As soon as Blackhawks General Manager Bob Pulford signed goalie Alain Chevrier to a contract Monday, he went to work to see what it would take to get goalie Ron Hextall from Philadelphia.
And if not Hextall, who is holding out at training camp because he is unhappy with his contract salary, then Pulford is interested to hear what Flyers General Manager Bobby Clarke would want for goalies Pete Peeters or Ken Wregget.
Clarke, who needs offense, is likely to reply that he wants left wing Steve Thomas or right wing Steve Larmer. Pulford would be unlikely to trade either one.
”I`m not going to mortgage the farm,” Pulford said. ”We want to evaluate (rookie goalies) Jimmy Waite and Ed Belfour in preseason games. But if Hextall is accessible at a sensible price, we`d have to take a look.”
Hawks coach Mike Keenan went to one of his two Stanley Cup final appearances in Philadelphia with the rugged Hextall knocking down everything and everyone in sight. Last season, Keenan believed a chance to trade for Hextall was impossible. Now, he has changed his opionion.
”I think (the Flyers) would give a trade for him more consideration now,” Keenan said. ”But any decision to get Hextall would be a big financial decision on our team`s part.”
Chevrier is ready to take on any and all competition. He didn`t spend an anxious Sunday at home, absent from the first full day of Hawks` practice.
”I got to see the Cubs and Bears on TV at a friend`s house,” he said of that winning daily double.
He didn`t get as large a salary as he would have liked from Pulford, but both sides called a contract worth in excess of $200,000 a year ”a compromise.” The number of years wasn`t disclosed.
Chevrier said of his contract, ”We made some concessions and Pully made some. It`s an opportunity to make a fair amount of money. But does anyone ever get what they want? Everyone wants to be a millionaire.”
”The toughest part of the negotiations was that, although Chevrier played well when he came to us (last January) and very well in the playoffs, that wasn`t a long enough time to evaluate him as a goaltender,” Pulford said.
Chevrier was 13-11-2 with the Hawks last season after the Jan. 19 trade, posting a 3.51 goals-against average. In the playoffs, he went 9-7 with a 2.61 average. He was 8-8-2 with Winnipeg before the deal and his goals-against was 4.29.
Keenan was asked if Chevrier still needs to prove himself. ”Chevrier has to continue to prove himself like every other player,” Keenan said. ”We didn`t win the Stanley Cup, did we?”
”Philadelphia has a problem with three goalies and I don`t know what they`re going to do about it,” Pulford noted.
The Flyers can`t protect all three goalies in the waiver draft that is held Oct. 2, three days before the regular season starts.
