UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (06/23/96)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Eddie Olczyk's successful return

Ukrainian Eddie Olczyk is the perfect company man. Give him an assignment and he follows through, no questions asked.

When Olczyk's role with the New York Rangers was reduced to leading the team in stretching exercises during their Stanley Cup run, he didn't complain. Nor did he beef about sitting out the first five games this past regular season as his Winnipeg Jets opted for a youth movement.

But deep down, it was really eating away at him; in mid-November, he finally reached his breaking point. He had just missed four games with a rib injury and was cleared to play, but was instead scratched for the next two games. This was when he finally lost it.

"I walked through the garage door into the house and suddenly it hit me," Olczyk said. "I couldn't go any lower. I had an emotional breakdown with my wife. I wondered how much more I could take. lt was like, enough is enough. It couldn't get any worse for me. I couldn't get any lower than I was at that point."

Olczyk remained convinced he still had the requisite skills and attitude to be an NHL player. That opinion apparently wasn't shared. Olczyk, who averaged 39 goals a year in three full seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1987-1988 through 1989-1990, had been reduced to part-time playing status in Winnipeg and New York.

Although he has now been in the NHL 11 seasons, Olczyk is only 29 years old. The way he has been treated in recent years, you would think he was a grizzled veteran hanging on for one last paycheck. It was as though the hockey world had lost faith in his potential to contribute.

When Olczyk finally worked his way back into the Jets' line-up, he was placed on a line between tough, talented fellow Ukrainian left-winger Keith Tkachuk and Finnish Flash Teemu Selanne (prior to the latter's trade to Anaheim).

Olczyk scored in his first game back and went on a tear of 13 goals in 13 games. After the first 35 Jets' games he was fifth in team scoring with 16 goals and 25 points.

"People kept telling me my scoring touch has returned," Olczyk said. "I say it never left me. There's one reason, and one reason only, why my production was down the past few years - I didn't get the opportunity to play. The big joke for the past few years is I needed a pretty long stick to score goals from the press box."

Olczyk's fall from grace happened rather abruptly. When Mike Keenan took over as coach of the Rangers in 1993, he was up front with Olczyk, telling him his biggest contribution to the team would be to keep guys loose.

Olczyk became the leader of the Black Aces - depth players who remain with the team, but play only when injuries hit - and led the team in stretching prior to practices and games.

Once a bona fide scorer and team leader, Olczyk had been reduced to a cheerleader. "Keenan gave me the role to keep guys loose, to be a positive influence," Olczyk said. "I didn't like the decision, but I respected it. I took the role seriously. Nobody could ever convince me my name doesn't deserve to be on the Cup."

Rangers' GM Neil Smith and NHL Players' Association executive Mike Gartner successfully lobbied to have Olczyk and Mike Hartman's names included on the Cup. Neither had met the NHL's requirements of playing at least 40 regular season games (Olczyk played 37) or dressing for at least one game in the Stanley Cup final. Despite that, Olczyk was voted by his teamates to receive the Player's Player Award given annually to the best team player on the Rangers.

"On a team with Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter, he was voted best of the best," said former Rangers' director of public relations Barry Watkins. "That says so much about how important the players felt he was."

Winnipeg GM John Paddock said he always thought Olczyk could help his team and felt a fifth-round choice in the 1995 entry draft was a low price to pay to get him last season. The price might get a little steeper for the Jets. Olczyk becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season. If nothing else, Olczyk has proved that, when given a chance, he can still make a vital contribution.

"He doesn't take any shifts off now," Paddock said prior to the end of the regular season. "He's an example of a player who didn't play much the past two years, but took advantage of his opportunity when he got it. He knows he's on the edge. He can't have three bad games in a row and not have it come back to haunt him."

Eddie Olczyk has been many things in the NHL, most of all a survivor. By the end of the 1995-1996 regular season, the Ukrainian center right-winger was totally reborn, jumping back into a major offensive role for the Winnipeg Jets.

Along the way, and despite rib, back and knee injuries, Olczyk played his 800th NHL game last April 10 in Detroit and extended a personal points streak. Olczyk contributed an assist and, although his streak was interrupted for 13 games by a knee injury, he had posted points in the last nine games he played. Olczyk's final totals were 27 goals and 49 points in 51 games with 65 minutes in penalties. The good news in all of this was that the Chicago native, on a termination contract this season at $550,000 (U.S.), was in negotiations with the Jets/Phoenix Coyotes for a new deal.

He became a valuable unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

"We're on the same page and we want to sign him," said GM Paddock. After two years as a spare part in New York with the Rangers, Olczyk's return to Winnipeg was a successful one.

"Playing my 800th game gives me a great deal of satisfaction," Olczyk said back on April 10. But the satisfaction I get out of it doesn't have as much to do with the length of my career as it does with the fact I'm playing and contributing to a team making a run at the playoffs "

Eddie Olczyk: in 1995-1996 a once-again high-flying Jet. In 1996-1997, a wily Coyote???

Hrudey: last of the Kings?

Even though he had been given some form of reassurance several days before the trading deadline, March 20 was not an easy day for Ukrainian goaltender Kelly Hrudey. Having watched teammates Rick Tocchet, Pat Conacher, Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorley and Jari Kurri all pack their bags this season, Hrudey had put his house up for sale and had previously thought he was being traded to the Dallas Stars and later even the New York Rangers.

Hrudey tried to keep busy before the noon trading deadline with household chores, taking the family cars to the gas station. So, did he run out of dishes and vacuum? "I wasn't home that long," Hrudey said, laughing.

The phone rang at noon and Hrudey and his wife, Donna, nearly jumped. But, it was a false alarm, a family friend, not anyone from the Kings' management. "I'm not going to lie, these things can happen very quickly if the deal is right," said Hrudey, who admitted being surprised he was still a King. "I was very, very nervous."

Whether the 35-year-old remains a King is questionable because he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Hrudey is one of the last links to the Kings' 1993 run to the Stanley Cup final.

"I'm the last of a certain era," Hrudey said. "I'm now the oldest, which I don't enjoy. I want to continue to be a leader without being overbearing."

HRUDEY UTTERING: The goalie was irritated when fellow-Uke Wayne Gretzky was greeted with boos as he returned to the Los Angeles Forum on March 18. "I can understand and appreciate the fans cheering for their team," Hrudey said. "People should save their booing for other players."

Hawerchuk has green light in Philly

Artists need freedom to create, and maybe that's why offense-minded Dale Hawerchuk might be a better fit with the Philadelphia Flyers than he was with the St. Louis Blues.

Hawerchuk, who was traded to the Flyers on March 15 in exchange for center Craig MacTavish, said the Blues wanted him to play a conservative style which restricted his play-making skills. The Flyers want the 33-year-old veteran to be defense-conscious, but they're not going to discourage a flashy play.

After signing with the Blues as an unrestricted free agent last summer, Hawerchuk was in coach Mike Keenan's doghouse (who isn't?) early and couldn't find the exit door. He did somehow manage 13 goals and 41 points in 66 games with the Blues.

"It seemed right from the beginning (Keenan) wasn't giving me the ice time," said Hawerchuk, who scored a goal and added two assists in his second game with the Flyers, an 8-2 rout of the San Jose Sharks on March 17.

"He started sitting me right away for certain little plays that I would make. I did adjust, but I don't think it was best for my game."

Flyers' coach Terry Murray found more ice time for Hawerchuk than he probably expected. Murray put Hawerchuk on the Eric Lindros-John LeClair line when Mikael Renberg's abdominal injury flared and also had him playing a second line with Rod Brind'Amour and Pat Falloon. Hawerchuk also manned one of the points on the power play.

In 16 regular season games with his new mates, Hawerchuk tallied four goals, 16 assists for 20 points, better than a point per game.

(Above quotes courtesy of Tim Campbell, Mike Brophy, Lisa Dillman and Wayne Fish, beat writers for the Jets, Kings and Blues.)

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