THE NHL : Despite Threat of Eastern Front, Soviet Came West

It certainly doesn’t compare to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Or the failure of the hard-liners’ coup last summer.

But freedom won another battle with the Soviet Union Tuesday night with the success of a different sort of right-wing coup.

This one involved Pavel Bure, newest right wing of the Vancouver Canucks. That the 20-year-old player, one of the Soviet Union’s brightest stars, was in a Vancouver uniform during Tuesday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets at the Pacific Coliseum is a coup for the Canuck organization.

It’s a fascinating story, one more likely to be found in an Ian Fleming or Robert Ludlum novel than an NHL media guide.

A few years ago, Soviet hockey officials figured that they had the next great international line in Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov and Bure. First, Mogilny defected and wound up with the Buffalo Sabres. Then, Fedorov jumped ship at the 1990 Goodwill Games and is with the Detroit Red Wings.

Worried that they would also lose the final member of the triumvirate, the Soviets signed Bure to a new contract.

Bure complied but later said he did so under duress. Talk about hard-line negotiating, Bure claims his choices were two:

--Sign up for a new hitch with the Central Red Army team.

--Sign up for a long hitch with the regular Soviet army, in Siberia.

Then there was the matter of just what he signed for. According to Bure, the contract called for 300. But 300 what? Dollars? Rubles? Cases of vodka?

Bure said he didn’t know.

He had another option, though a precarious one. Although they couldn’t be sure they would ever sign him, the Canucks made Bure a sixth-round pick in the 1989 draft, the 113th player selected.

That didn’t go over too well with several other NHL clubs who claimed that they didn’t know Bure was available. They argued there was no proof Bure had played enough games for the Soviet national team to qualify for the NHL draft.

NHL President John Ziegler took the matter under advisement, but it dragged on for 11 months .

Igor Larionov, another Soviet also with Vancouver, returned home in the spring of 1990 and did a little investigating. He came up with the records to prove that Bure had indeed logged enough ice time with the Soviet team to be included in the draft.

So, with just a month remaining before the 1990 draft, Ziegler ruled in favor of the Canucks.

Bure refused to sign a new Soviet contract last summer. Consequently, he was cut from the squad that played in the Canada Cup.

In the next twist, Bure was in Los Angeles, on the doorstep of his American agent, Ron Salcer. Just how he got the money and a visa and managed to fly out of the Soviet Union, he wasn’t saying.

That was September. But his long and winding road to the NHL was still not over. A legal struggle ensued over the validity of his old Soviet contract, which had a year remaining on it.

The matter wound up in a Michigan circuit court. The NHL announced that if the contract was found to be invalid, Vancouver would have 15 days to sign Bure. If not, he’d become an unrestricted free agent.

Finally, at the end of October, Vancouver came to terms with Bure on a four-year, $2.4-million NHL contract. As part of the agreement, an out-of-court settlement was reached in which all parties agreed that the Soviet contract was valid.

But still , there was one sticking point.

With a valid contract in hand, the Soviets wanted compensation. The Canucks offered $200,000.

Nyet , was the Soviet reply. They wanted $250,000.

But in stepped . . . Bure himself. He came up with the remaining $50,000, and the deal was done.

“That’s a first,” Canuck Vice President Brian Burke said. “You’ve got to like that.”

On one matter, there seems to be no debate. Although he is only 5 feet 9 and 170 pounds, Bure has a chance to excel in the NHL.

“Pavel Bure has been so great on so many occasions,” said Pierre Gauthier, director of player personnel for the Quebec Nordiques, “that his size means nothing. He is so gifted, he rises above that.”

Hot and cold: The Toronto Maple Leafs are above .500 at home, where they are 4-3-1. The road is another story: They are winless on opponents’ ice. Days away from home have also been bleak for the San Jose Sharks, 0-11 on the road, 1-15 overall.

The New York Rangers don’t care where they are playing, as much as who they are playing with. When right wing Paul Broten is in the lineup, the Rangers are 9-1. Without him, they are 2-4.