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Monday, March 6, 2000
Messier will stay put as long as Canucks in hunt
VANCOUVER -- The New Jersey Devils came to GM Place on the weekend and left without two things -- Mark Messier and a victory.
If either of those events surprises you, you have not been paying close attention lately.
Three weeks ago, the Vancouver Canucks generally were perceived as a team devoid of playoff hopes and desperately trying to unload high-salaried captain Messier.
They were never the latter. Today, they are not even the former.
In fact, rather than being a team looking to dump some salaries before the March 14 trading deadline, they are a team looking to acquire help for a playoff stretch run.
"We are buying right now," Canucks general manager Brian Burke said yesterday. "We are not selling. I have been trying to add a player at every position except goal. If we can add an upgrade, we would do it prior to the deadline. I have been trying for a month."
Going into tonight's game against the Maple Leafs, the Canucks are five points out of a playoff spot in the NHL Western Conference. But they have two games in hand over the eighth-place San Jose Sharks.
"I don't think it is a case of thinking we are in the playoff hunt," Burke said. "We are in it. I have been trying to add something that would get us over the hump."
The next week is crucial for the Canucks. As a result, the outlook could change in a hurry. "We may go back to a selling mode between now and the trading deadline," Burke said. "We play Toronto next and they are an elite team. Then the next four games are on the road in Dallas, St. Louis, Phoenix and Los Angeles. They are all first- or second-place teams. We'll have a much more realistic view of our playoff hopes by March 13, the night before the deadline, but right now, we're in a buying mode."
As a result, the rumours about Messier being shipped out are, for the time being at least, not based on fact.
"We have told him publicly and privately," Burke said. "We have told him, 'Mess, whatever you want to have happen will happen.' This is going down the way Mark Messier wants it to go down."
Burke had calmed down yesterday with the Devils having left town and taken their media with them. But on Friday, when the Messier-to-New-Jersey questions were flying, Burke was at his vituperative best.
"The media in New York," he said, "they should all get hobbies or buy dogs or something so they have something meaningful to spend their time on instead of starting rumours about my hockey team.
"This all starts in one place and if there weren't tape recorders on, I would have a much stronger way of describing what I think of this."
He has a point. Messier has a no-trade clause, and those who know Messier know he wouldn't waive that clause until the Canucks are eliminated from the playoff hunt -- if then.
He is as proud a player as there is in the game and there is no way he would take an action that could be construed as walking out on his teammates. He will do everything he can to get the Canucks into the playoffs -- as has been evident in recent weeks -- and as long as there is the faintest glimmer of hope, he will continue to battle.
Most players who are the subject of such intense speculation would let it affect their play. But Messier is not like that.
"This is said with all due respect to Mario and to Wayne," Burke said, "but I have never seen a guy this focused and I have never seen a leader like this. This stuff has been like gentle raindrops on him. He just ignores it completely."
Even so, if the Canucks -- who have racked up a 6-1-2 record in their past nine games -- should collapse, Messier might change his mind.
After all, he knows that if he comes back to Vancouver next season, it won't be under the existing contract which gives the team the right to retain his services for two more years.
"I have had a meeting with Mess and I said that, at this point, it is unlikely the team will exercise its option," Burke said. "We want Mark back, but it doesn't make economic sense to exercise the option."
The Canucks intend to buy their way out of the contract, a move which will cost them $2 million US, and try to get Messier to come back at a reduced price.
But these are all variables to be considered in the future.
Right now, Messier is playing great and leading the Canucks.
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