Hachborn Now Knows the Gift of Giving On, Off the Ice : Hockey: An attitude adjustment has helped this Gull get his game going again.

Len Hachborn has earned a reputation for his unusual talent as a hockey player. He’s a great passer. It is one thing to be able to put the puck in the net, it’s quite another to be able to make perfect passes from impossible angles.

Hachborn, who plays for the Gulls, became a great passer while growing up with Wayne Gretzky. Like Gretzky, he plays center, and he parlayed his ability to make scoring champions out of linemates into a career in the National Hockey League.

Call him an unsung hero. Call him unselfish.

But off the ice, Hachborn was quite different. He was selfish. Sometimes when his name didn’t appear on the lineup card he would sulk. His attitude was such that today he wonders if he would still be playing in the NHL had he been less self-centered.

“I didn’t know how to take sitting out,” he said. “I just couldn’t take it. Now, if I had it to do all over again, I would definitely handle it differently. I’d work harder.”

That is a side of Hachborn few people know. Hachborn, 30, is a hard worker who leads by example. Off the ice, he’s a prankster who keeps his teammates loose.

He has also become one of the International Hockey League’s top players. He now anchors the IHL’s most prolific scoring line.

And he has been characteristically generous, handing out a league-leading 29 assists, and setting up linemate Dmitri Kvartalnov for 15 of 25--tops in the IHL. He is among the league leaders in goals with 14, and his 43 points in 28 games are third best best behind Jock Callander of Muskegon (48 points) and Kvartalnov, the Soviet sensation who also has 22 assists and 47 points in 28 games.

“I’ve always done well offensively, where ever I’ve played,” Hachborn said. “I’ve always been put with goal scorers because of my style as a playmaker. I’ll look to set up my wingers before I shoot.”

In his three NHL seasons, spent with the Philadelphia Flyers and Kings from 1983-84 to ‘85-86, Hachborn had some success. He scored 20 goals in 102 games, but he had his share of injuries. A sprained knee, cracked wrist and sprained shoulder badgered him during two seasons with the Flyers.

A pulled groin limited him to 24 games with the Kings. But most costly was a series of misfortunes during rookie season. He was playing well when a knee injury left him out for the season. Then he fell out of favor with Flyers management.

“I had close to a point a game (32 points in 38 games with the Flyers in 1983-84 season), then I got injured with ligament damage,” he said. “I signed a real good contract in the off-season, but they ended up making management changes. (Coach) Mike Keenan came in and, well, I didn’t get off to the best start.

“I don’t know if he used me as an example. It was a tough year. Then I looked back and I still had 24 points in 40 games.

“I don’t know, it’s weird. I’ve always had success come easily to me. Once in a while I think I might not have been as mature as I am now.”

Success apparently did come easily for Hachborn. Growing up a half-mile away from the Gretzkys in Brantford, Canada, Hachborn was second only to Gretzky playing youth hockey and baseball, and the two were practically inseparable.

Gretzky was Brantford’s ace pitcher and Hachborn played shortstop. When Gretzky didn’t pitch he played shortstop and Hachborn moved to second base, making a strong double-play combination. Every year their team would reach the playoffs only to disband because half of the players--including former Detroit Red Wings goalie Greg Stefan--would start playing hockey.

Hachborn said when he wasn’t playing indoors, he was at Gretzky’s rink in the back yard.

“We spent a lot of time back there,” Hachborn said. “In Canada in the winter time, there’s a rink on just about every street corner, with the boards and the nets up. You would have to drag us off the ice to go to bed or to eat.”

Keith Gretzky, Wayne’s younger brother and now Hachborn’s teammate, was the youth team mascot. Hachborn laughs about it today.

“We’d dress him up and he used to come out and skate before the game and between periods,” Hachborn said. “Now we talk a lot. He’s a good kid and he works hard. He’s in a tough situation, you know, being Wayne’s brother. Everybody expects so much from him. But, hey, there’s only one Wayne Gretzky.

“We spent endless hours over there at his house, just playing. It was fun.”

Hockey suddenly became a business for Hachborn in 1986, after the Kings bought out the remainder of his contract and sent him to New Haven of the American Hockey League. He started getting lucrative contract proposals from European teams. At the same time he started receiving two-way contract offers from other clubs.

Under a two-way contract, the size of Hachborn’s salary would depend upon whether he stayed in the NHL or went to the minors. He came close to signing with the Edmonton Oilers but chose the financial security that a team in Italy guaranteed.

“It was a big decision then,” he said. “I was 25 or 26. Now I look back and I’m glad I made the decision I did.”

Hachborn, in fact, has only second-guessed himself for the attitude he took to the rink in the NHL. The NHL lost track of him. After arriving at the Gulls’ training camp in September, after an off year at AHL Binghamton, N.Y., last season (nine goals, 27 assists in 50 games), Coach Don Waddell said he would have to make the team.

A savvy Hachborn was prepared to show Waddell, the IHL and possibly the NHL what they’ve been missing. He made the team but didn’t like the one-year salary Waddell offered. Instead, he agreed to a 25-game deal in hopes of renegotiating higher later. In the meantime, Steve Bartlett, started hunting for offers in Europe.

“I know Len. I played with him at New Haven,” Waddell said. “He’s had some good years and he’s had some off years. I knew he was capable of putting up big numbers. We both took risks. We both gambled.”

Business is business, and Hachborn meant business. He set a club record by scoring in each of his first 16 games, and he shot to the top of the league in both points and assists. By late October, with Hachborn’s 25-game contract running out, Waddell knew he had to make the biggest deal in his six seasons as an IHL executive or lose his best player.

Waddell did just that the first week of November, signing Hachborn to a one-year contract in the neighborhood of $50,000 that could be worth more with incentives.

“Hachborn brings out the best in guys,” Waddell said. “He’s been the key to our hockey team. Would Dmitri be having the year that he is without him? No chance. I bet he wouldn’t have 15 goals.”

The Gulls, in third place in the West Division, are enjoying their best record ever at 18-14-0 with 36 points. Hachborn has scored in 23 of 28 games, getting two points in a game nine times and three points five times. He has scored two game-winning goals and has assisted on four game-winning shots.

Through much of his success, Hachborn was not only concerned about his contract and where he would be in December, buy his wife, Karen, was about to give birth back home in Portland, Maine. She did so Dec. 8, the day after the Gulls lost, 3-2, to the Salt Lake Golden Eagles as Hachborn did not score but racked up 26 penalty minutes and was sent to the showers early.

Karen gave birth to girl, Lianna. She, Lianna and Daniella, 2, are expected to join Hachborn here next week and spend the remainder of the season in San Diego. After the Dec. 8 game, Waddell slapped his center on the back and told him to join his family.

“That was his only bad game of the year,” Waddell said. “I think he’s coped with everything very, very well. I told him, ‘You continue to have the type of season you’re having, I don’t care if you’re 25 or 35 years old. The (1992) NHL expansion teams will need help right away.’

“And I’ll go to bat for him. I’ll make the calls. I won’t wait for them to call me. I have a pretty good rapport with 19 of the 21 GMs in the NHL.”

Getting back to the NHL is not something Hachborn is concerned about. But if the opportunity presents itself?

“Sure, I’d give it another shot,” he said. “I’m sure if I have a productive season and they see the good numbers, scouts are going to take notice. ‘Why is this guy doing so well?’ ”

And it will surely take more than a two-way contract to bring him back.