Gretzky puck results in memorabilia mystery
THE MYSTERY OF THE 1851 GRETZKY PUCK
Sandy Edmonstone was a kid, not unlike countless other Canadian kids born in the 1970s, who loved hockey, and wound up loving Wayne Gretzky best of all. Gretzky wasn’t just good, he was God — the greatest ever — a prolific scorer, a winner, a star with quirks (tucking his hockey sweater into his pants, putting baby powder on his stick) and a smasher of NHL records — once thought unbreakable — until he basically broke them all.
“For as long as I can remember, I was a big Gretzky fan,” Edmonstone says.
Edmonstone became a successful investment banker, an occupation with its perks, including giving him the means to purchase all manner of Gretzky memorabilia; game-worn sweaters, gloves, sticks and more. It is a trove the 42-year-old sought to add to in 2011, when the Mona Lisa of Gretzky artifacts came up for auction. It was the puck, or so bidders believed, that Gretzky notched career point 1,851 with on Oct. 15, 1989, breaking Gordie Howe’s NHL record with a goal for the LA Kings against the Edmonton Oilers — in Edmonton.
The poetry of that moment was perfect. Golden boy breaks historic mark in city where much of his legend was born. Howe was in attendance. Edmonton fans went nuts. And Edmonstone, years later, pounced, securing the puck with a bid of $48,050 — a happy time — until the Hockey Hall of Fame claimed it had the Gretzky 1851 puck. Media stories about the authenticity of the 1851 puck bloomed, and Classic Auctions, the Montreal-based auction house responsible for its sale, ultimately failed to provide all the promised proofs of the puck’s provenance, including a letter signed by Wayne Gretzky. Citing non-performance by the vendor, Edmonstone disavowed the deal.
“I never paid the money,” he says. “I never got the puck.”
And so it was until, well, now: the infamous Gretzky puck is up for sale again, offered by the same auction house that attempted to sell it in the first place. The auction closes Feb. 27. Bidding stands at $3,328, a sum that befuddles Hockey Hall of Fame curator, Phil Pritchard.
“We have the Gretzky puck,” he says. “We’ve had it for almost 30 years.”
Pritchard is best known as the keeper of the Stanley Cup. But he is also the keeper of a key that unlocks the rear panel of the so-called Gretzky countdown clock. Some explanation: Back in 1989, when Gretzky was poised to break Howe’s record, the Hall of Fame sent its then-president, Scotty Morrison, to shadow him. The agreement was that all the pucks Gretzky recorded points with — on his way to breaking the record — would be turned over to Morrison, along with the stick — and puck — he registered point number 1,851 with.
After the hoopla in Edmonton on Oct. 15, 1989, the pucks were transported back to Toronto and fashioned into a clock. It currently resides in the reception area of the Hall of Fame’s resource centre in suburban Toronto. The 1851 Gretzky puck is positioned at 12 o’clock. Pritchard opened the back of the clock at 3 p.m. on a recent afternoon, revealing a dead battery and several faded strips of masking tape. The tape dates from Morrison’s Gretzky tour. Each bears an inscription, including one that reads: “Goal by #99 against Edmonton.” On the clock face, meanwhile, is a photo of a smiling Gretzky, holding the puck. It has tape on it. Meanwhile, the puck positioned at high noon in the countdown clock shows evidence of tape marks. Case closed, right? Not quite. That same October night in Edmonton. Don Whidden was the timekeeper at the Edmonton Northlands Coliseum. After Gretzky scored to break the record, a linesman collected the puck from the net and handed it to the timekeeper. Recognizing the immensity of the moment, Whidden put the puck in his briefcase, along with three other unused game pucks, and identified the 1851 puck by a strip of masking tape with — “This one is the real one” — written on it.
The Oilers, meanwhile, dispatched an employee to the timekeeper’s box, asking for a puck — and so Whidden gave them one, holding back the record-breaker. Gretzky never came to collect his puck, and Whidden subsequently forgot about it.
“When I returned to my home that evening, I took the pucks out of my briefcase and put them in a safe place,” he told notary public, James Power, in 2010. “These pucks have been in my possession over the 20 years since that game, and it was only when I was doing some tidying up in the basement, preparing for some renovations, that I came across them.”
Whidden sold the puck to an Edmonton collector for a few hundred dollars. It came up for auction. Chaos ensued. Scotty Morrison, now in his late 80s, could not be reached for comment. But footage from the 1989 game shows him on the ice after the record gets broken. The public address announcer introduces him: “Scotty Morrison is here to take the stick and the puck from this momentous occasion back with him for permanent enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.” Howe speaks, followed by Gretzky, who hands his stick to Morrison. But ... no puck. Gretzky did not respond to requests for comment. (The auction house is no longer offering a Gretzky letter with the sale of its puck). Don Whidden, alas, died in 2014, and so the mystery skates on.
Sandy Edmonstone, has opted to sit the bidding out.
“I believe the auction house puck may be legitimate,” he says. “But it may not be, just as much.
“You just never know.”