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p48 weekenderjune 6 1987 weekender i beam n plug in th power of a bm 4410 hwy 7 just wot ol main si uraonvibe north s 4779711 thomas looking for pay hike by frank king sports editor the onice action may be through for the season but hockey is still on the minds of players like markhams steve thomas the 23yearold sherwood forest drive resident is in that group of national hockey league types who have played out their contracts and are now free agents thomas who collected 35 goals and 26 assists for the toronto maple leafs last sea son had a twoyear deal plus one option year that paid him a measly 80000 per campaign this means that while hes doing his usual summer routines playing charity slow- pitch with the leafs and keep ing in shape via the markville ball hockey league his thoughts are on contracts and dont let that free agent tag fool you thomas is any thing but thanks to nhl rules that force any other team sign ing him up to compensate the leafs not that the onetime record- setting markham waxer wants to leave toronto the leafs are still first in my book he explained in an interview but they have to come up with enough money for me to stay i know there are a number of other teams in terested the rumour is that thomas a left winger wants a three- year contract plus an option year for about 200000 a sea son when questioned he didnt deny it he also didnt deny that his second choice to play would be be a us team where hed make more money thomas isnt doing the actual bargaining though he isnt even at the negotiating sessions with leaf general manager gerry mcnamara thats all left up to his agent mississaugas don meehan and meehan has a good pro duct to offer since joining the blueandwhite fulltime two seasons back thomas has steadily upped his production he scored 15 goals more than last season though his playoff totals didnt come close to matching 1986 but apparently theres a good reason for that markhams steve thomas has been a big hit with the fans since joining the toronto maple leafs two years ago here he signs autographs for as soon as postseason play arrived thomas was taken off his line with veterans rick vaive tom fergus or peter ihnacek when fergus was hurt and teamed up with others like russ courtnall vince damphousse that move supposedly done to throw off torontos first- round opponent st louis probably threw off thomas in stead i didnt know whether i was coming or going he recalled i dont want to use this as an excuse but why couldnt coach john brophy leave the lines alone i dont understand it that was the only complaint he had with brophy who took over as coach after dan maloney refused owner harold ballards ludicrous contract offer and joined winnipeg theyre both the same sort of coach assessed thomas who also played for brophy at torontos american hockey league affiliate in st cathar ines now in newmarket they leave players alone heres a more youthful tho mas during his markham waxer days who are producing theyre both hardworking and both get a lot of respect from the players eager children after a leaf practice in mar kham bill lanning so did brophy lean on tho mas apparently yes at first but by seasons end everything was honkydory if you slack up he gets on you i didnt need that and he realizes that now but he was constructive in his criticism and maybe it did some good too i learned a lot more about defensive hockey with bro phy said thomas whos 68- goal season with the 198182 markham waxers set an ontario junior hockey league record that may never be broken he did it in tandem with adam oates who won the league points title that year and is now one of the detroit red wings better players thomas and oates met for the first time in playoff action this year though it wasnt that big a deal for the markham district high school graduate adam played well in the playoffs and wed talk a little on the ice but theres not much time to talk so i didnt associ ate with him much adam still doesnt have the wicked skat ing ability but everything else is there thomas had lots of opportun ity to watch his former line- mate since detroit and toron to renewed a longdormant playoff rivalry with a seven- game battle that finally went to the red wings detroit was a little stale in the first few games and we capitalized on that said tho mas but after that 31 lead in games i dont know what hap pened the red wings just started to go he continued i think we figured we could just breeze into the semifinals what didnt help were a series of injuries to gary lee- man chris kotsopoulos his cousen perry played for the waxers last season mark osborne and tom fergus it was a different story in the st louis series which the leafs won without much problem we played perfect hockey thomas explained we play ed brophys plan to a t for example we had two guys going to the net for rebounds which we didnt do during the season maybe more strategy like that would have saved toron tos regular season which started with a bang and ended with a the leafs scrambling to gain a playoff spot it was a real upanddown season more up than down said thomas i dont really know why we had the momen tum going then all of a sudden we were watching teams go by us it was disheartening he has other thoughts on the season specifically the tor turous length of it i played 102 games this year and the guys in the finals must have been close to 120 he pointed out the regular season takes enough out of you without exhibition and playoff games he cant see cutting the regu lar season though but chop ping the number of preseason games toronto had nine this year and going back to a best- offive firstround playoff series both meet with his approval unionville racer aims for the top by ed rogers scott maxwells climb to a professionalracing career has moved as fast as the blur of a vehicle on a straightaway and his drive for success to the heights of formula 1 or indytype cars if everything goes right is apparant even in a short conversation with the 23-year- old unionville resident i couldnt imagine doing anything else right now he says coming across as a levelheaded and down-to- earth enthusiast that is if the earth is asphalt and below the rubber grip of racing tires everything seems boring after you race he says this year marks maxwells second as a professional driver after a fouryear stint climbing the amateur ranks a busy racer this year maxwell takes on the chal lenge of the rothmans porsche scries and tackles the speed of formula 2000 cars in the motormastcr scries and maxwell says he is going into the two series with confidence a confidence based on substance in 1986 the young driver finished fourth overall in eight players challenge camarofirebird races from a field of 80 drivers and behind the wheel of a porsche 944 he took overall fifth in a field of 40 he also raced in two 24hour endur ance races codriving to a victory in his first year of car racing after five years in junior kart competition that yielded two ontario cham pionships he was named rookie of the year by the canadian automobile sports car club two years later in 1984 the canadian race drivers associations named maxwell top amateur driver and last year the same association gave him their award of merit the racing adds up to a lot of speed speed hes grown comfortable with so what is most uncomfortable about his chosen career i find that the worst part is when youre sitting in the grid waiting thats the only time you can feel ner vous ne explains and at the drop of the flag the nervousness gives way to intense and necessary concentration in 15lap races one laspe of concentration can blow a chance for suc cess its total concentration on the job at hand he says matteroffactly in fact his concentration goes beyond track level to help promote himself among other reasons maxwell spent three years at seneca college graduating in advertising in 1985 perhaps maxwell was groomed for the sport since he was young ive been around the track since i was six years old ive never been away since he notes adding his father was a racer and now owns minigrid on hwy 7 that features detailed models of racing cars minigrid where maxwell works parttime in the winter sponsors his cars as well as mei stp and rothmans