clarinews@clarinet.com (MIKE BARNES, UPI Sports Writer) (02/02/90)
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (UPI) -- Wayne Gretzky and the Kings have agreed on a 2-year contract extension that could keep the NHL's alltime leading scorer in a Los Angeles uniform through 1998, team owner Bruce McNall announced Thursday night. The deal, which includes deferred payments, will be worth $29.4 million over 16 years, McNall said. Gretzky, 29, is now signed to play for eight more seasons after this one, instead of six. ``Sometimes you have to spend money to make it,'' McNall said at the Forum during the Kings' game with Chicago. ``He's providing an opportunity for us to literally triple our revenues. He's still in my opinion one of the most underpaid players in the league.'' The Kings were losing as much as $5 million a season before Gretzky came to Los Angeles from the Edmonton Oilers in an August 1988 trade. McNall said the team now stands to make a profit of $5 million this season. ``(McNall's) treated me very well, as he has all the players here,'' Gretzky said after the game. ``He's done a lot of things for me financially off the ice as well. ``All I can say is that when I was 3 or 4 years old skating in the backyard, somebody must have liked me. I feel very fortunate.'' Gretzky was playing undder an 8-year contract worth about $19.5 million. That included a payment of $1 million a year for eight years after he retired. Gretzky, who will earn $1.72 million this season -- plus another $1 million in deferred payments under the original deal -- will get an extra $1 million deferred this year and for each of the next two years. In the ninth and 10th years of the contract, Gretzky will receive $4 million a season, including deferred payments of $1 million a year. Even if he is permanently injured, Gretzky would receive the nearly $30 million. McNall has taken out an insurance policy, for a premium of $500,000 a year, to cover such an occurence. ``It really wasn't renegotiated tonight,'' McNall said. ``It was something we've been working on a long time. I told him we would do something if we did well (financially) last year, and we did spectacularly. It's been even better this year. ``He said we didn't have to do anything. He said it was fine, that there was no real rush.'' In figures made public by the NHL Players Association this week, Gretzky was listed with a salary second only to Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh, who will make $2 million this year. ``It's going to have very little effect,'' McNall said of the extension. ``What he was making before is pretty close to this figure. We just added two years to his contract. Otherwise, it's not a huge thing.'' Asked if he thinks Gretzky will still excel at age 37 when the contract expires, McNall replied: ``You never know. He'll play as long as he feels well. He told me he doesn't see why he can't play out the length of the contract. I think he will.'' Added Gretzky: ``That will probably pretty much be it.'' McNall said he offered to restructure Gretzky's contract because he didn't want to take unfair advantage of No. 99. ``I don't want to feel I'm doing it (making a profit) on somebody's back,'' he said. The Kings already own by far the NHL's steepest payroll at $7.51 million -- not including deferred payments -- which averages to $300,000 per man on the current 25-man roster.