THE NHL : Oilers Expected to Trade Carson Within a Week

The Edmonton Oilers are not going to let Jimmy Carson sit home in Redondo Beach for long. General Manager Glen Sather is considering several offers for the high-scoring, 21-year-old center, and is expected to trade him within a week.

When goalie Grant Fuhr “retired” from hockey last summer, the Oilers simply sat back and waited for him to unretire, which he did before the start of training camp.

When Paul Coffey held out at the start of the 1987 season, the Oilers let him sit until the end of November, then dealt him to Pittsburgh.

But when Carson quit the team last Saturday, the Oilers started taking bids. There obviously was going to be no reconciliation between the Oilers and Carson, who wants to play in the United States, and he’s much too valuable a commodity to waste.

Until the Oilers make a deal, though, their roster has a gaping hole where once there was Wayne Gretzky. Carson, the young talent sent to the Oilers as the main on-ice compensation for Gretzky, scored 100 points--49 goals, 51 assists--for the Oilers last season.

To lose Gretzky for Carson was bad enough.

So there will be a deal made soon. But don’t expect Carson to be back with the Kings. Just about every other U.S. team has been mentioned.

New King teammate Larry Robinson on Wayne Gretzky: “He doesn’t wear that number for nothing. That’s about the percentage of plays that he is going to execute.”

Boston Coach Mike Milbury on shutting out Gretzky at the Forum for the first time since Gretzky became a King:

“If I were him, after the week he just went through, I would have been in a fog. He had some flashes and good chances. I don’t know how the guy does it. He’s a marvel to me. If you one time deny him any points in the game, you’ve got to feel really proud of yourself. It’s a tribute to him that he gets other teams up just to play against him. That’s a tremendous tribute to a guy.”

Compuware Corp. of Detroit wants to buy an NHL team and has inquired about the Oilers. According to Compuware’s hockey director, Jim Rutherford, Oiler owner Peter Pocklington, “didn’t say yes . . . didn’t say no.”

So, Rutherford concludes, “I guess there’s always a chance.”

When is a tie worse than kissing your sister? When your “rebuilding” team is about to pull the upset of the young season, when you’re leading the defending Stanley Cup champions by five goals with less than four minutes left in front of your home fans. Then a tie is sickening.

“I hope I never see another game like that,” Quebec’s Peter Stastny said after Calgary scored three goals in a 27-second span and then added two more--two short-handed goals--just four seconds apart to come up with the 8-8 tie on the Nordiques’ ice.

Quebec Coach Michel Bergeron, who knew he had his work cut out for him when he took this job after being fired by the Rangers at the end of last season, said: “I knew things would be hard this year because of all the changes we’ve made, but this is hard to stomach. There was general panic out there. It’s a real shock. This is worse than a loss for sure.”

Even though he said he had “closed the book” on Bob Probert when he was arrested last March for smuggling cocaine into the United States, Detroit Coach Jacques Demers showed up in court Tuesday to speak as a character witness before Probert was sentenced.

Detroit President Mike Illitch and General Manager Jim Devellano also appeared on Probert’s behalf, and eight Red Wing players were in the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan sentenced Probert, a Canadian, to three months in prison and fined him $2,000. Also taken into consideration was Probert’s agreement to plead guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

A Canadian attorney for Probert, Maria Carroccia, said that there would be a hearing with the NHL on whether Probert will be allowed to play hockey again, but that hearing will not be held until after a deportation hearing Oct. 26.

Probert has been in the United States since his arrest last March, undergoing substance abuse treatment at the Holly Gardens clinic. He has said that he will continue his treatment for alcohol abuse while in prison.

Hockey Notes

Alan Eagleson, head of the NHL players’ association, reports that the average NHL salary is $200,000, boosted by $4,000 by the million-dollar contracts signed by Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux and Detroit’s Steve Yzerman. . . . Minnesota was the last unbeaten team in the league before losing at Detroit Thursday. The North Stars’ surprising 5-1-1 start is their best in seven seasons.

Montreal defenseman Chris Chelios, the first American captain of the Canadiens since 1909, has hired a tutor to teach him French. He said he thinks he owes it to the people.” . . . Paul Coffey assisted on all of Pittsburgh’s goals in a 9-3 loss at St. Louis Wednesday, increasing his total to 601 assists. He is the sixth defenseman in the NHL to reach 600.

Word from France is that Bob Gainey, who retired from the Montreal Canadiens to become a player-coach, has not only played and coached but has also driven the Zamboni between periods. . . . Pittsburgh center John Cullen will be out for at least two weeks with Type A infectious hepatitis. Team officials who have been in contact with him recently and all of his teammates have been offered gamma globulin shots to ward off the infection.

At Montreal Wednesday night, a fan in a Montreal sweater jumped onto the ice and used a small, souvenir stick to knock a puck into the Calgary net, another fan came onto the ice with a banner and two more lowered themselves from the rafters on ropes, holding a banner to promote CKMF, a radio station that was offering a $25,000 prize for the best stunt. After Montreal won the game, 2-1, Chelios said: “Now that we have won, it was funny. If we’d lost, I don’t know how funny it would have been.” And Calgary’s Sergei Makarov said: “In the Soviet Union, the home team would have been penalized two minutes.”