MARK Messier was the best center available on the free-agent market and Glen Sather got him. Now, Joe Sakic is the best center available on the trade market and Sather is looking into getting him, too, Slap Shots has learned from two independent sources.
“I’m doing a lot of nosing around,” the new Ranger GM said late Friday. “If there’s an opportunity to make this team better, I don’t want to miss out on it.
“I’ll say one thing: the way the team is now is not the way the team is going to be.”
Sakic, who turned 31 on July 7, filed for salary arbitration before yesterday’s midnight deadline. He’s one season away from unrestricted free agency. And though he would prefer to remain in Colorado under a long-term, no-trade contract, it doesn’t appear as though he’s going to get it. The Avalanche cannot afford it.
At the same time, the Avalanche cannot allow him to play out the season on a one-year deal and then walk. So GM Pierre Lacroix quietly is shopping him to the Rangers, but not so quietly that we haven’t heard about it.
Fact is, we’ve been told that the Rangers on Draft Day three weeks ago were made aware that Sakic and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh both were available for the right price. Ozolinsh, more a free-lance attacker than even an offensive defenseman, went to Carolina. Sakic remains open for bid, though the pricetag on his contract – arbitration would be sure to bring between $7 million and $9 million for 2000-2001 – limits the number of parties interested in obtaining him.
Sather’s interest in Sakic is both appropriate and easily explained. Sakic has speed, talent, shot and character; a lot of speed, talent, shot and character. If the Rangers can get him, if they can sign him long-term, Sather has no choice. Messier and Sakic, 1 and 1A in the middle however you assign it, could even be formidable.
Messier wasn’t giving any party line when on Thursday he praised Petr Nedved. Anyone who’s watched Nedved the last two seasons has to admire his grit and competitiveness, has to admire the way he played to the end when so many of his teammates essentially abandoned him and the franchise.
But if the Rangers can deal Nedved for Sakic, the deal’s a no-brainer. The question is, how much more Colorado, dealing from weakness, can demand?
No team will trade for Sakic without knowing whether it can sign him to a long-term deal, and so No. 19 has a cer
tain veto power over any potential trade. Would he come to Broadway? He was willing to three years ago, that’s for sure.
That was when Sakic signed the three-year, $21M Group II offer sheet – including the up-front $15M bonus – that Colorado eventually matched. That was right after Messier had left. When the Avalanche matched at great cost to the franchise – by paying Sakic, they could not afford to keep important support players Mike Keane, Mike Ricci and Scott Young – Garden President Dave Checketts talked about a Plan B.
Three years later, Sakic himself seems to be Plan B; DejaJoe all over again.
FLYERS’ $8.5M qualifying offer to Eric Lindros included a two-way clause under which No. 88 would receive $85,000 if sent to the minors. GM Bobby Clarke insists it’s nothing personal, that he’s just following an NHL mandate for teams to use every available tool in the collective-bargaining agreement, and that this is an available tool. Odd, but Lindros doesn’t quite seem to be buying the explanation.
Meanwhile, Lindros, who still is suffering intermittent headaches in the aftermath of the Scott Stevens blow, has much more to consider than this latest slight from the organization. First, obviously, is his health. Second, if Lindros retires before playing another 20 games in the NHL, he stands to collect $20 million – yes, $20 million-tax-free as payment from his personal insurance policy.
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DEVILS’ Stanley Cup highlight tape – it’s called, Second Heaven – had its premiere at the Meadowlands on Thursday while the Rangers staged a revival of their 1994 Highlight Tape at the Garden.
What did the Devils accomplish while winning their second Cup in six seasons? Became the first team to take the Cup from the defending champion in 16 years, the first to do it on the road in 24 years. Tied an NHL playoff record by winning 10 games on the road, a standard they originally established in 1995. Set a post-expansion record (regular-season and playoff) by holding the Maple Leafs to six shots in Game 6 of the Eastern semis. Became the first team ever to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the conference finals.
Other than that, they didn’t distinguish themselves too much.
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TORONTO went out and spent $14.75M to sign Gary Roberts and Shayne Corson both to three-year deals, and you know what? The Leafs would have been much better off giving Claude Lemieux $12M for those three years , no doubt about it.
Actually, they would have been best off by going out and buying a few more doses of hockey courage for Mats Sundin, but then, money can’t buy everything, as a Mr. Smith and a Mr. Checketts would be happy to tell you.
Free of charge.
Let me get this straight. The Bruins finally decide to spend a little money and they spend it on … they spend it on … they spend it on Paul Coffey?
Four point five million over two years on Paul Coffey?
While at the same time nickle-and-diming the marvelous Anson Carter, just because the CBA says they can and the league wants them to?
Is there any way the Rangers can get Jason Smith out of Edmonton, that’s what I’d like to know. How about Mike Grier?
I’m not sold on Oleg Kvasha, I have no idea about Rick DiPietro, but in getting Roman Hamrlik and John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Milbury did just fine for 2000-2001, that’s a given, and so the Islanders have as good a shot at one of those last two playoff berths in the East as anybody.
Rangers have just signed goaltender Johan Holmqvist, their well-regarded 1997 seventh-rounder, who will be coming to North America for training camp for the first time and is expected to play the year at Hartford. … Alexandre Daigle, you will be relieved to hear, is looking for the right situation.
It’s understandable why Sather bypassed John Paddock to hire Ron Low as coach. It’s not at all understandable why no other team in the league hired Paddock, now set to rejoin the Hartford Wolf Pack after winning last year’s AHL title.
Anyone want to wager on Stephane Quintal making the trip to Burlington for training camp? Slap Shots says no way, not even with the white flags of truce waving.
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FINALLY, would anyone care to give Lindros and Clarke a hatchet to bury, and would anyone else then care to guess in whose back it might be buried?