POINT / COUNTERPOINT : The Great Debate : Catch 99: To Get What Team Needs, Gretzky Has To Go

Part of this dirty job is telling people what you think, not what you think they want to hear. This leads us to today’s essay, in which Downey, No. 99 on any list of Los Angeles’ top 100 sportswriters, explains with a lump in his throat and coal in his heart why Gretzky’s Gotta Go.

Let me begin by saying that this is King Wayne’s eighth season with the organization, and the team’s record during this span, as of today, is 255-247-79. I just did the math. So, let’s have no more of this nonsense of how Gretzky is going to turn the Kings into a dominating team as soon as they get him some help.

He’s had help. They got him Jari Kurri. They got him Paul Coffey. They got Marty McSorley back for him. They got him Grant Fuhr, Charlie Huddy, every old Edmonton Oiler they could lay their gloves on. They got him Larry Robinson, as player and coach. He wanted a 50-goal scorer, they got him Rick Tocchet two years after he scored 48.

Don’t look at me that way. It isn’t my fault if these deals didn’t pan out. Should the Kings stop dealing because deals don’t pan out? They dealt for Gretzky, sports fans; how else do you think he got here? You gamble, same as on the ice. You take calculated risks. You go for broke, as Bruce McNall literally did. Gretzky wouldn’t be here if not for McNall’s willingness to Think Big.

So, come on. Think bigger.

Be bold. Be brave. Let’s blow kisses and wave goodbye to magnificent No. 99, while we can still get something for him. While the St. Louis Blues are foaming at the mouths for him. While the Kings need players, draft picks, cash, everything. Now, before his back goes out. Before he skates off into the sunset. (The guy turns 35 next week.) Before all they have to replace Wayne Gretzky is what the Kings already have, which ain’t enough.

Ladies and gentlemen of iceland, take a deep breath and contemplate two words: Quebec Nordiques. Here was a team at hockey rock-bottom. On June 30, 1992, that brave, bold team traded the Gretzky of Tomorrow, a young man named Eric Lindros, who preferred to play for a winner, for six players, two first-round picks, cash and future considerations. The Nordiques, who are now the Colorado Avalanche, have since become one of the NHL’s very best teams.

Listen. Learn.

Go on, contemplate two more words: Dallas Cowboys. On Oct. 12, 1989, disgusted with a team that had won only one game and lost 15, the brave, bold Cowboys traded the extremely popular Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for six players and 12 draft choices. Three years later, the Cowboys went 13-3 and won the Super Bowl. And they are still going to Super Bowls.

Listen. Learn.

Look, it’s nothing personal. I am a wide-eyed admirer of the skills of Wayne Gretzky, and thank him for exposing L.A. to his greatness. It has been a privilege to see him play.

But the gentleman wants the Kings to go out and get some great players, which they cannot do without giving up great players. Or, he wants them to spend more money at a time when the Kings are recovering from ownership that hemorrhaged money; at a time when the Kings do not play their home games to sold-out houses; at a time when the Kings would sell better with a winning team than with merely being Wayne’s team.

The franchise needs players. Plural. Bodies. Wings. Centers. Enforcers. Help! With one fell swoop that involves hockey’s greatest swooper, they can get those players from St. Louis, from Detroit, from Toronto, from the New York Rangers, from some team that can afford to enrich the Kings with an entire line’s worth of players.

Do it. Fleece somebody.

Call up Mike Keenan in St. Louis and ask for the moon. He’s nutty enough to offer too much. See how far he is willing to go. See how many Rangers you can get, just so Gretz can play the Garden and be reunited with Mark Messier. See how many Russian Red Wings you can get from that Detroit team that has been destroying everybody. See if the Maple Leafs would trade for Gretzky, so that a Toronto reporter can be right for a change.

Don’t fall for this talk that the Kings are a player or two away from contending. Every damn team in the NHL is a player or two away from contending. That’s because every damn team in the NHL has a shot at the playoffs, every damn season, which is why the Kings played for the Stanley Cup in the spring of 1993 with a nothing-special team that finished the season in third place, not in first.

Gretzky’s gotta go.

It’s your choice: Do you want a great player or do you want a great team? We all got to see what Gretzky could do. The beautiful thing about memories is that nobody can take them from you. Now we have an opportunity to use Wayne Gretzky as barter to turn the Kings into something better, and it will be one more reason for Los Angeles to thank him.

Go for it.