No NHL News Isn’t Always Good News

The doors to the Duluth Room inside the Queen Elizabeth Hotel swung open and the new hockey commissioner emerged from his first NHL Board of Governors meeting.

Bettman Returns, the scene could have been captioned.

Surely, this was going to be a marquee moment.

“It was a very uneventful meeting,” Gary Bettman said.

The 1994 Olympic Dream Teams? No announcement to be made.

Realignment for 1993-94? No announcement to be made.

Anaheim and/or Miami to begin play in 1993-94? No announcement to be made.

“I apologize for not having more news,” Bettman said.

Compared to the Dec. 10 gathering in Palm Beach, Fla., which didn’t produce headlines so much as thunderbolts, this was a Bored of Governors meeting. December: Bettman is hired. February: Bettman is idle. December: Anaheim and Miami are awarded expansion franchises and told to set a start-up date. February: Anaheim and Miami still have expansion franchises, still have no start-up date.

Expansion talk Sunday was “just an update,” according to Bettman, “no different than what you have heard--namely that Disney and Blockbuster are still working on it, they’ve got to get it done by March 1, and they’re still trying to get ready.

“If they can make the deadline and be comfortable that they can operate for next season--(in a) way consistent with their other operations--they’ll be ready to go. Otherwise, they’ll wait a season.”

No news is not always good news. Bettman wants realignment for next season, but he can’t realign anything until Anaheim and Miami are ruled in or out. Bettman wants both teams in, the sooner the better, but for now he and his league have been consigned to the waiting room, counting down the last 22 days until the deadline.

“My gut feeling is that it could go either way,” Bettman said. “. . . I still believe it’s a possibility (for next season). I still think there’s a good chance.”

For the Anaheim ABCDs (Anything But California Ducks), time is wasting. While New York Rangers General Manager Neil Smith stood in one corner of the lobby, cringing at the thought of assembling an entire hockey organization in nine months, Vancouver’s Pat Quinn was standing in another, saying it could be done if Disney “approaches the task with relish.”

Disney ought to.

Getting in now would guarantee Anaheim one of the top five amateur players in the world--and this year’s draft pool is said to be the deepest since the Lemieux draft of ‘84, which also yielded Kirk Muller, Ed Olczyk, Al Iafrate, Petr Svoboda, Gary Roberts and Kevin Hatcher in the first round.

Alexandre Daigle is receiving “The Next Lemieux” treatment, Viktor Kozlov is a 6-5, 220-pound version of Pavel Bure and Rob Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Chris Gratton all bear “franchise player” notations on their individual scouting reports.

“For an expansion team coming in,” Quinn said, “the player pool this year will be better than just about anything we’ve seen historically.”

Anaheim will also have an unprecedented opportunity if it participates in a 1993 expansion draft. At the moment, all existing teams will be able to protect only one goaltender--in past drafts, they each could protect two--thus enabling the ABCDs to debut with, possibly, a Mike Richter or a Kay Whitmore (a Kelly Hrudey?) at their most important position.

“That’s the best advantage they have,” Quinn said. “They’ll be able to draft three No. 2 goalies--and in some cases, some guys play equally. They’re both No. 1s, in that sense.

“Generally, a goalie is the toughest thing for an expansion team to find. . . . But this year, they’ll be able to draft three No. 2s, keep two of them and trade the third to strengthen themselves in another area.”

That’s probably why Smith is so downcast about Expansion Now. His Rangers have Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck in goal, but not for long if Anaheim and/or Miami opt to come poaching.

“I fear they’re going to put a gun to my head,” Smith said.

Building hurdles as best he can, Smith shakes his head and says, “To me, it seems mind-boggling you could pull it off.

“You have March, April, May, half of June--you have 3 1/2 months to pull everything together. Because at the draft, you’ve got to have your (front-office) team in place. Well, maybe you don’t have to have your coach, but you have to have the rest.

“I mean, if they can do it, that’s great. Maybe they can. But I’m just not used to it. The Islanders, Atlanta, Buffalo--all the expansion teams in the past--had more time to prepare.”

Maybe Anaheim has already started. The speculation one hears outside the doors of a Board of Governors meeting: Disney has already hired its key hockey people, has them already working and just hasn’t told anybody.

Who? Disney?

The Most Surreptitious Place On Earth?

At Disney corporate headquarters, where a reporter’s salutation of “Good morning” is answered with “I can neither confirm nor deny that,” news leaks apparently have been made punishable by handcuffing to the “It’s A Small World” ride. Either that or the name of the latest Touchstone Pictures release is “No Comment.”

Yet, Tony Tavares is a name you keep hearing, usually in connection with the job of Anaheim hockey CEO. Jack Ferreira is another. Director of scouting, perhaps?

Neither Tavares nor Ferreira is talking, so you have to feel that the Disney expansion push is well under way.

Can Disney put together an entire hockey organization--scouts, coaches, players and blue suits--and have a team on the ice by October?

Sure it can.

Should Disney then go forward and do so?

If it can, then it most certainly should.

In hockey, he who hesitates is a Hartford Whaler.