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A Great Guy

Craig Johnson — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:08:42 +0000

Try If You Want, But It’s Almost Impossible To Find Any Flaws With Gretzky

By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

PHOENIX — No. 99 quit playing hockey in 1999 because he couldn’t be Wayne Gretzky any more. But the truth is, he has never stopped being Wayne Gretzky. Most of the world knows he was The Great One, but few know the extent Wayne Gretzky keeps being The Great Guy. Hundreds of people can tell you stories, of little things and big things Gretzky has done on the sly going back years. Most of them are intended to remain unpublicized.

Like this one.

Six months ago, Jimmy Lipa, a Team Canada photographer from the Alan Eagleson days, died in Toronto. Gretzky paid for the funeral.

“He was a huge Gretzky fan and Wayne decided, since Jimmy didn’t have any family, that he would pay for all the funeral costs,” Gretzky’s business manager Darren Blake said. “No one knew. Wayne found out how much the funeral would cost and sent a cheque to cover all the fees and made sure no one knew who paid.”

There are hundreds of stories of the things Gretzky has done, including the first year the Oilers won the Stanley Cup when he paid for the diamonds to replace the glass in the Stanley Cup rings owner Peter Pocklington gave the trainers and equipment men. He has a long history of being generous to the lower paid people he has been surrounded with in hockey.

Just this year, he bought six of them in Phoenix new Fords.

But anybody, as they say, can write a cheque. There are so many little things he does that turn out to be pretty big things in kids’ lives, even in public, which most people don’t even notice.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve been at events, like golf tournaments, where Wayne will be signing things and ask me over, sign a hat or something, and tell me to take it to the kid in the red shirt 20 feet back who looked too shy to ask him for his autograph,” said Lauri Holomis, formerly of Edmonton, who now works for a Toronto agency handling his accounts.

For years, members of the media have tried to find a flaw with Gretzky without much success. But when his assistant coach Rick Tocchet was caught in a gambling bookmaking scandal which involved Wayne’s wife, Janet, making exceptionally large bets through Tocchet, Gretzky was roughed up pretty good. This was on his way to, and during, the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games, where he headed up the Canadian men’s hockey team.

You would think the way the investigation turned out, Gretzky would expect apologies.

“I knew from Day 1 where I stood,” Wayne said. “Society is that way. Ninety-five per cent of the people have always been good to me and that’s the way I always look at it. Life’s too short.”

The same with his wife’s betting through Tocchet.

“It’s her life. So be it. Good for her. Whatever she wants to do. She’s a big girl,” Gretzky said.

As for Tocchet, when his suspension from the NHL expired only days ago, Gretzky took him back. He had gone with only two assistants all year to keep the spot for him.

“Everybody pays for their mistakes in life. He’s paid as much as anybody in hockey ever did. We wanted him back,” Gretzky said.

In there somewhere, some suggest, is his greatest flaw. The Phoenix sports media certainly took the view that the thing wrong with the Coyotes was there were too many friends and associates of Gretzky in the organization, including his old agent Mike Barnett who was eventually fired as GM.

Gretzky, indeed, is a loyal friend. And those who can call Gretzky their friend have been blessed. Such as Jim Jerome.

“He’d invited me to Salt Lake for the game, but my radio station in Ottawa wouldn’t let me get away. They wanted me on the air there for a special broadcast. So there I am, on the air and watching the celebrations on the ice on TV after the game when my phone rings. It’s Wayne. There he is on TV, standing on the ice with his cell phone. And he’s talking to me!

“Bob Cole is on TV saying ‘Who is he calling? His dad’s here. His mom’s here. Who is he calling?’ And Wayne is on the phone saying ‘What did you think of that, James?’ I’m bawling. Then he said he had to go for the national anthems but he’d call me back. Six or seven minutes later, we’ve got him on the air.”

Don Metz of Aquila Productions, now big time in the business, said he owes much of his career to Gretzky.

“I would have to say a lot of my success is based on my relationship with Wayne. I was good enough to do his wedding, the Ultimate Gretzky videos, his Coke commercials, and so much more. It afforded me work in Hollywood and around the world. The association with Wayne allowed my company a special notoriety.”

And it has provided him with some special moments.

“I was the last guy in the room when he hung up his skates in New York,” Metz said. “He sat down and cried like a baby. That was a tough moment. And I’ll never forget when he tapped me on the shoulder one day and asked if I’d do the Gold Rush video from Salt Lake. He said ‘Do you want to shoot this? We’re going to win the gold medal.’”

Like so many people who cross his path in life, there are never-to-be-forgotten personal moments.

“One thing that blew my mind was when my daughter Izabella was christened six years ago, he showed up unannounced,” Metz said. “I didn’t even know he was around.”

Metz said the thing he most appreciates about Gretzky is who he is.

“He never, ever, comes off as a celebrity. He’s one of the guys. Just a great guy.”

The Shocking Deal

Craig Johnson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:34:06 +0000

…That Changed Hockey Forever

By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

EDMONTON — When Wayne Gretzky returned to then-Northlands Coliseum as a King on Oct. 19, 1988, fans held up a banner which seemed to sum up how the city of Edmonton was dealing with the trade.

It was Wayne Gretzky’s wedding day.

Eddie Mio was doing his duty as best man, getting the groom to church on time.

“We were on the way to the church when Wayne looked at me. ‘Eddie, I’m getting traded out of here. I’m not going to be here,’ Wayne told me … on the way to the church,” said Mio. Mio looked at Gretzky and played it perfect, considering the situation.

“Wayne, you’re getting married. Don’t even think about it. Enjoy the day,’ I told him. I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think it was possible to take Wayne away from Edmonton. I just didn’t think anything like that could happen. No way.” Don Metz, the high profile Edmonton video maker who filmed the so-called Royal Wedding, couldn’t believe his ears either.

“A few days after their wedding, I drove Wayne and Janet to the airport. They were in the back seat of my Suburban,” said Metz.

“I was chatting with Wayne, looking at him in the rearview mirror. ‘When do I see you again?’ I asked.

“How does Oct. 5 sound?” said Gretzky.

“‘Oct. 5? What about training camp?”

“‘I don’t think so,” said Wayne looking out the window.

I asked him who he’d play for. He kept looking out the window. For those five or six seconds it felt like time stopped. And I knew better than to ask again.

This past week Metz has here. I’m not going to be here,’ Wayne told me … on the been putting the finishing touches on a one-hour show entitled A Day The Game Changed, revisiting a date that became infamous in Canadian history, Aug. 9, 1988.

It will run for the next two weeks on the NHL Network. “It was John Shannon’s idea,” Metz said of the NHL’s VP of broadcasting.

“His idea was to use this as the pilot for a 12-part series on days that changed the game in hockey, to tell cultural stories about hockey like (those that) have been told so often about baseball.”

“I see A Day That Changed The Game as being a concept I’d like to franchise to other sports.”

“If you’re doing days that changed the game of hockey, though, you definitely have to start with this one.”

The Day That Changed The Game?

“It’s pretty hard for me to comprehend that. I don’t look at it that way,” said Gretzky this week from his summer place in Idaho.

“Mark Messier going to New York was great for hockey there. Brett Hull doesn’t get enough credit in Texas. Th ere were lots of guys. I think I was maybe the first piece of that puzzle.”

There may have been 11 other days that changed the game in hockey. But this was the day that changed the game and what probably says it more than anything else is that Gretzky, 20 years later, is coaching the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL.

“Would I be in Phoenix doing what I’m doing today? No. No chance,” laughed No. 99 when he returned the Sun Media call.

“I’d probably still be in Edmonton going to lunches and dinners on behalf of the Oilers.”

Still, there are mixed messages on what hockey means in the U.S. 20 years after the Gretzky trade.

On one hand, in the last few years teams called the Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and Anaheim Ducks have won the Stanley Cup.

But on the other, the NHL’s TV numbers in the U.S. are as low as most cult sports and there are plenty of good seats to be had in most of those rinks. As for Gretzky’s legacy with the Kings – during the last two years, the Los Angeles Times didn’t send a beat writer on the road with the team.

“There’s probably some credence to that,” said Gretzky.

The impact is open to great debate, but there is no debate on a couple of other items. Gretzky, until that day, was effectively the league’s salary cap. When somebody wanted more money, all the GM had to say was: “I’m not paying you more than Wayne Gretzky.”

Earlier this week, Gretzky said: “I was making $400,000 and there were a couple of guys getting up to a million. I had a year left on my contract and I was going to play hardball, but I wasn’t thinking of leaving. I wanted to catch up and I felt there were other guys on our team that needed to catch up, too.”

Salaries went up in a hurry. Who knows if it would have made any difference, eventually, in where they ended up today.

Today, players from California and other Sun Belt cities are showing up in the Western Hockey League and getting drafted into the NHL.

On that front, at least, Gretzky has no hesitation to say today that the trade definitely had an effect in a good way.

“I’m ecstatic about it,” said Gretzky. “Absolutely. Kids are playing hockey in California and Arizona, Texas and a lot of those places. Back when I went to Los Angeles, there were maybe six or seven good kids on most of the teams.

“Now, at just about every level, there are teams which can compete with teams of that same level in Canada. And some are making the NHL. There’s such a huge population in those areas and kids are playing the game. And when kids play this game they see how good it is. I’m proud of that.”

TRADE WAS A TOUGH DAY

Aug. 9 isn’t a day Gretzky celebrates. For years after when he came to play in Edmonton, he insisted the bus driver take a route where he couldn’t see his statue in front of the building. From several perspectives, financially for one, his life has turned out better. But that day still isn’t an enjoyable exercise in nostalgia for anybody involved on this side of the border.

Twenty years ago Wayne’s dad Walter said it was all telegraphed to him.

“I knew Wayne was getting traded days before he did because Nelson Skalbania phoned me and asked, ‘How much does Wayne make?’ I said ‘Why?’ He said ‘Because Peter’s shopping him to the highest bidder. I said ‘No he’s not.’ He said ‘Yes he is.’ That was during the 1988 Stanley Cup finals.

“The day after they won that fourth Cup, Wayne said ‘You know, dad, I’m going to shop for a house in Edmonton.’ And I told him ‘You better forget that, they’re shopping you.’ ”

Many people figured Gretzky knew he would soon leave Edmonton when he gathered the team on the ice and posed with the Cup, something that had never been done before and now is a tradition with Cup-winning teams.

Gretzky denies that, saying it was kept from him until after they’d won the Cup. And the first thing he’d heard was that he was going to Vancouver, although over the years he discovered, “(the trade talk) went back to the second round of the playoffs.”

The trade rumours actually first surfaced the year after he’d entered the league.

Then, the year he won his first Stanley Cup, there was the rumour Gretzky was going to the New York Rangers for $15 million US ($18 million Cdn at the time).

Gretzky’s agent Mike Barnett said he’d heard it “six or eight times” in the same day.

“Nonsense,” said Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, who blamed the Calgary Flames for starting the story.

A few days later, Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard told me that Pocklington pitched Gretzky to him for $18 million to bail out of bad business deals.

“Happy Harold has obviously lost all his marbles,” said Pocklington. “Wayne Gretzky belongs to me and he always will. That’s absolute rubbish.”

Again the story went away. But it kept coming back and always the number was $18 million. The last time the story was emphatically denied was Aug. 4, 1988.

“There’s nothing to it,” said coach and general manager Glen Sather. “Every summer it’s a different rumour. This one goes in the same bin as all the others. If there’s anything like that I’m sure Peter would let me know. There’s nothing to it.”

FIVE DAYS LATER …

On Aug. 9, 1988, Wayne Douglas Gretzky was sold to the Los Angeles Kings for $15 million US, $18 million Canadian. And like Americans, who remember exactly where they were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated or when man landed on the moon, most Canadians can tell you where they were that day.

Shock. Outrage. Anger. None of those emotions quite covered it, especially in Edmonton where the reaction was not unlike a death in the family, a death not by natural causes.

The Edmonton Sun coverage was incredible the next day. And the front page headline, written by then-sports editor Phil Rivers, will be remembered for almost as long as the day will be recalled: 99 TEARS.

On the cover there was the picture of Gretzky dabbing his tears, the headline and the only other words on the page were: “Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 18, 19, 23, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46 and 47.”

It was called a trade, but it wasn’t.

“It was not a trade,” says Sather. “It was a sale. It was about money.”

Sather, with Pocklington out of the picture, on the 10th anniversary of the day the dirty deed was done, finally spilled the story from his side and tells it the same another decade later.

“I took Wayne into a room with just the two of us at Molson House. I talked to him and said I’d stop the deal. I told him I’d tell Peter I’d resign if he didn’t stop the deal. But Wayne decided not to because it was all beyond repair at that point.”

The way Gretzky remembers it today is: “Glen had me in there a whole hour.”

Sather was in the dark all the way until Pocklington finally told him, allowing him to at least have an influence in getting some players and picks.

“I was the last to know. We went to the Arctic fishing. I think everybody on the Arctic trip knew about the deal except me. Peter was afraid to tell me. And I don’t blame him,” said Sather.

The only thing Sather adds to the story 20 years later is when Pocklington finally told him, he now says he physically pushed his owner.

“I gave him a big shove. I thought about decking him.”

Gretzky had tears in his eyes during the press conference and couldn’t get any words out other than the ones most hockey fans remembered … “I promised Mess I wouldn’t do this.”

Pocklington, who was being hung in effigy in Edmonton, claimed at the time that Gretzky was just pretending to cry, but now admits those were real tears.

At the press conference, he also suggested it was because Janet wanted to live in Los Angeles, but now he admits he said that to try and make himself look better. Now, 20 years later, he says the mistake he made “was not putting my arm around him and saying to the press, that if you don’t want the deal to go through…”

It’ll be interesting to see what Pocklington says on the 25th anniversary.

“I regret doing it and wish I hadn’t done it,” would be nice.

—

THE TRADE

TO LOS ANGELES: Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorley, Mike Krushelnyski

TO EDMONTON: Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $18 million (Cdn), L.A.’s first-round pick in 1989 (later traded to New Jersey for Corey Foster; the Devils picked Jason Miller), L.A.’s first-round pick in 1991 (Martin Rucinsky) and L.A.’s first-round pick in 1993 (Nick Stajduhar).