League Voids Carolina’s Offer Sheet to Fedorov

Sergei Fedorov went from being a rich hockey player back to being a free agent Monday when the NHL rejected the Carolina Hurricanes’ $38 million, six-year offer sheet to him “because we did not believe it was in compliance with Collective Bargaining Agreement,” NHL spokesman Gary Meagher said.

Ken Holland, the general manager of the team Fedorov is trying to leave, the Detroit Red Wings, declined comment.

The Red Wings had until Wednesday to match the contract, work out a trade or decline to match it and accept five first-round draft picks.

The Hurricanes said arbitrator John Sands would review the offer sheet in a conference call Wednesday.

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Washington Capital Coach Ron Wilson criticized some players he coached on the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team in Nagano for causing $3,000 in damage to living quarters in the Olympic Village. He said he was embarrassed and called for the players involved in the incident--who have yet to be identified--to come forward.

Some rooms in the athletes’ village were trashed in the early morning hours last Thursday after the U.S. team was eliminated from the Olympic tournament with a quarterfinal loss to the Czech Republic.

“It is inexcusable what they did,” Wilson said. “It shows no class at all.”

Wilson said he did not fault the U.S. players for their effort, even though the team won only one of four games at Nagano.

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On a more positive note, more than 100,000 people from across the Czech Republic packed Prague’s Old Town Square to welcome home the Czech hockey team that won its first Olympic ice hockey gold medal.