Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, ten Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, five Lady Byng Trophies, five Lester B. Pearson Awards, and two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP.

Hockey player Wayne Gretzky has won the Lou Marsh Trophy four times, more than any other athlete.

* Lou Marsh / Canadian Outstanding Athlete of the Year Award ; co-winner, Wayne Gretzky ( 1983 )

Hockey player Wayne Gretzky has won the Lou Marsh Trophy four times, more than any other athlete.

Gretzky would go on to capture the Lou Kaplan Trophy for rookie of the year, finish third in league scoring, and help the Oilers to first overall in the league.

In his first NHL season, 1979 – 80, Gretzky was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the League's Most Valuable Player ( the first of eight in a row ) and tied for the scoring lead with Marcel Dionne with 137 points.

Although Gretzky played 79 games to Dionne's 80, Dionne was awarded the Art Ross Trophy since he scored more goals ( 53 vs. 51 ).

Gretzky became the youngest player to score 50 goals but was not eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the top NHL rookie, because of his previous year of WHA experience.

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.

For only the second time in his NHL career, Gretzky finished second in scoring, but narrowly beat out Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux ( who scored 199 points ) for the Hart Trophy as MVP.

" The 205-pound ( 93 kg ) Potvin, a three-time winner of the Norris Trophy for best defenseman, added that part of the problem in hitting Gretzky hard was that he was " a tough guy to dislike ... what was there to hate about Gretzky?

However, Gretzky won the Conn Smythe Trophy after setting the record for most points in a playoff year ( forty-seven ).

Gretzky won the Conn Smythe Trophy after leading the playoffs in scoring with forty-three points.

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

Wayne Gretzky won the Art Ross Trophy 10 times, including seven consecutive, during his 20-year NHL career.

For two decades, from 1980 to 2001, only three players won the Art Ross Trophy — Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Jaromir Jagr.

Yzerman finished third in regular season scoring behind Lemieux and Gretzky, won the Lester B. Pearson Award ( MVP as voted by the NHLPA ), and was a finalist for the Hart Trophy ( MVP as voted by the NHL writers ).

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles Kings

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles Kings

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles Kings

* Hart Memorial Trophy for the NHL's Most Valuable Player: Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles Kings

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

* Hart Memorial Trophy for the NHL's Most Valuable Player: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

* Hart Memorial Trophy for the NHL's Most Valuable Player: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

* Hart Memorial Trophy for the NHL's Most Valuable Player: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

* Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers

Bailey returned to Edmonton to play with the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association in 1978 – 79, where he took rookie Wayne Gretzky under his wing.

The team's performance would improve in 1978, when new owner Peter Pocklington acquired Wayne Gretzky as an under-age player ( consequentially, his first year of WHA experience prevented him from being an official 1979 – 80 NHL rookie ), as well as goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll, from the recently-folded Indianapolis Racers for cash.

The latter fact was perhaps most prominent when in 1979 – 80, first-year phenom Wayne Gretzky was not eligible to win the Calder Trophy despite scoring 137 points ( the previous rookie record at the time being 95 ), because he had played a full season the previous year in the World Hockey Association.

Note: Wayne Gretzky had 137 points in his first year in the NHL ( 1979 – 80 ), but was not considered a " rookie ", due to his time spent with the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers and Edmonton Oilers, where he won the rookie of the year award in that league during the 1978 – 79 season with 104 points.

Bellows was often compared to Gretzky, which led to a tough rookie season.

Recording 81 goals in his first OHL season, he broke the league's rookie goal-scoring record previously set by Wayne Gretzky ( 70 goals in 1977 – 78 ).

The Pittsburgh Penguins ' Kevin Stevens became only the third person in NHL history to outscore Gretzky in the regular season ( Marcel Dionne tied Gretzky in Wayne's rookie year, but had more goals, and Mario Lemieux won the Art Ross Trophy over Gretzky in 1988 and 1989 ).

The collapse of the WHA also saw the much hyped super-star rookie Wayne Gretzky come to the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers.

* 1981 – In the 39th game of his 3rd NHL season Wayne Gretzky scores 5 goals giving him 50 on the year setting a new NHL record previously held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy who earlier had each scored 50 goals in 50 games.

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.

That year, Gretzky became the first hockey player and first Canadian to be named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year.

Gretzky was sidelined for much of the 1992 – 93 regular season with an upper back injury, the only year in which he did not lead his team in scoring.

The sale was not completed until the following year, on February 15, 2001, after two missed deadlines while securing financing and partners before Ellman and Gretzky could take over.

The next year, although the Islanders had won three straight Stanley Cups, more attention was being paid to the upstart Edmonton Oilers, whose young superstar Wayne Gretzky had just shattered existing scoring records.

However, Pocklington had signed him to a twenty-one year personal services contract in 1979 and Pocklington used the contract to force the NHL to admit the Oilers and allow the Oilers to keep Gretzky.

Only three players have won the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Hart Memorial Trophy for most valuable player during the regular season in the same year: Bobby Orr in 1970 and 1972, Guy Lafleur in 1977 and Wayne Gretzky in 1985.

He became the first ( and to this date, the only ) player to captain two different teams to the Stanley Cup, something his former teammate Wayne Gretzky couldn't do the year before, and provided two of the most memorable images of that Stanley Cup Finals.

He won his only Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender that year and finished second in voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP, behind Mario Lemieux and ahead of teammate Wayne Gretzky.

Sergei was introduced to Gretzky by Paul Coffey during the 1994 NHL All Star Game, which led to him staying over at his L. A home with his family for 2 weeks that year.

, Gardiner remains the second-oldest player to ever win the award, after Eddie Shore and along with Wayne Gretzky is one of only two players to be named most valuable in their first year in the league.

The following year was his breakout season, making the NHL for good with the Kings, where he became the team's lead centre after Wayne Gretzky was traded late in the year amidst a full-scale reorganization of the team ; Perreault scored 25 goals to finish second on the squad.

Gretzky aside, many players made their debut in the NHL this season, both due to the WHA merger and to a change in the rules for the Entry Draft allowing eighteen and nineteen year olds to be drafted for the first time ; no fewer than six Hall of Famers ( Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet and Joe Mullen ; Mullen was undrafted ) debuted this season along with numerous other perennial stars.