Jones to Accompany Gretzky to Olympics

Janet Jones will accompany husband Wayne Gretzky to Italy for the Winter Olympics, even as investigations into a multimillion-dollar gambling ring engulf them.

Gretzky, coach and managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, is executive director of Canada’s Olympic hockey team. He is scheduled to leave for Turin on Sunday with Jones and their 15-year old son, Ty, a spokesman for Jones said.

Gretzky and Jones are under increasing scrutiny because of a gambling scandal that has shaken the NHL and left the Coyotes minus an assistant coach and with a head coach under siege.

Jones reportedly placed bets with the ring, a nationwide operation allegedly financed by Rick Tocchet, a Coyote assistant coach. Tocchet has been put on indefinite leave by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

The gambling ring, New Jersey authorities say, took in $1.7 million in wagers during a six-week period that ended Feb. 5, reportedly involving at least 12 current and former NHL players. Police said the ring was run by Tocchet, James Harney, a New Jersey state trooper, and a third man, James Umbler. They face charges of promoting gambling, conspiracy and money laundering and will be arraigned Feb. 21.

On Thursday, Jones issued a statement saying she never placed bets for her husband, but did not deny placing bets.

In addition, wiretaps reportedly caught Gretzky talking with Tocchet about the gambling ring and how to minimize the fallout.

Meanwhile, the league’s internal investigation is underway.

Robert Cleary, the lead prosecutor in the case against Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, will head the NHL’s probe. He is a partner in the Manhattan law firm that is home to Robert Batterman, the NHL’s legal counsel. Cleary was U.S. attorney in New Jersey from 1999 to 2002.

Cleary said Bettman would use his power as commissioner to “redress” any player who refused to cooperate, although he did not elaborate. However, officials from the NHL Players Assn. have advised its members that they have a right to counsel should they be questioned by investigators.

Cleary said he would look for “any conduct that is detrimental to the league or the game of hockey or outlawed by the bylaws.”

The week has left the Coyotes reeling.

With Tocchet on leave and their coach absorbing media hits, there was a vacuum Friday at the team’s charity golf tournament at Wigwam Golf Resort here. Gretzky did not attend. The media did. So the players filled the void.

“The one game that I’ll give the team a little bit of slack was the Chicago game,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell said of the Coyotes’ 3-1 home loss to the Blackhawks on Tuesday. “The story broke that morning. I probably got a dozen phone calls that afternoon from people wondering what was going on. We came out that night and that by far was our worst effort. We were terrible.... We’ve kind of gotten our mulligan with the Chicago game.”

O’Donnell said Gretzky had not addressed the team about the controversy. The players seemed to learn more from Gretzky’s brief address to the media after Thursday’s 5-1 loss to Dallas.

“It’s not so much his legacy, but he wants, he deserves, a clean name, and this stuff has gotten thrown around,” O’Donnell said. “It almost was like at first, it was ‘Rick Tocchet this, Rick Tocchet that.’ And now it seems like it’s ‘Wayne this and Wayne that.’ I believe what he said last night -- no way he has done anything.”

O’Donnell, once a King teammate of Gretzky’s, was asked Friday whether he was surprised at how ready people were to “tear down” Gretzky.

“No, it doesn’t surprise me at all,” he said. “You look at any celebrity that people have loved. As much as people love them, there’s still that part of everyone -- everyone’s got a little bit of darkness -- that when something like that happens, people want to jump on it and say, ‘I told you so. No one can be that perfect.’ ”

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Dillman reported from Litchfield and Foster from Los Angeles.