Gelinas Proves to Be Bargain as Canucks Beat Kings, 3-1

You certainly have to do some selective shopping when it comes to the waiver wire. Mostly, you rummage through the rabble. Very few players who go through waivers are worth bothering to make an effort to sign.

Then there’s left wing Martin Gelinas, who scored twice in Vancouver’s 3-1 victory over the Kings on Monday before 16,040 at Pacific Coliseum.

He’s a young guy, 23, who already acquired a Stanley Cup ring when he was with the Edmonton Oilers. And he’s not some high-priced aging veteran. Gelinas makes a palatable $300,000 (Canadian).

Vancouver General Manager and Coach Pat Quinn claimed Gelinas on waivers from Quebec on Jan. 15, and Gelinas made his move look superb Monday.

The Kings (19-25-6) remain in an eighth-place tie with the Mighty Ducks for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and slipped eight points behind the Canucks in the Pacific Division. The Kings have won only once in their last seven games, going 1-4-2.

Which brings things back to Gelinas. Since the Kings are searching for more depth and extra offense outside of Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille and Jari Kurri, it might have been interesting if they had claimed Gelinas.

Certainly they had a chance. The Canucks, by virtue of their better record, picked him up after the Kings turned him down.

“He’s a good player,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “Vancouver was very smart in picking him up. I always liked him.”

The Kings were drastically undermanned Monday. Robitaille missed his first game since Nov. 27, 1990, because of a sprained right ankle, suffered on Saturday against Anaheim.

Forward Tony Granato had a flare-up of back spasms during Monday’s morning skate. Left wing Warren Rychel also sat out, serving a one-game suspension for having accumulated three game misconducts.

Right wing Dave Taylor was back home after a recurrence of headaches and forward Gary Shuchuk will miss six weeks because of a sprained left knee. So the Kings called up Keith Redmond from Phoenix, and defenseman Brent Thompson moved to wing.

The Kings were also worn down by constant penalty killing, shutting down Vancouver, which went 0 for eight. Also not helping the mood were the postgame antics of Canuck forward Gino Odjick, who went after Gretzky after the final buzzer. Odjick was assessed a 10-minute misconduct and Gretzky wound up with a sore neck.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” King defenseman Darryl Sydor said. “He’s done that every game now.”

King Notes

The long saga of Wayne Gretzky’s new three-year, $25.5 million contract appears to be drawing to a close. He agreed in principle about four months ago but has not signed the deal yet. Several times, it seemed as the transaction was almost completed. “You have to file everything with the league now,” Gretzky said on Monday. “And with new ownership, they have to agree on everything. It’s made it more complicated. But everybody understands it will get done.” Presumably, Gretzky will sign the contract when he returns to Los Angeles after this two-game trip. Among the various issues prolonging the transaction was the NHL vetoing a no-trade clause and the specific legal language dealing with the deferred payments from Gretzky’s previous contract. The final issues were discussed in a 2 1/2-hour meeting on Monday between King owner Bruce McNall, soon-to-be owners Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joe Cohen, Gretzky’s agent Michael Barnett and Gretzky’s lawyer Ron Fujikawa.

The Kings on Monday fired Tim Bothwell, the coach of their minor league team in Phoenix and replaced him with Rick Dudley. Bothwell had coached the struggling Roadrunners for two seasons. His record was 26-50-6 last season and 19-26-2 this season.