Opinion: NHL should give Gretzky a job.

Many people were waxing poetic about Wayne Gretzky’s contributions to hockey on last week’s 25th anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers dealing him to the Los Angeles Kings.

In the trade’s wake, a number of NHL teams sprouted in Anaheim and San Jose in California, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and Nashville, along with the Minnesota North Stars moving to Dallas.

Kids growing up in L.A. got the hockey bug, thanks to Gretzky starring in their backyard for the better part of a decade starting in 1988. California natives Emerson Etem of the Anaheim Ducks and Beau Bennett of Pittsburgh Penguins made it to the NHL and, routinely, rep teams from Southern California compete in The Brick Invitational super novice hockey tournament in Edmonton and Quebec City’s peewee international tournament.

In large part, this is due to Gretzky’s huge influence, which brings us to the next question: When is the NHL going to repay him?

I brought it up several time in interviews for the 25th anniversary stories I wrote. All that expansion money the owners got when they expanded to the U.S. sunbelt cities, for instance. Thanks, Gretz.

Gretzky, by reports, is still owed about $8 million in apparently deferred salary from the Phoenix Coyotes when trucking magnate Jerry Moyes walked away, leaving the NHL holding the bag.

The NHL didn’t want BlackBerry founder Jim Balsillie buying the club and moving it to southern Ontario, and folks like Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and businessman Matt Hulsizer looked at the books and backed away.

It’s been a week since Calgary money man George Gosbee, Anthony LeBlanc and other deep-pocketed oil and gas men bought the Desert Dogs for $170 million, much to the yippee-eye-yea from the other NHL owners, who were footing the bills to keep the Coyotes afloat for four years.

Now, maybe it’s time for the owners to quietly repay Gretzky —he was an on-secured creditor when the Coyotes went bank- rupt — and bring him into their fold. A couple of years ago, writers such as Steve Simmons in Toronto brought up the idea. He’s bang on.

Nobody’s saying Gosbee, a good man, should pay Gretzky by himself, but how difficult would it be if the 30 owners divvied up what Gretzky is owed? That would be about $266,000 a team, pocket change in the grand scheme of things to repay the greatest player ever.

Nobody’s saying Gretzky is broke and needs the money.

I can assure you, Gretzky is waiting for an overture from the NHL. He would be excellent in hockey operations or as a roving ambassador to the 30 NHL cities to talk the game.

Gretzky keeps saying he’s got enough to keep him busy after being general manager of Canada’s Olympic team in 2002 and 2006, but he’s like the hobby farmer right now. He does his endorsement stuff; pops into his restaurant in Toronto; and watches his son, Trevor, play outfield in rookie class baseball for the Chicago Cubs.

But he doesn’t have anything concrete. Bobby Orr has his agency representing players and Mario Lemieux owns the Penguins, but Gretzky has no defined role in hockey.

The fans boo NHL commissioner Gary Bettman every time he comes to a Canadian rink, especially. They wouldn’t boo Gretzky if he was in the house, anywhere, spreading the gospel — maybe he could give out the Stanley Cup to the winner. He’s had his hands on the mug four times as a player.

It’s long past time the NHL reached out to The Great One, who has lots to say and has always had a very sharp hockey mind. Canadian Olympic associate coach Ken Hitchcock reinforced that last week when speaking at a luncheon to raise money for The Brick Sport Central.

“We picked some of the wrong people in Turin in 2006 … they couldn’t skate well enough on the big ice. I remember Gretz joking that he might just whack three or four guys with a stick on the leg, just so they were out for two or three weeks and we could play some other people over there,” Hitchcock said.