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Saturday, December 4, 1999
Rico, Robyn stay home
Rico Fata wears his heart on his arm with his Canadian flag tattoo.
But he won't get the chance to carry that nationalistic pride into the world junior championships with Team Canada.
And, it is the right move.
GM Al Coates says neither Fata nor Robyn Regehr will be freed up to play for Canada's junior team.
Fata is having some success in Saint John, where his nine goals have him tied for the rookie goal-scoring lead in the American Hockey League.
Last year, the Flames made Fata available to the Canadian junior team, but circumstances are different this time.
"Tom Renney called me and I think he called with an expectation they wouldn't be available," said Coates.
"I said, in the case of Rico, we are fortunate that the rules allow us to have him playing pro hockey in the AHL and getting tons of ice time and developing, and that is the right place for him.
"Likewise with Robyn, not unlike Derek Morris a couple of years ago, he's playing regular in the NHL right now. Neither one of them, I don't think, are going to be available.
"There is a small percentage of that changing but we, and Team Canada, need to plan now, and we need to win games. That's our priority.
"If we had eight or nine healthy defencemen and we thought that we could spare Robyn for that time period, it's three weeks, we could consider it, but I doubt it very much, even though I'll leave the door open for him."
The argument in favour of freeing the players for the world junior is that a chance to represent your country with your peers is an excellent learning opportunity, and a way to bolster a young player's confidence.
"We bought into that last year when we did that with Rico," said Coates.
"He was getting seven or eight minutes of ice time with us, and we thought he could go there and have some success and it would help his confidence, and it did. That's a year ago and behind him now. Now he has the opportunity to play pro in a league designed for development, and that is where he belongs."
Flames fans shouldn't expect to see Fata, or Daniel Tkaczuk, in a Calgary uniform anytime soon.
Coates wants both players to benefit from a full season in the AHL, presumably to allow them to win jobs here next season.
"There is no reason that Rico and Tkaczuk and Oleg Saprykin, once he's done in junior, won't all challenge for jobs in Calgary next year, if not before," said Coates.
"We prefer not to bring them up if we can avoid it, but this situation is perfect for them at this stage in their careers."
SAYONARA STEVE: Steve Dubinsky has been on the outs with Flames coach Brian Sutter all season, and now it appears he'll be reassigned to the minors as soon as the Flames can find a team to take him, likely in the International Hockey League.
Dubinsky cleared waivers yesterday. He's a mucking forward who must play great defence to be effective. He led the team with the worst plus-minus rating, an indication that he wasn't getting the job done.
At about $675,000 US, Dubinsky wasn't worth the price, according to the Flames management and coaching staff.
THAT'S SOME SPEECH: Let's all go to the Canadian government and try Rod Bryden's speech.
"Let us pay less tax and we'll stay in this country so you won't lose our tax revenues."
Ridiculous!
And, by the way, no U.S.-based NHL franchise receives federal aid.
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