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MODANO EXPRESSES DESIRE TO STAY AS TALKS PROGRESS 04/11/98 By Keith Gave / The Dallas Morning News Mike Modano said he wants to be a Dallas Star forever, and he hopes the new contract he expects to sign soon renews the vows of both sides in one of hockey's steadiest relationships. The Stars quietly have been negotiating with Modano for weeks through his Detroit-based agent Howard Gourwitz. And although both sides felt a multi-year deal was close, they acknowledged it wasn't imminent. Major elements of the deal, worth in the neighborhood of $7 million a season, had been resolved, Modano said. But several small but important issues, like insurance, had yet to be negotiated. Recovering from a shoulder injury and planning to return to the lineup by next weekend, Modano is excited at the prospect of putting contract talks behind him. And he confessed after Friday's practice that he never seriously considered testing the free-agent market like Detroit's Sergei Fedorov did. Fedorov received a $38 million offer sheet from Carolina that the Red Wings quickly matched. That deal, Modano said, kick-started his talks with Dallas. After protracted talks last summer failed to produce a long-term deal, Modano agreed to a one-year contract that pays him $3.5 million. If it expires, he would be a restricted free agent, meaning that the Stars would have the right to match any offer. They also could agree to a trade or accept five first-round draft picks in return. It was a chance Modano didn't want to take. "Too much of a gamble," he said, a response that could easily be misunderstood. The gamble, in Modano's mind, had nothing to do with money and everything to do with loyalty and the quality of the team that signs you. And he'll take Dallas, thank you kindly. "You know what you've got here," he said. "You may be happy somewhere else initially, but over the long haul, you never know. I've had enough frustrations here, for a long time. Now the table has turned. Now's the time you want to be here." Besides, Modano added, there's something very appealing about spending an entire career with one franchise, as rare as it is in professional sports these days. "There aren't many of us left," he said. "Steve Yzerman in Detroit, Brian Leetch in New York." It's also important to him to give back something to the franchise that thought enough of him to draft him first overall in 1988. "It's nice to return the favor for the faith they put in you," he said. "You hate to bail out on them now, right when the going is good. Dallas is a great sports town. And it's turning into one of the better hockey towns in the league. I want to stick around." Coach Ken Hitchcock will be delighted to have Modano for as long as he'd like to stay. Getting a contract done before the regular season expires, Hitchcock said, would benefit his club by eliminating one more distraction that might have surfaced in the playoffs. "From a coach's standpoint," Hitchcock said, "the more issues you can eliminate, the better it is for your team." And for Mike Modano, who's ready to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup, that's really all that matters. Copyright 1998, The Dallas Morning News. All rights reserved.