Wayne Gretzky

Gretzky was traded late in the 1995-96 season to the St. Louis Blues and jumped to the New York Rangers the following year. He stayed with the Rangers for the final three seasons of his twenty-year NHL career and surprised many fans by announcing his retirement in 1999. When he concluded his career, Gretzky was the holder or co-holder of sixty NHL records. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999.

Although his achievements as an athlete were legendary, Gretzky made a smooth transition into a career as a business owner in the years after his retirement as a player. As part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, he took an active role in rebuilding the team and popularizing hockey in another Sunbelt city. He also remained a national hero in Canada by helping the men's Olympic hockey team win a Gold Medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.

A dynamic competitor on the ice, Gretzky's self-effacing attitude in public made him into one of the most respected and even beloved figures in the sport's history. Without peers in terms of his achievements, he nevertheless retained an almost personal connection with hockey fans. The dominant player of his generation, Gretzky also helped to expand the NHL's popularity into markets that had not previously supported winter sports. It was this accomplishment that Gretzky focused on in his retirement, as he told Ashley Jude Collie of Hockey Digest in January

Wayne Gretzky

2002. "From my point of view, hockey's on the upsurge. It's heading in the right direction and I expect big things. It's always going to be extremely strong in the traditional U.S. cities and Canada. But our popularity is also extremely strong in Europe…. Over the next ten years, I think you'll find more and more kids in the U.S. will become hockey players. It's a wonderful sport and I just see more kids wanting to participate in the NHL."