'Mr. Expansion'

Brunette is paying off for an expansion team ... again

The unrestricted free agent of the year -- at least so far -- is Minnesota's Andrew Brunette. Heading into the week, the left winger led all 2001 unrestricteds in scoring with 30 points, five ahead of Philadelphia's Jeremy Roenick.

Considering that Wild general manager Doug Risebrough picked up Brunette for $3.3 million over three years, he's quite a bargain. Brunette has benefitted from playing opposite Marian Gaborik, the spectacular second-year winger whose explosiveness has helped free Brunette.

Of course, the partnership cuts both ways. Gaborik now has someone he can pass to with the reasonable expectation the puck actually might come back. Brunette has been making the rounds of expansion teams: the 27-year-old's last two stops were Nashville and Atlanta.

Next!

It speaks to the depth of the Colorado Avalanche organization that it can dip into the minors, pluck an obscure player off the roster, plug him in on the big club's second line and wait for the magic. The find last year was the unheralded Ville Nieminen. Now it is Radim Vrbata, who has been playing the wing with Chris Drury and Steven Reinprecht.

In 11 games since his recall, the 20-year-old Czech, who was drafted 212th overall out of the Quebec Major Junior League in 1999, has four goals and eight assists, three of those goals coming on the power play. Vrbata already has moved up to seventh in the rookie scoring ranks.

Making amends in Montreal

The boos have stopped cascading down on Canadiens defenseman Patrice Brisebois. Last year he was an absurd minus-31, earning the home fan's abuse and the sorry nickname of Breeze-by.

But this season Brisebois has been a plus-player and has chipped in offensively with 13 points. While not quite the attacking force he was last year when he scored 15 goals, Brisebois has responded well to playing on Montreal's No. 1 pair with Karl Dykhuis, going up against top lines every game.

The revival couldn't come at a better time for Brisebois, who has never been given the credit he deserves for being an excellent passer. He can become an unrestricted free agent after the season. Still, look for him to re-up for relatively big dollars in Montreal.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

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