Forgotten Man : Pat Quinn, Who Left L.A. in a Controversy, Now Plots Upset of Kings

Hockey sticks and autograph books in hand, a group of teen-agers were waiting outside a tunnel behind the Forum when Pat Quinn emerged.

The kids ignored Quinn, president, general manager and coach of the Vancouver Canucks, and he sped away in a waiting hotel van.

Although Quinn is just four years removed from coaching the Kings, he has been all but forgotten by long suffering Los Angeles hockey fans, who have embraced Wayne Gretzky as their new hero.

Coach of the Kings for 2 1/2 seasons, Quinn guided them to their first playoff appearance in three seasons in 1985, his first season behind the bench. After failing to make the playoffs in 1986, Quinn was expelled from the NHL midway through the 1986-87 season because he signed a contract with Vancouver while still under contract to the Kings.

The NHL fined the Canucks $310,000 and the Kings $130,000, the maximum allowed.

In the final year of a three-year contract with the Kings, Quinn maintained that he was within his legal rights when he signed with the Canucks, who paid him a $100,000 signing bonus, because the Kings failed to exercise the option on his contract. A clause in Quinn’s contract left him free to negotiate with other teams if the Kings didn’t make a renewal offer by the deadline.

Quinn reached agreement with the Canucks on Dec. 24, 1986 and the Kings were notified on the following business day, Dec. 29.

Since Quinn’s contract wasn’t on file with the NHL, the Kings were unable to press a tampering charge against the Canucks.

Although NHL Commissioner John Ziegler didn’t dispute Quinn’s contractual right to sign with the Canucks, he ruled that it was “a serious threat to the integrity of the league” because Quinn continued to coach the Kings after signing with Vancouver.

The first coach to be expelled from professional sports, Quinn was banned from coaching the Kings for the remainder of the season and from coaching the Canucks until the start of the 1990-91 season.

“Obviously, we were very upset at the time since he was going to a team in the same division,” King General Manager Rogie Vachon said. “It was tough to take the way the whole thing was handled. But it’s in the past and now we have to get on with our business.”

Quinn, who compiled a 75-101-26 record in the third-longest coaching tenure in Kings’ history, was replaced by assistant coach Mike Murphy, who was fired 27 games into the following season.

Does Quinn harbor any bitterness over how his reign ended?

“Only in the way it was handled as far as what happened at that time,” Quinn said. “It’s well documented and has been run over many times. I exercised a privilege that was given to me through my contract and through the verbal statements of the owner (Jerry Buss) at the time. There was a situation that wasn’t going to change and I exercised my rights. I don’t have regrets about that.

“As far as I’m concerned the NHL made a (mess) of the situation. And it didn’t have to be that way. But it’s a chapter that’s past.”

Since taking over the Canucks in 1987-88, Quinn revamped the team, hiring former Philadelphia Flyer Coach Bob McCammon as head coach and Murphy to coach the Canucks’ minor league team in Milwaukee.

Quinn engineered 35 player transactions in his first three seasons, including the signing of Soviet stars Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov.

After a midseason slump in which the Canucks lost 14 of 18 games, Quinn fired McCammon and took over behind the bench on Jan. 31. The Canucks are 10-14-4 under Quinn after compiling a 19-30-5 mark under McCammon.

Although Quinn said he didn’t intend to coach when he was hired to run the Canucks, he said he had no choice but to replace McCammon. In the fourth year of a five-year contract, Quinn maintained that he wasn’t pressured into making the move by owner Frank Griffiths.

“They’ve pretty much left hockey decisions up to me,” Quinn said. “But I felt I had to put my own rear end in the fire. It seemed like the only right thing to do at the time.”

Quinn’s most important move was obtaining five players in three separate transactions prior to the close of the NHL trading deadline March 5. Vancouver acquired left wings Geoff Courtnall and Sergio Momesso, center Cliff Ronning and defenseman Robert Dirk from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for center Dan Quinn and defenseman Garth Butcher. The Canucks also obtained defenseman Dana Murzyn from Calgary for right wing Ronnie Stern and defenseman Kevan Guy, and traded goalie Steve Weeks to Buffalo for a draft pick.

While it can be argued that McCammon might not have been fired had Quinn made the trades for McCammon and not for himself, the Canucks have prospered since the deals.

The five new players provided instant offense, scoring 20 of the Canucks’ 36 goals as Vancouver overtook Winnipeg for the Smythe Division’s final playoff spot. Quinn reportedly received a $25,000 bonus because Vancouver made the playoffs.

The Canucks are decided underdogs in the first-round playoff series against the Kings, who won the first division title in their 24-year history and finished 37 points ahead of Vancouver. Quinn’s club, however, earned a split in the first two games of the series.

Vancouver overcame a 5-3 deficit to defeat the Kings, 6-5, in Thursday night’s series opener as Courtnall scored three goals and Ronning scored the game-winner with 2:31 remaining. They took the Kings into overtime in Game 2 Saturday before losing, 3-2.

So the new-look Canucks, who defeated the Kings, 5-4, in overtime in their last regular-season meeting on March 17 at Vancouver, are 2-1 against Los Angeles since the acquisition of the five new players.

“We’re a different hockey club than we were one month ago and everybody should believe that,” goalie Troy Gamble said. “Everybody who was expecting us to go out in four straight can throw that out the window.”

Gamble said the Canucks have responded to Quinn’s leadership. McCammon left most of the coaching to his assistants, who ran practices, but Quinn prefers a hands-on coaching style in which he teaches the players.

“We got back to basics when Pat came in,” Gamble said. “He did a lot more teaching. But the biggest thing he did was to get the four St. Louis guys and Murzyn from Calgary.”

Preoccupied with winning the series, Quinn has been too busy to consider the sentimentality of his return to the Forum.

“As a professional you try to put aside those emotions that really don’t have a real significance,” Quinn said. “Sure, I feel something coming back in here. In the 2 1/2 years I was here, I had some great memories and worked with some wonderful people and many of them are still here. Not many players, but certainly staff-wise.”

Much has changed since Quinn left the Kings.

The club has a new owner, Bruce McNall, who has built the Kings into a premier attraction.

The Kings struggled at the box office when Quinn was here, but they have prospered under McNall and Coach Tom Webster, selling out 36 games, including their last 27.

When Quinn coached the Kings, most of the stars were on the ice. Now they’re in the stands. The celebrity roster at the Forum Saturday included Dustin Hoffman, James Woods and super agent Michael Ovitz.

Often as ugly as their old purple and gold uniforms that featured a crown, the Kings changed their colors to black and white and have evolved into a marketing model for pro sports.

After being relegated to the inside pages of Southland newspapers because of their ineptitude when Quinn was coaching, the Kings are front-page news.

The NHL’s farthest outpost, the Kings had a brutal travel schedule when Quinn was coaching. But they travel like Kings now in their own jet.

Obviously, the biggest change since Quinn departed was the addition of Gretzky, who has made it all possible by selling the Southland on the NHL, once thought to be as difficult as selling air-conditioning in Alaska.

“Any coach would deem it a pleasure to have the type of athlete like Gretzky playing for him, but I didn’t regret my time here,” Quinn said. “We couldn’t have made that sort of deal in my time here so you go along and do the best you can. We had some pretty good players here then, too.

“I think what’s happened has been tremendous. I’m really happy for the long-suffering Los Angeles fan that has a team that is doing a real good job. I’m happy for McNall because he’s a good man and has done a good job and has put his money where his mouth was in the beginning. I’m happy for Los Angeles that they have the opportunity to watch a great sport. Now it is exciting to come here. A lot of great things have happened.”

The son of a fireman, Quinn was raised in Hamilton, Canada, where he dreamed of escaping the steel mills where many of his friends found work after high school.

“Hamilton is the Pittsburgh of Canada,” Quinn said. “As a youngster I worked for a steel company. When you’re from a working class family you always think about opportunities to make a better life for yourself.”

Quinn, 48, has made a better life for himself through hockey.

A hard-nosed defenseman who was nicknamed the Mighty Quinn after accumulating 950 penalty minutes and scoring just 18 goals in his nine-year career with Toronto, Vancouver and Atlanta, Quinn signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1968 for $4,000 a season with a $1,000 signing bonus. After spending two seasons in Toronto, Quinn came to Vancouver in 1970, where he played on the first Canuck team.

After two seasons Vancouver traded Quinn to the Atlanta Flames, where he played five seasons before a broken leg ended his career prematurely in 1977 at the age of 34.

“I had planned to play until I was 40 like Larry Robinson, but I broke my leg when I fell off a skateboard in the driveway fooling around with my daughter,” he said.

Quinn planned to attend law school after his hockey career ended, but he delayed his plans to take an assistant coaching job with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1977.

He was named head coach of the Flyers midway through the following season, succeeding McCammon, whom he succeeded again in January.

In his first full season as coach of the Flyers, Quinn guided Philadelphia to the Stanley Cup finals, losing to the New York Islanders in 1980. Quinn was named NHL coach of the year after the Flyers won the Campbell Conference championship with a 38-12-20 record, which included a league-record 35-game unbeaten streak.

Fired by the Flyers with eight games remaining in 1982 after the team slumped, Quinn took two years off from hockey and entered Delaware Law School. But he returned to hockey when he was hired to coach the Kings in 1984.

Quinn, who dreamed of becoming a general manager, was unable to advance in the King organization because Vachon was firmly in command of the front office.

Quinn, who compiled a 216-174-74 record prior to taking over this season, jumped at a chance to run the Canucks.

“I wanted to move up the chain of command,” Quinn said. “It was a goal of mine for a number of years. It’s enjoyable but different. You’re not with the players on a day-to-day basis.

“As a coach you’re closer to the players. I guess what I miss the most is dealing with the players and being a part of the emotion. But I’m back into that spot now, which has been fun.

“The game hasn’t changed that much since I coached. I like to feel I was part of the change that came into the game in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. A lot of that came as a result of us seeing what the Europeans do. And as a young coach at that time I tried new things.”