Officials of every team in the NHL have patience. Some just don't have much of it.
It's all too common for prospects to be written off as unmitigated flops if they aren't starring by their 21st birthdays, and for coaches to lose their jobs if they fail to transform a band of has-beens and never-weres into a serious Stanley Cup contender a year or so after going behind the bench.
That's why it's worth noting, then, that while the Hartford/Carolina franchise hardly has provided a blueprint for success during most of its existence, the Hurricanes have shown commendable patience and stability over the past few years.
And they have a berth in the Stanley Cup final to show for it.
The Hurricanes were built largely through the draft, although key veterans like Ron Francis and Arturs Irbe were acquired as free agents, and General Manager Jim Rutherford resisted the temptation to replace Paul Maurice as coach when the team was going through tough times.
Carolina's front office has made some difficult decisions -- beginning with the one five years ago to move into a market where the game was almost completely unknown -- but has done enough right to be one of the last two teams standing this spring.
And the Hurricanes have done it with a payroll that's a fraction of those in places like Philadelphia and New York and Detroit.
There's no question that their formula paid off this season. The interesting part will be seeing how many other clubs, if any, decide it's worth copying.
Tip-ins
Perhaps because this month's NHL entry draft is viewed as one of the weakest in memory, scouts and draftniks seem to be having trouble agreeing on precisely how to rank the players available. Consider that Kyle Woodlief of the Red Line Report newsletter, in an online column for USA Today, wrote that "we know of at least one player who has not cracked Red Line's first round all year who is practically a mortal lock to be among the first eight players selected" June 22 in Toronto. Woodlief didn't identify the player, but Chicoutimi center Pierre-Marc Bouchard might fit that profile, because there is a wild disparity in the way he is viewed. While some teams apparently see Bouchard, who is small (5 feet 9, 155 pounds) but highly skilled, as a viable candidate to go in the top 10, NHL Central Scouting ranks him just 10th among North American skaters (goalies and Europeans are on separate lists). Earlier this season, Woodlief offered this observation about Bouchard: "Despite the efforts of many observers around the Quebec League to convince Red Line that Pierre-Marc Bouchard is the next coming of Wayne Gretzky, we won't succumb to that nonsense." And Prospect Advisor, an independent scouting service, seems to feel the same. It, like Red Line Report, does not include Bouchard in its most recent list of 30 prospective first-rounders.
The Penguins spent part of their 1991 training camp in Vail, Colo., and several other clubs have trained in the mountains since. The latest addition to that list is Montreal, whose owner, George Gillett, just happens to live in Vail. "If you go back 10 or 12 years, you'll probably see that more than half of the Stanley Cup winners have trained at altitude," Gillett told the Montreal Gazette. "It goes back to the Penguins in their glory days, to St. Louis, Dallas and, obviously, Colorado." What he didn't bother to mention was that championship teams like the Penguins, Stars and Avalanche tended to have the best players, too.
If TV analyst Ed Olczyk and Fox Sports Net officials are unable to agree on terms of a new contract, former Penguins right winger Rob Brown, who is glib and insightful, would be a logical candidate to replace him. That is, if Brown could be talked into leaving the Chicago Wolves, whom he has led to the final of the American Hockey League.
Scott Lachance of Vancouver, a solid stay-at-home defenseman, stands to receive plenty of attention when he goes on the market as an unrestricted free agent July 1, and can count on a hefty raise over the $875,000 he earned last season. Nathan Dempsey of Toronto should have his $425,000 salary bumped up a bit, too, but he's more interested in going to a team where he can realistically expect to play in the NHL instead of serving as a minor-league insurance policy. Dempsey didn't hurt his market value when he got into playoff games with the Maple Leafs, playing a fairly steady game and showing a bit of a knack for joining the rush.
Joni Pitkanen is one of the top prospects available in this year's entry draft -- some observers actually believe Florida will give serious thought to claiming him with the No. 1 pick -- and, given that he is a defenseman from Finland, it's no surprise that two of his hockey heroes are Reijo Ruotsalainen and Janne Niinimaa. But in an interview originally posted on a Finnish hockey Web site, Pitkanen identified one other role model: Penguins center/owner Mario Lemieux. "When I started to follow [the] NHL, he had just won two Stanley Cups," Pitkanen said. There's one other thing he might find attractive about Lemieux. When asked what he would do if he weren't a hockey player, Pitkanen responded that, "it's hard to say, but I hope I would be a big company boss." Which is pretty much what Lemieux does in his day job.
The chance to move into a front-office position wasn't the only thing that influenced Guy Carbonneau's decision to relinquish his assistant-coaching job in Montreal and take one as assistant to General Manager Doug Armstrong in Dallas a few days ago. Carbonneau acknowledged that part of the reason he agreed to leave his home province was Quebec's repressive language laws, which prevented him from sending his daughter, Christina, 14, to a school where classes are conducted in English because Carbonneau and his wife both are francophones. While some people might have questions about precisely what language is spoken in Texas, at least Carbonneau will be able to send his child to the school of his choice.
It has been a decade since the Penguins appeared in a Stanley Cup final -- yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of their sweep against Chicago in 1992 -- and there are times when it must feel like slightly more than an eternity to team officials. Imagine, then, what it's like in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs haven't gotten to a final since 1967, the longest such drought in the league. Or, for that matter, Chicago, where the Blackhawks haven't earned a Cup since 1961.
Reports out of Phoenix suggest the Coyotes are giving serious thought to picking up right winger Theo Fleury, either via a trade with the New York Rangers or as a free agent if New York declines to exercise its $7 million, one-year option on him. Fleury had 24 goals and 39 assists last season, but also has a history of substance abuse and erratic behavior. He would have a support system in place in Phoenix, though -- he is friends with managing partner Wayne Gretzky and played for senior executive vice president Cliff Fletcher and Coach Bob Francis when he was with Calgary. What's more, Fleury apparently knows the area: He reportedly did a rehab stint at a facility in Arizona.
Tampa Bay has delayed plans to introduce new uniforms during the coming season after team officials could not come with up a satisfactory design or color scheme. Presumably, the front office is now free to focus on having its uniforms filled by capable players instead of dwelling on whether they're color-coordinated.
Danny Groulx of Victoriaville was the highest-scoring defenseman in Canadian junior hockey during the 2001-02 season -- he had 29 goals and 83 assists in 68 games -- but it's not unusual for a player in the Quebec League to put up gaudy numbers. What's really impressive about Groulx is that he played well enough during the just-concluded Memorial Cup tournament to be named MVP of the event, even though his Tigres lost to Kootenay in the title game. He had two goals and five assists during the Memorial Cup, a nice sequel to the nine goals and 30 assists he put up during the QMJHL playoffs. Oh, and there's one other thing worth mentioning about Groulx: He's 20 years old, and never was drafted by an NHL team, which means he's free to sign on with any club willing to take a chance on him.
It went largely unnoticed when St. Louis assistant coach Jimmy Roberts, 62, announced his retirement. Most of the time, the comings and goings of assistant coaches simply don't interest many people. But the departure of Roberts -- who spent three winters as an assistant to Bob Berry with the Penguins in the mid-1980s -- is worth noting, if only because he truly was an old-time hockey guy. A versatile player, equally effective up front or on defense, who was a valuable member of the Montreal dynasty in the late 1970's. A coach who valued an honest effort above all else, and who told friends he decided to walk away from the game when he had put away enough money to cover the cost of his daily ration of beer and hamburgers. Roberts was a throwback, the kind of character rarely found in the game anymore, which is why he'll be missed more than most assistants who drop off the NHL radar screen.
The hockey revival on Long Island is continuing, as the New York Islanders believer they can get their season-ticket base up to 11,000 before the start of next season. What's more, Newsday reported that local officials are considering a plan that calls for the Islanders' lease at Nassau Coliseum, which is scheduled to run through 2015 and is viewed as the major impediment to the team getting a new arena, to be condemned.
Jamie Heward has turned up in a lot of places since the Penguins, then under the stewardship of Tony Esposito, invested the 16th choice in the 1989 entry draft in him. And now, it seems, he might be headed for Switzerland. Heward, an unrestricted free agent, probably won't be invited back to the Blue Jackets, but has worked out a deal with a team in Geneva if he can't get work anywhere else in the NHL.
It isn't easy for small-market Canadian teams to compete with franchises that have a seemingly endless supply of money -- the Rangers can pay a fourth-line flop more than Edmonton gives a franchise player, and never miss the money -- but Calgary fans seem to be optimistic that the Flames will be able to retain winger Jarome Iginla, one of the top young players in the league. Iginla's agent, Don Meehan, has opened contract talks with Calgary officials, and fans seem to be showing their confidence in the team with cash: The Flames reportedly have sold over 9,000 season tickets, putting them two-thirds of the way to their goal of 14,000 with four months to go before the start of next season.
NHL Notebook: Patience a key for Hurricanes 
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