With Suhonen and Hlinka, League Quickly Turning Euro

The NHL truly is becoming a world league--far more so than any of the other three major pro team sports--with about one-third of NHL players being European. The Chicago Blackhawks felt the time was right for an international coach.

Alpo Suhonen of Finland may be the NHL’s first European born-and-bred coach, but Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz is convinced others will soon follow, and he isn’t referring only to Ivan Hlinka’s pending hiring by Pittsburgh.

Director of hockey operations Mike Smith also is certain the Blackhawks are ahead of this curve.

“The Hawks’ tradition over time has had a lot of emphasis on the physical aspect of the game,” Smith said. “This is a signal the Blackhawks are going in the direction of contemporary hockey . . . a Euro-North American hybrid game of hockey. It’s speed and skill with the physical aspects that we’ve always considered the NHL, particularly in Canada, to exhibit.”

HLINKA ON HOLD: Penguins general manager Craig Patrick’s decision to delay Hlinka’s hiring might seem curious. Maybe not.

Patrick’s patience allowed the Blackhawks to make Suhonen the first true European coach, which means Hlinka won’t have to carry that burden throughout his career.

Hlinka, who has returned to the Czech Republic, was told the Penguins will formally announce his hiring in the next month, perhaps after the Stanley Cup finals.

Suhonen is the Blackhawks’ and the NHL’s second European-born coach, but the first to grow up in Europe. Johnny Gottselig, who coached the Blackhawks from 1944-48, was born in Odessa, in the former Soviet Union, but moved to North America at an early age.

AVALANCHE OF DEFECTIONS: This may be the Colorado Avalanche’s last go-around with their current cast, as new owner Stan Kroenke faces some tough off-season economic decisions.

The Avs already have the NHL’s fifth-highest payroll and, with some of the NHL’s highest ticket prices is a brand-new arena, they aren’t in position to raise revenues by raising prices.

With Peter Forsberg ($9 million), Patrick Roy ($7.5 million) and defenseman Adam Foote ($3.1 million) already locked into big contracts, the Avalanche will find it difficult to retain Joe Sakic ($7 million), Sandis Ozolinsh ($4 million) and, yes, Ray Bourque ($6 million), who will soon turn 40.

Also, rising stars Chris Drury and Milan Hejduk are about to move into the big-ticket category. And general manager Pierre Lacroix has never been one to hold onto players simply out of loyalty; remember, he dispatched Claude Lemieux and Valeri Kamensky.

HOMECOMING: Phoenix Coyotes captain Keith Tkachuk, the subject of trade rumors all season, may get to live in the new house he and his wife are building in fashionable Scottsdale.

Wayne Gretzky, who may join Lemieux and Michael Jordan in the fast-growing ranks of players-turned-owners, hopes to retain both Tkachuk and the high-priced Jeremy Roenick if he joins purchaser Steve Ellman’s ownership group.

Gretzky also told the Arizona Republic he wants to end the contract impasse that led goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin to sit out the season.

Once Tkachuk heard Gretzky was negotiating to become a part-owner of the Coyotes, he allowed his wife to buy furniture. The Tkachuks had assumed they would have to sell the house before they got to live in it.

COUPLE OF THE WEEK: Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Fedorov, spurned previously by tennis star and former girlfriend Anna Kournikova for Pavel Bure, has been seen again with Kournikova. Fedorov is expected to accompany Kournikova to a tournament in New Jersey in July.

COUPLE OF THE WEEK, PART II: Dallas Stars center Guy Carbonneau’s 18-year-old daughter, Anne-Marie, is dating 21-year-old Stars rookie forward Brenden Morrow. Carbonneau, who is 40, acknowledged it is unusual to see a teammate come to his house to pick up his daughter, but said, “He’s a good kid.”

At least Carbonneau doesn’t have to loan his daughter’s suitor money for a movie and popcorn.

NEWS AND NOTES: Kevin Lowe is the Edmonton Oilers ownership’s choice to replace Glen Sather as GM, and Lowe is weighing the move. But if Sather becomes the Rangers’ GM, will he want Lowe as his coach there? . . . For those who think the NHL season is long: The Stanley Cup finals haven’t even started, and the Los Angeles Kings have already announced their preseason schedule. . . . Hockey fans in the Midwest and East accustomed to hearing the St. Louis Blues on KMOX radio will have to switch next season to KTRS, 550 on the AM dial. The Blues have been on KMOX for all but two of their 33 seasons, but wanted a station that wouldn’t bump them for other programming, as KMOX did when it carried Cardinals games. . . . Add the Florida Panthers to those teams cutting ticket prices, with some seats dropping from $35 to $23 and others from $38 to $25. The Panthers averaged 15,999 with only one sellout, even with NHL goal-scoring leader Pavel Bure in the lineup all season, compared with 18,501 with 13 sellouts last season. . . . The Tampa Bay Lightning seem unlikely to sign Brad Richards, the leading scorer in Canadian junior hockey, by the June 1 deadline. If he doesn’t sign, Richards will go back into the 2000 draft pool. The two sides remained at an impasse even after Lightning GM Rick Dudley traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to watch Richards play. . . . Despite the five-overtime Flyers-Penguins game, this has not been the year of the overtime. Through May 24, there had been only six overtime playoff games, compared with 19 through the conference finals last season and an average of 17.8 over the previous four. . . . Detroit Red Wings assistant GM Jimmy Nill is seen as the front-runner to become the Calgary Flames’ GM.