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Bettman wants to 'make up' with Gretzky

October 20, 2009 11:28 AM | Posted by   Elliotte Friedman  

Wayne Gretzky remains in radio silence, but both the NHL and the Canadian Olympic Team are making attempts to reach him.

Commissioner Gary Bettman emailed Gretzky last Thursday, hoping for the opportunity to meet with him face-to-face. According to NHL sources, the Great One said he is “not yet ready”, preferring to lay low, as he has done since stepping down as Coyotes head coach.

The league badly wants to repair the relationship with its greatest player and ambassador, realizing that no matter what happened in Phoenix, it’s not good for the sport to have him feeling alienated and unwanted. As both a player and a coach, he’s dealt with his share of criticism, but this particular situation has hurt him the most.

Considering how he stood up for Phoenix as a market – despite ample evidence to the contrary – and the beating taken from Canadian fans as a result, he was stunned to find out that he may not be paid even if he started the season as coach.

It’s a tough spot for Bettman, who respects Gretzky’s space but also desires to get this fixed as quickly as possible. Best advice: continue to woo him until he accepts a meeting. The commissioner knows he’s the one who’s got to take the initiative.

One person who has heard from Gretzky is Team Canada executive director Steve Yzerman. Last week, Yzerman contacted Gretzky, offering up an invitation to join the management group with Ken Holland, Kevin Lowe and Doug Armstrong. Gretzky declined, for two reasons. First, as he mentioned to the NHL, he still needs time. Second, he wants Yzerman to enjoy the opportunity of running the Canadian Team without overshadowing the process. He’s had his (two) chances. I do get the sense, however, that if Yzerman is looking for specific advice, he will give it.

One other footnote: I did ask Dean Lombardi if there had been any further discussion about Gretzky joining the Kings. Lombardi said he’d agreed to keep any further discussions private. Judging from Gretzky’s reaction to the NHL and Team Canada, that’s a good idea.

MARC SAVARD

Want to talk a little more about Savard, who I mentioned on Saturday’s Hotstove. As all Bruins’ fans know, Savard is an unrestricted free agent next summer and it’s not going to be easy to re-sign him with their cap issues.

It’s why there are plenty of whispers around the league that he is Toronto-bound. There is some logic to it – he is a perfect fit with Phil Kessel – but the true determining factor will be the readiness of Toronto’s young forwards. If Brian Burke feels Nazem Kadri or Tyler Bozak or Mikhail Grabovsky or someone else can mesh with Kessel like Savard did, any of those players is a younger (and cheaper) option. If not, than Savard – assuming he does not re-sign – would be pursued.

NON-HOCKEY NOTE OF THE WEEK

I want one of these (though not in women’s small) – http://birdland.bigcartel.com/product/moon-shot

30 THOUGHTS

1)Big, big time of year for Olympic Team hopefuls. Yzerman is going on an Eastern Tour this week, a Western trip next week. Then, he’ll meet with Holland, Lowe and Armstrong at the beginning of November. No announcements will be made, though, until the squad is selected between Christmas and New Year’s.

2)Asked who impressed him so far, Yzerman said, “Patrick Kane.” He was checking to see if I was paying attention.

3)Here’s the deal with Ilya Kovalchuk: He wants to stay in Atlanta. This is not a matter of leaving the Thrashers for another NHL destination. However, if things don’t work out in Georgia, the KHL is going to make him an enormous offer. He is the player it wants to build around, but I do believe his first choice is to stay.

4)Another thing about Kovalchuk: For a player of his talent, he is remarkably underutilized by the NHL when it comes to selling the game. He is smart, funny and extremely insightful. It says a lot that he was the guy who brought Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin together at last year’s All-Star game.

5)Great news for cap-strapped teams – that means you, Chicago: The number will be flat next season, at worst $1 million lower. There were concerns of a$5-$10 million drop, but GMs are under the impression that won’t happen.

6)8 a.m. first day of training camp for the New York Rangers: split into four groups. Each group had to do four sets of six laps around the ice. That afternoon: three-mile run on a track. Next morning, three sets of 15 laps.

7)One player who looks much, much stronger: Chris Higgins. You can see it in his shoulders. For the first time in his career, he concentrated on heavier lifting during the summer, and it shows.

8)Meanwhile, Columbus is going to change the way it handles camp after several of their players suffered groin injuries (Mike Commodore, for example). GM Scott Howson and coach Ken Hitchcock will make sure there are four or five days of practice before their first game – instead of three – and keep players from standing around too much. Since that time of year is about instruction, it’s easy to fall into the trap of guys getting cold and then skating hard.

9)Speaking of practice, there is some feeling that Toronto is struggling because it didn’t get enough of it. The Leafs make so much money from preseason games, the temptation is to play too many. (In this case, it was nine.) That leaves little time for practice and a team with so many new faces needs it.

10)Great Scott Walker story. In researching our Inside Hockey feature last week, we came up with a couple of beauties about him. Number I: One year while with the Canucks, he went golfing with Alexander Mogilny, Jim Hughson and Devin Smith (who used to work for Vancouver, but now runs the NHLPA’s terrific Goals and Dreams initiative). Walker was having a brutal round, hitting one drive into some serious rough. As he got to his ball, he asked, “What do I need here?” Mogilny replied, “A lesson.”

11)Number II: During the lockout, Walker went to some of Northern Canada’s most remote areas, donating equipment to those communities on behalf of the PA. There were a couple of hotly contested pickup games, and, in one of them, Walker turned on the jets to outrace someone to a loose puck. He was told: “You know, Scott, I think you could still play.” They thought he was retired.

12)How would everyone feel about both Marc-Andre Fleury and Cam Ward on Team Canada?

13)Look out for Bruins. Two first-round picks next season (including Toronto’s). A 2011 second-rounder from Minnesota. They will have a lot to trade when/if Peter Chiarelli decides it’s time to add.

14)That said, enough with the Kovalchuk-to-Boston rumours, for now. Atlanta is only concentrating on re-signing him. He is not on the market. And, other Russians say if he’s not a Thrasher next year, he’ll be back home. There is a monster offer out there for him.

15)Classy, classy move of Don Waddell to have his team practice at Dan Snyder’s rink in Elmira on Sunday.

16)Senators fans didn’t like that Alexei Kovalev said he wanted to play again in Montreal, but there’s no reason to be concerned. When Mogilny signed a four-year, $22 million deal to play in Toronto, he admitted on the conference call that he didn’t want to leave New Jersey. But, he played hard for the Maple Leafs.

17)Under the radar, but very interesting: Brian Lawton ripped into the Lightning after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh. Because the visiting dressing room is made of paper mache, everyone could hear it.

18)Mike Zigomanis signed with the Toronto Marlies on Monday. In an NHL game later this year, he’s going to win someone a huge faceoff.

19)There will be a memo to referees this week about goalies getting run. The league is very concerned about it.

20)ay Feaster wrote a terrific blog at The Hockey News on why he wouldn’t trade for Tomas Vokoun when he had the chance. Vokoun’s agent, Ritch Winter, pitched Vokoun as a replacement for Curtis Joseph in Toronto. At the time, Vokoun was Mike Dunham’s backup in Nashville. The Maple Leafs considered it – but chose Ed Belfour instead.

21)Two former Mike Komisarek teammates say he’s so determined to make a difference that the worse his team plays, the more he runs around. That fits with what’s going on in Toronto.

22)Boy did Terry Murray lambaste Alexander Frolov upon benching him yesterday. Clearly, Murray feels the only way to get Frolov to play hard is public humiliation. This is a last resort. Next move: Frolov’s a goner.

23)Even worse, Frolov doesn’t sound like he really cared.

24)Craig Anderson’s phone rang at 12:01 p.m. on July 1. It was the Colorado Avalanche calling, having targeted him as the guy they wanted to play goal.

25)There were some questions about Barry Trotz’s future after Nashville started very poorly. Can’t see it. Trotz is a terrific coach in a limited situation, and David Poile would only do it if there was a .357 magnum pointed at his head.

26)Dany Heatley dropped to the second power play unit? Todd McLellan does nothing without purpose.

27)The difference in the Canucks? Last year, they were very hard to play against. This year? Not so much, so far.

28)There is no way to address Bob Sirois’ claims that the NHL is biased against French-Canadians without setting off bombs – but, here goes: He’s wrong. As one coach (not hockey) once told me: “We’d dress a mass murderer if we thought he could win games.”

29)Under the Radar II: The Minnesota Wild are in trouble. They went 0-5 on their west coast road swing, not getting a single point for at least reaching overtime. This may be a bigger rebuilding job than any of us thought.

30)First coaching casualty of the season? Don Granato, with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. With the league’s highest payroll, the Wolves missed the playoffs last year and fired Granato after starting 1-5 this year.

If you have a question you want Elliotte to take on, please send it here. CBCHockeyOnline@cbc.ca

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