Don’t Hold on Waiting for Hold Outs

Like higher ticket prices and third uniforms designed to sucker fans into buying expensive merchandise, the absence of dozens of restricted free agents has become common at the start of every NHL season.

With openers Friday and Saturday, 64 Group 2 players were not under contract and not with their teams Monday. Several have gone to play in Europe, among them King defenseman Aki Berg, Montreal Canadien left wing Martin Rucinsky and New York Islander left wing Ziggy Palffy.

Many are marquee names. The New Jersey Devils are without gifted defenseman Scott Niedermayer, and the Colorado Avalanche hasn’t come to terms with defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, an offensive catalyst. The San Jose Sharks’ prospects are dim without forwards Jeff Friesen and Owen Nolan and defenseman Mike Rathje.

The Washington Capitals will probably begin defense of their Eastern Conference championship without defenseman Sergei Gonchar and left wing Andrei Nikolishin. The Boston Bruins’ defense misses Kyle McLaren, and the Canadiens won’t get far without defenseman Vladimir Malakhov.

Group 2 players have more than three years’ professional experience but are not yet 31, when unrestricted free agency begins. There’s little movement from team to team within this group because compensation to the team losing a player can be as high as five first-round draft picks, depending on the value of the offer sheet the player signs with the team trying to lure him away.

The number of absentees has sparked speculation that owners are conspiring to hold the line on salaries, which have zoomed from an average of $368,000 in the 1991-92 season to $1.167 million last season. The real reason may be less sinister: players and owners are using the weapons available to them in the collective bargaining agreement that was hammered out after a 104-day lockout abbreviated the 1994-95 season.

“It’s tough to say there’s collusion when the Chicago Blackhawks are paying Doug Gilmour $18 million,” Ron Salcer, an agent for 18 years, said of the three-year deal Gilmour signed as an unrestricted free agent. “Salaries have gone up an enormous amount. You can’t say, ‘You guys are colluding.’ But I do think there was some type of edict sent to general managers saying something along the lines of, ‘Hey, there’s a CBA, use it.’

“Group 2 restricted free agents have the right to go to salary arbitration, and if they elect to pass, the only other leverage they have is to withhold their services.

“Everything management has done is well within their right. They’re saying, ‘You didn’t elect to go to salary arbitration, so this is what we’re going to pay you.’ I think you’re going to see a lot more guys file for salary arbitration in the future.”

Only a few players filed this year. (Those who aren’t five-year pros, such as Berg and McLaren, are ineligible). Montreal winger Mark Recchi’s record award of $4.5 million for this season was broken within days when St. Louis Blue center Pierre Turgeon got a one-year salary of $4.65 million.

Salcer, who represents King defenseman Rob Blake, said Blake didn’t file because the market hadn’t been established yet.

“You need comparables,” Salcer said. “Al MacInnis got [a three-year, $15-million deal] under the assumption he was going to become an unrestricted free agent.”

Players use their weapons, owners use theirs and fans are the casualties.

“It doesn’t thrill us because we’d like to have our best players on the ice all the time,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “In the final analysis, teams should not pay more than they can afford. . . . Economic cycles will ultimately determine the outcome.”

TAKE TKACHUK--PLEASE

Nice of Keith Tkachuk to rejoin the Phoenix Coyotes after winning his battle to be paid more for the last two years of a contract no one twisted his arm to accept when it paid him $6 million in 1995-96 and made him the NHL’s second-richest player that season.

Tkachuk--whose team has never gone beyond the first round of the playoffs since he has worn a Winnipeg Jet/Coyote uniform--refused to play for $2.8 million this season and $3 million next season. By refusing to honor his contract for the second consecutive season, he pressured the Coyotes into giving him raises of $1.3 million this season and next, and a salary of $8.3 million in 2001.

An absurd footnote to this escapade is that he promised he wouldn’t hold out again if he feels underpaid in a year or two, and owner Richard Burke said Tkachuk’s word was good enough for him. There’s a laugh. Tkachuk’s word is worth less than a Coyote second-round playoff ticket.

FOX HOLE

The NHL and Fox have continued talks aimed at getting the network out of the final year of its TV contract, but no deal so far.

ABC and its offshoots, ESPN and ESPN2, spent $600 million for five years of TV rights beginning in 1999-2000. Although the logical move would be for them to pick up Fox’s games this season, their schedules are drawn well in advance and can’t easily be juggled to accommodate a major change.

In the meantime, Fox, which has lost tons of money on its five-year, $155-million deal, is wearing a brave face.

“We still have a year remaining and we will fulfill all of our contractual obligations,” Fox spokesman Lou D’Ermilio said. “CBS was in a similar situation with baseball and, as it turned out, with football, in 1993. Everybody here will be professional.”

Fox’s first scheduled telecast is the All-Star game, Jan. 24 at Tampa, Fla.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

Bettman says he’s not gloating over the strife that’s threatening the NBA season while his own league is in a period of labor peace.

“Having been there ourselves, we know work stoppages aren’t good for any sport because it gives fans reason to get disillusioned,” he said. “We don’t wish a work stoppage on anyone.”

SLAP SHOTS

Several NHL owners made the annual Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. King owner Philip Anschutz ranked 16th, with a worth of $6.2 billion. Florida Panther owner Wayne Huizenga was 88th at $1.8 billion, and Carolina’s Peter Karmanos and Detroit’s Mike Ilitch tied for 327th at $600 million each. . . . The Toronto Maple Leafs’ delay in trading Felix Potvin is comical. They bungled a deal with Florida for Rob Niedermayer and reportedly talked to the New York Islanders about their unsigned captain, Trevor Linden. Putting Potvin in limbo helps no one, least of all the Leafs.

The IHL Ice Dogs will play two games at the Forum this season while the Long Beach Arena is booked with other events. A club spokesman said the team doesn’t plan a permanent move, but that could change after the Kings and Lakers leave the Forum for the Staples Center next season. . . . Holdout Pittsburgh Penguin center Petr Nedved, who priced himself out of the NHL by demanding $4 million a season, has an unusual deal with Las Vegas of the IHL. He’s playing for per diem and expenses, hoping an NHL club will soon work out a deal to free him from the Penguins’ clutches. If he isn’t signed or traded by a certain date, however, he will get a salary.

Shame on Tampa Bay’s Andrei Nazarov for sucker-punching Florida’s Niedermayer in the back of the head in an exhibition game Friday, leaving Niedermayer woozy. Niedermayer sat out 49 games last season because of two concussions. Players must respect each other, especially regarding head injuries. . . . Hard-hitting Pittsburgh defenseman Darius Kasparaitis’ knee injury isn’t as bad as first thought and he’s hoping to return by Nov. 1. He wasn’t getting many get-well cards, anyway.

Sheldon Kennedy, whose testimony about years of abuse at the hands of junior coach Graham James put James behind bars, is a week from ending a 136-day roller skate across Canada to raise awareness of child abuse and money for a treatment center for victims. He has raised about $3 million. Kennedy’s hopes of an NHL comeback were put on hold when he was involved in a traffic accident Aug. 29. He later acknowledged having drunk as many as eight beers, and police also found a half-smoked marijuana cigarette in his shaving kit.