Gino Odjick is a true enforcer legend. He played as a winger but didn’t score many points. So instead, he took on the role of a protector for Pavel Bure in the Canucks.
Odjick was a nightmare to play against, but few people have been as well-liked by his teammates and fans as Odjick was. But Odjick was also kind to his fellow enforcers.
Enforcers at that time could be close friends off the ice, and that was the case between Odjick and Marty McSorley. McSorely was the protector for Wayne Gretzky at Edmonton, and when Gretzky got traded to the LA Kings, he refused to play if the Kings didn’t trade for McSorley.
But four years later, the Kings sent McSorley to the Pens. And he didn’t like it at all.
One day, Gino Odjick got interesting information from his linemate Pavel Bure.
”I remember Pavel trained with McSorley in the summertime, and they were talking on the phone, about that he really wanted to go back to LA, and that he didn’t enjoy it that much,” said Gino Odjick on Ice Guardians Extras.
”Two nights later we were playing LA, in LA, so I said, ’Okay, I’ll do my best to get McSorley back there.’ So every shift I kept hitting Gretzky, and hitting Gretzky, and so after the game the reporters asked me, ’Hey Gino, why were you hitting Mr. Gretzky tonight?’ I said, ’Well, you know, if Gretzky would have took six millions instead of eight millions then they would have money to have McSorley here and nobody would dare go hit him.”
”And then the next game after McSorley came back, and the first shift out he came right after me and then we went out it. I think he gave me shiner that game. We got in the penalty box and I said, ’You’re welcome, Marty,’ but he didn’t say anything. Like I said earlier, to try to create work for other enforcers and I was able to bring Marty coming back to LA.”
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