THE NHL / HELENE ELLIOTT : Pay Him Now or Pay For It Later?

Players, agents and coaches are closely watching Vancouver Canuck Pavel Bure’s request to be paid for games canceled because of the lockout.

Bure, who signed a five-year, $25-million contract last June, didn’t report when camps reopened. He arrived two days before the start of the lockout-shortened season, and then only after the Canucks offered to put $1.5 million in escrow pending an agreement or an arbitrator’s decision on whether he is entitled to the money.

This is not the first time Bure has had a financial dispute with the Canucks. His agent, Ron Salcer, said the team was tardy in paying Bure’s $1-million signing bonus, delaying payment until the contract was registered with the NHL. Salcer said Bure was entitled to payment upon signing, not upon registration, and he got his check in September.

The chances of winning his argument this time, however, are slim. The settlement between the NHL and the players’ association specified that prorating of salaries will be based on the season being 48/82 of its original length, or 59%. The 82 was arrived at by agreement with the NHLPA. A normal season would have had 84 games, but two would have been neutral site games for each club, and they already had been canceled. The proceeds of neutral site games would have gone to the NHL and the union’s pension fund.

Salcer said Bure’s contract contains no mention of withholding his salary in the event of a lockout.

“There are only four ways he would not get paid,” Salcer said. “Those are suicide, if he commits a criminal act, involuntary retirement or refusal to play.”

Bure has put the Canucks in a difficult position. A 60-goal scorer last season and one of the NHL’s most dynamic players, he is their top attraction. If they keep him happy, he’s more likely to score goals. If he scores goals, they will win more games. He scored his first goal Tuesday, but the Canucks lost to Detroit, 6-3, and are 0-2-1.

But if they pay him for the canceled games, the ramifications would be enormous. Paying him and no one else would send the wrong message and create divisiveness within the team. Every other player on the Canucks--and every other team--would demand to be paid too.

And you thought all the league’s lawyers would be out of work when the lockout ended.

HE AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER

Salcer also represents defenseman Kevin Hatcher, whose trade demand was met when the Washington Capitals sent him to Dallas last week for Mark Tinordi.

The trade unites Hatcher with his brother, Derian, with whom he’s close. (They’re neighbors in Michigan during the off-season). Big brother Kevin also got a new contract, worth $13.7 million over six years.

“We were really pleased,” Salcer said. “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to David Poile (the Capitals’ general manager) because we’d been asking for a trade for a long time.

“Dallas was our No. 1 choice, mainly because Kevin’s brother is there and also because he’s American and he wanted to stay in the U.S. It’s also a good climate and a good organization. He and (Mike) Modano will be awesome on the power play.”

Neither side loses in this deal, but Tinordi is a leader and Hatcher never has been. When Hatcher wants to, though, he can be a heavy hitter, and he fortifies an already rugged Dallas lineup.

CLOSED-DOOR POLICY

King players used to grit their teeth when visitors used to parade through the locker room before games and interrupted their routine.

But thanks to new GM Sam McMaster, the locker-room congestion should be easing.

In a memo sent to club executives, McMaster decreed that no one be allowed into the dressing room without special permission less than 2 1/2 hours before games.

“It is imperative that our team focus on a 48-game schedule and it is imperative that we allow them privacy to mentally prepare for the game, as winning early is very important,” he wrote.

Now, if he could just decree that the defensemen play their positions and the forwards pick up their checks . . .

SABRE DANCING

Coach John Muckler held goaltender Dominik Hasek out of Buffalo’s opener last Friday as punishment for being woefully out of shape when training camps reopened after the lockout. Grant Fuhr, who shared the Jennings Trophy (lowest team goals-against average) with Hasek last season, was the winner in the Sabres’ 2-1 victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The Sabres didn’t sign Hasek--last year’s Vezina winner--to a three-year, $6.9-million contract to make him their backup, and he was in net Sunday. But they were able to accomplish two missions by starting Fuhr: besides making their displeasure clear to Hasek, they gave other clubs a chance to evaluate Fuhr’s trade value.

And they will trade Fuhr, though not to the team that needs him most. The Bruins, who have decided to go with rookie Blaine Lacher in goal, could use Fuhr’s experience. But the Sabres aren’t likely to deal him to a division rival.

SLAP SHOTS

GMs met with league officials in New York Monday for a seminar on the new collective bargaining agreement. . . . Radek Bonk’s contract with Ottawa will pay him $6.125 million for five years. . . . Hall of Famer Bobby Orr and former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas are part of a group trying to bring an American Hockey League team to Lowell, Mass. . . . The Hartford Whalers lost defenseman Chris Pronger for two weeks after he sprained his left shoulder Saturday. . . . The New York Rangers successfully petitioned the NHL to add Mike Hartman and Ed Olczyk to the names engraved on the Stanley Cup. Neither played 40 regular-season games or in the finals, but Commissioner Gary Bettman approved the request after the Rangers cited their “special, year-long contributions.” That seems only fair, considering the names of the Rangers’ trainers, communications director and manager of team operations already were on the Cup.