NEW YORK — Detroit Red Wings vice president Jim Devellano was fined an undisclosed sum by the National Hockey League Saturday for comments to a reporter about the ongoing lockout. NHL club owners and players are locked in a salary dispute that has shut down the league for a week, with owners wanting to cut the percentage of $3.3 billion in revenues going to players from 57 percent to 43 percent. The NHL lost the entire 2004-2005 season in a money dispute but spectators returned in record numbers and paid higher ticket prices, boosting NHL revenues by $1.2 billion besides helping set the stage for the current dispute. Devellano violated an NHL policy against speaking out regarding the lockout in speaking with Island Sports News. “The owners can basically be viewed as the ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle,” Devellano was quoted as saying. “The owners own the ranch and allow the players to eat there. That's the way it's always been and that the way it will be forever. “And the owners simply aren't going to let a union push them around. It's not going to happen.” Devellano said players, some of whom have already signed with European clubs for the duration of the shutdown, should accept only 43 percent from the owners and said players like Boston forward Milan Lucic should be happy for even that. “Yes, they are billionaires,” Devellano said of the club owners. “Good on them. They deserve it. But they also make their employees millionaires. Not a bad tradeoff for a guy like Lucic getting what, 6 million dollars a year? “Good on him too, but he should be grateful. Understand, though, that these players want for nothing ... it's first class this, first class that, meal allowances, travel money on the road, the whole shebang.” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly are the only league officials set to comment on the dispute. “The Detroit Red Wings' organization and the league agree that the comments made by Mr. Devellano are neither appropriate, nor authorized, nor permissible under the league's by-laws,” Daly said. “Such comments are neither constructive nor helpful to the negotiations.” The NHLPA seemed to be the more disorganized in the 2004-05 lockout, but this time around, it seems to be the owners that are sending mixed messages. The league better find a way to clear up any misunderstandings quickly, or else it will start to look very bad on them from a public relations stand point. Summit Series team honored Canadian ice hockey icon Paul Henderson and his 1972 Summit Series teammates were honored Saturday with a collective star on Canada's Walk of Fame. Henderson, who is battling cancer, scored the winning goal with less than a minute remaining in the final game 40 years ago to lift Canada over the Soviet Union in the historic eight-game series. Team players had their names etched in the concrete memorial Saturday. “Oh, it's terrific. We really didn't get to celebrate much in 1972. We came back then had to go to our own (National Hockey League) teams,” Henderson said. “We had a nice celebration (when) we were put in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. And obviously, (we're) the first team on the Walk of Fame.” The 69-year-old Henderson, who drew the biggest cheers, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia two years ago. Henderson is one of the most popular and most easily recognizable sports figures in Canadian history but says he prefers the honor go to the team. “I really think it's appropriate, because we're always been known as Team Canada,” Henderson said as he walked the red carpet outside Ed Mirvish Theater, where the induction gala was staged. “I would say that at the start of that (series), we really weren't a team. We were a bunch of individuals. But as the series went on, we became a team. “And even today, guys that never played a game feel every bit as much a part of the team as guys who played all eight games.” — Agencies
