The best captains in hockey history

[Albatros]

 

[JackSlater]

The way I’ve interpreted the chain of events, is that players including Sopel and Boynton hear about the assault from one of the black aces, prior to game 1 of the Conference Finals. Nick Boynton confronts skill coach Paul Vincent, who has a police background, with the allegations and he talks with two named victims of Aldrich’s for further information. He then turns what he knows over to their sports psychologist and the director of security, and is eventually called up by management who ensures him the matter is being taken care of and that he doesn’t need to investigate it further.

For sure, what we can say with certainty is that management handled it disgracefully.

It is less certain exactly which players on the team knew what during the playoffs, but according to Boynton:



Boynton did however name black ace Jake Dowell as his initial source of information, who disputes the claim ‘everybody knew’:



I can’t claim with any certainty that Toews lied about not hearing why Aldrich was let go during the playoffs, and did so prior to the next training camp as he’s stated. It’s harder to believe Kane or Keith saying they remained oblivious until the investigations became public or whatever. It might all be a case of players hearing different rumors and accounts at different points, “Aldrich was let go because he’s a creep”, “Aldrich tried to get into guys’ pants”, and not truly knowing what to make of it. And of course, if they did try to ‘do the right thing’, management — their bosses — says it’s been taken care of.

Ultimately, I don’t think the locker room in which Kyle Beach were taunted about missing his girlfriend reflects well on Toews leadership, but no one can say that’s something he understood or would have tolerated if made aware. I think it’s very plausible that could have been almost any locker room in the NHL at the time, and the good coming out of the entire ordeal is that it raised awareness and hopefully sparked some initiative for improving culture, handling similar situations, and protecting kids in the future.

That's pretty much fair. More reasonable that what often becomes hysteria when it comes to Toews. Beach possibly being taunted at practice or pre-season (I thought that this was something that came up post-2010 with Beach, could be wrong) would be the primary negative on Toews, particularly if it was widespread. Anyway, good post o the matter.

 

[The Panther]

Your argument to not excluding Towes from a greatest captains list because of the Beach situation is that...we don't know if there could possibly be things out there somewhere that other captains were aware of?

"We just don't know." Yeah, sure, fine. So let's put them all in the bucket with Toews and give Jonathan a pat on the back, because maybe somewhere there's an event that some other captain knew about?

Actually I didn't say anything about Toews being a great captain or not. I have no opinion on that.

If Toews knew what was going on and did nothing. then certainly it reflect poorly on him in all ways. And if he knew, then almost certainly many Blackhawk players knew, so it reflects poorly on all of them. (This, to me, raises another issue, which is if 21 year olds should be captains of pro-sports teams, but that's another matter.)

Toews himself says he didn't know what was going on. That doesn't stretch credibility to me, so i'm basically inclined to believe him unless further evidence comes to light.

I think we can all agree, however, that the Blackhawks' organization handled it disastrously.

Getting back to the point i actually was making: As in my first post in this thread, I think that none of us really knows what goes on with team captains. We might think we do, but we don't. So, as great as many captains in this thread probably were, it's quite possible that some of them were aware of similarly sketchy things going on, but let it go or turned a blind eye.

As another poster said, the important thing to come out of the Beach situation is that it furthered changes in hockey culture that were overdue.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Getting back to the point i actually was making: As in my first post in this thread, I think that none of us really knows what goes on with team captains. We might think we do, but we don't. So, as great as many captains in this thread probably were, it's quite possible that some of them were aware of similarly sketchy things going on, but let it go or turned a blind eye.

I guess thanks for repeating it, because that’s what I found offensive about your argument (and that’s what I responded to). Thanks for confirming.

 

[hockey webcomics]

 

[The Panther]

I guess thanks for repeating it, because that’s what I found offensive about your argument (and that’s what I responded to). Thanks for confirming.

You're being silly.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

We’re always bound to infer a bunch of shit discussing leadership. What do we like to see, what don’t we like to see, what are the opinions of others, of course we don’t really know.

Captain Crunch replaced virtually all his offensive flair with stifling, punishing defense which earned him three Cup rings, that’s great. He also served as the lookout for three teammates having their way with a teenaged girl in a limo. That’s all kinds of messed up, but admittedly very team-first. I’ll always want to qualify any statement praising his leadership, with what I liked and what I’d like to do without.

 

[57special]

Beliveau was the ultimate Captain. My mother met him at a party in the early 80's, and swooned. He was very gracious, and charming, and didn't mind wiping my mother's drool off his suitjacket.

Bobby Clarke, for all I despised the 70's Flyers, was emblematic of the team, and would probably be 2nd in my mind.

 

[gretzkyoilers]

 

[daver]

Crosby has the most diverse resume of Captaincy success:

Three Cups
One Olympic Gold
One World Cup
One World Championship

 

[Reindl87]

Gretzky and Crosby, lead by example.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

We’re always bound to infer a bunch of shit discussing leadership. What do we like to see, what don’t we like to see, what are the opinions of others, of course we don’t really know.

Captain Crunch replaced virtually all his offensive flair with stifling, punishing defense which earned him three Cup rings, that’s great. He also served as the lookout for three teammates having their way with a teenaged girl in a limo. That’s all kinds of messed up, but admittedly very team-first. I’ll always want to qualify any statement praising his leadership, with what I liked and what I’d like to do without.

Not sure which Captain you’re referring to here lol.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

I mean, if we're being honest here, none of us can say who really is and isn't a "good" captain. We get to see about 2% of it, and then only the public mask, not the real guy.

Yzerman is an interesting case. I feel like (just my meaningless subjective impression) he was less vocal in the late-80s when still a young guy, and then became more of a speak-out guy when he was a grizzled veteran. Chelios tells the story of his first few games in Detroit, circa 1999, when he decided to leave his check to help out Yzerman, who was getting worked over in front of the net. Their opponent scored, and later Chelios says Yzerman reamed him out for leaving his check. Chelios says he was somewhat intimidated by Yzerman... which isn't necessarily bad. I think Yzerman, as a young guy, was really disliked by referees. Yzerman also had that brief period when he was frustrated by Bowman and once or twice kind of sounded off to the media about it.

Yzerman even alluded to his penchant for chewing out referees during his retirement press conference. I remember him saying “much to the delight of many NHL referees, I’m announcing my retirement…” lol.

Darren McCarty is a cohost on a Detroit sports based network and he’s made comments about Yzerman being outspoken, often times crossing the line with referees as well.

That’s actually something I missed after he retired. Not to take away anything from Lidstrom and Zetterberg but they never seemed to get after the referees the way Yzerman did. Less intensity out of them overall.

 

[Mercedes Benn]

Not sure which Captain you’re referring to here lol.

Scott Stevens?

 

[buffalowing88]

Holding the Kyle Beach situation against Toews is just wild to me.

Just outside of the realm of reason.

Ask a guy in his early 20s to tell a lockerroom that you're going to stand up for a fringe guy, who didn't for years after claim rape, because he got a BJ from a trainer. That'll go over swell in 2010.

From a purely hockey perspective this is ridiculous. Toews was an incredible captain. I'm putting him up there with Crosby and Ovechkin for that generation of leaders.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

Scott Stevens?

Makes sense. I’d only ever heard Wendel Clark called Captain Crunch before but I was like, “Clark never won any cups, though” lol.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Holding the Kyle Beach situation against Toews is just wild to me.

Just outside of the realm of reason.

Ask a guy in his early 20s to tell a lockerroom that you're going to stand up for a fringe guy, who didn't for years after claim rape, because he got a BJ from a trainer. That'll go over swell in 2010.

From a purely hockey perspective this is ridiculous. Toews was an incredible captain. I'm putting him up there with Crosby and Ovechkin for that generation of leaders.

some years ago, i wrote this long drawn out post about scott stevens. about how he was this incredible leader and mentor, which we see on the ice, but also when you read guys like sheldon souray or gomz after their careers were over reflecting on how stevens went the extra mile with them as young guys, showing them not only how to be pros but also giving them the confidence that he genuinely cared about them and had their back.

and i wondered out loud if that captain stevens was the other half of the same coin that reportedly had him standing outside a limo in washington (maryland?) that night in 1990 when three teammates were allegedly assaulting a woman. as the story goes, and this is from nick kypreos’ mouth, stevens is standing guard outside and when kypreos is about to go in, stevens tells him, you don’t want to do that.

which ultimately is me thinking about how we compartmentalize the duties of a captain that lead to success on the ice, how that spills over into dressing room camaraderie, and then ultimately streamlines organizational mission.

so with toews, no part of me blames him for what happened on his watch when he was 21. at the very least i’d have loved for him to put an end to the homophobic taunting of beach and, iirc, the other blackhawk, but again that’s effectively the youngest guy on the team other than kane, who was only half a year younger, and beach himself.

there was a culture of burying guys there — i mean, there always is in pro sports, but that blackhawks franchise was something else, as we’d later see with akim aliu and steve montador (RIP) — and toews was doing his job as captain to make sure everyone was aligned with the goal of winning the cup and not the “distractions.” and he succeeded, wildly. three cups in five years. by one definition, absolutely great captain. we also saw it on team canada in 2014, where crosby had the C but, on a team full of guys who were their own teams’ captains, a lot of little things on the bench and ice seemed to indicate that the team saw toews as their real captain.

but back to the beginning, it would be great if he’d had that kind of character to do something but a 21 year old kid shouldn’t be expected to have been the whistleblower and hero in 2010. that said, i am extremely disappointed that when this all blew up, toews in his 30s still was a company man and stood behind bowman and those other guys.

but i think that’s the difference between your great captain who got results, like stevens, messier, gretzky, michael jordan, and whomever, and great transcendent human beings like bill russell, whose influence — and ambition — was larger than that (in my naïveté i want to put beliveau in that category but i don’t really know tbh).

 

[archangel2]

Here is the thing. We only see 75% of what the guy with the C on his chest.

A few years ago at UBC I went to a Seminar where a couple of former nhl players were talking to the several of the teams and leadership was brought up. On and off the ice.

They gave examples of things we never hear about. Like the captain being the mouth piece for the owner or coach. They also talked about times the captain was on vacation in Europe and if he called any of his teammates who lived in any of the cities he was visiting.

The mention one guy who wore the C on a Canadian and while the fan base loved him and thought he was the greatest one in the NHL. He spent several summers in Europe in cities where his teammates lived but they did not find out he was in their city until training camp opened. When asked why he did not call them or something.. he said he was on family time and did not want anyone else around.

They then mentioned other captions and players from teams where once the season ended they always checked their teammates if they were going to be around when they were in their home city?

One key part of leadership they said was that they felt the best captions were guys who went out of their way to spend time with teammates away from the rink because they wanted to do not because they had a letter on the jersey.

One player talked about how in the 70s and 80s players voted on who wore the C. Starting in late 80s nearly every team management picked the guy who wore the C and not the players. One player retired in about 2010 said the last 10 years of his career that rarely the guy wearing the C was the real leader of the team.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I love Sakic, but to me there's two little stains on an otherwise spotless capitancy. First, his reluctance to deal with the media while in Quebec City, and second, him signing an offer sheet with the Rangers one year after winning the cup. Maybe those aren’t fair points, I don’t know. But personally, they always irked me a little when Iooking at his tenure.

fwiw, there is some backstory and previous bad blood to the sakic offer sheet. here’s a history of protracted sakic negotiations with quebec/colorado:

The news release, authored by minor hockey executive Larry Hayes of Burnaby, suggested that Sakic and his agent, Don Baizley of Winnipeg, would "like nothing better than to return to the West Coast and suit up for the Vancouver Canucks . . . a deal for this local product would be a natural." Hayes was Sakic's manager for two seasons with the Burnaby Midget Hawks.

Hayes, who describes himself as a personal friend and advisor of Sakic, said he wrote the release in the player's best interests. "If Quebec really wanted him, he'd be signed by now," Hayes said. "Joe will publicly deny it, because he doesn't want to burn any bridges with Quebec, but this is really how he feels."

Beamish, Mike.  The Vancouver Sun; Vancouver, B.C.. 05 May 1988: G2

it looks like part of the issue was taxes in quebec and the canadian dollars:

Contract negotiations between junior hockey star Joe Sakic and the Quebec Nordiques still linger on — almost 11 months after the scoring whiz was drafted by the National Hockey League club. ''We're significantly apart, but we're still talking with Quebec management,'' Sakic's agent, Don Baizley, said yesterday. ''We're not in the ruptured stage just yet.'' Sakic, a talented centre with the Swift Current Broncos in the Western Hockey League, was the 15th player selected in the NHL's 1987 entry draft.

He was a key member of the Canadian team that won the world junior hockey championship in Moscow four months ago and last month was selected the WHL's outstanding player for the 1987-88 season.

There were reports in Vancouver during the winter that Sakic wanted to play closer to home - he was born in suburban Burnaby and now lives during the off-season in nearby Surrey - but Sakic has denied the allegation.

Sakic left Thursday for Chicoutimi, Que., for the Memorial Cup tournament, which begins today. He's one of three finalists for the Canadian junior player of the year award.

''We're trying to work out a deal with Quebec because in this game it's difficult to pick and choose where you want to play,'' said Baizley in a telephone interview from Winnipeg. ''I have found that most of my clients have enjoyed the culture of Quebec.'' Baizley said the Quebec provincial tax situation and payment in Canadian dollars make it difficult for some players during negotiations with the Nordiques.

''Those things make Quebec less attractive financially,'' the agent said, ''and we're trying to work a deal to compensate for those problems.’’

The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont.. 07 May 1988: A.17

sakic was finally signed a week later:

The Nordiques yesterday signed Joe Sakic, their second choice in the first round (15th overall) last year to a multi-year contract.

Sakic, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound centre, was selected Wednesday as the outstanding junior in the country. He is being called a franchise player by Quebec.

"He is the future of the Nordiques," said Aubut. "We've never had a chance to sign the best junior in the country."

Maurice Filion, vice-president hockey operations, is convinced Sakic, who turns 19 in July, will be with the pro team next season.

"He is one of our keys. He has all the talent," said Filion. "If you can play out west, against guys 6-foot-2 and 180 or 200 pounds and you're the leading scorer, you're something.

"If he can do it out west I'm sure he can in the NHL. As far as I'm concerned he'll be with the Nordiques next year.”

The Gazette; Montreal, Que.. 13 May 1988: D3

in 1991, he took the team to arbitration

Sakic is the Nordiques' premier player. He scored 48 goals and 109 points last season, the second consecutive year he's passed the century mark. This season, he leads the Nords in scoring with seven goals and 18 assists in 19 games.

Sakic has this season and an option year remaining on his current contract, earning $405,000 this season, far below his market value.

His is no ordinary arbitration. The process is generally reserved for players in their option year. Sakic, however, has a clause that automatically invokes binding arbitration to settle a renegotiation dispute.

The Nordiques have voluntarily bumped up Sakic's salary on a couple of occasions. They're prepared to do it again, but not high enough to satisfy Sakic.

The club submitted an offer of approximately $675,000 to Hinnegan, a source said. According to the same source, Sakic's agent, Don Baizley of Winnipeg, submitted a figure of between $1.2 million and $1.5 million. That's in the same fiscal neighborhood as Detroit Red Wing star centre Steve Yzerman.

Hinnegan's decision may have a huge impact on the Nordiques. He is free to award any amount he sees fit.

If Sakic wins big, the Nordiques' payroll will enter a whole new universe. Other players, especially burgeoning stars Mats Sundin and Owen Nolan, will be lining up behind their offensive leader.

If the Nordiques win big, they're going to have one unhappy star on their hands. On a team that can't sign Eric Lindros and that has finished last over-all for the last three years, with the fragile psyche to prove it, it's another distraction it can do without.

Potential for bitterness is high.

Both sides are reportedly using Yzerman's contract as the basis for their figures.

The discrepancy arises because Yzerman is paid by both the Red Wings and Little Caesar's pizza chain, club owner Mike Ilitch's principal business. Yzerman's contract filed with the league is apparently only for $700,000. He receives another $600,000 from the pizza chain.

The Nords are looking strictly at his Red Wing contract; Baizley and Sakic are looking at his total income.

That, apparently, is why the arbitration hearing took so long.

"The first half of the hearing contained a fair amount of arguing over what is relevant and admissible and other various legal points," Hinnegan said. "It wasn't until the second half that we got down to the actual issues."

Sakic sat through the entire proceedings.

"It was different," he said yesterday. "I'm just looking forward to a decision. The waiting is the hard part."

Bob McKenzie TORONTO STAR.  Toronto Star; Toronto, Ont.. 22 Nov 1991: C3

decades later, former canucks AGM laurence gilman shed some light on those proceedings:

a priceless anecdote, as told by former canucks assistant GM laurence gilman on the radio yesterday:

the scenario is it's the early 90s, the quebec nordiques are being run by pierre lacroix and pierre page is the GM. sakic had already been up for arbitration a few times.

"the night before the hearing, the parties met to try to settle in advance of the arbitration and pierre lacroix and page start to talk about the fact that, the salary comparison don baizley was drawing at the time was to steve yzerman. lacroix and page countered with, well you can't compare the two because joe sakic has never been in the playoffs. and yzerman has had all this playoff experience. and apparently baizley looks across the table at them and said, i'm going to tell you guys this right now: don't bring that up at the hearing because if you do you are going to regret it. and lacroix and page shook it off, and sure enough they get into the hearing the next day and as the hearing is going forward one of the points being put forth by the quebec nordiques is, joe sakic isn't worth what he wants because he has no playoff experience and guys who have playoff experience are the ones who get paid. and apparently don baizley said very clearly, now mr. arbitrator, i don't think that mr. lacroix and mr. page are blaming mr. sakic for their ability to field a competitive team that's good enough to make the playoffs every year. and essentially the case was over and sakic had an epic win."

sidenote: gilman also went out of his way to call baizley the only agent in history deserving of being inducted into the HHOf.

EDIT: i believe gilman has his timeline mixed up. lacroix wasn't hired as the nordiques' president until 1994, so he almost certainly wasn't there for that arbitration hearing (which must have been 1991).

ultimately, sakic ended up getting bumped to $1.1 million, shy of the $1.5m he was asking for. the result was controversial because the arbitrator went out of his way to note that he took the salary structure of the quebec franchise into consideration.

In deciding the 1991-92 salary for centre Joe Sakic of the Quebec Nordiques, arbitrator Al Hinnegan said he considered Quebec's salary structure when making his decision. The collective bargaining agreement, which expired in September, prohibits consideration of the financial health of a club.

All this has taken place while the league and the NHL Players' Association struggle to reach a new collective agreement.

...

In Sakic's case, Hinnegan stated that "although the financial status of this club is irrelevant in my deliberations, its negotiated salary structure must be, albeit not controlling and only one of a number of factors, properly considered."

In making his decision, Hinnegan compared Sakic's salary to his other teammates rather than what other top centres are making.

Sakic was seeking an annual salary of $1.5 million but was awarded $1.1 million.

Adams, Alan.  The Vancouver Sun; Vancouver, B.C.. 14 Dec 1991: H5

and so in 1997, both sakic and forsberg needed new deals. and they had the same agent, don baizley... awkward:

Kariya and Forsberg head the list of the NHL's new crop of young stars. Sakic is at the peak of his career, winner of the Smythe Trophy as most valuable playoff worker in the Avs' 1996 Stanley Cup triumph.

The amount of loot that Baizley squeezes out of those teams for the trio will set the pattern for front-liners' contract negotiations for the next few seasons.

Baizley, who adamantly declines to negotiate via the media, will not reveal the numbers he will seek but you can be sure that in all three negotiations top dollar will be requested.

Considering the high quality of the three players, multi-year contracts in the $5-6 million range are likely.

But can the Avalanche afford two players earning that much when their payroll is already among the NHL's highest?

For the Avalanche to keep both Sakic and Forsberg and the Mighty Ducks to afford Kariya, quality players must be dropped from their payroll. Thus, the load the big stars must carry increases.

Frank Orr TORONTO STAR.  Toronto Star; Toronto, Ont. 09 Feb 1997: D.5

but where did the salary numbers of $6m for forsberg and only $4.5m for sakic come from? it makes no sense in terms of their stature in the league at the time, and likely was planted by the avs banking on sakic’s loyalty and putting the onus on him to take a haircut (oops)

Can the Avalanche do that following this season when both Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic become restricted free agents?

Ascent Entertainment Group, the company that owns both the Avalanche and the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets, is losing millions and will continue to do so as long as its teams play in aging McNichols Arena.

Forsberg is earning $2.075 million Cdn, of which $575,000 is his base salary. Sakic is getting $3.1 million US this year, all salary.

Both players are represented by agent Don Baizley, who isn't sure himself how much Ascent is prepared to pay to keep them both. Forsberg's asking price figures to be around $6 million US per season. The thinking is Sakic may settle for $4.5 million US per year.

Either way, $10.5 million is a lot to spend on two players. Add in Patrick Roy at $4.5 million US and the Avalanche are looking at paying three players more than the entire New York Islanders' roster earns.

...

Forsberg and Sakic say they would like to stay.

Said Forsberg: "I would say, when you're like 32, you can maybe go for the big money, but I'm still 23 and we've got a group of great guys. But there's always a limit, if you know what I mean. Why should I want to leave? We've got a good team. I wouldn't say I'm going to take less money (to stay), though. That would be stupid of me.

"It's still the middle of the season, so I wouldn't really want to say anything. If we're not done before the end of the season . . . I've got to be professional here and think about my hockey first and put it ahead of everything else."

As for Sakic, he says: "I definitely want to stay here. I don't want to go anywhere else. But I'm not really thinking about it that much because we've got a lot of time left.

"Hopefully, in the end, we'll get it done."

Duhatschek, Eric.  Calgary Herald; Calgary, Alta.. 15 Feb 1997: D.4

forsberg gets signed super quickly. he doesn’t get the $6m a year he wants, but it looks like he delayed the big payday two years down the road, hitting his number in year three (a team option) but looking to renegotiate then for his homerun longterm deal. the other interesting tidbit (if i’m reading this correctly) is he was the last guy still being paid in canadian dollars.

Colorado Avalanche star centre Peter Forsberg signed a new three-year contract worth up to $12.8 million Tuesday.

Forsberg, the NHL rookie of the year in 1995, will be paid $2.8 million the first year [my clarification: it looks like this was to renegotiate the current season up to $2.8m], $4 million the second [me again: i.e., the 1997–98 season] and $5 million or $6 million the third year, depending on whether he or the team exercises its option.

Forsberg was the last Avalanche team member playing under a Canadian contract since the team moved to Denver from Quebec City.

Last year, the team adjusted the contracts of Joe Sakic, Adam Foote and Sylvain Lefebvre. This year, the Avalanche reached agreements with Mike Ricci and Adam Deadmarsh.

although weirdly, there seems to have been the perception that forsberg was getting $6m AAV instead of only hitting that number in his option year:

When the summer comes in Colorado usually minutes after the end of the Stanley Cup parade the Avalanche must figure out what to do with Joe Sakic. In other words, is it prepared to pay him the same $5 million or $6 million a year it has committed to Peter Forsberg?

Kevin Paul Dupont The Boston Globe, NHL Notes Preview author details .  Star - Phoenix; Saskatoon, Sask.. 12 May 1997: C2

another source citing the $6m number for forsberg:

Speculation is that Roy — who makes $4.5 million US a season — had a clause guaranteeing him top spot on Colorado's payroll. Centre Peter Forsberg, however, will make $6 million US this season.

The Record; Kitchener, Ont.. 09 Aug 1997: F3

here’s glen sather (still with the oilers at that point) stirring up trouble but saying what iirc was on a lot of people’s minds, that colorado took care of forsberg before sakic:

Then [Sather] ripped into McNichols Arena's dressing room facilities, tweaking Colorado star Joe Sakic in the process.

"It's not very good, is it?" he said. "But it's all they have. They could spend a couple thousand dollars and make it much more roomy. But maybe they're trying to save money so they can sign Sakic. If I was Sakic, I'd be a little annoyed that they signed (Peter) Forsberg and didn't sign Sakic.''

In February, Forsberg signed a two-year contract extension worth $12.3 million. Although Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix says he intends to re-sign Sakic, it hasn't been done and Sakic will become a restricted free agent this summer.

Toronto Star; Toronto, Ont.. 04 May 1997: D.6

and near the end of a summer of posturing, where the canucks hemmed and hawed about offer-sheeting sakic (pat quinn said it was a pipedream and anything they could offer colorado would immediately match) and trading for him (there was talk of a three way where bure goes to LA, a giant bag goes from LA to colorado, and sakic goes to the canucks to team up with mogilny), they settle (ugh) on messier, the rangers regroup by offering sakic $21m over three, higher than the what sakic was reportedly looking for from colorado and with the added dagger of the first $15m being front-loaded. here’s the famous air force one story:

The Rangers have signed free-agent Sakic to an offer sheet worth $21 million U.S. over three years. A few months ago, this would have been a done deal and Sakic would have been off to Broadway. But the Avalanche has the right to match the Rangers' offer and, if they do, it will be thanks to Ford and this summer's blockbuster movie, Air Force One.

It seems that Ford and Sakic have something in common - the same employer. Air Force One was produced by Beacon Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascent Entertainment Group that also owns the Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association. The Avalanche and the Nuggets are both losing money - and will continue to do so until they move into the new Pepsi Centre - and that's why the Avalanche has previously said it would be unable to sign Sakic after keeping Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy happy. The success of Air Force One gives Ascent some breathing room and might clear the way for a Sakic deal. The money is there and the only downside is waiting for Forsberg and Roy to ask for their contracts to be renegotiated.

Hickey, Pat.  The Gazette; Montreal, Que.. 07 Aug 1997: B.7

Clearly, the Avs and Lacroix miscalculated. Sakic earned $3.1 million last year, and Peter Forsberg signed a contract during the season that could be worth $12.8 million over three years.

Given those figures, Lacroix anticipated that even if a team did come fishing for Sakic, the offer would be easily matched.

He certainly didn't see $15 million coming.

The curious part of all this is that the Nordiques were yanked out of Quebec City because they didn't have a new arena in a small market. Twenty-four months later, the Avs are playing out of the NHL's worst facility on an indefinite basis and are doing the small-market moan over Sakic.

The Rangers obviously knew a vulnerable target when they saw one.

Damien Cox TORONTO STAR.  Toronto Star; Toronto, Ont.. 12 Aug 1997: D.3

reading all of this, it feels to me like sakic was a guy who really didn’t expect to get a fair deal in the summer of 1997. according to numerous commentators, once forsberg was re-signed and with roy already there there was no way the avs could afford to give sakic much of a raise without gutting the team (which is what they kind of did: they let mike keane walk, scott young was traded that summer, ricci a few games into the season — and this was the year they lost in the first round to the oilers, before regrouping by adding hejduk and drury as rookies in ’99 and making it back to the third round; and remember even with those players leaving, it still took a box office miracle to make it work).

do i blame him for signing that offer sheet? did that make him a bad captain? i guess it depends. i think he was a guy who felt like he always had to leave something on the table, whether it was canadian dollars, quebec taxes, or just the limited dollars in the colorado organization, which was hamstrung by what was widely regarded as the worst building in the league.

the other context is this was the legendarily bonkers summer of the chris gratton offer sheet, and remember that the other two marquee RFAs, kariya and lindros, both turned down deals worth sakic’s AAV. both eventually signed in december, with kariya seeking $27m over three but settling for $14m over two that he’d previously been offered, and lindros getting $16m over two. that summer, the canucks had to match toronto’s offer sheet of $10m/5 years to ohlund, who while admittedly an excellent prospect hadn’t played a single NHL game yet.

the end fo the story is, once the avs built their current building and then had stable ownership in place, sakic was as loyal as they come and conversely they always took care of him, all the way up to right now. and after the 2005 lockout, it was forsberg that they reluctantly let go, all but guaranteeing that sakic would be an avs lifer.

 

[buffalowing88]

some years ago, i wrote this long drawn out post about scott stevens. about how he was this incredible leader and mentor, which we see on the ice, but also when you read guys like sheldon souray or gomz after their careers were over reflecting on how stevens went the extra mile with them as young guys, showing them not only how to be pros but also giving them the confidence that he genuinely cared about them and had their back.

and i wondered out loud if that captain stevens was the other half of the same coin that reportedly had him standing outside a limo in washington (maryland?) that night in 1990 when three teammates were allegedly assaulting a woman. as the story goes, and this is from nick kypreos’ mouth, stevens is standing guard outside and when kypreos is about to go in, stevens tells him, you don’t want to do that.

which ultimately is me thinking about how we compartmentalize the duties of a captain that lead to success on the ice, how that spills over into dressing room camaraderie, and then ultimately streamlines organizational mission.

so with toews, no part of me blames him for what happened on his watch when he was 21. at the very least i’d have loved for him to put an end to the homophobic taunting of beach and, iirc, the other blackhawk, but again that’s effectively the youngest guy on the team other than kane, who was only half a year younger, and beach himself.

there was a culture of burying guys there — i mean, there always is in pro sports, but that blackhawks franchise was something else, as we’d later see with akim aliu and steve montador (RIP) — and toews was doing his job as captain to make sure everyone was aligned with the goal of winning the cup and not the “distractions.” and he succeeded, wildly. three cups in five years. by one definition, absolutely great captain. we also saw it on team canada in 2014, where crosby had the C but, on a team full of guys who were their own teams’ captains, a lot of little things on the bench and ice seemed to indicate that the team saw toews as their real captain.

but back to the beginning, it would be great if he’d had that kind of character to do something but a 21 year old kid shouldn’t be expected to have been the whistleblower and hero in 2010. that said, i am extremely disappointed that when this all blew up, toews in his 30s still was a company man and stood behind bowman and those other guys.

but i think that’s the difference between your great captain who got results, like stevens, messier, gretzky, michael jordan, and whomever, and great transcendent human beings like bill russell, whose influence — and ambition — was larger than that (in my naïveté i want to put beliveau in that category but i don’t really know tbh).

This is probably the greatest post about this I've encountered. Thank you. You're right, Toews should have stepped up in his 30s. I'll go to battle defending that man's leadership, but this post is very insightful.

 

[buffalowing88]

This is probably the greatest post about this I've encountered. Thank you. You're right, Toews should have stepped up in his 30s. I'll go to battle defending that man's leadership, but this post is very insightful.

Also, unrelated a bit, but Stevens is the only HOFer I've met outside of a handshake line.

For a dude who is considered one of the toughest SOBs in hockey, he was the gentlest man in the world to me and my family.

He also tipped the waitress at the restaurant we were at with an amount that made her start jumping around and smiling.

This does not discount the limo story, but it does show the duality of man in general.