Gretzky himself was considered a " traitor " by some Canadians for turning his back on his adopted hometown, and his home country ; his motivation was widely rumoured to be the furtherance of his wife's acting career.

At the time of his retirement, Gretzky was the second-to-last WHA player still active in professional hockey, Mark Messier, who himself attended the game along with other representatives of the Edmonton dynasty, being the last.

According to Gretzky himself, he always finished dead last in peripheral vision, flexibility and strength, and could only bench press.

Gretzky has made over 60 movies, network television and video appearances as himself, according to IMDB, as of February 2012.

Gretzky had converted his personal services contract with Pocklington into a standard five-year player's contract with the Oilers in the summer of 1987 with an option to declare himself an unrestricted free agent after the 1988 – 89 season.

His play during his first NHL season earned him comparisons to Wayne Gretzky for his vision and Pavel Bure for his speed, while also earning accolades from Gretzky himself.

" Kariya himself cited Gretzky, as well as Brett Hull, Jeremy Roenick and Pavel Bure as players he liked patterning his game after.

As a smaller player, he was forced to use skill rather than size to excel, and modeled himself after his idol, Wayne Gretzky.

Portions of " Dream Weaver " were first sampled in a short film appearing in the 1990 Wayne's World episode of Saturday Night Live, in which guest star Wayne Gretzky appears, and Wayne is picturing that song playing as he imagines himself defeating Gretzky in street hockey and then winning his wife, Janet Jones.

Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his skills at a backyard rink and regularly played minor hockey at a level far above his peers.

Gretzky's first team, at age six, was a team of ten-year-olds, starting a pattern where Gretzky always played at a level far above his peers through his minor hockey years.

At 16, in his single year at the major junior level, Gretzky surpassed the OMJHL single-season scoring record, winning the OMJHL Rookie of the Year and Most Sportsmanlike awards.

Gretzky finished third in the league in scoring at 110 points, behind Robbie Ftorek and Réal Cloutier.

Long before then, running out of time and looking for a team with which he could win again, Gretzky had been traded from the Kings at his request.

Gretzky was having difficulty scoring this season and finished with only nine goals, contributing to this being the only season in which he failed to average at least a point per game, but his last goal brought his scoring total for his combined NHL / WHA career to 1, 072, one more than Howe.

Madison Square Garden photographer George Kalinsky's image of Gretzky waving to the crowd at the Garden, like his image of Messier after the Rangers won game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals five years earlier, would become an iconic image to the Rangers and their fans, documenting one of the greatest moments at the Garden, and even to hockey fans.

Gretzky made his first international appearance as a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1978 World Junior Championships in Montreal, Quebec.

Gretzky debuted with the Team Canada's men's team at the 1981 Canada Cup.

Many critics opined at that time that Gretzky was " too small, too wiry, and too slow to be a force in the NHL ".

" Gretzky ’ s ability to improvise came into the spotlight at the 1998 Olympics in Japan.

Gretzky learned his skills from his father on a backyard rink at his home.

In his autobiography, Gretzky describes how at practices, his Dad would drill him on the fundamentals of smart hockey:

When asked how he managed, at age ten, to score 378 goals in a single season, Gretzky explained,

Gretzky also excelled at baseball and box lacrosse, which he played during the summer.

Gretzky was Executive Director of the Canadian men's hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gretzky again acted as Executive Director of Canada's men's hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, though not with the success of 2002 ; the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals and failed to win a medal.

Gretzky was the final Olympic torchbearer at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

For the first season that Gretzky played in Los Angeles, the Kings had their training camp at the Olympiques ' arena.

Oilers players such as Gretzky and Mark Messier said that they realized at that moment how much it would actually take to win the Stanley Cup.

During this season, Gretzky, Messier, Anderson, and Kurri all topped the 100 point plateau, with Coffey not far behind at 96.

I probably won't see the project to the end, but let's hope I'm looking down on it and see a young Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux.

At the end of his career, Robitaille had made eight All-Star teams, set the NHL record for goals by a left winger ( with 668 ) and points ( with 1394 ), as well the Kings ’ franchise record for goals, with 577, finished second to Dave Taylor in games played, fourth ( behind Marcel Dionne, Wayne Gretzky, and Taylor ) in assists with 726, second behind John Bucyk ’ s NHL record, and second to Dionne in points, with 1, 154.

Near the end of the video, footage also appears from the 1985 NHL All-Star Game in Calgary, depicting the Campbell Conference All-Stars — including Wayne Gretzky — singing along as the audience waves flags and banners in the air.

By the age of ten, Gretzky had scored 378 goals and 139 assists in just one season with the Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers.

The following seasons saw Gretzky break his own assists record three more times ( 125 in 1982 – 83, 135 in 1984 – 85, and 163 in 1985 – 86 ); he also bettered that mark ( 120 assists ) in 1986 – 87 with 121 and 1990 – 91 with 122, and his point record one more time ( 215, in 1985 – 86 ).

Gretzky held a press conference just one day after being awarded the Hart Trophy condemning the NHL for punishing teams and players who previously benefited.

After the details of the trade were finalized by McNall and Pocklington, one final condition had to be met: Gretzky had to call Pocklington and request a trade.

After the 1996 – 97 season, Mark Messier signed a free agent contract with the Vancouver Canucks, ending the brief reunion of Messier and Gretzky after just one season.

The experts voted Gretzky number one.

The game went to a shootout with a 1 – 1 tie after overtime, but Gretzky was controversially not selected by coach Marc Crawford as one of the five shooters.

Edmonton honoured Gretzky by renaming the freeway that passes by the Oilers arena, Capilano Drive, one of Edmonton's busiest, to " Wayne Gretzky Drive " in October 1999.

Although Gretzky had previously stated he would not participate in any " old-timers exhibition games ", on November 22, 2003, he took to the ice one last time to help celebrate the Edmonton Oilers ' 25th anniversary as an NHL team.

Gretzky also became the youngest player in NHL history to score one thousand points.

* Held record for most assists in one NHL season from 1970 to 1981 ( 87 in 1969 – 70, which he surpassed in 1970 – 71 with 102 ; broken by Wayne Gretzky and also bettered by Mario Lemieux )

Gretzky and his Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier are the only players to win the Hart Trophy with more than one team.

Gretzky is the only player to win the trophy for more than one team and Joe Thornton is the only player to win it while playing for two different teams in one season.

Wayne Gretzky has since passed him in goals ( 1, 072 ), assists ( 2, 297 ), and points ( 3, 369 ), but not games played ( 1, 767 ) or games played with one team ( 1, 687 ).

Combining skilled defense and a reputation as one of the game's best faceoff men using his innovative curved stick, Mikita led the league in scoring four times in the decade, tying Bobby Hull's single-season scoring mark in 1966 – 67 with 97 points ( a mark broken two years later by former teammate Phil Esposito and currently held by Wayne Gretzky ).

St. Louis became the first player since Wayne Gretzky and only the eighth in NHL history, to win the Art Ross Trophy, the Stanley Cup, and the Hart Memorial Trophy all in one season.

Messier left the club at the conclusion of the season ( see below ), ending the brief reunion of Messier and Gretzky being together again on the same team after just one season.

His uniform number # 77 has been retired by both the Bruins and the Avalanche ; he is one of only six players ( Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Patrick Roy ) whose jersey has been retired by more than one club.

The duo of Kurri and Gretzky became one of the most prolific scoring tandems ever to play in the NHL.