He didn’t really want me to write this column. Which is par for the course.

Don Baizley has asked me many times over the years not to write about him. That’s just the kind of guy he is.

One of the most well-regarded agents in the hockey business, representing some of the NHL’s biggest global stars, Baizley has remained the quintessential Winnipegger, preferring to do his work quietly.

This time, however, I’m not listening.

Because this time, it is about him.

Baizley is in trouble. Diagnosed with non-smoker’s lung cancer, which had already spread to his back, he’s in the fight of his life.

The number and scope of people pulling for him tells you all you need to know about the influence the man has had on the game and the respect he’s earned in it.

At the NHL draft in Pittsburgh, at the Hockey Hall of Fame announcement in Toronto — from Winnipeg to Anaheim to Stockholm, Sweden, there are people pulling for Don Baizley.

“Everybody came up and asked me about Don,” New York Rangers scout Anders Hedberg said from Toronto, where a who’s-who had gathered for the Hall of Fame event earlier this week. “That’s a sign he has touched so many people and has such a reputation in the hockey world.”

Hedberg, who was in Winnipeg to visit his good friend last weekend, was one of the first to benefit from the Baizley touch.

Recruited along with Ulf Nilsson by another Winnipegger, the late Dr. Gerry Wilson, the two super-Swedes signed contracts with the Jets of the World Hockey Association and helped the team win three league titles, proving you could combine the North American and European styles.

After the NHL absorbed four WHA teams, the Edmonton Oilers put together a dynasty modeled after the Jets style of play.

And you wonder how much of it would have happened if it weren’t for Baizley.

“I don’t call him an agent,” Nilsson said from Stockholm. “He’s been an advisor, a sounding-board and a really, really good friend. A mentor, in many ways.

“I’m thinking about Don almost every day.”

With a list of clients that’s included Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Peter Forsberg, Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic, Baizley regularly makes the Hockey News list of the game’s most influential people.

In his case, being influential doesn’t carry any negative connotations.

“I’ve worked with quite a few managers very closely,” Hedberg said.

“And every one that I’ve asked, ‘If you had a son who looked like he was going to be a player, who would you want as his agent?’ — the answer came back exactly the same way, immediately.

“That has to do with integrity. That’s why there’s such a response to his situation.”

The words “reasonable, diplomatic and non-confrontational” aren’t often associated with agents, but those are the things you keep hearing about the Winnipegger who recently turned 70.

“He has inspired me, and so many of his clients,” Hedberg said.

“To explore and think and question, and be the best we can be. He’s a unique man.”

And the opinions don’t change on the other side of the negotiating table.

“It’s always a pleasure when he comes into the office to have a chat,” Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray said. “Because he’ll chat for five minutes about Teemu and Saku — I hope they don’t mind that — and then talk about the game, because he cares so much about the game. They’d be wonderful chats.

“He had common sense about everything. It’s nice in this day and age.”

Baizley truly cares about his players, Murray said, “not just in getting every bloody dollar you can get.”

“I just hope the best for him. Because we’re going to miss him if something bad happens. I want him around here. Let’s keep pulling for him.”

Baizley, of course, will say this is much ado about nothing.

But the feeling seems to be unanimous.

That’s just the kind of guy he is.