Kings Can Avoid a Circus With Blake

There’s a game going on in North American jock journalism to see which rumored trade scenario will come closest to what eventually happens in the Rob Blake Traveling Song and Dance Festival.

And if he isn’t traded in the next two weeks--the betting here is that he won’t be--the Kings’ game at Toronto on Jan. 17 is going to be a zoo rivaling anything you’ve seen in Griffith Park.

“Wait until you see what happens in Toronto,” says Blake, who knows what is coming.

Here’s where we are in the Blake business, according to various opinions and precious little news:

In Toronto, the logic is that Blake would like to come home because, after all, who wouldn’t want to be a Maple Leaf?

The typers and writers figure the Kings will be desperate to get something for Blake because they can’t sign him, so desperate that even 20-year-old center Nik Antropov looks pretty good. That’s the same Nik Antropov who has 34 points in 78 NHL games, only four points in 12 games this season.

Ready to buy tickets to see Nik Antropov?

In New York, the logic is that Blake would love to play there because everybody wants to play there. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, after all.

The Rangers have plenty of money and Blake wants plenty of money, so the match is there, except . . .

Which Ranger do you want in trade? Theoren Fleury? Not bad, but team chemistry is important to the Kings, and Fleury could be oil to their water. A goalie? The Rangers need one more than they need Blake. Brian Leetch? He earns about $2.4 million more than Blake right now. That, the Kings don’t want.

As long as the Devils win, New Yorkers are willing to forgive them for being in New Jersey, and that makes a scenario that sends Blake to the Meadowlands fair game. Actually, it’s the only deal that has made sense so far, with center Scott Gomez and a first-round draft choice coming to the Kings for Blake.

But New Jersey is under new ownership, and General Manager Lou Lamoriello is under increasing pressure to meet a budget. Getting Blake’s salary is no way to do that, and the Devils might have enough to win the Stanley Cup again anyway.

And Philadelphia just wants to dump John LeClair before he dumps the Flyers at the end of the season. Let’s see, you trade a healthy Blake, who could win the Norris Trophy again this season, to Philadelphia for LeClair, who just underwent back surgery? Who has played eight games? And who also can be an unrestricted free agent after this season? Uh, no.

Those are the reported suspects so far, and the field of teams that can afford Blake is limited to them and, perhaps, Dallas--where the owner just managed to buy a quarter-billion-dollar shortstop--and Detroit.

They are also the somewhat limited suspects with which Blake can negotiate after the season.

But what of the Kings?

The thinking here is that they can still sign Blake and want to, and there is movement in that direction. Their $21.5-million, three-year “drop-dead offer” of training camp has dropped dead, in part because the market has changed in the last three months. You can thank St. Louis owner Bill Laurie for that one, though the rest of the NHL curses him. When he signed defenseman Chris Pronger to a $29.5-million, three-year deal, he gave the ever-competitive Blake something to shoot at.

And something for the Kings to duck.

Word is that meetings during Christmas week among Blake, agent Ron Salcer, King President Tim Leiweke and Dave Taylor, the team’s senior vice president and general manager, brought out a bit of angst, and it set Blake’s “I know I’ll be traded” bells off. But it also was an indication that the Kings are joining the real world, however reluctantly.

There is room and time for compromise, and they no longer look at an $8-million-a-year deal as the end of the economic world. Can a $9-million-a-year compromise be far away?

Leiweke is fond of saying that deals have to “make sense” for the Kings to do them, so use that logic. Does it “make sense” to lose Blake for nothing? Does it “make sense” to trade him for a player like Nik Antropov because something is better than nothing?

And if Blake wants to stay in Southern California, his avowed aim, then he can compromise without capitulating. Pronger was, after all, the league’s most valuable player last season.

Each side has enough room to meet before a huge mistake is made.

A suggested date for completing all this compromising, all this meeting of the minds, is Jan. 16, the day before the feeding frenzy is scheduled in Toronto.

Let ‘em go hungry.

HALF AN AWARD BETTER THAN NONE

The ballots--well, ballot--tabulation is done, with no chads amiss, no dimples awry. The season is at its halfway point at the Arrowhead Pond, at Detroit and at Edmonton and nearly there for the rest of the NHL, so it’s time for awards to be handed out.

OK, half-awards, but it’s a way to avoid the rush.

Anyway, here’s one man’s view:

Hart Trophy (league MVP): Joe Sakic, Colorado.

There are cases for several others--a few goalies come to mind--but Sakic is putting up the kind of numbers that most players only dream of, and those numbers are not just on offense. Sure, the plus-19 he carries on the plus/minus scale is fed by playing against checking lines, but it shows his versatility to an Avalanche team that uses it in any way it can.

And Sakic’s 20 goals and 30 assists in 38 games come while behind-the-scenes negotiations are going on concerning his future in Colorado. He says he’s ready to move on as an unrestricted free agent, but he’s making it hard for the Avalanche to tell its fans that it couldn’t reach accord with the team’s, perhaps the league’s, best player.

Norris Trophy (top defenseman): Blake.

He’s on a roll lately, with three goals and four assists in his last five games and is up to 12 goals and 37 points in 35 games, all of them played amid questions about his future with the Kings, many of them played while recovering from a back injury.

Vezina Trophy (top goaltender): by a wisp, it’s Sean Burke, Phoenix.

He has an incredible save percentage (.937) and a 1.82 goals-against average for a team that scores inconsistently and frequently plays indifferent defense. And he’s doing all this while reading daily that his time with the Coyotes is dwindling because they’re going to re-sign Nikolai Khabibulin. Here’s a measure of how well Burke has played: Phoenix is said to be talking with Chicago about dealing Khabibulin. Runners-up: Ed Belfour, Dallas; Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose; Curtis Joseph, Toronto.

Selke Trophy (best defensive forward): Mike Modano, Dallas. Not the player you generally think about when you’re talking defense, but he has learned to use his speed and quickness at both ends of the ice, and nobody likes to play against him. Runner-up: Marian Hossa, Ottawa; Sakic.

Lady Byng Trophy (sportsmanship): Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh. Here’s the logic: Nobody is going to get close enough to him to rough him up for fear of inciting a riot that will run all the way to the league office in New York.

Jack Adams Trophy (coaching): Curt Fraser, Atlanta. It can’t last, but if you look close enough, you’ll see the second-year Thrashers are a .500 team with one line (Donald Audette-Ray Ferraro-Andrew Brunette), no goaltending to speak of, suspect defense and numerous injuries. Runner-up: Darryl Sutter, San Jose.

Calder Trophy (rookie of the year): Nabokov. Three shutouts and a 1.97 goals-against average in 31 games says he should win. So does running Steve Shields out of a job. It’s hard to argue against St. Louis’ Brent Johnson and his 1.43 goals-against average, but he’s still the backup to Roman Turek, albeit pushing the incumbent hard. No, among a great crop of rookies, it’s Nabokov.

Masterton Trophy (for beating the odds): Lemieux. You retire as a player, you save a franchise as an owner, then you come back as a player. Take that parlay to Vegas.

SLAP SHOTS

Scottsdale, Ariz., is putting several conditions on Steve Ellman’s dream of a new arena that would allow his purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes to make sense. A new building is the only way. The Coyotes play in the NHL’s worst arena, with 28% of its seats offering obstructed views. It’s what happens when you pay rent on a building constructed for (1) basketball and (2) to discourage hockey from coming to town.