Gregg Drinnan

TALKIN' HOCKEY

Rebuilding a team is a distasteful process

The collapse and dismantling of the Regina Pats hasn't been pretty to watch.

After all, their 1998-99 season once held some promise.

It seems like a long time ago, but it was only in September when the Pats were talking of making at least a little noise in the WHL's East Division. The only noise they have made, however, has been that of a team going down for the third time.

Somewhere along the line, likely about the time he and his family were opening their Christmas gifts, general manager Brent Parker decided to cash in what chips he had and look to the future.

It wasn't an easy decision for Parker to make. To date, he has traded away three players, two of them long-time members of the organization. Parker loves his players -- make no mistake about that. It was that feeling, more than anything else, that led him to dismiss head coach Parry Shockey just nine games into this season. Parker simply didn't like the way Shockey, a disciplinarian, treated the players.

As well, Parker knew that trading away star players would mean running the risk of not making the playoffs, something that isn't a palatable thought in the world of major junior hockey.

A first-round playoff series means a guarantee of at least two home games. And two home games, depending on the opposition, could be worth $100,000 to the Pats.

Asked the worth of one round, Parker said: "Enough to make it a concern that we might not be there."

Still, it was a risk that Parker felt he had to take.

So it wasn't long before left-winger Kyle Calder and defenceman Brad Stuart, both members of Canada's national junior team, and left-winger Todd Fedoruk were on their way out of town. In return, Parker did quite well in what is a buyer's market -- the Pats acquired four players, including highly touted goaltender Donald Choukalos, and seven bantam draft picks.

It is sad, however, when major junior hockey teams do what the Pats did. You make available your best players, taking younger players and bantam draft picks in exchange. Short-term pain for long-term gain, or so the theory goes.

This is something that has long been a staple of business in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In seasons past, the QMJHL has frequently been witness to mammoth trades, many of which loaded up one team for a run at the Memorial Cup.

This season, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, one of the QMJHL's top four teams, added nine players, seven of them described as impact-type players, before the trade deadline. Included in that group was goaltender Roberto Luongo, who starred with Canada's national junior team earlier this month.

There was a monster deal in the OHL this month, too. St. Michael's Majors surrendered their top forward line -- yes, all three players -- and their top defenceman, sending the quartet to the Barrie Colts, who are making a run for the roses.

There is, of course, at least one other option.

In Portland, for example, general manager Ken Hodge has so far refused to dismantle the Winter Hawks even though the defending Memorial Cup champions are sixth in the seven-team West Division.

"Our history has been we never, ever trade top-end players," Hodge told the Portland Oregonian. "The top-end guys you're talking about are people of character and leadership. We're very proud of what they can do for our team. We believe with all of those people in our lineup, we're a good hockey team. We feel we could be very upsetting in the first round of the playoffs and, after that, who knows?"

Those "top-end" players would be defenceman Andrew Ference, left-winger Brenden Morrow and centre Todd Robinson.

Hodge also pointed out that he feels "an obligation to our season-ticket holders."

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JUST NOTES: Don Cherry's Mississauga IceDogs have set an OHL record by putting up a 34-game winless streak. That broke the 33-game mark set by the 1995-96 London Knights . . . The IceDogs, at 1-42-3, may also break the CHL's futility record of 3-60-3 held by that same London team . . . The IceDogs, whose roster doesn't include any European players, are on pace to score 143 goals, which would be another CHL futility record. Someone should point out to Cherry that six of the WHL's seven leading rookie scorers are imports . . . Ottawa Senators C Shaun Van Allen, the pride of Shaunavon, reached a milestone on Tuesday when he played in his 400th NHL game. What that means is that an additional $4,500 per season is tossed into his pension, a figure that increases by $2,750 after the 1999-2000 season. Not bad for a defensive specialist who looked for the longest time as though he would drown in the minors.

(Talkin' Hockey appears Fridays.)