No matter his public, supportive, politically correct statements, Messier is mortally wounded by Brian Burke’s dismissal of Mike Keenan, and by the prospect of playing in a rebuilding program under Marc Crawford.

D ETROIT – When NHL general managers convene tomorrow in Palm Springs for four days of meetings, all eyes will be on the Stars’ Bob Gainey, who has received the mandate from owner Tom Hicks to do whatever necessary to bring the Cup to Cowboy country this year.

Which means spending as much as necessary on top of the already bulging $38 million payload, fourth in the league behind the Flyers, Rangers (now there’s bang for the buck) and Red Wings.

Slap Shots has been told by reliable informants that the Stars have eyes for Mark Messier, and may be disposed to offer Joe Nieuwendyk for the Captain. No matter his public, supportivestatements, Messier is mortally wounded by Brian Burke’s dismissal of Mike Keenan, and by the prospect of playing in a rebuilding program under Marc Crawford. No question that Messier and the Canucks will mutually agree to part company before the Mar. 23 trade deadline.

We’ve also been told that the Stars are seeking a power left wing, and are prepared to ask Neil Smith about impending Group III free agent Adam Graves. Dallas is also planning to make a bid to stop Chris Chelios from going to Philadelphia (for Dainius Zubrus). Chelios and Gainey, teammates in Montreal, are like blood brothers.

In addition to the Stars, the Red Wings and Sharks – big-time – are believed interested in Messier, who has a no-trade clause and thus would have to agree to any deal. Though two summers ago, Messier could not have made the psychological adjustment to playing across the Hudson, he almost certainly now would approve a trade to the Devils, were Lou Lamoriello to make the boldest move of his 12-year tenure as GM and deal for him.

Messier has this year and next guaranteed at $6 million per remaining on his contract, plus a $2M buyout at the conclusion of 1999-2000 if his team does not pick up the option for two more years. Realistically, then, there’s approximately $2.7M remaining this year and $8M next year, a total of $10.7M. The Canucks obviously will have to be willing to pick up a significant portion of that sum in order to move on and craft a Crawford team.

Phoenix, another team willing to spend a bundle, is interested in getting Adam Oates from the Caps in order to reunite him with former linemate Rick Tocchet. We’re told that the interest is mutual on Oates’ behalf.

And Oates isn’t the only veteran who’ll be moving out of D.C. before the deadline. GM George McPhee will be unloading as many elders as he can from a team that has flat-out quit on Ron Wilson. NHL officials, meanwhile, are livid at Burke, a former league VP, for dismissing Keenan during last weekend’s showcase All-Star festivities and casting a shadow over the event. We’re told that once Burke leaked word of the dismissal on Friday to the Vancouver paper that had sought to curry favor with the GM by supporting him during the Pavel Bure fiasco, NHL personnel pleaded with Crawford to remain incognito until after the conclusion of Sunday’s game. Crawford responded by going live on CBC during the game telecast to talk about his future in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, Burke’s refusal to return any of Keenan’s calls last Saturday was simply payback, nothing less than that. Burke had complained to other GMs that Keenan had refused to return his calls during the last week of December after holding a Dec. 29 post-game press conference in which Iron Mike suggested that he himself should be fired because he had run out of ways to motivate the team.

Despite Wayne Gretzky’s suggestion that the NHL play the All-Star Game in Europe every four of five years, Slap Shots has been told that the league has no intentions of following the Great One’s sage advice. Seems that the NHL believes the promotional and public relations benefits it derives from staging the event in league member cities far outweighs any potential benefits it might gain in crossing the ocean.

Gary Bettman’s decision on whether to send NHL athletes to Salt Lake City in 2002 will be reached and communicated to the IOC between late February and early March, we’ve been told. Meaning sometime after the last IOC executive has been expelled for doing somewhat more damage to the Olympics than spraying fire extinguishers and breaking furniture in a dormitory. *

ARE WE out of line to suggest that the Avalanche’s signing last week of prospective Group III Patrick Roy to a two-year, $15 million contract extension doesn’t quite make the Ranger effort to keep Brian Leetch away from unrestricted free agency look all that sincere?

Tell you what else: By giving that deal to Roy, Colorado has appropriately blurred the line between forwards, goaltenders and defensemen. Franchise players are franchise players. Leetch’s price on the market went up with that signing, in case nobody above Penn Station noticed, and it will keep going up until the day he signs.

P.S.: Do not be misled by anything he does or does not say. Leetch is hardly thrilled with the way things are developing. *

LET’S get this straight. The Islanders traded Bryan Berard for a back-up goaltender? Which means that Burke’s Bure trade not only might not be the dumbest trade of the decade, a miracle in itself, but might not even be the dumbest trade of the month.

Meeting with teams on his annual tour, NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow is advising players to begin saving money now for what he believes will be a lockout season of 2004-2005 upon expiration of the CBA on Sept. 15, 2004. One agent has already begun to talk about the possibility of establishing venues in Europe for a 2004-2005 anti-NHL season.

DOMINIK Hasek may be the planet’s best goalie, but he can also be the league’s most unsportsmanlike netminder. Faced with a two-on-one against Nashville on Thursday, Hasek pretended to lose his balance, fell backward, and knocked the net off its pegs. Unpenalized, Hasek should have gotten a double minor for delay of game and for unsportsmanlike conduct. The line between looking for an edge and cheating may be a fine one, but it isn’t that fine.

Snapshot. Elite Eight: 1. Philadelphia; 2. Devils; 3. Dallas; 4. Toronto; 5. Phoenix; 6. Ottawa; 7. Detroit; 8. Colorado. *

FINALLY, as for Tommy Salo’s threat not to re-sign under any circumstance with the Islanders when he becomes a Group II this summer, we have four words for the goaltender, whose agent Rich Winter this week told our Marc Berman that Salo might instead return to Europe: Have a nice trip.