We all can agree that Wayne Gretzky fell short as both an executive and a head coach in Phoenix. Gretzky himself surely recognizes as much.
Nevertheless, Gretzky must be shocked at the manner with which this all played out for him. He must believe he was hung out to dry by people he trusted.
One of professional sports’ most accessible all-time athletes, Gretzky essentially has been forced underground, presumably on the advice of attorneys, as the Coyotes’ bankruptcy fiasco continues to swell and damage the NHL
Gretzky must have been aware of the peril facing the franchise as he went through last season. It must have taken its toll. Now, this, forced out, his presence clearly no longer desired by the people currently running the team under the league’s right to advise and consent; indirectly identified as a franchise liability rather than asset.
Again. There really is no defending Gretzky’s record out there. He and general manager Mike Barnett, hired after serving as Gretzky’s longtime agent and confidante, made a series of odd and costly personnel decisions, building a team for which No. 99 himself never would have wanted to play. And the progress of the Coyotes’ young talent did not accelerate with Gretzky behind the bench.
The incidence of Great Ones becoming great coaches is rare, indeed. In hockey’s modern era, there is pretty much Toe Blake by a mile, then Jacques Lemaire and then everyone else. Gretzky, for one, saw the game uniquely. How do you teach the supernatural?
Gretzky was revealed through court filings as a creditor owed $9.3 million by the franchise. His contract, though insanely inflated, is not the cause of the Coyotes’ demise in the desert. It’s not even on the list, for essentially every objective thinker foresaw impending doom when the Coyotes abandoned downtown Phoenix and neglected Scottsdale in order to move to Glendale as part of a real-estate deal in 2003.
At one time before going behind the bench in 2005, the idea of Gretzky coming to New York as general manager Glen Sather’s top aide percolated before ultimately going up in steam. Now it’s uncertain what Gretzky’s next move will be and where he will resurface.
Gretzky always had one place: the rink. Now that fortress of solitude no longer is available to him. He may not have been a good general manager, may not have been a good coach, but he is not even close to a root cause of the underpinning problems with Glendale as a viable NHL market, and he doesn’t deserve this.
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The NHL Players’ Association’s executive committee will conduct two conference call meetings this week during which the 30 player representatives will attempt to gauge the state of their union, Slap Shots has learned.
The pounding the PA is receiving in the media is sure to be a topic of conversation, but the union is limited in what it can reveal. We’re told counsel instructed the executive committee to remain silent immediately following the Chicago takeout of Paul Kelly in order to avoid exposure in potential litigation.
As such, fellows such as self-appointed spokespeople Matt Stajan and Andrew Ference should recognize that attempting to spread innuendo without supporting evidence reflects poorly on the PA.
It is important that the league’s marquee players become invested in their union, for they have the most to lose through the next round of collective bargaining. If all existing contracts were discounted by 24 percent last time, what’s to stop the NHL for going for 30 percent this time?
What’s to stop the league from going for a maximum limit on all existing contracts, or for immediately ending guarantees for any season after, say, Year 5 on a contract? There is nothing to stop the league from asking, but there had better be strength of purpose and of intelligence in order to stop the league from getting it.
Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Henrik Zetterberg, Mike Richards, Marian Hossa and Roberto Luongo, among others, had better pay attention.
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We get that John Tortorella is heavily invested in Donald Brashear and that he wants to be publicly supportive of his player in the head coach’s ceaseless circle-the-wagons approach to professional life.
But Tortorella doesn’t get that he doesn’t get to dictate to the fans how they should feel about any given player, let alone one mere months removed from viciously concussing one of their own.
Players and executives move on, leave hurts behind them. They have no choice. It’s their job. But fans, they don’t move on. Teams move out, but fans don’t move on. They stay. That’s what makes them fans.
These Rangers fans here, they have an open wound. They are angry. They care a lot about Blair Betts.
Tortorella doesn’t ever get to tell them not to.
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The Islanders accepting an invitation from Kansas City but leaving John Tavares behind were pretty lousy guests, weren’t they?
Seems like something Larry David would do.