EDMONTON — Manny Malhotra can be forgiven for not remembering much about his first National Hockey League game as a player, because it followed the memory that dominates from that New York Rangers training camp 28 years ago. 

“Gretz took me out to dinner on Day 1 or 2 of training camp,” Malhotra recalled for Sportsnet in an interview last week. “I don't think I said a word the whole evening other than to answer his questions. But I was just so excited, like, ‘I’m sitting at dinner with Wayne Gretzky.’ I was in awe of him. My first year was Gretz's last, and just being in the same room as Wayne, sitting beside him, I was just starstruck and not really processing everything that was going on around me.”

Malhotra was an 18-year-old draft pick from Toronto, chosen seventh overall by the Rangers in 1998 and projected to be a star first-line centre. Gretzky was 37 and, well, the greatest who ever played, and about to start his final season in the NHL before retiring in the spring of ’99.

“Training camp was in Vermont, and I was alone in my hotel room,” Malhotra explained when pressed for details about dinner with Wayne. “My roommate had gone out with some of the older guys, but he was a massive Gretzky fan. That's all we talked about. He wanted to talk to Gretz, just wanted to be around him. I got a call in my hotel room, and I picked up. ‘Hi, is Manny there?’ And I knew right away who it was. ‘Hey, Manny, it's Wayne. You want to go to dinner tonight?’ 

“Uh, yep. He said, ‘Just grab your roommate and meet me in the lobby at 6.’ But my roommate was gone all afternoon, so he didn't get a chance to go. So I called a guy that I knew from playing (in the Ontario Hockey League), Wes Jarvis. I said, ‘Jarvey, what are you doing for dinner? You want to go to dinner with Gretz? He's like, ‘Shut up!’ I said, ‘No, for real. He just invited me and my roommate, but my roommate’s not here. So if you want to go, we can go.’ So we went to dinner with Gretz.”

About a month later, Malhotra played his first NHL game, logging 17 minutes in a 7-1 road loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

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