Gretzky ended his professional playing career with the New York Rangers, where he played his final three seasons and helped the team reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 1997.

Gretzky played briefly for the St. Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers.

Gretzky continued doing this throughout his NHL career.

When Gretzky was 14, his family arranged for him to move to and play hockey in Toronto, partly to further his career, and partly to remove him from the uncomfortable pressure he faced in his hometown.

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.

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 next season, Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's career goal-scoring record and won the scoring title, but the team began a long slide, and despite numerous player and coaching moves, they failed to qualify for the playoffs again until 1998.

For the first time in his NHL career, Gretzky was not named captain, although he briefly wore the captain's ' C ' in 1998 when captain Brian Leetch was injured and out of the lineup.

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.

Gretzky told Scott Morrison that the final game of his career was his greatest day.

Walter Gretzky had played Junior B hockey, but was slowed by chicken pox and failed in a tryout for the Junior A Toronto Marlboros, ending his playing career.

Wayne Gretzky led the NHL in goals with 73, and Jari Kurri was close behind with a career high 71.

Wayne Gretzky won the award a record nine times during his career, eight consecutively.

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

On July 3, 2006, Yzerman officially retired, finishing his career ranked as the sixth all-time leading scorer in NHL history, having scored a career-high 155 points ( 65 goals / 90 assists ) in 1988 – 89 which has been bettered only by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

Yzerman scored perhaps the most memorable goal of his career in the 1996 playoffs, stealing the puck from Wayne Gretzky and beating St. Louis Blues goalie Jon Casey with a slap shot from the blue line to win the Western Conference Semifinals in double overtime of game seven.

Prior to and early in his NHL career, Kariya drew comparisons to Wayne Gretzky.

Gretzky, Bobby Hull, and Martin St. Louis are the other players who have won these three awards in their career, though not in the same season, while Bobby and Brett Hull are the only father-son combination to win the Hart and Lady Byng trophies.

Wayne Gretzky won the award five times during his career.

Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record for the most hat tricks in a career with 50.

As of 2011, he stands ninth all-time in career points-per-game and fourth all-time in career assists-per-game in the NHL, only behind Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr.

* Wayne Gretzky, career, (+ 518 )

* Named to play in the All-Star Game for the 19th consecutive season, passing Wayne Gretzky for the league record, 2001 ; Bourque also appeared in the All-Star Game in every season that it was held during his career ( there was no game in 1987 or 1995 ).

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.

Prior to World War I, Gretzky's paternal grandfather Anton ( Tony ) Gretzky immigrated along with his family to Canada via the United States from the Russian Empire ( what is now Grodno, Belarus ).

Anton Gretzky has been described as having " been born in Russia with Ukrainian forebears ", while " the only Slavic language spoken in the Gretzky family Ukrainian ".

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

Skalbania offered to play a game of backgammon with Winnipeg owner Michael Gobuty, the stakes being if Gobuty won, he would get Gretzky and if he lost, he had to give Skalbania a share of the Jets.

The WHA All-Stars were coached by Jacques Demers, who put Gretzky on a line with his boyhood idol Gordie Howe and Howe's son, Mark.

A statue, located outside Rexall Place in Edmonton, of Gretzky hoisting the Stanley Cup, which the Oilers won four times with him.

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.

In his second season, Gretzky won the Art Ross ( the first of seven consecutive ) with a then-record 164 points, breaking both Bobby Orr's record for assists in a season ( 102 ) and Phil Esposito's record for points in a season ( 152 ).

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 ).

The Oilers also won the Cup with Gretzky in, and.

On August 9, 1988, in a move that heralded significant change in the NHL, the Oilers traded Gretzky, along with McSorley and Krushelnyski, to the Kings for Carson, Martin Gelinas, $ 15 million in cash, and the Kings ' first-round draft picks in 1989 ( later traded to the New Jersey Devils – New Jersey selected Jason Miller ), 1991 ( Martin Rucinsky ), and 1993 ( Nick Stajduhar ).

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.

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 rejected a three-year deal worth $ 15 million with the Blues, and on July 22, he signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent, rejoining longtime Oilers teammate Mark Messier for a two-year $ 8 million ( plus incentives ) contract.

The Rangers were defeated in the Conference Finals in five games by the Philadelphia Flyers, despite Gretzky leading the Rangers in the playoffs with 10 goals and 10 assists.

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.

Gretzky in 1997 with New York Rangers