Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League for four teams from 1979 to 1999. He is the leading scorer in NHL history, with more goals and assists than any other player. He died in a car accident in October 2013.
About Wayne Gretzky in brief
Wayne Douglas Gretzky (born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League for four teams from 1979 to 1999. He is the leading scorer in NHL history, with more goals and assists than any other player. After his retirement in 1999, he was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He became executive director for the Canadian national men’s hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics. In 2000, he became part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and following the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, he Became the team’s head coach in September 2009. In October 2016, he become partner and vice-chairman of Oilers Entertainment Group. He has been called the greatest hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He won nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, 10 Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, and five Lester B. Pearson Awards for most outstanding player as judged by his peers. The NHL retired his jersey number 99 league-wide, making him the only player to receive such an honour. He also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, and often spoke out against fighting in hockey. His trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988, had an immediate impact on their performance, eventually leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, and he is credited with popularizing hockey in California. The family would regularly visit the farm of Wayne’s grandparents, Tony and Mary, and watch hockey on Hockey Night in Canada.
By age two, Wayne was trying to score goals against Mary using a souvenir stick. The farm was where Wayne skated on the full ice for the first time, aged two years, aged 10 months, and gave up the puck to be able to pick up the full hockey stick again in the full flight of pucks. Wayne was the top scorer in the 1978 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. In June 1978, he signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association, 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. He was one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Centennial All-Star Team. Wayne is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. He tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive, and held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-star records. He died in a car accident in October 2013. He had a daughter, Kim, and two brothers, Kim and Keith, and brothers Glen and Brent, aged 11 and 10 months respectively. His son, Keith, taught his friends Glen and Glen Glen, Glen and Keith to play hockey on a rink he made in the back yard of the family’s farm in Brantford.
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