Robitaille Blames Trade on New Order : Hockey: He says McNall had promised that he would never leave the Kings. And he implies that Gretzky has too much power over personnel.

Luc Robitaille, once assured he would spend his entire career as a King, said goodby on Saturday, convinced he was traded to Pittsburgh only because of what he called the “new situation here in Los Angeles.”

Robitaille said he believes the decline of Bruce McNall’s influence after financial problems forced McNall to sell majority interest in the team allowed the trade to happen. And he implied that he opposed Wayne Gretzky’s widely acknowledged role in running the team.

“If it was still Mr. McNall as the owner, I would still be here,” Robitaille said. “He always told me he would never trade me, and he never did.”

Robitaille tried to take what agent Tom Reich called “the high road” and refrain from decrying a trade he didn’t want, and his farewell news conference was marked by laughter and friendly banter. But without mentioning Gretzky by name, he made his point clear after the formal questioning ended.

“Players should play and managers should manage,” Robitaille said. “I never spoke out about that. . . . I just think it should be that way. In Pittsburgh, players are worried about playing, and that’s it.”

Asked about the revelation by Rick Tocchet--the player acquired from Pittsburgh in Friday’s trade--that Gretzky told Tocchet recently that the Kings might try to acquire him, Robitaille said: “It’s kind of weird that decisions would be made sometimes before people know it. It’s a weird situation, what’s going on in Los Angeles, and maybe it’s going to be for the better, maybe it won’t be. Maybe one of the reasons that I’m going is because I didn’t agree with that. I never spoke out about it, but everybody knew I didn’t agree with it.”

Robitaille said that the main purpose of the news conference was to say goodby to supporters and fans.

“I just want to say that I feel bad about leaving L.A,” Robitaille said. “I had great years here. I grew up here. I learned to speak English here. I learned a lot here and I’ve got some great memories.

“It’s sad for us to go, but we’re happy to be going to a place where a team wants us. . . . I’ll get an opportunity to show different sides of my game. I have a lot to prove as a hockey player. I want to prove I’m not just a goal-scorer. That’s my goal from now on, to show I can do more than just scoring goals in the NHL.”

In January of 1993, Coach Barry Melrose had called rumors of a Robitaille trade “totally false,” saying, “Luc is staying in L.A. He’s living in L.A. and he’ll die in L.A. He’ll probably die in L.A. at age 85.”

Instead he is going to Pittsburgh at 28 in exchange for Tocchet and a 1995 second-round draft choice.

Robitaille began to believe he would be traded when he heard rumors in May. In recent weeks, when it became clear he was on the trading block, Reich said he successfully influenced which team Robitaille would be traded to.

“We had a feeling they were trying to trade me and then we heard through the grapevine that they were shopping me around quite a bit,” Robitaille said. “Thanks to Mr. McNall and (new majority partner Joseph Cohen), I didn’t get dumped anywhere. I went at least to a place where we’re wanted. So for that I’ll never be thankful enough.”

Robitaille acknowledged that he is hurt by suggestions he was traded because the Kings wanted more toughness.

“One thing I took pride in was that Barry went out of his way to say I was tough, that I stood in front of the net, that I played hard every night. That’s one thing I know, that I always played as hard as I could for this team and I gave everything I had every night.”

His best memories, he said, begin with making the team after being a ninth-round draft choice. Of those he played with, he singled out Larry Robinson, not Gretzky, and he noted the Stanley Cup finals in 1993.

“Losing was very disappointing,” he said. “It will never be enough until I win the Stanley Cup.”

Robitaille laughingly recalled what Marcel Dionne, the Kings’ all-time scoring leader, said the day he was traded in 1987:

“Marcel said, ‘Remember, it’s just a business!’ ”