It’s Unwise to Be a Sitting Duck

It should be Paul Kariya on the ice against Eric Lindros at the Pond tonight.

It should be Paul Kariya and Eric Lindros coming up in the context of that most basic and yet best of sports debates--”Who’s better?”--and these are two of the best.

But Kariya won’t be at the Pond. He won’t even be in the country. And now his only link to Lindros comes in a long-distance salary dance that isn’t entertaining at all.

Some people think Kariya, with a reported $7-million-a-year offer on the table from the Mighty Ducks, is waiting for Lindros to set the market by signing an extension with the Philadelphia Flyers. Some think Lindros is waiting for Kariya to sign before he completes his new deal.

Some people think they’re in cahoots.

“The owners are going to turn around and say that the players are being told by the players’ association to go for the jugular and do this and do that,” Lindros said after the Flyers practiced at the Pond on Tuesday. “In the meantime, we can all have an argument that [NHL Commissioner Gary] Bettman’s on the phone with all the owners, saying, ‘Keep the salaries down.’ It works both ways.”

When asked if he’s the first domino that will get Kariya, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Mogilny and the rest of the unsigned NHL stars into uniform, Lindros said, “I don’t feel that way. I don’t look at it that way. I look at every day as, ‘Well, I’ve got a game tomorrow. And I have a game the next couple of days. I just look at it that way and let the business be handled by business people and just keep playing hockey.

“Sooner or later, something will get done. It always does get done. Something always ends up getting done. [Despite] how personal it gets and how disruptive it gets.”

Lindros can afford not to worry because he has games to think about. That’s the difference. Kariya is sitting in Vancouver doing nothing, so he should be spending every day locked in a room with his agent, Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira and President Tony Tavares until they get a deal worked out.

An NHL source told The Times over the weekend that Kariya is angry over what was said to be a take-it-or-leave-it approach by the Ducks and is willing to sit out the season.

Here’s the thing about ultimatums in sports: They mean absolutely nothing. You might recall the Minnesota Timberwolves holding a news conference, saying Kevin Garnett had rejected their final offer of more than $100 million, and Garnett’s agent saying he wouldn’t re-sign with the Timberwolves because they had gone public with the negotiations. That $128-million contract Garnett signed proved them both wrong.

And here’s the thing about a season-long holdout: Kariya can’t do it. Not if he cares about his team and his place in history.

Kariya, who turns 23 Thursday, is off to a great start, and he has a chance to put his name next to those of the game’s elite before he is finished. He keeps himself in top shape and, because his game is so cerebral, there’s no reason to think he won’t get even better as he acquires more experience.

A dozen more years with the types of numbers he posted the last two seasons and he can reach the rare levels of 1,400 points and 700 goals.

His greatest obstacle is time. Kariya lost almost half a season to the lockout in 1994-95. How could he willingly deprive himself of an entire season, in his prime at that?

Some people say Kariya is holding out to raise the salary standard for everyone in the league. Fine. But what about raising a Stanley Cup banner in the Pond? Or, at the very least, helping the people he works with, travels with and sweats with make some extra cash in playoff bonuses? Winning games should be his primary concern right now.

Win and the money will come. Play well and the money will come, eventually. Michael Jordan played for 11 years and won four championships before he earned the distinction of being the NBA’s highest-paid player. And he never missed a regular-season game because of a contract dispute.

The only elite player in recent years who held out for more money is Emmitt Smith. In 1993, Smith wanted to become the highest-paid running back in the NFL. He missed Dallas’ first two games--both losses--before owner Jerry Jones granted his wish. When Smith returned, the Cowboys won 12 of their last 14 games and the Super Bowl, and Smith was the league’s most valuable player.

If Kariya is going to miss games, he’d better be ready to come back in that same way.

When it comes to sitting out seasons, Lindros is an expert. When the Quebec Nordiques made him the top pick in the 1991 draft, Lindros swore he would never play for them. He sat out a year, playing in the Ontario Hockey League and for the 1992 Canadian Olympic team before he got his wish and the Nordiques, now the Colorado Avalanche, sent him to Philadelphia for six players, two draft picks and cash.

Ominously, Lindros hinted the coming Olympics might help Kariya sit out too.

“There’s nothing Paul wants to do more than play hockey,” Lindros said. “It’s not fun [sitting out], and at times stressful, but you make up your mind and if you’re going to do it, you do it.

“If there is a glimmer of hope, just because you don’t have a contract doesn’t mean you can’t train for the Olympics and get ready for the Olympics and help your country win. That might be a bright spot in the gray days in October, November, when things aren’t working out so well. But things always have a strange way of working out. But Paul’s doing what Paul thinks is best. Who are we to sit here and say he’s wrong?”

We don’t know the details of the negotiations--what few there have been--so we don’t know exactly who’s right and who’s wrong. All we know is that hockey players should be playing hockey, and one of the best isn’t.

“You do love to play, you do love to be part of it and you like being on the ice with your teammates,” Lindros said. “You wouldn’t be playing hockey unless you loved it.”

If this were just about love, Kariya would be skating in Anaheim tonight. Even if he took Disney’s first offer, Kariya could play and be a rich man.

So does the business side outweigh the love?

“Business can make it frustrating sometimes--let’s put it that way,” Lindros said. “And I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

Duck fans want to talk about it. Lindros will hear it tonight when they chant, “We want Paul!”

“He’s a great player,” Lindros said.

That never was in dispute. Just how great he will become and his lasting impact on the sport remain in question. And Kariya is the only one with the answer.