The Trade: Gretzky was offered 25% ownership of the Canucks
Personally, I was one of the people who always thought it was Janet that forced the trade. Interesting that Skalbania was offering him 25% of the Canucks to come play there.
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Personally, I was one of the people who always thought it was Janet that forced the trade. Interesting that Skalbania was offering him 25% of the Canucks to come play there.
Burke said in his book he couldn't make the numbers work for the Canucks
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Burke said in his book he couldn't make the numbers work for the Canucks
Oh is this already a known thing? I literally just learned about it today from that video. I was wishing he would've elaborated on it a bit more. Like why didn't he accept. etc. It seemed like such a weird thing to just say and have no one ask a follow up on, but I guess it's not that weid if the story is already in a book lol.
Burke said in his book he couldn't make the numbers work for the Canucks
Wouldn't that have come much later - 1997-98 - when Gretzky was deciding where to go after STL? He ended up on NYR.
Gretzky is talking about summer 1988. Was Burke with VCR in 1988? Wasn't he GM of the Whalers or working in NHL head office? (Or still getting his law degree?)
I had heard the "Dad advice" story before. A bit foolish not to take 25%, no?
Be worth about $250 mil today, no?
You've got to consider the source of the "you can own 25% of the Canucks" remark was Nelson Skalbania, who himself didn't own any of the Canucks and never diid.
Skalbania was a notorious shyster. He was never in a position to make any kind of offer to Gretzky. He probably tried to get Gretzky to agree with a deal in principle, and then would use that tentative agreement to weasel his way into buying a share of the Canucks. Frank Griffiths was getting old and transferred managerial responsibilities to his son Arthur in the summer of '88; Skalbania probably saw that as an "in", with the tantalizing prospect of Gretzky becoming a Canuck as his primary bargaining chip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
Oh is this already a known thing? I literally just learned about it today from that video. I was wishing he would've elaborated on it a bit more. Like why didn't he accept. etc. It seemed like such a weird thing to just say and have no one ask a follow up on, but I guess it's not that weid if the story is already in a book lol.
It is a known thing that Pocklington actively shopped Gretzky, and the Canucks were among the teams he talked to. The reported ask was Kirk McLean, Greg (D.) Adams, three first-round picks and $25 million cash, which the Canucks balked at. (The deal the Kings eventually agreed to was Jimmy Carson, Marty Gelinas, three first-round picks and $15 million.) The players were secondary; Pocklington wanted/needed the money.
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Gretzky is talking about summer 1988. Was Burke with VCR in 1988? Wasn't he GM of the Whalers or working in NHL head office? (Or still getting his law degree?)
Burkie was the Canucks' president of hockey operations beginning in '87. He was essentially an assistant GM to Pat Quinn, who at the time was suspended by the NHL after walking away from his previous contract with the Kings.
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Between Pocklington, Skalbania and McNall, Gretzky had zero chance at an honest deal anyway. He'd have been better off ignoring Dad and going to Detroit. I doubt Yzerman would have gone the other way but maybe - he was only 23. But Oates, Gallant, Klima, Joe Murphy (not quite a bust yet), Barr, Chiasson.
Then Gretzky would have been on a team in short order that had Federov, Lidstrom, Primeau, Konstantinov, etc.
Yeah it didn't affect Gretzky at all, he still made his money. I guarantee he made a crap-ton more from product endorsements and other secondary sources of income as the face of the L.A. Kings than he ever would have in Detroit.
I don't think it's mere coincidence that Pocklington, McNall, and Skalbania all went bust eventually. (In the case of Skalbania, multiple times.) Even Arthur Griffiths eventually overleveraged himself building GM Place and buying an NBA expansion franchise, and got the hell out of the pro sports business.
Wouldn't that have come much later - 1997-98 - when Gretzky was deciding where to go after STL? He ended up on NYR.
Oh no, that story is much worse. Gretzky and Pat Quinn had a great conversation and were going to resume in the morning, after Gretz had time to weigh the offer vs the huge one given by San Jose (NYR hadn't made an offer at this point). But he said he was very interested in the deal (Canucks had a pretty strong forward group at this time in Bure, Mogilny, Linden etc)
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Then the following happened: John McCaw's right hand man, and known ####-wit, Stan McCammon forced Quinn to call Gretzky that same night at 130am local time and demand a yes or no answer then and there.
Unshockingly he said no. A week or something later he was a Ranger. Quinn was fired and the Canucks made the massive mistake that was ####face Messier.
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[...]
Unshockingly he said no. A week or something later he was a Ranger. Quinn was fired and the Canucks made the massive mistake that was ####face Messier.
Note that these events happened many months apart. Gretzky signed with the Rangers July 21, 1996. Messier and Gretzky played together with the Rangers throughout the '96-'97 season (they went to the conference finals). Messier became a free agent and was signed by the Canucks' July 28, 1997. Pat Quinn was fired from his roles as Canucks' president and GM November 5, 1997.
^ Didn't Gretzky nearly join the Leafs around that time? I recall a story from Bill Waters (I think) about how he didn't want to pay Gretzky
There was a wild rumor that Pocklington considered trading his entire team to Ballard for his team and like 25 million dollars. I think the league would have stopped that. But Picklington was always looking for that big payout.
Had they done that...Oilers probably do move in the early 90's as they would have been drawing 4000 people a game after that.
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What was it about those 70s and 80s sports teams owners? We're they really that much sleazier than modern owners? We're they just worse at hiding it?
In 1970 the NHL was just expanding from 12 teams to 14, and there was no WHA. At one point in the seventies, the NHL and WHA had 32 teams between them.
The supply of reliable millionaires who wanted a pro hockey team as a toy was not as large as the supply of teams, so some unusually sleazy customers were able to buy teams they couldn't really afford to run. Similar things happened in other sports leagues that expanded rapidly (notably, I believe, the NFL/AFL), but not to the same extent.
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Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
There was a wild rumor that Pocklington considered trading his entire team to Ballard for his team and like 25 million dollars. I think the league would have stopped that.
I can't imagine Ballard going for that. He could have opened his wallet at any time to make the Maple Leafs a good team, but chose not to. Why would he pay $25 million to buy an even better team? He could sell out MLG every night even if the Leafs never won a game.
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Last edited by Jay Random; 08-18-2023 at 06:55 PM.
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Note that these events happened many months apart. Gretzky signed with the Rangers July 21, 1996. Messier and Gretzky played together with the Rangers throughout the '96-'97 season (they went to the conference finals). Messier became a free agent and was signed by the Canucks' July 28, 1997. Pat Quinn was fired from his roles as Canucks' president and GM November 5, 1997.
Messier was signed after missing out on Wayne. McCaw wanted a big name. It was and still is the darkest times for the Canucks.
Thankfully at this time I was still a Flames fan and didn't have to deal with it.
The Trade: Gretzky was offered 25% ownership of the Canucks
