When McNall looks back on his days in hockey, he says that, outside of bringing Gretzky to Los Angeles from Edmonton in 1988, the creation of the Ducks and Florida Panthers was his greatest accomplishment.
"Bruce was the key figure in the whole process," Ryan said. "He made an immense contribution to hockey in Southern California."
Said McNall: "I really feel proudest of that."
Of much of the rest of his past, he's not proud.
"I believed the end justified the means as long as everything comes out OK at the end of the day and I was totally wrong," he said. "I would tell myself the victims were just banks or institutions. It's not like I was ripping off old ladies. But banks are run by people and they were hurt because I made bad decisions. There is no way to justify what I did.
"It was almost a relief when it came crashing down. I was living so long in a complicated web and I didn't have the courage to pull the plug. I could have made the decision to stop everything. I was the only person responsible. Nobody else.
"It was like watching my own funeral at times."
