Kings Make Gretzky Feel Better : Hockey: He wants team kept intact. Raeder is retained; Melrose’s contract is extended.

Wayne Gretzky’s wish list got a little shorter Friday.

And the Kings’ fondest wish, that their superstar center return for a sixth season in Los Angeles, might be a little closer to realization.

The club extended the contract of Coach Barry Melrose an additional year Friday and, apparently following Gretzky’s wishes, signed assistant coach Cap Raeder to a three-year deal.

Gretzky hinted at retirement minutes after the Kings lost in the Stanley Cup finals last week to the Montreal Canadiens.

Owner Bruce McNall has said he is willing to make his 32-year-old center the highest-paid player in the NHL, which would mean more than doubling the $3 million Gretzky earned last season to move him past the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Mario Lemieux.

But Gretzky reportedly wants to make sure three other individuals are with the club if he stays: defenseman Marty McSorley, forward Warren Rychel and Raeder, who has become close to Gretzky in five seasons as an assistant under three different King coaches.

“I’m a small part of any decision Wayne makes,” Raeder said from Vermont, where he is spending the summer. “I do not have much bearing on it. He’s probably more concerned with Marty and Warren. And there are also a lot of other things he’s thinking about.”

Gretzky and McNall met on the team flight home from Montreal and might meet again this week.

In the meantime, the Kings have begun negotiations with McSorley, a restricted free agent, and Rychel, who is unrestricted.

Before signing, Raeder said, he made it plain to King management that he wanted to return only if he was wanted for his abilities, not because of a perception that Gretzky wanted him back. Raeder said he was assured that was the case.

As a result, he signed before waiting to see what developed with the head coaching job of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a job he might have had a shot at.

“I enjoy what I’m doing,” Raeder said. “The role fits me. A head coaching job is something that I might wake up someday and decide I want to go after. But that time is not now.”

Melrose’s contract runs through the 1996-97 season.

King Notes

General Manager Nick Beverley says he wants to keep center Jimmy Carson and forwards Dave Taylor and Pat Conacher. . . . Neither Taylor nor defenseman Charlie Huddy will require surgery for the injuries they suffered in the playoffs.