The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Not that long ago, NHLers Curtis Joseph, Pavel Bure and Theoren Fleury were competing for spots on the all-star team. But times have changed, and all three men were available in the league's waiver draft slated for today. Joseph wasn't expected to have any takers given his $8 million annual price tag, but stranger things have happened. After all, who expected the aging Dominik Hasek to come out of retirement and steal Cujo's spot as Detroit's top man between the pipes? Bure, meanwhile, has been declared medically unfit to play this season and may be forced into retirement. At $10 million a year, he represents a huge risk to any potential takers. And then there's Fleury, whose future in the big league remains up in the air. The sparkplug winger is currently under suspension from the NHL and his off-ice troubles are a poorly-kept secret. Several other familiar names were left unprotected, including Dallas' Claude Lemieux, Toronto's Travis Green, Phoenix's Brian Savage and the Islanders' Mariusz Czerkawski. Other notables up for grabs included: Brian Boucher of Phoenix; Todd Harvey of San Jose; Karl Dykhuis of Montreal; Todd Gill of Florida; Bill Lindsay of Atlanta; and former Calgary Flames captain Todd Simpson, who now skates for the Coyotes. Both of the NHL's Flin Flonners, Reid Simpson of Pittsburgh and Matt Davidson of Calgary, were left unprotected. Catch TSN's SportsCentre or log onto NHL.com for a look at who went where.
