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Phil (email@hidden) thought you would be interested in this article from http://www.globeandmail.com



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An article from www.globeandmail.com, Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Europe still tops Wickenheiser's list


Canadian Press



Hayley Wickenheiser prefers to pursue hockey opportunities in Europe, even though Phil Esposito is willing to give her a tryout with his minor professional hockey team in the East Coast Hockey League.

 "Europe is still the No. 1 option," Wickenheiser said Wednesday from Calgary. "Basically because it's a better style of hockey for the game that I want to play for the women's game.

 "The East Coast league is a tough league."

 Esposito, a minority owner of the Cincinnati Cyclones, told The Globe and Mail he would offer Wickenheiser a 15-game tryout with the Cyclones, which would make her the first woman to play minor pro as a skater. Goaltender Manon Rheaume played nine games in the ECHL between 1993 and 1995.

 But Wickenheiser's focus has been on European men's leagues, which resembles the women's international game more than North American minor pro. 

 "I'm not looking to make the NHL or anything like that," she said. "I'm just looking to just play kind of a European game that we play in the women's game.

 "You have the bigger ice surface to your advantage," she said of the European leagues. "It's what we play on the national team, no red-line, more of a finesse kind of a game."

 A spokesman for the Cyclones said the organization had no comment on Esposito's offer because it caught the team off guard.

 "The first we heard of it was when we read it in the paper this morning," said Greg DeVitto. "Nothing had been discussed here in Cincinnati about it.

 "We're trying to reach Phil to determine what was discussed and how all this plays out."

 The ECHL wouldn't have a problem with Wickenheiser playing in its league, said president Brian McKenna.

 "As a matter of fact, I think she is widely regarded as the best female player in the world right now and led her team to the Olympic gold medal last year," he said. "I think the hockey world would probably be very interested in how she would stack up against the competition."

 Esposito was general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning when he signed Rheaume, who appeared in an exhibition game with the Lightning in 1992.

 Rheaume, who has also played two exhibition games in the Austrian league, feels a European men's team is a better option than North American minor pro for her former Canadian teammate.

 "Obviously Europe would be first choice for her, because it's less physical and the bigger ice surface," Rheaume said from Santa Ana, Calif.

 "That would be ideal for her. Here, in the East Coast league you are playing in a lot of small rinks and it's a lot more physical. 

 "I don't know if she cannot play here. She may be able to play here depending how much physical play she can take."

 With little on the international women's schedule this winter following the Olympics last February, Wickenheiser, considered by many to be the best women's player in the world, wanted to look at other ways to further develop her skills.

 The five-foot-seven forward and her agent, Wade Arnott, almost had a deal worked out with the Italian league's Merano, but the Italian Hockey Federation would not allow her to play on a men's team. 

 Arnott is still pursuing tryouts with teams in the Austrian, Swiss and German leagues.

 The 23-year-old Wickenheiser, from Shaunavon, Sask., has played with men throughout her career. She played midget triple-A with boys, twice attended the Philadelphia Flyers rookie camp and for the past two summers skated with a Division 1 Czech men's team.

 "Seeing those leagues over there and the way they approach the game, I just thought for me to play minor pro hockey in North America is probably not realistic but maybe I can play over there. Why not?" she said.

 She wants to make it clear she isn't above women's hockey, but instead wants to develop her skills to make herself better for the national team.

 "It's kind of been said that I'm doing this because I think I'm too good for women's hockey," said Wickenheiser. "If the women's national team could be together full time and we could play together every year, that would be fantastic."

 She is currently playing defence for the Edmonton Chimos for the National Women's Hockey League and has committed to play for Canada at the Four Nations tournament in Kitchener, Ont., next week.


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