I
Nobody expected it
It's with mixed emotions a heavy heart that the Edmunds and Oilers have agreed to trade Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles
We had spent all this time together building this
dynasty and the brotherhood that we had
How do you let somebody like that go out of your life that you've spent so much time with that whole city went in the morning
Wayne Gretzky has been traded the man hockey fans called the great one is going to the United States
Promise mess. I wouldn't do this
Looking back now and many years later the good of hockey might have been the best thing ever
It's an incredible moment in the history of the National Hockey League because it's changed our game forever
Expanded our game. I'm not sure there'd be any teams in the Sunbelt without Wayne. I don't think there'd be a duck
So I don't think there'd be a panthers or a lightning Wayne was a crossover personality
He was someone that non hockey fans knew about Wayne Gretzky the great one
Transcended accolades achieved on the ice to become a cultural icon with an immeasurable impact on hockey
Even as a youth player in Brantford, Ontario
Gretzky made headlines we always saw Gretzky
We were always aware of Gretzky newspaper stories both this 13 year old phenom. Where was he going to play?
16 17 had a great year in junior hockey the NHL had a rule they had to be 20 years old
Fortunately for me, there was a sort of an outlaw league of guys that didn't care and take the best young players they could get
Only 17 years old Gretzky signed with the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers
But play just eight games before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers
In 1979 80 the WHA and Oilers were absorbed by the NHL that season Gretzky began
Rewriting the record books becoming the youngest player to score 50 goals and capturing his first of eight consecutive heart trophies in his second season
He set new marks for assists and points and won his first of ten Art Ross trophies
It just escalated to the point where we're going. Okay, there's no end to his ability to break records
In 1981 82 he challenged Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy's record of 50 goals and 50 games
At 45 goals and 38 games. I remember thinking I better not mess this up. We drove with each other to the right
This is grass. We're just always confident. I feel good man. I think I'm gonna get five tonight
This is a Y5 he goes well if I get five this is my 50th and 39th game
The trick was to get his face flushed because then he never seemed to get tired and that game that's where he was
He believed he was gonna do it just believed he was gonna do it
50 goals and 39 games he's got 50 goals before anybody else got 30
Gretzky reached previously unimaginable heights that season scoring a record 92 goals and
212 points he collected
205 or more points four times including a record
215 in 1985 86 no other player in NHL history has scored 200
He wasn't big, but he was so much smarter than everyone else Wayne played chess, and he was playing 5 6 7 10
20 moves ahead of everybody
My forte of my game was to play behind the net and I just sort of mastered it and practiced it and worked on it day in day out
His anticipation can only be described as pure genius
When I got traded Edmonton first thing Glenn Sather said to me was one day
You're gonna be captain of this team and one day
We're gonna be in the National Hockey League and one day you're gonna lift the Stanley Cup
It all came true
After four Stanley Cups in Edmonton Gretzky began the next chapter of his career with the Los Angeles Kings in
1988-89
On October 15th 1989 Gretzky was on the verge of passing his childhood
I had a Gordie Howe for the league's all-time lead in scoring. We're on the road and we kept thinking
Man, he's gonna do it in Edmonton. He's gonna do it in Edmonton
Scored a goal to break the record and he gets back on the ice in overtime and scores a winner
Gretzky led the Kings to their first Stanley Cup final in 1993
Powered by a hat-trick in game seven of the Campbell Conference final a performance often regarded as the best of his career
The following season he passed Howe as the league's top all-time goal scorer
He was traded to the St. Louis Blues where he finished the
1995-96 season before ending his career with the New York Rangers
The last word on a wonderful career belongs to the fans
His number 99 has been retired league-wide. The only player bestowed that honor
He retired with a mind-boggling
2857 points no one else has eclipsed 2000
He holds or shares dozens of NHL records many of which appear unbreakable
But perhaps no statistic is more reflective of Gretzky's incomparable greatness than this
Even if he had never scored a goal Gretzky's
1963 assists would rank above all other players in career points
Yet his greatest impact remains having exposed countless hockey fans to a sport that they never would have loved if he
hadn't put on skates
Wayne was the epitome of what it is to be a national hockey league star to be around him was to be around royalty
Wayne Gretzky as a teenager
Understood what he was going to be to the game of hockey and we all benefit
It's a great game
Anytime and anywhere I can go to help push and promote the game of hockey
I feel it's an honor for me to be part of it
I didn't do it to make the paper or get on TV. That wasn't really even sort of the mindset
He just played for fun.
