Greatness of Gretzky Is Honored

Wayne Gretzky laced up his skates for the first time since his NHL finale--but he’s not preparing for a comeback.

Gretzky got permission from the Toronto Maple Leafs to bring some friends and skate at Maple Leaf Gardens, the team’s former home. He took advantage of it Saturday.

“It’s the first time I’ve skated [or] played hockey since April 18, and it probably showed,” he said. “I actually had a lot of fun.”

On Sunday, the NHL officially retired Gretzky’s familiar 99 throughout the league, raising a blue banner high above the ice at the Air Canada Centre. Gretzky, the MVP in last year’s All-Star game at Tampa, also dropped the puck for the ceremonial opening faceoff.

“It was a special feeling, a great thrill,” he said. “As I said to Mr. [Gary] Bettman [the NHL commissioner], the ironic thing about today is everything I have in my life is because of hockey and the NHL, and the NHL owes me nothing. It has just been fun.”

Gretzky’s number has not yet been retired by the Rangers or Kings, and no date has been set by either team for such ceremonies.

“I’ve talked to the Rangers about my sweater. I tell you quite honestly, what I told them was that I felt Mark Messier deserved to have his sweater hung there before anyone else, and so I probably won’t do anything until after that,” Gretzky said of his former teammate, who is still active with the Canucks. “The L.A. situation, quite frankly we just haven’t come up with the proper date. We had a couple of dates. The problem with last year was they wanted to do it against Edmonton on Dec. 30, and I said to them one of the nice things about retiring was that I don’t have to worry about making commitments around Christmas and New Year’s, and I didn’t want to make the commitment at that time. . . . We are just trying to find the proper date and time and we will go from there.”

Gretzky also said he enjoyed filming the stirring opener for ABC’s telecast Sunday, a brief scenario that featured Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux symbolically passing the torch of greatness to youngsters Paul Kariya, Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros and Jaromir Jagr.

“It was just nice to talk to all of them, to be around them and see the new guys, the young guys, and talk to them about the game today and listen to Gordie and Mario tell stories about hockey,” he said. “All of us had a lot of fun, and I think it was a great spot.”