Changing Face of the NHL

When the 1990s began, the Edmonton Oilers were in the last days of their dynasty, Wayne Gretzky was drawing celebrities and sellout crowds to the Forum and Florida was a place to vacation, not to watch an NHL game.

Teams imitated the run-and-gun Oilers, who won their fifth Stanley Cup in seven years in 1990. Mario Lemieux led the explosive Pittsburgh Penguins to Cup triumphs in 1991 and 1992 and positioned himself and his team to reign for years. NHL teams combined to score 7.3 goals a game in 1990 and stayed above seven early in the decade.

As the NHL prepares for the final All-Star game of the 1990s, Sunday in the Ice Palace, it’s clear much has changed since the ‘90s began.

The Oilers broke up their all-star cast, plunging them into a long slide. Gretzky asked the Kings to trade him and left behind a team that endured economic and competitive struggles. Expansion put Florida and other Sunbelt states on the NHL map and swelled the league’s membership by six to 27 for this season. Lemieux, exhausted by back problems and a bout with cancer, retired in 1997 with no more Cup titles.

Scoring fell to a 40-year low in 1997-98 because of widespread obstruction and the neutral-zone trap, which allows weak teams to drag skillful opponents down to their level. Jaromir Jagr won the 1997-98 scoring title with 102 points, well off Gretzky’s winning totals of 142 points in 1989-90 and 163 in 1990-91, and Lemieux’s 131 points in 1991-92.

Despite expansion, the NHL ends the 1990s with fewer franchises in its homeland. The Quebec Nordiques’ move to Denver in 1995 and the Winnipeg Jets’ flight to Phoenix in 1996 left six teams in Canada, and three of them--the Oilers, Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators--get subsidies from the NHL. In moves that echoed the U.S. population shift, two teams were added in Florida, two in California and one in Nashville, and the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas.

While the 1990s will be remembered for those dramatic changes, they may be best known as the era the NHL ended its insular thinking and took a global view in its search for talent, revenue and exposure.

“Look at the format we use in the All-Star game,” Mighty Duck General Manager Pierre Gauthier said, referring to the NHL’s decision for the second consecutive season to pit North American players against foes from the rest of the world. “One of the most significant things that happened in the league in the last 10 years is European players. Where would we be without them?

“That’s not to say there are no good players in North America. It’s unique, that our sport is played by so many countries at a high level. The best players in the world play in the NHL. That’s the strength of our league and that’s come to the front in the last decade. And it’s only going to grow. The last four drafts, at least 30% of the players were Europeans, including some of the top players.”

A record 23.9% of the players on rosters in early October were born outside North America. The names of nine European-born players were engraved on the Stanley Cup as Red Wings in 1998, one more than in Detroit’s 1997 triumph. Europeans regularly win major awards and serve as team captains or alternate captains. To emphasize that international flavor, the NHL last winter halted play to permit players to represent their homelands at the Nagano Olympics.

Darcy Regier, general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, believes Europe will continue to export gifted players because small countries have not been tapped as extensively as longtime powers Sweden and Finland. He believes the continued trans-Atlantic flow will make for a faster, better game.

“That’s where the skill level is: Slovakians, Czechs, Russians,” said Regier, whose team has six European players-- among them two-time league most valuable player Dominik Hasek. “I think we’ll see more players from those countries because their culture doesn’t have as many economic alternatives as our society and, say, Swedish society. The economic opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t be afforded them is something they can find through hockey.”

Said Glen Sather, general manager of the Oilers: “If the world junior tournament in Winnipeg is any example, we will see more European players in the NHL in the coming years. The Russian team was outstanding and there were five, six Canadian players who could play in the NHL. It looks positive.”

The torch relinquished when Lemieux retired and Gretzky was slowed by age has been picked up by European players, not just Canadians and Americans.

“The best thing about the ‘90s is some of the young players who emerged in the past few years, the Paul Kariyas, Teemu Selannes, Peter Forsbergs,” King General Manager Dave Taylor said. “If you look at the success the NBA has had, we as a league have to market ourselves better. These young players have to lead the NHL into the next millennium, and there are some great young players in this league. It’s hard to project, looking at kids, who’s going to make it, but we’ve got some great talents and we continue to develop them, whether they’re from Red Deer or Red Army or Litvinov.

“What it comes down to is you have to have a good product and put good teams on the ice.”

The quality of the game was hotly disputed after defense took over in the mid-’90s. The NHL was, in a sense, a victim of its own success--or greed--in expanding and dispersing talent too rapidly for its resources. Three more teams will begin play in the next two seasons, but Commissioner Gary Bettman said no further expansion is planned.

“The talent pool took a while to catch up,” Taylor said. “Hockey will continue to emphasize defense because it’s the quickest way for new teams to be competitive.”

Rule changes were instituted before this season to smooth the flow of games and increase scoring. Goals have been more plentiful since the season began, although scoring hasn’t reached last season’s level of 5.28 goals a game.

Bettman, who became the NHL’s first commissioner in 1993, views the parity brought about by defensive play as a favorable development.

“The balance you see now is the balance you’ll continue to see,” he said. “Defense and offense go in cycles. This year we ended the decline and there’s an upward trend. We’ve seen the emergence of spectacular goaltending like this league has never seen before. I think the game is strong. . . .

“From a franchise standpoint, we still have a couple of issues we’re working on, but from a franchise standpoint and an ownership standpoint we’ve never been stronger and our league has never been more stable. From a labor standpoint, no sport has had as much peace [since the 1994-95 lockout]. And hockey has never been as widely viewed or as accessible both to go to or watch at home on the grass roots, minor league and major league levels.”

A key issue facing the NHL is the precarious financial situation of Canadian and small-market American clubs. The Penguins filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October and half a dozen clubs project losses of at least $12 million. Most clubs have moved to new arenas with luxury boxes and so must find other sources of income, perhaps including pay-per-view TV. Over-the-air TV revenues won’t rise again for a while because the NHL’s five-year, $600-million TV deal with ABC/ESPN begins next season.

“There will be more disparity from top to bottom unless we correct the current plight of the league and we bring everyone involved in the game into line,” Regier said. “There will be haves and have-nots to a greater degree. It won’t happen in the next five years, but there has to be a greater partnership between owners and players. I know that’s an idealistic statement, but it has to happen if people genuinely care about the game.”

The economic squeeze puts a vise on Canadian teams because of the weakness of the Canadian dollar. “The current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t expire until 2004 and the way salaries are escalating, it’s difficult to compete. I see possibly some relocations,” Taylor said. “Hopefully, we can keep those franchises there because the type of background I have, I’m from a small Canadian town, those franchises are important.”

Money also will prevent teams from dominating as the New York Islanders did in the early 1980s and the Oilers after them. “The dynasties are gone,” Regier said. “I would hope we will see them again, but not in a New York Yankees fashion, where economics dictate who’s successful and who’s not. On a lesser scale, it’s already beginning. Teams are beginning to understand we have to do things on an individual basis for each region or team. We have to figure out ways to compete in our markets.”

Said Taylor: “The Edmonton Oilers of the mid-’80s had arguably the five best players in the league. Today, that would be difficult to do because they’d be making eight, nine, 10 million dollars apiece. You see more player movement than what you’d see in the past, because of salaries. The Ray Bourques, who stay with one team for 20 years, are a thing of the past.”

Changes in the next decade are likely to be less dramatic than in the ‘90s. Regier sees an end to fighting, although Bettman said such a move “is not on anyone’s radar screen.” Regier also predicted more players will wear full face shields, and he said hockey must grow on the youth level to increase its diversity and expand its talent pool in North America.

“We have a game that’s costly to play and we have to move it away from being a sport of affluence,” he said. “There are sports you can compete in without a lot of equipment, like soccer and basketball.”

Gauthier said the NHL’s expansion into nontraditional hockey areas will lure youngsters to play the game and keep them involved for life.

“One of the things that is happening, and this will probably have an effect on the NHL in the next 10 years, is how many kids put on skates in the South. If not ice, then roller,” Gauthier said. “Any kid can play, and those kids grow up fans and stay fans.”

While still striving to match the success of the NFL, NBA and major league baseball, the NHL faces the future with optimism.

“I don’t see the game diminishing, especially with new interest being developed in southern markets in the U.S. in Nashville, Carolina, Atlanta,” Sather said. “I think the game is still going to thrive and get better.”

* WHAT: All-Star Game

* WHEN: 1 p.m. Sunday

* TV: Channel 11