Doug MacLean chose a doughnut shop in Edmunston, N.B., in the middle of the night to pour over lists of players to be made available in the NHL expansion draft next week to his new Columbus, Ohio, team.
“I was driving my family back to the cottage in Prince Edward Island and we'd stopped but I couldn't sleep because I was so excited about getting a closer look,” the Blue Jackets' general manager explained from Summerside, P.E.I., after existing teams' protected and available lists were made public Tuesday afternoon. “It was 4 a.m. and I got up and found a Tim Horton's and went to work.
“It's a huge day for our franchise.”
MacLean, and Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough will get to pick two players off the rosters of 26 other teams — Nashville and Atlanta are exempt because they are so new — at the Saddledome in Calgary one week from Friday.
Vancouver centre Mark Messier and Carolina defenceman Paul Coffey, both 39 and future Hockey Hall of Earners, were left unprotected. But veterans who become unrestricted free agents July 1 and are making big money don't enter into the plans of the Blue Jackets or the Wild.
“No, I wouldn't,” MacLean replied when asked if he'd consider picking up Messier. “We'd only own the rights to a player like that for six days.”
The only reason an expansion club takes a player set to become an unrestricted free agent is so it can get a third- or fourth-round compensatory draft pick when the player signs with somebody else after July 1.
Other skaters left unprotected include Buffalo's Doug Gilmour, New Jersey's Claude Lemieux and Vladimir Malakhov, Ottawa's Joe Juneau, Detroit's Larry Murphy and Igor Larionov, Philadelphia's Keith Jones and Rick Tocchet, New York's Valeri Kamensky, Dallas' Guy Carbonneau, Montreal's Shayne Corson and Colorado's Dave Andreychuk.
Goaltenders exposed include Anaheim's Guy Hebert, Ottawa's Tom Barrasso, Pittsburgh's Ron Tugnutt, Florida's Mike Vernon, Detroit's Ken Wreggett, Phoenix's Sean Burke, the Flyers' John Vanbiesbrouck, the Rangers' Kirk McLean and Boston's Robbie Tallas.
Don't expect to see many of them in Columbus or St. Paul. Both new clubs will do what expansion teams before them have done — piece together transient lineups. Of the roster
Nashville GM David Poile formed two years ago, for instance, only five wear Predators jerseys today.
“There's going to be a big turnover in expansion draft picks to what actually skates for the Blue Jackets in the fall,” MacLean said. “If we have the same team in four years time, there's a good chance I'll be on the other end of this conference call.
“I know we have a tough road ahead of us. I look at other rosters in the league and I don't feel very comfortable.”
It is costing each of the new teams $80 million US to enter the league.
“The area that intrigued the most was the defense group,” said MacLean. “We have the chance to get three or four pretty solid defencemen.”
MacLean has already traded with Colorado to get his goalie of the future, Marc Denis, and Risebrough acquired Manny Fernandez from Dallas on Monday.
NEIL STEVENS
The Canadian Press TORONTO