PRO HOCKEY : Intangibles Make Detroit Deal for Kings’ Coffey a Good Trade

There’s more to most trades than meets the eye.

Everyone knows All-Star defenseman Paul Coffey will inject a lot of talent behind Detroit’s blue line. That’s a given. He is, after all, the highest-scoring defenseman in NHL history. But it’s the little things--the experience of four Stanley Cup championships and his leadership--that make this deal a perfect fit for the Red Wings.

After all, defenseman Brad McCrimmon is the only other player on the Red Wings who wears a Stanley Cup ring, and Mark Howe and Dino Ciccarelli are the only others to make it to the finals.

The intangibles are what make the acquisition of Coffey--along with right wing Jim Hiller and minor league center Sylvain Couturier from the Los Angeles Kings for center Jimmy Carson and minor league forwards Marc Potvin and Gary Shuchuk--a short-term winner for the Red Wings.

“It’s not every day you can acquire an exciting offensive defenseman,” Red Wings Coach Bryan Murray says. “But the important thing Paul Coffey brings to our team is the experience of being with four Stanley Cup champions. You can’t buy that.”

The Kings have started to purge their roster of veterans and acquired a couple of real spark plugs in Potvin and Shuchuk, who helped Coach Barry Melrose win the American Hockey League title at Adirondack last season. But that will not greatly improve the Kings--4-13-3 in their last 20 games--this season. Los Angeles might have added scoring up front, but they will need to find another defenseman to run their transition game if they expect to be a threat in the playoffs this season.

That’s one thing Coffey did for the Kings when he was acquired from Pittsburgh last March. Now, he will help spark Detroit’s transition to a level that makes the Red Wings scary offensively and a definite Stanley Cup contender.

“The Red Wings might win some games, 9-8, but Coffey has added a dimension to Detroit’s offense that will force opponents to stop them,” says Canucks Coach Pat Quinn, who witnessed Coffey’s two assists in his Red Wings debut last Saturday.

Experience, leadership and character are some of the little things it takes to improve a team. That’s what will be heard often before the NHL’s trade deadline March 20 because there are so many teams that have an opportunity to challenge for the Stanley Cup.

Intangibles. That’s what the Calgary Flames were looking for when they traded right wing Gary Leeman to Montreal for center Brian Skrudland. The Flames were 10-1-2 in December but had gone 0-9-2 in their first 11 games in January before acquiring Skrudland.

“I looked right into their eyes when they came off the ice,” Calgary Coach Dave King says. “They were looking for canoes and lifeboats.”

Skrudland helped the Canadiens win one Stanley Cup title and is one of the best defensive forwards and faceoff men in the NHL. Leeman has been a disappointment since he scored 51 goals for Toronto in the 1989-90 season--netting only 28 goals in the last two-plus seasons. So why would Montreal want Leeman? Because Jacques Demers is one of those pat-on-the-back believers in reconstructing careers.

This deal will help both clubs because of the Demers factor.

The St. Louis Blues, 10-4-2 since December 31, are nonetheless in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1978-79. They acquired defenseman Doug Crossman, left wing Basil McRae and a fourth-round draft choice in 1996 from Tampa Bay for minor league left wing Jason Ruff and two draft choices the Blues previously had acquired from the Lightning.

Crossman will help the Blues’ woeful transition game and will be a good point man on the power play, but the key in this deal is McRae’s character.

“Most people look at Basil McRae as a big, tough guy and that’s all; they don’t get beyond his penalty minutes,” New Jersey Coach Herb Brooks says. “But Basil was the one guy who came to play hard home and away when I coached the North Stars. He will do anything it takes to win.”

McRae will be at his best against Norris Division rivals. He was one of the key contributors in Minnesota’s first-round elimination of the Blues in 1991, when the North Stars went from fourth place in the division to the Stanley Cup finals.

But only four of the Blues’ 14 games in a tough February schedule are in the division. It isn’t until April, when each of St. Louis’ seven games are against the Norris, that the Blues have a heavy dose of divisional games.

Since the Blues lost Scott Stevens to New Jersey in an arbitration hearing following their signing of Brendan Shanahan in July 1991, there has been no real leader in the their locker room.

“There were nights when I put my ear up against the locker room door and nothing was being said,” former Coach Bob Plager says. “The best teams the Blues have had over the years had a Mike Liut to knock over a water cooler once in a while or a Brian Sutter to break a stick in anger in front of everyone or a Scott Stevens to challenge another player to do better.

“I knew I was in trouble earlier this season when I didn’t hear a peep out of our locker room.”

You can’t buy those intangibles.

ICY BITS: There is little doubt Bettman brings some innovative ideas with him from the NBA to improve the game--two 25-minute halves, eliminating the red line, three divisions. But St. Louis General manager Ron Caron makes the best proposal, one that would help teams cut their payroll and make the game more exciting as well. “If I had one change I would make it would be to reduce the roster from 18 players and two goaltenders to 16 and 2 and play 4 on 4, three forwards and a rover,” Caron says. “The 210- x 80-foot rink is too congested now. A 4-on-4 format would open up the game and allow the small player with talent and drive to become a star.”

The Red Wings are still looking for a tough defenseman and continue to talk to Edmonton about Dave Manson or Luke Richardson. But Detroit refuses to part with Keith Primeau or Dallas Drake, so rumors of a deal for Manson seem unlikely. . . . With the Oilers threatening to miss the playoffs for the first time, even more players could be dealt. The word is that Chicago has twice agreed to send defenseman Igor Kravchuk to Edmonton for right wing Joe Murphy, only to have the Oilers balk at the deal over the amount of cash they would receive to complete the deal. . . . Grant Fuhr must have heard those whispers of him being traded to Buffalo because his new goalie’s mask doesn’t have a Maple Leaf on it. The way rookie goaltender Felix Potvin is playing, Toronto could gamble on improving the overall quality of the club by getting a Dave Andreychuk for Fuhr. The Maple Leafs made the trade Tuesday. If they hadn’t the Maple Leafs would have risked losing one of the goalies in the expansion draft in June. . . . Because Winnipeg General manager Mike Smith and Buffalo G.M. Gerry Meehan are tied up through this season, Mike Keenan could be the choice to become hockey consultant to Commissioner Bettman.

Quebec prospect Peter Forsberg will become a free agent if he is not signed before June, but the Nordiques will match any offer for him and will not trade him to Ottawa for the rights to Alexandre Daigle, the odds-on top pick in this year’s Entry Draft, as has been speculated. . . . The rumors that have Boston defenseman Ray Bourque going to Vancouver make no sense, because Bourque is about all the Bruins have to make their transition game work properly. . . . Much has been made of Ottawa going for Washington’s NHL record of futility (8-67-5) in 1974-75, but San Jose is going for the worst record by a second-year team, set by the Winnipeg Jets (9-57-14) in 1980-81. . . . Blues star Brett Hull isn’t enamored with the changes the NHL has made this season. “There are too many guys trying to make fancy plays now,” he says. “The essence of the game is working hard, going to the net and trying to beat your opponent 1 on 1. This is not the Ice Capades.”