from Marty Klinkenberg of the Globe and Mail,

Peter Pocklington’s house lies in a gated community in the California desert. The Spanish-style bungalow he shares with his wife of 43 years is on a street lined with tall, impeccably spaced date palms. There are cactuses with sharp quills in the roundabouts, and golf carts parked outside nearly each million-dollar residence. In the distance, jagged mountain peaks fade from view like a Lawren Harris canvas.

Hockey’s original rock-star owner has a deck that overlooks an emerald fairway along one of Palm Desert’s private golf courses.

Hummingbirds flit around the pool and hover over a hot tub fed by a cascading waterfall. The home is elegant, but more understated than his previous address at the nearby Vintage Club. There, Pocklington had a helipad and a house with a retractable roof. Bill Gates, Charles Koch and Philip Anschutz were among his neighbours.

The eccentric swashbuckler who once owned the Edmonton Oilers lives behind a black wrought-iron gate and a trellis wrapped lovingly with magenta bougainvillea. ...

Revered and reviled, Pocklington once presided over one of the greatest dynasties in sport. It has been 20 years since he sold Edmonton’s NHL team and fell from grace as one of Canada’s most infamous businessmen. At one point, his empire exceeded more than $2-billion in sales, and included massive real-estate holdings, one of Canada’s largest trust companies, chicken-processing plants, food-processing firms, and a beef– and pork-packing house. None of that brought as much satisfaction and fame to him as the Oilers....

He muses about returning to hockey.

“I say to myself, ‘Goddamn it, Peter, grow up! You really want to get back into that cesspool?’ “I love the players, I love the contact, I love to win. The problem is the damn players’ agreement. Minimums and maximums … it just doesn’t work. Because of that, there is probably less than a 50-per-cent chance that I will do it, but I sure would love to. I miss being with the guys. We had a hell of a run.”

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