Beck Doesn’t Give Kings Cold Shoulder : At 32, He Comes Out of Retirement

When last seen on skates, Barry Beck was a big, strong defenseman with a big, strong slapshot who played for the New York Rangers and could dislocate his left shoulder with a serious shrug.

But when he plays in his first exhibition with the Kings, his shoulder will be intact.

Beck, who retired early, was living in Vancouver, Canada, last spring when it occurred to Wayne Gretzky to ask him if he would like to make a comeback at age 32.

Rediscovering Beck for the Kings’ needy defense was like finding a “diamond in the rough” the way Gretzky sees it.

A former All-Star, Beck was once a bruiser of a defenseman who added a little offense as a bonus. At 6-foot-2, Beck is 225 pounds of solid strength. Just what the Kings need.

But the shoulder. . . . Even after surgery, Beck had four shoulder separations before calling it quits.

The way he tells it, he kept trying to come back too soon. But he didn’t retire because the shoulder seemed beyond hope.

There was the frustration factor when the Rangers’ front office made him an offer and said, “Take it or leave it.”

At that point, he left it.

Which probably was for the best. His shoulder needed the time off.

“I was taking a stand,” he said. “Not for the money. It was a question of integrity. My integrity means more. I’m single, so I never had to worry about kids or anything. So maybe I can take a stand that maybe someone who had a family to worry about wouldn’t be able to.

“At that point, I left. I didn’t want to have anything to do with hockey. I thought I’d look for work.”

But he was barely back in Vancouver when he started getting the itch to play again. Within six months, he knew he had to give it another chance.

Retirement can hit pretty hard, too.

He dabbled in the restaurant business in New York and then concentrated on renovating his house in the Vancouver area.

“Being out of hockey was a big shock,” Beck said. “It was a real lonely feeling. I missed the camaraderie. I missed the highs and the lows. The good part about the game is the highs and the lows. When you’re gone from the game, that’s gone. There’s nothing. Unless you become a coach or something.

“It’s not easy to just leave the game.”

He eventually sold his restaurant shares to his partners.

“I knew I couldn’t go after it wholeheartedly because that would take my mind away from the game,” he said. “I knew in the back of my mind that I had to try to come back.”

So when Gretzky called, Beck needed little encouragement.

He had stayed in shape, but he needed to get back on the ice. That was when he really started missing all the things he took for granted in the National Hockey League.

Basic things. Such as ice.

“From April until August, two weeks out of every month, I had to rent the ice,” Beck said. “You take your career for granted. In the NHL you don’t have to hang your stuff up or buy equipment or pay for ice time or worry about breaking sticks. . . .

“Guys who came up to play pro hockey right away and have never even been in the minors never get to see what others go through.”

Beck was one of those. Drafted by the Colorado Rockies (now the New Jersey Devils) in the first round in 1977, he set an NHL record for a rookie defenseman with 22 goals and was second in the Calder Cup voting to Mike Bossy. He had a couple of good years in Colorado before he was traded to the Rangers.

The Rangers, who will be compensated, still held his rights last spring when he let it be known that he was ready to play hockey again. The Kings found themselves bidding against the Vancouver Canucks, who also thought Beck could play.

Flashing a wide smile, Beck said: “It was nice to be wanted by somebody again.”

Now if only the shoulder withstands the banging.

Beck says it has been fine during training camp.

“Absolutely. Like nothing happened,” he said. “It’s been two years and a lot of hard work though.”

In the first days of camp at Hull, Beck said if felt good to be back on the ice. Except for what he called “a little nervous tension, a lot of nervous energy inside,” it was like old times.

He knew everyone else was watching to see if the shoulder could withstand the banging. But he had no doubt.

A linebacker in high school, Beck tested his shoulder last summer when he played in an alumni football game back home.

It held up.

Then he passed the first hurdle of camp, the physical, and he survived the first contact on ice, which relieved King Coach Tom Webster.

Now it’s a matter of finding out if the shoulder is as strong as Beck thinks it is.

It has had a long time to heal. The real problems began during the 1983 playoffs against the New York Islanders, when he separated his left shoulder. He came back the next year and broke a bone in the same shoulder. He underwent surgery, hoping to repair it once and for all. But he had four more separations.

“It was very frustrating,” he said.

At the start of the 1986-87 season, he tried to play again. But he separated his shoulder in an exhibition game.

“It will take a little while for my timing to come back, but I have total confidence in my shoulder,” he said.

He’s eager to get back into the game and says there is no reason to think that the bitterness he felt when he left will resurface.

“That was under different circumstances, a different owner,” Beck said. “Gulf and Western owns the team there. It’s a different feeling than you have here.”

As for his feelings about the Kings?

Well, he watched them whenever they traveled to Vancouver. And he watched them in the playoffs.

“They were a little bit short at that point. Hopefully, I can help them defensively,” he said.