Sports

SURGERY FOR LECLAIR? FEAR BACK ‘SPASMS’ COULD BE DISC PROBLEM

PITTSBURGH-Better believe there is real concern in Philadelphia over the condition of John LeClair’s back. Better believe there’s real concern in the LeClair household, as well.

The 31-year-old power winger, who during training camp rejected a Flyer contract offer of $34 million so that he would be able to test the open market next summer, has missed three straight games with what is now being called, “back spasms.”

Fact is that LeClair, who did not accompany the team on its three-game trip that concluded last night in Phoenix, is aware that he may have to undergo surgery if the problem isn’t immediately resolved. That scenario, Slap Shots has learned, has already been discussed.

LeClair had suffered lower-back problems just prior to last year’s training camp. But the pain he’s experiencing now is on the other side of the back. The fear is that LeClair may have a disc problem.

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ALL right. One more time. Confirming our story that appeared a day earlier, Slap Shots was told on Thursday that the Rangers and Coyotes were well on their way to a six-man deal that would have sent Mike Richter, Theo Fleury, Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark to Phoenix in exchange for Keith Tkachuk and Nikolai Khabibulin when Commissioner Gary Bettman stepped in with a cease-and-desist order. It was soon after that the commissioner arranged for the Steve Elman-Wayne Gretzky group to pay the current Coyote ownership $1M for the right to player personnel advise and consent privileges.

Gretzky might not approve of such a talent-for-talent deal, not in light of the consistently supportive public words he’s delivered on behalf of both Tkachuk and Khabibulin, the unsigned Group II goaltender the current ownership group has frozen out of its nets for more than a year. But economic reality may force the issue for the Gretzky ownership that may not have meaningful money at its disposal once the sale is complete.

It is our understanding that the Rangers had agreed to pick up half of the $24.1M owed over the next two seasons to both Richter and Fleury. Do the math: two seasons at $12.05M for two veterans rather than approximately the same amount for one season for two veterans (Tkachuk at $8.3M and Khabibulin, who will certainly come in at no less than $3.7M). Understand, too, that the new Coyote ownership already is committed to paying Claude Lemieux somewhere between $3.5 and $4M per, money it will have to find.

When the sale is completed – we’ve been told bank financing has been approved – Glen Sather will go back to Gretzky in attempt to sell his package. This time, no one in the commissioner’s office will intervene.

P.S.: We’ve been told that Gretzky has invested between $3M and $10M of his own money in order to advance the cause of the group that is attempting to sell 90 shares at $1M apiece in the ownership structure.

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FLEURY, who actually had the audacity to believe that his no-trade clause would protect him from being traded, was hardly thrilled to learn of the machinations. Fleury of course would be waived through the league to Phoenix as part of the deal – any team to put in a claim prior to Phoenix would be responsible for the entire $12.5M remaining on the winger’s contract, all but making him claim-proof – just as Stephane Quintal was traded via waivers to the Blackhawks.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay here and contribute to the Rangers,” Fleury told us on Wednesday. “I don’t know what would happen if that kind of deal were made. I don’t know whether I’d file a grievance or not. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

If Fleury were to file such a grievance, there is no arbitrator currently employed by the NHL and NHLPA to convene a hearing, even if the NHLPA were to file the necessary and urgent request for an expedited hearing. In other words, if Fleury were to file a grievance and refuse to report, he would then be left sitting at home, unpaid and without recourse, likely for months. Without an arbitrator in place, NHL law stands.

About NHL law. Here’s a note from Page 17 of the September 1997 decision striking down “no-waivers” clauses that had been written into the contracts of four players, including Mike Gartner, Jari Kurri and Phil Housley:

“…A common negotiating ploy is to offer a benefit that one has no power to give with the knowledge that a higher authority will cancel it,” arbitrator John Sands wrote.

And to think that in some neighborhoods, that might be considered fraud.

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UNSIGNED Group II Mike Peca, who on Thursday called a news conference to announce his request to be traded, had seen his contractual impasse coming for more than a year, which is why he switched agents from Anton Thun to Don Meehan, one of the game’s most respected agents and deal-makers.

But Meehan, who has run into a wall in Buffalo the way clients Scott Niedermayer and Jason Arnott have run into a wall in New Jersey, hasn’t been able to get Sabre management to back off its hardball, lowball of approximately $2.2M per.

Peca’s original asking price of $4M was way too high, certainly so after coming off a poor season. But the Buffalo offer is, in context, insulting. And, in the long run, counter-productive.

What is the point of humbling the team captain? What can possibly be gained by forcing the team leader to his knees?

But then, Slap Shots hears that Doug Gilmour is poised to sign a contract with the Sabres through next year, so maybe Buffalo management has its eye on appointing the Killer as team captain, anyway.

And no, the Rangers should not trade Mike York for Peca, they most certainly should not.

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MARTY McSorley’s interview in which he portrayed himself as the victim and said that he took one for the league, well, does he really think that’s going to help him with the NHL office if and when he ever decides to apply for reinstatement?

Mike Van Ryn said that one of the reasons he wanted out of the Devils organization was because New Jersey forces its prospects into an Albany apprenticeship whether or not necessary. So the Michigan defenseman left school, played last season for Sarnia (OHL), became an unrestricted free agent following an arbitration case and then signed for cap money and a precedent-setting bonus package with the Blues.

Meanwhile, after playing in the season-opener, Van Ryn was scratched from the next two games even with defensemen Marc Bergevin and Todd Reirden on Injured Reserve, St. Louis choosing to dress freshmen Alexander Kharmanov and Bruce Salvador.

Van Ryn will play in his next game, however … in Worcester, after being sent on Thursday to the minors.

Funny how St. Louis GM Larry Pleau believes in apprenticeship, too.

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FINALLY, that new Garden Jim Dolan says is in the works? Who does he think is going to pay for it, the cable subscribers who are blacked out of six Ranger games, 14 Devil games and 23 Islander games by not living in Cablevision-system neighborhoods?

The nerve.