25 ways The Trade shook the world “We invest in sports and put weight on certain historic events. The day Michael Jordan retired or… take your pick. But mostly nothing changes. Mostly it’s business as usual and it’s part of a larger story arc,” says Stephen Brunt, author of Gretzky’s Tears, the definitive book on The Trade. “This is one of those very, very rare sports moments where something shifted in that business and a little bit in the culture.” We take a look at how 99’s move south impacted not only the game of hockey and L.A. sports, but altered the NHL at large and influenced everything from the Canadian Football League to Saturday-morning cartoon viewing. 1. Tripled the number of NHL teams in California. After Wayne Gretzky joined L.A. in 1988, the San Jose Sharks (1991) and Anaheim Mighty Ducks (1993) joined in relatively quick succession. The Trade has been credited with contributing to the NHL’s Sun Belt expansion in the States. Florida landed two clubs, the Lightning in ’92 and the Panthers ’93; Minnesota’s North Stars chopped off their first name and dropped south to Dallas in ’93; and Phoenix acquired the Winnipeg Jets franchise in ’96. 2. Instantly solidified his legendary status in Edmonton. Rare that a living player — an active one, still in his prime no less — playing for the opposition has a statue erected at a visitor’s arena. Such was the case with Gretzky, whose image was bronzed and sculpted by John Weaver and placed outside Northlands Coliseum in 1989. The man who turned defencemen into statues became one himself at age 28. 3. Increased attendance, both in terms of volume and star power, at Kings games. The year Gretzky debuted in L.A., the Kings put an average of 3,208 new fans in the seats per game. Times that by 40, and it equals big dollars. By his third season, the Kings were selling out every home contest. With the NBA’s L.A. Lakers enduring a post-Showtime dry spell, hockey took over as the sport to watch live. “Every major movie star in town wanted tickets. I’ve got President (Ronald) Reagan calling for tickets. Tom Cruise would come a lot. So would Sly Stallone. John Candy was sort of our mascot at the time and he became almost part of the team,” majority owner Bruce McNall told The Hockey News. “Tom Hanks was great. He used to send me a note – ‘Congratulations on the win, from your biggest fan in section 111, Tom Hanks.’ He’d buy his own tickets.” 4. Provided hockey with a television presence on Saturday mornings as well as Saturday nights: Video 5. Ushered a hockey transaction into parliament. The Gretzky trade coincided with the free-trade debate, and there was a sense that losing Gretzky to L.A. would be akin to being robbed of a natural resource. NDP house leader Nelson Riis requested the federal government block the trade. 6. Increased Paulina Gretzky’s Instagram following big time. Would the outgoing eldest daughter of the Great One have a social-media presence if she grew up in Edmonton? Sure. Would she have as much cause to wear swimwear and short-shorts — images of which, at the very least, deserve a second assist in helping her exceed 195,000 Instagram followers — if she grew up in the NHL’s northernmost outpost? Unlikely. 7. Gave hockey analysts the world over a new benchmark for stirring trade-block speculation. Whenever an elite player is the subject of trade rumours, you can bet some talk-show jockey is trotting out the phrase, “Well, if Wayne Gretzky can be traded…” It’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché that symbolizes something grander: a lost romanticism of a player’s ties to his team, a country to its mythological hero. 8. Spoiled Jimmy Carson’s housewarming plans. According to an interview with The Hockey News, prior to the 1988 off-season McNall told Jimmy Carson, “You guys are going to be here a long time. I want you to go buy a house, I want to renegotiate your contract…. By the way, call my wife (Jane, an interior decorator) and she can help you outfit the house.” Carson purchased a home, outfitted it and had preliminary contract renegotiations with McNall before finding out he was off to Edmonton. 9. Added a new wrinkle to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup curse. Suppose The Trade didn’t exactly change the Leafs’ fate so much as perpetuate it. Gretzky scored the Game 6-winning overtime goal in the conference finals as well as a hat trick in Game 7, almost single-handedly ruining the Leafs’ best shot at reaching the Cup final in 1993. In the process, Gretzky gave L.A. its first Cup final berth. 10. Two words: Waikiki Hockey Video 11. Upped player salaries league-wide. Undervalued at $1 million per season, Gretzky would not have been given a market-value raise had he remained in Edmonton. When the Kings tripled his annual on-ice earnings to $3 million per year, Gretzky’s pay bump triggered an increase in player salaries throughout the ’90s. 12. Begat Bettman… and all that entails. Following the success of the Gretzky in L.A., the NHL made McNall chairman of the board of governors. McNall then headed up the hiring of the NBA’s Gary Bettman as commissioner (after David Stern turned the job down). “People always talk about the Bettman strategy of expansion. It wasn’t the Bettman strategy; it was the Bruce McNall strategy. Bettman was hired to enact it,” Brunt explains. “The entire destiny of the league, because of this trade and the success in L.A., was handed over to a guy who ended up going to prison.” 13. Resulted in the CFL’s most famous ownership group. Gretzky’s relationship with McNall would spread beyond hockey. McNall and Gretzky teamed up with funnyman John Candy to purchase the Toronto Argonauts in 1991, and the team promptly won the Grey Cup. 14. Cut “Rocket” Ismail’s NFL career short. By offering speedy Notre Dame receiver a mind-blowing $18.2-million, four-year deal to join the CFL, the Gretzky-McNall-Candy group (temporarily) lured Ismail away from the NFL until 1993. In two seasons with the Argos, the Rocket caught 100 balls for 1,951 yards and proved to be a punt-returning monster. 15. Shone spotlight on high-end card collecting. Gretzky and McNall also combined their wallets to purchase successful racehorses and the T206 Honus Wagner, a.k.a. the most valuable baseball card in history. For $451,000 in 1991, the Kings’ kings bought the card from Jim Copeland; they later flipped it to Wal-Mart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000 four years later. The piece of cardboard, last sold for $2.8 million in 2007, is arguably worth more today than the Argos. 16. Started the ball rolling for Mark Messier’s ascendance as hockey’s ultimate captain. As long as Gretzky was an Oiler, he would be captain. But with Wayne in L.A., Messier seized the ‘C’ and led the Oilers to a fifth Cup victory in 1990. After leading the Rangers to a Cup in 1994, Messier became the only man to captain two different pro clubs to championships and now has an NHL honour — the Mark Messier Leadership Award — named after him. “I don’t think any of us were thinking of looking to replace Wayne as captain,” Messier told sportsnet.ca. “We had Kevin Lowe and a lot of great players who could’ve filled the void.” 17. Provides a unique interpretation of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” On the surface, the smash single is about trying to pick up a woman giving off mixed signals. Listen deeper, however, and you hear Alan Thicke’s son’s confusion over his hockey-playing babysitter’s defection south of the 49th parallel. 18. Paved the way for this season’s outdoor game at Dodger Stadium. The first hot-climate NHL outdoor game was a Gretzky-led affair, as 99’s Kings defeated the Rangers 5-2 in a preseason exhibition held in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Puck drop temperature: 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The Kings will play the Ducks on Jan. 25, 2014, at balmy Dodger Stadium, the day before Gretzky’s 53rd birthday. Video 19. Cursed the Vancouver Canucks? The team besides the Kings that had the best shot at landing a for-sale Gretzky decided not to meet Oilers owner Peter Pocklington’s hefty price tag. Without the Great One, the Canucks have returned to the Cup final twice since The Trade, both times losing in Game 7. 20. Defined Jimmy Carson for life. He could be known as the highest-scoring teenage NHL player ever, which he is, having notched 92 goals before his 20th birthday. He could be known for cramming an NHL-record 86 games played in an 84-game schedule, which he did in 1992-93 due to a midseason trade. Or as a brilliant sniper who racked up seven straight 20-goal seasons. But, no, Carson will forever be the Trivial Pursuit answer to “Who was traded for Wayne Gretzky?” 21. Led to Wayne Gretzky’s current un-involvement with the NHL. The theory goes that because the NHL still owes Gretzky money after the Phoenix Coyotes went bankrupt in 2009, the Great One is waiting to get back involved in the league in any official capacity. Had Gretzky not proven himself as a catalyst for franchise success in L.A., would former Coyotes majority owner Steve Ellman encouraged Gretzky to come to Phoenix in a unique deal that gave him ownership shares and head coaching duties? Probably not. “The league shafted him in Phoenix. He’s still owed money and should be paid, and that’s why he has very little to do with the league these days,” Brunt explains. “Imagine any other sport where they would let that happen to a guy who is there No. 1 living icon.” 22. Forced the leftover Oilers to show their guts. “We were all very disappointed and mad and all the emotions you can imagine,” Messier said. “But the thing that resonated with us is that we had a big responsibility to each other as players to continue on. That responsibility continues on to the organization, even though we were mad at the owner, and to the fan base and the city. We had enough leadership and enough experience to galvanize together and say, ‘We just can’t quit. There are enough people counting on us.’ And, of course, we were able to win a championship two years later.” 23. Made future NHLers consider the Kings as a team worth joining. With all due respect to Marcel Dionne, the Kings were not a club players clamoured to join for the on-ice experience prior to The Trade. “You talk to Drew Doughty,” Robitaille told The Hockey News, “he’ll tell you he wanted to play for the Kings because he’d seen and heard about Gretzky.” 24. Multiplied the number of hockey-loving kids in Cali. “Kids who never would’ve had an opportunity to play hockey in the southern states now have rinks and youth programs. From a guy who’s been in hockey my whole life, how do you put a price tag on that?” Messier said. “The number of kids who have benefitted from Wayne going to L.A. is just incredible, and now we’re seeing kids getting drafted out of Anaheim and Long Beach and Culver City.” Four California kids were selected in the 2010 draft, for example, all of them products of the Los Angeles Jr. Kings Hockey Club. The Ducks have contributed $12 million into their minor hockey program since 2007, the same year Anaheim won the Cup. 25. Gave easily influenced young boys of California every reason to his poster on their bedroom walls.