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Thursday, July 12, 2001

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Craig Patrick looked like a beaten man when he stepped behind the podium in the Penguins' locker room at Mellon Arena yesterday.

His voice, softer than usual, sounded worn and weary. His eyes, drooping slightly, betrayed that he hadn't slept regularly for more than a month. His expression, despite the occasional forced smile, conveyed equal parts anxiety and angst.

	Washington-bound Jaromir Jagr ranks first or second in five offensive categories in Penguins history. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

And yet, he stood and faced a crowd of reporters and attempted to relay his excitement at having acquired three 20-year-old prospects from the Washington Capitals -- centers Kris Beech and Michal Sivek and defenseman Ross Lupaschuk -- for Jaromir Jagr, one of the greatest talents in NHL history.

On this day, he couldn't win.

"It's tough, and I know that," he said after the room was all but empty. "The past month has been really hard. I've stayed up at nights and thought about it all really, really hard, trying to make sure I'm doing the right thing."

In the end, Patrick was convinced only of this much: He made the Jagr deal on his terms.

"No heat at all," he said. "We got exactly what we wanted."

With the sizable exception of not keeping Jagr in Pittsburgh.

Without a doubt, the move to trade Jagr began April 25, the day Mario Lemieux questioned Jagr's work ethic in the aftermath of a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series victory against Washington.

Craig Patrick at yesterday's news conference on trade: "It's tough, and I know that. The past month has been really hard." (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

But to Patrick's mind, the notion of trading Jagr didn't truly kick in until May 24, two days after the Penguins' season ended. After the team held a quick farewell gathering in its locker room at Southpointe, Patrick and Jagr stepped aside for a quick one-on-one meeting.

"He asked me, 'What's going on with me?' " Patrick recalled. "I said, 'I don't know. I have to sit down with the owners and see what our budget is and how we can keep everybody.' He said, 'No, no, you don't understand. I don't want to be here.' That was the first point that I knew something had to be done."

After the NHL season ended, at his first chance, Patrick sent letters to all of the league's other 29 teams to inform them of Jagr's availability. The New York Rangers and Islanders, among others, were quick to step up and ask questions.

Islanders General Manager Mike Milbury considered a deal at the NHL Entry Draft June 23 in which he would have sent defenseman Zdeno Chara, the No. 2 overall pick and possibly other players to the Penguins. But Milbury relented and instead obtained two star forwards, Alexei Yashin and Michael Peca, paying them a combined salary only slightly higher than Jagr's.

Patrick was pleased with the initial response, but he was wary that few general managers seemed genuinely interested. And his fears proved well founded. When the league's free-agency season began July 1, most of the wealthy Western Conference teams that had been interested in Jagr -- the Dallas Stars chief among them -- were able to buy elite talent on the open market rather than trading for it. And, by the middle of last week, the only team standing was the Rangers.

General Manager Glen Sather, under intense pressure from the fans and media in New York to acquire a big-name player, was in constant touch with Patrick and with Jagr's agent, Mike Barnett. Talks had escalated to the point where Patrick granted Barnett permission to work out a contract extension for Jagr.

But, in reality, Patrick never was satisfied with what the Rangers were offering. Contrary to regular reports in the New York tabloids -- which Patrick mocked more than once yesterday -- Sather was not offering his top young talent but rather a collection of veterans.

"Our goal throughout the process was to get good, young players," Patrick said. "We were looking at some older players as we went along, but that's not what we really wanted."

About a week ago, Patrick and Capitals General Manager George McPhee had a brief conversation during which McPhee cracked a joke about trying to get Jagr. It didn't take long for McPhee to turn serious.

Despite having an outstanding group of disciplined, two-way forwards, Washington has failed repeatedly in the postseason in large part because it has no significant goal-scoring threats beyond right winger Peter Bondra. Owner Ted Leonsis, frustrated by this, decided to invest some of the millions he made as an America Online executive into additional offense. He told McPhee to make a bold move, to acquire a top-shelf talent, regardless of cost.

McPhee first pursued free-agent center Jeremy Roenick, but Roenick chose the Philadelphia Flyers for $8 million a year. McPhee then went after center Pierre Turgeon, but Turgeon chose the Dallas Stars for $6 million a year.

So, with the free-agent cupboard all but bare, McPhee turned to the Penguins.

On Monday afternoon, he phoned to ask Patrick what it would take to get Jagr. Patrick replied that he wanted top prospects.

On Tuesday morning, McPhee offered Beech, Sivek and Lupaschuk. All were selected among the top 40 picks in the 1999 draft, and all were coming off strong seasons in the Western Hockey League. Beech, in particular, was held in high regard by the Capitals, enough that they made him part of their playoff taxi squad during the recent series with the Penguins.

Patrick contacted his scouts to ask what they had seen of these three.

Their response?

"They were jumping up and down," Patrick said. "They loved it."

Patrick, despite being famous for his patience, wasted no time. He phoned McPhee about 5 p.m. and told him he was highly interested. One caveat was that he wanted the Capitals to take robustly ineffective defenseman Frantisek Kucera and his $1.2 million salary off the Penguins' hands.

As McPhee put it, "Craig seemed to be ready to deal."

It didn't come off until yesterday, though, in part because of the loosely defined future considerations still lingering in the trade. The Capitals will not part with any more players, but they are expected to pay the Penguins $5 million over the next two years. Also, it is possible that another side deal is in the making, sending center Jan Hrdina to Washington for right winger Dainius Zubrus.

"They have some other needs, and we have some other needs, so that's going to be part of the deal," Patrick said. "There's no timetable on it."

Shortly before 4 p.m., the trade was complete. But Patrick had two more calls to make.

First, he phoned Sather to inform him. It was more of a courtesy call than an invitation for the Rangers to top the offer.

"We were already done, and we were too happy with this deal," Patrick said. "They couldn't have done anything to change that."

The next call went to Jagr in the Czech Republic.

"I thanked him for everything, for all he's done," Patrick said. "He wanted to move on, so he's glad it's over with."

So is Patrick.

"It seemed like it took a long time," he said. "A deal of this magnitude isn't easy. You never know what the right value is. You keep kicking things around and around and around. In the end, we were really pleased we were able to get three young guys. ... Washington jumped in late, and thank goodness for us they did jump in because we were able to get what we wanted out of this deal."

He described the stress he endured as the most difficult since he joined the Penguins in 1989.

"It's the highest-anxiety trade I've ever had to make. There were a couple of others that were like that, but they were a long time ago. This one was really difficult to deal with. All the emotions that are involved ... all the things he's done here ... it's sad that he wanted to leave."

It helped Patrick that, even though he kept Lemieux closely informed of the talks with the Capitals, he never felt any heat.

"There was no pressure from Mario," Patrick said. "He didn't come in and say, 'Hey, you've got to get two stars to play on my wings.' He understands the situation we're in, and he's pleased with the guys we were able to acquire."

Patrick will be pleased, too, that the team will save more than $10 million in the transaction, not counting whatever bonus money might still be coming from the Capitals.

But he didn't acknowledge any such feeling yesterday, and that's because his summer is far from over.

The Penguins have 17 restricted free agents to re-sign, notably right winger Alexei Kovalev, left winger Martin Straka and center Robert Lang, who could command a combined $5 million in raises.

"I don't even know what this trade does to the budget. We'll sit down and dissect that tomorrow," Patrick said. "Our top priority right now is to get our players re-signed. If we can do that, I like our team."

He acknowledged there are former Penguins who are unrestricted free agents he would like to bring back, but he put off a question about signing players who were with other teams last season, particularly right winger Brett Hull.

"So far, I haven't even thought about Brett Hull," Patrick said. "There's been too much on the plate up to this moment. Maybe waking up in the early hours of tomorrow morning, I'll think about it."

He also allowed that he is aggressively pursuing more moves, and that the dialogue reaches beyond Washington.

"I'm still working on trades. We're having a lot of dialogues with a lot of teams about a lot of players. We're not done with what we need to do this summer. There are still a lot of question marks out there."

The most prominent player on the block is defenseman Darius Kasparaitis.

When asked if the Penguins might want to keep Kasparaitis, who is asking for more than $2 million next season, Patrick replied, "Sure ... but I don't know if he wants to stay."

Patrick's immediate concern, however, has been solved. For the short term, anyway. He is all too aware that the trade he made yesterday, the biggest in franchise history, will be judged for years to come.

He offered a message to those who would suggest the team gave up Jagr for no other reason than to dump his salary.

"They're mistaken, if that's what they think. We've gotten great value in this deal. Time will show us that. I know I can't convince people of that right now, but all three of these guys are going to be big contributors here."

And when would be an appropriate time to judge?

Patrick winked.

"Two years after I retire."