"I felt if I was in that range that would bump up Mess (Mark Messier) and Kevin Lowe on the Oilers. But it never got to that."

View Large

With Bruce McNall looking on, Wayne Gretzky couldn't contain his emotions during news conference announcing his trade to L.A. in 1988.

Photograph by : BRIAN GAVRILOFF CANWEST NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO

ARTICLE TOOLS

• Printer friendly
• E-mail

Font:

• *
• *
• *
• *

Few will forget the news conference in Edmonton where the trade was announced and broadcast live on local TV stations, with Gretzky shedding tears and Pocklington later suggesting they were "crocodile" tears.

Gretzky admitted this past week he wasn't in the dark about where he was going in the weeks leading up to the shocking deal.

"A month before the trade, Peter told me he could send me to New York, Detroit or L.A., and I was fine with that. I asked him to narrow it down to Detroit or L.A. ... no real reason for those two places."

Kings owner McNall, who had been quietly sniffing around at the possibility of getting Gretzky for months, turned around and gave him a whopping raise after the deal was done.

"I think it was $3 million a year," Gretzky recalled.

That raise ushered in a new era of salary escalation around the NHL that some would argue eventually led to labour strife and lockout that closed down the NHL for a whole season years later. Now, there are 150 players making at least that much.

McNall would later spend 57 months in prison for fraudulent business dealings after getting Gretzky, but he's rebounded and the two men remain close.

"He lives about 20 minutes from me in Thousand Oaks (California) and he's back in the movie industry," Gretzky said. "He came out with movies like The Notebook and Alpha Dog, and whenever the Coyotes are in L.A., he comes down to the coaches' office."

Much has been written about the impact Gretzky's trade had on hockey in the United States, and especially in California.

Gretzky's arrival turned Hollywood into Hockeywood (there were 21 phone operators at the Kings offices the day after the trade and they sold 2,000 season tickets in 36 hours), and without him, there probably would be no Anaheim Ducks or San Jose Sharks. Rinks were flooded with youngsters who dreamed of playing in the NHL.

"I have no regrets where I went ... getting to the Stanley Cup final in L.A. and almost winning (in 1993 when they lost to the Canadiens)," Gretzky said. "And the Oilers went on to win another one after I left."

Now, 20 years after one of the biggest trades in sports, Gretzky is 47. And, it seems, not only does time heal all wounds, but it continues to march on.

"You don't have to tell me how long ago the trade was," he said. "I have a 19-year-old daughter (Paulina) to remind me.

"I used to get people coming up to me and saying: 'I used to watch you play.' Now, people come up and say: 'My dad used to watch you play.'

"That makes your jaw drop."