A Slap Shot in Edmonton’s Face

There might not be many nicer guys in professional sports than Jimmy Carson, which makes what happened Saturday all the sadder.

On the eve of Wayne Gretzky’s latest and greatest triumphant return to Edmonton--with Gordie Howe’s all-time scoring record about to be his--Jimmy Carson, the good kid who will go down in history as the player who was traded for the greatest hockey player of them all, skated off the ice and out of the Edmonton Oilers’ lives, presumably forever. Just upped and quit.

He is 20 years old.

Anybody who knows Jimmy knows how hard things have been for him in this northwestern outpost, trying to live up to Gretzky’s memory, trying to just be himself, trying to remind everybody that the trade wasn’t his idea, trying to persuade everybody that Edmonton’s inability to successfully defend its Stanley Cup wasn’t his fault.

The trade pained Carson no end. He loved Los Angeles, bought a place there, liked everybody on the team. And everybody liked him, so much so that owner Bruce McNall of the Kings offered the Oilers an extra $5 million if Carson could be kept out of the deal.

Carson’s agent, Bill Watters, made it even more clear what his client, a native of the Detroit suburb of Southfield, was going through.

“He’s an American,” Watters said. “He wants to play in the country where he was born.”

Well, so did Wayne Gretzky, but as we all know, things change. Except when Gretzky was traded, he already was a grown man and a complete success. Canadians still had the Gretzky legacy, if nothing else.

There was talk last season that Carson was headed to Detroit, or possibly to some other U.S. team. We would ask Jimmy about it and he would shrug and smile and try not to create any more occupational hazards for himself, but usually couldn’t resist pointing to the Oiler general manager’s closed door and saying: “Go in there and tell him !”

Get me outta here, in other words.

His contract was a short one and already running out, we all knew that. We also knew that Carson thought a lot about circling back to Los Angeles, rejoining his old friends and giving the Kings both Gretzky and The Man Traded For Gretzky.

What we didn’t know was how severely the stress was building. We never thought Carson would bolt the team.

When goalie Grant Fuhr packed his pads and sticks and announced his “retirement” earlier this season, most everybody understood that he was after a better contract from the Oilers and would eventually return, which he did. When defenseman Paul Coffey held out until the third week of November a couple of seasons ago, the Oilers played hardball and swapped him to Pittsburgh.

Edmonton officials insist that they have been trying to trade Carson, not only granting his wish but protecting themselves--as baseball’s Seattle Mariners did when pitcher Mark Langston’s contract was about to expire--by at least ending up with something instead of nothing.

Trouble is, the Oilers do not want to give Carson away. He already has cost them Gretzky. He also happens to be a player who scored 55 goals in his last season with the Kings, and 49 in his first season with Edmonton.

“There’s no 20-year-old who has had offensive figures to compare with Jimmy’s,” Watters said. “Not even Wayne Gretzky.”

Yes, some people do think Carson can become another Gretzky, although that is very dangerous thinking, since it’s like having Will Clark and being disappointed if he doesn’t turn out to be Willie Mays.

It would be absolutely lovely for Los Angeles if Carson sits out the rest of the season and then signs with the Kings, and we sincerely hope this happens.

Or, here is another scenario: Edmonton, its hand forced, finally deals him to some other National Hockey League city, where Carson finishes out the year but declines to sign an extended contract. Then he rejoins the Kings.

The catch with Plan B again relates to the Langston baseball situation. Which franchise is going to be willing to part with some player or players of value to obtain Jimmy Carson for one season? The answer is: Only a team that is going for all the marbles this season, and thinks itself one great player away from being a contender.

One of those future-is-now teams.

Poor Jimmy runs the risk, however, of alienating NHL cities all over the map. The people of Edmonton, obviously, never are going to let Carson forget that he abandoned them. He’ll be booed here for the next two decades. Then, should he desert some other town as well, his unpopularity will grow.

Imagine the irony of one of the sport’s sweetest people becoming one of its most hated.

The Oilers could always trade Carson back to the Kings.

Yeah, sure. Over their dead bodies.

Doesn’t matter if it would be a sensible thing to do. Peter Pocklington took so much flak up here for trading Gretzky to Los Angeles that he would have to pack up a couple of sled dogs and move into an igloo to escape the wrath of these people if he gives Carson back.

Besides, which Kings want to be the ones traded for Jimmy Carson? Not many. Not any.

What a development. Peter Pocklington’s puck people have been put in a pickle. We wish them luck. We wish Jimmy Carson more.