The timing of yesterday’s announcement that Wayne Gretzky was taking over as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes was quite conspicuous, as it came at the same moment that the NHL announced the reinstatement of controversial Vancouver Canucks winger Todd Bertuzzi.

Bertuzzi, who was suspended indefinitely by the NHL on March 8, 2004, for leaving Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore face down on the ice with a broken neck and a concussion, is now “immediately eligible” to return to the ice. The news couldn’t be better for the Canucks, who are a much better hockey club when Bertuzzi is in the lineup.

Bertuzzi’s ban ultimately cost him only 20 NHL games: the remaining 13 regular-season games of the 2003-04 season and the playoffs, which ended for Vancouver with a first-round loss to Calgary. It also cost him the opportunity to play for Canada in the September 2004 World Cup of Hockey and in the May 2005 IIHF world hockey championship. In addition, because the IIHF respected the NHL’s suspension, Bertuzzi was not allowed to play in Europe during the lockout.

“A total suspension of approximately seventeen calendar months from the date of the incident is the appropriate sanction to impose in this case given the nature and severity of the act in question and the overall totality of circumstances,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, Moore , who may never again be able to play professional hockey, filed a lawsuit on February 16. The defendants include Bertuzzi, former Canucks forward Brad May, Canucks coach Marc Crawford, former Vancouver general manager Brian Burke, plus the Canucks and the partnership that owns the team. The NHL, which fined the Canucks and suspended Bertuzzi after the attack, was not included among the defendants.

May was named in the lawsuit because he threatened Moore in an interview prior to the game in which the vicious hit took place. The attack was retaliation for a hit Moore put on Vancouver star Markus Naslund that left the Canucks captain with a concussion. “There’s definitely a bounty on his head,” May said at the time. “Clean hit or not, that’s our best player and you respond. It’s going to be fun when we get him.”

Making matters even more perplexing, Moore’s former team – the Avalanche – signed May to a two-year contract on Friday. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how Colorado’s hockey fans respond to GM Pierre Lacroix’s signing of May. Will they welcome the former Canuck with open arms, or will this turn out to be a public relations nightmare for the Avalanche?

Even more important for the NHL, will Gretzky’s announcement succeed in overshadowing the controversial reinstatement of Bertuzzi?