The Legend of Link Gaetz Revisited

WHATEVER HAPPENED to Link Gaetz? Every now and then, in locker rooms from Juniors all the way up to the NHL, you hear that question. And when the answer comes, a shocked response invariably follows: “You mean, he’s still playing?” By which is meant: “You mean, he’s still alive?” Like other menaces from the great North — Big Foot, the Abominable Snowman, socialized medicine — Gaetz inspires the kind of incredulous terror that makes you glad he’s not in your hometown. Not to say that he won’t soon be, or wasn’t recently. As with all legends, Gaetz lives a now-you-see-him, now-you-don’t existence. He is the grim Waldo of hockey, the fourth Hanson brother, with a drinking problem and a penchant for disappearing acts. Gaetz has played for at least 24 teams over the past 16 years and has been kicked off a good number of them, sometimes even banned from entire leagues. A menacing 6’3″, 240 pounds when he’s in shape, and a scarier 270 when he’s not, the 35-year-old Gaetz has sent scores of players to the hospital and spent countless nights in jail. He is, by the account of anyone who’s ever played against or with him, the meanest and scariest hockey player ever paid to skate.