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Tuesday, October 24
Hasek trade rumors begin to circulate up in Buffalo

By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com

If he is already accepted as the man of a thousand angles, always finding a new double-jointed turn, twist, kick or flick with which to redirect a speeding puck, wait 'til you see what Dominik Hasek has in store for an encore.


	Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek, right, may play beyond this season, but it could be for another team.

Would you believe a new slant on how to force a trade?

Hasek, the NHL's most celebrated goalie and Buffalo's most reluctant celebrity, made one of his rare public appearances last weekend. He met the Buffalo media in a briefing prior to the team's game with the Ottawa Senators, essentially just to say hello -- and that not everything is great.

"I'm feeling better than I was a couple of weeks ago," Hasek said. "Every week, I feel a little bit of improvement."

With his groin still healing slowly and having already missed the last 19 Sabres games, Hasek says he can run a little, bike a bit, stretch his formerly multi-flexible muscles in or on various weight-bearing contraptions. What he can't do is offer anyone idea of when he can return to work.

"For some, it doesn't go fast," he said. "I wish it would go faster. It's getting better, but very slowly. I don't expect to step on the ice for sure in the next two weeks. I have no idea when, but sometime after that, I'll be on the ice."

But concerning Hasek's long-term playing prognosis, there is talk that Hasek's summertime announcement that he would retire after this season and go home to the Czech Republic for an extended vacation, was instead an avenue he could pursue for a ticket out of town.

For in the ebbing market of western New York, Hasek the shrinking violet of a celebrity is an uncomfortable man in an arcane media aquarium. He is also a superstar athlete capable of demanding a whopping total to give it one more ride for a team on the cusp and that feels it's a miracle worker in net away from winning the Stanley Cup. Hasek is making $7 million this season and had been scheduled to earn $7 million next year and $9.3 million (at a club option) for 2001-02 until nixing his Buffalo future with that retirement announcement.

But assuming he is at least partially serious about calling it a career soon, it would serve to make sense that if Hasek could commandeer a trade to a rich contender needing a goalie (take your pick), he'd be in a position to command a rather nice going-away contract for next season provided it could be worked out.

If that seems like pure media fancy, well maybe it is. But then again, Hasek is suddenly sounding like an athlete ready to recant his summer plans. Asked Saturday if he had considered altering his retirement plan, Hasek said, "I haven't changed my mind. But like I say, I don't want to talk about it. My focus is to get on the ice, practice and start to play the game, and then we'll see."

And then Hasek saw fit to abruptly stand up and walk off the podium. Exit, stage Dom.

HASEK'S REPLACEMENT

Martin Biron's hot start has been so vital to the Sabres. He's even taken Hasek's clubhouse stall, altered nameplate and all. An unusual and literal clubhouse move that was suggested by the unusual (or just plain odd) Hasek himself.

"He's been around here still, getting his treatments," Biron said of Hasek. "But it's an awkward situation. He hasn't really said anything to me. He's doing what I would do in this situation -- he's not a guy who's going to lead by words; he leads by actions.

"When I first came here, he said he knew how well I was doing in Rochester (6-0, 2.09 GAA, .924 SP with Amerks this season) and he congratulated me on my first win here and everything. But he's not the kind of guy who's going to say, 'You should have probably covered that up rather than played the puck there.' He's a guy who's going to go on the ice and show you the way it's going to be done instead of saying something."

-- Rob Parent

As for where he could possibly be limping off to, the New York Rangers are always at the top of anyone's rumors list when it comes to Neil Smith dishing out $10 million or so to pay an aging star for a farewell tour. But that seems a stretch, since Mike Richter and his long-term contract fit nicely in the Rangers' problematic locker room, and he isn't a candidate for backup duty.

Then there's No. 2 NHL power broker (as determined by Forbes magazine) Philadelphia, which has been a popular spot for floating Hasek rumors in recent years, which seem to be fueled every time highlights of a sharp-angled goal allowed by John Vanbiesbrouck are shown. But that's also nothing more than a whim, for Flyers GM Bob Clarke is not only committed to Vanbiesbrouck, but also knows his club's main playoff problem is keeping Eric Lindros healthy and trying to stabilize a very inconsistent defense. Of course, having Hasek in net would do just that, wouldn't it?

Phoenix may be the club most likely to bid for Hasek at the trade deadline. Assuming Hasek's groin finally does regain some of its stretching substance, watch for the Sabres to soon decide that they won't have to be the club to accommodate Hasek's desires -- whatever they may be -- any longer if he decides he'd really rather not go out this way after all.

The Coyotes could soon trade their holdout goalie, Nikolai Khabib ... what's his name again? ... and proceed to deal from the strength of having a roster full of veteran, star-level forward talent that a scorer-desperate team like the Sabres could use.

Buffalo would probably prefer that than having to pay another year of Hasek's contract if he did decide to come back, or having to go through the trouble of extracting money from their insurers if those quick-witted Sabres doctors see Hasek's groin like they saw Pat LaFontaine's concussions a few years ago.

No play, no pay.

That would be a delicious court battle waiting to happen. But for now, the best-guess scenario is Hasek will return to physical form sometime in mid-winter, whereupon the Sabres and his agent Rich Winter can hatch what might have been the plan all along ... a trading ticket out of Buffalo.

Loyalty or just Pittsburgh patriotism?
Herb Brooks? What's that name mean? Waving the Stars and Stripes and Jim Craig tears? Another chance for Mike Eruzione to tell war stories? Pictures of Karl Malden's nose from the movie "Miracle on Ice"?

For the Pittsburgh Penguins and oh-so loyal general manager Craig Patrick, it apparently means a bench leader to rally behind, even if Brooks is 62 and last coached a game in 1993.

"We will make the playoffs," Patrick said last Thursday after hiring his old Olympic mentor to replace the fiery (and, by the way, successful) Kevin Constantine as the Penguins head coach. "My sense was, right now, we're a losing team, and I didn't see that changing. ... You're not going to make the playoffs going along at that pace, and we can't accept that here in Pittsburgh."

Fair enough. The team was losing, and Jaromir Jagr and Constantine have had numerous problems. Owner Mario Lemieux -- not available to the media when the coaching change was made, and isn't that a shock? -- also wasn't in Constantine's corner. And besides, Patrick was flat broke and with no discernible future when Brooks cut him a break and made him an assistant coach for a new crop of U.S. Nationals 20 years ago.

Remember how that turned out? Made everybody believe in miracles.

But oh, say, can you see how this is going to end? Brooks hasn't coached since proving he could only make the up-and-coming Devils a .500 team in the 1992-93 season. His once bright career has been stuck in neutral.

"I was getting the transmission fluid changed, and the guy at the station said, 'Hey, there's a phone call,'" Brooks said. "I said, 'Who in the heck knows I'm here, other than my wife?'"

His surrogate little brother, of course. The one who never forgets a favor.

So, on the heels of the Olympic gold in 1980, newly hired Rangers GM Patrick tapped Brooks as his coach, and kept him for nearly four mediocre seasons of smurf shows but no Broadway glory. Then, with Brooks without a job and having exhausted much of the reputation he had cashed in that Olympic victory for, Patrick gave him a scouting job five years ago with the Penguins.

Brooks has been quietly toiling away at that semi-retirement job ever since. This latest offer seems to have come out of the blue, although to add another shade of gray to it, Patrick took on ex-coach Eddie Johnston as Brooks' top assistant. Rick Kehoe was hired to man the headset.

But where could these guys possibly have the Penguins headed by the spring? Well, Brooks has always preached run-and-fun hockey, and Pittsburgh's all-European team should love having their reins taken off. Of course, Tom Barrasso better stay very healthy to face all those breaks coming back the other way. But if he can, and if Brooks has any magic left in that cliché-filled brain of his, who knows.

Sheppard going out like a lamb
Less than a month after Ray Sheppard begged for and finally won a deal out of Panthers general manager Bryan Murray, little brother and head coach Terry Murray is letting everyone know how he felt about that signing.

Sheppard has been frequently tied to a bench, either by the side of the ice or up in the press boxes at National Car Rental Center. So, it's time for Ray to do more lobbying.

"I'm not (being) used in the capacity that I've been for all of my career," Sheppard said. "Not playing where I'm used to playing -- right wing -- has been difficult. I've always played the first or second line and have always played on the first unit on the power play. Last year, I was playing between 20 and 22 minutes a game and in the playoffs a little more. I'm a better player when I get those kind of minutes like everybody is. It's frustrating. You wouldn't be much of a competitor if it didn't bother you a little bit.

"It's sort of like I'm feeling too old to even think about talking about things with Terry. That would be like rocking the boat, and I don't want to do that. I'm not here to do that."

True enough, but Sheppard's words still seemed to bother Murray the coach.

"If Ray is comparing last year to right now, I can't help what happened last year," Murray said. "That's last year with another organization. This is a new team for him ... The bottom line is players having to earn the right to play more. And it comes down to performance and it comes down to results, and if that's not there, then things adjust accordingly."

New teacher in New Jersey
Good to see new -- but very old -- Devils addition Claude Lemieux having such a good impression on those kids in New Jersey. Just take a listen to rookie of the year candidate Scott Gomez:

"There's just something about him," he said of Lemieux. "You always hear and read about those guys like (Mark) Messier who just walk into a locker room and something changes. Well, he's that way. I mean, you feel his presence. He has that look to him, and to me, that look says he's a leader. I was kind of scared to talk to him when he first got here because, hey, he's Claude Lemieux. But I've got to tell you that he's helped me so much, on and off the ice."

That's great. You know what else that scarred and scary look says? One of the dirtiest players in the history of the league, Scott. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Spare us, Darius
Right before the ax fell on Constantine, the big news in Pittsburgh last week was the four-game suspension Tom Barrasso received after his vicious slash left the Maple Leafs' Yanic Perreault with a broken bone in his left forearm.

But the best thing to bleed from that story was this piece of precious quote from that vicious guy himself, Penguins defenseman and all-around hip (check) guy Darius Kasparaitis:

"We're not cheap. We're not dirty. Tommy didn't mean to hurt the guy. He was trying to play his stick. We are not a dirty team. We are the least penalized team in the league."

Eastern shorts

Talks continue at a snail's pace between Vancouver and the Islanders, but eventually goalie Felix Potvin will probably wind up in a Canucks uniform. If that goes through, the Islanders payroll would then be pared down to $2,125.68. Or something like that.

By the way, did you hear the latest atrocity from Isles-land? Seems the ownership which is desperately trying to sell the team is constricting the budget so tightly, the players are now on a stick quota. You have a certain number of allotted sticks per game, but after that, if you break 'em, you buy 'em. Seriously. That franchise is hopelessly lost. And to make matters worse, now there are rumors Mike Keenan will wind up there.

Quotes of the Week
Current Penguin and former Devil Tom Chorske on Herb Brooks clichés:

"That's ice out there, it's not blacktop or wood or dirt."

"Having Pierre Larouche check is like having Picasso paint a garage."

"The legs feed the wolf."

Chorske on the last one: "He left me to figure it out, (but) I knew what it meant: If the wolf can't run, he's not going to eat. I needed to skate to be successful."

Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.


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