Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Thunder’s Dome still has shot

He once was a sure thing. Today, the name Robert Dome is synonymous with uncertainty.

On the eve of the most important day of his professional hockey career, the National Hockey League draft in Pittsburgh, Dome remains the same question mark he has been since coming to America.

"If he was eligible for the draft two years ago, he would have been the first overall pick," Las Vegas Thunder general manager Bob Strumm said of the the 6-foot-2, 205-pound forward he signed last season. "He was regarded as the best player in the world for his age then."

That was following Dome's stellar 1994-95 campaign. As a 15-year-old, he recorded 42 goals and 37 assists in 38 games in a Slovakian junior league.

Two seasons away from NHL eligibility, Dome opted to play professionally in the U.S., a move that would tarnish his star.

He played in 56 games each of his two pro seasons and was with three teams last year: Utah, Long Beach and Las Vegas. He totaled 24 goals and 22 assists. With the Thunder, he played 43 games, tallying 10 goals and seven assists.

Despite his lack of productivity, Dome still is considered first-round material.

"Robert's probably talked about as much as anybody in the draft," Strumm said.

The NHL's Central Scouting Bureau ranked him the 27th most draft-eligible player. USA Today predicts Dome will be taken by Edmonton with the 14th overall selection.

"He's a boy trapped in a man's body," said Thunder coach Chris McSorley from his Pittsburgh hotel room. "He's going to need one or two more years to mature. Robert showed flashes of brilliance. Consistency is something he'll develop."

A slight surprise for the Thunder has been the interest generated by defenseman Sergei Yerkovich, who recently re-signed with Las Vegas. Yerkovich turned in a fine rookie season with six goals and 19 assists with 167 penalty minutes in 76 games.

"I've been enlightened to know there's a lot of excitement over Sergei," McSorley said. "He could go as high as the second round."

Thunderbolts

* BYE-BYE BASHKATOV: Center Egor Bashkatov, whose +13 led Thunder regulars last season, will neither advance to the National Hockey League nor return to Las Vegas. Bashkatov, considered a potential NHL draft choice, recently signed with Vienna, Austria. "At one time, St. Louis had a lot of interest in him," said Thunder general manager Bob Strumm. Bashkatov finished the 1996-97 campaign with 23 goals and 38 assists with 26 penalty minutes in 71 games. Still, Strumm probably wouldn't have re-signed him. "When you're revamping a little bit, going for more grit and competitive nature, that's one part Bash's game that some nights you wondered where it was," he said.

* AFFILIATION AFFLICTION: One team looks good, the other not so in terms of the Thunder's potential NHL partners. Strumm predicts positive meetings between the Thunder and the Phoenix Coyotes when they sit down during this weekend's NHL draft in Pittsburgh. Both teams want to renew their partial affiliation, which started last season. "Our goal is to come out of Pittsburgh with a solid commitment," Strumm said. But the prospects for adding the Los Angeles Kings as a second NHL partner are dwindling. Los Angeles changed its high-minor affiliation from the defunct Phoenix Roadrunners of the IHL to Fredericton of the American Hockey League and supposedly was seeking a partial agreement with a club closer to home for quick call-ups. "We've tried, tried and tried to get communications started with the Kings' ownership and can't seem to get past first base," Strumm said. "I don't know why. We've tried to take it beyond talking, but we can't."

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