Wayne Gretzky Talks About Nearly Signing With The Canucks

[fivethej]

Dorca Bay screwed the pooch, badly.

 

Gretzky/Bure/Mogilny all playing together

 

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/gretzky-shares-story-almost-signing-canucks-1996?fbclid=IwAR1VQ2BgqPff39QmJwn_NTkkz3I4wcJWeCsep2bYlR-F8cU7oQtfvd_i-8Q

 

Quote

The 1990s was a strange, wacky, and wild roller coaster for the Vancouver Canucks. After starting the first half of the decade with such promise, the latter half was an utter disaster. If the Canucks signed superstar Wayne Gretzky in the summer of 1996, could they have avoided the ensuing chaos?

 

Scott Rintoul documented the Canucks post-1994 fall from grace during the first episode of UNREEL: West Coast Express.

However, one of the most fascinating pieces of insight from the episode was an interview with “The Great One” himself, who told the story of how he almost became a member of the Canucks.

Gretzky flew to Seattle in 1996 to sign with Canucks

After chatting with “three of four teams” as a free agent in 1996, Gretzky said that the Canucks were the main team that was willing to meet in person. So, he flew to Seattle, along with his lawyer and agent, to meet with Canucks management.

 

After meeting for lunch, Canucks general manager Pat Quinn made something abundantly clear to Gretzky.

“Pat was really adamant that Trevor Linden was his captain,” Gretzky said. “I assured him that my aspirations weren’t to take somebody’s captaincy away. If he was the captain, that was fine by me.”

 

At that point, Gretzky and McCaw decided to exit the negotiation. “I think it was [Canucks owner] John McCaw who stood up and went ‘you know what? I’m not good at negotiating, I’m gonna leave.’ And I looked at John and said ‘I’m not great at it either, I’ll come with you.’

 

“So John and I spent the day at his office in Seattle, we walked around the boardwalk and went to dinner. By 11 o’clock, there wasn’t really a deal in place.

“I was teasing John that if him and I did the deal, we would’ve gotten it done in 20 minutes.”

“We just felt like it wasn’t going to happen”

As the negotiation entered the evening, the odds of getting a deal done began to drop.

“It got to about 11 o clock, and we couldn’t seem to wrap it up,” George McPhee, then Canucks Director of Hockey Operations, said on the podcast. “Mike [Barnett, Gretzky’s agent] wanted to go back to the hotel and think about it.

 

“We thought, geez, if he leaves now, [it’s] probably not going to get done. We encouraged him to stay but he went back to the hotel, and we just felt like it wasn’t going to happen.

John McCaw had basically said [to Gretzky’s camp] ‘if you come to Seattle and meet us, work hard for the day and evening, and by the end of the night, we believe we’ll have a deal that works for you. But that will be it. We’re not going to go on for days and days.'”

 

Based on McPhee’s story about McCaw, and a previous story about Canucks CEO Stan McCammon, it was that mentality of needing to get the deal done that night which drove Gretzky away.

 

“When I went to bed, I had no idea what was going to happen,” Gretzky said. “I got a call around 1:45 in the morning and [they] said that we’d probably reached a deal. At that time, I just said ‘you know what? I need to call my family.’

 

“And that’s when, you know, the delegation really wanted an answer by the time I got the phone call. and I just wasn’t comfortable making that decision. I really wanted to talk to my family before I made this drastic change in my life and it kind of just went off the rails at that point in time.”

And just like that, it was over.

 

“John [McCaw] just pulled the plug and said ‘okay, we tried, they’re not interested in doing it,'” McPhee said. “So, Stan McCammon called Mike and said ‘were out.'”

Gretzky refutes rumour of Rangers matching Canucks offer

After the deal fell through, McPhee said he heard that the chances of actually signing Gretzky weren’t so great after all.

“I found out the next day that the [New York] Rangers had a deal with Mike that they would have a right to match whatever we did,” he admitted.

Gretzky poured ice-cold water on that story.

 

“That’s not true at all,” Gretzky said. “In fact, I hadn’t even really spoken to the New York Rangers before I went to Seattle. As a matter of fact, to be honest with you, all cards on the table, my first offer was from Bob Gainey and the Dallas Stars.

 

“I told Dallas and I told Vancouver I wasn’t going to negotiate against each other. It was just more of okay, what opportunity do we have here to win a Stanley Cup, and that was more of my focus than anything. I knew I was nearing the end of my career and I wanted one more chance to win a Stanley Cup.”

“The Rangers weren’t even really in the mix at one point.” Eventually, Gretzky said he believes it was then-Rangers GM Neil Smith, who ended up convincing New York ownership to make an offer to the greatest NHLer of all time. Gretzky did eventually sign with the Rangers where he spent the last three seasons of his career.

However, Gretzky said he has reflected on almost becoming a member of the Canucks over the years with Quinn.

 

“I got to have a great relationship with Pat after I retired and we had some wonderful great days, great moments, and great memories,” Gretzky said.

“We kind of used to look at each other and giggle and think ‘what could have been.'”

 

Edited February 4 by fivethej

[Pears]

Crazy to think of the potential ripple effects signing Gretzky would’ve had. 

[Coconuts]

Things could have been so different, both then and now 

 

We wouldn't have had to put up with the mess that came with Mess and the future would have been completely different because of it 

[Bob.Loblaw]

So yeah, this was the SECOND time Vancouver tried to go for Gretzky.  Burke has an amazing story about the time he tried to make an Oilers-Canucks trade work out, but he just couldn't get it done.

 

 

[McBackup]

How many times do we need to poke at this scab?

[RU SERIOUS]

3 hours ago, Pears said:

Crazy to think of the potential ripple effects signing Gretzky would’ve had. 

...but, but, this is The Canucks you're talking about!

[nucklehead]

makes no difference to me. i hated seeing any ex olier in a canucks jersey. messier, Tikkanen , even randy gregg. 

[grumpyone]

almost signed the prize, but instead we ended up with the booby-prize ( the player whose name is not to be mentioned )

[Russ]

Anyone who hasn't listened to the UNREEL podcast Scotty is doing right now really should, first 2 episodes were great.

[Alflives]

A young WG would have been good.  But an old WG was a bad thought.  Glad that didn’t happen. Went to a lot of Canuck v Oiler games (when WG was in his prime) and he was fun to watch.  But the most impressive player was Messier.  And look how embarrassingly crappy he was with us when he was old. 

Edited February 4 by Alflives

[Losing With Pride]

I would have loved to have a Gretzky Canucks jersey.

 

Damn.

[Kevin Biestra]

Sigh...

 

Mogilny - Gretzky - Russ Courtnall

Gelinas - Linden - Bure

 

Mike Ridley and Mike Sillinger as 3C and 4C.  Ridiculous wealth of talent.

 

It also would have probably been the best line Gretzky ever played on.  Easily the best line he ever played on if it was Mogilny - Gretzky - Bure.  Which might also have to be the best line in NHL history.  Probably the only line in NHL history with a 70 goal scorer, a 90 goal scorer, and a multiple times 60 goal scorer.  That line alone could have destroyed teams on its own.  Bure and Mogilny race ahead with the puck from their own blue line.  If they don't score right away, Gretzky shows up in three seconds to make sure they do.

 

For the next two years in real life, Gretzky still led the NHL in assists playing with whatever the Rangers could scrounge up for him.

 

Oh yeah, Markus Naslund as the 3rd line left wing.  And Scott Walker on his way up as the 3rd line RW.  So...  Naslund - Ridley (I guess replace him with Sillinger or a free agent when his skates refuse to fit) - Scott Walker as the third line.  Absolutely insane.

 

 

 

Edited February 5 by Kevin Biestra

[GB5]

8 hours ago, McBackup said:

How many times do we need to poke at this scab?

My thoughts as well.

 

This is old news been reported and discussed time ad time again and covered in numerous books.

[GB5]

3 hours ago, nucklehead said:

makes no difference to me. i hated seeing any ex olier in a canucks jersey. messier, Tikkanen , even randy gregg. 

Carson and Gelinas were a couple good ones on the 94 team.

 

Makes no difference to me where they played before as long as they embrace the Canucks and the fans when they are here.

[Slegr]

I'm sorry, but for any fans who remember, Wayne Gretzky of 1996 was not Wayne Gretzky of the 1980s. He was basically the Simpsons' Mr. Burns on skates. Sure, he could still get assists on power plays, but his play in its entirety was very lacking. It wouldn't have helped us in any significant way at that point. 

[Kevin Biestra]

5 minutes ago, Slegr said:

I'm sorry, but for any fans who remember, Wayne Gretzky of 1996 was not Wayne Gretzky of the 1980s. He was basically the Simpsons' Mr. Burns on skates. Sure, he could still get assists on power plays, but his play in its entirety was very lacking. It wouldn't have helped us in any significant way at that point. 

 

He played three years with the Rangers before retiring.  He led the league in assists for two of those seasons.  They made the playoffs one year and Gretzky turned it up...he was the NHL's best player those playoffs.  10 goals and 20 points in 15 games...he even regained his goal scoring when it really mattered.

 

And he led the league in assists with the Rangers playing with pretty middling wingers.  Here are the top four wingers on the team that season.  Graves (61 pts), Nicklas Sundstrom (52 pts), Luc Robitaille (48 pts), Alexei Kovalev (35 pts).  Gretzky had 72 assists...more than any winger on the team had points.  25 assists were on the power play, 46 even strength.  46 was one behind Mario Lemieux (47) for the NHL lead in even strength assists, and Lemieux played a full season that year.

 

Gretzky was diminishing...but he was an elite player until his final season.

 

 

 

 

[Coconuts]

3 hours ago, Alflives said:

A young WG would have been good.  But an old WG was a bad thought.  Glad that didn’t happen. Went to a lot of Canuck v Oiler games (when WG was in his prime) and he was fun to watch.  But the most impressive player was Messier.  And look how embarrassingly crappy he was with us when he was old. 

The difference is having brought in Gretzky likely wouldn't have led to the dismantling of what could have been a great team with him on it, older or not 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

3 hours ago, GB5 said:

Carson and Gelinas were a couple good ones on the 94 team.

 

Makes no difference to me where they played before as long as they embrace the Canucks and the fans when they are here.

Paul Reinhart (just as bad seeing an ex-Lamer in a Canucks jersey) had a great impact in the limited time he spent here.

[NewbieCanuckFan]

2 hours ago, Coconuts said:

The difference is having brought in Gretzky likely wouldn't have led to the dismantling of what could have been a great team with him on it, older or not 

Might've been not enough money to sign that puke that stole the #11.  That by itself would've been a huge net positive.

[MattWN.]

2 hours ago, Coconuts said:

The difference is having brought in Gretzky likely wouldn't have led to the dismantling of what could have been a great team with him on it, older or not 

100%, but on the flip side... we don't get the West Coast Express in the 2000s in that scenario, and we don't draft the Sedins so we miss out on 2011.