Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 6, 1993 TAG: 9308060091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
General manager Pierre Paiement confirmed Thursday that the Express has secured an NHL affiliation for the 1992-93 East Coast Hockey League season. Paiment said the club will make a formal announcement Monday in a news conference at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Paiement refused to name the NHL club, but all signs point to the San Jose Sharks. Paiement and Express coach Frank Anzalone conceded two weeks ago that they had met with San Jose officials to discuss affiliation.
"I can't tell you who it is," Paiement said. "You'll have to wait until Monday.
"I will tell you that it's an organization that's trying to better itself; they're making big moves with trades."
Paiement said the NHL club has told him it will offer plenty of assistance.
"They're really looking at us a developmental team," he said. "In many instances, that's not the case. People affiliate with a team and then get very few players. But this team has guaranteed us they will send us players. At one time, they were talking about sending six to eight."
The securing of an major-league tie comes as a relief to Paiement, who two weeks ago said he was worried that the Express may have to face its expansion season without NHL aid.
"Frank and I were concerned because the season was rapidly approaching," said Paiement, "and everybody we were contacting already had worked a deal with somebody else in the [ECHL]. We didn't have a whole lot of teams left to deal with. Yes, it didn't look good. Needless to say, everything looks a whole lot better now."
Paiement said major-league affiliation should prove to area hockey fans that the Express is running on the right track.
"As far as image and the fans are concerned, it was very important to land an affiliation," Paiement said.
"When we started this thing, we promised the people that we would have the Roanoke Civic Center, which we got. We promised the people we'd get an experienced coach, and I think Frank Anzalone fits that bill. And the third promise was we'd get an affiliation, which we now have.
"I think people have supported us because we've kept our word. \
PRACTICE ICE: This is the next hurdle facing Paiement and the Express.
The club had originally planned to do the majority of its practicing at the LancerLot, but now that's out of the question since the Vinton rink has yet to be rebuilt in lieu of last March's roof collapse.
LancerLot owner Henry Brabham said Thursday that he still hasn't settled with the insurance company handling the claim.
"We're still some $200,000 apart," Brabham said. "We were $700,000 apart, but I gave $300,000 and they gave another $200,000.
"I'm 64 years old and I refuse to go borrow money to put the building back up and get back into hockey. If they give me what I want, I plan on rebuilding. If they don't, I'm not going to put money into it."
Brabham said it would take about 14 weeks to rebuild the rink. Translated: If work began today, it would still be mid-November - or a month after the 1992-93 ECHL season begins - before the rink was usable.
In the meantime, Paiement said he is investigating other options, including the possibility of bussing the team to Winston-Salem, N.C., for practice.
"The ideal situation, of course, would be to have the LancerLot as we had hoped," Paiement said. "We have talked with the Roanoke Civic Center and it appears we can do more than one-half of the practice during the season there.
"If we have to practice in Winston-Salem for a while, so be it. I admit it's not the best setup, but we'll have to do what we've got to do. We'll get the ice time somewhere, don't worry."
The Express will conduct its preseason camp starting the second week of October at the Roanoke Civic Center.
\ RADIO EXPRESS: The Express has hired Tim Woodburn, the former voice of the ECHL's Birmingham Bulls, as its assistant marketing director and broadcaster.
Woodburn, 24, is a 1991 graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in broadcast journalism. He worked as sports anchor and reporter at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Mo., as well as doing radio work for two Columbia stations.
Woodburn was the play-by-play commentator for Missouri hockey. He served as a public relations intern and statistician for the NHL's St. Louis Blues before going to Birmingham, where he was hired as director of communications.
The Express is currently negotiating a deal to have all their games - home and away - carried on WROV-AM (1240), minority owner Joe Steffen said Thursday.
"We've talked with other clubs in the league and they felt like doing home games has not hurt their attendance any," Steffen said. "We're also working on possibly doing several games on television."
\ ICE CHIPS: The Express will unveil its logo and club jerseys today in a news conference in conjunction with First Friday's at Five. First Friday's is located in the parking lot next to the Dominion Tower in downtown Roanoke. In the event of rain, the news conference will be postponed to next week. . . . Rick Vaive, who played in the NHL for Toronto and Buffalo, has been named the new head coach of the expansion South Carolina Stingrays. . . . Claude Noel, who coached in Roanoke in 1990-91, has resigned as head coach of the Dayton Bombers. Noel, who was a final candidate for the head coaching job at Fort Wayne of the International Hockey League, has taken an assistant's post with Kalamazoo (IHL). . . . Peter Horachek, who preceded Anzalone as head coach in Nashville, has been named head coach-general manager of the Flint (Mich.) Generals of the Colonial Hockey League. . . . Rick Dudley, who coached the San Diego Gulls to the best record in the history of the International Hockey League, has resigned to become director of professional scouting for the Los Angeles Kings. Dudley's Gulls went 62-12-8 last season, setting IHL records for victories and points. The 62 victories set a professional hockey record.
by CNB