Sports

PLAN ON SPENDING A LOT FOUR YEARS LATER, RANGERS STILL TARGET SAKIC, JAGR

THEY are Plan A and Plan B, just as they were four summers ago when Dave Checketts, Neil Smith and Colin Campbell were in the jobs currently held by Jim Dolan, Glen Sather and Ron Low.

Joe Sakic is Plan A, Jaromir Jagr is Plan B, together they make up Plan AB, and what the Garden wishes for more than anything else this summer is that its quest to bring immediate respectability to the Rangers while allowing the organization down below another couple of years to mature, is fulfilled by adding each of the NHL’s two leading scorers.

In 1997, signing Sakic to a three-year, $21M Group II offer sheet represented Plan A for filling the void created by Mark Messier’s departure. When Colorado matched, obtaining Jagr in a trade from Pittsburgh became Plan B. The Rangers are still working on it.

Sakic, a free man today because Pierre Lacroix dug in against giving his two-time Cup-winning captain a no-trade, will become the object of the league’s greatest bidding war yet. With the Rangers, St. Louis and Dallas in, with Detroit probably in, and perhaps Vancouver and San Jose taking a peek, there is absolutely no telling how high is this sky.

If the Rangers are willing to go to $12M per, the Blues, who have vowed for weeks not to be outbid at all this summer, will be willing to at least match. If the money is equal, you have to wonder why he’d choose the Rangers.

The Jagr scenario is obviously a different one, with the Rangers and Dallas most likely the only two legit bidders in the market. If the Stars, given the mandate to spend as the team moves into a money-printing plant of a new arena, are shut out on free agents, Bob Gainey will certainly become very aggressive in his pursuit of No. 68.

The Stars last week were prepared to send Darryl Sydor and Brendan Morrow to the Flyers for Eric Lindros. Dallas would certainly be willing to offer that package – while picking up nearly all of Sydor’s $3.2M contract and sending as much cash as Gary Bettman will allow – plus at least another asset for Jagr. If the Rangers stick to their guns by refusing to include Tomas Kloucek in a Pittsburgh parcel, the Stars will have the more attractive offer.

Dallas, however, might want to be careful about what it wishes for. Can you imagine: Jagr playing for Ken Hitchcock? A better question: Can Hitchcock imagine? Brett Hull never looked so good to ‘ol Hitch, now did he?

*

The Rangers, too, are poised to crack open the piggy bank for a shot at Rob Blake. They’ll duel on this one too with Dallas, maybe Detroit, maybe even Toronto, despite the Leafs’ suspicious public notice of disinterest . . . The Blueshirts also will ante-up on Martin Lapointe, who rejected a Red Wing best offer of $3.2M per. Lapointe, who will also be sought by all of the western powers, intends to give Detroit a right-to-match . . . Wings are looking carefully at Alexander Mogilny and Mathieu Schneider.

Meanwhile, Luc Robitaille, a second-team All-Star off a 37-goal, 88-point season, is unrestricted after rejecting a Los Angeles low-ball offer on Thursday. “It was shocking. It was an offer even a five-year-old would have known to turn down; they made it easy on us,” agent Pat Brisson told Slap Shots. “Maybe they were saying goodbye, I don’t know, but I wonder if in this great city of Los Angeles they are trying to run this like a small market team.”

*

From Page Six: Which four-time Cup winning Islander looking for a job as an assistant was snubbed by a four-time Cup-winning teammate in position to give him one at last weekend’s draft?

We’re told on good authority that the Red Wings were close to making a deal last weekend for Lindros after getting the go-ahead from a number of veterans whose opinions were sought by management. Detroit, which had demanded secrecy during a meeting with the Lindros camp, backed out when word of a pending agreement was splashed immediately across the papers.

*

Sources report that Tim Taylor’s two-thirds buyout by the Rangers may become part of a future NHLPA grievance. The center missed the final 52 games of the season after suffering an abdominal pull on Dec. 31. So is he injured? The PA has a similar grievance pending as it relates to Todd Ewen, bought out by the Sharks in 1998 after having undergone knee surgery the previous summer that sidelined him for the entire 1997-98 season.

I know I’m in the minority here, but if Sandy McCarthy is so valuable, why did linemate Mike York finish the season such a beaten man that he couldn’t even drag his body over to the World Championships?

“Fair question, but Mike York wears himself out, too,” answers Sather. “He has to back off and stop running people all the time. It’s great that he’s aggressive, but he has to learn to pick his spots, too. He’s an offensive guy, he has to dart in and out and be smarter. He plays with a lot of enthusiasm, which is great, but he has to be a little bit careful. How long do you think [Steve] Yzerman would have lasted if he tried to get a piece of everyone all the time?”

*

Finally, Mike Milbury the other day talking about Howie Rose, the Fox play-by-play man for the Mets and Islanders: “I bet Howie never thought he’d be looking forward to our season.”