One of the oldest rumours that seems to cycle endlessly around the NHL has to do with Wayne Gretzky getting back into the league and joining the front office of a team. He’s been rumoured to be going to the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings and even a prospective Las Vegas expansion franchise.
Lately, Gretzky’s name has come up in relation to the Edmonton Oilers front office. Gretzky, of course, played 10 seasons in Edmonton from 1978 to 1988 and enjoyed his greatest on-ice success there. And with past players such as Trevor Linden and Joe Sakic joining their former teams in management roles recently, it’d be a nice story for ‘The Great One’ to end up back in the City of Champions.
However, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Gretzky shot down rumours that he would join the Oilers front office.
“There was a rumour he would go back and be offered ‘would you like to work in hockey ops, would you like to work in business ops,’” Friedman said. “I reached out to him by email, his response was that is not true.”
But it wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say Gretzky won’t be a part of the Oilers.
Added Friedman: “And then (Gretzky) had a great line, he said ‘But we have talked a lot about putting a Gretzky’s inside the new arena.’
“I think the one thing we can report is you can expect to see the restaurant there.”
