Only the crystal ball can tell what team Kaspar will be with

And it says MARCH 19,2002 COLORADO AVALANCHE

Avs acquire Kasparaitis
KasparaitisThe defending champion Avalanche have picked up hard-hitting defenseman Darius Kasparaitis from the Penguins for winger Ville Nieminen and defenseman Rick Berry. Kasparaitis will give the Avalanche, currently second in the Western Conference behind the Red Wings, a strong physical presence. Kasparaitis has 123 penalty minutes this season, and exactly 1,100 in his 10-year career. Kasparaitis, who will be eligible for unrestricted free agency at the end of the season, said before the trade was made that he had no idea where he was going to end up. "One day I feel like I'm going to go. The next day I don't feel like I'm going to go. It's just whatever I read in the papers," Kasparaitis told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Monday. "Whatever you guys make up, I read it."

Defenseman Darius Kasparaitis belly flops across
the ice in Buffalo after scoring the series-winning goal against the Buffalo Sabres in overtime of Game Seven to send the Pittsburgh Penguisn to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Kasparaitis out with broken toes
Thursday, May 17, 2001
By TOM GULITTI
Staff Writer
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis put his best foot forward in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night and will probably miss the rest of the series because of it.
Kasparaitis broke two toes on his left foot blocking a shot by the Devils' Petr Sykora in the first period of the Penguins' 4-2 win. He was able to play the remainder of the game, but X-rays taken Wednesday morning revealed the two fractures and, unless there's a dramatic change, he won't play in Game 3 tonight at Mellon Arena. Marc Bergevin will take his place in the lineup.
"I went to the locker room and put some ice on it and came back," Kasparaitis said Wednesday. "I thought I would be all right. But, I had the X-rays and it showed two broken toes."
Although the Penguins are listing him as "out indefinitely," Kasparaitis insisted there's a chance he could play tonight.
"I can do anything," he said. "It depends on if I can put my skate on. I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll be better tomorrow and we'll see tomorrow what I'm going to do."
Kasparaitis' optimism sounded more like wishful thinking than reality.
"That's not going to happen," Penguins captain Jaromir Jagr said of the possibility of Kasparaitis playing tonight. "Look at his [foot]. It's twice as big as his skate. Maybe if he could make an extra-big skate -- size 75."
When informed that Kasparaitis had played the final two periods with the broken toes, Jagr said, "He played better. I wondered why."

Clock on Kaspar All available evidence suggest that sometime before next spring, defenseman Darius Kasparaitis will become a former Penguin. That he'll be shipped off to Tampa Bay or Long Island or Florida or Detroit, to a team that craves the qualities he can add to a defense corps. That's because Kasparaitis is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, and it's almost unthinkable that the Penguins would allow him to leave next summer without getting something in return. But even though the Penguins low-balled him in salary arbitration during the off-season -- a move that backfired when, by accepting the pay cut they offered, Kasparaitis set himself up to go on the open market next summer -- he insists he would be willing to try to work out a new deal with them. "Why not?" Kasparaitis said. "If there's a reasonable offer, there's always a chance [of an agreement]. I was hoping they were going to talk to me before the first game, but nothing happened." Chances are that nothing will happen in coming days, weeks and months, either. It's fairly evident that someone in upper management is quite willing, if not downright eager, to have Kasparaitis removed from the Penguins' depth chart. That point was made most emphatically by the way the Penguins approached Kasparaitis' salary arbitration -- offering a player of his stature a nominal raise, let alone a hefty pay cut, is almost unheard-of -- but Kasparaitis insists he doesn't take any of that personally. "It's a business," he said. "I'm not mad. It's part of the business. ... I have no hard feelings. It was kind of tough in the beginning, but I'm a guy who lets things go easily. I don't keep [things] inside of me." None of the off-ice issues has affected the way he plays -- all out, every shift -- and there's no reason to believe that will change. "I try to play hard," Kasparaitis said. "I try to be involved and just play the game." The real question is who he'll be doing that for when the playoffs roll around next spring:Pittsburgh Post

HERE'S A GUY WHO LOVES HIS JOB

DARIUS AND HIS GAME WINNING PUCK.

DARIUS KASPARAITIS

World's Best Defenseman Penguin's top player

ISLANDERS, KASPAR"S FIRST NHL TEAM

Selected by New York Islanders in first round (first Islanders pick, fifth overall) of NHL entry draft (June 20, 1992)

Traded by Islanders with C Andreas Johansson to Pittsburgh Penguins for C Bryan Smolinski (November 17, 1996)

Selected fifth overall by the Islanders in 1992, Kasparaitis was seen by some as the brash young player who defined the
Islanders defense. His check on Lemieux in the upset of Pittsburgh in the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs - Kasparaitis knocked Lemieux to the ice, then pushed him back down with one hand when he tried to regain his feet - is legendary.

Member of gold-medal-winning Unified Olympic team (1992). ... Member of silver-medal-winning Russian Olympic team (1998).

What he does best Kasparaitis sends Calgary Flames Bill Lindsay into the boards during first period NHL action in Calgary

	Powered by MSN TV	next page