Wayne Gretzky was born Wayne Douglas Gretzky on January 26th, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario. Nicknamed “The Great One,” Gretzky is generally not only regarded as the best hockey player in history, but one of the best athletes ever.
Upon his retirement on April 18, 1999, he held forty regular season records, fifteen playoff records, and six All-Star records. Furthermore, he is the only player to reach over 200 points in a single season, an astonishing feat he has managed four times in his career. He tallied over 100 points per season for 15 seasons, 13 consecutively, and the NHL has had his number, 99, retired league-wide, so that no one may ever use it ever again in homage to him.
Wayne Gretzky also was immediately put into the Hockey Hall of Fame, bypassing the three-year waiting rule. Currently, he coaches the Phoenix Coyotes, of which he is also part-owner.
Wayne had been a hockey prodigy from the beginning. When he was only 6, he was playing with 10 year olds. By age 10 he had scored 378 goals and 139 assists in only 85 games. He was the youngest player to compete in the World Junior Championships by far at age 16, yet managed to be the leading scorer and was voted to the All-Star team and was regarded as the best forward in the tournament.
In his first season in the NHL, Gretzky was awarded the Hart Memorial trophy as league MVP, the first of eight in a row. During the 81-82 season, Gretzky broke a 35-year long record of 50 goals in 50 games. He accomplished 50 goals in only 39 games. Gretzky, as captain of the Edmonton Oilers, would lead them to a Stanley Cup in 1984, and then in ‘85, ‘87, and ‘88.
He would then go on to be traded to the Los Angeles Kings, the St. Louis Blues, and the New York Rangers, before finally retiring as a Ranger. In his final game he scored his last point on an assist to a goal by Brian Leetch, and was named the first, second, and third star of the game. For the regular season, he has a record 2,857 points, an absolutely astonishing feat, with his highest single season point record set at 215. Not only that, Gretzky has more career assists than any other player has in total points. The next closest regular season point holder is Mark Messier with 1,887. He is ranked #5 by ESPN Sportcentury’s list of the top 100 Greatest Athletes of the 20th century.
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