Just a hunch but I think Walt Gretzky has more in common with Bonnie & Eric Lindros than people give him credit for.
My guess is that Gretzky’s “unique” first two contracts were calculated in large part to give him a measure of autonomy when he ultimately joined the NHL, ensuring he had the leverage to avoid squandering his talents with a ‘Mickey Mouse’ franchise drafting 1OA like the Colorado Rockies/NJ Devils.
I posted this a long time ago but it fits here.
There’s absolutely no shortage of NHL players who have always done things the way they want, “system” be damned.
Let’s start with Wayne Gretzky.
His dad violated all kinds of rules to get his 6 year-old on a team with 10 year olds back in 1967. Thus began a career where the Gretzkys consistently found ways to do exactly what they wanted.
In 1975, Walter Gretzky wanted 14 year-old Wayne to play minor hockey in the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League, the current Greater Toronto Hockey League’s forerunner. But since Wayne was a Brantford boy and the “property” of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (these are the days before Alliance hockey existed), he could not get the boy a release because of the 100 year-old residency rules.
So the Gretzkys mocked up “legal guardianship” papers (another player did the same thing) and tried to make the hockey move to Toronto that way. I’ve got a photo of the guardianship papers, if anyone is interested (won’t publish it here in an open forum).
Anyway, Brantford and the OMHA said “no go.”
And so Walter sued the Ontario Minor Hockey Association over their arcane residency rules. Ontario Superior Court Judge McMurtry ruled in favour of the OMHA and essentially said that he didn’t think the courts should interfere in the administration of minor hockey in Ontario.
But it didn’t matter, because rather than play at home in Brantford after this court loss, Wayne had already signed to play for a Toronto-based “outlaw” Jr. B club operating outside of the whole CAHA /establishment jurisdiction.
Two years later, when he was selected by the Soo in the annual junior hockey midget priority selection cattle call, Walter quipped, “two years ago they said letting Wayne play 40 miles from our house would destroy the game, but today they say he must play 600 miles from our house or else the game will be destroyed. Interesting people, No?”
So 16 year-old Wayne goes to the Soo ... but rather than wait four years for what was then a 20 year-old NHL draft, he instead played just one season for the Soo and then promptly signed a 7-year
personal services contract with Nelson Skalbania, owner of the World Hockey Association’s Indianapolis Racers.
Doing it his way.
On Gretzky’s 18th birthday (January 26, 1979), he’s now an Oiler and team owner Peter Pocklington rips up that 7 year personal services contract he bought from Skalbania and signs Wayne to a new 10 year personal services contract at a centre ice ceremony.
Yes, a
personal services contract, not a standard player contract.
Doing it his way again.
When the NHL swallowed the WHA in 1979, Gretzky was not the property of any NHL team because he still wasn’t old enough for the NHL amateur entry draft.
He was the only player in the league who was not covered by a standard player contract. Not even 20 years old and he’d never willingly relinquished control over his own life and career, going all the way back to when he was 6.
And the entire move from Edmonton to LA ... that was Gretzky once more doing what was best for Gretzky.
Of course, Eric Lindros was unbelievably litigious and his family never hesitated to call upon the courts if they believed “the system” wasn’t what was best for the kid. That story is a book.
And then there’s Crosby... father Troy sued Hockey Nova Scotia and the Dartmouth Minor Hockey Association when Sid was denied the right to “play up” on the major midget age team when he was a minor bantam.
Like Gretzky before hm, Sid lost in court, but it didn’t matter. He’d already agreed to leave Nova Scotia and the entire country of Canada for the greener pastures of Shattuck-St.Mary’s, the school-based hockey factory in Minnesota.
Doing it his way.
Ironically, at one time Hockey Canada featured Gretzky, Lindros and Crosby as poster boys for the governing body’s success. All three were Olympic team captains. Yet, all three sued them at some point. Bizarre.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. Point is simple: if players (and their families) don’t look out for their own best interests, nobody else will.