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Sunday, May 26, 2002

By Dave Molinari, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

High draft choices are, in most years, among the most valuable commodities in the NHL. The salvation of struggling franchises. The building blocks of contenders and champions.

Not in 2002. Maybe it's because the talent pool for the June 22-23 entry draft in Toronto is regarded as one of the shallowest in memory. Perhaps because, with a protracted labor dispute looming in two years, teams are more interested in an instant upgrade than in long-range promise.

Whatever the reason, some teams holding early first-round choices have done everything shy of taking out ads to make it known that they're willing to part with them. Tampa Bay is openly shopping the No. 4 choice. Nashville, scheduled to pick sixth, is doing the same. Florida, owner of the No. 1 pick, and Atlanta, which is second, haven't ruled out the possibility.

Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick, who holds the No. 5 choice, is being typically noncommittal, saying he'll consider every option but giving no idea what course might have appeal.

He also said that teams professing to be interested in dealing their first-rounder might actually have something else in mind.

"What they say and what they do isn't necessarily the same," he said. "I'm not surprised that people would say that. It opens some dialogue."

His point might be valid, but rarely, if ever, have so many clubs been so open about their willingness to part with a high first-rounder. Patrick theorized that might be a reflection of the league's growth.

"In past years, it was easier to let all the teams know without going public," he said. "But when there are 30 teams, it's a lot faster to just tell somebody from a newspaper."

What Patrick won't tell anyone from a newspaper -- or anyone else outside of a tight circle of confidantes -- is whether he will give serious thought to a truly radical idea: Making a trade not to get rid of his own No. 1, but to pick up another early in the first round.

That presumably would entail parting with at least one prominent player from his major-league roster -- Nashville, for example, covets a top-four defenseman and a forward who could contribute on a first or second line -- and the viability of such a deal would hinge on numerous variables. To wit:

How many high-quality rate prospects do the Penguins believe are available in this draft? If they feel there are, say, six, there's no point in trading for the No. 7 choice.

What is the asking price, and how much proven talent should be given up to acquire potential? How would a trade affect owner Mario Lemieux's wish to contend for another Stanley Cup? Lemieux turns 37 Oct. 5 and has spoken of his desire to play until he's 40. Even if trading for another No. 1 makes long-term sense for the franchise, would Lemieux endorse a deal that reduces the chances of competing for a championship in the next few years?

Lemieux, coincidentally enough, joined the Penguins in 1984, the only time in franchise history they had more than one choice in the opening round. They took Lemieux first, defenseman Doug Bodger ninth and center Roger Belanger 16th.

The results of those acquisitions were mixed: Lemieux exceeded even the most outrageous expectations, while Bodger had a solid, but hardly spectacular, career and Belanger was a washout, in large part because of injuries.

A precedent from 18 years ago shouldn't -- and won't -- have any effect on the Penguins' decision on whether to try to pick up another high first-rounder. And making such a deal might never get serious consideration for a variety of reasons.

Patrick, though, refused to dismiss the possibility out of hand. Not yet, anyway.

"If something makes sense," he said, "we'll consider anything."

Tip-ins

Detroit has a large, loud and loyal fan base, an owner with the ability -- and the willingness -- to spend lavishly to assemble a championship-caliber team and a fairly rich hockey history. It also has the most arrogant, self-absorbed sports nickname in memory. It was bad enough when Red Wings partisans took to identifying their city as "Hockeytown"; now, even media members -- countless broadcasters and more than a few writers -- treat "Hockeytown" as if it were a synonym for "Detroit." The implied slight to countless places from Moose Jaw to Moscow, Minneapolis to Montreal, where hockey also is a part of the fabric of life, is hard to miss. It also seems to have been forgotten that "Hockeytown" began as nothing more than a marketing slogan, and that if the Red Wings didn't have the cash to buy a contender every year, it probably would have been discarded faster than a splintered stick.

From all indications, the Penguins won't be spending time anywhere more exotic than northeastern Pennsylvania during training camp this fall. Patrick said that, while nothing has been finalized, "it's likely that we will go to Wilkes-Barre and will be there for a little while, and I doubt that we'll be going anywhere else."

Difficult as it is for a layman to make sense of the financial mess that's enveloped Adelphia Communications, it's safe to assume the company's problems can be nothing but bad news for the future of hockey in Buffalo. The Sabres are owned by John Rigas, who stepped down as Adelphia's chairman in the wake of revelations about the company's backing of Rigas family debts. Rigas hasn't given any indication that he's looking to sell the team, but there's no guarantee he won't at some point. Or, more significantly, that he will have the resources and/or inclination to continue covering the Sabres' operating losses with his personal assets.

There are some pretty nice jobs in hockey these days, but one of the most lucrative belongs to agent Don Meehan. He not only ranks among the most prominent men in his line of work, but the 100 NHL players in his stable include Calgary winger Jarome Iginla and goalies Jose Theodore (Montreal) and Curtis Joseph (Toronto), all of whom are in line for mega-deals this summer. Joseph is the only one of the three who can be an unrestricted free agent, but Iginla or Theodore could become the first restricted free agent to sign with another team since Detroit's Sergei Fedorov accepted a contract from Carolina four years ago. The Red Wings ultimately matched that offer, but had to give Fedorov a large pile of money. Which, at this point, seems to be the least Iginla and Theodore can expect. Minus Meehan's commission, of course.

Major League Baseball isn't the only place where contraction is an issue; the Russian Superleague has decided to pare its membership from 18 teams to 16. Four clubs will be relegated to a lesser league, while two will be promoted to the Superleague. At least one team official advocated shrinking the league to 12 teams to lessen the dilution of talent and raise the level of play. What's more, the league has adopted a salary cap that prohibits salary increases of more than 15 percent.

There's no indication Ottawa is on the verge of naming Marshall Johnston's successor as general manager, but it's not because there's a shortage of candidates. The list of contenders is believed to include former Phoenix GM Bobby Smith, now an advance scout for Carolina; Bob Gainey, former GM in Dallas; Mike Murphy, vice president of hockey operations for the NHL; and John Muckler, who is out of hockey but was a GM in Buffalo and coached Edmonton and the New York Rangers.

Slovakia's stunning victory at the world championships sparked an extended, exuberant celebration in that country and prompted children in the town of Topolcany to launch a drive to get their school named after one of its graduates, Buffalo forward Miroslav Satan. The proposal was rejected because of a ruling that bars buildings from being named after a living person. That reportedly prompted Satan's son, Emil, to propose this solution: "Well, then, I may as well get a gun and shoot him."

Tampa Bay left winger Dave Andreychuk, 38, has decided to put off retirement for at least one more season. Lightning GM Jay Feaster said it is his intention to pick up his option on Andreychuk, who scored a team-high 21 goals last season.

Maybe it was a simple slip of the tongue, or perhaps there was something Freudian about it. That's hard to say, at least for now. In any case, new Dallas Coach Dave Tippett had to be at least a little taken aback when Stars owner Tom Hicks introduced him at a news conference as "Ken." As in Ken Hitchcock, who coached Dallas for about six years before being fired during the past season -- and who nearly was rehired before Tippett got the job.

Having center Michael Peca blow out his left knee after a questionable hit by Toronto's Darcy Tucker during the first round of the playoffs was a mortal blow to the New York Islanders' chances of winning a series or two this spring. And having Peca, their captain and unquestioned leader, miss the first three months of next season because of the reconstructive surgery he'll undergo Wednesday might cost the Islanders their chance to make a serious run at the Atlantic Division championship. Or maybe to get back to the playoffs.

Turns out that wasn't a hollow threat the Czech hockey federation made about replacing Josef Augusta as coach of the national team after it lost to Russia in the quarterfinals of the Olympics and the world championships. Augusta, who led the Czechs to two world titles after succeeding Ivan Hlinka, and his staff will not have their contracts renewed when they expire at the end of June.

Several members of the Penguins' Stanley Cup teams -- Ron Francis, Bryan Trottier and Jiri Hrdina, among others -- seemed like viable candidates to move into coaching when their playing careers ended. Paul Coffey wasn't one of them, but Phoenix managing partner Wayne Gretzky, his one-time teammate in Edmonton, wants to hire Coffey, primarily to work with the Coyotes' power play. Coffey plans to discuss the position with Phoenix officials next month and, while Patrick contends that Coffey "has a good mind for the game," somewhere Gene Ubriaco must be grumbling about the notion of hiring a shark to teach table manners.