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NFL

Wednesday, November 3
Developing talent a key for Colorado

By Al Morganti
Special to ESPN.com

Colorado Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix has been the target of many arrows, and there are still many people who see Lacroix as a guy with a target on his back.

He can be arrogant, condescending, and down right cocky -- but he runs one remarkable hockey operation.

"I don't care what (critics) say about me," said Lacroix during a recent trip with his club through the east. "We just try to do the best we can on the hockey side, and the business side. We just want to keep shooting, and hope we don't hit the post."

In fact, Lacroix has already hit the jack pot with the Avalanche. A year after moving from Quebec, the team won the Stanley Cup in 1996 -- and has remained among the NHL's elite teams.

No, the Avalanche have not had the sort of repeat run of the Detroit Red Wings, but they are right at the top of the NHL in terms of organizational strength.

And all of this has been done with a team which has been recently sold; a team which faced a heavy financial burden when they had to match a free agent offer to Joe Sakic by the New York Rangers in 1997; and a team which also has awarded monster contracts to Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy.

The Colorado pay roll is around $41 million, about $15 million less than the New York Rangers. The Avalanche rank fourth in the NHL in terms of pay roll, but they are arguably the best in terms of success, entertainment value and player development.

"The key is running this as a business and a sports team," said Lacroix. "And I've been very fortunate to surround myself with people who really know how to do their jobs -- especially our entire scouting staff."


	Coach Bob Hartley has helped Lacroix develop young talent.

Colorado's scouting team has provided a Rocky Mountain pipeline of young talent. Last year's rookie of the year Chris Drury (fifth pick, 72nd overall in 1994), is part of a one-two sophomore punch which includes Milan Hejduk (sixth pick, 187th overall in 1994), who has already scored some of the biggest and prettiest goals of the season.

Add this season's rookie group of Alex Tanguay (12th overall, 1998), goalie Marc Denis (25th overall, 1995), and swift skating defenseman Martin Skoula (17th overall, 1998) , and you see that Colorado's management has provided a bright future.

Indeed, Colorado has had many draft picks over the past few years. But it is one thing to have all those draft picks, and quite another to make the right selection -- and then actually develop that selection into an NHL player. Even then, go a step further and decide which of those players stays in the organization, and which are dealt away.

"In this day an age, even with stockpiling draft picks, you have to worry about when you will have to pay everybody. You can't just have everybody coming due at once, you need a blend."

That "blend" has been the reason the Avalanche have even moved some of their younger talent. In addition to the roster of young stars skating in their own colors, the Avalanche also drafted Anson Carter of the Boston Bruins, and a third rookie of the year candidate for last season, Mark Parrish of the Florida Panthers.

In return for Parrish, the Avalanche got Tom Fitzgerald, whom they had hoped would be the short-term veteran help they would need to get them a second Stanley Cup in 1998. The Avalanche did the same thing last spring when they traded away the rights to Robyn Regehr (19th overall, 1998) to Calgary in the deal which brought them Theo Fleury.

So, you might say it was a disaster. The Avalanche wound up losing Fleury to the New York Rangers as a free agent for nothing, right?

Not exactly. In Lacroix's equation all of this young talent has to be measured in terms of rating the future of each player against the immediate needs of the team. It is the huge advantage the Avalanche have over a team such as the Rangers, an organization which has not stockpiled enough "futures" to make a reasonable trade for the present without blowing away long-range plans.

"This is why, when people looked and saw that we lost Fleury, and (Valeri) Kamensky and (Sylvain) Lefebvre, they might not have understood," said Lacroix. "We have guys like Drury and Hejduk and Skoula who we think will eventually take those roles.

"Those guys, they are not yet the core group like Joe (Sakic) and Peter (Forsberg) and Patrick (Roy), but we believe they will get there and be the core." Behind that, the next group is already making waves as Tanguay looks solid, and Skoula has already weaved his way in and around Detroit's left wing lock.

Some of the credit for this development must also be accorded to second-year coach Bob Hartley, who has a background of dealing with young players as a junior coach and the Avalanche's AHL coach with the Hershey Bears. Hartley is not shy about giving the new kids a shot at big-time jobs.

"I think having kids like this, pushing for jobs adds energy to a team," said Hartley. "Sometimes, when a team has too many veterans, the room can get a little comfortable. With the kids, there is always an energy."

Pronger walks the walk
Give St. Louis Blues captain Chris Pronger full marks for backing up some tough words. Pronger had some harsh words for his teammates after the Blues suffered a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils -- and three nights later he backed them up with a four-point night against Detroit.

Pronger scored a goal to set up the overtime period, and then assisted on a goal by Pavol Demitra early in the extra period to get the victory. Pronger, who is among the league leaders in average ice time per game with about 30 minutes, is turning into that rare captain who leads by both words and action on the ice.

Strange rewards in Washington
The Washington Capitals return home this week after what turned into a disaster of a trip out west. The Caps were 0-3-1, including a 5-2 loss at Anaheim. The loss to the Ducks was particularly stinging to coach Ron Wilson, who used to coach at Anaheim.

In two games against his former team this season, the Caps have been outscored, 12-3. In those two games, Anaheim's first line of Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne and Matt Cullen combined for 16 points with eight in each game.

The club will arrive home just in time for the return of general manager George McPhee, who is now back from a one-month suspension and $20,000 fine levied by the NHL for fighting antics after a preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Despite the slow start, the club is expected to announce this week that both McPhee and Wilson will be granted one-year extensions on contracts which were due to end after this season.

The Capitals have been tortured by slow starts in games, giving up the first goal in seven of their first nine games. Then again, the Caps blew 2-0 leads in both Phoenix and Los Angeles during the recent trip out west.

Perhaps the Caps are feeling the loss of defenseman Mark Tinordi, who is still lurking around as a free agent.

One interesting note is that goalie Olaf Kolzig -- who is facing an inordinate number of odd-man rushes, smashed his stick over the cross bar during a 5-2 loss at Los Angeles. Think back less than two years, and the theme around Kolzig as he took the team to the Stanley Cup finals was that he had finally managed to control his temper, and he was a better goalie because of that discipline.

Chicago in a Daze
The Chicago Blackhawks have enough problems, including a six-game winless streak (0-3-3) to start the season, and now they have to worry about a chronic back injury to Eric Daze, who has been missing from the lineup because of back spasms.

If nothing else, the back spasms will make it more difficult to engineer a deal which includes Daze. By the way, how secure is the job of Chicago GM Bob Murray if the Hawks continue to lose at home? In cities such as Boston and Chicago the first rule is to win the home games to pack the building, and anything close to .500 on the road is icing.

At this point, anything close to .500 in Chicago is a dream.

The Hawks continue to shop for any team which will pick up the contract of veteran Doug Gilmour.

Top line back together
The New Jersey Devils will finally get their first line together this week as Petr Sykora, Patrik Elias and Jason Arnott are all expected to be healthy and ready to play. Elias is only recently back from a contract squabble, Sykora had a brief hold out at training camp, and Arnott once again got hit in the face with a puck last week, suffering a concussion and also needed 14 stitches to close a cut in his mouth.

You have to wonder about the future of Elias in New Jersey. Much like the Boston Bruins, the Devils don't have much room for players who buck the organization, and even after he signed, Elias has continued to note that he does not think the deal is fair.

The last of the Sutters
It's already been an eventful season for San Jose forward Ron Sutter. In addition to playing his 1,000th game, he also scored his 200th career goal recently. Ron Sutter's presence in the NHL is the last on-ice link to the line of five Sutter brothers who have played in the league -- two of whom are now coaches.

This is the 24th consecutive year a Sutter has been on an NHL roster, dating back to 1976. The combined totals for the family include 1,315 goals, over 2,900 points and more than 7,000 minutes in the penalty box.

Not bad for a franchise, never mind a family.

Dangerous teammates
It's bad enough to get hurt when you're clobbered by an opponent, but it's even worse when you go down because of something delivered by a teammate. Cases in point: Penguins forward Alexei Morozov is out for one to two weeks because of a charley horse suffered when he ran into teammate Brad Werenka. ... In New Jersey, forward Brendan Morrison is due back this week. Already delayed because of a contract squabble, Morrisson had his return delayed again when he was hit in the foot during a practice at Carolina by teammate Ken Daneyko.

Slap shots
Now that they've got Joe Juneau, the Ottawa Senators could be in the market to deal center Vinny Prospal. The Florida Panthers might have some interest. ... It's too early to predict a repeat performance as the league's MVP, but Jaromir Jagr had that kind of impact in the month of October, which he finished by scoring or assisting on 10 consecutive Pittsburgh goals. ... Also playing the role of Mr. October was Montreal's Brian Savage. The Canadiens hope he stays on that savage pace in which he scored 10 of Montreal's 22 goals. ... Part of the reason for the Caps slow start: Sergei Gonchar, who has zero goals. Richard Zednik has just one goal.


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