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Sunday, February 16, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Most of the blame for the Penguins' cash-motivated trade of Alexei Kovalev has been piled on Craig Patrick, who engineered the deal. Mario Lemieux has gotten some, too, mostly for paying himself $5.25 million while authorizing the trade of another star. Even the fans of Pittsburgh are being criticized around the hockey world for the 7 percent drop in attendance which helped force management's hand.

But what of the NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman?

There are two reasons why he likely is more at fault than anyone in this scenario.

The first is that he is the man who endorsed the league's current economic system not once but twice.

After the NHL's 100-day lockout of 1994, the players' union offered to institute a luxury-tax system in the interest of preserving competitive balance between teams with large and small revenues. Bettman's negotiators spurned that in favor of a rookie salary cap -- blame Alexandre Daigle for that one -- and other safeguards against entry-level salaries. And when that Collective Bargaining Agreement was set to expire four years later, Bettman liked it so much that he extended it to 2004.

The second is that he turned a deliberate, blind eye to the Kovalev trade, going back on his oft-stated vow to veto any deal which he judged to be dominated by cash.

In the summer of 1999, when the Islanders were trying to trade Zigmund Palffy to the Kings with the clear intent of dumping his salary, Bettman stepped in to veto the deal on the grounds that he did not view it as fair from the hockey standpoint. From there, both teams were forced back to the table, and Los Angeles was forced to include promising prospects such as Olli Jokinen, Mathieu Biron and Josh Green to get its man.

Where was Bettman on Monday?

To be sure, he understood and appreciated the Penguins' intense desire to acquire the greatest possible amount of money in their attempt to break even for the season. Just as certain, he wanted to fulfill the request of Lemieux and other members of management, people with whom he worked closely to pull the team out of bankruptcy.

But what would have stopped Bettman from vetoing the trade on the grounds that the Rangers, unlike the Kings four years ago, failed to include any of their top prospects in the deal?

Patrick is known to have asked for center Jamie Lundmark and goaltender Dan Blackburn, New York's best young players. But the Rangers' Glen Sather balked at including either, and the Penguins were left with three players who were regulars on the waiver wire and another who failed to reach the NHL until age 25.

Might that have changed if Bettman had gotten involved, if he had insisted the Rangers produce better prospects? Sather could have pulled out of the deal but, given the extraordinary lengths to which he and New York ownership seemed prepared to go to acquire Kovalev, it certainly would have been worth a try. The Penguins would not have absorbed no further financial hardship by acquiring real prospects rather than journeymen, and the fans -- remember them? -- doubtless would have handled the deal much better.

Instead, Bettman looked away.

Patrick and Sather finished their deal just before 3 p.m. Monday and received league approval shortly thereafter. Patrick acknowledged there was "no delay" for the league to examine it, as there was with the Jaromir Jagr trade two years ago.

One league official explained to the Post-Gazette late Monday that the NHL did look at the deal closely and approved it on the basis that the Penguins essentially received four players for one. Great as Kovalev is, the official said, he is not four players.

The Post-Gazette requested an on-the-record interview with any league official on the matter.

The phone still has not rung.