Replacing Gretzky: ‘Maybe Three of Us Will Get Halfway There’

How many times could one cry wolf about a trade?

Too often, as far as St. Louis forwards Craig Johnson and Patrice Tardif were concerned during the seven weeks of rumors that culminated in their trade to the Kings on Tuesday night for Wayne Gretzky.

“It’s happened a few times, actually,” Johnson said on Wednesday, joking, of being traded for Gretzky.

“People were coming up to me and saying, ‘Good luck in L.A.’ I’d say, ‘What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘You just got traded.’ I was kind of expecting it. My first reaction was, wow, I just got traded for the greatest player of all time.”

The early focus--for better or worse--has landed squarely upon the 23-year-old Johnson and the 25-year-old Tardif, even though the Kings also received prospect Roman Vopat as well as the Blues’ first-round draft pick in 1997 and fifth-round choice this summer. They were the first to arrive in Los Angeles, and were in the lineup against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

Vopat, 19, likely won’t make his first appearance as a King until next season since he is still with his junior team, Prince Albert, in the Western Hockey League. And of the two eventual draft choices, King Coach Larry Robinson said, joking: “They’re still in the oven.”

The three players might be best advised to try to ignore the eventual fate of at least one player who was traded for Gretzky when he arrived in Los Angeles from Edmonton in 1988. Jimmy Carson, who scored 50 goals as a teenager, never quite could live up to the pressure of replacing Gretzky in Edmonton and bounced around to four more teams before landing in Europe.

“I always feel pressure,” Tardif said. “I don’t know if this adds to the pressure, but I’ll try my best and whatever happens happens.”

Said Johnson, of replacing Gretzky: “Maybe the three of us together will get halfway there.”

In St. Louis, the 6-2, 197-pound Johnson, who played for the University of Minnesota, was a third-line left winger with great skating ability. Observers of the Blues took note of his limited offensive skills--eight goals and 15 points in 49 games--but also pointed out he received little ice time under General Manager and Coach Mike Keenan.

Tardif, who is 6-2 and 216 pounds, had three goals in 23 games for the Blues this season, mostly on the fourth line. He played with Mighty Duck star Paul Kariya at Maine, where they won the NCAA title in 1993.

“He was a very good college player, a power forward, strong on his skates,” Kariya said. “He was a lot more offensive at Maine. He was a pretty good player there. Maybe he’d max out [in the NHL] as like a 20-goal scorer.”

While the 1997 draft is being viewed as possibly the best in 10 years, future choices are always wildly unpredictable. Which is why many believe Vopat could be the key to the deal for the Kings. Those in the St. Louis organization liked his ability to fight along the boards and in the corners, and viewed him as possibly becoming a strong second-line center in the mold of Joel Otto.

Vopat, whose brother Jan is a defenseman with the Kings’ minor-league team at Phoenix, is in his second WHL season. With Prince Albert, he has seven goals and 10 points in his first eight games with the Raiders.

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Times Staff Writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.