Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading point-scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player has points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. In addition to being its greatest scorer, Gretzky was the most gentlemanly superstar in the modern history of the NHL. He won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, and he often spoke out against fighting in hockey.
Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his skills at a backyard rink and regularly played minor hockey at a level far above his peers. Despite his unimpressive stature, strength and speed, Gretzky's intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. Gretzky also became known for setting up behind his opponent's net, an area that was nicknamed "Gretzky's office" because of his adept skills in that area.
In 1978, he signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association (WHA), where he briefly played before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers. When the WHA folded, the Oilers joined the NHL, where he established many scoring records and led his team to four Stanley Cup championships. His trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988, had an immediate impact on the team's performance, eventually leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, and he is credited with popularizing hockey in California. Gretzky played briefly for the St. Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers. Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, ten Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, five Lady Byng Trophies, five Lester B. Pearson Awards, and two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP.
Inventions, Achievements and Brief Introduction of Wayne Gretzky
- At 6 feet tall and 180 pounds Wayne was not the prototypical great hockey player. He also wasn't considered very fast. Many people didn't think he would be a good NHL player at all.
- However, Wayne had a knack and a feel for hockey like no other player in the world. He could anticipate where players were going to be and make passes and adjustments that made it seem like he had eyes in the back of his head.
- When he was 14, he decided that the pressure of playing in his small hometown was too great and jealous players and parents made him unhappy. He decided to move to Toronto and there he played for the Toronto Nats. When he was 15, he played three games with the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Hockey Association as an emergency call-up, and even then the Great One impressed scouts with his abilities despite his small stature and youth.
- The next year, 1977-78, was his only full season in the OHA, and he finished second to Bobby Smith in the scoring race while playing for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. It was there that he first adopted the number 99 when his favorite number 9 was already taken by fourth-year player Brian Gualazzi. Gretzky also represented Canada internationally for the first time in January 1978 at the World Junior Championship in Quebec City.
- As a 16-year-old, he led the whole tournament in scoring and was named the top center. Ironically, the coaching staff invited him to the team's training camp only because he was leading the league in scoring; they thought he was otherwise too small to even make the team. After missing a month of league play with the juniors, he returned to the OHA - and he was still leading in scoring.
- In the fall of 1978, Gretzky joined the Indianapolis Racers after signing a personal services contract with Nelson Skalbania, the team's owner. Gretzky had wanted to join the NHL, but the league's draft age was 20 and Gretzky didn't think it would help to play three years in the OHA until he was drafted. Gretzky's stay in Indianapolis was short lived as the Racers, who folded after five seasons, and Skalbania sold Gretzky to the Edmonton Oilers.
- In Edmonton, under coach Glen Sather, he became the most dominant player in the history of the game. He set records, and his play was unlike anything the league had ever seen. He was surrounded by phenomenal talent in Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, and Grant Fuhr in goal, and as a team they set virtually every scoring record that currently stands.
- Wayne's jersey #99 was retired by all the teams in the NHL.
- Wayne Gretzky, nicknamed “The Great One”, is almost unanimously accepted as the greatest hockey player to every play the game, but have you ever wondered just how good Gretzky was? Gretzky first joined the NHL in 1979 and played for the Edmonton Oilers. Throughout his twenty-year career, Gretzky would play for four different teams and shatter nearly every record set before.
- He remains the leading point-scorer in NHL history with 894 goals throughout his career. He finished with a total of 2,857 points, which is over 1000 more than Mark Messier who holds second place.
- Amazingly, even if all of the nearly 900 goals he scored throughout his career were removed from his statistics, he would still hold first place for most points. He still holds the record of having more assists than any other player has points, and remains the only hockey player to total over 200 points in a single season!
- In 1981, in his 38th game of the season, Wayne Gretzky scored a hat trick to record the fastest 100 points in NHL history. Later in the same game, Gretzky added another goal and an assist to give him 400 career points in his 197th NHL game. It came in a 10-3 Oilers' win over the Kings, in Edmonton.
- On the same day in 1981, Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky was named "Man of the Year" by the Sporting News.
- In 1989, Wayne Gretzky was honored as The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Decade. He received 307 votes by panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Second was NFL's Joe Montana with 85 votes and Magic Johnson finished third with 59 votes.
- When Gretzky first arrived in Edmonton, he stayed with coach Sather, who immediately promised him that he'd one day be captain of the team and win the Stanley Cup. Clearly, Sather knew how good Gretzky could be.
- In his first full NHL season, Gretzky tied Marcel Dionne for the scoring race but lost the Art Ross Trophy because Dionne had more goals. He couldn't win the Calder Trophy because the NHL had declared that players from the WHA weren't rookies, but he did win the Hart Trophy, the first time a first-year player was so honored.
- The next year, 1980-81, he won his first of seven straight scoring titles and broke Bobby Orr's assists record with 109. The year after, he shattered Phil Esposito's record of 76 goals (a record many thought was unbreakable) by scoring 92 times, a record that itself will surely stand the test of time.
- En route, he also scored an incredible 50 goals in the first 39 games of the season, including five in the historic 39th game. He also registered 212 points, the first of four times he'd score more than 200, and to this day he's the only player to have done so even once (Mario Lemieux came closest when he scored 199 in 1988-89).
- His style was unique and almost impenetrable. The area behind the opposition goal was dubbed "Gretzky's office" because it was from there that he made so many perfect passes for goals. He was equally known for using the trailing man on rushes rather than a man skating ahead of him.
- Gretzky would come in over the blue line and then curl, waiting for a defenseman, often Coffey, to join the rush and create a great scoring chance. When on the ice to kill penalties, Gretzky wasn't looking to ice the puck in a defensive role; he was looking to take the other team by surprise, to take advantage of their defenselessness to score shorthanded. The result was goals and more goals - the Oilers scoring 400 a season as a matter of routine - and Gretzky won the scoring race virtually every year in the 1980s.
- As Gretzky went, so went the Oilers. They went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1983, only to lose horribly to the Islanders in four straight games. But the loss was a learning experience. The next year they made their first of four Cup wins over the next five years by defeating those same Islanders in five games.
- That ended the dynastic run of four straight Cup wins for the Long Islanders. The playoffs became a mirror of the regular season, as Edmonton routinely scored seven goals a game, Gretzky led the playoffs in scoring and the team kept on winning and winning.
- The culmination of these years came in 1988, and after the Oilers won the Cup, Gretzky huddled the team at center ice for an on-ice group portrait, the first of what has since become a tradition for every winning team at every level.
- That spring of 1988 was also Gretzky's last moment in an Oilers sweater. He married Janet Jones in August, and just days later he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most stunning deals in NHL history.
- He, Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley went to the Kings for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, first-round draft choices in 1989, 1991 and 1993 and $15 million. In the ensuing days, charges and countercharges flew in Edmonton because of the magnitude of the deal and because it came just after the Oilers' successful season-ticket drive had concluded.
- Fans felt betrayed, and many blamed Janet Jones for forcing the trade. Others blamed Gretzky for asking for a trade, and most people vilified owner Peter Pocklington for selling his most valuable asset simply for a large sum of cash. But in the end the result was the same - Gretzky was headed for the United States, never to wear a sweater of a Canadian team again in the NHL.
- After his retirement in 1999, he was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, making him the most recent player to have the waiting period waived.
- The NHL retired his jersey number 99 league-wide, making him the only player to receive this honour. He was one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team.
- Gretzky became executive director for the Canadian national men's hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics, in which the team won a gold medal. In 2000, he became part owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and following the 2004–05 NHL lockout he became the team's head coach. In September 2009, following the franchise's bankruptcy, Gretzky resigned as coach and relinquished his ownership share.
- You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
- Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.”
- The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.”
- A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
- I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
- The only way a kid is going to practice is if it's total fun for him... and it was for me.”
- There's no perfect coach in the world. Coaches are human, too. Mistakes are made. But, fundamentally, if you're sound, you eliminate as many mistakes as possible.”
- I wasn’t naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for, and that’s the way I’ll be as a coach.
What hockey records does Wayne Gretzky hold?
Wayne Gretzky holds many records. Here are a few of his major ones:
- Most points in a season - 215
- Most goals in a season - 92
- Most assists in a season - 163
- Most points in a playoff - 47
- He is the only player to get more than 200 points in a season. He did this 4 times.
- He scored 894 goals; 1,963 assists; and 2,857 points in his NHL career.
No comments:
Post a Comment