UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (03/15/98)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Smith's hardball tactics needless

Judging by the way he handled the Oleg Tverdovsky affair, Phoenix Coyotes' General Manager Bobby Smith wouldn't be a candidate for the award named after him. The Bobby Smith Award is presented annually to the Ontario Hockey League player who best combines high standards of play and academic excellence. GM Smith displayed neither in contract negotiations with the Ukrainian Tverdovsky, a 21-year-old defenseman who played in last season's All-Star Game and in the World Cup.

Smith's stubbornness hurt the Coyotes' chances of coming together early in the season as a contender and did nothing to further develop one of the game's rising stars on the blueline. After a long stalemate, Tverdovsky finally reached an agreement with Phoenix last December 19, signing a two-year contract that pays him $1.4 million this year and $1.7 million in 1998-1999.

This so-called negotiation should have been a no-brainer, especially since the gifted Tverdovsky, who was fourth among NHL defensemen in scoring last season with 10 goals and 55 points in 82 games, wasn't exactly asking for the moon. He started out asking for $1.75 million a year (and $1.9 million per year for a two-year deal or $2.1 million per year for three years). That's not that big a raise from the $1.4 million he averaged in his first three-year NHL contract that expired last season.

In that contract Tverdovsky received a signing bonus paid out over the first two years and a salary of $600,000 last year. Smith argued he didn't want Tverdovsky's base pay to rise from $600,000 to $1.75 million in a year, which is preposterous. In such matters, the average pay over the life of the contract is what counts.

And that's the logic (or lack thereof) Smith employed when another Ukrainian Coyote, captain Keith Tkachuk mentioned re-negotiation on a front-end loaded deal that paid him $6 million the first year, but only $2.8 million this year.

"I'm glad the deal was consummated and Oleg is back in the NHL where he belongs," said Tverdovsky's Toronto-based agent Don Meehan. "It proved to be a very lengthy, frustrating process. From my point of view, much longer than it should have been."

Smith said he had one thing in mind.

"It's strictly a money matter," said Smith a day before the deal was consummated. "Oleg is an outstanding player, but he has only had one good year and he didn't play well for us in the playoffs. He's a guy who had 55 points, but who hasn't proven himself over the long haul or in the playoffs."

This was not Paul Kariya and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim who were millions of dollars apart on a deal. It's hard to imagine $1.7 million throwing a team's entire payroll out of whack.

Smith also claims there was no hidden agenda, even though many have suggested he was drawing a metaphorical line in the sand for Tkachuk to observe - that Smith wants to establish early in his tenure he's the boss and not someone to mess around with.

General managers play a very dangerous game when they get into a tug of war with their team's superstars. Mike Keenan went nose-to-nose with superstar Brett Hull in St. Louis and lost. Fans pay to see players, not executives, and Tkachuk would win in a showdown with his GM. After all, he is really Captain Coyote.

Or it simply could be Smith doesn't like Tverdovsky. That's a hard one to swallow, though, because if that were the case, he could have simply signed him earlier and then traded him away. There certainly are enough teams out there that would jump at Tverdovsky for $1.75 million per year.

Nobody is suggesting Tverdovsky, who played with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League to stay in game shape, is the second coming of Bobby Orr. He has defensive shortcomings that drive Smith crazy. And twice in his career he has gone long stretches without scoring a goal.

But it should be pointed out that the team's power play efficiency was 18.1 percent last year, fifth best in the league. Without Tverdovsky, it was 11.2 percent, 22nd in the league.

And for the sake of a few hundred thousand dollars - a pittance in today's NHL, Smith proved absolutely nothing and ultimately gave the player what he wanted. Not exactly a good solid start to his front office career.

But certainly good for a certain young 21-year-old Ukrainian.

UKRAINIAN UTTERINGS: Capitals' right winger Peter Bondra had a points streak snapped at 11 games when he sat out one match with a bruised ankle. He scored in his first game back, a 3-3 tie with the toothless Sharks from San Jose ... The Carolina Hurricanes drew their largest crowd of the season, 19,358, for Wayne Gretzky and the Rangers in late November 1997, and then their smallest, 5,516, for an encounter with Calgary only two days later ... Penguin Eddie Olczyk played in his 900th NHL game on November 22, 1997, against Wayne's Rangers at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena ... Edmonton signed defenseman Drake Berehowsky as a free agent with a slim to none chance of even making the team after spending most of the past two years in the minors. Berehowsky turned his physical style into an almost regular shift on the blueline ... Goalie Kelly Hrudey, who went 4-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average against Dallas last season, blanked the Stars 1-0 on December 12, 1997, in Dallas. Hrudey stopped 24 shots for his 17th career shutout, his first since March 15, 1994, when he was a member of the L.A. Kings. He sure has their number ... Coyote Keith Tkachuk, scored his fifth career hat trick on December 1 ... Speaking of Coyotes, Phoenix signed Oleg Tverdovsky to a two-year, $3.1 million contract, giving the disgruntled defenseman almost what he demanded when his holdout began in August. The Coyotes' weak power play and eight-game winless streak going into a game against Anaheim in mid-December were considerations in raising the ante, general manager Bobby Smith said at a hastily called news conference. He said the agreement was reached after a series of telephone calls during the afternoon. Tverdovsky practiced with the Coyotes on December 19, 1997, and played against Toronto that very same night. His net pay for the current 1997-1998 season will be about $820,000 because he missed the first 34 games ... Gretzky went four games without a point for the first time as a Ranger. In an 18-game span, Gretzky had only three even-strength goals and two even-strength assists ... More Bondra: the right-winger broke out of a scoring drought (2 goals in 11 games) when he got a hat trick in a 5-3 win over the Rangers on January 8. It was the 10th hat trick of his illustrious career ... And finally, we finish with still another tidbit on Tverdovsky: after scoring eight goals in nine games with Hamilton (AHL) during his holdout, it took Oleg eight games for his first point since signing the aforementioned contract. He had a goal and an assist in a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in late December...

(Quotes in Tverdovsky feature courtesy of Mike Brophy of The Hockey News.)

Four Ukrainians make the cut

On an annual basis, about the time a fresh National Hockey League season faces off, hockey's bible, The Hockey News, issues a ranking of the top 20 players in the league by position. The rankings are based on career achievements and scoring statistics of the prior year. For the 1997-1998 season The Hockey News' positional rankings were, in several instances, questionable and controversial. We'll let you, our readers, draw your own conclusions.

Due to space constraints, we've streamlined the rankings to the top 10 players at each position, thus proposing a listing of the NHL's top 50 players. Players of Ukrainian birth or descent making the rankings total four - the same number of Ukes who made The Hockey News' Top 50 all-time hockey greats. While Kelly Hrudey (only Ukie goaltender) didn't make the goalie list and not one Ukrainian made it on the blueline, part-UkrainianWayne Gretzky was still good enough to be rated as the league's No. 7 best centerman. Wingers Keith Tkachuk, Peter Bondra and wily veteran Dave Andreychuk made the cut. Seems Ukrainians have the best shot on the wings!

(To make these rankings even more intereting to analyze, we inserted this season's 1997-1998 scoring stats, instead of final scoring totals from 1996-1997. What a difference a year makes, eh?)

The NHL's top 50