
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 26, 1994                   TAG: 9407270067
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

KEENAN SMILES AT NHL'S SLAP

Mike Keenan, cleared by the NHL to become coach and general manager of the Blues, returned to St.Louis on Monday, sounding not at all like a man who had just been fined $500,000 and suspended for two months without pay.

``I feel fantastic,'' he said.

After eight hours of talks Sunday in New York at the office of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, a settlement was reached in the dispute involving Keenan, his former team, the New York Rangers, and his new one, the St.Louis Blues.

Bettman suspended Keenan for 60 days beginning Monday, fined him $100,000, and ordered him to return four-fifths of his $500,000 signing bonus with the Rangers, whom he coached last season to their first Stanley Cup title in 54 years.

The Blues were fined $250,000, the league maximum. The Detroit Red Wings, who tried to hire Keenan before he agreed to terms with the Blues, were fined $25,000.

New York also was fined $25,000 for filing a lawsuit to keep Keenan from signing with St.Louis. And the Rangers agreed to drop the suit and pay Keenan the $608,000 playoff bonus that set off the whole chain of events.

Keywords:
HOCKEY

by CNB