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Friday, June 23, 2000 By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
CALGARY, Alberta -- The Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild paid $80 million each -- more than Mario Lemieux's group paid for the Penguins -- for the right to join the NHL next season. For the right to pick through an unimposing collection of third-line forwards, over-aged defensemen and bench-warming goaltenders.
That's no bargain.
"It's not a perfect system," acknowledged Doug Risebrough, Minnesota's general manager. "But we're not going to whine about it."
Not today, anyway. Most of the frustration figures to come from executives of established teams, who will lose two players each to Columbus and Minnesota. The results of the expansion draft, a private process that will take up most of the morning and afternoon at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome, will be announced at 5 p.m.
Risebrough and his Columbus counterpart, Doug MacLean, have been working toward this day for more than a year. Working together, even. They've held no fewer than three mock drafts since the NHL released its list of available players June 13.
"Doug and I have known each other in hockey for a while," Risebrough said. "I think it was important that we communicate."
"We don't look at like we're going against each other," MacLean said. "We look at it like us against the other 28 GMs."
Columbus and Minnesota will choose 26 players each, two from every club except the Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers, two other recent expansion entries. No team can lose more than one goaltender or more than one defenseman.
The Penguins protected goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin; defensemen Bob Boughner, Sven Butenschon, Darius Kasparaitis, Janne Laukkanen and Jiri Slegr; and forwards Matthew Barnaby, Rene Corbet, Robert Dome, Jan Hrdina, Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Robert Lang, Aleksey Morozov and Martin Straka.
Teams were not required to protect unsigned draft choices or players with two or fewer years of professional experience.
The players the Penguins exposed to the expansion draft were goaltenders Tyler Moss, Peter Skudra and Ron Tugnutt; defensemen Stefan Bergkvist, Jonas Andersson-Junkka, Peter Popovic, John Slaney and Dan Trebil; and forwards Jan Alinc, Josef Beranek, Dennis Bonvie, Rob Brown, Tom Chorske, Pat Falloon, Mikhail Kazakevich, Jiri Kucera, Steve Leach, Ian Moran, Timo Seikulla, Mika Valila, Boris Zelenko and Tyler Wright.
Neither MacLean nor Risebrough has been interested in discussing specific players they might want, but the Penguins' best bets to be taken are Wright, who had a career-high 12 goals this past season; Moran, a tireless competitor who can play every position except goal; or Slaney, a capable point man on an NHL power play.
Some high-profile players are available from other teams, but don't expect them to be claimed. Stars such as the Vancouver Canucks' Mark Messier and the Buffalo Sabres' Doug Gilmour have contracts that will pay them $6 million next season and were exposed by their current employers under the assumption the expansion teams would be frightened off by their salaries. And they probably will.
"I know the people in Columbus were excited about seeing the great names there," MacLean said. "But they are not realistic for us to take."
Neither are the expansion teams likely to choose a player who is eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer. Many on the exposed list fall into this category, including Tugnutt and Popovic from the Penguins. The free agency season begins July 1, meaning Columbus and Minnesota would have little more than a week to own such a player's rights, hardly worth wasting a pick.
So, what will MacLean and Risebrough be seeking?
For the most part, they are eyeing the dozen or so quick, young players who are available -- such as forward Kevyn Adams of the Toronto Maple Leafs -- to develop the core of their respective franchises. That's because both men point to Nashville's expansion draft in 1998 as their model. The Predators plucked as many speedsters as were available and built a high-tempo, entertaining club that produced a surprising 28-47-7 record in its inaugural season.
"Nashville really has set the standard. This is about speed," Risebrough said. "But I think character is critical, too. It's important that you have five or six guys in your dressing room who won't allow your team to be embarrassed."
The odds of any expansion team facing embarrassment, of course, are great. Witness the Atlanta Thrashers, who joined last year and flopped to a 14-61-7 record.
That's why Risebrough and MacLean are being plenty reserved in what they promise their teams' fledgling fans.
"There is excitement, but no anxiety," Risebrough said. "I feel we're trying to set the team up for the first three or five years."
"The one thing we want to show this year to the fans in Columbus is that we're moving in the right direction," MacLean said. "You want people to come to your building and feel that you have a chance to win, that you've given it everything you had."
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