Kariya free to decide his fate
Al Strachan tells how speedy winger will pick his new team ... and it might be the Maple Leafs
By AL STRACHAN -- Toronto Sun
On Thursday, the floodgates open.
All across the National Hockey League, players who were not given qualifying offers will join the already swollen ranks of the free agents.
Thursday is July 1, the day that NHL contracts traditionally expire, and at that point, as the league prepares for the Sept. 16 lockout, no team will be committed to more than 15 players.
That's the high end. Most rosters are much less crowded. The Boston Bruins, for example, will have four players under contract. The Washington Capitals will have five.
As a result, there were some whispers on the NHL draft floor here in Raleigh yesterday concerning the future home of some of these free agents.
One of the more intriguing stories had to do with the Maple Leafs having an interest in Paul Kariya.
It must be stressed that this is not presented as fact. There can be no confirmation of the Leafs' purported intentions because to do so would be to admit tampering.
Commissioner Gary Bettman takes a dim view of such activities. As one insider said, "He has let it be known that he'd love to catch just one, because if he ever catches one, the penalty will be so severe that there will never be another."
But if the Leafs are indeed interested in Kariya, they have chosen wisely.
He played for the Colorado Avalanche last season for $1.2 million US, and recently was given a $1.32 million qualifying offer for next season.
But he won't accept it. The reason he took a cut from the $10 million salary he earned in Anaheim was to make sure he would qualify for Group 5 free agency (a 10-year veteran earning less than the league average). Having gone to such lengths, he's not going to reverse direction now.
Kariya wants to chart his own future and he was willing to pay for that privilege.
Now, it's up to the Leafs to convince him that Toronto is the place to play. If they can do so, the salary isn't likely to be a problem.
Kariya has made something like $60 million during his career and he is what might charitably be called careful with his money.
When he decides on his next team, the determination will be based on quality of life, not salary.
He was bitterly disappointed with the one-season Colorado experience, not because of the way he was treated, but because of the way it unfolded.
Not only was he himself injured for much of the year, so were many of the key Avalanche players. His close friend Teemu Selanne didn't play up to expectations. And worst of all, the team that he thought would win a Stanley Cup couldn't get past the second round of the playoffs.
To this day, he thinks that the Avs would have proved themselves to be the best team in hockey had they been able to avoid injuries.
Then, as if the season had not been bad enough already, he suffered another blow when he wasn't selected for Team Canada.
Kariya is a proud, driven man, one of the hardest-working, best-conditioned athletes in the game. He would love nothing better than to prove that he can recapture the star status that once was his, but which has eluded him in recent years.
And, like so many players who have never had the privilege of doing so, he wants to win a Stanley Cup.
If the Leafs could convince him that he could win that Cup and play in a hockey hotbed at the same time, there's no reason to think he wouldn't jump at the offer.
It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of confidence. If the Leafs can get Kariya to believe in them, he'll be theirs.
--------------------------------------------
``I'd love to have a pre-game skate tomorrow and be getting ready for Game 8,'' he said wistfully. ``It just makes me excited for training camp.''
- Shean Donovan, two days after losing Game 7 of the SCF
