'Olive branch' extended to holdout star
September 24, 1999
By Ken Warren
The Ottawa Citizen
An Ottawa-based fan advocacy group has written an open letter to exiled
Ottawa Senators captain Alexei Yashin, extending an "olive branch" for
him to return to the team.
"Over the last few weeks, you have been the focal point, along with
Senators management, in a contract dispute which is a textbook example
of why our association was created and (has) grown so rapidly," the
National Hockey League Fans' Association writes in its letter to Yashin.
"The fans are tired of being ignored and abused."
The 11,000-member NHLFA asks Yashin to honour the one year remaining on
his contract, worth $3.6 million U.S., and "to exert some measure of
control over your agent (Mark Gandler), whose recent outbursts have done
little to help your case in the eyes of Ottawa fans or, indeed, in the
eyes of hockey fans anywhere."
Gandler this week called Senators management "bigots" for refusing to
renegotiate with Yashin, who led the team with 44 goals and 50 assists last season and was a runner-up for the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player.
Jim Boone, co-founder of the NHLFA, says he's particularly disturbed
about Gandler's comments that fans' negative attitudes toward Yashin
don't matter.
"We've extended an olive branch with the letter," Boone said yesterday.
"We think (Yashin) is a great player, but we think he should put all the
business aside. The fans are suffering the most. (The Senators) aren't
going to budge; politically they can't budge. In the past, nobody has
really stood up and spoken positively from the fans' point of view,
asking Yashin to stay in town."
There has been considerable speculation that Yashin's firm stance is
designed to force the Senators to trade him to another NHL club.
Len Potechin, an Ottawa businessman, says he'll launch a fans' lawsuit
for breach of contract if Yashin doesn't play during the 1999-2000
season.
Boone, however, says it's in the fans' best interests for Yashin to
return to the Senators.
The not-for-profit NHLFA, which has 500 members in the Ottawa area,
generally deals with bigger issues, such as high ticket prices and the
survival of Canadian franchises.
The group has met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and talked to Bob
Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Association. It also
played a part in last month's Toronto-based Hockey Summit, which looked
at ways to improve the game at all levels.
Boone said the Yashin letter represented the first time the NHLFA had
addressed an individual player issue, but said the dispute was part of a
bigger picture.
"Our biggest concern is is this team ready to leave town? Our No. 1
issue is to get the local business community and the fans to help keep
the team in town, and we're trying to set up a meeting with (Senators
chief executive Rod) Bryden.
"This whole Yashin thing isn't helping the franchise. (Yashin and
Gandler) are forgetting us, they really are. Gandler says he doesn't
really care about the public-relations battle. That means he doesn't
care about the fans. They should care a bit more about the fans. We buy
the tickets."
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