MONTREAL (CP) - As long as they show up and play hard, members of Canada's Olympic hockey team can grow all the hair they want, executive director Wayne Gretzky said Tuesday.

Gretzky laughed when asked if he would follow the lead of Brent Sutter, coach of Canada's national junior team, and order his players to cut their hair short. "No, I haven't," said Gretzky. "I saw he did that and I thought it was pretty good, though.

"You know, the difference is that with 17-and 18-year-olds, the direction and leadership comes from the coaching staff and Brent's a great leader and a great coach.

"I have men on my team who are 23 or 24 and far be it for me to tell them to get haircuts. It's up to them. As long as they play hard, I don't care if they have hair or no hair."

Sutter told the juniors with shaggy locks to get them cut on the opening day of camp last week.

"I like ears," Sutter said that day. "I want them to look classy and look as a team."

Among those visiting the barber was Angelo Esposito of the Quebec Remparts, who is looking to become only the sixth player ever to crack Canada's world junior squad at 16. The others were Sidney Crosby, Jason Spezza, Jay Bouwmeester, Eric Lindros and Gretzky, who did it in 1978.

"I don't know if there's a lot of pressure on him," Gretzky said of Esposito. "Trust me, he'll feel more pressure when he's 18 because he'll be asked to contribute a lot more to the team at 18 than he will be at 16.

"But I've talked to people at Hockey Canada. They have high praise for not only how he plays, but his maturity. If he makes the team, he's with the right coach. Brent Sutter won't put too much pressure on him, but he'll allow him to be part of the team.

"So it's a nice story. I'm glad to see that they took him. To me, age is immaterial. If you're good enough at 16 and you're ready to go and you deserve and make the team, then good for you.

"From all indications, he's doing very well."