King of the Blues : He Weighed, Pondered It: Color His Decision Blue

It is quarter past eight on Tuesday evening in a hotel near the Los Angeles airport. On the second floor is an auditorium with theater seats. A black curtain, with a King banner attached, has been placed behind an eight-chair dais. No one is sitting there yet.

Wayne Gretzky enters the room before anyone from the Kings. He stops halfway down the aisle, props his foot on an arm rest and pinches his chin, the way he often does, speaking in hush-hush tones.

“Well, I guess this is it,” he says.

He has been traded. Again.

Greatest player in the history of his game, traded twice.

“Timing, I guess,” Gretzky says.

He isn’t sure how to feel.

“I’m probably as devastated as anybody,” he says. “Trading’s tough.”

A hard time for him.

“Hardest six weeks of my career. It was unfair to everybody. unfair for Larry Robinson [his coach], for the team, for the fans, for the media, for everybody, especially my wife.

“It’s, I don’t know, immensely draining.

“Every city we go, hordes of people would be waiting. ‘What’s going to happen? Anything happen?’ Even friends of mine keep calling, want to know, ‘What’s going on?’ I don’t know what’s going on.”

Especially difficult, as he said, for his wife.

“It’s been quite nerve-wracking,” Janet Jones says, accompanying her husband to the hotel near LAX on his last day representing L.A.

And what a peculiar last day it was.

At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, or thereabouts, Bob Sanderman, speaking on behalf of the owners of the Kings, looked the hockey fans of Los Angeles in the eye and announced that Gretzky was still a King, that their meeting had gone very well, and that he hoped Wayne would be here for a long, long time to come.

He was here for another hour or so.

By six, Gretzky was on the phone to Brett Hull, his new teammate in St. Louis, with the “good” news.

By seven, Gretzky had gotten a few L.A. players on the phone--Kevin Todd, Kevin Stevens, Marty McSorley--to let them know he was now an ex-teammate.

“They wouldn’t believe me,” Gretzky says.

But it was true. Gretzky was a Blue.

He didn’t want to play with the Kings any more. He wanted to play with Hull. He wanted to play for Coach Mike Keenan.

“Wayne went home,” Sanderman said, “and discussed it with his family, and with whomever else he talks to, and then he let us know late this afternoon that he preferred not to remain a Los Angeles King during his remaining active playing days.”

Wayne decided. Not the Kings. They invited him to stay. Sanderman says their offer included a “senior” position with the club once Gretzky’s career was done.

He’s the one who chose to go.

Was Keenan much of a factor?

“Major,” Gretzky says.

The only factor?

“Well, Hullie too.”

Hockey’s most valuable player and most frustrated team parted company Tuesday. People will knock the Kings, saying they gave up the Great Gretzky in exchange for Who, What and I Don’t Know. But what would they have said two months from now, when Wayne left of his own accord, leaving the Kings empty-handed?

Theoretically, L.A. could pull off the coup of the century, taking St. Louis’ three players and re-signing Gretzky after the season. He has no deal in St. Louis, hasn’t even spoken with anybody.

“Puts me in a pretty strong negotiating situation, I would say,” Gretzky says in a hotel hallway, his eyes lighting up like a red lamp behind a net.

He says he had a full 24 to 48 hours for the deal to really sink in. Everyone, himself included, fudged the truth, figuring it was nobody’s business but their own.

Tuesday, he made up his mind. Wayne did, not the team.

“It wasn’t fair to drag this out any more. In life, strange things happen, and this is one of them.

“I hope things work out for the Kings, and I think they will. We came so close that one season, and that would have been the icing on the cake. I’ve enjoyed being in this city. That earthquake was a little scary. And I wish I could have done a movie.”

But sometimes a man’s gotta go where a man’s gotta go.

The St. Louis Blues will visit the Forum on March 18, with Wayne Gretzky wearing a musical note on his chest. Until then, what can L.A. do? Erect a statue of him, the way Edmonton did? Retire his jersey? Burn it, because he chose to leave?

“Don’t worry, they have great days ahead in this town. Hockey’s solid here, no problem,” Gretzky says, waving goodbye. “All during these trade rumors, the one question everybody keeps asking me is, ‘How’s hockey going to be in this city when you’re gone?’

“It’s going to be fine.”

How big a blow is this to L.A., though?

Major.