Thursday, April 30, 1998 | 8:30 a.m.
Ask the fans, and they will be quick to answer: Patrice Lefebvre is a radiant personality. They find it impossible to dislike him.
Not only is he the most popular player in Las Vegas Thunder history, he is the most productive and the odds-on favorite to win the IHL's most valuable player award this season.
Ask Thunder management, however, and you'll get another story: Patrice Lefebvre is a cancer to the organization. And it just might be time for radiation therapy.
Thunder part-owner Ken Stickney portrays his high-scoring left wing as a selfish, counter-productive player who has turned into more trouble than he's worth.
Stickney said the final straw may have come April 16, the day before the Thunder started its Western Conference quarterfinal series with the Long Beach Ice Dogs. That's when Lefebvre allegedly asked general manager Bob Strumm to release him from the final two years of his four-year contract so he could play in Europe.
"That's what people don't understand," Stickney said. "All they see is a little guy who tries real hard and scores a lot of points. They don't see the other side, and it's a difficult thing to deal with."
Stickney also is tired of all the trade demands he claims Lefebvre makes. Since Lefebvre joined the Thunder for its inaugural campaign in 1993-94, Stickney said Lefebvre has asked to be traded dozens of times.
"After a while," Stickney said, "you just quit listening."
"The summer he signed the four-year deal, literally that fall before the season even started, he asked for a trade. That's gospel, the absolute truth."
Lefebvre refutes Stickney's accounts.
"I've never asked to be traded," Lefebvre said. "But that doesn't surprise me with Ken. I'm not going to get into a stupid war with him. I'm more mature than that."
Lefebvre, 29, led the IHL in scoring this season. He broke his Thunder record for points with 116, including 89 on assists.
"I don't think I played like a guy who wanted to be traded," he said.
Lefebvre maintains the Thunder owes him the chance to advance his career because of his service to the team.
"I've given the Thunder five great years of my life," he said. "They always said they would never stop a player from bettering himself."
Earlier this week, Lefebvre's longtime linemate Ken Quinney expressed his intention to play in Europe next season. Quinney's four-year contract expired when the Ice Dogs knocked the Thunder out of the playoffs.
Quinney, the Thunder's all-time leading goal scorer, made $85,000 per season. Lefebvre averages $100,000.
"Ken Quinney signed his contract, played it out, kept his mouth shut," Stickney said. "Even though I feel bad he's leaving, I wish Ken the best.
"Patty obviously feels a little bitter, but nobody put a gun to his head and made him sign the contract."
The Thunder now has the onus of deciding what to do with a star player who wants to leave.
"Patty's a very, very talented guy who's also a high-maintenance guy," Thunder general manager Bob Strumm said.
Neither Stickney nor Strumm would comment on a possible trade, which is unlikely. A more plausible solution is selling his rights to a European team.
"We've made him wealthy and took care of his every need," Stickney said. "He's played some damn good hockey for us, but this other stuff is really distracting."
Damage control
In light of the recent developments, Thunder management is concerned about its perceived dysfunctional relationship with its players.
Head coach Clint Malarchuk held exit interviews with 14 of the 19 players on the Thunder's season-ending roster. He said only Quinney and Lefebvre didn't want to return.
"All but two said they'd come back in a heartbeat," Malarchuk said.
Quinney and Lefebvre happen to be the only ones remaining from the Thunder's inception. Malarchuk was their teammate then.
"No matter where I played there's been players that, for one reason or another, were unhappy," said Malarchuk, who played 10 years in the NHL. "And when I look back, they usually were the guys who have been there the longest. Maybe you just wear out your welcome.
"What I've learned in all my years in hockey, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but there's always some kind of (fertilizer) -- it's just a different smell."
Right wing Trent McCleary has been around, and he found the Thunder to his liking. McCleary, acquired in December from the Detroit Vipers, played with the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators the past two seasons.
"It was a very positive atmosphere," McCleary said. "I came from the Vipers and it was no worse, no better. I had a good time here, and I contributed. I'd definitely like to come back."
High cost of losing
When a team wins, everyone is happy. When it loses, everything deteriorates.
No team knows this more than the Thunder, which won two Huber Trophies as the IHL's regular-season champion in 1993-94 and 1995-96, yet couldn't win a Turner Cup.
This season was the worst in the franchise's five-year history. The Thunder looked strong in January at 25-19-6 and heading into a home-dominant schedule. A team-record seven-game losing streak changed that, and the Thunder finished 33-39-10.
Morale was the first to go.
According to Strumm, trying times force a team needs to rely on its leaders the most. He claimed neither Lefebvre nor Quinney stepped up.
"When things go bad you'd like to think your key guys accept their share of the responsibility instead of passing it along to everybody else," Strumm said. "In both Patty's and Ken's case, they pointed fingers. That's disappointing.
"But I'll tell you one thing, we'll have good people playing for good people next year. If we can guarantee this 100 percent, we'll be back winning more than our share of games."
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