HOCKEY / LISA DILLMAN : Kings Are Said to Be Trying to Get Blues’ Unhappy Hull

Brettzky?

The Paul Coffey-Jimmy Carson trade might have merely been a warm-up for the Kings’ next deal.

The St. Louis Blues and the Kings have been discussing a multiplayer trade that would send Brett Hull to Los Angeles, according to a Blue source. Discussions have been going on for at least the last week, but it is unclear whether they are getting closer to an agreement. Another source characterized the Kings’ chances of obtaining Hull as “50-50.”

There are other factors. The Blues’ right wing, who has scored 70 or more goals the last three seasons, wants a new contract from the Blues.

Hull, 28, is seeking more than Eric Lindros’ $3.5-million yearly salary.

He is believed to want at least $4 million a year for the next five or six years. The Blues are looking at Hull’s declining production and the contract renegotiations are moving slowly.

Hull is in the third year of a four-year deal, which pays him $1.6 million this season and $2.2 million next season, his option year.

His agent, Michael Barnett, who is also Wayne Gretzky’s agent, wouldn’t say how far apart they are from the Blues.

“I wouldn’t want to characterize it as close or monumentally apart,” Barnett said Tuesday. “But neither side has come to a common ground.”

Barnett takes issue with the Blues’ claim that Hull is having an “inferior year.” After a slow start, Hull has 30 goals in his last 33 games. He also has 37 assists in 55 games, closing in on his career-high of 45 assists.

But last season’s departure of Adam Oates is still affecting Hull on and off the ice. Oates, who was traded to Boston, was Hull’s center most of last season when he scored 70 goals; and the previous season when he had 86 and was voted the league’s most valuable player. In 1989-90, Peter Zezel, since traded, was instrumental in Hull’s 78-goal season.

Hull spent most of the All-Star weekend telling reporters how much he missed Oates.

He spoke of how they often spent the day together before games, stopping for coffee on the way to the morning skate, having lunch afterward and then movies, followed by dinner.

“And we’d go out and play,” Hull said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate coming to the rink. . . . We were buddies. It’s just not there (now). There’s no one like that. It’s different.”

Hull spent some time with Oates and Oates’ wife in Montreal, between All-Star activities. He listened to Oates talk about hanging out with Bruin defenseman Glen Featherstone, a former Blue.

“ ‘Feather’ is there now,” Hull said. “I was kind of jealous, I’d have to admit that.”

Gretzky, whose pal Coffey was traded, can empathize. Maybe Hull’s addition would help. Certainly, visions of setting up Hull for 50 or 60 goals could help rejuvenate Gretzky. And playing alongside Gretzky could do wonders for Hull, who reveres him.

King owner Bruce McNall isn’t one to stand still, especially with his team playing poorly. And the Blues have never been shy about major deals. McNall loves star players, and Hull would be the name in Los Angeles for the ‘90s.

What would this deal mean for the Kings?

It depends upon what they would have to give up to acquire Hull. It would be unwise to trade left wing Luc Robitaille or defensemen Rob Blake and Darryl Sydor. And Gretzky isn’t going anywhere. But almost any other King player could be sent to St. Louis without much public uproar in Los Angeles.

There is an element of risk: Would the Kings be picking up an erratic goal-scorer, who at times struggles with motivation?

Sentiment in St. Louis seems to have changed. Months ago, trading Hull would have been unthinkable, considering that a new arena, the Kiel Center, is being built there.

“What are they going to do? Trade the bricks and mortar?” said someone close to the situation.

This week, the fans in St. Louis are starting to regard Hull as something of a villain, having listened to him talk about missing Oates and needing more money.

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If you thought the U.S. judicial system could waste a tremendous amount of time on trivial issues, consider the Eric Lindros trial in Oshawa, Canada.

Lindros, on Monday found not guilty of spitting beer on a woman, found himself in something of a three-ring circus during the three-day trial. At issue were such concepts as what constitutes “splashing” or “spilling” or “spraying.”

Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News mocked the process, writing: “And, of course, it was impossible to leave unexplored the issue of whether Lindros could have obtained enough beer to squirt it through his teeth from a bottle he contended did not have enough beer left in it to be properly shaken and sprayed. (‘When you’re done with a beer, there’s always a little left,’ Lindros noted, as many philosophers before him have, down through the ages.)”

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After his first Board of Governors meeting on Sunday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman quickly dismissed one proposed notion regarding realignment. There had been limited media support for two separate leagues, one Canadian and one American.

“This is the National Hockey League, this isn’t a series of separate leagues,” Bettman said.

“I like having teams in the league from north and south of the border. I think that’s a plus. And I’ve seen it written in the papers and my review of the clips, but I haven’t heard anybody at the board level suggest it seriously.”