Canucks' Bure Reportedly Threatened -- Russian Mafia Said To Target Expatriates

NHL players with ties to the former Soviet Union are being pressured to pay protection money to guarantee their families safety, including one incident that is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, according to reports Thursday and yesterday.

The players are denying the allegations, although it is unclear whether they are doing it out of fear of reprisals or because those incidents have been exaggerated.

The Vancouver Province yesterday quoted city police sources as saying Canuck winger Pavel Bure has been a target of organized crime groups and had made two payments to a man who had befriended Russian players. Until this week, Bure was the NHL's highest-paid Russian player with a salary of $930,000. Bure's father, Vladimir, and Canuck General Manager, Pat Quinn, denied any money had changed hands.

The Province also cited an unconfirmed report that Los Angeles Kings defenseman Alexei Zhitnik had been physically harmed by gang members.

Nick Beverley, the Kings' general manager, said he is taking the matter seriously.

"There are things I can't talk about," he said. ". . . What I can say, is he says he was not roughed up."

A spokeswoman for the L.A. Police Department said she could not confirm a report in yesterday's New York Times that police are investigating at least one suspected case of intimidation of a player. That player might not be Zhitnik, because Bure spent last summer in Los Angeles.

La Presse, a French-language newspaper in Montreal, on Thursday identified New Jersey Devil defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov as a target of an organized crime group. The newspaper did not identify its sources.

"I never paid anybody. I don't know where this comes from," Fetisov told the New York Daily News.

La Presse also said players have been threatened with having their legs broken or having their families harmed.

Some general managers, while aware of the problem, say its scope cannot be ascertained because players are unwilling or afraid to cooperate with authorities or club officials.

Fifty-two players from Russia, two from Latvia, one from Lithuania and four from Ukraine have played at least two games in the NHL this season. Their salaries, while generally below the $520,000 league-wide average of a month ago, would exceed those of most of their compatriots and make them potential targets for extortion or other schemes.

A prominent player told friends recently he had been approached by gangsters before leaving his homeland and that "if I go back, the Mafia will want to cash in."

The player would not permit his name to be used for fear of retaliation.

Sergei Fedorov of the Red Wings, a native of Pskov, Russia, who supplanted Bure as the game's top-paid Russian this week, said Thursday he had never been threatened by any of his compatriots and did not believe extortion was a major concern.

However, Fedorov might be less vulnerable to threats than other players because his family is with him in the United States.