News from May 1998

Quinn rumor mill

I didn't get fired because of the type of team I built. I was too slow at addressing some problems. I needed to make a big trade, which is what I was eventually going to do. I decided I was going to trade (Pavel) Bure.
That's probably why I got fired."

Now, there's a good rumor for you. Straight from the horse's mouth.

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Pavel to become an uncle

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Pavel in the top 5 voting !

Please continue voting as many times as you can daily, so that we can see more pictures of Pavel from their files.

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Limited Edition Coin Collection

We've just found this web site, dedicated to coins minted to commemorate 25 NHL greats from last season,
including Pavel Bure.

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Bure needs to know the score

I suppose as a colleague in The Province, I should be able to turn around and see you a few desks away. But such is the life of freelancers and e-mail that this note to columnist Bob Stall goes the long way round. Yes, an open letter.

Dear Bob: Sunday you wrote about "big-time sportswriters who inflated a dumb little story into an inaccurate golden rule: If a guy is unhappy, get rid of him," and proceeded in your fourth open letter to John McCaw.

Now I'm probably 0-for-2 in the "big-time" and arguably "sportswriter" categories. Beyond that I'll try and clarify some other issues. Not the least of these is your job and mine. They differ from Pavel Bure's far more than on pay day. If we choose to dog it (and either or both the editor and readers notice) we might soon be reading a pink slip.

At worst, the Rocket might endure a chorus of boos. But he ain't goin' anywhere, and certainly his trips to the bank on the 15th and 30th won't be interrupted.

However, whatever else anyone thinks of him, no one could ever accuse him of doffing it. In fact, in his entire pro career, the two years he labored with injuries are the only two even remotely sub-par by his standards. Certainly this past season, his first healthy one in three, he did everything asked of him, perhaps more.

Which brings us to a few nuts and bolts. His agent Mike Gillis, reminds us: "There's been no statement from Pavel or John McCaw about him wanting to leave. To the best of my knowledge Serge Levin is the only one who's been quoted."

That would be Serge Levin, former Soviet hockey exec and associate of Bure's former agent Ron Selcer. He, along with the rest of the world, wasn't in the infamous one-on-one meeting between Bure and Pat Quinn either.

"I find this entire thing extraordinary" says Gillis. "Public opinion is meaningful in some respects, but wasn't there a lot behind (the leaving of) Trevor (Linden) as well ?"

Gillis's point centres around the privacy issue for both his client and the owner. "Yes," he says, "I've talked to McCaw since the season's end. But there is no easy answer to this. There is a lot of complicated stuff to deal with in the decision-making process."

Contractually, this is an option year for Bure. The Canucks are obligated only to issue him a qualifying offer by July 1, which they haven't done yet done. In his situation, it must be 100 per cent of the past year's salary if Bure was making more than the minimum. Certainly $5.5 million US surpasses that.

But this will never be about money. The clause about the average of the top three salaries won't be clarified until the Oct. 15 deadline in the contract. Who knows what the average will be by then. But again, I suggest money won't be the issue. In fact, I suggest McCaw might of his own Volition make the kid the highest-paid player in the league.It's hardly a reach to justify it.

Even that might not matter if what's around him doesn't make winning possible, and hopefully fun. Sure it's the player's job to play, and Bure did that in spades this past year. Get tapped on the shoulder and go.

But this is a team in transition and the best player on it wants to know about the future and direction. No, it's not his job to orchestrate it, but collective bargaining agreements in the 90's tend to give players a little bigger hammer than a generation ago.

The Rocket has fulfilled his obligations, continues to do so, and has kept his mouth shut. Has he ever.

As I sift through all the conversations I've ever had with Bure, Gillis and others, here is my conclusion, and Gillis didn't refuse it. He wants out or he wants to stay. For as much a case as you could make for either side of the equation, in neither case has a decision been made. Meetings are pending and inevitable between Bure and McCaw. But until they happen, open letters not withstanding, the final decision has not been made by either side. My bet, however, is he'll be back.

John McKeachie hosts Canucks hockey on CKNW and Hockeytalk on CBC.

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Boris Yeltsin presents order to Pavel

    

Russian President Boris Yeltsin presented orders and honorary diplomas to a group of Russian public figures, scientific and cultural workers, sportsmen and servicemen, in the Kremlin, on Tuesday. Picture shows President Boris Yeltsin (left) congratulating captain of the Russian Ice-hockey National team Pavel Bure with the Order of Honour.

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Why Bure Hopes Fedorov's Wings Will Soar In Round 2

Millions in balance for Russian Rocket

By Tony Gallagher, Vancouver Province

But if Pavel Bure tries selling you this line, feel free to chuckle. He'll be especially glued to the Detroit-St.Louis battle as its outcome will determine his salary for next season and effectively for the next four seasons and perhaps beyond.

If Sergei Fedorov and the Detroit Red Wings beat St.Louis, Bure's contract will jump from around $8 million US next year to $10.3 million given he will be paid the average of top three forwards in the NHL.

The $12 million US bonus paid to Fedorov if he reaches the conference final will take the Wings centre's salary to $14 million next year, which when combined with the $8.5 million both Paul Kariya and Eric Lindros will make averages out to $10.33 million. With that kind of dough at stake, the Russian may well rocket to his TV.

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Bob Stall: Pavel owes us 82 games in Canucks colors

A postscript to all those open letters to John McCaw, owner Vancouver Canucks, from Bob Stall, Province columnist
Re. Pavel Bure

Just one more thing.

In my multi-part letters on behalf of 2,000 correspondents and 1 million emotional Pavel Bure fans these past weeks, one cold hard fact in my first missive to you has been forgotten:

Bure owes the Canucks another year and you must hold him to it.

Never mind for a moment all those touchy-feely tributes from five-year-old boys and 100-year-old women and everybody in between, to whom Bure is the world's most exciting athlete and the reason for supporting your business. All those frantic fans purged, merged and surged in on a wave of feelings expressed in letters, phone calls, faxes and e-mails, many of which I passed on to you last week.

It was a stunning show of emotion from ordinary fans, but almost every one of them ignored the single hard fact that Bure has a year remaining on his contract and is obliged to play next season in a Canuck uniform.

I think the letter writers and petition signers fell into the same trap as all those big-time sportwriters who have inflated a dumb little theory into an inaccurate golden rule: If a guy is unhappy, get rid of him. If he asks for a trade, he must be traded. If he doesn't want to be here, he shouldn't be here.

Wrong.

Most of us don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. I'd rather be doing other things today. Tough.

We work at our jobs because we've agreed to and we are paid to.

John, you have Bure under contract for one more year. Hold him to it.

If he wants to be traded, tell him a contract is a contract and he stays here for 1998-99. Give him $8-10 million for the inconvenience. After next year, it's your job to make him want to stay.

But right now he contractually owes you and us at least 82 more games as a member of the Canucks, all of them on television, 41 of them at home.

The Pavel rabble is eagerly anticipating many great evenings next season watching your team, but only if Bure is a member of it.

I am seriously warning that you'd better not trade him, John.

This is hockey. We are not playing games here.

Yours, Bob

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