Wayne Gretzky used his name, his reputation and his celebrity to leverage the best deal he could in Phoenix and that deal wound up being his ticket out of town.
This is not the way superstars - icons - are supposed to exit the game.
But there is a lesson to be learned from this latest black eye on the sport of hockey; when you trade your name and your legacy for a position in the business world, as Wayne Gretzky did when he joined the Phoenix Coyotes as coach and managing partner, then you assume the same risks that anybody else in business faces. There are no exemptions.
Gretzky got a great deal out of the Coyotes - a coaching package said to be worth $2 million a year (significantly more than any other coach in the league receives) as well as millions more per year for his position as managing partner and alternate governor. Problem is, it was this deal, at least partly, that made making this team financially viable in the desert nearly impossible.
So when the team went into bankruptcy, against the NHL's wishes, Gretzky was set up to become a casualty of the long and drawn out process of deciding who will own the team. He is, in other words, collateral damage.
Gretzky might have dug his heels in, attended the Coyotes training camp from Day 1 and put the pressure on the NHL to come to him and say, "Go home, Wayne. We don't want you." But he didn't do that. Not to say The Great One doesn't place a high priority on his financial considerations, because that would be naïve, but he has always put the game first. I don't suspect that will ever change.
It is said Gretzky is owed between $9-11 million so it will be interesting to see if he ultimately gets his dough. It has also been suggested if Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie wins the Coyotes, Gretzky will be one of the creditors who is paid off, but if the NHL gets the team, he's out of luck.
This is the part of the equation that baffles me the most. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is losing a public relations war, at least north of the border, as he digs in and, in defending his turf, keeps a wealthy and willing Canadian from gaining ownership in his league. You might think Bettman would do everything possible to avoid painting Gretzky into a corner (Gretzky preferred behind the net to the corners) so he would never be in the position of having to resign his post.
Of course it all has as much to do with Balsillie's approach to gaining a team, his ill-perceived game plan, as anything else, but at the end of the day it is remarkable that Bettman and Balsillie have not been able to sit down and come up with a plan that works for both.
And so the court battle marches on.
Gretzky wanted to remain with the Coyotes, that much is clear. In his short tenure as coach, a four-year, learn-on-the-job experience, Gretzky compiled a 143-161-24 record and a .473 wining percentage. Not great, but given what he has had to work with, not bad, either.
Gretzky apparently negotiated a deal with one group interested in purchasing the Coyotes and if that is true, why couldn't Bettman have come to a similar agreement with Gretzky before it reached this point? I am certain there are legal issues, at least in Bettman's mind, that prevented him from doing so. Sometimes I think the lawyer in Bettman gets the better of him. To be fair to Bettman, he did tell Hockeycentral's Daren Millard Thursday he would have been willing to sit down with Gretzky to discus the possibility of The Great One remaining with the organization had the NHL ultimately gained firm control over the team, but it obviously didn't get to that point.
When push comes to shove, this whole thing is all about a ripe, untapped hockey market in Southern Ontario that the NHL understandably does not want to hand over for free. There will eventually be a second team in this area, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the NHL will cash in with an expansion fee that could exceed $400 million.
It's just too bad the greatest ambassador the sport has ever known had to get caught in the crossfire. Wayne Gretzky used his name, his reputation and his celebrity to leverage the best deal he could in Phoenix and that deal wound up being his ticket out of town. It was fun while it lasted.
There really is no reason to believe the hockey world has seen the last of Wayne Gretzky. Hockey is his life and I suspect there will be countless owners who would pay millions - perhaps not Phoenix Coyotes millions, but millions nonetheless - to have Gretzky associated with their organization.
This is not the end of the Wayne Gretzky story, but it is a chapter many would rather forget.
