Daigle’s Not Icing Rivals Yet : Pro hockey: Rookie Ottawa center with huge contract struggles to hit stride and display domination in NHL.

No one could ever catch Alexandre Daigle during his brilliant junior career, much less overtake him, as they have during his first three months in professional hockey.

This business of being held in check and shouldered aside is new to Daigle, the NHL’s top draft pick last June, and he is still learning how to react.

“Always, always, there was my speed,” said Daigle, who led the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with 45 goals and 137 points in his final season with the Victoriaville Tigres. “There’s some speed in everybody here. But I think I can skate with them. I have good hands, too. The hands are very important.”

In those hands, the Ottawa Senators placed their franchise--and a contract worth $12.25 million over five years. That put Daigle (pronounced DAY-gluh) sixth on the NHL’s pay list before he pulled on a red, white and black Ottawa sweater with the pretentious Roman senator’s head glittering on the front.

By comparison, No. 2 pick Chris Pronger signed with Hartford for $7 million over four years. The top pick in 1992, Roman Hamrlik of Tampa Bay got a three-year, $1.4-million deal. Daigle’s Senator teammate, Alexei Yashin, the 1992 second pick who played with Moscow Dynamo last year, is a bargain at about $4 million over five years.

“It’s the scariest thing to come along,” Boston General Manager Harry Sinden said of Daigle’s contract.

Added Edmonton’s Glen Sather: “That cost the league $20-25 million, and it may cost more.”

Much of the expense, however, will be recouped through a marketing clause. The Senators control Daigle’s off-ice income, except his investments, and he must spend a stipulated number of hours appearing on the club’s behalf. In return, he gets 25% of the first $10 million in off-ice revenue generated by personal appearances, cards and the like, and is guaranteed $4 million. Revenues above $10 million will be split 50-50 by Daigle and the club.

By any accounting method, though, Ottawa has made a huge investment.

“We got Daigle for the same money Pittsburgh paid for Marty McSorley,” said Ray Shero, Ottawa’s assistant general manager. “Who would you rather have?”

In Daigle, who will turn 19 in February, the Senators have a center and an advertisement. A native of Montreal, Daigle is fluent in English and French. At 6 feet tall and 175 pounds, he’s sturdy but not so musclebound that fans can’t identify with him. He’s also photogenic, genial and humble, a rare combination of promoter’s dream, willing pupil and potential star.

“Alexandre is really respectful, and here’s a million-dollar player,” Ottawa assistant coach E.J. McGuire said. “He’s eager to learn things from practice. He’s going to be an exciting player for years to come. It would be easy, with that kind of money, to get disrespectful, and he hasn’t yet.”

His aptitude for learning will be useful because Daigle, after zooming to the early scoring lead among rookies, has been eclipsed by Yashin and by Philadelphia’s Mikael Renberg.

“When you get off to the kind of start Alex did, teams look at that and say, ‘Daigle is scoring a lot of goals, we’d better put somebody on him to check him,’ ” Ottawa General Manager Randy Sexton said. “It was a big adjustment. He had that in juniors, but his skill level was so superior he could fight through it there. He could take two quick strides and be so far ahead of everybody, he could slow down to make a play. He can’t do that in the NHL.”

Nor did Daigle have to play defense in juniors, and he’s still grasping the rudiments of defensive zone strategy. To rein him in would be foolish, and the Senators don’t want to stifle his creativity. Still, they want him to at least learn how to make his team less vulnerable to quick counterattacks.

“He’s going to have some ups and downs, but in the downs, we’re going to play him,” said Senator Coach Rick Bowness, who recently put Daigle with defensive-minded winger Dave Archibald and Czech rookie Pavol Demitra. “He’s an 18-year-old kid and he’s going to make mistakes. He and Yashin are the kids we’re building this team around. As they grow, we grow.”

There is, indisputably, ample room for growth.

“There are a lot of small subtleties, like how to push people off (the puck),” Dallas Coach Bob Gainey said after watching Daigle cost the Senators defensively but also rattle a nasty wrist shot off the crossbar for a goal. “You can see how he hasn’t learned those or how to use those lessons yet. If he produces offensively, nobody’s going to tie him down and tell him he has to be a checker, but there are places he can grow.”

Said General Manager Jack Ferreira of the Mighty Ducks: “He’s one of those players you can see, when he has the puck, he really knows what to do with it. He wasn’t highly visible when he didn’t have the puck. But as soon as he got it, you could see that skill level take over. He knows what to do.”

In his first weeks, Daigle did things Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros and Mario Lemieux never did. He scored a point in each of his first seven games, compared to six games for Gretzky and three for Lemieux. In their first seven games, Gretzky had two goals and 10 points, Lindros had four goals and seven points, Lemieux one goal and six points. Daigle had five goals and 13 points.

“It was tough for other teams to stop me because they don’t know me the first five or six games,” Daigle said.

Daigle’s favorite trick was to dash up the left wing with the puck and create plays, sparking comparisons with Gilbert Perreault in his great years in Buffalo and with current Sabre Pat LaFontaine for his puckhandling ability at high speeds.

“I grew up in Buffalo,” McGuire said, “and I saw Perreault, a French-Canadian kid, in his first year, come to an expansion team, and they had literally nobody who could skate with him, at least not until they added Rene Robert and Richard Martin. One of our problems now is trying to find the right people to play with Alexandre, he’s just so speedy.”

But as quickly as he burst onto the scene, his production stopped when opponents discovered they could neutralize him by hemming him in.

It took Daigle 23 games to score as many points as he had in his first seven, and he failed to score any goals between Nov. 11 and Dec. 1. After Tuesday night’s victory over Quebec, he had 31 points, third among rookies, behind Yashin’s 40 points and Renberg’s 32. He was tied for fourth among rookie goal scorers, with 12.

“They learned about me,” Daigle said. “I have to deal with that.”

The Senators are dealing with it patiently.

“We’re absolutely delighted with his progress and we have absolutely no regrets over drafting him or signing him to that contract,” Sexton said. “The points that Yashin and Daigle have been able to accumulate are remarkable because we don’t score many goals. They’re true contributors.”

Being surpassed by Yashin, a crafty player who protects the puck well, is deflecting attention from Daigle while he continues his on-the-job education.

“I don’t feel any pressure right now, when people say the team is built around me,” Daigle said. “Maybe in five years. It’s fun now because we are growing together as a team. We have two great offensive players here, it’s not just me.

“I don’t feel pressure because of my contract. Everybody asks me that, but I don’t feel pressure. I just have fun. I play to have fun. I don’t say, ‘I have to score every goal because I have a big contract.’ I am not the savior. I just have to play my game and do what I can do.

“What can I do in this league? I don’t have any goals for myself now because I haven’t seen all the arenas or players yet. When I see them, and see what I can do against them, then maybe I will know what I can do.”