THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190493
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
When the Hampton Roads Admirals streamed onto the Scope ice Wednesday, none wore a white sweater bearing No. 19.
``That's my number,'' said Kelly Sorensen, standing near the Admirals' locker room. A room from which, by rights, Sorensen should have emerged with the others to drink in the opening-night air.
Instead, in street clothes, Sorensen looked on quietly through round, wire-framed glasses as each Admiral was introduced.
Sorensen has appeared in 175 games for the Admirals, fifth-most in team history. He practices with them every day and lives with goalie Corwin Saurdiff.
But Sorensen can't play, has no contract and, at 25, might never be an Admiral again. He is staying sharp, though, just in case an opening pops up for a player of his experience.
Hoping, perhaps against hope, to fill that No. 19 jersey once more.
Sorensen has been left dangling by one of the small-thinking East Coast Hockey League's more ridiculous brainstorms - the so-called veterans cap that limits teams to three players who have spent at least three years in the ECHL.
This would have been Sorensen's fourth season as a grinder on the right wing, as a role player who sees he has no future at a higher level but could help the Admirals.
``It's the rule and they won't get rid of it,'' said Sorensen, a year-round Virginia Beach resident and a golf pro at Honey Bee Golf Club. ``It's frustrating, but I'm not going to get all upset and ruffled about it.''
Neither, apparently, is Dennis McEwen, Mr. ``Original Admiral.'' McEwen, 27, has played the most games in franchise history, 246, but has spent the last three seasons hindered by the veterans rule.
A year ago, his playing time consisted of 25 games. So McEwen, unlike Sorensen, opted not to put himself through it again without the guarantee of a roster spot, a guarantee the Admirals can't make.
``Without that rule I think, without a doubt, I'd be on the ice tonight,'' said McEwen, who also lives in Virginia Beach and sells printing, as he tracked the action from behind a goal. ``I still love to play, and if the rules allowed it I'd do it. It's almost discriminatory, telling me because I'm a certain age I can't play.''
The rule was instituted five years ago - originally it limited teams to two veterans - under the argument that the ECHL is a developmental league, so most players should move up or out after three years.
Why?
``They didn't want to be a league of 30-year-olds clutching and grabbing and just hanging on,'' said Admirals owner Blake Cullen, a steadfast opponent of the rule.
Cullen, who has always been a much better operator than this league deserves, knows there are too many good young players - the Admirals have a record nine under contract to NHL teams - for that to happen.
And that the main reason owners endorse the rule is to protect themselves from having to pay the higher salaries experienced players deserve.
Fine. That says the ECHL is largely a confederacy of dupes who can't trust themselves to be fiscally responsible. No revelation there.
So you get awkward situations where men who have chosen to put down roots in a community, who could and would like to play for its pro hockey team, and who could sell tickets by being recognizable personalities year-round, cannot.
There's something too petty about that, even for a league that seems to succeed in spite of itself. by CNB