LOOKING BACK: "The Trade"
Has there ever been a date in sports history that has registered a more seismic shift than August 9, 1988?
Not only did the Chicago Cubs play their first oficial night game on that date (having been rained out the night before after a couple innings) but the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings.
The immediate impact was manifold. Not only did it take the greatest player in the game and take him off a championship team, but it gave instant credibility to the Los Angeles franchise. On top of that, it gave other players on the Edmonton team the opportunity to emerge from Gretzky's shadow, most notably Mark Messier.
It stunned the entire nation of Canada. The biggest star of their National game, sent to a place that had some nice teams from time to time, but never anything to get too excited about...in fact, the Kings, up to that point, had managed to produce one good line, the Triple Crown Line of Marcel Dionne, Charley Taylor and Charlie Simmer, which had been long gone. They had two good young players, Luc Robataille and Jimmy Carson. And Carson went to Edmonton in the Gretzky trade.
So Gretzky went to LA, and they made the Finals in 1993. Gretzky wound up going to St. Louis at the end of 1995, and Mike Keenan screwed up re-signing him, so Gretzky then played out the string as a Ranger,actually finding the Fountain of Youth for the '96 playoffs.
But what was the long-term impact?
Recently The Hockey News asked if The Trade was bad for hockey. The very notion borders on the submoronic. Before Gretzky was a King, the second Southernmose franchise was St. Louis. Now, there have been Stanley Cup Champions in Anaheim, Dallas,Tampa and Carolina. You can even throw in another trip to the Final by Anaheim, along with Florida.
Sure, you can blame some poor-performing franchises on The Trade, Pheonix, where Gretzky is a part-owner and head coach, is hemmorhaging money. Atlanta is flatlining. Nashville is hoping they can claw into the playoffs, in hopes of reviving the moribund franchise.
That is all more the result of Gary Bettman's incompetence, in milking buyers for franchise fees, than anything Thr Trade caused. However, without The Trade, there probably would have never been buyers interested in these markets in the first place.
The downside is that the league lost two Canadian teams, the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques. One would hope the NHL would just pull the plug on Phoenix and move the team back to Winnipeg, but as previously stated, the league is being run by an incompetent.
Still, there are youth hockey programs springing up throughout California, and more youth programs in the South. Hockey is developing a toehold in places never before imagined. Some day, there may be a Arizona-born player on the Cup. (There's already a Texas-born player, but Brian Leetch grew up in Connecticut, so it barely counts)
While The Trade was a shock to the NHL's system, the spread of hockey throughout the Sun Belt was a direct result. While the Sharks, Ducks, Hurricanes, and possibly Predators, are slugging their way through the playoffs, they never would have even existed had #99 stayed in Edmonton.
Posted by Forklift at 4/10/2009 8:25 AM 
Categories: Looking Back
Tags: Wayne Gretzky NHL San Jose Sharks Gary Bettman hockey Tampa Bay Lightning Edmonton Oilers Anaheim Ducks Dallas Stars Los Angeles Kings Nashville Predators Atlanta Thrashers
Categories: Looking Back
Tags: Wayne Gretzky NHL San Jose Sharks Gary Bettman hockey Tampa Bay Lightning Edmonton Oilers Anaheim Ducks Dallas Stars Los Angeles Kings Nashville Predators Atlanta Thrashers
Fork, who was part of the package that Edmonton received from LA?
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Edmonton got Carson (as stated above) along with Martin Gelinas, 3 first-rounders and cash( Oilers owner Peter Pocklington was taking a rectal on the Edmonton real estate market, and needed the dough). LA got Gretzky, Krushelnyski and McSorley.
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I would love to know how many Kings fans at the time thought they gave up too much in that trade. If that happened in Chicago, it would take years of therapy to recover from the thought of giving up 3 first round picks. "AAHHH, WE GAVE UP TOO MUCH!!"
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"I would love to know how many Kings fans at the time thought they gave up too much in that trade."
I would love to know how many King fans there were, prior to that trade. Gretzky was a must have for LA, because they needed a name player if anybody was going to show up.
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I was just curious in the number of meatballs there were back then who thought LA gave up too much. I'm sure there was at least one.... Actually the most amazing part about this trade is how relevant Edmonton has remained since trading Gretz. Other teams would've been in franchise hell for at least a decade. They traded the greatest who ever lived, and then won a Cup three years later.
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Awesome article.
I've long believed that Gretzky's trade was the most game changing trade of the four major sports. For good or for bad? Who knows.
It did lend people to believe that hockey could survive in the south...and that's just silly. You can't have a sport survive where kids don't have the opportunity to play it on a regular basis.
That said, a solid 10 years of success will make any market strong. I watched a lot of the Panthers this year, and the crowds in Miami seem a hell of a lot more jacked for a Panthers game than they do for any Marlins or Heat games that I watch.
Phoenix is dead. If they could get Phoenix and Atlanta to move to Winnipeg and Hamilton (both have new stadiums) that would be great.
Another reason for Winnipeg and Quebec's failures had to do with their flegling WHA beginnings. The league was handcuffed with bad contracts early on its existence to try to compete with the NHL. It seemed like these 'semi-markets' (i.e. Hartford/Winnipeg/Quebec) were always trying to capitalize on something bigger to sturdy the ship. It never materialized. I miss the old teams. Alas, change is good for the most part.
And as can be seen in Dallas and Carolina...hockey can be popular in warm weather areas.
The trade itself is viewed interestingly enough in Canada. People still think the Kings came out on the better end of the trade.
Well folks, I hate to break it to ya:
But the Kings made the conference finals once and made the finals once after the trade.
The Oilers made the conference finals three times, and won a f'n Stanley Cup.
Of course, much of this had to do with LA's inability to get a goaltender worth two shits...and Edmonton had Ranford's amazing run in 1990 to head the ship. Can't put much on Stauber or Hrudey. That's just too much to ask.
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