LCS Hockey - At the Crossroads

At the Crossroads
by Jim Iovino, Ace Reporter

It almost seems fitting that Ziggy Palffy is basing his holdout from the New York Islanders in Vienna, Austria.

Vienna, which is about an hour away from Palffy's home in Skalica, Slovakia, is known as the crossroads of Europe. During the Cold War, Vienna was the middle point between the eastern bloc countries and those who joined NATO in the west. Even earlier in history, Vienna was the crossroads between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.

Ziggy Palffy, like Vienna, is at a crossroads in his career. The 26-year-old right wing has thrilled fans throughout the league with his stickhandling and incredible shot. He has scored 43 or more goals and 87 or more points in each of the past three seasons.

But this season should be a year of truth for the man affectionately known as Ziggy Stardust. Palffy believes he is ready to make the jump to the upper echelon of players in the National Hockey League. Or, at the very least, he wants to be paid like one. Palffy, a restricted free agent, is asking for a contract in the neighborhood of $6.8 million per season.

If Palffy is to demand such money, however, Islanders GM Mike Milbury wants something in return. Milbury, who flew to Vienna last week in an attempt to sign his star player, wants Palffy to take his game to a new level. In other words, if Palffy wants to be paid like a superstar, he's going to have to perform like one.

But no one knows for sure if Palffy is ready, or willing, to do it. Palffy has never been the true leader or captain of an NHL team. He's never scored 100 points. But, more importantly, he's never been to the playoffs and has never had to deal with the pressure of winning in the environment of a seven-game series. Ziggy Palffy is still very young and very inexperienced.

When Milbury flew to Vienna last week to meet with Palffy, he offered the offensive star a deal similar to that of Edmonton's Doug Weight, who had re-signed a week earlier. Weight, also a restricted free agent, signed a two- year, $7.75 million contract with the Oilers. But Milbury said that with incentives, Palffy's deal could be worth as much as $10 million over the two years. It supposedly includes a $650,000 bonus if Palffy scores 52 goals. Other bonuses start below 40 goals.

Milbury obviously thought his offer was fair. But he had doubts all along about Palffy and his agent, Paul Kraus, accepting the offer. Milbury, often the colorful quote, apparently doesn't think too highly of Kraus.

"It's too bad he lives in the city," Milbury said of Kraus after returning from Vienna. "He's depriving some small village of a pretty good idiot."

Milbury's latest offer was based a lot on Weight's contract, so let's do a comparison between the two and see if the numbers, and all the extras, add up. Weight, 27, is in his ninth year in the league. Palffy has seen five seasons of NHL action. Weight is more of a creative centerman, scoring 448 points (128 goals) in 504 games coming into this season. Palffy is a goal scorer, tallying 281 points (146 goals) in 281 career games.

The two players are equal in importance to their teams, and an argument could be made that they should be paid close to the same amount of money.

However, the one major difference between the two players is that Weight has taken his team to the playoffs each of the last two seasons - and he's been able to make it to the second round each year. Palffy has not.

So this is what Palffy is up against. He's coming into what should be the prime of his career -- a career that could go two ways. Palffy can either join the league's elite by becoming a leader and find success in the playoffs. Or he can take the money he gets and continue to be an above-average player who can't be counted on to lead his team to the playoffs and actually succeed in them.

Palffy continues to wait out the Islanders in Vienna. But perhaps he should take a lesson from Billy Joel, who sings in "Vienna," one of his greatest hits, "You got your passion you got your pride, but don't you know only fools are satisfied. Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true. When will you realize...Vienna waits for you."