JUNE 23, 1947
Are the Eagles Crashing? -The hottest rumour around the NAHC is that the Brooklyn franchise is folding up operations before next season. While this a surprise to many insiders say that owner Edward Faberge gave GM DD Martin an ultimatum before the start of the season to make the playoffs or the team would fold. The team did improve to 15 wins, 38 points for 6th places which is almost as many wins, points as the past 4 combined but apparently that is not enough for the owner. The league has not issued any statement but the lack of a news release refuting the talk speaks volumes to the Mail & Empire.
Let's take a look at what the league would look like without the Eagles as 6 team loop, along with what the possible direct impact will be on the Dukes. The first question is how will the schedule be affected for the teams? The scheduling department's job just got easier, an even number of teams is much easier to deal with than odd for balancing off days, travel. The schedule will have to expand to at least 50 games, Brett cannot see the league cutting the schedule back to 40 games. Could the league expand the schedule to 60 games, starting in mid-October still beginning the playoffs in late March? Financially the total travel expenses for teams should remain about the same over the season.
The other big question is whether the Shamrocks will capture Eagle fans filling Bigsby Gardens with all of NYC hockey followers. Could be a big financial boost to the Shamrocks. The other big question is how will Eagle players be handled, all become free agents or some sort of draft? This will be the thorniest issue the league has to handle with the Eagles franchise.
How the Eagles players are dispersed could have quite an impact on the Dukes. This writer's opinion is that the player issue will be handled by a dispersal draft -which is probably the easiest way causing the least disruption to the salary structure. If the draft is handled in the reverse order of finish in 1946-47 the Dukes would own the first pick. Given the constant presence of new head coach Jack Barrell at the Dominion Gardens this month, I am led to believe Barrell and the GM are discussing options for a dispersal draft.
Obviously the two biggest names that would be available are veteran goaltender Tom Brockers along with young center Quinton Pollock. Brett would lean towards Pollock as it makes little sense to have Brockers and Gordie Broadway competing for the job between the pipes. Pollock, a 30 goal scorer, would immediately solves the Dukes lack of offense which Barrell mentioned although he also mentioned he plan going forward was to build a strong defensive team. Word around the team is that many players will not have their contracts renewed by the Dukes including Rosie McInnis. The Dukes could also get creative by trading down in the dispersal draft in order to pick up a lower pick along with an already proven NAHC player. Does the Eagles demise change the plans for the Dukes future? Stay tuned for opinions om that topioc if the Eagles do actually fold, an event that would certainly create an interesting summer for the NAHC.
NAHC MAY LOSE BROOKLYN FRANCHISE
Intense rumours coming out of the New York area have the NAHC's Brooklyn Eagles on the brink of folding. One source the Detroit Times spoke too has confirmed it is a done deal and Brooklyn owner Edward Faberge is pulling the plug, blaming the club's demise on years of losing money. The club averted extinction just 7 short years ago when Brooklyn Kings ballclub owner Daniel Prescott stepped up with a stadium deal to allow Faberge to avoid the extortion-like prices he was paying the New York Shamrocks to rent Bigsby Garden but years of awful hockey has doomed the Eagles, just when the franchise was starting to see the light.
The Brooklyn team suddenly has some very talented players and that spells good news for the Toronto Dukes who will likely have first pick at the corpse that is the Eagles should the league elect to go ahead with a dispersal draft. Toronto's defensive zone coverage was awful a year ago and goaltender Gordie Broadway had a subpar season but even with the great Tom Brockers expected to be available, it has hard to see the Dukes, or any other team for that matter, passing on the opportunity to select Quinton Pollack first in the dispersal draft. Pollack is a 24 year old the Eagles purchased from the coast league this past season and all he did as an NAHC rookie was tie for the league goal scroring lead by lighting the lamp 30 times.
With Pollack to Toronto a done deal if the dispersal draft happens and follows the reverse order of standings from a year ago, that means Montreal will likely grab the veteran netminder Brockers with the second pick. Brockers was outstanding with a subpar defense in Brooklyn behind him and might just be able to lift the Valiants into contention if 31-year-old continues at the top of his game. There is also a chance that the Valiants play the 'long game' and go with 20 year old defenseman Robert Sharpley who was the Eagles second round draft pick a year ago and tallied 12 points as a rookie this season.
The New York Shamrocks would pick third and if all goes according to plan they would likely end up with a choice between Sharpley or talented center Ian Doyle. The 23-year-old Doyle was signed by Brooklyn after three years with Syracuse of the HAA and was averaging nearly a point a game before an injury ended his season in early January.
That leaves the Motors with the fourth selection and they would likely be happy with whichever of the 4 players listed above fell to them although don't rule out left winger Steve Coates who, like Pollack, was brought in by the Eagles from the coast league. The 23-year old had 32 points in 35 games this season but there is some question as to whether his point total was inflated because he played alongside Pollack. There is also a slight chance that if Sharpley is not available the Motors will look to 25-year old rearguard Alex Viens, a solid two-way defenseman who actually started his career with the Motors and won the McLeod Trophy as the league's top rookie two years ago. That would leave the top two teams in Boston and Chicago to pick from who was left. The Eagles did not have a lot of depth but the Motors and the 3 teams selecting ahead of them would each likely also land a solid contributor with their second round seletion.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- It will be Grange College, bidding for it's third AIAA baseball title in the past four years, against Carolina Poly in the finals of the Collegiate World Championship Series. The best-of-three affair gets underway this afternoon at Dyckman Stadium in New York.
- Helsinki has been awarded the 1952 summer Olympics, while the winter event will go to Oslo.
- With Hector Sawyer's heavyweight title fight at Cougars Park in Chicago sold out, fight promoter Chester Conley has moved to add a second date of big time boxing to the venue. Former welterweight champ Mark Westlake will face Willis May two days ahead of Sawyer's defense against Irishman Pat Harber.
- President Truman vetoed the Republican-sponsored tax bill, declaring to the House that it "offers dubious, ill-apportioned and risky benefits at the expense of a sound tax policy and is, from the standpoint of Government finances, unsafe."
- The President also decided to veto the Labor Bill but the House overwhelmingly voted to make it law over his veto with the Senate now debating its decision.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.