The 1988 King's Ransom Trade: Wayne Gretzky's Move to the LA Kings

On August ninth, nineteen eighty eight, the National Hockey Association was forever changed when, after winning four Stanley Cups with Wayne Gretzky, the Edmonton Oilers decided to trade the Great One to the LA Kings with Marty McSorley, Mike Krzlewski for Jimmy Carson, Martin Jelenis and three first round picks and on top of all that, fifteen million dollars in cash. It's what's known as the King's Ransome Trade. And here's the history behind how all it happened. Today on Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is who was the man that first let Gretzky know that the team was looking to trade him. Now, Wayne Gretzky deserves multiple episodes, maybe every single stop in his career, but this one particular moment is what we're gonna focus on and give you a brief overview of who he was and what he meant to the sport at the time. As he started in the NHL with Edmonton in nineteen seventy nine and in his first season he won the Heart Memorial Trophy, which is the NHL's MVP, the first of that he won eight in a row. He was the best player in the NHL. He was the Michael Jordan or the Tom Brady of his era, and Edmonton had won the Stanley Cup since nineteen eighty four to nineteen eighty eight. They were a dynasty and he was leading the way. So how did this all happen? They were on such a terror to dominating the league with the best player ever in hockey. Why would you stop that? Well, there's a few reasons. One, the owner was struggling a little bit, struggling financially and would later go bankrupt, and so he needed some cash and he had the best player in the world to offer up. Also, Gretzky was coming up on a contract year, which meant they would have to pay him more than any other player and that would be difficult as well. And they didn't want to lose him possibly going to another team, as he would go into free agency and anyone could offer him any kind of options that they may not be able to match. So just two hours after Wayne Gretzky and Edmonton Oilers had won the Stanley Cup Finals for the fourth straight year. His father, Walter Gretzky, comes to him and lets him know that he's hearing rumors that the Oilers are attempting to trade him to another team, and they later find out that they were looking at Los Angeles, Detroit, and Vancouver. But Wayne didn't initially want to leave Edmonton. He wanted to stay where he started. He wanted his career to be where he played almost his entire career with one team. But this put him in a unique perspective. Even though it was a trade, it was treated more like a free agent signing as he had leverage because he told the Oilers if they were going to trade him, it didn't mean he would automatically sign with whoever he was traded to unless he was traded to certain locations, and those locations were Los Angeles, Detroit, and Vancouver, and eventually they worked it out that they wanted to focus on Los Angeles. His father was the one kind of driving the Los Angeles narrative. As Canada loved hockey. He was a Canadian boy and he loved it, but in La he could grow the sport to be something that had never been before and himself could grow even more into a superstar. And what was unique about this trade is it wasn't done between general managers as trades are normally done in most professional sports. This deal was concocted by the two owners of each team, the LA Kings and the Edmonton Oilers, kind of behind the back of the GMS, partly because the Oilers knew that their coach and general manager would try to veto the trade and wouldn't want it to go through, which he tried to do but to no avail. And even before the announcement was made on August ninth, nineteen eighty eight, the owner of the Oilers took Wayne Gretzky's side and made sure this is what he actually wanted to do, and Gretzky agreed he was ready to move on and for a new challenge, and Gretzky was officially traded, along with two other teammates, Marty mcsorthy and Kris Klinsky, for Jimmy Carson, Martin Glenis and fifteen million dollars in catch and three future first round draft picks from the Kings. Now when this was announced, Canada was in an uproar and even the Democratic Party House leader Nelson Rice, demanded that the government block it as it was taking away their golden boy from Canada, sitting him down to America, taking it away all Canadian pride. But there was nothing they could do. The trade was finalized and Wayne Gretzky became an LA King. Now what this did was it changed hockey forever. Putting him in one of the biggest markets in America allowed hockey to grow more than it had ever done before. And he started out great that first season as he again won the Heart Trophy for being named the MVP of the league. And he actually led them that first season past the Edmonton Oilers to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they eventually got swept by the Calgary Flames. But didn't matter that they hadn't won. He had made the LA Kings a stopping point. There would be celebrities next to the ice coming to every game, their games were televised nationally multiple times, they had record attendants, and he had unofficially put the NHL on the map. And many put this trade as the reason that the NHL was able to expand, not only in California but throughout the nineteen nineties and led the league to signing even more lucrative television deals every subsequent year, and while playing with the LA Kings, he was able to break Gordy Howe's career scoring record, becoming the scoring King in the NHL. And again, financial issues caused Gretzky to end his relationship with the Kings as as the owner of the Kings fell on hard times and had to sell the team, and Gretzky did not get along with the new owners and eventually went on to get traded to the Saint Louis Blues in the nineteen ninety six season, and after that year, he would go on to sign as a free agent with the New York Rangers, where he would finish out his NHL career. Now as not usual for the greatest players of all time in their leagues to bounce around from teams, but it happens. Michael Jordan played for the Wizards at the end of his career, Tom Brady played for the Buccaneers at the end of his career, and Wayne Gretzky played for four different teams throughout his career, but that never stopped him from making the impact on the league forever. And if he was never traded to the LA Kings and spent his entire career with Edmonton, he would still be the great one. He probably would have won more Stanley Cups, as he never won another Stanley Cup after he got traded, but the league probably would not have grown. He was the face of the league before he got traded and became a face that North America knew throughout as he was now on commercials, he was in movies, he was being a superstar. And that's this trade really made the NHL what it is today and is the reason why it continues to grow every single year. And I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this make please leave us a rating or review wherever you're listening. We'd love to hear how much you're enjoying it. Or you can even leave us a voicemail or message on our website Daily Sportshistory dot com. We'd love to hear from you. It makes every time I hear from one of you guys, and I always respond when I hear from you, and come back Monday for more Daily sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question, who was the first person to let Wayne Gretzky know that the oilers were gonna try to trade him? It was his father, Walter Gretzky, just two hours after he won his fourth Stanley Cup.