Wayne Gretzky reveals his biggest screw up during his career; and it may shock you
Photo credit: NHL
He is the greatest hockey player of all-time and without scoring a goal he would still have more points than any player to ever lace up the skates. Wayne Gretzky didn't make many mistakes on the ice, but he did make a costly one off the ice as he revealed on an episode of the 'Spittin' Chiclets' podcast.
Gretzky revealed that he could have been a minority owner of the Vancouver Canucks and made, what would've been at the time, an astronomical amount of money to play for them.
"How dumb am I? I talked to Nelson Skalbania all the time. He called me at 7AM after we won the Stanley Cup and said I'm going to buy the Vancouver Canucks. I'll give you 25 percent ownership of the team and $3M a year. Now the highest paid player in hockey was me at the time at $800K. How dumb am I? And I was like, you know Mr. Skalbania, you know I love you to death, but it's not going to work for me."
Could you imagine how different the NHL would have looked had Gretzky taken the offer he was presented with at the time? Surely, we would still have teams in California, but would they have been as successful as they have been without Gretzky lighting the lamp in Los Angeles? Would the Canucks have won a cup by now?
There are many 'what if' questions that we will never know the answers to, as will Gretzky, and while he may regret turning down the offer, he will always be remembered for changing the hockey landscape and helping introduce the game to California, which has paved the way for many of today's current superstars.
| POLL | ||
MARS 18 | 585 ANSWERS Wayne Gretzky reveals his biggest screw up during his career; and it may shock you Could you see The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, in a Canucks uniform? | ||
| Absolutely | 152 | 26 % |
| Not even a little bit | 433 | 74 % |
| List of polls | ||
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