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 30,994x-appears on Western Conference ballot with St. Louis.
Obtained by Montreal via trade, 10/29/96y-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 28,828x-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 championNHL 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 seasonPolice Blotter:
None.
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