Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky CCis a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey Leaguefor 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 scorer in NHL history, with more goals and more assists than any other player. He scored more assists than any other player scored total points,...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth26 January 1961
CityBrantford, Canada
CountryCanada
I have absolutely no complaints about my life. But people think I got handed everything, all this kind of fell in my lap, that I was just God-gifted with all this talent. I wanted people to realize it's a lot tougher than just waking up one day and you're in the NHL.
It's kind of ironic when I broke in at 17, I was told I was too small, too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL
Listen, everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and because of hockey, and I love the game and I loved every minute of being a player, I loved coaching, I loved being involved in the NHL.
I'm very proud of our NHL players. I think they all handle themselves extremely well and they all work really hard.
It's an honour and a thrill and a privilege just to play in the NHL.
If I had to pick three players to start a franchise, I'd choose Hasek, Peter Forsberg and Eric Lindros.
At the end of the day everybody lost. We almost crippled our industry. It was very disappointing what happened.
When emotions are high, things are said, things are done. Ultimately, these players want to play. I know too many of them love the game too much.
Eight days ago, we were the toast of the town. Eight days later we're Thanksgiving turkeys.
When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL. Now it's kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can't be a good coach because I was a great athlete.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.
The sad thing about this whole scenario is that Rick is a wonderful person and a great guy, so I hope everything works out in his favor. It's hard because I love the guy. He's a great guy, you know. I just hope it all works out for him.
Blake takes a nice shot, and I think that changed the momentum of the hockey game. We just couldn't find our way back into it.
The success of Team Canada got me interested in teaching again which is something I really enjoy doing,