I guess not. Here's piece on how trade could be disaster.
This Trade Could Be a Trembler
n the N.H.L.'s Richter scale ?no relation to a goalie of the same name ?yesterday's trade of Pavel Bure from Florida to the Rangers is an earth-shaking event. Like some seismic episodes, it could be disastrous. At the very least, it rearranges the scenery and creates a great deal of excitement.
Bure is similar in some ways to Rickey Henderson, the veteran baseball star. Both are future Hall of Famers who create impressive offensive statistics and care a great deal about themselves. Like Henderson, the Russian Rocket moves from team to team while leaving behind highlight reels and mixed feelings. Few Florida fans or teammates will miss Bure. The Panthers can finish out of the playoffs with or without Bure's lack of defensive diligence.
Bure joins a team already filled with high-salaried, self-centered stars. In this sense, he may be a perfect fit, even if he never meets goalie Mike Richter and defenseman Brian Leetch in the defensive zone. Bure could play right wing on a line with Eric Lindros at center and Theo Fleury on left wing. Exactly who will take the backchecking role? Perhaps Glen Sather, the Rangers' desperate president and general manager, assumes these three will always possess the puck in the attacking end.
Sather did not give up a lot to get Bure, though critics might suggest that trading a first-round draft choice is a risky way to mortgage future investments for immediate profits. There must be terrible pressure at Madison Square Garden to get this mediocre team into the playoffs. Without the Knicks in the playoffs and without the Yankees on MSG television, the people who own the operation need something to keep the lights on during spring nights. With his rock-star personality, Bure might be right for center stage on Broadway.
Bure brings sizzle and publicity potential. Intelligent and handsome, he is one of the hockey stars who has been linked socially with the tennis player Anna Kournikova. In two languages, he is clever and insightful, when he chooses to speak. Should Bure's scoring flair lift the Rangers into the playoffs, local puck buffs could enjoy the Rangers, Devils and Islanders in the Stanley Cup tournament at the same time for the first time since 1994. That could help the league's profile in its largest market.
Bure also has political connections. In Moscow last summer, he put together a pickup team to play an exhibition game. After the game, a visitor to the locker room was a celebrity hockey fan: Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia. Such contacts are not new to the Bure family. His ancestors, of Swiss origin, were watchmakers to the czars. Bure, while in Moscow, travels in armor- plated limousines among well-heeled big wheels. That act could play here.
At worst, the deal is a lot like many bad moves the Rangers have made. Along with the acquisitions of Fleury in 1999 and Lindros last summer, the other Ranger hire of this magnitude was the acquisition of Wayne Gretzky as a free agent in 1996. Although the Great One provided a few memorable moments in his three seasons with the Rangers, he was past his prime and it was impossible to build a successful team around him. Turning 31 on March 31, Bure is five years younger now than Gretzky was then. But Bure's best years were in Vancouver, two teams and almost a decade ago.
Sather needs Bure to provide instant success. Finishing his second year in New York, Sather has seen other Old Six teams like Montreal, Chicago and Boston rise around him. In Edmonton, Sather was one of the best general managers of the 1980's. What has he done lately? Despite bidding against few competitors ?Bure's $10 million salary scares off most of them ?Sather was crowing about his coup. Bure, Sather said, "is one of the top four or five players in the N.H.L."
"He is going to make our team go," Sather said.
Although Sather said, "We need somebody to push us in the playoffs," he also said there was "absolutely no pressure" to make the deal. "He's a superstar," Sather said of Bure. "He's an artist with the puck." Bure, he added, is a player who can "lift you out of your seats." With these words, Sather might have unintentionally used a double-edged expression. Should his team miss the playoffs again after adding so much payroll and personality, Sather could find his own chair getting a little hot.
