JA
Guest
What? I`m a huge Bure fan, but really what?
How the heck was Bure treated like dirt in North America? He comes over, he`s making 5 million or more a season, and he`s pretty much considered a god in the city he`s playing in. If you consider that getting treated like "worse than dirt" then you need to open your eyes and get a dose of reality to put things in perspective.
Bure was mistreated by Canucks management throughout his entire time here. At every point during his tenure in Vancouver, they tried to cheat him out of money and manipulate his contracts, lied about him to the media, and kept him in the dark when he first moved to North America. They spread rumors about him, and turned the city against him. They never cooperated with him on anything, and took advantage of him at every opportunity. While he is appreciated by those who can look past team management's lies, there are those who still feel he left the city and abandoned the team.
He is a polarizing figure in Vancouver because of how he was portrayed by Canucks management. He was living in hell when he was here, always being scammed by the Canucks, which is why he has never rekindled his relationship with the team or the city.
Read this article if you want a firsthand account of what happened, or read the summaries below:
Why I wanted out: Bure finally lists reasons why he demanded trade from Vancouver; [Final C Edition]
Tony Gallagher. The Province. Vancouver, B.C.: Jan 20, 1999. pg. A.52.FR (Copyright The Province 1999)
http://forum.canucks.com/index.php?showtopic=231654&st=0&p=7098977&hl=Quinn Bure&#entry7098977
The summaries are below, courtesy of HFBoards poster Wetcoaster:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=20627912&highlight=bure+gallagher#post20627912
The Canucks mishandled things with Bure from the day he left Russia. The Canucks would not make Bure a contract offer so he was unable to get a visa to come to Canada. However he did have a visa to get into the US from his appearance in the 1989 World Juniors held in Anchorage Alaska. He used that visa to slip out of the Soviet Union and travelled to California.
The Canucks forced Bure to pay part of his own transfer fee to the Russian hockey authorities before they would sign him to his initial contract.
They left him dangling and sitting in the USA after he had left Russia with no contact from the Canucks management as they were not sure they wanted to sign him for the season. Brian Burke (then assistant GM) called once and then left him in limbo.
Bure was promised a new contract and substantial raise if he played well so he signed a low ball offer to "prove" himself ($585,360 and $467,820). I suppose the Calder Trophy as top rookie and following up with a 60 goal season did not count because the Canucks broke that promise. A bitter negotiation ensued over the next season during which Bure again scored 60 goals.
When the the new contract was finally prepared the Canucks pulled a "bait and switch" and tried to change the currency to Canadian dollars when no regular NHL players were signing Canadian dollar contracts let alone superstars. Bure finally signed for $4.5 million. He asked that Pat Quinn attend the contract signing so they could shake hands and put the bad blood behind them - Quinn refused.
After Bure finally signed his contract which included a guaranteed salary in the event of a lockout, the Canucks reneged on paying his salary for the lockout period. Bure had to take the Canucks to arbitration to get paid the money legally due to him.
The Canucks had a habit of breaking contracts as with Larionov and Krutov's transfer fee contracts. Arbitration was needed to force payment in that case as well.
BTW Bure never did threaten to hold out during the 1994 play-offs. First Quinn claimed he was told this by "one of my guys" (McPhee???) and then Quinn had to admit that was untrue during the arbitration hearing when he was placed under oath.
Quinn tried to blame the Bure hold out rumour on the media making up stories. It was just another story planted by the Canucks with the Canucks friendly media when the negotiations turned nasty - just like has been done with other players like Linden, Ohlund, Umberger, Klatt, etc.
Pat Quinn went on HNIC and confirmed that Bure never threatened to walk out:
http://archives.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/topics/1459-9680/
Given the treatment by Canucks management, it is surprising that Bure had not demanded a trade before he did. When you have a superstar and an elite talent like Bure you do not go out of your way to deliberately PO such a player.
Bure confirmed much of this in an interview after he left Vancouver and it has never been disputed.
See:
Why I wanted out: Bure finally lists reasons why he demanded trade from Vancouver; [Final C Edition]
Tony Gallagher. The Province. Vancouver, B.C.: Jan 20, 1999. pg. A.52.FR (Copyright The Province 1999)
http://forum.canucks.com/index.php?showtopic=231654&st=0&p=7098977&hl=Quinn Bure&#entry7098977
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=26946315&postcount=332
Wetcoaster said:Barney Gumble said:Didn't the Canucks (take your pick - ownership or GM) try to weasel out of paying Bure after a NHL lockout?
I think the Griffiths family put a high priority on winning, as did McCaw.
Yes Bure (through Gillis) had to file for arbitration before the Canucks settled his contract claim for the lockout guarantee. Also the Canucks did not pay his signing bonus on time for the 1994 contract that was signed after the Cup finals - they held off until September.
Bure set this out in an interview that he gave jointly to Tony Gallagher and Al Strachan after leaving the Canucks:
Why I wanted out: Bure finally lists reasons why he demanded trade from Vancouver; [Final C Edition]
Tony Gallagher. The Province. Vancouver, B.C.: Jan 20, 1999. pg. A.52.FR (Copyright The Province 1999)
And:
Rocket blasts off
In an exclusive interview, Pavel Bure says management's chintziness doomed relations with Canucks from the start
Wednesday, January 20, 1999
by AL STRACHAN -- TORONTO SUN
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. -- Pavel Bure did not leave the Vancouver Canucks because the relationship turned bad. He left because the relationship always was bad.
Take the first North American meeting for example. Penniless and unsure of his status, he had left the Soviet Union and told the Canucks he was off to Los Angeles and would be staying at his agent's house.
"Then it took two weeks before somebody showed up," he said.
Ever since Bure walked out on the Canucks before training camp, there has been speculation about his reasons. Yesterday, in a Long Island hotel room with only two reporters present --Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province was the other -- Bure finally gave his explanation.
As Bure stated as reported by Strachan:
That contract carried a signing bonus to be paid immediately. It was not until September that Bure got it.
Then came the lockout. Having realized a labour disruption was likely, Salcer had insisted on iron-clad guarantees that Bure would be paid whether the league operated or not. But the Canucks refused to pay.
It was not until October 1997 that Bure got his payment for that part of the 1994-95 season. And even then, it was a settlement. To save legal fees -- not to mention the acrimony caused by suing the club for which he played -- he settled for $1 million of the $1.7 million he was owed.
And his quotes as reported by Tony Gallagher:
"Part of the signing bonus was due on execution of the contract, but they were three months late. I didn't get any money until September."
"I specifically asked Ron to put in (the new deal) that I was to get paid (if there was a lockout) because I thought there probably would be one. And the contract is pretty clear that I was to get paid. But they refused."
...
"I didn't want to sue the team. I didn't think it would be proper to sue the team you were playing for."
Bure was owed $1.7 million US under the terms of the deal, but after agent Mike Gillis became his agent, he managed to get $1 million of it paid.
"I finally got part of that money three years later."
Add those issues to the bait and switch Quinn tried to pull by substituting lower Canadian dollars for US dollars at the contract signing.
As Gallagher wrote quoting Bure on that issue:
"In my first year they admitted my first contract ($600,000 Cdn) was not enough, but when we went to talk about it they said, `Hold on, you have to play a little bit more. You have to prove it to us'."
This started a long, torturous period of stonewalling by the Canucks on a new deal, which led to Bure's first request to be traded in November of 1993.
After 17 months of negotiation, a five-year, $14.7-million contract -- almost identical to the ones Sergei Fedorov and Alex Mogilny were signing in Detroit and Buffalo at the time -- was agreed upon.
Or at least Bure thought.
When he sat down to sign it, he found the Canucks had put everything in Canadian funds when in fact Fedorov and Mogilny were getting U.S. funds. No NHL star ever signs a Canadian-funds deal and the Canucks knew this.
"I was really happy with that contract. I would have been happy to sign that deal (in U.S. dollars). But then I finished the season with another 60 goals. And the market was going up."
And Strachan on this point - also note the Canucks forced Bure to partly pay for his release out of his own pocket:
It seems pretty clear the "little weasel" in all this was not Pavel Bure.Burke subsequently arranged a court hearing in Detroit to get Bure's release from Red Army. The cost of that release was $250,000. The club paid $200,000. Bure had to pay the other $50,000.
The day before the court judgment, Bure agreed to a contract worth $600,000 annually. But there was an understanding, he said, that if he proved he was a solid NHL player, a new deal would be written.
He scored 34 goals that season and won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's best rookie, even though he didn't break in until late November. So he asked about the new deal.
"They said, 'Hold on, you have to play a little bit more. You have to prove it to us,' " Bure said with a chuckle.
Pavel Bure was never happy with the Canucks. He was mad at team management even before he arrived in Vancouver, when no one was in Los Angeles to greet him.
So he played another year. This time he scored 60 goals. "They said, 'Okay, let us think about it.' "
They thought about it during the summer and finally made an offer -- $14.7 million over five years. "I said, 'Great! I'm happy,' " Bure said. "I was ready to accept it. I was really happy." It was in line with the salaries being paid to two compatriots, Alex Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov.
When he went to sign the deal, there seemed to be a mistake. "They said, 'Sorry, it's Canadian,' " Bure recalled.
NHL stars are not paid in Canadian dollars. Fedorov and Mogilny weren't and Bure certainly wasn't about to set the precedent. He refused to sign.
"Ronnie (agent Ron Salcer) said, 'Okay, start to play and we'll figure it out over training camp. It was a mistake obviously.' "
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=26148538&postcount=33
I tend to agree with you, Sauce. In general, fans tend not to know all of the details of salary and player negotiations. Players end up looking like villains 99% of the time. Bure was a star player in the league at that time, had two years of injuries and rehab, and was frustrated with the Canuck team/management in general. Who knows what else was going on that we don't know about.
It would be nice to have Pavel back for the sake of appreciating what he gave to the organization when he was here.
With the Canucks it is a matter of sifting through the bafflegab and BS as occurred with Larionov and Nedved:
http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?p=22488118&highlight=bure+gallagher#post22488118
Or Krutov:
http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?p=22716072
The Canucks under Quinn pulled a bait and switch at the last minute putting in Canadian dollars in the SPC with Bure. The agent (Salcer) caught that and the deal had to be re-done. The usual sequence is that the deal is done and then the team reduces it to the form of the SPC incorporating the various terms as agreed. It is reviewed by the agent and then signed. In this case Salcer noticed the currency difference and he would have told Bure who you can well imagine would be incensed since no regular player let alone a superstar was being paid in the de-valued Canucks buck. The deal was re-written and signed. Yet another PR disaster for the Canucks and yet another episode of ticking off your superstar.
Bure held out after Burke came on board as GM. In 1997- 98, the year in which Quinn was fired and Keenan was hired and was part of the GM by committee approach as well as coach, Bure played all 82 games and notched 51 goals only Selanne and Bondra had more goals at 52).
Following that season Burke was hired and it was then that Bure refused to play any further on the advice of his new agent who replaced Ron Salcer. The name of this new agent?
Mike Gillis.
This is not a surprise since it was Burke who was instrumental in the previous decisions in not offering Bure a contract so he could get a Canadian visa, left him sitting around in the US and insisted Bure pay part of his own transfer fee. Plus Bure was now being represented by Gillis who was in no mood to play any more games with the Canucks.
There were claims that Bure clashed with Trevor Linden and Mark Messier - but that does not jibe with statements those players have made.
Trevor Linden seemed to think that Bure had sufficient reason to want out:
Linden knows Bure's troubles all to well
Tony Gallagher, Guest Columinist. Star - Phoenix. Saskatoon, Sask.: Oct 14, 1998. pg. B.3
Trevor Linden has been sufficiently conscious of his image that he hasn't thrown stones at anyone since his unwilling departure from Vancouver last season.
While he is less than enthused about the way he was handled both by Mike Keenan and Mark Messier, he has always passed on any opportunity to express his feelings.
He was traded with virtually no time to have recovered properly from an injury and his C' disappeared amid strange circumstances as first he remained captain, then gave up the post to Messier when he began perceiving heat from teammates.
Whether the Linden deal was good for the Canucks is yet to be seen. But it was certainly the right move for the Isles, given Todd Bertuzzi and Mike Milbury were getting nowhere with each other.
After getting to know Pavel Bure this summer better than when they were teammates Linden shed some light on some of the reasons the Rocket is adamant feelings as well.
"For one thing, I can tell you the travel bothers him," said Linden, when asked why Bure wants out. "He's a terrible traveller. It's not that he's nervous or anything like that on a long flight, he just gets tired. It seems to take more out of him mentally and physically.
"There's a whole lot of good reasons why he wants out. I talked to him a few times over the summer and I have a pretty good understanding of where he was coming from."
And Messier's take on Pavel's holdout?
Messier says Bure doing the right thing; [Final Edition]
Jim Morris. Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.: Jan 15, 1999. pg. 21
With speculation growing that a Pavel Bure deal is near, Vancouver Canucks captain Mark Messier says he admires the Russian Rocket for refusing to play this season to push his trade demand.
"I have to admire Pavel for taking this stance because he did make it clear for the last few years that he would like to be traded," Messier said before his team's NHL game last night against the Edmonton Oilers. "I think he wasn't happy here, so instead of bringing that kind of energy into the locker room, he chose to sit out and do what he felt he had to do to force a trade."
Bure never did threaten to hold out during the 1994 play-offs - that is patently untrue. First Quinn claimed he was told this by "one of my guys" (McPhee???) and then Quinn had to admit that was untrue but much too late.
While Quinn tried to blame the Bure hold out rumour on the media making up stories. It was just another story planted by the Canucks with the Canucks friendly media when the negotiations turned nasty - just like has been done with other players like Linden, Ohlund, Umberger, Klatt, etc.
Pat Quinn finally went on HNIC and confirmed that Bure never threatened to walk out but the damage had already been done:
http://archives.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/topics/1459-9680/
Even Burkie later publicly confirmed it was a Bure vs Canucks management over trust and loyalty issues after trading him but many seem to want to ignore the plain facts and continue to believe that Pavel threatened to hold out during the Stanley Cup Play-offs:
Pavel miffed at management; [Final Edition]
Terry Bell, Sports Reporter. The Province. Vancouver, B.C.: Jan 18, 1999. pg. A.39
Pavel Bure felt previous Canucks management didn't stand behind their man and that's why he wanted out of Vancouver.
That's the explanation new team boss Brian Burke offered Sunday.
Media reports had Bure ready to walk out on the Canucks during their 1994 Stanley Cup final and Bure felt the team never came to his defence.
"I met with Pavel and he said that when questions were asked by the media he was not backed up by the club," said Burke.
"It wasn't denied rigorously enough.
...
Asked if Bure was just a whiny, little millionaire, Burke said: "No, you'll write that but don't ask me to say it."
That was enough to transform a shy, humble, jubilant kid into a bitter and angry individual. The boy who arrived in North America in 1991 left Vancouver seven years later a very different man.
Last edited by a moderator:
