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In fact he could play his first game in Los Angeles in six days.

“I’m happy it’s over,” he said through his interpreter Serge Levin. “I feel as though I can play right now. Maybe not at the top of my game yet, but I’m anxious to get going.

“I think it was very fair the way it finished. But it was very slow. I wish this could have been done sooner.”

Bure kicked in the $50,000 without the knowledge of his agent Ron Salcer, who was in Boston for Garry Galley’s arbitration hearing and could not attend.

With the announcement of the Canucks and Bure agreeing to terms, the hearing on Bure’s attempt to have the NHL set aside his Soviet contract never took place in Detroit. Judge Kathleen McDonald of the Wayne County Circuit Court recognized it as a money matter and had the Soviets and Canucks sit down and haggle out a transfer rights fee over the next six hours.

With Detroit lawyer Rob Brown handling the Vancouver negotiating along with Canucks director of hockey operations Brian Burke while Howard Gourwitz and Valeri Guschin represented Red Army, the two started miles apart.

The Soviets suggested $200,000 per year for four years as in the case of Valery Kamensky of the Quebec Nordiques. The Canucks, arguing they would sit Bure out for the whole season if need be, offered a total four-year payment of $25,000.

“It was a long and difficult process to say the least,” said Bure’s lawyer David Chardavoyne, who never got to litigate against the sitting duck Gourwitz, a tax attorney many believe was hired because he was a friend of a Soviet in a high position. “I was a spectator at my own case. The two parties in the suit were sitting watching this go on. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was tough on Pavel.”