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Thursday, October 14, 1999
Yashin deal imminent?
The bigger question was: do they want him back?
The Senators are off to a great start without Yashin, who has been working out with a club team in Switzerland after walking out on the last year of his contract, which was to pay him $3.6 million U.S. this year. He wants a contract extension.
A source close to the situation said contrary to what was being reported here Thursday, Yashin has not left Switzerland and has no intention of joining the Senators on their current road trip to Phoenix and Colorado.
"Somebody there didn't take their medication today," said the source.
Todd Diamond, an associate of Yashin agent Mark Gandler, had no comment on the rumour.
The Yashin buzz was perhaps somebody's attempt to lighten the mood in the nation's capital, a mood that has darkened considerably the last couple of days with the news any sort of tax relief plan to aid Canada's NHL teams has hit a brick wall.
The Ontario government said no lottery money would be diverted to the NHL and the federal government isn't going to get on side until it sees the other stakeholders bellying up to the table.
The bad news on the tax front has Senators majority owner Rod Bryden contemplating a deadline - like within the next few weeks - for a tax deal and if none is forthcoming, he will inform the league at the NHL board of governors' meeting Dec. 7-8 the Senators will be sold and moved to the U.S.
The Senators uncertain future hasn't stopped people in and around the NHL from speculating on what might happen with Yashin.
The amount of acrimony among NHL people -- players, scouts, agents and management types -- towards Yashin is astounding and almost unanimous. Only Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Dimitri Yushkevich, a Yashin friend and like Yashin a client of Gandler, has spoken in favour of Yashin among the players. He's been slammed by others.
Whereas players holding out are usually forgiven as just "taking care of business," the fact Yashin is refusing to honour an existing deal and this is the third time he's done it has made almost everybody in the league Senators' fans.
Talk to NHL people and they'll usually revel in another team's difficulties, at least privately.
But there are a lot of NHL people out there right now who are rooting for the Senators to do well (maybe not on the night they're playing them), to spite Yashin.
"They're still the best team in the Eastern Conference and you know what?" said one NHL executive, "they might even be a better team without him."
There are NHL executives who say they hope Bryden stands his ground and makes Yashin sit out the entire year. You'd expect them to say that, of course, because who wouldn't want an opposing team to be without a player of Yashin's immense talent. But in this instance, the executives aren't saying it for their own benefit, but for the league's and the message the Senators would be sending to players and fans.
It's much easier to back somebody else up, of course, than having to do it yourself.
There's sympathy out there for a respected hockey man like Senators general manager Marshall Johnston, a hockey lifer who has waited for a chance like this and now finds himself caught in the eye of a philosophical hurricane that is much larger than a team, an owner and a player, one that engulfs a league and an entire country.
With Bryden leading the charge for tax fairness, he is the last owner who can be seen to doing anything that is seen to add to the salary spiral.
The Senators strong start hints they could still be a strong Stanley Cup contender even without their most talented player.
Which brings its own set of problems.
If the team is a contender and could take a run at the Cup, do you let an asset like Yashin just sit or turn him into a player or two who could help the team get over the hump in the post-season?
Bryden has been adamant the club will not trade Yashin.
The team is more valuable on the market if it retains the rights to a marquee player like Yashin. If Bryden does follow through and sell the club, a new owner would likely give Yashin what he wants and take a run at the Cup like the Colorado Avalanche did after leaving Quebec City and their previous life as the Nordiques.
"What do they do come February," wonders one NHL insider, "if it looks like they've got a chance to win it all? They'll have a tough decision to make."
Or maybe none at all.
Come February, the Senators could be headed for Houston or Portland.
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