THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412090749
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Defenseman Daniel Chaput, who played for Hampton Roads last season, will make his debut against the Admirals tonight when the Richmond Renegades come to Scope.
Chaput, traded to Richmond in September along with defenseman Shawn Snesar for forward Colin Gregor and defenseman Rob MacInnis, has been sidelined with a broken ankle suffered playing roller hockey last summer.
The injury required surgery and a long rehabilitation that kept him out of the lineup until earlier this week. Chaput has played in two games, collecting 15 minutes and no goals or assists.
Richmond coach Roy Sommer says Chaput is nowhere near full speed and won't be for weeks.
``It's going to take him a while,'' Sommer said. ``Everyone's got to realize this is the first time he's played since last year. Everyone has to be patient, including me.''
Richmond (16-3-4) leads the East Division with 36 points, but had lost three out of five games before winning a pair of shootouts last weekend. The Renegades fell at Greensboro, 4-1, in their last outing Tuesday night.
Hampton Roads (9-10-3) has been last in the East Division for nearly a month, but would move into fifth and perhaps a tie for fourth with a victory tonight.
PLAIN TALK: Admirals president Blake Cullen faxed a letter to other league owners recently, stating his concerns about the injured reserve list, in which some teams are stockpiling as many as seven players in addition to the 17 on their active rosters.
``A look at this week's rosters shows 36 players in the IR,'' he wrote. ``Using an average salary of $350 per week, this means we were paying $12,600 last week for players not playing.'
``Over the course of the season, this is close to $300,000. This does not include payroll taxes, housing allowance, etc. I think we could make better use of this . . . money.''
The Admirals have two players on injured reserve.
Cullen says the solution to this problem and others, including under-the-table payments by some teams to players, is simple: Eliminate the salary cap, eliminate or liberalize the limits on veterans and replace the injured reserve list with a 20-man roster, in which only 17 can be active at any time.
``Get rid of all this stuff and let each team put the best hockey team possible on the ice,'' he said.
SHORT STICKS: Admirals officials continue to work behind the scenes to engineer a trade. A proposed multiplayer deal with another ECHL team was almost worked out on Monday but fell through, sources say. Admirals coach John Brophy says a trade won't necessarily bring Hampton Roads better players, but might give the team better chemistry. ``We'd like to do something, but we won't (make a trade) unless we feel it's going to help us,'' he said. Brophy won't comment on which players he'd consider trading. . . . Brophy gave the team a rare day off Thursday, but the Admirals met without the coaches and watched films of Wednesday's 4-3 shootout loss to South Carolina. ``The mood was upbeat,'' said forward Dennis McEwen, who is on injured reserve. by CNB