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 Gretzky not one to act rashly
Posted: Tuesday April 13, 1999 05:19 PM
Wayne Gretzky has indeed been mulling retirement and could announce a decision as early as Friday. His agent, Mike Barnett, and some close friends are trying to dissuade him from a premature announcement. If the New York Rangers center does call it quits this week, or Sunday, immediately after the season finale, it would be out of character. Gretzky did not become the game's greatest ambassador by speaking rashly or acting out of emotion. It would be unusual if he did not take some time to reassess both his injured neck and the Rangers' chances of success before making a final call. The last time Gretzky dropped broad hints about retirement was after his Los Angeles Kings lost the 1993 Stanley Cup final, a year in which he suffered a debilitating back injury. Gretzky, who will fail to average at least a point a game for the first time in his career, has prepared himself for a final exit, signing sticks, asking for additional tickets to Sunday's closer against Pittsburgh. But we won't know until the end of the week, at the earliest, if these are simply hedges. No matter what Gretzky decides, or when, the NHL should be ready to retire No. 99 leaguewide -- not just in Edmonton, Los Angeles, St. Louis and New York, the cities where he played. Maybe no player would ever be foolish enough to consider wearing 99 and beg comparison, but the NHL should remove the option. The league has never done this before. Then again, Gretzky is as unique as his number. Locking up the awardsMost NHL awards for this season should be locks: Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr for the Hart, Buffalo goalie Dominik Hasek for the Vezina, St. Louis defenseman Al MacInnis for the Norris and Ottawa's Magnus Arvedson for the Selke. But the last week of the season should decide the Calder. Colorado's Chris Drury, who has 44 points and is a plus 10, is slightly ahead of teammate Milan Hejduk, New Jersey's Brendan Morrison and Pittsburgh's Jan Hrdina, although these forwards are all within four points. Probably missing from among the three finalists will be the two players who ultimately should have the most NHL success: Ottawa sensation Marian Hossa, who has 33 points after missing the first six weeks with an injury and 13-goal-man Vincent Lecavalier of Tampa Bay. Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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