The timetable on a Pavel Bure trade belongs entirely to Brian Burke, but in the end The Russian Rocket will have as much to say about his destination as the Vancouver GM.
That’s because no team will deal for Bure without assurances that he will be willing to sign a new contract as a condition of the trade. The 27-year-old winger is scheduled to become a Group II, restricted free agent on July 1.
As such, by refusing to sign an extension, Bure can virtually veto any trade once Burke gets around to making a move.
“I will not talk to any team about Pavel’s contractual situation until there’s an agreement between that team and the Canucks on a trade,” Mike Gillis, Bure’s agent, told The Post yesterday. “I’m not going to say whether Pavel would or would not sign an extension with any hypothetical team until we know that a deal has been completed.
“I’ve been given permission by Brian Burke to speak to one team – and that was the Islanders well over a month ago. And in the conversation I had with David Seldin, I told him that I would not talk contract until and unless the Islanders had an agreed-upon trade for Pavel.
“I haven’t spoken with anyone else and I don’t intend to, except under the condition I just outlined.”
While there have been several false signals communicated by Burke in the last six weeks – including last Tuesday when he told a Western Conference GM he’d have Bure traded within 48-72 hours – it’s been learned that he did speak with Neil Smith over the weekend, at which time he told the Ranger GM he intended to try to construct a deal within the reasonably near future. The Canucks are 5-15-3 in 23 games after last night’s 4-0 loss in St. Louis.
Despite Smith’s public statements to the contrary, it’s believed that the Rangers would be willing to move both Dan Cloutier and Manny Malhotra if that two-for-one would get the trade done. Burke, who earlier in the season asked for the untenable package of Cloutier, Malhotra, Niklas Sundstrom and a first-round draft choice, has not yet amended that request.