Saturday, June 21st 2008, 9:44 PM
Kennedy/AP Eagles QB Donovan McNabb knows what it's like to deal with unhappy Drew Rosenhaus clients a season after appearing in the Super Bowl.
Donovan McNabb knows how hard it is to make it back to the Super Bowl the season after playing in one.
And he knows just how much more difficult that can be while dealing with super agent Drew Rosenhaus and one of his unhappy clients.
If anyone knows the kind of potential drama the Giants face this summer with disgruntled Rosenhaus players Jeremy Shockey and Plaxico Burress, it's McNabb.
"It is something that won't die down depending on how everyone handles it," McNabb said. "I don't know if it will tear them apart. They have enough guys in the locker room that they won't have to worry about it. But when people start taking sides, that is when it becomes a problem. That was definitely a major problem with what happened to us."
After McNabb led the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2005, the quarterback watched Terrell Owens, a Rosenhaus client, shred the Eagles with his contract demands and ego.
Wanting a new contract, Owens skipped a three-day minicamp and later got into a heated argument with head coach Andy Reid before clashing with McNabb and dividing the Eagles' locker room and the city of Philadelphia.
Now McNabb watches from afar as Shockey and Burress already have threatened the Giants' Super Bowl harmony. Both players staged protests at minicamp a week and a half ago. Shockey, who is still recovering from a broken leg, remained in the training room during practices, annoying head coach Tom Coughlin. The tight end, who is upset with his role and contract and would welcome a trade, also got into a shouting match with GM Jerry Reese.
Meanwhile, Burress revealed that he is upset with Giants management for not reworking his contract and watched all the practices from the sideline.
While the Giants' drama isn't as nasty as Owens' and McNabb's feud, at least not yet, the Eagles quarterback said Big Blue will need strong leadership to quell a potentially explosive situation.
"A lot of people learned from my situation and know how to handle it differently," McNabb said. "I tried to do the right things. When it comes to business situations, it's tough. I think the Giants will try to keep it low-key and keep it under wraps. I am anxious to see how it all plays out."
The wide receiver-starved McNabb would probably advise the Giants and Reese to pay Burress.
"Plax is one of the top wide receivers in the NFL," McNabb said. "He wants to be paid and all these wide receivers are getting new contracts."
McNabb, who said his throwing arm is fine after he sat out Eagles' minicamp with shoulder tendinitis, is thrilled that he no longer has to face one of the top defensive ends of all time in Michael Strahan. The quarterback was sacked 12 times in a 16-3 loss at Giants Stadium last year.
"Michael and I have had some great battles," McNabb said. "What a better way to go out — win the Super Bowl and walk away. He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer, especially with as many sacks as I have given him over the last eight years." With Strahan's retirement and the Shockey and Burress predicaments, the Giants' title defense may be off to a rocky start. But McNabb learned that if there is a team that can handle adversity, it's the Giants.
"It is not how you start but how you finish," McNabb said of the Giants' run last year. "You want to go into the playoffs playing the best. The Giants definitely did that."
Larry Brooks writes
June 22, 2008 -- OTTAWA - This threat to take the Rangers away from Jim Dolan isn't about legalities. This isn't even about the Garden suing the NHL. Not really. Rather, this is about Dolan and the Garden challenging the despotic reign of Gary Bettman just the way Bob Goodenow had the temerity to do so.
And we all know what ultimately happened to Goodenow.
Three years following the lockout, essentially every cent of the NHL's revenue increase is owed to dramatically escalating ticket prices and the surging Canadian dollar. The individual member clubs still produce more than 90 percent of the league's revenue.
In a diatribe delivered to the Board of Governors on Wednesday, Bettman had the gall to blame the lawsuit that was filed in September for the league's inability to undertake marketing and promotional initiatives. It was, we're told, a classic sidewinder of a stump speech that was delivered after the Rangers contingent had been asked to leave the room.
Once, everything was Goodenow's fault. Now, it's all on Dolan.
Dolan, whose team is the only US-based club among the NHL's top six revenue-producers, sent a letter to the other 29 governors in conjunction with the Garden's suit in which the owner called out Bettman for his incompetence in marketing the game and in growing revenues.
That letter, which was obtained by The Post, and portions of which were printed in this space, was delivered in late September. Now, after a nine-month gestation period, the commissioner has given birth to a peculiar movement that, if successful, would leave the NHL without a New York team.
Bettman is claiming that, with a three-quarters vote of the Board to discipline Dolan that would follow a hearing, he not only has the power to remove Dolan and sell the team, but essentially has the authority to do whatever he pleases with the Rangers franchise.
And exactly where does Bettman think the Rangers will play if he strips Dolan and the Garden of ownership? At Rye Playland?
This isn't about Cablevision. This isn't about Isiah Thomas. Hey, maybe it is about Thomas. Maybe Bettman has volunteered to carry David Stern's water for him and the NBA. Stranger things have happened; stranger things like the vindictive commissioner of the NHL going public with a threat to take control of the league's flagship American franchise.
In the absence of agreements with any of the European franchises, the NHL has maintained that the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) prohibits clubs from individually negotiating transfer fees in order to bring players to North America. But that's not so.The NHLPA has not agreed to any restrictions regarding the negotiation of transfer fees for the 2008-09 season. Indeed, Slap Shots has learned the union specifically informed the league on May 17 that it would permit unilaterally imposed restrictions for 2008-09.
As such, there is no restriction, nothing in the CBA, no agreement between the NHL and NHLPA that would, for instance, prohibit the Rangers from negotiating with Omsk to buy Alexei Cherepanov out of the final season of his contract and bring him to New York next season.
Sean Avery lived with Brett Hull and his wife when they were teammates in Detroit in 2001-02 and formed a mutual admiration society, one loudmouth to another.
You can be assured that Hull, co-GM of the Stars, will be in on Avery big-time if Fashion Show 16 hits the open market.
Two NHL general managers have told Slap Shots that Evgeni Malkin has a five-year, $50M cash offer from a Russian team that should be taken very, very seriously.
Penguins, we're told, are preparing an offer of approximately $7.5M per to keep Marian Hossa from testing the market. Sources indicate he'll accept. Pittsburgh is also attempting to keep Brooks Orpik, though an initial offer in the $3.3M range isn't going to be enough.
Though Bryan McCabe's agent is on the record stating the Toronto defenseman will not waive his no-trade clause, there's a strong belief he will do so if the Islanders engage the Maple Leafs, which they may well do within the next three weeks.
Here's a dark-horse free agent possibility for the Rangers if Plan A and Plan B fall through: Miro Satan.
Brian Rolston, who will be the subject of intense competition between the Rangers and Devils should he reach unrestricted free agency, seems headed for the market. Should the Blueshirts add Rolston, a solid second-line winger who can run the power play and bomb from the point, that would alleviate the need to get a defenseman who can fill that role.
OTTAWA - Islanders general manager Garth Snow amassed a staggering 12 picks in rounds two through six on the second day of the NHL draft Saturday at Scotiabank Place to re-stock the organization's depleted farm system. But while his haul included highly touted Russian power forward Kirill Petrov, it came as an anticlimax to his shocking decision to trade down from the No. 5 spot Friday night.
Snow and amateur scouting director Ryan Jankowski insisted theirs was more than a numbers game, that No. 9 overall pick Josh Bailey was the guy they wanted all along if they were unable to get one of the top three offensive defensemen chosen 2-3-4 after No. 1 center Steve Stamkos. In the end, they walked away with the biggest stack of chips, but the question that lingers is how many of their 13 picks will turn into blue chips?
There's no doubt Snow improved the odds of success for the Islanders. They had nine of the first 102 picks in the draft, including three in each of the second and third rounds, and 13 of the first 175 to finish. Petrov is under contract for the next two seasons in Russia, but if he ever comes to the NHL, Snow said the Isles will be getting a player who is a "first-round talent, top 15 to top 20," who fell because of the lack of a transfer agreement with Russia.
Still, if Snow misses on Bailey and if any of the four players he passed in the first round -- defenseman Luke Schenn and forwards Nikita Filatov, Colin Wilson and Mikkel Boedker -- turn into superstars, he'll never hear the end of it from Isles fans.
Explaining his determination to improve the talent level in the system, Snow said, "There was a method to the madness, so to speak. We not only got a player in the first round that we thought highly of, but we got to re-stock our prospect group. It's a good thing. It's crucial to have a full cupboard of prospects."
By trading down to No. 7 with Toronto and then to No. 9 with Nashville, Snow began a process that ultimately added picks in the second, third and fourth rounds (via another trade Saturday) this year plus Toronto's second-round pick in 2009. But the price was cheap from the perspective of Snow's trading partners. Maple Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher spent only two picks to grab Schenn, who figures to be a rock on the blue line for 15 years. It cost Nashville one pick to grab Wilson, a two-way center who was the strongest player at the NHL combine.
Snow paused when asked if he expected Filatov, who was taken sixth by Columbus, to be available at the seventh spot. Then he indicated with a shake of his head that Filatov wasn't his target. "Our objective at that point was to get the player we ended up getting," Snow said.
That decision was met with boos during the Islanders' draft party at Nassau Coliseum, but Snow defended himself by noting that Bailey's 96-point season with the Windsor Spitfires ranked second only to Stamkos' 105 points among draft-eligible players. "I like the fact that our player has hockey sense, the ability to put up great statistics, 96 points, and he was a leader on his team," Snow said. "We're happy with Josh Bailey. That's why we moved down."
Jankowski praised Bailey's vision, saying, "Detroit just won a championship with players who have hockey sense. I would say Josh is a top-three hockey-sense player of all the players in this year's draft."
They'd better be right.
June 21, 2008 -- OTTAWA - When the 20th overall selection of the NHL entry draft came up here last night, Garden owner Jim Dolan mounted the podium only to be intercepted by Gary Bettman, wrestled to the ground, and told that the Rangers were no longer part of his league.
Well, not really. Dolan is on vacation and did not attend the draft. And the Rangers did indeed make their selection. Not only that, they were delighted to grab skilled, offense-minded Oshawa defenseman Michael Del Zotto when their time came.
"The way this game is played now, you have to be able to think and move the puck," said director of player personnel Gordie Clark. "With Michael, the puck is on his stick, and it's gone.
"You need hockey sense. He has tremendous hockey sense. He has it figured out."
Del Zotto, who became the first 16-year-old defenseman to play in the Ontario Hockey League All-Star Classic in 2007, wears No. 4 because of Bobby Orr. The Rangers can dream, can't they?
"People would die to be in my shoes right now," Del Zotto said. "I know I have to work on the defensive part of my game, but I want to do whatever it takes this offseason and go into camp and do everything I can to try to make the team."
No one expects Del Zotto, who will turn 18 on Tuesday, to contend for a spot with the Rangers this year.
"He has some building up to do," Clark said of the 6-0, 210-pounder who ranked third among OHL defensemen with 63 points (16-47). "He has World Junior stuff coming up. It will be a couple of years."
The Rangers have used their first pick to select defensemen three times in the last four years, following Marc Staal (12th) in 2005 and Bobby Sanguinetti (21st) in 2006. Clark compared Del Zotto quite favorably to the offense-minded Sanguinetti, who is expected to play for Hartford this season.
"He's more refined at this age than Bobby," Clark said. "Bobby has gotten there, but [Del Zotto] is there now.
"He's got the head and the hands. He's a master running the power play from the point."
The knocks on Del Zotto are his skating and his defensive game. Clark swatted away those concerns.
"His skating is fine," Clark said. "Defensively he's fine. Believe me."
OHL defensemen went 2-3-4 in the draft after Tampa Bay selected center Steven Stamkos first overall. Drew Doughty went second to L.A., Zach Bogosian went third to Atlanta, and Alex Pietrangelo went fourth to St. Louis.
"These are stud defensemen, and they're all fairly close to playing," said Clark. "We were kidding around [at the table] that we'd love to have one of them, but if we were picking down there, we'd probably be gone."
Gone, much like Bettman wants Dolan.
June 21, 2008 -- OTTAWA - The Islanders apparently knew better than everybody else.
For in position with the fifth overall selection of the NHL Entry Draft to select either highly regarded shutdown defenseman Luke Schenn or the talented winger Nikita Filatov, GM Garth Snow and the committee traded their way to ninth overall, where they tabbed Windsor center Josh Bailey.
This selection may have been a feature of familiarity, as Bailey was a teammate of head coach Ted Nolan's son, Brandon.
"I don't know Ted, but I know who he is," said Bailey, a 6-foot-0, 192-pound pivot whom the Islanders interviewed on Long Island last week.
"I've heard a lot of good things about him.
"When they flew me in, it got me excited thinking I'd be drafted by them. I'm ecstatic."
In trading down with, first, Toronto to seventh overall, and then with Nashville to ninth overall, Snow added two second-round picks in this year's year draft and a third-round pick next year.
The Maple Leafs selected Schenn, who is expected to compete for a job this year, at five, while Columbus took Filatov with the sixth pick.
"Josh is the player we targeted from the beginning," Snow said. "He's a center who makes the players around him better, the type of center we need in our system.
"We kept trading down because we believed we could grab Josh at No. 9."
Bailey was second in the OHL in scoring behind first-overall selection Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay) with 96 points (29-67). He dedicated his selection to Mickey Renaud, the Windsor captain who collapsed at his home and died suddenly this spring.
"I'm dedicating this night to Mickey Renaud and his family," Bailey said. "I'm sure tonight he's looking down with a smile."
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