9 August- The day greatest player ever in NHL Wayne Gretzky got traded to Los Angeles Kings in 1988
24 years ago, today the hockey world witnessed one of the most shocking and amazing trade in the history of National Hockey League (NHL). Widely considered as greatest hockey player ever, Wayne Gretzky was traded to Los Angeles Kings by Edmonton Oilers on
9th August 1988.
The trade news had come after just few hours of Edmonton Oilers winning their fourth Stanley Cup title in five years and surprised everybody. It also resulted in anger and disappointment of many as they thought it was a disloyal and unfaithful move from
Gretzky.
Some people even called him traitor but later Gretzky assured everybody that he loves his country and it is his job to move on as he said,
"I'm still proud to be a Canadian. I didn't desert my country. I moved because I was traded and that's where my job is. But I'm Canadian to the core. I hope Canadians understand that."
Here are few of the great records of this great player which are not yet broken nor is there any chance of them getting broken in future.
Most points in the NHL career- 2857
Wayne Gretzky scored 2857 career total points in NHL, a record which is not broken nor there is any chance of it getting broken in next 20 years so say the least. In 1487 games he scored these points whereas 2nd and 3rd ranked players
in most no. of points scored list are way behind him. Second placed Mark Messier played 1756 games and scored 1887 goals, has almost 300 games more than him but has around 1000 points less than him.
Most points in one season of NHL- 215
Scoring 200 points in a season is a feat that has not been achieved by anyone else in the history of NHL but this feat was achieved by Gretzky in four different seasons. He scored 212 goals in the 1981-1982 season, just four less than 200 in 1982-1983 season,
205 in 1983-1984 season, 208 in 1984-1985 season and his most points in a season came in 1985-1986 season when he scored 215 points.
Most goals scored in NHL- 894
He has also got record of scoring most goals in the NHL with 894 goals. Previously this record was held by Gordon Howe who had 801 goals but Wayne broken this record in 1994-1995 season and went on to score 894 goals. Among current player Teemu Selanne and
Jaromir Jagr are closest to him with 663 and 665 goals respectively but they do not have much time left, which means there is no chance of anyone getting closer to this record in coming years.
Most assists in NHL- 1963
The interesting fact is that no player in history of NHL has scored more total points than Gretzky’s assists. He has got 714 assists more than Ron Francis who played NHL from 1981 to 2004 and got 1249 assists. And among current players, nobody has more than
1000 assists and closest to him is Jaromir Jagr with 988 assists.
Tags: