The NHL : Lemieux Turns Goals and Assists Into Dollars and Cents

And to think that King owner Bruce McNall said he really didn’t believe that Wayne Gretzky’s $20-million contract would have any effect on other contracts around the league.

On the day McNall announced the Gretzky deal, he mentioned Mario Lemieux, the league’s most valuable player and scoring champion. He said that no matter who scored the most goals or even who was considered the better hockey player, Gretzky’s value was in his fame, his personality, his drawing power.

He said he had no worries about other owners’ reactions to the contract that would keep Gretzky the highest-paid hockey player in the world.

Now look what’s happening in Pittsburgh.

It may or may not have had anything to do with all those fans standing up at last Wednesday’s game, pointing to the DeBartolo family’s box and chanting, “Sign Lemieux! Sign Lemieux!” But on Tuesday, Lemieux’s contract was renegotiated, and he now is in the same tax bracket as Gretzky.

Or, at least, that was what General Manager Tony Esposito led Pittsburgh reporters to believe at a news conference.

Esposito left the impression that Lemieux will be paid in the $2-million range this season, close to what Gretzky is getting. Esposito also said talks on a long-term deal will resume after the season.

Lemieux, who was to have earned $600,000 this season under a contract due to expire after the 1990-91 season, has sought to renegotiate that deal since Gretzky signed his contract with the Kings.

Now Esposito and Lemieux can concentrate on hockey for a while.

Just a thought: Will Bernie Nicholls, who leads the league in goals, want to renegotiate his contract soon?

Or will he go along with his owner’s view that the value of a hockey player is not measured in goals alone? Will he take into account the jump in attendance at the Forum since Gretzky joined him there?

Maybe they could make up the difference in truckloads of apples and oranges.

Pierre Page, coach of the Minnesota North Stars, has suggested that a share of Lemieux’s money should go to Gretzky in appreciation for what Gretzky taught him when they played together in the Canada Cup.

Page said: “Playing with Gretzky was a revelation to him. He was a good player who didn’t know how to be committed. Now he’s unstoppable.”

An early tally of NHL All-Star ballots shows Luc Robitaille of the Kings No. 1 among Campbell Conference left wingers and Gretzky No. 1 among centers. Jari Kurri of the Edmonton Oilers is the No. 1 right winger, Grant Fuhr of the Oilers leads the goalies, and Kevin Lowe of the Oilers is No. 1 among defenseman.

Nicholls is not on the ballot and is not getting many write-in votes, but he could be named to the team by the coaching staff.

Not that it makes much difference to Dean Chenowyth’s eye, but Al Strachan of the Globe and Mail in Canada writes that medical evidence suggests that Rick Tocchet of the Philadelphia Flyers, who was suspended for 10 games for gouging Chenowyth’s left eye, didn’t actually gouge.

It was a punch, he says, a right to the left eye that caused a “traumatic hyphemia.”

That was described in Strachan’s column as a situation in which blood rushes from one area to another. There is a delay of a few seconds before pressure builds to an intolerable level--which explains why Chenowyth didn’t start screaming in pain at the time of the punch. The delayed reaction and the bleeding around the eye caused the game officials to assume that the eye had been gouged.

Tocchet has been involved in more than his share of fights. He’s done a lot of punching. But he doesn’t want to be known as a dirty player who gouges eyes.

While we’re on the subject of fighting . . . Toronto’s John Kordic, when asked who is the best fighter in the NHL, said: “Well, the smartest one is probably that Tim Hunter guy in Calgary but, blockhead-wise, it’s probably Jay Miller in Boston.

“He gets excited about fighting. He just loves it. There are guys around the league who will do it sometimes, but he’s the kind of guy who loves to fight all the time. He’s the kind of guy I just shake my head at. I don’t know how he does it day in and day out.”

Gretzky’s name has now become a verb. Doug Smail of the Winnipeg Jets, whose team is 2-1-1 against Edmonton this year, explained: “We were Gretzkied before. We don’t feel they’re at a higher level than us anymore.”

NHL Notes

Tiring of the trade rumors he was having to stamp out every day, Hartford Whalers General Manager Emile Francis announced: “I am not a fire chief and this is not a firehouse. I’m not going to be running around putting out a fire every time some rumor is manufactured in somebody’s outhouse.” . . . Quebec’s star rookie, Joe Sakic, is living with a bilingual family in Quebec, listening to audio cassettes and studying textbooks in an attempt to learn French quickly. Sakic is of Hungarian descent but grew up speaking English in Burnaby, Canada.

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), head of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse, last week criticized the NHL for not having a rehabilitation program for drug abusers. NHL President John Ziegler responded: “We are against the policy of, if you get caught once, it’s OK, but if you get caught twice, then it is bad. Our policy is simple. If you use or are caught with illegal drugs, you will be suspended. No ifs, no ands, no buts.” Ziegler said that he believes the NHL has “very little problem with illicit drugs.”

Bob Johnson, former University of Wisconsin coach who is now head of the U.S. Amateur Hockey Assn., is thrilled that Wayne Gretzky is playing in the United States now. “It’s tremendous from our standpoint,” Johnson said. “I see he just signed a $1-million contract with Coca-Cola. Great. Whenever a kid drinks a Coke, he thinks of Gretzky--and hockey. The more Wayne does, the better off we are. They’re starting to talk about (Mario) Lemieux, too. At least that’s two of them--which makes two more than usual.”

During Mark Messier’s 6-game suspension, the Oilers named Jari Kurri interim captain. . . . USA Today reports that Walter Gretzky, Wayne’s father, lost a bidding war for two jerseys from Wayne’s days with the Indianapolis Racers in the World Hockey Assn. He lost out a man who put up baseball card sets from 1952-1956. . . . Former stars Norm Ullman (Wales Conference) and Bruce MacGregor (Campbell Conference) will be honorary captains for the All-Star game Feb. 7 in Edmonton.