid who uses his size to cope with the physical play, but he&rsquo;s a finesse player.&rdquo;As Henry put it, &ldquo;Spezza&rsquo;s style is a lot closer to Mario Lemieux than Eric&rsquo;s.&rdquo;And Hulton added, &ldquo;Jason&rsquo;s skill level is higher than Eric&rsquo;s, which is high praise because Eric is a highly skilled player, but Eric can physically punish you and Jason isn&rsquo;t that type of player.&rdquo;The IceDogs still remember a play Spezza used against them last season. He went behind the net with the puck, flipped it over the cage and used his Lemieux-like reach to get in front and receive his own pass for a shot on goal. It doesn&rsquo;t hurt that he uses the maximum length stick, requiring an extension to the standard shaft.&ldquo;What sets him apart is his vision, creativity and his ability to handle the puck, either in tight in traffic or making full use of that enormous wingspan,&rdquo; Hulton said.Spezza&rsquo;s arrival may be just what the doctor ordered for Canadian hockey, which is under attack for not producing elite-level skill players. Spezza has had a private skating and skills coach since 12. Jari Byrski, a Ukrainian who runs a skating and skill development hockey school in Toronto, has spent countless hours working with Soezza on difficult European agility drills and maneuvers. Skating is the only element of Spezza&rsquo;s game that doesn&rsquo;t elicit rave reviews.&ldquo;As a junior, his skating is above average,&rdquo; Byrski said. &ldquo;But Jason&rsquo;s not willing to accept that.&ldquo;No one works harder to improve. If he continues to work as hard at it, in three or four years, his skating will be spectacular.&rdquo;Hulton isn&rsquo;t convinced skating is an issue, invoking the Lemieux deceptive speed argument.&ldquo;Jason is so big and smooth, he looks like he&rsquo;s slow,&rdquo; Hulton said. &ldquo;Put a puck in front of him and see how slow he is. I&rsquo;ve had referees and other players tell me they didn&rsquo;t realize how fast he was until they were at ice level with him.&rdquo;All that will play itself out in due time. In the meantime, all indications are that the fans in Mississauga, and the entire OHL for that matter, will get to enjoy the ride while the young ster finds his stride.The question is, can a 16-year-old enjoy it, given the great expectations and pressure to perform that go with them?&ldquo;You guys will write what you want to write, people will say what they want to say,&rdquo; Spezza said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t control any of that. All I can control is how I play. I&rsquo;m trying to be the best player I can be. If that makes me the best player in the OHL or one day the best player in the NHL, that&rsquo;s great. I don&rsquo;t think anyone sets out to be a mediocre player.&ldquo;I understand you have to move up the ranks, pay the dues, but my goal is to be at the top of my game every night.&rdquo;<h2>Four Sweet 16 Seasons</h2>As a point of perspective, not comparison, for understanding Jason Spezza&rsquo;s potential, here is what four of the most explosive talents ever in Canadian hockey history accomplished as 16-year-olds in major junior. Spezza&rsquo;s 71 points in the Ontario League last season were second only to Orr&rsquo;s 72 as the most produced by a 15-year-old. Gretzky didn&rsquo;t join the league until 16.<h3>Bobby Orr</h3>TeamOshawaGeneralsSeason1964-65GP-G-A-Pts.56-34-59-93<h3>Wayne Gretzky</h3>TeamSault Ste. MarieGreyhoundsSeason1977-7863-70-112-182<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011614/7432641-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="521" height="348"><figcaption class="caption-body">Josan Spezza</figcaption></div><h3>Mario Lemieux</h3>TeamTitanSeason1981-82GP-G-A-Pts.64-30-66-96<h3>Eric Lindros</h3>TeamOshawaGeneralsSeason1989-90GP-G-A-Pts.25-17-19-36 &#9632;

f0010-01

DESTINY IS CALLING

<div class="byline">By Mike Gibb Staff Writer</div>Alyn McCauley got married this summer and boy, was he pleased he didn&rsquo;t suffer from any headaches.The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; center thinks he has fully recovered from a concussion suffered March 2 against the New Jersey Devils when he was slammed into the boards by &ldquo;Devils&rsquo; defenseman Sheldon Souray.&ldquo;You never really know,&rdquo; McCauley said of his readiness, &ldquo;until you get out there.&ldquo;The headaches are gone and I feel good, but you don&rsquo;t know until you go out and start playing full tilt.&rdquo;The fact the 22-year-old is back on skates and able to attend the Maple Leafs&rsquo; training camp in Barrie, Ont., is an accomplishment. He isn&rsquo;t sure of the exact number, but said his most recent concussion was either his third or fourth since 1993, when he began playing for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Ottawa 67&rsquo;s.&ldquo;Everybody is cautiously optimistic,&rdquo; said Chris Broad hurst, the Leafs&rsquo; head athletic therapist. &ldquo;Alyn&rsquo;s done a lot of work in the off-season and we&rsquo;ve done everything possible to make sure he&rsquo;s ready.&rdquo;The toughest part of McCauley&rsquo;s recovery was waiting for the symptoms-headaches, dizzi ness and nausea-to disappear. It was mid-May before he felt well enough to work out.&ldquo;Concussions are the most difficult sports injury to assess properly and to treat,&rdquo; said Dr. James Kelly, a neurologist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. &ldquo;With a concussion, you have to let the symptoms dictate the treatment.&rdquo;Unprescribed treatment included a June 19 wedding to Nicole Delaney, which helped him gain a new perspective.&ldquo;It got my mind off hockey,&rdquo; McCauley said. &ldquo;And I realized there are bigger things out there.&rdquo;McCauley also received advice from players who had suffered head injuries-including ex-Leaf NickKypreos, whose career was cut short by a concussion.Mighty Ducks of Anaheim star Paul Kariya tried to get in touch with him, but they never talked. Still, Kariya, whose head injury in January, 1998 caused him to miss the rest of that season, provides McCauley with the knowledge not all concussions end careers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011737/7432679-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="806" height="1351"><figcaption class="caption-body">A concussion last March placed Alyn McCauley&rsquo;s career in jeopardy.</figcaption></div>McCauley&rsquo;s pro career began in 1995 when he was a fourth round selection of the Devils. But in February, 1997, before he played a game in New Jersey, he was traded to Toronto with Steve Sullivan and Jason Smith in exchange for Doug Gilmour, Dave Ellet and a third round draft pick.Named the Canadian Hockey League player of the year following the 1996-97 campaign, McCauley has yet to play a full NHL season. In1997-98, a broken ankle and sore shoulder limited him to 60 games. Last year, he suffered a sprained left knee early in the season and missed22 games before the concussion knocked him loopy and he has yet to play a&rdquo; game-or take a hit-since.In his two seasons as a Maple Leaf, he has scored 15I goals and 40 points in 99| games. He was off to a quick start last season with 22 points in 34 games before injuries side lined him.I At training camp, McCauley is wearing a new helmet with more protection, a visor for the first time in his career and a new mouth guard, all to protect against suffering another concussion.I &ldquo;If he&rsquo;s well, he&rsquo;ll maintain| his position (as the Leafs&rsquo; No.2 center),&rdquo; said Leafs&rsquo; assistant to the president Bill Watters.I &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to a lot of people who know more about hockey than I do and they agree Alyn was having a breakthrough season last year.&rdquo;While the Leafs believe McCauley can rebound, they| haven&rsquo;t made a long-term financial commitment. He signed a one-year contract during the off-sea son for $715,000 (U.S.), giving him extra incentive for a successful comeback.He isn&rsquo;t sure what to expect when the hitting starts for real. Whether the next hit will be his last, or even if there is a spot on the team waiting for him. He just believes he has to try.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going in thinking I have a lot left to prove,&rdquo; McCauley said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fortunate enough to realize I&rsquo;ve been given a second chance. Some guys&rsquo; careers end with a hit like that.&ldquo;Mine just slowed down a bit.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

FEATURE

McCauley headsback to Toronto

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021304/7432710-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="404" height="578"></div>Impertinent thoughts on pertinent subjects:&#9633; The most improved team in the NHL? The New York Rangers, who are now worthy of second place in the Atlantic. Don&rsquo;t laugh-the Blue shirts could get Dallas-hot next spring, especially Mike Richter.&#9633; The NHL&rsquo;s Five Most Misspelled Names: 1. Krzysztof Oliwa; 2. Jaroslav (Yogi) Svejkovsky; 3. Vadim Sharifijanov; 4. Tony Hrkac; 5. Nikolai Khabibulin.&#9633; Minus Pat Verbeek, Craig Lud wig and Dave Reid, the Stars also will be minus Stanley Cup II. You just don&rsquo;t replace that blend of savvy and winning attitude.&#9633; The NHL Players&rsquo; Association doesn&rsquo;t get it: Disney wants to sell the Mighty Ducks and Orca Bay is doing ditto with the Canucks because the corporate folks there figured out they can&rsquo;t make a buck in big league hockey. Next in fine will be the Islanders and Coyotes, no doubt followed by Montreal and Buffalo.&#9633; Who is Nicklas Lidstr&ouml;m kid ding? He craftily played the Red Wings against Sweden to up his ante and it worked as one of the decade&rsquo;s better bidding ploys.&#9633; By far the best unheralded off season acquisition was St. Louis signing the next Hasek, otherwise known as Roman Turek.&#9633; Should Ottawa decide to deal Alexei Yashin, Broadway would be his natural destination. The Senators should go for a package including Manny Malhotra, Pavel Brendl and $2 million.&#9633; A Bob Goodenow nightmare would be the Islanders making the playoffs on a $14-million budget. Hey, it could happen if Felix Potvin plays like he did in 1992-93, Kenny Jonsson stays healthy and Olli Jokinen outscores Ziggy Palffy. By the way, Nassau&rsquo;s secret weapon is coach Butch Goring.&#9633; When will the league realize divisional games should be quadrupled because divisional rivalries are what make the NHL tick, not inter conference bore fests.&#9633; Here&rsquo;s one recipe for making the NHL vanilla-flavored: Remove Dino Ciccarelli, Dale Hunter, Ron Hextall, Mike Keenan and Ted Nolan. (Will someone please add some spice.) Earth to Jason Allison: The Bruins are a better team without Dmitri Khristich.&#9633; Expansion works only when all existing teams are stable. NHL expansion for the past decade has been wrong because the foundation never was firm when the additions were made.&#9633; Hockey is saved in Pittsburgh, but don&rsquo;t kid yourselves-it&rsquo;s only for the moment. Mario Lemieux must prove he can orchestrate a hockey club the way he did a puck before we&rsquo;ll be certain the Pens are riveted to Pitts burgh.&#9633; Finally, the most overlooked NHL defenseman, Calgary Flame Derek Morris, will get his due in 1999 2000.&#9633; How&rsquo;s this for ultimate survivability: Ray &lsquo;The Mouth&rsquo; Ferraro getting a two-year pact with the Atlanta Thrashers. That should steer him to the broadcast booth by 2002 with Turner Sports.&#9633; By far the biggest waste of hot air when it comes to hockey talk is whether or not the NHL should get involved in the next Winter Olympics. It&rsquo;s a no-brainer: forget about it.&#9633; The most ridiculous example of revisionist hockey history is calling the 1980s Edmonton Oilers the best team ever. Gimme a break. Here are three reasons why they&rsquo;re not: 1. They couldn&rsquo;t even win three straight Cups; 2. The Oilers choked in the 1986 play offs, losing to inferior Calgary; 3. Edmonton always had an undisciplined, one-dimensional team that never figured out how to play defense. Otherwise the Oilers were terrific-about the 12th-best team of all-time. &#9632;

f0014-02

COLUMNS

Dumping of vets means no repeat in Stars

<div class="byline">By Mike Gibb Staff Writer</div>This is a true story about a Transylvanian-bom, goalie-by-night, bank-robber-by-day fugitive who might never have been caught if not for his love for his dog.Oliver Stone, on his strangest day, couldn&rsquo;t conjure up a plot this bizarre.Attila Ambrus, aka &lsquo;The Whiskey Bandit,&rsquo; was a 32-year-old backup goaltender who played professionally in Hungary. He has also admitted to stealing more than $560,(XX) (U.S.) from 27 different banks there since 1996.The nickname stems from Ambrus&rsquo; ritual of stopping at a local pub for a shot of whiskey before committing a robbery.He was finally apprehended last January when, after deciding to leave Hungary, he got to the border before going back for his dog, Don. When he returned to the border, authorities were. waiting for him.Police charged him with five counts of bank robbery, but he openly confessed to 27. You see, according his lawyer, Gyorgy Magyar, Ambrusis a stand-up guy. A guy who always told the truth. A guy with folk hero qualities.His legend grew from acts such as having flowers delivered to female tellers he had terrified and sending a bottle of whiskey to the investigator trying to capture him.His daring escapes included zipping through the back streets of Budapest in a cab and swimming naked across the Danube River.Bom and raised in Transylvania-located in the northeast region of Romania-Ambrus went to Hungary in 1989, fleeing civil unrest due to the fall of communism. Penniless, he was taken in by a Hungarian family. Shortly thereafter, he got a job at the local arena as an ice-maker and janitor and eventually managed to coerce a try-out with one of the pro teams.Ambrus split time between the Ute and Ferendvaros teams in the Hungarian pro league, which will never be mistaken for the NHL. The Hungarian national team finished eighth (of eight teams) at the 1999 World Group B championship while the Romanian team finished second in the World Group C championship. The Hungarian league is a step or two below most minor pro leagues in North America. And Ambrus was just a backup in the Hungarian league, hanging on by a thread, although happily, according to his lawyer.Though he began frequenting casinos, wearing expensive clothes and driving a new car every six months, no one was suspicious. His weekend vacations became the trip of choice for local, single ladies. Following his capture, Ambrus spent six months in jail awaiting trial, facing upwards of 10 years in prison. His lawyer, Gyorgy Magyar, visited him in mid-July and worried the happy-go-lucky goalie was so despondent, he might attempt suicide.Despondent like a fox.That night, Ambrus broke into the prison office and, using telephone and electric cables, swung out a window and into freedom.He hasn&rsquo;t been heard from since.A book detailing his exploits has already been released in Hungary, to be followed by a movie there. Magyar said any profit will go towards repaying the banks in hopes of reducing Ambrus&rsquo; sentence, but in the same breath, Magyar added, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect him to be found alive. He&rsquo;s a crafter who has tired of losing.&rdquo; &#9632;

Goalie robs banks, not shooters

<div class="byline">By Gammy Clark</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021050/7432796-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="618" height="1102"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Rucchin</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011368/7432803-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="163" height="161"></div>Steve Rucchin often has called himself &ldquo;the luckiest guy in the NHL&rdquo; for his job of centering stars Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.But this season it may be 22-year-old Matt Cullen who will get that enviable role for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.The move is not a slap in the face to Rucchin, but rather a compliment. Rucchin may have started as a player riding on the coattails of the dynamic duo, but he has developed into a top center on his own merit.Ducks&rsquo; coach Craig Hartsburg is hoping Rucchin will anchor the second line with wingers Marty McInnis and Ted Donato, whom the Ducks acquired in June from the Ottawa Senators.The Ducks have never had a solid second line. &ldquo;The general consensus still is if you can stop the Ducks&rsquo; first line, you have a pretty good chance of winning,&rdquo; said goalie Guy Hebert.Hartsburg wanted to change that last season. He tried splitting up Selanne and Kariya, but they are even more magical as a package. So the plan was to have Rucchin anchor the second line because he provides a strong offensive threat and a solid defensive presence.The Ducks held try-outs all last sea son for Rucchin&rsquo;s job on the top line. Veteran Travis Green got a shot. So did McInnis, rookie Johan Davidsson and Cullen.For most of the season, no one could keep up with the two stars for more than a game or two. So Rucchin would get moved back to the top line.Now the Ducks&rsquo; feel Cullen is ready to assume more responsibility.&ldquo;He played real strong his second half of last year,&rdquo; said GM Pierre Gauthier. &ldquo;The first part he would not have been able to play with Paul and Teemu. But by the end of the year it looked like he had been there a long time.&rdquo;Cullen&rsquo;s emergence as a bona fide player was one reason Gauthier was parted with Green, along with the Ducks&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick (No. 15 overall), in the deal with the Phoenix Coy otes to acquire defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky. Cullen was eighth on the team in scoring last season with 11 goals and 25 points in 75 games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anything is ever for sure, but I feel comfortable that I&rsquo;m good enough to play here,&rdquo; Cullen said. &ldquo;I think I can contribute this year more than I have the past. I&rsquo;m not going into camp as nervous or getting down like I did before.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Kevin Haller had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Sept. 8 to clean up some cartilage and will be out until at least late September. &ldquo;He should be back by the start of the season (Oct. 2 at Dallas) if everything goes right,&rdquo; said coach Craig Hartsburg. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nothing serious, but just a nagging thing we should take care of now."&hellip;Defenseman Niclas Havelid, a third round pick in 1999, is expected to make the team. &ldquo;Havelid has been everything everyone has said about hirn a great skater and he competes hard,&rdquo; Hartsburg said of the 26-year-old Swede. &#9632;

f0017-02

Cullen gets chance at No. 1 line as Ducks aim for more balance

<div class="byline">By Jeff Schultz</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011406/7432834-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="160" height="161"></div>Kelly Buchberger went into training camp as the odds-on favorite to be named the Atlanta Thrashers&rsquo; first captain. He did nothing early to take himself out of the running.Despite being one of the older players on the team, Buchberger, 32, was among the most fit in a series of 10 medical tests taken the day before the Thrashers skated for the first time at the camp in Orlando.The first day on the ice, Buchberger was the first player out of the locker room and the first in line for drills. He led the team in stretching, he led by example&hellip;he led everything.&ldquo;You like to see guys who jump out to get in front of the line,&rdquo; said coach Curt Fraser. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the perfect example we want here for the players.&rdquo;Buchberger credits his work ethic in part to overcoming leg bums suffered in a fire as a youth.&ldquo;When I was seven I was burned in a fire and I had to battle to overcome that,&rdquo; said Buchberger, who was acquired from Edmonton in the expansion draft. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t play hockey that year. It was an uphill battle. I knew it would take me giving 100 per cent to succeed every night.&rdquo;The fire, Buchberger said, was his fault. &ldquo;I was young and foolish, playing with gas.&rdquo;The bums on his left leg were so bad he had to spend two-and-a-half months in the hospital. Fur ther, before every practice, he must wrap his left leg in gauze for extra protection. Otherwise, sweat and material rubbing against the scar tissue can cause layers of skin to peel off.Buchberger, entering his 14th NHL season, is playing for just his second team. He had spent his entire NHL career-795 games-as an Edmonton Oiler.&ldquo;With the difficulties he&rsquo;s had in life, he&rsquo;s had to overcome a lot just to play,&rdquo; said teammate Ray Ferraro, a candidate to be named an alternate captain. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s made him more resilient than most of us have had to be. He&rsquo;ll get hurt, but he&rsquo;ll come back and play the same way he did before. That&rsquo;s the key. After being burned, it&rsquo;s not that big a deal to break a bone.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: No. 1 overall pick Patrik Stefan&rsquo;s new contract does not exceed the $8-million deal signed by 1998 No. 1 overall pick Vincent Lecavalier. Other GMs feared Stefan&rsquo;s &lsquo;Individual A&rsquo; bonus plan would top Lecavalier&rsquo;s record signing, but Stefan&rsquo;s potential &lsquo;A&rsquo; bonuses (which cover six offensive categories) max out at $7.6 million. Further, Stefan&rsquo;s &lsquo;B&rsquo; bonuses are linked to team success. The financial payoffs for awards and cumulative point totals will be lower in any year the Thrashers don&rsquo;t make the playoffs and higher if they do. Bob Mason has been hired as a goaltending consultant to replace Andy Moog, who left to take a similar position with Vancouver&hellip;Todd Richards, a defenseman last year with Orlando of the International League, suffered a tom Achilles tendon in a running drill the first day of camp&hellip;Forward Alexei Yegorov and defenseman Sergei Vyshedkevich missed the start of camp because visa problems prevented them from leaving Russia. &#9632;

f0018-01

Penciled in as Thrashers’ captain, Buchberger begins cementing role

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021053/7432865-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="162" height="162"></div>Having guided his team to the Eastern Conference final in each of his first two seasons as a head coach in the NHL, Lindy Ruff was in line for a contract extension.He&rsquo;s going to get one.Ruff and Sabres&rsquo; GM Darcy Regier had agreed in principle to a new deal that will move the former Sabres&rsquo; captain into &ldquo;mid-level&rdquo; status among NHL coaches, the Buffalo News reported. Ruff is expected to sign a three-year extension that will net him nearly $2 million. He acknowledged that averaged out to more than he ever made in a single season as a player and that he was very happy with the arrangement.&ldquo;I always said I wanted to stay in Buffalo,&rdquo; Ruff said. &ldquo;I like living here. My wife likes living here and our kids like living here.&rdquo;Ruff also likes coaching the Sabres, a team that has come together under his leadership. He was scheduled to make about $350,000 this season, the last of his original agreement. The extension calls for him to earn close to $600,000 for the upcoming season and similar amounts through 2002-2003.Details haven&rsquo;t been finalized, but it&rsquo;s expected Ruff will sign the agreement before the start of the regular season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy,&rdquo; Regier said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important from a lot of different vantage points. The players and the community can see we&rsquo;re prepared to make a commitment from the job he&rsquo;s done.&rdquo;Ruff had some difficult times when he took over the team following the departure of the very popular Ted Nolan. There was a split in the dressing room between all-star goalie Dominik Hasek and most of the rest of the team. It took a while, but Ruff was able to help bring the club back together. The Sabres have had winning seasons and stunning post-season success in each of the last two years.Ruff already has 24 post-season wins with Buffalo, making him the club&rsquo;s all-time leader in that category.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Dominik Hasek returned from the Czech Republic one day after the official start of training camp, but he is not participating in the workouts. Hasek is still recovering from late off season surgery to correct a nagging groin/hemia problem. He says he&rsquo;ll be ready to go on the ice shortly. The upside of Hasek&rsquo;s injury is the Sabres are getting a good look at their future in goalies Martin Biron and Mika Noronen. Biron looked especially sharp in camp&hellip; Also playing well during the early part of training camp are newcomers Maxim Afinogenov and 1999 draftee David Moravec. Moravec, a right winger, is 26 and played with Hasek on the Czech Republic&rsquo;s gold medal-winning hockey team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan&hellip;The Sabres signed center Wayne Primeau to a one-year contract worth $550,000. Restricted free agents Miroslav Satan, Vaclav Varada. Jay McKee. Rhett Warrener, Curtis Brown and Stu Barnes remain unsigned. &#9632;

f0018-02

Ruff receiving contract extension after two straight conference finals

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02956/7432896-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="354" height="473"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Allison</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011300/7432903-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="161" height="161"></div>Jason Allison was as concerned as the rest of his teammates about the unsettled status of Boston&rsquo;s roster as training camp opened. He may, in fact, have been in a worse mood than most.While hoping the Bruins would get down to the business of re-signing free agents Byron Dafoe, P-J Axelsson and Hal Gill, Allison was unable to take care of any business of his own. Boston&rsquo;s two-time scoring leader was shelved before camp even started by a sprained ankle, sustained during informal pre-camp workouts, that was expected to keep him from playing until the final pre-season weekend.Allison had also started to be nagged again by a wrist injury that hampered him during last year&rsquo;s stretch run and playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the best way to start off, but fortunately it&rsquo;s training camp and not the season,&rdquo; said Alli-son, the 24-year-old center who has put together seasons of 81 and 76 points in two full years withBoston. &ldquo;The ankle&rsquo;s something they say takes four-to-six weeks, so we&rsquo;re hoping it&rsquo;s four and that I&rsquo;ll have time to play a little before the season starts.&rdquo;Allison also hoped that being held out of contact would buy time for treatment and therapy on his wrist, which he jammed badly in a March 24 game at Ottawa. Further examination just before the start of camp revealed a small fracture and cartilage damage.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t know at the time what was wrong with it,&rdquo; said Allison, who was confident that proper treatment would prevent the wrist from affecting his play. &ldquo;It was just something that was tough to pick up. It turned out to be a lot worse than I thought.&rdquo;The ankle sprain, however, was Allison&rsquo;s biggest challenge. Though he watched TimTaylor struggle most of last season because he kept coming back too soon from a similar injury, Allisonhad to fight the urge to push himself.&ldquo;I can skate on my own pretty soon, but I might end up skating for three weeks without being able to play,&rdquo; said Allison, whose injury interrupts auditions for a new right winger on his line. The B&rsquo;s walked away from the $2.8 million awarded via arbitration to Dmitri Khristich,Allison&rsquo;s right-hand man since 1998.&ldquo;I know if it was the season, I&rsquo;d just say, &rsquo;It feels good; I want to play.&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no sense having it linger all year, though.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Angered by comments from Bruins&rsquo; GM-president Harry Sinden that contract proposals from agent Ron Salcer amounted to a &ldquo;shakedown,&rdquo; Vezina Trophy finalist Byron Dafoe followed through on his promise and left the Boston area for Southern California. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had to hold out and it&rsquo;s not an easy situation or a fun situation,&rdquo; said Dafoe, who was seeking a three-year, $12-million deal while Boston offered $9 million over that span&hellip;Defenseman Hal Gill and left winger P-J Axelsson also remained unsigned, with Boston saying both would have to settle for one-year qualifying offers if they want to go to arbitration next season. Adding up the list of key absentees (Dafoe, Axelsson, Gill, right winger Dmitri Khristich and center Tim Taylor, who signed with the Rangers as a free agent), coach Pat Burns said &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m not that comfort able. All of a sudden we have six, seven guys who haven&rsquo;t been replaced."&hellip;Ken Baumgartner, who retired after Boston bought out the last year of his contract, signed a one-year deal as an assistant coach. He replaces Bobby Francis, whom Phoenix hired as coach. &#9632;

f0019-02

Bum ankle side lines B’s leading scorer for month

<div class="byline">By Eric Buhatsctiek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03640/7432934-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="161" height="162"></div>On the day the newcomer, Marc Savard, stepped on the ice for the first time with the Calgary Flames, he didn&rsquo;t see obstacles, only opportunity.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time in my career I&rsquo;ve ever been traded, so that&rsquo;s a change for me,&rdquo; Savard said, &ldquo;but at the same time, they&rsquo;re giving me a good opportunity to play with some good players here. This is a good situation for myself. Coach (Brian) Sutter said, &rsquo;Just keep working hard.&rsquo; He&rsquo;s going to push me hard, but that&rsquo;s what I need. It&rsquo;s going to be a good situation for me.&rdquo;Much of what happened to Savard last season with the New York Rangers, his first full NHL campaign, was beyond his control. Savard started the year as the Rangers&rsquo; No. 2 center, but lost that designation after NewYork acquired Petr Nedved in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In the end, 45 points in 70 games represented a wholly respectable season, but it is expected he can do more on a Calgary team that needs a No. 1 pivot.&ldquo;New York traded me. so it&rsquo;s big for me to prove them wrong; that they should have maybe held on to me,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to be in Calgary. They gave me a great opportunity, but in the same sense, I want to show other teams that I can play in this league, night after night.&rdquo;Potentially, Savard could lead the team in scoring, which will not necessarily be a new thing for him. He did it routinely as a junior in Oshawa.In the early going, Sutter placed Savard on a line with Jarome Iginla who, at 28 goals, is the Flames&rsquo; leading returning goal-scorer.&ldquo;Playing on the first power-play is going to help for sure,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a key part of the game; where a lot of guys get their points. It&rsquo;s going to help out.&rdquo;&ldquo;Savard is going to be a big help to our club,&rdquo; Iginla said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;s going to be good defensively, but on the offensive side, just the little plays he creates going 2-on-2. He has the eyes.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Flames let right winger Jarome Iginla attend training camp, despite the fact he hadn&rsquo;t signed a contract. Iginla&rsquo;s camp would like to get him a two-year deal, which would make him eligible for salary arbitration once the contract expires. It is likely he will end up playing on a one-year deal, since negotiations on a long-term pact were not moving forward&hellip;Defenseman Robyn Regehr was back on skates, practising with the Flames&rsquo; veterans, 65 days after breaking both legs in an automobile accident. It is the first step in a recovery from what could have been a career-threatening injury. &ldquo;Getting back on the skates,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it felt like going home again.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-03

Savard relishes No. 1 pivot role

<div class="byline">By Cecil Harris</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04489/7432965-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="160" height="161"></div>The Carolina Hurricanes tried to have fun in the Florida sun when camp opened in Fort Myers, but the key players missing from last season&rsquo;s Southeast Division champions could not be easily forgot-ten.Right wingers Ray Sheppard and Kevin Dineen-the latter of whom joined the Ottawa Senators-were not re-signed after becoming unrestricted free agents. Center Keith Primeau, meanwhile, was at his Ontario cottage as an unsigned restricted free agent.The most wrenching loss, however, is that of Steve Chiasson, the &lsquo;Canes&rsquo; best all-around defenseman, who was killed May 3 in an alcohol-related car crash in Raleigh, N.C. He was 32.&ldquo;It has been a very tough summer for all of us because the death of Steve Chiasson has been on our minds,&rdquo; said left winger Gary Roberts.Chiasson was among a half-dozen players who drank alcohol and com miserated at Roberts&rsquo; home hours after the &rsquo;Canes lost a six-game playoff series to the Bruins in Boston. Toxicology tests showed Chiasson&rsquo;s blood-alcohol level to be .27, more than three times above North Carolina&rsquo;s legal limit.&ldquo;Not a day went by during the summer when I didn&rsquo;t think about Steve,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;As a player, you get used to guys leaving the team because of trades or free agency or retirement. But the toughest thing is to lose a player the way we lost Steve.&rdquo;Plans are afoot for a &lsquo;Steve Chiasson Night&rsquo; in Raleigh sometime during the season. The &rsquo;Canes also intend to establish a scholarship program in his name. The team will wear Chiasson&rsquo;s No. 3 on the back of their helmets and on the left shoulder of their jerseys this season. The team had already decided to wear patches for NHL 2000 and the new Raleigh arena above each breast.Referring to the No. 3 jersey patch, Roberts said poignantly, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s as close to our hearts as we can get him.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: GM Jim Rutherford insists the contract offer center Keith Primeau rejected-a five-year deal worth between $4 million and $4.4 million annually-is the club&rsquo;s final offer. &ldquo;If we get off to a disastrous start&hellip;we may decide that it&rsquo;s not going to make a difference with Keith and We&rsquo;11 just let him sit for the whole year,&rdquo; Rutherford said&hellip;Coach Paul Maurice said defenseman Paul Coffey, 38, has to win a job in training camp. Coffey is due $2.5 million this season&hellip;Defenseman Mike Rucinski turned down a qualifying offer of $275,000, not $400,000 as previously reported in THN. Regardless, Rucinski and the Hurricanes remained far apart on a new deal. &#9632;

f0019-04

Chiasson on players’ minds

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011193/7432996-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="160" height="160"></div>To no one&rsquo;s real surprise, Doug Gilmour is the new captain of the Chicago Blackhawks.It was believed to be a choice of either Gilmour or Tony Amonte to succeed Chris Chelios as captain, with the 36-year-old center getting the nod.The Hawks won&rsquo;t formally announce Gilmour as captain until after the exhibition season. Amonte and Alex Zhamnov will serve as alternates.&ldquo;Dougie has always led by example,&rdquo; said coach Lome M&ouml;lleken. &ldquo;He has tremendous character and tremendous grit. Sometimes with a player like Doug Gilmour you don&rsquo;t always look at goals and assists. You look at the other things he does.&rdquo;Gilmour, the former Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; captain, declined to discuss his captaincy with the media until after it was announced, but did proclaim his back healthy following surgery in April to repair a herniated disc.He missed the final 10 games of last season because of his back. Gilmour showed no signs of any lingering problems early in training camp, competing in every scrimmage and practice.&ldquo;I took my time with it,&rdquo; Gilmour said of his rehab. &ldquo;I gave it the 12 week period they prescribed after surgery, but after that I made sure to test it. I ran and played some hockey and everything was fine. The only thing I haven&rsquo;t done is have Brownie (defenseman Brad Brown) run me.&rdquo;Gilmour is entering the second year of his three-year, $18-million contract.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Tony Amonte accepted the decision to make center Doug Gilmour captain even though there had been some speculation it would be him. &ldquo;I would have loved to worn the &lsquo;C&rsquo; especially for the Blackhawks, but I&rsquo;ll be the first one to support Dougie,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;I can wait my turn."&hellip;Left winger Bob Probert reported to camp to take his chances after declining GM Bob Murray&rsquo;s request to accept a pay cut under threat of being sent to the minors. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s going on is the business side of hockey,&rdquo; said Probert, who will earn $ 1.7 million this sea son wherever he plays. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just showing up and doing what I do best, which is play hockey. If I have to go to the minors, I&rsquo;ll go to the minors.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-01

Healthy Gilmour to getBlackhawks’ captaincy

<div class="byline">By Adrian Dater</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03579/7433027-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="353" height="472"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marc Denis</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02829/7433034-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="157" height="160"></div>Marc Denis knows he is likely with the Colorado Avalanche to stay this season.No more bittersweet chocolate fumes of Hershey. No more games in moth-balled arenas and no more &lsquo;A&rsquo; in front of the &lsquo;HL&rsquo; any-more. This year, the &lsquo;A&rsquo; should be replaced by an &lsquo;N.&rsquo; The Avs have made it clear: The backup goalie job to Patrick Roy this season is his to lose.Denis does not intend to lose out to anybody for the right to by Roy&rsquo;s understudy.&ldquo;This year, there really is a different situation,&rdquo; Denis said. &ldquo;There is a spot and I want to make sure it&rsquo;s mine.&rdquo;The Avs&rsquo; first round pick (25th overall) in the 1995 entry draft, Denis quickly proved a gem not only with his play for Chicoutimi of the Quebec League, but for the Canadian national junior team and Hershey (American League) in 1997. Denis helped the national team and Hershey to championships and was named the No. 1 NHL prospect by The Hockey News that year.Still, Denis wasn&rsquo;t where he wanted to be. That changed this summer, when the Avs shipped backup Craig Billing ton to the Washington Capitals, opening the door for Denis.Instead of congratulating himself, however, Denis decided to take no chances.He punished himself over the summer with a workout regimen that reduced his body fat from 13 per cent to 10.Denis, 22, showed up at training camp in his best shape ever and did not allow a goal in his 30 minutes of action during the intra-squad game.Denis&rsquo; top competition for the backup job is fellow rookie David Aebischer, but Denis is the decided favorite. Still, Avs&rsquo; coach Bob Hartley wouldn&rsquo;t publicly give either youngster the edge, perhaps to keep them both hungry.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Patrick Roy underwent minor hip surgery Sept. 9, but was expected to be ready for the Avs&rsquo; Oct. 2 season opener. He was slated to miss 10-to-14 days of action&hellip;Veteran left winger Shjon Podein also was expected to miss at least two weeks after injuring a knee in Colorado&rsquo;s annual Burgundy-White scrim mage. The team said Podein would not require surgery&hellip;Adam Deadmarsh had a &ldquo;Happy Gilmore&rdquo; hat trick Sept. 6, when he scored a goal, got an assist and had a hole in-one earlier in the day on a Colorado Springs golf course&hellip;Deadmarsh will start the season as a center, coach Bob Hartley said. With Peter Forsberg out until at least November, Deadmarsh will be the second-line center behind Joe Sakic. &#9632;

f0020-03

Time right for young Denisto grab backup goalie job

<div class="byline">By Mika Heika</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04378/7433065-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="158" height="157"></div>Manny Fernandez and Marty Turco are battling for the best job in hockey-at least the best job for a young goalie with aspirations of going places.Over the past two seasons, no team has allowed fewer goals than the Dallas Stars. And now, either Turco or Fernandez will get the chance to play behind the best defensive team in hockey.While Ed Belfour will once again log the majority of minutes for the Stars, the backup job is up for grabs. Roman Turek was traded to the St. Louis Blues creating an opening.Turco, 24, comes in after earning rookie-of-the-year honors in the International League with the Michigan K-Wings last season. Fernandez, 25, comes in after guiding the Houston Aeros to the IHL title. Turco&rsquo;s back ground includes an NCAA record 127 wins and two national title in four years at the University of Michigan. Fernandez has a 124-72-34 record in five years of play at the IHL level.Coach Ken Hitchcock said he&rsquo;s going to give both goalies equal opportunity during the Stars&rsquo; nine pre-season games. In fact, Hitchcock said he has changed pre-season plans and will allow each goalie to tend an entire game instead of splitting time as the Stars normally do.&ldquo;If we want a true assessment, we should let them play the whole game,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going into this with an open mind.&rdquo;That five years of professional experience gives Fernandez the inside track on the job, according to Craig Button, the Stars&rsquo; director of player personnel. And when you consider Fernandez could serve the role of backup goalie with the Stars while Turco gets a full season of work with the K-Wings in preparation for next season, maybe the job isn&rsquo;t as wide open as it first seems.&ldquo;We have two good players battling each other for a great opportunity,&rdquo; Button said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s good for everyone.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Stars said they have made their last offer to defenseman Richard Matvichuk, their only unsigned player. The Stars offered a five-year, $10 million deal. Matvichuk asked for $6.5 million over three years&hellip;Winger Grant Marshall (tom left groin muscle) did not participate in any on-ice activities during training camp&hellip;Right winger Brett Hull participated in practices, but was held out of heavy conditioning activities. He&rsquo;s rehabilitating a sprained ligament in his right knee and two pulled groins&hellip;Coach Ken Hitchcock was impressed by three wingers at camp: Jamie Wright, Aaron Gavey and Keith Aldridge. Aldridge, who played defense for Detroit (International League), has looked good up front. &#9632;

f0020-04

Pair in battleto understudyfor Belfour

<div class="byline">By Chuck Carlton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-06166/7433096-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="354" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Yzerman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05213/7433103-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="160" height="158"></div>The past two Septembers, they watched the Stanley Cup final highlight film as a training camp prelude. This year, there was no film festival. &ldquo;Instead of inspiration, the theme this time around is motivation. Coach Scotty Bowman addressed the team before the first session. Last season failed to meet expectations, he said. The shortcuts were too many, the intensity too infrequent and the urgency too often deferred.Captain and chief tone setter Steve Yzerman listened and nodded. He had experienced the same thoughts while watching bits and pieces of the play-offs after the Red Wings had lost in the second round to Colorado.&ldquo;It is a challenge going against teams trying to knock you off,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;You can get comfortable at times. You look at how Michael Jordan was able to come back year after year to do it. It&rsquo;s a hard thing for teams to do.&rdquo;Not only did Detroit lose to the Colorado Avalanche, but it dropped four straight and was outscored 19-7. It was a sequence that Yzerman calls &ldquo;hum-bling.&rdquo;&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t able to crank it up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When we needed to crank it up, we never were able to do that. Over the course of the year, we really struggled.&ldquo;I would expect us to be hungrier. I think we&rsquo;ll find out going around the league that it&rsquo;s not that big a deal now to be playing Detroit.&rdquo;Bowman started work in June with an unprecedented letter to the players stressing they follow an off-season workout plan formulated by trainer John Wharton. The team as a whole reported in its best shape ever.A solid camp is the next hurdle. Sergei Fedorov and Yzerman will be tried as regular line mates and Slava Kozlov will slide from left wing to center.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Darren McCarty, the team&rsquo;s lone unsigned free agent, said he was frustrated with the stale-mate. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t asked for a trade. I wouldn&rsquo;t do that,&rdquo; McCarty said. &ldquo;It&rsquo; skilling me not to be in camp. I was hoping I would be in camp. The main feeling is that I&rsquo;m disappointed.&rdquo; The two sides areat least $650,000 a year apart on any long-term deals. Said GM Ken Holland: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a robot. I have feelings, but sometimes you have to set apart your feelings from business. If I paid every player based on how I felt about them, our payroll would be$100 million."&hellip;Right winger Martin Lapointe reported at 208 pounds, after losing 26 pounds since last season and halving his body fat. &#9632;

f0020-06

Bowman aims to motivate after disappointing year

<div class="byline">By Mario Annicchlarlco</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-07143/7433134-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="159" height="157"></div>A year older, a year wiser, and for Brad Nor ton, a year closer to cracking the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; lineup.At this time last season, the 6-foot-5, 237-pound defenseman had left his first NHL camp early, embroiled in a contract dispute with the club that had selected him in the ninth round of the 1993 draft. Needless to say, there weren&rsquo;t too many happy memories for the younger brother of ex-Oiler and current San Jose Shark Jeff Norton.Year 2 in the Oilers&rsquo; organization promises to be rosier for the 24-year-old native of Cambridge, Mass.&ldquo;This year I can concentrate on just playing instead of that ordeal I went through last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was the worst thing I&rsquo;ve ever been through, ever.&rdquo;Norton, who figures to battle veteran Frank Musil for the No. 7 spot on the team&rsquo;s blueline, spent most of last season in Hamilton with the American League&rsquo;s Bulldogs. He had one goal, nine points and 134 penalty minutes in 58 games and was called up by the big club for a week in November, but never did see the ice.&ldquo;He got hurt, had a bad hand injury and hip flexor that kept him out of games, but then he really came around at the end,&rdquo; said Bulldogs&rsquo; GM Scotty Howson. &ldquo;He was one of our best defensemen in the playoffs, by far.&ldquo;He was physically dominant and that&rsquo;s the way he has to play in Edmonton.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Opening day at camp was like a flashback to the late 1980s with goalie Bill Ranford and left winger Esa Tikkanen back in the fold. They are now led by former teammates Kevin Lowe (head coach) and Craig MacTavish (assistant coach)&hellip;Tik kanen on former Oilers-goalie Grant Fuhr and defenseman Steve Smith-playing for archrival Calgary. &ldquo;Hopefully, Smitty will go behind the net and pass the puck again,&rdquo; Tikkanen said. A Smith gaffe in the 1986 playoffs, when he accidentally banked a shot off Fuhr for a Calgary goal, cost the Oilers a shot at their third straight Stanley Cup&hellip;Left winger Ryan Smyth, a restricted free agent, took out an insurance policy and decided to attend camp while talks for a new deal continued. &#9632;

f0020-07

Rugged Norton focused at second Oilers’ camp

<div class="byline">By David J. Neal</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011073/7433165-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="163" height="162"></div>The seventh Florida Panthers&rsquo; training camp opened with even more optimism than is usually present at this time of year.&ldquo;You can feel everybody&rsquo;s excited,&rdquo; said left winger Ray Whitney. &ldquo;I think we all kind of feel we can have a good year. It probably has to do with Pavel Bure skating with us.&rdquo;Coach Terry Murray promised to run Bure and his right anterior cruciate ligament through the same workouts as everybody else until Bure threw up any red flags. Bure underwent season-ending surgery on his right knee March 5.But Murray did put Bure under the protection of a &ldquo;no-hit&rdquo; rule for the first several training camp scrimmages. That was fine with Bure, who avoided con tact as if he had an infectious disease.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to come close to the boards right now,&rdquo; he said.Three times in his first scrimmage, Bure declined to explode past a defenseman when he had the chance. But the next day, he took regular shifts and scored on a partial breakaway back hander and a rocket slap shot from between the circles off the rush.Murray said he wasn&rsquo;t sure when Bure would be back at full strength.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to put a timeline on it,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I can only reference similar injuries that I&rsquo;ve known that have happened at the same time of the year. Sometimes, it takes a month into the season or two months before you see the true player.&rdquo;Although he still has pain in the knee, Bure said he thinks he&rsquo;ll be ready for the regular season opener Oct. 2 against the Washington Capitals.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Paul Laus has spent time at training camp playing right wing. If Laus isn&rsquo;t traded, coach Terry Mur ray may keep him as a forward for the season&hellip;Eric Boguniecki could get a chance as the fourth-line center if Chris Wells can&rsquo;t get the job done. Boguniecki had 32 goals and 66 points with Fort Wayne of the International League last season&hellip;There&rsquo;s talk of putting center Rob Niedermayer on left wing to give Radek Dvorak and Oleg Kvasha more time in the middle. &#9632;

f0022-01

Panthers open lucky seventh training camp with Bure and optimism

<div class="byline">By Helene Elliott</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02758/7433196-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="162" height="160"></div>Aki Berg was gone for a year. Glen Murray was gone for merely a day.But the Los Angeles Kings were glad to have both players back-and both were delighted to rejoin their teammates.Berg, the third overall pick in the 1995 entry draft, spent the first three years of his career with the Kings, but stayed in Finland last season after rejecting several contract offers. He agreed on a one-year deal Sept. 2 worth $762,500, with bonuses that can pad it to $900,000. Berg arrived at the team&rsquo;s practice facility with more muscle-he weighed a solid 218 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame-and a determination to make his mark.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m 22 now. I&rsquo;m not 18 anymore,&rdquo; said Berg, whose physical style helped him rack up 137 penalty minutes with his Finnish club, TPS Turku. &ldquo;Of course, I&rsquo;m a better player. I got lots of power play time and a lot of confidence. It feels better now.&rdquo;Berg joked he was a marked man in the Finnish Elite League last season.&ldquo;The referee sees I&rsquo;m coming, they just put their hands up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t change my game.&rdquo;The Kings don&rsquo;t want Murray to change his game, either-at least not from the way he played it two years ago, when he had a team-high 29 goals. A knee injury cost him 19 games last sea son and a strained groin idled him for two more.He finished with 16 goals and 31 points in 61 games. Murray will earn $1.25 million this season, but can add up to $400,000 in incentives. He earned $675,000 last season.&ldquo;We both wanted to get it settled and I wanted to be in camp, but I was willing to hold on until we thought it was fair,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Both sides are happy. It&rsquo;s good to be in camp, with the new coaches.&rdquo;Glen Murray-no relation to new coach Andy Murray-is optimistic he and the Kings can be successful this season.&ldquo;If you would have said, going into last season, that we&rsquo;d have so many injuries and play that way, I&rsquo;d never have believed it,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;It made for a long season. Being hurt made it long for me mentally. But that&rsquo;s behind us. This is a new year and we&rsquo;re looking really good. Getting (Ziggy) Palffy and (Bryan) Smolinski is going to help us tremendously.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Mattias Norstrom was not under contract as camp began. Norstrom earned $950,000 last season and was seeking a three-year deal worth more than $4 million&hellip;Injuries kept three players off the ice. Defenseman Philippe Boucher (foot surgery) was expected to participate in drills before camp ended, but center Eric Belanger, (rib surgery), was expected to be idle for a month. Right winger Scott Barney (back injury) is out indefinitely&hellip;Defenseman Jere Karalahti&rsquo;s arrival was delayed by visa problems. Karalahti was arrested for trying to bring heroin into Finland two years ago and spent nine months in rehab. &ldquo;He really seems to have turned the comer,&rdquo; said GM Dave Taylor. &#9632;

f0022-02

Musclemen Murray, Berg back and brimming with confidence

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03546/7433227-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="162" height="160"></div>Pierre Boivin, the new president of the Montreal Canadiens, said he&rsquo;ll wait until at least Christmas before making any management changes.If he&rsquo;s true to his word, GM Rejean Houle and coach Alain Vigneault should enjoy some temporary peace of mind. The players, at the same time, can concentrate on hockey.As the Canadiens opened training camp at the Molson Centre Sept. 4, they hit the ice with enthusiasm and a renewed sense of optimism. Unlike a year ago, when six key players missed all or part of camp, everyone is signed this season.And although this is a team decidedly out of favor with the city&rsquo;s fickle and demanding hockey fans-few of whom believe the Canadiens have the talent or management savvy to get into the play-offs-the players believe the overall picture isn&rsquo;t that bleak.&ldquo;Obviously, the theme we&rsquo;ll have in camp is to sweep everything under the table from previous seasons,&rdquo; said center Scott Thornton. &ldquo;If we reflect on anything, it will be the second half of last year. From about Christmas on, we were one of the best teams in our conference. A lot of guys gained a lot of confidence last year.&ldquo;Now, we all start out from zero and we&rsquo;ll take it from there.&rdquo;Although the Canadiens missed the playoffs for the second time since 1995 and finished with a 32-39-11 record, they went 24-21-4 after Christ mas. Without the early-season contract squabbles and numerous injuries that crippled the team, their situation likely would have improved.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had 15 guys in town early working out, so that&rsquo;s a good sign,&rdquo; Thornton said. &ldquo;And there&rsquo;s no contract problems like we&rsquo;ve had the last couple of years. Now management is in place and the guys are really excited.&rdquo;One of the first orders of business will be naming a new captain, following the trade last season of Vincent Damphousse to the San Jose Sharks. Montreal rotated its captaincy between veterans on a game-by-game basis following Damp housse&rsquo;s departure.This season, candidates to get the &lsquo;C&rsquo; include left winger Shayne Corson, right winger Turner Stevenson and Thornton-all anglophones. The Canadiens haven&rsquo;t had an anglophone captain since Mike Keane&rsquo;s brief reign in 1995.NOTEBOOK: Joe Juneau had dinner at a Montreal restaurant with GM Rejean Houle and coach Alain Vigneault in early September to discuss the possibility of the unrestricted free agent center joining the Canadiens. Vigneault said talks were in the exploratory stage. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say we&rsquo;re close to a deal,&rdquo; Vigneault said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a skilled player and he has experience. His numbers have gone down in the last couple of years, but an experienced player like that can always help you.&rdquo; Juneau made $2 million (U.S.) last season with Buffalo. The Sabres balked at Juneau&rsquo;s request for a $-million raise&hellip;GoaltenderJose Theodore, who hopes to back up Jeff Hackett, signed a two-way, one-year contract &#9632;

f0022-03

Canadiens players confident of rebound from dismal season

<div class="byline">By Jeff Legwold</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01987/7433258-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="160" height="162"></div>When he was on the ice for the Nashville Predators last season, there was no doubt Ville Peltonen was going to play more than he ever had before in the NHL. There was no doubt he had scoring touch and no doubt he was headed for good things.And these days there is also no doubt Peltonen looks at his left shoulder and hopes he will be on the ice far more this time around.&ldquo;It feels good,&rdquo; Peltonen said. &ldquo;I hope there are no more problems and I can do everything I want to. But I feel very good, excited for the season to come.&rdquo;Peltonen missed 68 games in 1998-99 with shoulder injuries-the first 10 of the season as well as the last 58 after injuring the shoulder again in December. But when he was in the lineup, he flashed the kind of finishing skills the Predators desperately need.The 26-year-old, who was acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks last season before the 1998 entry draft, had five goals and 10 points in the 14 games he did play and looked strong in the early portions of camp.Even though Nashville is slightly deeper this season, Peltonen is needed since he is likely the biggest threat the Predators can put at left wing-Patrik Kjellberg led the position in scoring last year with 11 goals and 31 points in 71 games. Enforcer Patrick Cote and prospects David Gosselin and Matt Henderson are next on the depth chart, while captain Tom Fitzgerald may also see time on the left side.Peltonen would be a boost to a sometimes sputtering offense if he can avoid injury. Preds&rsquo; coach Barry Trotz said Peltonen could have easily been a 50-point man last season had he been healthy. The team had just two 50-point players when Cliff Ronning finished with 60 and Greg Johnson 50.&ldquo;I was hopeful last year when I came here, it was a good situation for me because it was a good chance to play,&rdquo; Peltonen said. &ldquo;It is hard to watch everyone going through the year and you are coming in just to work out and trying to get healthy.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Mike Dunham left Nashville due to an increasingly ugly contract squabble. The Predators, who have not budged from their qualifying offer of $880,000, are roughly $1 million short of Dun ham&rsquo;s demand. There had been no significant talks and Dunham&rsquo;s agent. Bob Murray, declined to say where Dunham went, but said he was working out&hellip;Jan Vopat, despite seeing a battery of doctors, can&rsquo;t heal a leg rash that sidelined him last season when it became infected. The defenseman was skating in training camp&hellip;Center Sebastien Bordeleau. who sustained a cracked vertebrae last season and isn&rsquo;t expected to be in the lineup until November, was skating in camp. He was the designated shooter for the goaltenders&rsquo; workouts&hellip;The Predators re-signed left winger Patrick Cote, who registered one goal, three points and 242 penalty minutes last season&hellip;Nashville also signed defenseman Craig Millar, who was acquired from Edmonton in a draft day trade. &#9632;

f0027-01

Peltonen wants to shoulder load after injury-plagued first season

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02635/7433289-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="159" height="161"></div>Petr Sykora may be back with the New Jersey Devils, but he brought with him a lot of excess baggage in the form of questions surrounding his mysterious five-day holdout.Sykora, who will earn $625,000 this season, finally showed up at the Devils&rsquo; training camp Sept. 9, but short of explaining himself to GM Lou Lamoriello, will not publicly say why he didn&rsquo;t show up on time.&ldquo;All I&rsquo;m going to say is that it&rsquo;s not a money issue,&rdquo; the 22-year-old told the New York Times. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t make me look good because I had a contract, but I&rsquo;m very glad I did it.&rdquo;While the Devils leading scorer last season with 72 points insists the holdout was not money-related, his teammates have heard differently.&ldquo;I heard it was a money matter. I didn&rsquo;t hear that he felt mistreated,&rdquo; said captain Scott Stevens. &ldquo;I had heard rumors for a few weeks. I heard he wanted a new deal and he wasn&rsquo;t going to come back for that reason.&rdquo;There was speculation the holdout was because Sykora&rsquo;s deal was being used as a basis by Lamoriello for contracts to Brendan Morrison and Patrik Elias, two of Sykora&rsquo;s best friends on the team and restricted free agents.&ldquo;I feel very bad about Patty and Brendan,&rdquo; said Sykora, who signed the deal coming off a 36-point season in 1997-98. &ldquo;My name may have been used against them. I think I put them in a very tough position. I had no choice last year but to sign for what I did.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Lamoriello pared down the number of unsigned restricted free agents from three to two. Jason Arnott agreed to a $1.8-million deal, while Elias and Morrison remained unsigned.&ldquo;This organization is in the top third of salaries,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s documented. I believe in the older players being rewarded, not to pay on potential. This has nothing to do with trying to hold a hard line. It has everything to do with trying to run a business to keep your head above water.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Dave Maley, 36, who retired after 1993-94, is in camp as a non-roster invitee. Left winger Patrik Elias, offered a multi-year deal at $600,000 per season, remained in the Czech Republic and was playing for his hometown team of Trebic. Center Brendan Morrison, asking for more than $ 1 million per season, flew to the Czech Republic to practice with Elias. He turned down a $500,000 qualifying offer&hellip;Left winger Sasha Lakovic said his injured eye was 100 per cent after off-season surgery. Lakovic&rsquo;s season was cut short when he took a stick in the eye&hellip;Coach Robbie Ftorek said defenseman Brian Rafalski, who played in Finland last season, reminded him of Norm Maciver&hellip;GM Lou Lamoriello said he was not aware defenseman Mike Van Ryn left the University of Michigan in an effort to become a free agent July 1. The Devils said their No. 1 selection in 1998 was still considered a college student. Van Ryn may join the Canadian national team or Sarnia (Ontario League). &#9632;

f0027-02

Sykora ends brief five-day holdout, but questions still left unanswered

<div class="byline">By Anthony McCarron</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02691/7433320-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="615" height="1099"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim connolly</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011024/7433327-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="164" height="161"></div>Tim Connolly had just finished wowing the New York Islanders&rsquo; scouting staff in another training camp scrimmage where it seemed he was always crossing the blueline in a blur. But the No. 5 pick in last June&rsquo;s entry draft was concentrating on a faceoff he had lost in the final seconds.&ldquo;My faceoffs are my biggest weakness right now,&rdquo; the 18-year-old said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really important. I know I have to work on it.&rdquo;When you add that kind of attitude to the enormous offensive skill he dis played in the first few days of camp in Lake Placid, it&rsquo;s no surprise the Isles are considering starting the season with Connolly on the roster.&ldquo;Right now, he&rsquo;s in line for it, if he&rsquo;s going to play like that,&rdquo; said Gordie Clark, the team&rsquo;s assistant GM and director of player personnel. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s showing the other centers he wants one of their jobs. I&rsquo;ve just been amazed at what he&rsquo;s done.&rdquo;Connolly centered a line of Niklas Andersson and Mark Lawrence that was so good coaches didn&rsquo;t break it up when they mixed lines, looking for combinations that clicked. Connolly showed remarkable touch on his passes, too.&ldquo;Tim Connolly is a heckuva player,&rdquo; Lawrence said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be real good. He&rsquo;s stuck right in there and done well. He&rsquo;s making plays out there.&rdquo;What&rsquo;s more amazing about Connolly&rsquo;s emergence is he&rsquo;s returned so quickly from a broken right leg suffered in an on-ice collision Feb. 18 while playing for the Erie Otters of the Ontario League. He missed the rest of the sea son, but had 34 goals and 68 points in 46 games. He was back on the ice four months later and hasn&rsquo;t lost a step.&ldquo;The leg feels normal out there,&rdquo; the Baldwinsville, N.Y., native said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really think about it at all.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s adjusting to the NHL&rsquo;s fast pace and rugged play and said he&rsquo;s getting off-ice advice from veteran Tony Hrkac.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what to expect because 1 hadn&rsquo;t played with NHL players before,&rdquo; Connolly said. &ldquo;As soon as you get the puck, someone is on you right away. And there are some big defensemen and they hit real hard.&ldquo;But my intent is to make the team.It&rsquo;s really tough because there&rsquo;s a lot of great center men here.&ldquo;1 shouldn&rsquo;t be coming here to have a good experience and see how the play is. I should be trying to make the team. I think every player here is trying to make the team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Mats Lindgren, a restricted free agent, remains no closer to a deal because GM Mike Milbury has said he&rsquo;s finished calling Lindgren&rsquo;s agent, Mike Barnett. The team is offering $600,000 and Lindgren wants $700,000. Lindgren made $375,000 last season&hellip;The names that players have brought up most often to fill the Lsles&rsquo; vacant captaincy are Kenny Jonsson. Rich Pilon and Claude Lapointe. Eric Brewer, a second-year defenseman, has also been mentioned by his teammates&hellip;There are 13 players 6-foot-4 or taller in camp. &#9632;

f0028-02

Level-headed Connolly impressing Isles’ brass at first training camp

<div class="byline">By Bick Carpiniello</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01905/7433358-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="160" height="159"></div>Madison Square Garden president Dave Checketts was on a roll. His New York Knicks had gone to the National Basketball Association final and his New York Liberty to the Women&rsquo;s National Bas ketball Association final. Now his New York Rangers were about to start training for the season they hope will at least put them back into the Stanley Cup playoffs after two years out of the post-season.And Checketts was apologizing to nobody for spending enormous amounts of money to sign six free agents over the summer, swelling the team&rsquo;s payroll to somewhere between $54 million and $60 million.After making two gigantic draft-day trades that brought top prospects Pavel Brendl, Jamie Lundmark and Jan Hlavac, the Rangers went out and signed Theo Fleury, Valeri Kamensky, Tim Taylor, Sylvain Lefebvre, Stephane Quintal and Kirk McLean.Just about every other team&rsquo;s owner ship, GM and fans will be rooting for the Rangers to fall flat on their faces.&ldquo;Of course, but that&rsquo;s the nature of being in New York,&rdquo; Checketts said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more concerned with what our fans think. We&rsquo;ve had a tremendous renewal on season tickets; nearly 97 per cent, which is a record for us. I think that&rsquo;s because people believe what we&rsquo;ve done is going to pay dividends.&rdquo;So what&rsquo;s the minimum expectation? &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a playoff team,&rdquo; Checketts said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all I&rsquo;m going to say about that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Mike Richter suffered spasms in his lower back early in training camp and was expected to be side lined a few days&hellip;Center Tim Taylor underwent an appendectomy Sept. 5. but insisted later he will be ready by opening night&hellip;Coach John Muckier raised eye brows when he volunteered he doesn&rsquo;t believe Manny Malhotra will ever be more than a third-line center. GM-president Neil Smith, who has fought the temptation to include Malhotra in every trade he has discussed. disagreed, adding Malhotra could be a player who scores 35 goals and be a captain by the time he&rsquo;s 26&hellip;Right winger Pavel Brendl had a miserable first day of camp because of the flu. In his next two scrimmages, however, he had five goals. &#9632;

f0029-01

Rangers a ‘playoff team’says president Checketts

<div class="byline">By Lisa Burke</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03387/7433389-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="357" height="470"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Yashin</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02586/7433396-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="160" height="159"></div>Alexei Yashin may not win any popularity contests in the Ottawa, but he still is the most talked about man in Canada&rsquo;s capital.The &lsquo;Yashin affair&rsquo;reached new heights when Ottawa Senators&rsquo;GM Marshall Johnston released a letter to the media stating the immediate and indefinite sus-pension of Yashin.Yashin is looking for the Senators to tear up his contract which ends this season and is scheduled to pay him $3.6 million.Johnston informed Yashin&rsquo;s agent, Mark Gandler, that failure to attend camp would result in Yashin&rsquo;s suspension. Johnston also informed Gandler that Yashin would have to deliver the Senators a full season of play in the next year in which he decides to play in the NHL, should he not deliver a full season of play this year.In addition, Johnston said the club may suffer financial damages as a result of his breach of contract and will take measures to recover compensation from Yashin.It was believed the two sides were close to an agreement when Johnston and Gandler spoke during the Senators&rsquo; rookie tournament in early September.During the conversation Gandler proposed the Senators enter into a new con-tract for three years. This season, Yashin would be paid $3.6 million followed by salaries of $11 and $12 mil-lion in the next two years.Johnston responded by letter, saying he rejected the offer and restated the club&rsquo;s earlier position that they would only negotiate a future contract only after most of the obligations had been performed under the present contract; notified Yashin of his suspension; and assured Yashin of his warm welcome should he decide to honor his contractual obligations and attend and fully participate in training camp and the coming season.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Wade Redden and the Senators came to terms for a new two-year contract just before the start of training camp. The new contract will pay the 22-year-old defenseman $1,625 this year and $1.95 million next year&hellip;Restricted free agent forwards Radek Bonk. Magnus Arvedson and Bruce Gardiner remained unsigned. It&rsquo;s expected Arvedson and the Senators will come to terms soon. The sides were about $125,000 apart&hellip;The Senators&rsquo; rookies won a four-team tournament in Hull defeating the Tampa Bay rookies 7-3 in the final&hellip;Two rookies-center Mike Fisher and English import Jonathan Weaver, a left winger, impressed GM Marshall Johnston enough to earn invitations to the main camp. &#9632;

f0029-03

Yashin suspended by Sensand may be sued by club

<div class="byline">By Joe Starkey</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04267/7433427-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="159" height="158"></div>Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; training camp had only just begun when word began to spread about the most shocking cut in team historyJaromir Jagr-the Penguins&rsquo; mane man-stunned fans, teammates and coaches when he showed up without his familiar curly locks. They&rsquo;d recently been sheared in an Italian barber shop.&ldquo;I was in Italy and told them to make me look like an Italian,&rdquo; said Jagr, 27. &ldquo;They have short hair like this&hellip;I think I&rsquo;m old enough to have short hair now.&rdquo;Jagr&rsquo;s locks had been his trade mark since he arrived in the U.S. in 1990 as an 18-year-old rookie. He says he has no intention of growing them back. His new &lsquo;do actually was the product of several haircuts over the summer, he said.&ldquo;It got shorter and shorter and shorter,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I gotta go one more time.&rdquo;Coach Kevin Constantine had heard about the haircut, but couldn&rsquo;t quite picture it.&ldquo;I was pretty intrigued as to what he might look like,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, he&rsquo;s a pretty good looking young kid. I think it looks good.&rdquo;Reaction varied among Jagr&rsquo;s teammates.&ldquo;He looks taller,&rdquo; said defenseman Ian Moran.&ldquo;He looks pretty,&rdquo; said winger Rob Brown.&ldquo;I had to introduce myself to him,&rdquo; said teammate Tyler Wright. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t recognize him. It&rsquo;s a pretty bold move. I think it looks good.&rdquo;Once the questions about the hair were answered, Jagr addressed some more important issues, like his thoughts on Mario Lemieux taking over as Penguins owner.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have to worry about bankruptcy anymore,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have to worry about paychecks. We can just concentrate on playing hockey.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: New owner Mario Lemieux hired Tom Rooney as the new chief operating officer and Ken Sawyer as the new chief financial officer. Rooney, 49, is a nephew of Pittsburgh Steelers&rsquo; founder Art Rooney Sr. He worked for the Penguins from 1981 through 1990 as vice-president of marketing and promotions. Sawyer, 50, served as CFO of the NHL from 1979 through 1993&hellip;On his first day as boss, Lemieux announced a ticket-price reduction for 3,500 seats in the Civic Arena&hellip;Second-year center Jan Hrdina signed a two-year, $1.2-million contract two days into camp. Left winger Kip Miller signed a one-year, $500,000-contract one day into camp. &#9632;

f0029-04

Main man Jagr loses flowing mane

<div class="byline">By Bob McManaman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06185/7433458-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="357" height="473"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Essensa</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05224/7433465-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="159" height="160"></div>With no progress in sight, the Phoenix Coyotes decided they had no choice but to counter unsigned goalie NikolaiKhabibulin&rsquo;s salary demands by signing Bob Essensa as insurance to start the season.&ldquo;He obviously wants more than we&rsquo;re going to pay,&rdquo; said GM Bobby Smith of Khabibulin, a restricted free agent who won&rsquo;t report to camp until he signs a multi-year deal. He reportedly wants at least $3.5 million a season, perhaps more.Smith said he wasn&rsquo;t trying to &ldquo;send a message&rdquo; to Khabibulin by bringing in Essensa on a one-way, one-year deal worth $400,000. But it was obvious the two sides remain so far apart in negotiations, Smith felt he had to do something with only one experienced goalie, Mikhail Shtalenkov, in camp.Essensa, 33, who spent the past three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, had been negotiating with both the Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks.Had neither option become available, he said he may have considered retirement after nine NHL seasons in which he posted a 142-149-41 record.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a strange situation for me here,&rdquo; Essensa said. &ldquo;What happens once Nik finally signs? I doubt veryseriously they&rsquo;re going to keep threegoalies. Certainly, it&rsquo;s nice for me to push off retirement.&rdquo;Essensa spent parts of six seasons with the club when it was still known as the Winnipeg Jets and until Khabibulin came along, he held virtually all of the team&rsquo;s goalie records.Essensa and Shtalenkov spent last season splitting time with the Oilers until Phoenix acquired Shtalenkov at the trade deadline.&ldquo;I know Bobby and he&rsquo;s a good goalie,&rdquo; Shtalenkov said. &ldquo;They must think Nik&rsquo;s situation is going to take some time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Unsigned center Robert Reichel has agreed to play in the Czech Republic for HC Litvinov until at least Oct. 1. If he remains there beyond that date, he will not be eligible to play in the NHL this season, in accordance with league rules&hellip;Defenseman Jyrki Lumme might be held out of all eight pre-season games as a precaution following major surgery to repair an injured shoulder and arm&hellip;Right winger Todd Ewen, who last played in the NHL with San Jose in 1997-98, tried to make it back after sitting out the past two seasons with knee problems, but suffered a setback during his first scrimmage, injuring a knee and shoulder, and retired&hellip;Forward Mika Alatalo, 28, has opened some eyes in camp and has a shot to crack the roster. &#9632;

f0029-06

’Biilin Wall’ talks stalled, Essensa in as insurance

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-07154/7433496-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="158" height="153"></div>John LeClair&rsquo;s on-again, off-again back is off again.That&rsquo;s &ldquo;off,&rdquo; as in bad enough to keep the Flyers&rsquo; left winger off the ice for any sort of contact for all of the first week of training camp, which was began Sept. 8 in Peterborough, Ont., plus at least half of the exhibition sea son.Everyone from GM-president Bob Clarke to the training staff to LeClair himself tried to put a positive spin on the news that came Sept. 2 after LeClair met with back specialist Dr. Richard Balderston.Clarke sounded heartened by the news that doctors are calling it only a muscular injury and that LeClair should be ready for the opening regular season game Oct. 2.But privately, the Flyers have to be concerned about the chronic nature of this injury, which began to surface down the stretch run of last season. LeClair was well on his way to a fourth straight 50-goal season when the injury struck.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disappointment,&rdquo; LeClair said.&ldquo;Anytime you don&rsquo;t start camp on time it&rsquo;s a disappointment. I want to be there with the players, participate and go through everything they go through.&rdquo;&ldquo;He won&rsquo;t participate in any of the scrimmages, but he will skate,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;We think that by the end of that week his back should be fine.&rdquo;Clarke said LeClair will be kept out of early pre-season games mainly because he will be behind in his conditioning.NOTEBOOK: The Flyers went to camp with a full roster of players. Center Daymond Langkow signed for two years, $1.6 million. Left winger Valeri Zelepukin came to terms on a one-year deal which will pay him close to $900,000. and left winger Craig Berube returned to the team for a one-year, $700,000 contract&hellip;Center Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour won the run portion of the Flyers&rsquo; pre-season fit ness testing. He completed a hilly six-mile course in 41 minutes, three seconds&hellip;Defenseman Luke Richardson won the bike competition. His time for the 23-mile course was one hour, 11 minutes&hellip;Eric Lindros, nursing a back injury, began solo skating workouts Sept. 9 at Peterborough. &#9632;

f0029-07

LeClair on shelf at camp with chronic back injury

<div class="byline">By Dan Wood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011023/7433527-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="161" height="163"></div>When it conies to the San Jose Sharks, the focus is understandably on youth.The Sharks believe they possess some of the brightest young talent in the NHL with players such as Jeff Friesen, Patrick Marleau and Marco Sturm already on the scene and Brad Stuart and Scott Hannan perhaps arriving this year.Just the same, there is a number of veterans, many of whom are coming off sub-par seasons, that figure to play a key role for the Sharks this season.&ldquo;As younger, better players take more ice time, you need specialists,&rdquo; said coach Darryl Sutter."The good thing is they are all older guys who are good team guys.&rdquo;That group includes forwards Stephane Matteau, Murray Craven and Tony Granato, each of whom is coming off an injury-marred season, as well as Ron Sutter and defenseman Bob Rouse.&ldquo;Older guys have to be willing to accept their roles,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s probably why they&rsquo;re all still playing, because they&rsquo;re that type of people.&rdquo;Matteau and Craven, in particular, could be important factors as third- and fourth-liners if they can remain healthy. A recurring back problem limited Matteau to 68 games last season and his production dropped to eight goals and 23 points. Craven played in only 43 games because of a mysterious leg injury that has apparently healed. He managed four goals and 14 points.&ldquo;They are key guys because of how much they can help you in their roles,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;They play such well-rounded games.&rdquo;Granato had six goals and 12 points while playing only 35 games due to a tom knee ligament. Ron Sutter had three goals and nine points in 59 games and Rouse chipped in 11 assists in 70 games.&ldquo;This is a very good hockey team,&rdquo; said Dave Lowry, whom San Jose acquired from Florida in the 1997-98 season. &ldquo;Since I&rsquo;ve been here, there has been a lot of growth. This team has potential.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson became the Sharks&rsquo; first significant casualty when he sprained his ankle on the second day of training camp. Ragnarsson missed the first eight regular season games last season because of a broken thumb incurred in San Jose&rsquo;s final exhibition game&hellip;Defenseman Gary Suter, 35, won the team&rsquo;s annual fitness competition. Suter missed all but one game last season because of a tom triceps tendon that required three surgeries&hellip;With an eye on the NHL&rsquo;s new overtime format, coach Darryl Sutter devoted portions of early training-camp scrimmages to 4-on-4 play&hellip;Left winger Dave Lowry, an unrestricted free agent, was invited to camp on a try out basis. He scored six goals and 15 points in 61 games with San Jose last season&hellip;Ground-breaking took place Sept. 8 for renovation and expansion of the Ice Center of San Jose, which will serve as the club&rsquo;s primary training facility. A third ice sheet will be added, with completion of the project set for June, 2000. &#9632;

f0030-01

Sharks maintain focus on youth with eye on veterans for key roles

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02681/7433558-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="161" height="165"></div>In keeping with their connection to America&rsquo;s biggest discount retailer, Bill and Nancy Laurie got into the business of professional hockey by buying the St. Louis Blues at a bargain basement price.The Lauries, whose billion-dollar net worth is tied to the Wal-Mart chain (Nancy Laurie is the daughter of the late Bud Walton, the chain&rsquo;s cofounder), bought the Blues from Clark Enterprises, Inc., Sept. 6 for $100 million. Included in the purchase price was $96 million in debt that has been a financial drag on the team for the last four years.So, in essence, the Laurie&rsquo;s paid $4 million to purchase the Blues. Kiel Center and the $96 million in debt, as well as &ldquo;$18 million in losses per year,&rdquo; according to outgoing chairman Jerry Ritter.Although Kiel Center cost $135 million to build and the going rate for NHL expansion teams is $80 million, Ritter said $100 million was a fair price because Blues&rsquo; management has had to hit up ownership for cash infusions totalling $70 million in the last four years.Still, it looks like a good investment for Laurie, who last spring agreed to purchase the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association and the Pepsi Center in Denver for $400 million from Ascent Entertainment. That deal fell through when Ascent stock holders balked at the sale price.Laurie, a former collegiate basketball player at Memphis State, admits he doesn&rsquo;t know much about hockey, but described he and his wife as &ldquo;avid fans&rdquo; because of their brief experience with the Avalanche in the playoffs last spring.&ldquo;We became avid fans almost immediately because there&rsquo;s nothing greater than seeing great athletes who are in condition, dedicated and focused,&rdquo; Laurie said. &ldquo;We were a natural.&rdquo;The Lauries have a deep love for sports, a desire to win and the deep pockets to make it happen.&ldquo;If we need a couple of players to challenge for the Stanley Cup, we&rsquo;ll do it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t expect to win it every year, but at some point, we&rsquo;d like to be in the hunt to win it all.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: St. Louis eliminated $3 million from their payroll by trading veteran goalie Grant Fuhr to Calgary for a third round draft pick on the eve of training camp. Essentially, the Blues picked up new No. 1 goalie Roman Turek. who was traded to St. Louis from Dallas for a third round pick, for Fuhr (See pg. 16 for more.)&hellip;New owner Bill Laurie praised the Blues management staff of president Mark Sauer, GM Larry Pleau and coach Joel Quenneville as &ldquo;one of the best of any sports team in the United States."&hellip;The Blues attracted a standing room only crowd of 1,000 to their practice facility at U.S. Ice Sports Complex on the first day of training camp&hellip;Pascal Rheaume isn&rsquo;t expected to play until Jan. I because of nerve problems related to off-season surgery on his right shoulder&hellip;Scott Young also was held out of the first week of camp scrimmages to give his right wrist extra time to heal. He also had off season surgery&hellip;Right winger Tyler Willis, 22. will miss camp recovering from off-season knee surgery. &#9632;

f0030-02

’Attention Wal-Mart shoppers,’Blues’ sale is now complete

<div class="byline">By Tim Buckley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01940/7433589-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="160" height="160"></div>Pavel Kubina did not come with a guarantee. Then again, what seventh rounders do?Now, three years removed from his entry draft selection, the 22-year-old Kubina is considered a key cog on the Tampa Bay Lightning blueline.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a superstar in this league,&rdquo; said Lightning center Chris Gratton. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still young and he still has a lot to learn, but he has shown tremendous offensive skills.&rdquo;Kubina finished sixth among Lightning players last season with 21 points, including nine goals, tops among all NHL rookie defensemen. He averaged a rookie-high 22 minutes of ice per game.It wasn&rsquo;t all rosy for Kubina, however. He posted a dismal minus-33 and was banished to the minors at one point for six games due to poor conditioning.He responded well to that action, but after returning did have a couple of spells in which he was benched for long stretches. By late in the season, though, Kubina was clearly the Lightning&rsquo;s top defenseman.&ldquo;I went back to playing easy hockey, making the easy play and thinking about defense first,&rdquo; Kubina said. &ldquo;Then 1 started getting chances and my confidence went back up.&rdquo;The Lightning likely will continue to play Kubina with fellow Czech Petr Svoboda.&ldquo;He has tremendous ability, but the thing I like about him is how hard he works,&rdquo; Svoboda said.&ldquo;He wants to be better.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Lightning signed free agent right winger Dan Kesa to a one-year contract. Kesa. who had two goals and 10 points in 67 games for Pittsburgh last season, played for Lightning coach Steve Ludzik with Detroit (International League) in 1996-97&hellip;Tampa Bay was reportedly working on a deal with Washington to acquire center Michal Pivonka. The Lightning have hired well-known American track coach Bob Kersee and Dr. Rick Lehman, one of the top sports orthopedic surgeons in the United States, to oversee its conditioning program&hellip;Tampa Bay opened camp with Darcy Tucker, a center last sea son, playing left wing on a line that had Stephane Richer on the right side and Vincent Lecavalier in the middle. &#9632;

f0031-01

Kubina has star potential, but must be more consistent

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04326/7433658-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="162" height="158"></div>When Mark Messier stepped on the ice for his 21st training camp-his third as a member of the Vancouver Canucks-he conceded he didn&rsquo;t know what he would be capable of accomplishing this season.&rsquo;The Moose&rsquo; turns 39 halfway through the 1999-2000 season and is on the last guaranteed year of his contract, although the Canucks hold options for both the fourth and fifth seasons. Messier has been plagued by injuries since arriving in Vancouver as his body seems unable to with stand the rigors of 82 games. However, in the times he did feel good, he was very productive.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unknown to me and, obviously, to everybody else,&rdquo; said Messier when asked about his performance expectations.Messier will again make $6 million (U.S.) this season and his option years are at the same salary. However, the most likely scenario has the Canucks inviting him back only at a reduced wage, if they invite him back at all. He will receive a $2 million (U.S.) buyout if jettisoned.&ldquo;Is the contract on my mind? No, not really,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to focus on this year and really enjoy all aspects of it.&rdquo;The Canucks are in a full rebuilding mode with an emerging young core. That core will be further bolstered next year when the Swedish Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, arrive. Messier now appears to be more of a stopgap than someone who will lead Vancouver out of the hockey wilderness. He won five Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers and one with the New York Rangers.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s important to sit here and try to analyze whether I&rsquo;m going to be here for Year 4 or 5,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The important part is I&rsquo;ve tried to do the things that made me successful (in the past). Whether it has produced results or not, hopefully some of that has sunk in. Hopefully there is a benefit whether I&rsquo;m here or not.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Alexander Mogilny showed up at camp at 196 pounds, 10 pounds lighter than his playing weight last season&hellip;Restricted free agent defensemen Ed Jovanovski and Adrian Aucoin were not at camp. Neither was unsigned third-year center Dave Scatchard&hellip;Coach Marc Crawford has hired his 26-year-old brother, Eric Crawford, as the team&rsquo;s video co-ordinator and eye-in-the-sky during games. Eric Craw ford has coaching experience at the Jr. A level and has also coached Canadian university with St. Thomas of Fredericton. N.B&hellip;Tryout candidate Derek Diener, a 23-year-old defenseman, was the first casualty at camp as he suffered a com pound fracture of his left arm. &#9632;

f0031-04

Messier not looking past this season

<div class="byline">By Dave Fay</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05257/7433689-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="161" height="158"></div>Ulf Dahlen came to the Washington Capitals&rsquo; training camp a little unsure about where and with whom he would play.He had no complaints when he found himself on the first line as Adam Oates&rsquo; left winger with Peter Bondra on the right side.Coach Ron Wilson made no promises things would stay that way, but it was a pleasant re-introduction to the NHL after playing back home in Swe den for two seasons after what he terms a &ldquo;bad experience&rdquo; with the Chicago Blackhawks.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;d call it, but 1 feel like a rookie again even though it&rsquo;s my 11th year in the league,&rdquo; said the 32-year-old Dahlen.&ldquo;I feel pumped up and excited. I had a bad experience in Chicago and I&rsquo;m happy I&rsquo;m getting another chance to show I can still play.&rdquo;Dahlen spent the last half of the 1996-97 season with the Hawks before Chicago went on what the winger called a youth movement. &ldquo;I spent six weeks in a motel room waiting for them to make a decision on me. That was a rough time,&rdquo; Dahlen said.He had an otter from the Nashville Predators last season, but stayed with HV-71 Jonkoping, scoring 14 goals and 29 points in 25 games when he wasn&rsquo;t playing in the World Championship. His expertise along the boards and in front of the net are badly needed by the Caps, who lost 20 games last season by one goal.Of the 65 players who had physicals as the Caps opened camp Sept. 7, the majority of them were with the Caps for the first time. Sixteen players who wore the Washington jersey at some point last season did not return.NOTEBOOK: When Ted Leonsis took over as majority owner of the team this summer, he said the first thing he wanted to look at was the ticket pricing structure. Leonsis lived up to his promise when he said he would listen to current and former fans. Ticket prices were trimmed in nearly every category-upper and lower levels, single game and season tickets, group rates and partial plans. Leonsis then asked four players to attend a gala function at the headquarters of America Online, where Leonsis is an executive, with the owner trying to sell sea son tickets to fellow workers. He sold 15, but said he had commitments for more than twice that many&hellip;The unveiling of Adam Oates as the ninth Washington captain was done in front of the White House. &#9632;

f0031-05

Jaded by Hawk experience, Dahlen tries luck with Caps

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>A year ago at this time, Craig Charron thought his break had finally come.The New York Islanders had offered him a two-year contract that included an NHL salary and GM Mike Milbury was making promises about a legitimate NHL opportunity.The opportunity, it turned out, never came and Charron spent an eighth full season in the minors^ Now, after being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Charron is prepared to make a career change if he isn&rsquo;t loaned or traded back to a team in the New England area.The Maple Leafs sent winger Niklas Anders son to the Islanders in exchange for Charron, expecting the 31-year-old center to spearhead the offense for St. John&rsquo;s in the American League.But Charron has no intention of uprooting his young family and moving to Newfoundland. A native of North Easton, Mass., and a graduate of the University of Lowell, Charron lived at home while leading the Atlantic Division-champion Lowell Lock Monsters in scoring last season with 22 goals and 61 points in 71 games.He refused to report to the Leafs&rsquo; training camp and was suspended by the club. While the Maple Leafs say they may entertain a trade, they want him on the ice first.&ldquo;He will remain suspended and we will not do anything regarding his trade request until he reports,&rdquo; assistant GM Bill Watters said.Chairon says he&rsquo;s not leaving home.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not about money, it&rsquo;s not about being spoiled, it&rsquo;s not about being a crybaby; it&rsquo;s about doing the right thing,&rdquo; said Charron, the team MVP for the Rochester Americans in 1995-96 and 1997-98.&ldquo;If I thought I had a realistic shot to play in Toronto, I&rsquo;d be there in a second. But they made it pretty clear to me I&rsquo;d be heading to St. John&rsquo;s. Knowing their schedule and their road trips, at this point in my life it&rsquo;s not a direction I want to take. I just can&rsquo;t do that to my family.&rdquo;Charron and wife Wendy have two sons, Jackson, three, and Nicholas. 18 months.&ldquo;When 1 signed with the Islanders, they were promising me that chance at the NHL, something I&rsquo;d never had. All they had to do was wave that carrot and they knew I&rsquo;d be biting,&rdquo; said Charron, who has averaged 75 points the past three AHL seasons. &ldquo;My wife and I left Rochester, a place we dearly loved, for a chance to play in the NHL, a chance that never materialized.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011003/7433720-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="465" height="466"></div>&ldquo;The game has pretty much controlled my life and at some point you have to take control of your own destiny. I&rsquo;m not the type of father that would be comfortable leaving on a three-week road trip. If I was 20 years old, I&rsquo;d go to St. John&rsquo;s without thinking. But at 31, with a wife and family and a college degree, there are plenty of other options for me. I will live very happily if there is no hockey for me this year.&rdquo;OFFICIATING OVERHAUL: The pro motion of the AHL&rsquo;s eight senior referees to the NHL means the league may undergo growing pains early in the season with a host of new and less-experienced officials.Blaine Angus. Bernie DeGrace, Greg Kimmerly. Mike r Leggo. Kevin Maguire. Dan O&rsquo;Halloran, Brad Watson and Scott Zelkin were hired as full-time NHL referees to accommodate the expanding schedule of games with two referees.&ldquo;There was a big concern last year when a lot of our senior guys were in the NHL, but we didn&rsquo;t have any problems,&rdquo; said AHL president Dave Andrews. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like the guys coming in haven&rsquo;t refereed before. There&rsquo;s a learning curve, but in the past they&rsquo;ve adjusted fairly quickly.&rdquo;AHL TIDBITS: The signing of three former Kentucky players, winger Dave Duerden and defensemen Curtis Doell and Filip Kuba, by the Florida Panthers should add a little intrigue to the rivalry between the Thoroughblades and expansion Louisville Panthers&hellip;Former junior A scoring star Deny Gaudet has been invited to training camp with the Saint John Flames. Gaudet was the rookie of the year with the University of Moncton last season&hellip;Don Ostrom, who spent the past 13 years in a variety of capacities with the Adirondack Red Wings and Glens Falls Civic Center, has been named vice president of team operations for the Hartford Wolf Pack&hellip;The Quebec Citadelles are working on a television package that could put up to 10 games on cable in the province. &#9632;

f0032-01

Newfoundland not for Charron; it’s New England or nowhere

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>The International League&rsquo;s expansion of the mid-1990s has been followed by serious contraction, leaving league president Doug Moss with a cautious approach regarding future growth.The league, which grew to 19 teams in 1995 96, is back to 13 its &rsquo;93-94 size-after the sus pension of the Las Vegas Thunder and the defection of the Indianapolis Ice (Central League) and Fort Wayne Komets (United League) to other leagues.&ldquo;We got into trouble on a couple of fronts,&rdquo; Moss said, analyzing his league&rsquo;s recent history. &ldquo;We tried to rush too much.&rdquo;Moss said despite preliminary discussions about Toronto and Montreal, there&rsquo;s no sense of urgency to start another round of expansion.&ldquo;About 80 to 85 per cent of my time now is spent looking for new markets,&rdquo; Moss said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had lots of positive conversations, but nothing is imminent. I&rsquo;m very focused on this and the board is supporting me in this. What we&rsquo;re trying to do is to follow the plan to make good decisions and to use common sense and not try to put a square peg in a round hole.&ldquo;Right now, I&rsquo;d like to take a page out of (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman&rsquo;s book, that we&rsquo;d have no expansion until we have buildings and the right kind of owners available in those markets.&rdquo;Moss said continued and increased co-operation with the NHL is paramount for the IHL, an opposite course from the early &rsquo;90s. The league also wants to set higher standards for prospective new owners or teams and investigate a possible revival of the Thunder franchise in Las Vegas.&ldquo;We have no mandate to operate in any particular city, or to have two or six more teams in any time frame,&rdquo; Moss said. &ldquo;We want to be in the right kind of IHL city. We don&rsquo;t want to go into a market which wants a franchise to look good on its resume and then two years later, leave.&rdquo;Moss said that the sting of the reduction to 13 teams for this season was a &ldquo;one-day&rdquo; story at the end of last season.&ldquo;Frankly, we&rsquo;ve been inundated with all the inquiries about how many players and the five coaches we&rsquo;ve lost to the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s been the big story for us.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02676/7433751-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="423" height="439"></div>FREE AGENT FOLLY: The IHL is usually a waste of time for Group II (restricted) NHL free agents, so expect few, if any, to seek haven this season, said Kansas City Blades&rsquo; GM Doug Soetaert.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been a real fan of signing them,&rdquo; Soetaert said. &rsquo;There&rsquo;s just not that much money available because of our salary cap and they&rsquo;re just a short-term thing, filling a hole.&rdquo;Despite a gentleman&rsquo;s agreement among IHL teams last year that Group II free agents weren&rsquo;t beneficial, several wound up in the league briefly, most notably defenseman Scott Nieder-mayer and forward Anson Carter, both in Utah.ALL-STAR CHANGE: Originally scheduled for Chicago&rsquo;s Rosemont Horizon Jan. 16, the IHL has changed the date, location and format of the F 2000 all-star game.The game, now Jan. 17, will pit the IHL all-stars against the defending champion Houston Aeros in Houston. The game had pitted the Western Conference stars against the Eastern Conference stars.The switch was made because of travel and scheduling concems-too many teams play Jan. 15. A similar scenario disrupted some events at last year&rsquo;s game in Cincinnati.MOOSE ANGLE FOR BOHONOS: The Manitoba Moose have acquired the minor league playing rights to forward Lonny Bohonos in the contract Bohonos signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.The 26-year-old Winnipeg native was a surprise contributor to the Leafs&rsquo; playoff success last spring with three goals and nine points in nine games and the Leafs agreed to his request to be assigned to the Moose if he doesn&rsquo;t stick in the NHL this season.BLADES BACK: The Kansas City Blades have signed defenseman Nick Naumenko and left winger David Vallieres. both of whom finished last season with the club.Naumenko was acquired from Las Vegas before the trade deadline. Vallieres was a rookie out of the University of Alaska-Anchorage. The signings give the Blades 11 returnees this season. &#9632;

f0032-02

Moss’ league gathers no teams as expansion plans put on hold

<div class="byline">By John Packett</div>As soon as rumors began to circulate during the summer that the Huntington Blizzard were going to be sold, fans started wondering if the franchise was going to leave the West Virginia city.Because of sparse attendance, the team&rsquo;s departure has been a perennial concern. Over the past four seasons, average attendance has ranged from 2,100 to 2,600, among the lowest in the East Coast League.Not to worry. When the mid-August announcement was made that the team had been bought by Tri-State Sports-a West Virginia company which is a division of Boston-based Beacon Sports Capital Partners-members of the new ownership group quashed those rumors.&ldquo;From the time we looked into it, there never was a mention of moving this franchise, Hall-of-Famer and part-owner Phil Esposito told the Huntington Herald Dispatch. &ldquo;We will give you a winning team and in return, we expect your support.&rdquo;&ldquo;We recognize it was a situation where people thought the team would leave,&rdquo; said David LeFevre, the Blizzard&rsquo;s c new chairman. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re outsiders, there&rsquo;s no question about it. But (Morris Jeffreys) made it very clear he wanted the franchise to remain in Huntington.&rdquo;Tri-State Sports purchased the team from Jeffreys and Joe Worth, who will maintain a minority stake in the club. The sale price was not revealed, but it was believed to be around $1.5 million.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03475/7433782-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="759" height="330"></div>The new owners have already started improving the seven-year-old franchise. They&rsquo;ve renovated the Blizzard&rsquo;s dressing room, installed a weight room, increased the recruiting budget and planned to televise 12 games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to put in the financial management and infrastructure,&rdquo; LeFevre said. &ldquo;We want not just to survive, but to be a model franchise for the rest of the country.&rdquo; The team also plans to introduce the Blizzard Foundation, which is intended to be a major supporter of charitable, civic and cultural causes in the area.Ray Edwards has been retained as coach and given full rein in personnel decisions.&ldquo;Any help I can get from Phil (Esposito), I&rsquo;ll welcome,&rdquo; said Edwards, entering his second year at the helm. &ldquo;I am very excited. All the guys who played here last year are very excited. I&rsquo;ll be like a sponge soaking up anything Phil says.&rdquo;NEW ARENA NAME: Gale Force Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Florida Everblades, announced TECO Peoples Gas of Tampa has acquired the naming rights of the arena in Estero, Fla., where the Everblades play their home games.The naming rights cost $7 million, which will be paid over 20 years.COAST LINES: The expansion Trenton Titans are closing in on 5,000 season tickets. The Titans plan to cap sales at 5,000, which would leave 3,000 tickets available for walk ups&hellip;The ECHL has announced the addition of Jamie Fabos as the assistant director of communications. &#9632;

f0032-03

Esposito group wants to keep Blizzard in West Virginia

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011025/7433813-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL TRANSACTIONS AND DEPTH CHARTS

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="S0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0004-0141/7434068-1-eng-US/s0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Belleville Bulls are led offensively by Los Angeles draft pick Justin Papineau.</figcaption></div>Belleville Bulls&rsquo; coach Lou Crawford was asked if there is an English translation to the French name Papineau.Crawford paused, then replied: &ldquo;Points, maybe.&rdquo;Could be. Center Justin Papineau certainly had enough of them last season as the Bulls marched to the Ontario League championship, the first in the club&rsquo;s 18-year history.Papineau finished ninth in regular season scoring with 52 goals and 99 points. The 99 points proved prophetic in the playoffs.Papineau topped post-season scoring with 21 goals and 51 points in 21 games and won the inaugural Wayne Gretzky 99 Award as the most valuable player in the OHL playoffs.&ldquo;He goes 100 miles per hour hockey when on the ice and 100 miles per hour hockey when off the ice,&rdquo; Crawford said of the 19-year-old, the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; second round draft pick in 1998.&ldquo;He wants to live hockey to no end. You find a lot of players stick their chests out a little bit and start to take for granted what they have and before they know it, their three years in this league are gone.&ldquo;Justin is going into his fourth year and he has a great attitude. A lot of kids when they get back from pro camp wear their expensive clothes and drive around in their expensive cars. Justin&rsquo;s attitude is that he wants to come back here and he knows why he wants to make the L.A. Kings.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s no telling the numbers Papineau will put up this season, but he has never been interested in his personal slats. Even last season, during the playoffs, when the media was focussing in on him and his contribution to the Bulls&rsquo; great run, he constantly deflected the credit to his teammates.Crawford said that&rsquo;s Papineau&rsquo;s style.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a winner, wherever he has been,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;And it doesn&rsquo;t follow him around. He leads.&rdquo;Papineau, an Ottawa native, was the Bulls&rsquo; first round pick in 1996. He came to a veteran laden team.&ldquo;When he first came here, he didn&rsquo;t get a lot of ice time,&rdquo; said Crawford, an assistant under Larry Mavety at the time.&ldquo;He went from being an elite player on his previous team to sitting on the bench. That brought him back to earth. He worked hard and listened. It&rsquo;s been non-stop for him. He&rsquo;s always learning.&rdquo;Papineau has had seasons of 42, 94 and 99 points. He&rsquo;s sure to be returned by Los Angeles for his final junior season.Here&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s in the works for all 20 OHL teams. The top eight teams in each conference advance to the playoffs. Teams are listed in predicted order of finish. Last year&rsquo;s records, division finishes and playoff fortunes are in parentheses.<h2>EASTERN CONFERENCE</h2>EAST DIVISION1. Belleville Bulls (39-22-7, second, league title). Coach: Lou Crawford. GM: Dr. Bob Vaughan. Kingpin: Center Justin Papineau, 19, flies on the international ice surface in Belleville. Fresh face: Center Kyle Wellwood put up great numbers in Jr. B as a 15-year-old. Outlook: Mark the Bulls down as champions.2. Ottawa 67&rsquo;s (48-13-7, first, second round). Coach-GM: Brian Kilrea. Kingpin: Center Mark Bell, 19, will be ringing up the goals. Fresh face: Defenseman Brendan Bell (no relation) is a local boy who will sell some tickets. Outlook: The 67&rsquo;s will be tough in what might be Kilrea&rsquo;s second-last season behind the bench.3. Oshawa Generals (39-24-5, third, third round). Coach: John Goodwin. Interim GM: Don Chrysler. Kingpin: Defenseman Bryan Allen, 19, fits big into the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; future. Fresh face: Center Nick Lees can score. Outlook: This franchise has finished below .500 only twice in the past 22 years.4. Peterborough Petes (40-26-2, fourth, first round). Coach: Rick Allain. GM: Jeff Twohey. Kingpin: Center Jason Williams, 19, will strike a blow for Jr. D players everywhere. Fresh face: Slovenian right winger Marcel Rod man scored 30 goals in 37 Jr. A games last year. Outlook: The Petes have some stiff competition in the East Division.5. Kingston Frontenacs (22-42-4, fifth, first round). Coach-GM: Larry Mavety. King pin: Center Michael Zigomanis, 18, has smarts around the net. Fresh face: Center Corey Still man is a cousin of Calgary Flames&rsquo; Cory Still man. Outlook: The Frontenacs are rebuilding.<h2>CENTRAL DIVISION</h2>1.Sudbury Wolves (25-35-8, second, first round). Coach-GM: Bert Templeton. Kingpin: Center Norm Milley, 19, will make it two straight 50-goal seasons. Fresh face: Goalie Miguel Beaudry anchored the Ontario under-17 team. Outlook: The second winningest coach in the CHL will put his stamp on this franchise.2.Barrie Colts (49-13-6, first, second round). Coach-GM: Bill Stewart. Kingpin: Right winger Sheldon Keefe, 19, is the man after 51 goals as a rookie. Fresh face: American defense man Eric Reitz will shore up the blueline. Outlook: Under Stewart&rsquo;s direction, the Colts will discover there is life after Bert Templeton.3.Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors (20-42-6, fourth, missed playoffs). Coach: Michael Futa. GM: Mark Napier. Kingpin: Winger Adam DeLeeuw, 19, has settled in after last year&rsquo;s blockbuster deal with Barrie. Fresh face: Slovakian goalie Peter Budaj is causing a stir. Outlook: The Majors are climbing slowly.4.North Bay Centennials (22-40-6, third, first round); Coach-GM: Mike Kelly. Kingpin: Goalie Alex Auld, 18, came out of bantam last year and played with poise. Fresh face: Center Chris Thorburn, 16, will get bigger and better. Outlook: It&rsquo;s sink or swim for Mike Kelly in the Bay.5.Mississauga IceDogs (4-61-3, fifth, missed playoffs). Coach-GM: Jim Hulton. King pin: Center Jason Spezza, 16, is worth the price of admission. Fresh face: Defenseman Marcus Smith has dual citizenship, but chose the OHL over the U.S. under-18 team. Outlook: The Ice Dogs&rsquo; bark is still worse than their bite.<h2>WESTERN CONFERENCE</h2>MIDWEST DIVISION1.Erie Otters (31-33-4, third, first round). Coach: Dave MacQueen. GM: Sherry Bassin. Kingpin: Center Tim Connolly, 18. scores goals that make the highlight reel. Fresh face: Defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo will be a third round sleeper. Outlook: Avoiding last season&rsquo;s devastating injuries, they oughtter finally win the division.2.Owen Sound Platers (39-24-5, second, third round). Coach: Dave Siciliano. GM: Ray McKelvie. Kingpin: Overage defenseman Mike Dombkiewicz, 20, has shed 15 pounds. Fresh face: Latvian defenseman Agris Saviels was the first pick in the CHL import draft. Outlook: There&rsquo;s a new lease on life in Owen Sound with a new arena deal.3.Guelph Storm (44-22-2, first, second round). Coach: Paul Gillis. GM: Alan Millar. Kingpin: Defenseman Kevin Mitchell, 19, is the league&rsquo;s best offensive blueliner. Fresh face: Left winger Colt King is a 6-foot-3, 210-pound horse with Todd Bertuzzi-potential. Outlook: Graduation will ease the Storm warnings.4.Kitchener Rangers (23-39-6, fourth, missed playoffs). Coach: Brian Hayton. GM: Jamie McDonald. Kingpin: Overage center Serge Payer, 20, has bounced back from life threatening Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Fresh face: Defenseman Steve Eminger went to the Canadian Jr. A final with Bramalea. Outlook: Another year before the Rangers ride again.5.Brampton Battalion (8-57-3, fifth, missed playoffs). Coach-GM: Stan Butler. Kingpin: Defenseman Jay Harrison, 16, was coached in minor by OHL commissioner Dave Branch. Fresh face: Center Jay McClement will step right in after two seasons in Jr. A. Outlook: The Battalion will still take a shelling.<h2>WEST DIVISION</h2>1.Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (31-29 8, fourth, first round). Coach: Paul Theriault. GM: Dave Mayville. Kingpin: Left winger Ryan Jardine, 19, is a marksman around the net. Fresh face: Defenseman Trevor Dailey was the best skater in the midget draft. Outlook: Theriault will make a triumphant return to his hometown.2.London Knights (34-30-4, third, fourth round). Coach-GM: Gary Agnew. Kingpin:<h2>HandicappingOHL teams</h2>Defenseman John Erskine, 19, is somebody nobody messes with. Fresh face: Center Matt Albiani will easily make the jump from bantam. Outlook: The season hinges on whether Rico Fata is returned by Calgary.Plymouth Whalers (51-13-4, first, second round). Coach-GM: Peter DeBoer. Kingpin: Left winger Damian Surma, 18, plays in critical situations. Fresh face: Center Stephen Weiss is a nephew of assistant coach Steve Spott. Outlook: The heat is on after a playoff loss to London.Sarnia Sting (37-25-6, second. second round). Coach-GM: Mark Hunter. Kingpin: Right winger Jeff Heerema, 19, is a fine Carolina prospect. Fresh face: Russian left winger Alexander Buturlin is the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; pride and joy. Outlook: They&rsquo;re going to feel the Sting of graduation.Windsor Spitfires (23-39-6, fifth, first round). Coach: Tom Web ster. GM: Mike Kelly. Kingpin: Left winger Blair Stayzer, 18, crashes and bangs with the best of them. Fresh face: U.S. defenseman Tim Gleason jumped at the chance to play for Web ster. Outlook: The Webster-Kelly combo means watch out&hellip;next year. &#9632;

S0004-01

MVP? Paoineau’s best

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherland</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="S0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0006-0144/7434099-1-eng-US/s0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">QMJHL scoring champion Mike Ribeiro finished 32 points ahead of the runner-up.</figcaption></div>Statistics aren&rsquo;t always telling, but Mike Ribeiro&rsquo;s 100 assists say a lot.The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies&rsquo; center reached the milestone last season, establishing himself as the Quebec League&rsquo;s premier playmaker and a favorite to win the MVP award in 1999-2000.Ribeiro&rsquo;s ability to make players around him better was apparent when his line, including wingers James Desmarais and Jerome Trem blay, finished 1-2-3 in league scoring last sea son. The three combined for 434 points and Ribeiro won the Canadian Hockey League scoring race with a whopping 167 points.It was an impressive follow-up to a rookie campaign in which he had 85 assists and 125 points to place third in QMJHL scoring.&ldquo;To come into a new league at 17 and almost win the scoring title and then do it at 18, that&rsquo;s the mark of a superstar,&rdquo; said Rouyn-Noranda coach Jean Pronovost.Ribeiro, a Montreal native, has a knack for cruising through a crowd. It&rsquo;s not his skating, but rather his deceptive and elusive moves. He&rsquo;s simply dazzling in 1-on-l situations.Pronovost traces Ribeiro&rsquo;s tremendous vision back to his father Alberto, who was a pro soccer player in his home country of Portugal. The younger Ribeiro, who speaks English, French and Portuguese, also played soccer, but stopped when he was about 12 to focus on hockey.&ldquo;His father taught him how to cut the field in half and Mike does that on the ice,&rdquo; Pronovost said. &ldquo;The fact he&rsquo;s not big may be a detriment, but they said that about Wayne Gretzky, also.&rdquo;Ribeiro&rsquo;s size didn&rsquo;t scare off the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted him 45th overall in 1998. He was 5-foot-l 1, 150 pounds at the time and has added 15 pounds of muscle since.&ldquo;If I can improve my skating, it will be easier for me (to advance to the NHL),&rdquo; Ribeiro said.Here&rsquo;s a look at how things shape up in the QMJHL this season. Teams are listed in predicted order of finish. Last year&rsquo;s records, division finishes and playoff fortunes are in parentheses. Divisions have been re-aligned this season as the expansion Montreal Rocket join the league. The top seven teams in each conference qualify for playoffs.<h2>DILIO CONFERENCE</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3>1. Quebec Remparts (51-13-6, first, third round). Coach: Guy Chouinard. GM: Raymond Bolduc. Kingpin: Center Simon Gagne, 19, is lightning quick and has skills to match. He will surpass last year&rsquo;s 50-goal total. Fresh face: Physical defenseman Kiri Safronov introduces opponents to the school of hard knocks. Outlook: The Remparts have won two regular season titles and are in position to make it three straight.2. Rimouski Oceanic (30-32-8, fifth, second round). Coach-GM: Doris Labonte. King pin: Winger Brad Richards, 19, escaped the shadow of teammate Vincent Lecavalier with an outstanding season. Fresh face: Hulking defenseman Brent MacLellan is only 16, but NHL scouts already have a book on him. Outlook: Rimouski is tough at home and will battle for the top three spots in the conference.3. Baie-Comeau Drakkar (18-44-8, seventh, missed playoffs). Coach: Richard Martel. GM: Marcel Labelle. Kingpin: Defenseman Bruno St-Jacques, 19, is a tough, steady leader. Fresh face: Winger Robin LeBlanc, the Drakkar&rsquo;s first pick in June, will impress in his hometown. Outlook: This third-year franchise has a way to go, but improved under Martel.4. Chicoutimi Sagueneens (20-48-2,eighth, missed playoffs). Coach: Martin Daoust.GM: Gilles Cote. Kingpin: The Sagueneensacquired scoring winger Yannick Carpentier, 20,from Cape Breton in the pre-season. Fresh face:Chicoutimi selected skilled center Christian Lar-rivee third overall in June. Outlook: The Sague-neens will be better, but making the playoffs won&rsquo;t be easy.<h2>MARITIME DIVISION</h2>1. Halifax Moose heads (46-20-4, second, second round). Coach-GM: Bob Mongrain.Kingpin: In a league known for goalies, AlexeiVolkov, 19, could be the &rsquo;best. He has a great glove hand and poise. Fresh face: Russian winger Andrei Shefer has a quick, hard shot. Outlook: The Memorial Cup hosts will wheel and deal until they can challenge Quebec.2. Moncton Wildcats (38-27-5, fourth, first round). Coach-GM: Real Paiement. King-pin: Slovakian winger Martin Bartek, 19, has superior puck handling ability. Fresh face: Defenseman Theirry Kaszap has plenty of offensive flash. Outlook: The Wildcats are solidin goal and expect to ice five returning defensemen.3. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (22-44-4, sixth, first round). Coach: Bruce Camp-bell. GM: Gaetan Larue. Kingpin: Steady Czechdefenseman Tomas Kloucek, 19, plays a physical game and takes care of business in his own end. Fresh face: Winger Charles Gauthier does all of the fundamentals well. Outlook: Cape Breton is a gritty team in a competitive division.4. Bathurst Titan (42-25-3, third, leaguetitle). Coach: Roger Dejoie. GM: Leo-Guy Morrissette. Kingpin: Defenseman Jonathan Girard, 19, is a sensational power play quarterback who may make the Boston Bruins. Fresh face: Center Olivier Filion is a creative playmaker not afraid of the comers. Outlook: The league&rsquo;s defending champion will miss goalie Roberto Luongo.<h2>LEBEL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3>1. Hull Olympiques (23-38-9, sixth, fourthround). Coach: Claude Julien. GM: CharlieHenry. Kingpin: Defenseman Jiri Fischer, 19,can do it all and may be ready to join Detroit. Fresh face: Czech forward Michal Pine will pro-vide grit and is a relentless forechecker. Outlook:With 17 players expected back, the Olympiquesshould contend for top spot in the Lebel.2. Vai d&rsquo;Or Foreurs (30-35-5, fifth place, first round). Coach: Serge Trepanier. GM: Stephane Pilotte. Kingpin: Center Benoit Dusablon is coming off a breakout season. Fresh face: Jan Choteborsky was the top defenseman with the Czech Republic&rsquo;s under-18 team. Out-look: Team speed and good offense are the keys. The Foreurs will be in the middle of the pack.3. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (36-23-11,second, third round). Coach: Jean Pronovost.GM: Sylvain Danis. Kingpin: Center MikeRibeiro, 19, is deceptively quick and hard to hit. Fresh face: Czech defenseman Robert Horak is a budding Jiri Fischer. Outlook: The Huskies are in a transition year and may part with their older players as part of the rebuilding process.4.Montreal Rocket (expansion team).Coach: Gaston Therrien. GM: Serge Savard Jr.Kingpin: Center Alain O&rsquo;Driscoll, 20, scored 12goals in five pre-season games-a sign of things to come. Fresh face: Center Chris Montgomeryhas great speed and vision, traits that will serve him well on Olympic-sized ice. Outlook: Montreal will have the usual growing pains, but should be a competitive team by Year 3.<h2>CENTRAL DIVISION</h2>1. Shawinigan Cataractes (44-22-4, first, second round). Coach-GM: Denis Francoeur. Kingpin: Goalie Mathieu Chouinard, 19, is the reigning league MVP. Fresh face: Winger Jean-Francois Dufort will emerge as a power forward. Outlook: Shawinigan has leadership led by 20-year-old forwards Jean-Philippe Pare, Alexandre Tremblay and Pascal Dupuis.<h2>Handicapping QMJHL teams</h2>Sherbrooke Castors (31 34-5, fourth, second round). Coach: Joe Canale. GM: Norm Gosselin. Kingpin: Winger Dmitri Afanasenkov, 19, is creative offensively and has bulked up. Fresh face: Goalie Drew MacIntyre has a year&rsquo;s experience in Jr. A. Outlook: Joe Canale&rsquo;s teams always improve and the Castors should be competing for at least fourth in the conference.Drummondville Voltigeurs (18-48-4, seventh, missed playoffs). Coach: Daniel Bissonnette. GM: Michel Georges. Kingpin: Goalie Philippe Sauve had a great playoff in Rimouski. Fresh face: Winger Frederic Faucher has good size and a great work ethic. Outlook: It can&rsquo;t get any worse for the Voltigeurs, who finished last in the league.Victoriaville Tigres (34-30 6, third, first round). Coach: Alain Rajotte. GM: Pierre Roux. Kingpin: Montreal prospect Marc-Andre Thinel, 18, surpassed the 100-point plateau last season. Fresh face: Teddy Kyres, a winger, has drawn comparisons to Rick Tocchet. Outlook: The Tigres are skilled, but also young. They&rsquo;ll be a very good team a year from now. &#9632;

S0006-01

Premier playmaker

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherland</div>Publicity stunt or not, Charline Labonte is the real deal.Only three seasons after she began playing competitive hockey, Labonte, the 11th round pick of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at this summer&rsquo;s Quebec League midget draft, became the first female in Canadian Hockey League history to sign a major junior card Sept. 8.Titan GM-owner Leo-Guy Mor rissette has so much confidence in the 16-year-old he traded expected No. 1 goalie Philippe Ozga, to the Victoriaville Tigres. Ozga was a backup last season to Roberto Luongo.&ldquo;The Titan created a precedent by drafting the first female goalie,&rdquo; Morrissette told the Saint John (N.B.) Telegraph Journal. &ldquo;And during the pre-season she proved she has a place in the (QMJHL).&rdquo;Labonte allowed six goals on 81 shots-a .926 save percentage-during four pre-season games with the Titan, last season&rsquo;s QMJHL champions and Memorial Cup representatives. At the start of training camp, she was one of six goalies looking to replace Luon go, but quickly climbed the depth chart.She will back up rookie Frederic Cloutier.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t really my plans to stay (with the team),&rdquo; Labonte told the Telegraph Journal. &ldquo;I came here to gain some junior hockey experience. Each pre-season game gave me more and more confidence.&rdquo;Labonte, from Boisbriand, Que., began playing competitive hockey three years ago with a boys&rsquo; bantam AA team in Montreal. Last season, Labonte played midget AA with the Milles Des Seigneurs and also played on her first women&rsquo;s club Team Quebec at the Canada Winter Games.&ldquo;She showed great things in camp. She made the saves when she had to,&rdquo; said coach Roger Dejoie. &ldquo;She was always ready, challenging the players.&rdquo;While Labonte is the first female to be drafted and sign a card, she won&rsquo;t be the first to play a QMJHL game.Manon Rheaume played 17 minutes for the Trois-Rivi&egrave;res Draveurs (now Sherbrooke Faucons) during the 1991-92 season, allowing three goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0007-0135/7434130-1-eng-US/s0007-012.jpg" title="S0007-01" width="571" height="526"></div>Rheaume&rsquo;s professional career includes stints in the International League, East Coast League and West Coast League, as well as an exhibition appearance with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992.PRIMETIME: The time is now for Jean-Francois Nogues. The 18-year-old netminder has a chance to inherit the No. 1 job with the Victoriaville Tigres. While the Tigres got goalie Philippe Ozga Sept. 9 from the Bathurst Titan in exchange for future considerations and a fourth round pick next June, overage Pierre Luc Therrien left the team Aug. 30 after inking a free agent deal with the Springfield Falcons of the AHL.Nogues, a first round midget pick in 1998, had a 4.17 goals-against average as a Tigres&rsquo; rookie last season. The Los Angeles Kings nabbed him in the fifth round of June&rsquo;s NHL draft.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s ready for the No. 1 spot,&rdquo; said coach Alain Rajotte.Nogues missed time in training camp with an ankle injury, but Rajotte hopes he&rsquo;ll be back before the end of September.&ldquo;We only want him to jump into the lineup when he&rsquo;s 100 per cent,&rdquo; Rajotte said.Therrien was Victoriaville&rsquo;s MVP last season, posting a 3.04 GAA. He was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 1997, but never signed.LOOKS LIKE DANIEL: Rugged defenseman Daniel MacLeod is a major part of the Moncton Wildcats&rsquo; plans this season, but his return is not a foregone conclusion.MacLeod has attracted interest from at least two pro teams.If he wants it, MacLeod has a job with the East Coast League&rsquo;s Trenton Titans and the 20-year-old rearguard also has a try-out with the AHL&rsquo;s Lowell Lock Monsters, a farm team for Los Angeles and the New York Islanders.MacLeod would likely be among Moncton&rsquo;s top three defensemen this season, with Alexandre Vigneault and Russian Dimitri Kalinin.The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies have similar concerns with winger Jerome Tremblay, who has a tryout with the AHL&rsquo;s Quebec Citadelles, formerly the Fredericton Canadiens.Tremblay scored 132 points last season and is eligible to return to junior as an overage player. &#9632;

S0007-01

Labonte makes history

<div class="image-hero"><img title="S0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0008-0135/7434161-1-eng-US/s0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

S0008-01

1999-2000 WESTERN LEAGUE SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Ryan Hollweg looks forward to joining the Medicine Hat Tigers-just not yet.Hollweg, whom Medicine Hat picked first overall in the Western League&rsquo;s 1999 bantam draft, intends to spend the upcoming season with the B.C. Junior League&rsquo;s Langley Hornets.The 16-year-old center was named that league&rsquo;s top rookie after recording 14 goals, 54 points and 174 penalty minutes in 58 games in 1998 99.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have a good team in Langley this year,&rdquo; said Hollweg, who hails from the Los Angeles suburb of Downey.&ldquo;We have a good chance of winning the Royal Bank Cup (Canadian Jr. A championship) and I really want to be a part of that.&ldquo;My brother (Bryce) is also with Langley and it would be nice to play on the same team for a year. I also think I need one more year of development before I play in the WHL.&rdquo;Hollweg spent the first week of training camp with Medicine Hat before returning to Langley, where his family now resides.&ldquo;He fit in really well at training camp,&rdquo; Medicine Hat coach and director of hockey operations Rick Carriere said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in our minds or his mind that he could contribute here. It&rsquo;s just a matter of him being comfortable with it.&rdquo;The Tigers have told Hollweg he is welcome to join the team at any point this season.&ldquo;There were a lot of decisions to be made,&rdquo; the 5-foot-10 &frac12;, 200-pound Hollweg said.&ldquo;I probably could have done well in the WHL, but 1 want to play in Langley and dominate this league, before moving on to the next one. If I can do that, I think I&rsquo;ll be even more ready (next season) to make the jump to the WHL.&rdquo;LANDMARKS AND LUND MARK: Moose Jaw Warriors&rsquo; coach Len Nielsen wants his team to celebrate another franchise first.Nielsen guided Moose Jaw to its best-ever regular season finish-third place-in the East Division last sea son. This season, Nielsen has set his sights even higher.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got as good a chance as anybody to win the division, so we might as well try to do that,&rdquo; said Nielsen, whose team is coming off a 39-32-1 season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0009-0124/7434192-1-eng-US/s0009-012.jpg" title="S0009-01" width="412" height="418"></div>&ldquo;If we get everyone back, I think we have a legitimate chance. I think we can be very good. We can be a better, more consistent team than last year. Where that puts us, I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;Moose Jaw is banking on the return of center Jamie Landmark,-whom the New York Rangers picked ninth overall in the 1999 NHL draft and signed during training camp. Lundmark had 40 goals as a WHL 1 rookie last season.&ldquo;I think he has got a chance to win the scoring race and, certainly, he&rsquo;ll be a leader on our hockey club offensively,&rdquo; Nielsen said.&ldquo;He can be a lot more than that because he works hard, too. As far as his numbers, who knows? It took him a while to adjust to the WHL last sea son and he still got 91 points. If he comes back, I expect him to get a lot more than that.&rdquo;THE WAITING GAME: The Kootenay Ice is hopeful defenseman David Tanabe will play in the WHL after leaving the University of Wisconsin after one season.Tanabe was chosen 16th overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 1999 NHL draft. There&rsquo;s a chance he might turn pro, sign a contract and play in the American League.&ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t sign with Carolina, we&rsquo;re pretty confident we&rsquo;ll get him,&rdquo; Kootenay vice-president Jeff Chynoweth said. &ldquo;It would be nice to have him.&rdquo;Tanabe, 18, had nine goals and 20 points in 33 games with Wisconsin last season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping,&rdquo; Chynoweth said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got our fingers crossed. He has left school and we&rsquo;re waiting. It&rsquo;s in Carolina&rsquo;s court right now.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Brad Twordik was returned to the Bran don Wheat Kings by the St. Louis Blues, who picked him in the seventh round of the 1998 draft. Twordik, 20, had 29 goals and 74 points in 58 games last season. This will be his overage season&hellip;The Kelowna Rockets drew 5,500 fans for their intra-squad game at Skyreach Place, which seats 6,000. &ldquo;It was amazing,&rdquo; Rockets&rsquo; GM-govemor Bruce Hamilton said after his team&rsquo;s first game at the new facility. &#9632;

S0009-01

Hotshot Hollweg will wait

<div class="image-hero"><img title="S0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0010-0128/7433975-1-eng-US/s0010-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

S0010-01

1999-2000 ONTARIO LEAGUE SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Though he has a seat in the owner&rsquo;s box, Dino Ciccarelli prefers the press box at the Sarnia Sports and Enter tainment Centre.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not here to socialize,&rdquo; said Ciccarelli, who owns the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario League with brothers Robert and Larry.Between periods and after exhibition games, Ciccarelli can be found in the coaches&rsquo; office, conferring with coach-GM Mark Hunter and associate coach-associate GM Rich Brown.Ciccarelli has also skated with one of the Sting&rsquo;s Russian imports, Maxim Rybin, and overage goalie Greg Hewitt.&ldquo;I have no official title. I love working with the kids,&rdquo; said Ciccarel li, who spent 19 years in the NHL after playing in the OHL with the London Knights. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still nerve racking watching a game.&rdquo;Ciccarelli, a Sarnia native, lives 45 minutes away in Utica, Mich. He&rsquo;ll be around the team as much as possible and will also work with his brothers, learning the business side of hockey and the arena, in which they have an investment.The 39-year-old right winger announced his retirement Aug. 31. He finished his career with 608 NHL regular season goals, ninth on the all-time list.The Ciccarellis bought the New market Royals in 1993 and moved the team to Sarnia a year later. Shawn Burr of the Tampa Bay Lightning is a 10 per cent partner. The new arena, which the Ciccarellis spearheaded, opened last year.SEEING DOUBLE: The Canadian Hockey League&rsquo; s import draft yielded the Sting two Russian forwards, Maxim Rybin and Alexander Buturlin.The Montreal Canadiens are pleased Sarnia was able to convince Buturlin to report. The Canadiens selected him in the second round of the 1999 entry draft.Buturlin said at the draft he would return to the Red Army for another season, but changed his mind over the summer.He played only 16 games with the Red Army last season.&ldquo;There are some advantages to him being here,&rdquo; said Canadiens&rsquo; chief scout Pierre Dorion. &ldquo;It would be a different story if he was playing on one of the top three lines for Red Army. In Sarnia, he&rsquo;ll get more ice time and he&rsquo;ll be playing against guys his own age.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0011-0124/7434006-1-eng-US/s0011-012.jpg" title="S0011-01" width="763" height="266"></div>&ldquo;Mark Hunter is the coach, which means he&rsquo;ll have to work hard, but Mark has had success with Russians in the past.&rdquo;Florida Panthers&rsquo; draft pick IvanNovoseltsev scored 57 goals playing for Hunter with the Sting last sea son.Rybin is a Mighty Ducks of Anaheim fifth round pick.Hunter saw the two at the world under-18 championship in Fussen, Germany last April. He went over after the Sting were eliminated by London in the first round of the play offs.The coach said it could turn out to be the best $4,000 of the Ciccarellis&rsquo; money he has ever spent.&ldquo;It was a good trip,&rdquo; Hunter said. &ldquo;You get to see the best under-18 players in the world, except for the Canadian kids.&rdquo;Canada did not participate because it would have meant pulling players off their junior teams in the middle of playoffs.Hunter said Canada should build a team with players from teams eliminated from the post-season.MOVING ON: Wayne Daniels left the Oshawa Generals after more than 30 years with the organization-the past eight as director of hockey operations-to scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins.Generals&rsquo; chief scout Don Chrysler will act as director of player personnel on an interim basis, working with coach John Goodwin.Daniels started with the Generals as a trainer and now works for Penguins&rsquo; chief scout Greg Malone, who captained Oshawa when Daniels was a trainer.Since 1990-91, the Generals finished below .500 only twice under Daniels.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s everybody&rsquo;s dream to be part of the NHL,&rdquo; Daniels said.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t make it as a player or as a trainer, then this opportunity came along.&ldquo;It was very tough leaving that family. It&rsquo;s a weird feeling today. I&rsquo;m usually down at the (Generals&rsquo;) rink working.&rdquo; &#9632;

S0011-01

Ciccarelli joins work force

<div class="image-hero"><img title="S0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0012-0130/7433944-1-eng-US/s0012-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

S0012-01

1999-2000 QUEBEC LEAGUE SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">By Gordie Sutherland</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="SCover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/scover-0113/7434251-1-eng-US/scover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Volkov of Halifax, which hosts the Memorial Cup in May, will try to stop Travis Zachary and top-ranked Quebec.,</figcaption></div>Speedy center Simon Gagne wants to play in the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers this season, but he wouldn&rsquo;t mind returning to the Quebec Rem-parts, either.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be disappointed if I comeback to junior because I think we have a good team with the Quebec Remparts,&rdquo; said the 19-year-old, who is from Quebec City. &ldquo;We have a good chance to go to the Memorial Cup and to win, too.&rdquo;Gagne isn&rsquo;t alone in his assessment.THN&rsquo;s panel of major junior experts-including senior editor Brian Costello and correspondents Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post, Jim Cressman of the London Free Press and Gordie Sutherland of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald-rated the Rem parts the No. 1 team in the Canadian Hockey League heading into the1999-2000 season. The CHL is com-prised of 16 teams in the Quebec League, 18 teams in the Western League and 20 teams in the Ontario League.The same THN panel correctly predicted the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s would win the Memorial Cup last season. The67&rsquo;s beat the Calgary Hitmen, whom we had rated fourth, in the championship final.Gagne is among five first round NHL picks expected to be in Quebec&rsquo;s lineup, including goalie Maxime Ouellet and returning center Eric Chouinard.Ouellet, who posted a 2.70 goals-against average last season, was the first QMJHL player selected in June&rsquo;s draft, going 22nd overall to Philadelphia.Gagne led the Rem parts last season with 120 points while Chouinard, a first round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 1998, collected 109 points. Both players fired 50 goals.The biggest concern for Quebec GM Raymond Bolduc is his stars may&rsquo; be good enough to stick in the NHL.&ldquo;We hope everyone is back,&rdquo; heg said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a little longer (wait) for Gagne and Chouinard, but I expect everyone will be back by the end of September.&rdquo;Gagne is rated the No. 5 center on Philadelphia&rsquo;s depth chart behind Eric Lindros, Rod Brind&rsquo; Amour, Daymond Langkow and Marc Bureau. There&rsquo;s a good chance he may start the season in Philadelphia, play a handful of games, then return to Quebec for his final year of junior eligibility.That might be a similar scenario for Chouinard, who&rsquo;s rated the No. 6 center on Montreal&rsquo;s depth chart.Bolduc hasn&rsquo;t made it a secret his team is aiming to win May&rsquo;s Memorial Cup in Halifax. When the Rem parts lost their bid to host the 2000 tournament, Bolduc immediately went to work to assemble a team capable of winning this year&rsquo;s league championship.The trade that best signified Quebec&rsquo;s intentions came in June when Bolduc traded highly regarded prospect Antoine Vermette, a 17-year-old center, to the Victoriaville Tigres for proven scorer Patrick Grandmaitre, a 20-year-old forward.Then came July&rsquo;s European draft when Bolduc nabbed a pair of hulking defensemen in Slovakian Kristian Kudroc, 6-foot-6 and 22 9 pounds, and Russian Kiril Safronov, 6-foot-2 and 196 pounds. The Phoenix Coyotes selected Safronov 19th overall while the New York Islanders took Kudroc 28th overall at the NHL entry draft in June. It&rsquo;s unlikely either can make the immediate jump to the NHL at 18.With those two joining Colorado Avalanche prospect Martin Grenier, who is 6-foot-5 and 231 pounds, Quebec surely boasts the biggest blueline brigade in the CHL.And they&rsquo;re skilled, too.&ldquo;We have the best defense in our league and probably the best offense,&rdquo; Bolduc said.&ldquo;We want to win our league first and our goal is the Memorial Cup. We&rsquo;ll trade another couple of players for two good wingers to have the best team in Canada.&rdquo;<h2>The Hockey News&rsquo; Top 10 Picks</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/scover-02/7434244-1-eng-US/scover-022.jpg" title="SCover-02" width="211" height="318"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Cressman</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/scover-03/7434237-1-eng-US/scover-032.jpg" title="SCover-03" width="217" height="325"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Vanstone</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/scover-04/7434230-1-eng-US/scover-042.jpg" title="SCover-04" width="210" height="319"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gordie Sutherland</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/scover-05/7434223-1-eng-US/scover-052.jpg" title="SCover-05" width="459" height="585"></div>1. Quebec Remparts QMJHL2. Belleville Bulls OHL3. Seattle Thunderbirds WHL4.Prince Albert Raiders WHL5. Sudbury Wolves OHL6. Halifax Mooseheads QMJHL7. Hull Olympiques QMJHL8. Calgary Hitmen WHL9. Ottawa 67&rsquo;s OHL10. Barrie Colts OHL &#9632;

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September 24, 1999

Fabulous Thunderbird

Leafs plan to reduce offers if no-shows don’t re-sign

SCOREBOARD

Fuhr to Flames’ rescue