MIGHTY DUCKS NOTEBOOK / ROBYN NORWOOD : Corkum, Dollas Seek More Money

Bob Corkum and Bobby Dollas were the Mighty Ducks’ 2-for-1 bargain last season: Two key players whose two salaries combined were less than the $523,000 NHL average.

Corkum, who scored 51 points and was the team’s best two-way player, made $260,000--a mere $5,100 for every goal or assist. Dollas, the team’s defensive backbone, had a plus-minus of 20--unheard of on an expansion team--and made $250,000.

The Ducks knew they’d gotten a good deal and offered to renegotiate at the end of the season--offering more dollars in exchange for longer contracts.

But the dollars offered are nowhere near what Corkum and Dollas want, and now the young franchise has its first real salary grumblings. And though it’s not necessarily personal, don’t think it has nothing to do with the $2.166 million Paul Kariya will average or the $1.4 million Oleg Tverdovsky will average per season.

“When I heard the first offer, I told my agent he shouldn’t have called me,” Dollas said. “He upset me for nothing.”

Dollas, 29, says he was offered about $375,000 for this season. General Manager Jack Ferreira says the most recent offer was $400,000. In any case, it’s nowhere near the NHL average Dollas thinks he is due. He expects to play this season under his old contract, then play hardball before he enters his option year next season.

“Wait another year and then it’s payday,” he said. “The price gets higher every day.”

The key, of course, is that those players need to duplicate their success--or else they’re throwing away money by not taking the offers.

Corkum, 26, who was offered a deal that would pay him in the neighborhood of $400,000 a year, is less disgruntled but still thinks he deserves a better offer.

“I guess (Ferreira’s) ground is I’m a 20-goal scorer, but I’ve only done it once,” he said. “I think if I have another good year, then I’ll be a two-time 20-goal scorer, and I should make $600,000 to $700,000.”

Ferreira wants it understood that he was under no obligation to renegotiate: Both players are under contract for two more seasons.

“I made an offer and right now they’d like something different,” he said. “We really haven’t discussed it further.”

Meanwhile, with labor tensions already high, players are less shy to say what they think they deserve.

“They’ve got me paired with Oleg, wanting me to break him in, when he’s making five or six times what I’m making,” Dollas said. “He’s probably going to make mistakes that I’ll have to cover up for, and every two weeks he’ll be looking at his pay check and looking down at me.”

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One player who isn’t disappointed in his contract is defenseman Don McSween. This time last year he expected to make $75,000 playing for San Diego in the International Hockey League and figured he might have had his last chance at making the NHL.

Now he has signed a three-year contract that will pay him $300,000 this year if he appears in at least 30 NHL games.

“I’m just happy to be playing,” said McSween, 30, who turned what he expected to be a short-term injury call-up into a regular spot on the roster last season. “Getting paid to play hockey is a pretty good life.”

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Darren Van Impe, a minor league defenseman recently acquired from the New York Islanders, is neither the son nor nephew of Ed Van Impe, who played on two Stanley Cup teams with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1970s. “Dad’s cousin,” Van Impe said. “People ask all the time.”