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 ofthe 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 had gone 5-14-3 in 22 games prior to last night’s match 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. *Put Brian Leetch at one point with either Petr Nedved or Mathieu Schneider at the other, with Wayne Gretzky operating either from his office behind the net or up at the half-boards, and either Adam Graves or John MacLean working in front, and what do you get?
A power play that’s become as powerful as the components imply; a power play that’s one of the most lethal weapons in the NHL.
“We have a lot of talented people we can use in a variety of positions with the extra man,” John Muckler said before last night’s Garden match against San Jose. “And one of the best things about it is that we’re now in a position where we can use all three of ourlines up front and still be productive.”
The Rangers went 1-for-4 in St. Louis on Saturday, with MacLean’s goal providing the difference in the 1-0 victory. They were 12-for-32 in their last eight games, 18-for-55 in the last 15. In the 17 games they’d played since Nedved joined the team, the Rangers had been blanked with the man advantage seven times; had scored one goal four times; had gotten two goals three times; and had registered four on the power play four times. They entered last night’s match with the league’s leading power play unit, 35-for-152, a 23 percent success ratio.
“In the three years I’ve been here, we’ve been at or close to the top of the league on the power play,” Gretzky said. “We just have an abundance of good people to put out there.
“There are games where it’s not going to work, but on the whole, our power play is not only going to be solid, but should win games for us.”