There are some who feel the Devils are renegades for challenging the NHL by signing Ilya Kovalchuk to a 17-year, $102 million contract, particularly since their last high-profile challenge of an NHL ruling brought such a stern, if not historic, response.



The perceived fallout that followed the outside-the-league legal challenge to former coach Jim Schoenfeld's suspension for his run-in with referee Don Koharski during the 1988 playoffs — including the league ultimately instituting a fine for teams initiating such outside litigation in future matters — might've been enough to soften an organization's handling of such conflicts going forward.



But then, general manager Lou Lamoriello, at the center of both issues, is not afraid to make some waves.



Of course, the Devils also are an organization that thinks it is now on the cutting edge in marketing with last year's decision to wear throwback jerseys one time. Really.



Imagine if Charlie Finley were still around.



It is 40 years since Finley, then owner of baseball's Oakland A's, bought the NHL's Oakland Seals and changed the team's name to the California Golden Seals two games into the 1970-71 season.



He also made his players wear white skates, colorful uniforms and wanted to introduce an orange puck. The league rejected his puck idea.



The Seals were the first NHL team to put players' names on the back of their jerseys.



"Charlie was a legendary guy, without a doubt," recalled former Devils director of player personnel Bert Marshall, who played for the Seals. "I never had a problem with him. Maybe we just didn't know.



"We were the outcasts, the bottom feeders. We were the black sheep of the whole league at the time, dressed up in Kelly green and whatever that yellow was called. Gold or whatever he called it. He was quite a guy. We didn't see that much of him, but we sure felt his presence all the time."



Finley owned the Seals for four years, but his impact was undeniable. His marketing schemes gained attention, yet resulted in neither sustained attendance nor a winning team.



He fired his GM, Bill Torrey, who had begun to turn the Seals around and went on to build the Islanders teams that won four successive Stanley Cups. And, as with the A's when he revolted against baseball's free agency, Finley refused to pay his top players as they jumped to the new World Hockey Association.



"The year the World Hockey Association came in, we lost about half our team. The reason was the WHA was paying more money," said Marshall Johnston, a former assistant coach and player personnel director for the

Devils who had been a defenseman for the Seals.



"The manager at the time was Garry Young, and the league told him, 'We'll look after Charlie. You get the players signed.' They wanted to keep the players in the NHL.



"Back then, the average salary was around $30,000. Some of the guys were getting $35,000-$40,000 to go to the WHA. We had been coming up a little bit, but we took a step backward. The league ended up buying the team back from him. I'm sure Charlie didn't lose a lot of money."



Just as the league assumed ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes last season, it took control of the Seals in February 1974. The Seals eventually became the Cleveland Barons in 1976-77, played for two seasons and were merged with the financially struggling Minnesota North Stars in 1978.



"We were so bad. Mediocre, I guess," Marshall said. "The Seals' white skates and uniforms are what everybody remembers. Nobody remembers the players. They remember the uniforms. Charlie would be happy about that."



Torrey became the GM when Finley bought the team, replacing Frank Selke Jr.



"At first I got along really well with him," Torrey remembered. "People told him I knew what I was doing and he should listen to me. He didn't listen to anybody, and he didn't know a left wing from a right wing."



Torrey knew what he was doing and could have built a winning team in Oakland, but there was a power struggle with Finley.



"I had a provision in my contract that said anything that had to do with a player had to go through me," Torrey said. "He tried to extend my contract if I would have that clause taken out. I wouldn't do it.



"He was going to fire me so I ended up suing him. He went nuts. I beat him in court. Then he fired me anyway, but he had to pay me."



Garry Young replaced Torrey in 1971-72. With the WHA offering higher salaries, Finley refused to keep pace and soon his team was hit hard by losing players.



"Some of the players were in the paper making comments that Charlie was cheap," Johnston said. "So Charlie flies out and has a meeting with the players. He gets up and says: 'Gentlemen, which one of you had this to say in the paper?' Nobody put up their hand. The reason why he wasn't giving the big raises was because we were a poor team. I think he had instructed Young that if we had an OK year, we'd get a $2,500 raise.



"A lot of people had negative things to say about him. I really didn't. We never missed a paycheck. When they were winning World Series, we got good seats right behind the A's dugout."



Marshall said free agency in baseball and the formation of the WHA in hockey infuriated Finley.



"Free agency in baseball set him off. That was the end of the Charlie Finley era," Marshall suggested. "He wasn't going to pay any of those guys-- Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi-- that kind of money for playing baseball. And we didn't have it in hockey at that time.



"I was making 20 grand from Charlie Finley. I ended up getting traded ro New York and I still had a couple of years left at that. I went to the Rangers for a couple of months and ended up with the Islanders. I remember telling Torrey (now with the Isles), 'How am I going to live in New York on $20,000?' He laughed and said, 'We'll take care of you.' What a crock."



Finley, who made his fortune in medical malpractice insurance, lived in Chicago but spent time in Oakland, where his A's were on the verge of winning three straight World Series. He was able to buy the Seals because NHL president Clarence Campbell and key owners preferred him to roller derby mogul Jerry Seltzer, who had investors from four AFL franchises.



"Charlie wanted to contact all the media in the Bay area," Torrey said. "For three hours we listened to him return calls to each and every one of them, telling them: 'Always in my heart I wanted to own an NHL team. That's been my heart's desire. I love hockey. And I always wanted to live with my family in the Bay area.'



"Well, none of his eight kids and wife ever moved. They kept living in Chicago and on his farm in Laporte, Ind. When he was done talking to the media he said, 'Bill, you know what your first job is for me? To figure out how to get these two teams out of Oakland. I've been here a year-and-a-half and this is an awful town.'



"He said, 'Bill, a good place for us to move is New Orleans. They love baseball and with all the French down there, they'll love hockey.' I said, 'Charlie, they're not French Canadians.' "



He never moved the two teams but did get the Seals to wear white skates even though they created the optical illusion on white ice that players were skating on ankle stubs.



"I told him, 'Charlie, this isn't the Ice Capades. On white ice they're going to look like crap,' " Torrey recalls. "Fred Glover was our coach, an old-time guy, and when I showed him the skates he said, '(Forget it) if you think any of our guys are wearing those.'



"We trained in Oshawa, Ontario, and played exhibition games in Oshawa, Hamilton and Sudbury. Before one game I'm handed a note that says: 'Bill, where are my white skates? I'm downstairs. Charlie.' He was ticked off."



Torrey was certain that when Finley saw how bad the white skates looked, he'd get rid of them. So the GM addressed his players before the game.



"I said, 'Gentlemen, the man who signs your paychecks is here," Torrey said. "Here is a pair of white skates. He wants to see what they look like on a player in a game. Anybody want to volunteer?'



"Everybody dropped their heads. Nobody wanted to wear them. I turned and walked out, not sure if anybody would wear them. But Gary Jarrett put them on and wore them. And they looked like crap.



"Charlie said, 'Bill, you're right. They look like crap. But I'm going to get some green skates with gold toes. We never wore the white skates long. Trainers hated them because the black puck would hit them and they'd look terrible.' But we went with the green skates with gold toes."



The team's official colors were Kelly green, California gold and snow white.



Johnston, now 69 and the director of pro scouting for the Carolina Hurricanes, still has one version of the Seals skates.



"The skates are hanging in my kitchen. They're green and white. Old Bauer skates with white toes and the rest is green," he said. "I remember we were in Boston in the old Garden and there was a faceoff. During a lull this guy hollered, 'Hey, Johnston, where's your purse?' And I still have my jersey."



The Seals never made the playoffs during Finley's ownership, but they traveled in style.



"I remember we went into Boston and beat the Bruins. (Gilles) Meloche stood on his head. We won 3-2 or something and that was during Boston's Stanley Cup days," Johnston said. "The next day we were in New York and Charlie bought us all Gucci shoes.



"We used to fly first class from San Francisco to New York. Quite often it was in a 747 when they came out with the double-deckers. Quite often the team would be up on the top deck, especially if we were on our way back from the East. The beer would be flowing pretty good."



Johnston, who was the team's player rep, tried to get Finley to provide some extras that might help the Seals win more games.



He remembers walking into Finley's office one day when the owner was talking to Everett Alvarez Jr. of Santa Clara, Calif., who was the longest-held POW in the Vietnam War. Alvarez had been a prisoner of war for 8 1/2 years and he was going to throw out the first ball at an A's game.



"Charlie didn't live in Oakland but he used to come out fairly regularly because he had the ball team. He lived in Chicago," Johnston said. "We didn't have weight training, off-ice equipment or video. Those things were getting to be commonplace in the league. So I went in there and had a meeting with him.



"You could call him Charlie. He wanted you to call him Charlie. This was at the end of my first year there. I figured it out. It cost him probably close to $30,000 extra to fly us first class. I said, 'Charlie, we don't have any video or off-ice training. The word around (the NHL) is you treat us like a sugar daddy, but this would help us be a better team.' He said, 'Yeah, that's a good point,' but he never did it."



Marshall said it was tough losing, but there were perks.



"He treated us all right. It was tough to get any money out of him for playing. But he'd take us for dinner, and we'd travel first class," Marshall said. "Some of those trips we had were pretty ridiculous. We'd go on the road for 2 1/2 weeks and play 12 games. And we'd lose 10. If you had one of those trips in October, you were out of it.



"We went on the road with Kelly green double-breasted vests and sport coats with black slacks. We had Kelly green suitcases with the Seals logo on it and yellow piping. We must've looked like a circus coming in.



"I've got that suitcase somewhere. He was a big shareholder in Bulova watches. Two years in a row he gave us very nice Bulova watches for Christmas with his signature on the back of them. I have those watches, too. I was never a big memorabilia guy, but for some reason I kept that stuff."



Mementos from an unusual chapter in NHL history.



Rich Chere: rchere@starledger.com