Wayne Gretzky: Still The Great One
On January 26, hockey fans celebrate the birthday of Wayne Gretzky, truly deserving of the nickname “The Great One.”
Jan. 26 is a day every NHL fan should celebrate, especially those fans who are fans of teams in California. The special day is the day Wayne Gretzky was born. Gretzky, known simply as “The Great One”, forever changed the game of hockey for the better. While the debate over whether he or Mario Lemieux is the greatest hockey player of all-time rages on, what’s undeniable is the influence No. 99 had on the game. To this day, Gretzky is the only hockey player to have his jersey number universally retired by the NHL. There will literally never be another No. 99.
He is best known for his time with the Edmonton Oilers. Before the Miami Heat of the 2010s, New York Yankees of the 1990s, and New England Patriots of the 21st century ruled their respective leagues, the Oilers were a super team back in the 1980s. They were far from the first, as the Montreal Canadiens dominated for three decades. The New York Islanders would have been one if it wasn’t for Edmonton. But the Oilers were the first truly popular NHL super team.
Led by Gretzky and Mark Messier, Edmonton blew away their opponents. The NHL had never seen anything like the Oilers, who played with incredible skill. Before the 1980s, the league was defined by the Philadelphia Flyers “Broad Street Bullies” teams who pummeled their opponents into submission. Sure, the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins were great as well, but they didn’t dominate the way Edmonton did with Gretzky. Not even the Bruins with Bobby Orr or the Canadiens with Maurice Richard or Guy Lafleur dominated like the Oilers.
Gretzky Goes To Hollywood
Wayne Gretzky spent his best years with the Oilers. He never won a Stanley Cup after leaving Edmonton. However, without question, his largest influence came with his infamous trade to the Los Angeles Kings. Edmonton considers the trade to be a dark time. However, for the NHL, it represented an era of flourishing.
Los Angeles was known as a Lakers town and they didn’t have much competition. However, Gretzky immediately made the Kings relevant. Hockey highlights, a healthy number of them by The Great One himself, became commonplace on SportsCenter. Gretzky appeared on countless commercials, something rarely seen from hockey players before except in Canada and even hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Marcel Dionne was the only Kings star before Gretzky. With all due respect to Dionne, one of the all-time greats, he wasn’t No. 99. While the Hall of Fame center definitely built the foundation for Gretzky, it was Gretzky who built the Kings into one of the NHL’s most popular teams. He turned Los Angeles from a city that only cared about the Lakers into a two-team town. It took nothing less than a generational star to do it. Luckily, Gretzky was the perfect man for the job.
The league quickly realized how much untapped potential the state of California had. By 1993, the Golden State had three NHL teams. It was rough times in the early to mid-1990s. However, each of the teams has made at least one Stanley Cup appearance since the 2004-05 lockout. The Kings have won two Stanley Cups while the Ducks have won one. While the Sharks haven’t won one yet, they’ve been one of the league’s most successful teams over the past decade during the regular season and made an unforgettable Stanley Cup run in 2015-16.
Gretzky’s influence caused hockey to grow rapidly in the West. The Arizona Coyotes came to Phoenix in 1996. Moreover, the Dallas Stars moved from Minnesota to Texas in 1993, winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 and nearly pulling off back-to-back titles with another appearance in 2000. Hockey has grown like crazy in the Wild West and Gretzky’s arrival in Los Angeles is a huge reason for that.
His Legacy Lives On
Even though Gretzky hasn’t played in the NHL since the 1998-1999 season, his fingerprints are still all over the NHL. Look at the 2015-16 Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. With their speedy and skilled playing style, Gretzky clearly influenced them a bit. While they weren’t quite able to duplicate Edmonton’s recipe for entertaining hockey in the 1980s, they came respectably close. It’s appropriate players admire and respect Gretzky now because Gretzky has immense respect for those who came before him, especially Gordie Howe.
35 years after The Great One’s debut, the NHL is transitioning to a game focusing more on speed. It’s been a long time coming, but with the Penguins Stanley Cup win, the game is changing quickly. Gone are the days of the tough guys like Gretzyk’s hand-picked enforcer Marty McSorley. Now is the time for players like Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Auston Matthews to succeed. Each of them have the fingerprints of Gretzky on them.
Crosby is the potential heir to Gretzky’s throne as the best player of all-time. In context, his scoring is nothing short of historically great. Crosby has spent most of his career in an era defined by a lack of scoring. Despite this, he still produces points at an elite rate. It’s much harder to win a Stanley Cup in today’s NHL than it was in the 1980s, so his two Stanley Cup wins are impressive.
“I watch [Crosby] play a lot because I admire the way he plays,” Gretzky said, via Sportsnet. “It’s not a big secret: I think he’s the best player in the game. He just sees the game the right way, he always has.”
It’s hard not to think of all the similarities between McDavid and Gretzky. McDavid, like The Great One, has been tasked with saving the Oilers. He’s doing it in a very similar way as Gretzky did – by being comically better than his competition. McDavid doesn’t have the help No. 99 did, but he’s undeniably changing things. One could argue he has more pressure on him to succeed than Gretzky ever did.
“I don’t think there’s any question that Connor’s the best 19-year-old hockey player I’ve ever seen,” said Gretzky, via The Globe and Mail. “And I saw Messier, I saw Lemieux, I saw Lafleur… This kid is special”
Matthews and Gretzky share a unique similarity. Rarely do you see a rookie who is easily in the conversation for being the most fun player to watch in the NHL. Gretzky pulled it off and Matthews is as well. Just like No. 99 undeniably benefitted from playing against grown men and not his peers, Matthews went overseas for his draft year than play in juniors. It paid off, as the 2016 first overall pick got a ton of experience. It takes a lot to impress Gretzky, but Matthews managed to do it in just his first NHL game, during which he scored four goals.
“To see a young man come into Toronto and play like he did, good for him,” said Gretzky, via CBC. “I think it’s great for the NHL.”
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One could argue Lemieux is the greatest NHL player of all-time. Howe has a very good case as well. If Orr didn’t have knee problems, he easily could have been the greatest of all-time. But the most influential hockey player of all-time? Hands down, it’s Wayne Gretzky. He’s the Michael Jordan of the NHL.