Avalanche assistant coach Tony Granato said Wednesday he was surprised to hear allegations that Phoenix Coyotes assistant Rick Tocchet financed a sports gambling ring that took wagers from some NHL players and Janet Jones, the wife of Coyotes coach and part owner Wayne Gretzky.
Granato was the head coach of the Avalanche from December 2002 through the 2003-04 season. Tocchet joined the staff as a Granato assistant in January 2003 before leaving the organization in early July 2004.
“I was probably like everybody else (Tuesday) when they heard. I was shocked, concerned and surprised,” Granato said before the Avalanche left for St. Paul, Minn., where it will face the Wild tonight.
“That’s all I know about it, what I read,” Granato added. “I read every Internet site today. Obviously, I care a lot about him. He’s a great friend and a great person. When he was here, he did a great job for us. Hopefully, this is as minimal as it possibly could be.”
Is Granato confident this won’t be connected to anyone with the Avalanche franchise?
“Oh, absolutely,” Granato said. “Absolutely, yeah. I never even thought about that until you mentioned that. It can’t be. There was nothing ever done here that would lead us to believe that something was being done wrong.”
Meanwhile, the Avalanche’s position is that it’s not appropriate to comment while the police and league investigations are ongoing. Avs general manager Pierre Lacroix, attending the NHL GM meetings in Henderson, Nev., repeated that stand Wednesday through team spokesman Jean Martineau.
A week after Tocchet left the Avalanche, Lacroix hired Joel Quenne- ville as head coach and Granato stayed on as an assistant.
Olympic notes
Colorado winger Alex Tanguay, the leading scorer on a team that had the most Olympic selections of any NHL organization, wasn’t selected for the Canadian team and won’t be going to Turin. Wednesday, he was adamant that even if injuries open up a spot on Canada’s roster or the three-man “taxi squad,” he wouldn’t heed a call.
“Too late now,” Tanguay said with a smile. “I’m going on vacation. Vacation’s all set.”
Where is he going?
“Sun!” Tanguay said, declining to get more specific. …
The Avalanche was represented on the gold-medal stand not just at the 2002 Games, when Joe Sakic and Rob Blake were on the Canadian team, but also at the 1998 Games in Japan. At the time, Milan Hejduk was an Avalanche draft choice, preparing to come to North America and the NHL, and he was a fourth-liner on the Czech Republic’s gold-medal team.
“The first thing I ever won was a gold medal in the Olympics,” Hejduk said. “That’s kind of unique, yeah.”
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
