Wayne Gretzky Coming to Los Angeles in 1988 Led to the Cup in 2012

I sat riveted.

I’d watched not one minute of regular season hockey and a total of about a game and a half of the playoffs, and yet, I sat glued to the television for the third period of game six between the LA Kings and the New Jersey Devils.

A third period that started with the Kings up 4-1. And I couldn’t move.

As the crowd got more and more excited for the city’s first Stanley Cup, I couldn’t help but be transported back to the day it all became possible. August 9, 1988.

My clock radio went off that morning, but I struggled to wake up. I swore, I must have still been dreaming as I heard the sportscast because the news couldn’t be true.

It was unfathomable.

A Canadian treasure was being sent to the United States?

I soon realized I was indeed awake, and it was true. Wayne Gretzky had been traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. Forget about Babe Ruth being sold to the Yankees. For Canadians this was far bigger.

Wayne Gretzky was 27 years old and in the prime of a career that belonged on any Mt. Rushmore of athletic achievement. He had just led the Oilers to their fourth Stanley Cup in five years that past spring, and now he was traded to a team in California where there was no snow below the mountains?

His arrival sparked an amazing growth in hockey in the West. A growth that led to the eventual formation of the San Jose Sharks in 1991, the Anaheim Ducks in 1993 and the relocation of the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix in 1996.

The thought that the Kings would win the Stanley Cup back on August 8, 1988 was ridiculous. That all changed the next day. Five years later, the Kings lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal Canadians.



Why was Gretzky called the “Great One”? Let me educate you.

When he retired in 1999, he was immediately inducted into the Hockey...

About the Author