Gaglardi coy about Stars, doesn't dismiss a Canucks deal

Tom Gaglardi is the newest owner in the National Hockey League, having bought the Dallas Stars in last fall's bankruptcy auction. The president of Vancouver's Northland Properties, and majority owner of the Western Hockey League's Kamloops Blazers, lost a bitter court battle with Francesco Aquilini for the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena in 2008.

During a morning interview on Feb. 27, I tried to get hints about whether the Stars would be buying or selling players before the trade deadline.

"I don't really know, our team's core and our best players are our young guys in their 20s... We're listening to a lot of teams, teams pursuing some of our assets. If we can make our team better, then we might do something. We need to get better on the ice and build around our young core of guys.

"We like our team, it's kind of a disappointing middle frame of the season. But we've won four in a row and played the way we always thought we could. It wouldn't surprise us to do very little, if not nothing, by this afternoon."

Could there be a deal with the Vancouver Canucks?

"Oh, sure, Joe (Nieuwendyk) talks to every general manager in the league, i know he talks to Mike Gillis regularly as well. It's as possible as any team in the NHL."

Recommended reading

Recommend means to "advise a particular course of action."

The Vancouver Police Department did so on Oct. 31 in the case of 60 people that it believes should be charged for their roles in the June 15 Stanley Cup riot.

Now it is up to Crown counsel -- the British Columbia prosecutors -- to review the recommendations, approve charges and file them with the courts. Public interest and likelihood of conviction is the simple, two-pronged test that the Crown uses in this process. That is how the system works in the province.

In order to clarify, for the benefit of readers, that nobody was charged on Oct. 31, I asked Neil MacKenzie of the Attorney General's ministry.

"The charge assessments are not completed on these individuals as yet.  Crown are reviewing the files, but I don't have a specific timeline as to when any of the reviews will be completed."

While it is possible that none of the 60 recommendations will be approved, I believe we are likely to see several people charged. When remains the question. But don't hold your breath for swift justice and punishment. I have covered enough cases in my career to know that hearings, trials, plea bargains, verdicts, convictions and sentencing do not come quick in B.C. The courts are so backlogged that many Stanley Cup rioting and looting cases will stretch into 2013.

Those unfamiliar with the courts will joke about the glacial speed. "Will there be verdicts before another set of Sedin twins is drafted by the Canucks?"

Premier Christy Clark laughably said that she wants charges laid within 10 days. She didn't say calendar days or business days, but she wants it done quick. Yet again she proves you can take the host out of the talkshow but you can't take the talkshow out of the host. The wheels of justice in B.C. are exceedingly slow and underfunded. One might even call them flat or square. Prosecutors don't do the work of politicians and should be spending their scarce time on the most deplorable cases -- rapes and murders -- before dealing with the riot files.

So the clock on my blog continues and will do so until the first of the 60 people is actually charged. Names of the accused, who are presumed innocent until proven guilty, will be published here unless they are minors protected by law.

Hockey's worst year

This is hockey's worst year.

After the dizzying heights of the golden goal that gave Canada the gold medal championship on home ice at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, it has all unravelled in 2011. Gone downhill so quickly and so tragically. Has hockey hit rock-bottom yet?

The decline of hockey began with the hits suffered in back-to-back games Jan. 1 and Jan. 5 by Pittsburgh Penguins' superstar Sidney Crosby. The first, on New Year's Day in Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, was during the National Hockey League's marquee Winter Classic outdoor game. It wasn't immediately apparent, but Crosby had suffered a concussion that ended his season and put his career at risk.

Hockey's downfall continued with Boston Bruins' captain Zdeno Chara's ugly hit on Max Pacioretty on March 8. The Montreal Canadien appeared to have been steered face-first into a stanchion by the big Bruin. The incident prompted several NHL sponsors, such as Air Canada, Scotiabank and Tim Hortons, to speak out. The NHL did create new rules and a protocol for dealing with suspected concussions, but calls remain for an outright ban on blows to the head.

New York Rangers' enforcer Derek Boogaard, who had been troubled by concussions, was found dead May 13 in Minneapolis. He had taken a deadly cocktail of alcohol and oxycontin. His brother was charged with providing him the unprescribed, highly addictive painkiller.

There was brief jubilation in Winnipeg on May 31 when it was announced the Atlanta Thrashers would move there. By June 4, the 13,000 season ticket sales quota was reached for the new Jets. The Thrashers had fans in Atlanta, just not enough, and the team would have folded without the move north. But the real, old Jets franchise remains the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale, Az., on the league's life support while a new owner is sought and more taxpayers' dollars are thrown down the drain in an area hit hard by the recession.

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final turned ugly June 6 with the late hit by Vancouver Canuck Aaron Rome on Boston Bruin Nathan Horton. The image of Horton lying on his back, motionless and expressionless, was not one the NHL wanted viewers to see. The Bruins were already missing Marc Savard, who suffered a season-ending concussion in February. The hit on Horton was the moment the underdog Bruins awoke and rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to win four of the next five games and the Cup.

Lord Stanley's mug was awarded to the away team at Rogers Arena on June 15. The President's Trophy-winning Canucks saved their worst effort for their last, most important game. After the 4-0 loss, the fans that remained in the arena offered two minutes of hate for Bettman. Objects were thrown his way. Meanwhile, outside the arena, the streets of Vancouver became a war zone as thousands of Canucks' fans rioted and looted. Vancouver city hall naively tried to recreate the street party atmosphere of the 2010 WInter Olympics, but instead duplicated 1994 when the Canucks also lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup and locals rioted.

Most of us who watch hockey thought the Stanley Cup riot was the nadir. We thought there would be charges for rioters and looters and some culpability admitted by the public officials who, like the Canucks, didn't give 100% that night. But Labour Day came and went in No Fault City.

Ex-Canuck enforcer Rick Rypien's depression led to his Aug. 15 suicide that nobody seems to want to address. On Aug. 31, ex-Maple Leaf Wade Belak also committed suicide. But we learned so quickly that it was by hanging and that happy-go-lucky, retired enforcer Belak, too, had a lengthy bout with depression.

The goons are going, going, gone. Will the NHL do the right thing and ban fighting? It's bad for the brain and bad for the mind and no longer necessary for the game, especially in the Stanley Cup or Olympics.

Then the unthinkable. On Sept. 7, a Russian jet carrying an entire team -- Lokomotiv Yaroslavi of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League -- crashed as their Yak-42 jet was taking off for the team's first road trip of the season to Belarus. Of the 28 players, only one survived. The victims include ex-Bruin and new coach Brad McCrimmon and ex-Canuck Pavol Demitra. Demitra was the top point-getter of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics tournament with 10.

The same day, Crosby faced the media with his concussion specialists. The most dynamic, talented player of this era talked about struggling with the brain injury and his desire to return. Will he be as good as he was? Time will tell, but when will be the time? It may not be Oct. 6 in Vancouver, where he scored the most-watched goal in hockey history. And why didn't Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins postpone their news conference for a day, out of respect for the victims of the Russian tragedy?

Has hockey hit rock-bottom? When will the glory days and good feeling of 2010 return?

Was Feb. 28, 2010 as good as it ever was or ever will be?

For Crosby?

For hockey?

Exclusive: Old Thrashers WILL BE the new Jets

The former Atlanta Thrashers will unveil their new Winnipeg branding today, on National Hockey League Entry Draft Day.

Now there is solid evidence that points to the resurrection of the Jets name.

The NHL owns the trademark, originally filed with the Canadian government in 1976. According to the Winnipeg Jets name and logo files in the Canadian Trademarks Database, there was a flurry of activity this month, as recently as June 15.

Listen to The Sport Market on Team 1040 and TeamRadio.ca from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific on Saturday, June 25 for the month-end roundtable for more on this story.

Winnipeg Jets entry in the Canadian Trademarks Database

Winnipeg Jets logo entry in the Canadian Trademarks Database

Gary gabs

A big week for hockey north of the border.

The National Hockey League announced May 31 it would return to Winnipeg after a 15-year absence with the conditional move of the Atlanta Thrashers by True North Sports and Entertainment. The Thrashers were the 28th worst market for attendance in the 30-team league.

Commissioner Gary Bettman announced a 13,000-season ticket drive and that a vote on the $170 million purchase would be taken by the board of governors on June 21. More than 7,000 packages were sold before the public sales began and each NHL owner will get a slice of the $60 million relocation fee, so it'll be a done deal.

On June 1, the Stanley Cup final returned to Vancouver for the first time since 1994 -- and began in Vancouver for the first time since the Millionaires were 1921 hosts. The Vancouver Canucks blanked the Boston Bruins 1-0 on Raffi Torres's late, overtime-avoiding goal with 18.5-seconds left in regulation time.

The 5.6 million average audience, with a peak of 7.8 million, was an all-time record for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. The previous record was in 1994 when 4.96 million tuned-in to see the Canucks battle another Original Six team, the New York Rangers. That was game seven of the Stanley Cup final and the Canucks lost by a goal.

The NBC ratings for game one were the best in 12 years, a 3.2 national rating which translates to approximately 3.708 million viewers. Boston, Providence, R.I. and Hartford, Ct., were three of the top four markets.

The storylines are simple: an Original Six team from a sports-made region with a 39-year Cup drought against the Sedin twins and the rest of the Olympic city kids who are trying for a third time to win the franchise's first Cup since debuting 40 seasons ago.

Before the game, Bettman held his annual state of the league address. Here are highlights from the question-and-answer session:

Q. Can you update where things stand for realignment in lieu of Winnipeg's re-entry, and also the latest on Phoenix?

BETTMAN: With respect to Winnipeg's re-entry, obviously there is a process under the Constitution and Bylaws with respect to ownership transfers and relocation that needs to be complied with. That's on the agenda, will be on the agenda, for the June 21st Board meeting.

In order to do a schedule for next season, it's not possible to do realignment right now. Winnipeg, despite its geographic peculiarities relative to the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, will be playing in that division and in that conference, with an assurance that for the following season they will be in the west.

We have a number of clubs that would like to address specific issues on realignment. All those clubs need an opportunity to be heard. That's a process we'll go through the first half of next season, looking at the issues that clubs want to raise, looking at various possibilities, and trying to figure out what will make the most sense moving forward.

If I had to guess anything, and this is purely speculation, as much as I hate to do that, because ultimately it's a Board decision, I think we'll wind up moving towards a slightly more balanced schedule to accommodate the variety of issues I've heard so far from the clubs.

Q. Phoenix?

BETTMAN: Phoenix, as I think you all know, because it's gotten a ton of attention, the City of Glendale stepped up and said they want the team to stay another year while they try to complete the sales process with us and will be funding the losses. Any suggestion that the League is funding this club or carrying the burden is not true. Last season the City of Glendale did it. This coming season the City of Glendale will do it, but hopefully not. Hopefully the club will be sold in due course, and there will be a new owner in there to start turning things around.

Again, we've gotten a number of questions about why this process in Phoenix and why the other process in Atlanta. Atlanta, not unlike Winnipeg in '96, found itself in a situation where nobody wanted to own a club in that market anymore. That's been for me the trigger point on having to deal with a relocation.

With respect to Phoenix, you have a city in Glendale that built the building and has invested in it and wanting the club to stay there. As long as they're prepared to carry the burden of doing this while we try to effectuate a solution, there's no reason to move.

Q. Steroids have obviously run their course through all of the professional sports. Yet your sport, your league, has not had a positive test in years, as I can recall. People who know steroids say if you're not catching anybody, your testing isn't good enough. Is it your belief simply no NHL players are doing steroids now? (Note: NHL players are not tested for drugs during the playoffs or off-season.)

BETTMAN: Well, it's clear that if we're not having positive tests, none of them are getting caught, which means if some are, it's not very many.

I do believe, and we've been in discussions over the last couple of years with WADA, there are ways that we can improve our substance testing, our performance?enhancing testing program. But that's something we need to do with the Players' Association, and that's something, when we actually sit down and begin discussions, we need to address.

I think we have a good program. It deals with education and counseling. It has comprehensive testing, but I think we can probably do more. At the right time we'll have that discussion with the Players' Association.

Q. There's been recent reports of a group in Seattle interested in an NHL team. What are your thoughts on Seattle as a hockey market? With Winnipeg done, do you have a list of cities that are potentials?

BETTMAN: There are no shortage of places that continue to express interest in having a team. I think it was half a dozen, and now it's down to five because Winnipeg comes off the list. My answer is the same. I don't want to raise anybody's expectation. We're hoping not to do relocation. You all know that we don't believe in doing that, except as a last resort. We do everything possible to avoid it, and we're not planning on expanding.

The interest is flattering, but I don't want anyone in any market that doesn't have a team to get their hopes up yet.

Q. Québec City was involved, Pierre Peladeau, the owner of Quebecor, launched a sports channel yesterday. He got 25 games of the Ottawa Senators. Is there some sort of relation there that we can say they are up front to get something in Québec City done or there's absolutely nothing to deal with that?

BETTMAN: I am not going to raise expectations. I'm well aware of Mr. Peladeau's interest and that is gratifying. I am well aware there are plans to build an arena, although we have made no promise of what will happen after that.

At the present time, since I don't have a franchise we're looking to relocate, and as I said, we're not planning on expanding, I don't want to get people's expectations in Québec City raised.

Q. Despite the $3 billion in revenue across the League, a lot of teams are losing money, or at least claim to. Is the gap too large between high and low revenue teams? Especially now that you're in Winnipeg, what adjustments need to be made to revenue sharing and the CBA, the next one, so those clubs can be in the best position to succeed?

BETTMAN: The fact we're in Winnipeg, the agreement is basically self?executing. It will apply to the Winnipeg team as it applied to the Atlanta team, again, assuming Board approval, which everybody is anticipating.

To the extent there are issues in Collective Bargaining, as I said in my opening remarks, the good news is it's too early to discuss it. The discussions I'll have in the first instance on that topic will be with Mr. Fehr. I won't be doing it in this environment.

Q. Is the gap too big?

BETTMAN: We have a system that is dramatically improved from where we were in terms of teams' ability to compete. You've seen it in our competitive balance. There has been dramatic improvement. Whether or not the Players' Association or we are going to be looking for adjustments is something we'll look at quietly and hopefully resolve quietly.

Q. Your office put out numbers on concussions specific to how they were suffered, be it from fighting, be it from hitting, whatever. The number that caught my eye was from fighting. I think it was 8% or somewhere around there. I'm wondering, after you've given out those numbers, has there been added talk, be it from managers, owners, governors, specific to that part and their interest in perhaps ending fighting?

BETTMAN: I don't think the discussion has gotten to the level where there's widespread sentiment to end fighting. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'ending fighting.' I assume you mean by increasing the penalties for fighting, because there are penalties now.

The issue is really one about concussions. The reason for releasing the numbers is to make clear that concussions in the game are being caused by a variety of causes. And, in fact, the increase isn't coming, although the conventional wisdom incorrectly was that it was coming from more head hits, it's coming from pucks to the head. Maybe we should be having mandatory visors, something we'll discuss as we have over the years. Sometimes it's collisions with your own teammates, sometimes it's a check where you fall and bang your head.

The number of head hits really hasn't been the cause of the increase in concussions. It's been other sources, and that's what we're looking at in a comprehensive way.

One of the things that I indicated the Blue Ribbon Committee is looking at, as it's been dubbed, is whether or not we want to expand the head?hit rule. Accidents I think are going to happen and we have to deal with that and we do that through the proper diagnosis and treatment of concussions. Nobody has taken the leap that you're suggesting.

Q. Any updates with the next Winter Olympics or the World Cup?

BETTMAN: There is no update. That, again, is something that we will be in discussions with the Players' Association on because the international competitions, be it the conducting of a World Cup, which we're interested in doing, and the participation in the Winter Olympics, is something that we need to discuss and resolve with the Players' Association.

Mr. Fehr has been on the job a relatively short time. He's putting together his organization. He's been doing a lot of homework and catching up. In due course, we'll be having those discussions.

Q. Any more precise indication of where the cap is going?

BETTMAN: Actually, I think Mr. Daly did. I don't remember giving cap numbers. Bill, do you want to venture a guess?

BILL DALY: I think our current projections have the cap being in excess of $60 million, maybe as high as $63 million.

BETTMAN: And, obviously, the new television contract in the United States has an impact on that, bringing it up.

Q. Poignant because of the travel back and forth between Vancouver and Boston being difficult, the format of 2-2-2-1-1-1, any increased talk of going to 2-3-2?

BETTMAN: We periodically raise it with the managers, who when it comes to competitive issues are the heart and soul. There doesn't seem to be much of an appetite. I think people in our game are used to the travel. They like to keep the routine going.

It is what it is. We've been doing it for, oh, at least a couple of decades. I think if you go back to the '80s or '70s, there were a couple of years when it was tried. But this seems to be what the clubs are most comfortable with. What we try to do is make sure we're providing the best environment for them to have the competition and let it all out on the ice.

Soul on ice

Could Dustin Byfuglien save hockey in Atlanta?

While Vancouver Canuck Henrik Sedin was celebrating a Hart Trophy, Byfuglien was quietly enjoying his Stanley Cup summer in Phoenix until he found out he was traded.

The Fugly One was a Chicago Blackhawk until June 23 when he was dealt to the Atlanta Thrashers. The 25-year-old from Minneapolis had 11 goals and five assists in the Hawks’ Stanley Cup run. He certainly got some votes for the Conn Smythe Trophy and was unpopular in Vancouver for getting in the way of Roberto Luongo so often.

Atlanta is the eighth-largest media marketplace in the United States and it is rich with sports, where the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons dominate the pro sports scene and the Georgia Bulldogs are the college mainstay. Basketball’s Atlanta Hawks are a bigger wintertime draw than the Thrashers, who averaged only 13,607 fans last season. That’s the third-worst attendance in the league.

Atlantans never did relate to Russian Ilya Kovalchuk, but they might just come to know and love The Fugly One.

While much was made of the Blackhawks marketing to African-American fans in Chicago, it’s a demographic that the Thrashers need for their survival. More than half of Atlantans are African-American.

Byfuglien, whose father was African-American Ricky Spencer, could end up playing on the same line in Atlanta with Vancouver Giants’ product Evander Kane. Kane was picked fourth overall last year by the Thrashers and is named after Atlanta heavyweight boxing superstar Evander Holyfield.

Atlanta is also the birthplace of Martin Luther King, who led the civil rights movement.

It's a long climb to the hilltop that is the Stanley Cup, but 2010-2011 could be the year Atlanta is spared from becoming the first city to lose two National Hockey League franchises. Thanks to Evander Kane and Dustin Byfuglien.

Are you tired of the IIHF?

International Ice Hockey Federation public relations czar Szymon Szemberg says he’s tired of Sidney Crosby and various, twentysomething hockey players claiming they’re too tired to play at the World Hockey Championship.

Well, I’m tired, too. Tired of Europeans who govern the Great Canadian Game holding a world championship that clashes with the Stanley Cup playoffs and calling it a world championship. It really is the “annual European springtime invitational.”

I’m tired of the IIHF forgetting that the NHL, whose fans pay players like Crosby, compressed its schedule in 2009-2010 to accommodate the Vancouver Olympics. Surely the IIHF must’ve noticed an increase in its Swiss bank account after the most-watched hockey tournament of all-time.

I’m tired of the IIHF neglecting opportunities to develop the game outside North America and Europe. Dear IIHF: did you hear about the economic boom in China and the construction of ice rinks all over Asia in the past decade?

I’m tired of the IIHF spending little time or money to develop women’s hockey and sledge hockey.

Most of all, I’m tired of the IIHF running its affairs like a secret society with a rule-breaking ex-referee as its president.

Rene Fasel was outed by a Swiss newspaper last year for alleged kickbacks. A Deloitte probe paid for by the IIHF was never published. Finally, after the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said “tsk-tsk” to Fasel for favouring a friend, but it didn’t send Fasel to the penalty box.

Tiresome, isn’t it?