Leafs strike deal for 'D'

By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun The Maple Leafs and Dimitri Yushkevich are now at Cross purposes.
In a trade designed to give the Leafs some blue-line insurance and rattle Yushkevich's agent Mark Gandler, the club yesterday sent winger Fredrik Modin to the Tampa Bay Lightning for big defenceman Cory Cross and a seventh-round pick in 2001.
"If they don't need Dimitri, then (bleep) 'em," was Gandler's first response to the news, but last night relations appeared to thaw after Leafs negotiator Bill Watters and the agent spoke again.
"It seems to be getting back on track," said Watters, who attended last night's Baby Leafs opener in St. John's. "I feel better about it, anyway."
Yushkevich told The Toronto Sun he was encouraged, too, although he hoped he wasn't setting himself up for another disappointment.
Still thinking as a Leaf, Yushkevich praised the Cross trade.
"I think it makes the team better and if I sign, it makes us better yet," Yushkevich said from his home in New Jersey.
But Gandler said the Group 2 free agent is serious about signing somewhere in Europe this month and chucking the NHL this year, rather than take the Leafs' best offer of about $1.95 million US a year. Going to Europe would force Yushkevich to clear NHL waivers if he tried to return later in the season.
"It's not a risk, it's a step," Gandler said. "He's not going to sit and wait until January."
The Toronto Sun reported last week that the Leafs and the Lightning had discussed a deal for the 6-foot-5 Cross, who at the time was unsigned and working out at the University of Alberta. The deal appeared dead and Cross did sign with Tampa for $990,000 US. It's an incentive-filled deal which could see it come close to the Leafs' offer to Yushkevich.
Cross averaged a team-high 26 shifts a game for the last-place Lightning and had a career-best 18 points in 67 games. But Watters said the Leafs weren't going to quibble with paying Cross if he hit the bonuses and said Yushkevich has not been permanently exiled.
"Cory is just another solid NHL defenceman," Watters said. "He's a 100-penalty-minute man, so we know he can take care of himself. If and when we come to an agreement with Dimitri, they would both stay."
There was an aborted deal last year that would have brought Cross and winger Mikael Renberg here for Felix Potvin. Interest picked up last month, thanks in part to former Leafs president Cliff Fletcher, who drafted Modin in 1994 and is an adviser to Lightning GM Rick Dudley.
"(Modin) is a big man who can play on one of our top two lines," Dudley told the Tampa Tribune. "He's a player capable of scoring 20-plus goals. We're getting a 24-year-old who fits into our plans. I was surprised he would be available."
Modin played almost all of last season as Mats Sundin's first line left winger, but produced just 16 goals and was benched in the playoffs.
"I don't really know what to say," Modin said from his Toronto apartment after he was pulled off the Leafs' flight to Montreal at the last minute yesterday. "I think I had a good camp. This was a positive three years for me here; great guys and great fans. But I'm going to a young team, a rebuilding team and I'm happy to be part of it."
Cross, who had practised three days with the Lightning after his holdout, could play tonight.
"This is a very good opportunity for me," Cross said, "but it will be different going into a hockey town. There will certainly be added pressure."

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