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

[00:00:00] On August 9, 1988, the National Hockey Association was forever changed when after winning

[00:00:06] four Stanley Cups with Wayne Gretzkys, the Edmonton Oilers decided to trade the great one

[00:00:13] to the LA Kings with Marty McSorley Mike Krzleski for Jimmy Carson Martin Janellanis

[00:00:22] and three first round picks and on top of all that, 15 million dollars in cash.

[00:00:29] It's what's known as The Kings Ransom Trade, and here's the history behind how all it happened

[00:00:35] today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:42] Welcome to Daily Sports History, I mean, Thin Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into

[00:00:47] sports history every day, and today's trivia question to listen out for is who was the man

[00:00:53] at first let Gretzkys know the team was looking to trade him. Now Wayne Gretzkys deserves

[00:01:02] multiple episodes, so maybe every single stop in his career, but this one particular moment is what

[00:01:07] we're going to focus on and give you a brief overview of who he was and what he meant to the sport

[00:01:13] at the time as he started in the NHL with Edmonton in 1979 and in his first season he won the

[00:01:22] Hart Memorial trophy, which is the NHL's MVP. The first of that he won eight in a row.

[00:01:29] He was the best player in the NHL. He was the Michael Jordan or the Tom Brady of his era.

[00:01:36] And Edmonton had won the Stanley Cup since 1984 to 1988. They were a dynasty and he was leading the way.

[00:01:46] So how did this all happen? They were on such a terror to ominating the league with the best player

[00:01:52] ever in hockey. Why would you stop that? Well, there's a few reasons. One, the owner was struggling a

[00:01:59] little bit, struggling financially and would later go bankrupt and so he needed some cash and he had

[00:02:07] the best player in the world to offer up. Also Gretzkys was coming up on a contract here which meant

[00:02:14] they would have to pay him more than any other player and that would be difficult as well.

[00:02:19] And they didn't want to lose him possibly going to another team as he would go into free agency

[00:02:24] in anyone could offer him any kind of options that they may not be able to match. So just two hours

[00:02:31] after Wayne Gretzkys and Edmonton Orillars had won the Stanley Cup finals for the fourth straight year.

[00:02:37] His father Walter Gretzkys comes to him and lets him know that he's hearing rumors that the

[00:02:43] Orillars are attempting to trade him to another team and they later find out that they were

[00:02:48] looking at Los Angeles Detroit in Vancouver but Wayne didn't initially want to leave Edmonton.

[00:02:56] He wanted to stay where he started. He wanted his career to be where he played almost his

[00:03:01] entire career with one team, but this put him in a unique perspective even though it was a trade

[00:03:07] it was treated more like a free agent signing as he had leverage because he told the Orillars

[00:03:14] if they were going to trade him it didn't mean he would automatically sign with whoever he was

[00:03:20] traded to unless he was traded to certain locations. Those locations were Los Angeles Detroit in Vancouver

[00:03:27] and eventually they worked it out that they wanted to focus on Los Angeles. His father was the one

[00:03:32] kind of driving the Los Angeles narrative as candidate loved hockey he was a Canadian boy and he loved

[00:03:39] it but in LA he could grow the sport to be something that had never been before and himself could

[00:03:45] grow even more into a superstar. And what was unique about this trade is it wasn't done between

[00:03:52] general managers as trades are normally done in most professional sports. This deal was

[00:03:57] concocted by the two owners of each team, the LA kings and the Edmonton Orillars kind of behind

[00:04:04] the back of the GM's partly because the Orillars knew that their coach and general manager

[00:04:11] would try to veto the trade and wouldn't want it to go through which he tried to do but to

[00:04:16] no avail and even before the announcement was made on August 9th, 1988 the owner of the Orillars

[00:04:23] took Wayne Gretzky side and made sure this is what he actually wanted to do and Gretzky agreed

[00:04:29] he was ready to move on and for a new challenge and Gretzky was officially traded along with two

[00:04:34] other teammates Marty McSorley and Chris Glenn Skier for Jimmy Carson Martin Glennis and 15

[00:04:42] million dollars in catch and three future first round draft picks from the kings. Now when this was

[00:04:48] announced Canada was in an uproar and even the Democratic Party House leader Nelson Rise

[00:04:56] demanded that the government block it as it was taking away their golden boy from Canada

[00:05:04] sitting down to America taking in a way all Canadian pride but there is nothing they could do

[00:05:10] the trade was finalized and Wayne Gretzky became an L.A. King now what this did was it changed

[00:05:18] hockey forever putting him in one of the biggest markets in America allowed hockey to grow more

[00:05:24] than it had ever done before and he started out great that first season as he again won the

[00:05:30] heart trophy for being named the MVP of the league and he actually led the net first season

[00:05:35] passed the Edmonton Orillars to make it to the Stanley Cup finals where they eventually got

[00:05:40] by the cavalry flames but didn't matter that they hadn't won he had made the L.A. King's

[00:05:46] a stopping point there would be celebrities next to the ice coming to every game their games

[00:05:51] were televised nationally multiple times they had record attendance and he had unofficially put

[00:05:59] the NHL on the map and many put this trade as the reason that the NHL was able to expand not only

[00:06:06] California but throughout the 1990s and led the league deciding even more lucrative television

[00:06:12] deals every subsequent year and while playing with the L.A. King's he was able to break

[00:06:19] Gory House career scoring record becoming the scoring king in the NHL and again financial

[00:06:25] issues caught Gretzky to end his relationship with the King's as as the owner of the King's

[00:06:30] fell in hard times and had to sell the team and Gretzky did not get along with the new owners

[00:06:34] and eventually went on to get traded to the St. Louis Blues in the 1996 season and after that year

[00:06:40] he would go on to sign as a free agent with the New York Rangers where he would finish out his

[00:06:45] NHL career now it's not usual for the greatest players of all time in their leagues it's

[00:06:50] about surround from teams but it happens Michael Jordan played for the wizards at the end of his

[00:06:57] career Tom Brady played for the bucknears at the end of his career and Wayne Gretzky played for

[00:07:01] four different teams throughout his career but that never stopped him for making the impact on the league

[00:07:07] forever and if he was never traded to the L.A. King's and spent his entire career with Edmonton

[00:07:13] he would still be the great one he probably would have won more Stanley Cups as he never won another

[00:07:17] Stanley Cup after he got traded but the league probably would not have grown he was the face of the

[00:07:23] league before he got traded and became the face that North America knew throughout as he was now

[00:07:30] on commercials he was in movies he was being a superstar and that's this trade really made the

[00:07:36] NHL what it is today and it's the reason why continues to grow every single year and I want to

[00:07:43] thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History if you like this make please leave us a

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[00:08:03] you and from come back Monday for more Daily Sports History and did you catch the answer to the

[00:08:11] day's trivia question who was the first person to let Wayne Grettsky know that the oilers

[00:08:16] were going to try to trade him it was his father Walter Grettsky just two hours after he won his

[00:08:22] fourth Stanley Cup