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NHL Round-up
By LCS: guide to hockey

General NHL News

Whale Want Out of Mall
The Hartford Whalers have told Gov. John G. Rowland that they will leave unless Connecticut taxpayers build them a new arena.

The arena could cost as much as $240 million, the team said in a report sent to Rowland by an official of the National Hockey League team.

While the 15,635-seat Civic Center is cool, even if the Whale sold out every game and maximized money from concessions and advertising, the team would continue to lose money. Like many teams, the Whale claim that only a new arena with fancy luxury box seating would help the Whale turn a profit.

NHL Expansion Update
The National Hockey League could add as many as four new teams, but expansion will not occur before the 1998-99 season, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told general managers Thursday in Phoenix. The NHL has received expansion applications from 11 groups in eight cities. Representatives of those interests will make presentations to the league Jan. 13 and 14 in New York, said Bettman, who noted there is no timetable for reviewing those bids. Houston has submitted three applications for franchises and the following cities also have applied: Atlanta; Columbus, Ohio; Hamilton, Ontario; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Nashville, Tenn.; Norfolk, Va.; Oklahoma City and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. The fee for new franchises will be not less than $75 million and groups must meet several conditions, Bettman said.

Patrick Award Winners Announced
Former Buffalo Sabres owner Seymour H. Knox III, Sabres center Pat LaFontaine and Harvard Athletic Director Bill Cleary were named recipients of the 1997 Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.

Knox, who brought the National Hockey League to Buffalo in 1970 and guided the Sabres for more than 25 years, died May 22nd. He served as the team's first chairman and president and represented it on the NHL Board of Governors until his death.

Knox also was a driving force behind construction of the Sabres' new home, Marine Midland Arena, which was dedicated to the Knox brothers when it opened in September. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 1993.

LaFontaine, a five-time All-Star, won the NHL's Bill Masterton Trophy in 1995 for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. He has represented the United States at the international level at the 1984 Winter Olympics and at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

Cleary is the winningest coach in Harvard hockey history. Under his leadership, the Crimson won two ECAC championships, four Beanpot Tournament titles and 11 Ivy League crowns. As a player, he set single-season school records for goals (42) and points (89) in a season.

Powell Dead at 84
Powell, who died from a heart attack last Thursday in Pittsburgh, smoked a cigar and wore a hat when he worked as a goal judge at the Civic Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He volunteered as a goal judge during the season in exchange for two seats and a parking space. He missed his first Penguins home game in 55 years only last week.

Gretzky Milestone
Wayne Gretzky reached the 1,800-assist plateau for his career, dishing out two on December 14 to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

Gretzky set up Alexei Kovalev for No. 1,800 before setting up Brian Noonan for another in the second period.

Messier Milestones
Mark Messier reached the 1500 point milestone in a 7-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on December 22. Messier had 2 goals and 2 assists in the victory. His two tallies moved him past Bruins legend Johnny Bucyk into 12th place on the all-time goal scoring list with 556. He reached the 1500 point mark when he assisted Alexei Kovalev's first period goal.

All-Star Update
Voting for the starting line-ups for the 1997 NHL All-Star game concluded December 15. Here are the final results and starting line-ups:

Eastern Conference

WINGERS                            VOTES
Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh         189,286
Dino Ciccarelli, Tampa Bay       105,830
John LeClair, Philadelphia       104,669
Bill Guerin, New Jersey           93,676
Rick Tocchet, Boston              71,870
Ray Sheppard, Florida             69,885
Zigmund Palffy, NY Islanders      67,830
Scott Mellanby, Florida           63,915
Peter Bondra, Washington          63,611
Adam Graves, NY Rangers           60,177
y-Keith Primeau, Hartford         54,605
Rod Brind'Amour, Philadelphia     51,098
Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa         46,022
Geoff Sanderson, Hartford         44,233
Steve Thomas, New Jersey          38,260
Martin Rucinsky, Montreal         38,143
Mikael Renberg, Philadelphia      36,935
x-Shayne Corson, Montreal         36,544
Mark Recchi, Montreal             32,079

CENTERS
Wayne Gretzky, NY Rangers        125,793
Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh         95,174
Mark Messier, NY Rangers          93,851
Eric Lindros, Philadelphia        83,857
Pat LaFontaine, Buffalo           64,737
Vincent Damphousse, Montreal      47,912
Adam Oates, Boston                44,908
Petr Nedved, Pittsburgh           38,741
Brian Bradley, Tampa Bay          38,162
Alexei Yashin, Ottawa             31,941
Ron Francis, Pittsburgh           22,339

DEFENSEMEN
Ray Bourque, Boston              184,315
Brian Leetch, NY Rangers         166,163
y-Paul Coffey, Philadelphia      159,523
Ed Jovanoski, Florida            130,965
Scott Stevens, New Jersey        125,413
Kevin Hatcher, Pittsburgh         79,823
Scott Niedermayer, New Jersey     75,557
Eric Desjardins, Philadelphia     74,781
Roman Hamrlik, Tampa Bay          69,822
Phil Housley, Washington          59,498
Robert Svehla, Florida            55,293
Darius Kasparaitis, Pittsburgh    50,152
Sergei Gonchar, Washington        37,626
Steve Duchesne, Ottawa            34,435
Garry Galley, Buffalo             28,019
Jeff Brown, Hartford              23,074

GOALTENDERS
John Vanbiesbrouck, Florida      200,457
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey        95,131
Mike Richter, NY Rangers          69,863
Ron Hextall, Philadelphia         55,899
Daren Puppa, Tampa Bay            50,079
Jim Carey, Washington             46,875
Bill Ranford, Boston              36,544
Dominik Hasek, Buffalo            34,298
Jocelyn Thibeault, Montreal       33,295
Sean Burke, Hartford              30,994
x-appears on Western Conference ballot with St. Louis.
Obtained by Montreal via trade, 10/29/96

y-appears on Western Conference ballot with Detroit.
Obtained by Hartford via trade, 10/9/96

Western Conference

WINGERS                            VOTES
Brett Hull, St. Louis            145,830
Paul Kariya, Anaheim             127,024
Pavel Bure, Vancouver            121,297
Teemu Selanne, Anaheim           104,441
Keith Tkachuk, Phoenix            99,626
x-Brendan Shanahan, Detroit       91,244
Theoren Fleury, Calgary           85,165
Claude Lemieux, Colorado          72,992
Pat Verbeek, Dallas               55,301
Jari Kurri, Anaheim               50,810
Owen Nolan, San Jose              50,309
Trevor Linden, Vancouver          42,893
Alexander Mogilny, Vancouver      41,453
Wendel Clark, Toronto             38,148
Geoff Courtnall, St. Louis        35,800
Ulf Dahlen, San Jose              26,618
Dimitri Khristich, Los Angeles    17,662

CENTERS                            VOTES
Joe Sakic, Colorado              152,826
Peter Forsberg, Colorado          81,948
Steve Yzerman, Detroit            63,769
Mike Modano, Dallas               56,780
Sergei Fedorov, Detroit           56,748
Jeremy Roenick, Phoenix           53,239
Ray Ferraro, Los Angeles          33,527
Mats Sundin, Toronto              30,147
Doug Gilmour, Toronto             24,040
Doug Weight, Edmonton             21,985
Jason Arnott, Edmonton            21,721
Alexei Zhamnov, Chicago           21,075
y-Pierre Turgeon, St. Louis       20,316

DEFENSEMEN                         VOTES
Chris Chelios, Chicago           215,150
Sandis Ozolinsh, Colorado        121,811
Derian Hatcher, Dallas            94,341
Al MacInnis, St. Louis            81,323
Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit         76,183
Uwe Krupp, Colorado               74,808
Sergei Zubov, Dallas              73,316
Vladimir Konstantinov, Detroit    61,514
Rob Blake, Los Angeles            55,382
Gary Suter, Chicago               53,772
Steve Chiasson, Calgary           45,862
Oleg Tverdovsky, Phoenix          44,962
Mathieu Schneider, Toronto        39,447
Jyrki Lumme, Vancouver            26,637

GOALTENDERS                        VOTES
Patrick Roy, Colorado            208,564
Chris Osgood, Detroit             77,471
Ed Belfour, Chicago               67,622
Grant Fuhr, St. Louis             42,178
Curtis Joseph, Edmonton           41,543
Nikolai Khabibulin, Phoenix       41,135
Felix Potvin, Toronto             37,230
Trevor Kidd, Calgary              33,792
Guy Hebert, Anaheim               32,203
Kirk McLean, Vancouver            28,828
x-appears on Eastern Conference ballot, with Hartford.
Obtained by Detroit via trade, 10/9/96.

y-appears on Eastern Conference ballot, with Montreal.
Obtained by St. Louis via trade, 10/29/96.

Firings...Hirings...Signings...etc...

Coyotes Fire General Manager
Phoenix Coyotes general manager John Paddock was fired on December 11 after the team's 10-15-4 start. The Coyotes managed to score a mere 69 goals in that span and found themselves three points out of a playoff spot. The team announced that Bobby Smith will continue as executive vice president of hockey operations and will be directly responsible for the on-ice product of the hockey club.

Keenan Sent Packing
After single-handedly destroying a once proud St. Louis franchise, the Blues fired their beloved coach and general manager, Mike Keenan. Yippie, see this issues main features for full details. Meanwhile, here are the career coaching records for "Iron" Mike:

Regular season
Year, team   	  W    L   T  Pct.
84-85 Phil-x 	 53   20   7  .706
85-86 Phil   	 53   23   4  .688
86-87 Phil   	 46   26   8  .625
87-88 Phil   	 38   33   9  .531
88-89 Chi    	 27   41  12  .413
89-90 Chi    	 41   33   6  .550
90-91 Chi    	 49   23   8  .663
91-92 Chi    	 36   29  15  .544
93-94 NYR    	 52   24   8  .667
94-95 StL    	 28   15   5  .635
95-96 StL    	 32   34  16  .487
96-97 StL    	 15   17   1  .470
Totals       	470  318  99  .586
x-NHL Coach of the Year

Playoffs
Year, team   	 W   L  Pct.
84-85 Phil   	12   7  .632
85-86 Phil   	 2   3  .400
86-87 Phil   	15  11  .577
87-88 Phil   	 3   4  .429
88-89 Chi    	 9   7  .563
89-90 Chi    	10  10  .500
90-91 Chi    	 2   4  .333
91-92 Chi    	12   6  .667
93-94 NYR-z  	16   7  .696
94-95 StL    	 3   4  .428
95-96 StL    	 7   6  .538
Totals       	91  69  .569
z-Stanley Cup champion

NHL Announces Various Things
William L. Daly will join the National Hockey League as senior vice president for legal affairs in January.

Daly, who worked as outside counsel to the league during collective bargaining negotiations with the players, replaces Jeffrey Pash, who is moving to the NFL as executive vice president.

Bettman also announced the promotions of David Zimmerman to vice president and general counsel and Kate Jones to assistant general counsel.

King Zobmo
The Los Angeles Kings signed veteran defenseman Rick Zombo to a one-year contract on December 15 and announced he will report to Phoenix (IHL) for conditioning. The 33-year-old Zombo has not played this season

Police Blotter:

None.


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