A Canuck Confession : Team Admits It Reached Accord With King Coach

As some points become clear, still more become hazy in the strange case of the National Hockey’s League’s expulsion of Pat Quinn. Late Friday night, the Vancouver Canucks cleared up one detail when they admitted that last month they and the Kings’ coach reached an agreement for Quinn to become the club’s president and general manager at a future date.

Norm Jewison, public relations director for the Canucks, said Saturday that the team’s agreement with Quinn was concluded Dec. 24 and that the Kings had been notified on the next business day. That would have been Dec. 29.

Neither owner Jerry Buss nor General Manager Rogie Vachon of the Kings would say whether the Canucks had contacted them. Buss, however, said he had been out of town on vacation until Jan. 6.

“We are certain that when the facts are known, they will completely exonerate Mr. Quinn and the Vancouver Canucks from any alleged wrongdoing,” the Canucks said in a statement.

“Be assured that the Canucks’ arrangement with Mr. Quinn . . . does not interfere with Pat Quinn’s current duties as head coach with the Los Angeles Kings for the remainder of the current hockey season and the playoffs.”

In an unprecedented move, NHL President John Ziegler released a statement Friday that said Quinn was expelled from the league for the duration of an investigation into conflict-of-interest charges, among others. Newspaper reports in Vancouver Saturday said that Quinn had received $100,000 from the Canucks.

The action marked the first time that a coach had been expelled from a professional sports league.

Alan Eagleson, the executive director of the NHL Players Assn., said Saturday that if Quinn can be expelled by the league, then so should the Canuck owners and management.

“When all the facts are in . . . I trust Mr. Ziegler will treat management . . . and ownership in Vancouver as harshly as he has dealt with Pat Quinn,” Eagleson said.

Buss and Vachon met with the team’s players at noon Saturday to tell them about the situation and urge them to tend to “business as usual.” The Kings played the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night, with assistant coach Mike Murphy assuming Quinn’s duties.

“I told the players that what has happened, has happened,” Buss said. “Our postion at this time is that we have a game to play. We are starting to jell as a team. We are going to put things behind us.”

Neither Buss nor Vachon was forthcoming with much information, saying they would not comment on any issue that was likely to be part of the league’s investigation. Buss said it was his educated guess that the investigation would take 8 to 10 days.

That’s too long to suit Quinn.

“My feeling is that it is in the best interests of all concerned that the investigation move swiftly,” Quinn said Saturday from his Orange County home. “If things don’t move faster, I might have to do something myself.”

Quinn said his representatives had spent the day trying to reach Gilbert Stein, the league’s general counsel and the man whom Ziegler has appointed to head the investigation. Quinn said he had no idea what form the investigation would take, and Buss, too, was uninformed about the procedure, saying: “We haven’t been told what we are supposed to do.”

The Kings have an 0-3-1 record against Vancouver this season, including a 6-4 defeat one day before Quinn reached agreement with the Canucks. Quinn was concerned about the conflict-of-interest charges, which were the prime feature of Ziegler’s lengthy statement.

“I think that’s going to be cleared up,” Quinn said. “When the facts are laid out, I think it will be clear that everyone’s acted way out of hand. What concerns me is what the public is going to make of this.

“From my own position, there never was and there never will be that sort of (conflict of interest) situation. Hell, I think I have a reputation for honesty. That’s why I was so appalled at the president’s statement.”

Another cloudy issue is why Quinn’s contract with the Kings was not on file with the NHL. It is for this reason that the Kings are not able to charge Vancouver with tampering. Neither Buss nor Vachon would say why Quinn’s contract was not on file.

“Certainly our contract with him is legal and binding,” Buss said.