'learned In All The Lore Of Old Men'

A Hamilton forward has just trapped Gretzky against the boards and, surprised to have him pinned, rams the kid's face against the glass for good measure.

"Got to run into him once in a while, Sam," the coach answers with a smile. "Don't get a chance very often."

"That's cheap stuff, Bert, and you know it!" Rap, rap. "I like to give it to Bert. He's all right."

Sam sits back. "See all them little guys?" he says, pointing to the mobs of youngsters in their team jackets. "They only come to see the kid. There wasn't a one here when he was off playing in that Junior tournament in Montreal."

Ross Winslade, headmaster at Sir James Dunn School, which Gretzky and most of the other Greyhound players attend, is also at the game. He has a far better attendance record at the rink than they do at the school. "We've got to be honest with ourselves. They're here to play hockey," he says. "Their education is second. We do what we can." He pauses.

"Gretzky?" he says. "He's an unassuming kid who's doing a helluva job right now just rolling with the punches. I don't worry about his kind of pressure. In a year or so he'll be in my office talking about more money than I'll make the rest of my life.

"The other kids, the fringe players, are the ones with the pressures. They come to a town, settle in a school, then in two months are traded away. They're living out their parents' dreams of glory, maybe, hoping they'll be drafted by the pros—then when they're not, where does that leave them? They're the ones with pressure."

Every year about this time, some of the Greyhounds come into Muzz' office and ask him in what round he thinks they'll be drafted. Most of them won't be picked in any round. "Muzz'll tell them the only draft they'll get is on their butts as they walk out the door," says Tom McLeod, himself a fringe player now in his draft year. "So you try it as a free agent, and if you're not good enough for that, you try the International League."

"And if you're not good enough for that, you go back to Sudbury and be a miner," adds Rich Duguay, who, like McLeod, has been traded twice since the season's opening.

Gretzky is a lucky one. The luckiest of the lucky ones. Right now, the National Hockey League and the World Hockey Association have an agreement with the Junior leagues not to draft any players before they complete their Junior careers at the age of 20. For Gretzky, that will be 1981. But there is very little chance—make that zero chance—he will have to wait that long. His agent, Gus Badali, specializes in procuring six-figure contracts for underage Juniors. Wayne Dillon (now with the New York Rangers), John Tonelli ( Houston Aeros) and Mark Napier (Birmingham Bulls) all signed with the WHA while being represented by Badali. And the talent-hungry, publicity-starved WHA will require little arm-twisting to bid for Gretzky. Last September, for instance, Birmingham ignored the established rules of drafting and signed 18-year-old Ken Linseman to a lucrative contract.