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Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Failing to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs likely will cost the Penguins a few million dollars. Some degree of prestige, too, and more than a little pride.

But it won't affect the way they do business next season, according to owner Mario Lemieux.

While he said, "we'll have to wait and see" what the final figures on revenues and expenses are before determining precisely how much money the Penguins will lose this season, Lemieux didn't dispute that the total will reach into seven figures.

"It's going to hurt a little bit," he said.

Nonetheless, Lemieux was adamant that the financial setback -- the Penguins are believed to include revenue from one playoff round in their fiscal projections -- will not be allowed to have an impact on things like personnel decisions this summer.

"We have our budget set for next year, and we're ready to go," Lemieux said. "Obviously, when you miss the playoffs, that's a couple million bucks that you don't have. But the payroll's going to increase, and we'll try to keep the players we have here."

Specifically, Lemieux mentioned the importance of re-signing center Robert Lang, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in July, "if we can," and endorsed the idea of opening contract talks with right winger Alexei Kovalev, whose deal runs through next season, this summer.

Trivia question

What is the franchise record for the fastest two goals in a playoff game? Answer at end.

Agent Pietrangelo

Nearly 11 years have passed since goalie Frank Pietrangelo altered the course of franchise history -- and made the Penguins' first Stanley Cup championship possible -- by authoring The Save, that sensational glove stop on New Jersey center Peter Stastny in Game 6 of the first round of the playoffs.

That sequence alone secured Pietrangelo's place in Penguins history -- it has been largely forgotten that he went on to shut out the Devils in Game 7 -- and probably was his professional peak, even though he continued to play until December 2000, when a knee injury prompted his retirement.

Pietrangelo didn't get out of the game entirely, though, and is working to establish himself as a player agent.

His client base, which includes former Penguins farmhand Ryan Savoia, consists mostly of players laboring in Europe, although expanding it was Pietrangelo's primary objective this winter.

He always has been a quick study, though, and it didn't take Pietrangelo long to realize going against some of the game's big-time agents can be every bit as daunting as challenging its finest shooters.

"It's very tough," he said. "The European part of it hasn't been as tough, because I spent the last five years there and made a lot of contacts, but getting the young guys -- competing with Bobby Orr and Donnie Meehan and the rest of those guys -- is very tough."

Lupaschuk improves

It's far too early to know if defenseman Ross Lupaschuk, one of the players the Penguins acquired from Washington in the Jaromir Jagr trade in July, will develop into an impact player in the NHL, but this much is certain: Even though Lupaschuk has an overpowering shot and some promising offensive instincts, they won't do him much good if he can't play well in the defensive zone.

"When you think about playing defense at the National Hockey League level, I really think you need to learn to play in your own end first," said Penguins assistant coach Randy Hillier, who played the position in the NHL and is in charge of the team's defense corps.

Lupaschuk showed some glaring deficiencies in his game during training camp, and he had a negative plus-minus rating during his first five games (a total of minus-11) with the Penguins' American Hockey League farm team in Wilkes-Barre.

"You really got to witness over the course of the exhibition season how he was getting exposed defensively," Hillier said. "And if you can't play defense up here, you're never going to get a chance to shine offensively."

To his credit, Lupaschuk seems to have invested a lot of time and effort into upgrading his defensive play. Since that wretched start with the Baby Penguins, he has been a plus player, lowering his figure for the season to minus-7.

Not a bad number compared to, say, the minus-32 compiled by fellow defenseman Peter Ratchuk.

And, offensively challenged as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has been, Lupaschuk still has put up respectable numbers during his first season as a pro, accumulating eight goals and 20 assists in 69 games.

Aubin's future

There's not much question that backup goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin can play in the NHL. The issue is whether the Penguins are the team with which he should be playing.

At this point, Aubin is unlikely to supplant Johan Hedberg as the No. 1 goalie at any point in the foreseeable future, and, at age 24, isn't exactly having his development fast-tracked by appearing roughly once every four games.

So while the Penguins seem certain to extend the qualifying offer needed to retain Aubin's rights after he becomes a restricted free agent this summer, it's entirely possible that management will look into the possibility of seeing what it could get in a trade for Aubin and bringing in a veteran to back up Hedberg.

Aubin understands the situation, even though he has no way of knowing how it will play out.

"I wish I could say, 'Yeah, I'd like to stay 10 years in Pittsburgh,'" he said. "But chances are, it's not going to happen. The only thing I can do is, every night I play, play well and maybe good things are going to happen and I'll stay here. Or maybe they'll trade me anyway. You don't have control of that.

"But of course I'd like to stay in Pittsburgh. It's been great for me. A lot of fans have supported me the last year and a half. It's been hard for me, but they've been there, and I really appreciate what they've done for me. It's been a great city for me."

The issue, though, is just how much of a future Aubin has here, and whether -- or where -- he will get the opportunity to develop into the goaltender he believes he can be.

"I hope good things are going to happen [next season]," he said. "I'm not really worried about what's going to happen, because I know I can do a good job in the NHL.

"I don't think that's an issue. The issue is whether I'm going to play a lot, or not a lot. I really wish to play a lot, because that's when I can show more good things."

Flare or flop?

The Penguins had their share -- and then some -- of first-round draft choices fizzle during the past decade or so.

Defenseman Stefan Bergqvist (1993) was forced out of the game by a medical problem, while Chris Wells (1994) and Craig Hillier (1996) simply lacked the skill -- or the will -- to compete at this level.

What's more, the body of evidence suggesting that Robert Dome (1997) will be a force in this league someday is considerably less than overwhelming, and it's only recently that Konstantin Koltsov (1999) has shown any interest in eventually seeing what life's like on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Nonetheless, the Penguins have no fewer than seven first-round draft choices on their major-league payroll, a fairly respectable total. The catch: Just four of those first-rounders -- Mario Lemieux (1984), Martin Straka (1992), Aleksey Morozov (1995) and Milan Kraft (1998) -- actually were selected by the Penguins.

The other three are Kris Beech (Washington, 1999), Alexei Kovalev (New York Rangers, 1991) and Wayne Primeau (Buffalo, 1994).

The Penguins' total of first-rounders actually has been as high as nine at times this season, but defenseman Mike Wilson (Vancouver, 1993) is back in the minors and Darius Kasparaitis (New York Islanders, 1992) was traded to Colorado two weeks ago.

Trivia answer

Ron Stackhouse and Rick Kehoe scored seven seconds apart in an 8-3 loss to Boston April 13, 1980.