Wayne Gretzky can take charge of Team Canada if he wants after the NHL decided Tuesday it would not interfere with league personnel wanting to get involved the April 30-May 15 IIHF men's world hockey championship.
Bill Daly, the league's executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said in a release the decision was made after "due consideration to all of the relevant and sometimes competing concerns."
Reports surfaced Monday that the league would bar all league coaches, GMs or executives from participating in the tournament because of the NHL lockout, including Gretzky, the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, from resuming his role as executive director of two-time defending champion Canada.
But as it turns out, it was much ado about nothing. Gretzky has yet to confirm his participation in the world championship after Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson approached him about the job last month. Nicholson was attending IIHF meetings in Zurich and was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
There doesn't seem to be any credible reason for why the NHL was even contemplating banning personnel from the world championship other than wanting to keep members from its side from having any contact with players during the lockout. Until two weeks ago, coaches, GMs and owners were forbidden to reach out to players.
Should Gretzky resume his executive director job, he's expected to ask Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe and Vancouver Canucks assistant GM Steve Tambellini to join his management staff once again. All three men led Canada's gold-medal winning teams at the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
Gretzky says he hasn't made up his mind yet.
"I'm going to talk to Bob (Nicholson) Thursday and Friday and then make a decision, because it's a month commitment and it's over in Europe," Gretzky told the Fan 590, a Toronto all-sports radio station. "I'm always excited to work for Hockey Canada. Right now, I'm just going to take a step back and kind of analyse everything."
National team head coach Marc Habscheid is slated to be behind the bench for Canada's team in Austria. He's done a bang-up job in European tournaments this season, using non-NHLers against other countries employing some locked-out NHL players, leading Canada to a 9-4-1 record in official tournament games.
On the other hand, it's believed Habscheid would not balk at being an assistant coach if Gretzky wanted to bring in a veteran like Pat Quinn or Scotty Bowman. Quinn was head coach for the Olympics and World Cup, with Ken Hitchcock and Wayne Fleming of the Philadelphia Flyers and Jacques Martin of the Florida Panthers also on his staff.
Quinn told the Toronto Sun in Wednesday's edition that he's not necessarily a lock for the head coaching job.
"I have yet to have a conversation with anyone with (Hockey Canada) about this issue so all this speculation is premature to talk about," he said. "Working with Team Canada has been a privilege in the past and continues to be.
"If there's a chance to be involved I would welcome it. That hasn't changed."
Hitchcock said Tuesday he had not heard from anyone regarding the world championship.
"No one has contacted us so I don't even know where it's at," Hitchcock said from Philadelphia.
Asked whether he would hesitate at coaching NHLers at the tournament because of the NHL lockout, Hitchcock said a few things would need to be ironed out before accepting a possible offer.
"I don't think it would be awkward but I would want to make sure that everybody is OK with it," Hitchcock said. "Not just OK from a league standpoint, but OK from a team (Flyers) standpoint as well.
"It's a heck of an offer to represent your country but I would want to make sure everybody is OK with it."
Canada is expected to fill out its roster with the best NHL players available, possibly including the likes of Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic, Martin Brodeur and Jarome Iginla.
Because many of Canada's veteran star players haven't played hockey this year, Hockey Canada will likely hold a training camp in mid-April and play exhibition games in Canada before heading to Europe.