Wayne Gretzky Art Print, The Trade 1988, Vintage Ice Hockey Wall Art

Ninety-nine. Wayne Gretzky had won four Stanley Cups in five years in Edmonton and was twenty-seven. On 9 August 1988 the owner traded him to Los Angeles for two players, three first round picks and fifteen million dollars.

At the press conference Gretzky could not finish his statement. A member of parliament asked the federal government to block the transaction as a matter of national interest, and was not entirely joking.

In Los Angeles he sold out a building that had been half empty and made the sport viable across the American south, which is the reason there are teams in Florida and Arizona.

Stories worth passing on, not just remembering.