Wayne Douglas
Gretzky, (born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice
hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the
National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed
"The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever"
by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading
point-scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player has
points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one
season -- a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied
over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At
the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 40 regular-season records,
15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. He won the Lady Byng
Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times,[2] and he often
spoke out against fighting in hockey.
Born and raised in
Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his skills at a backyard rink and
regularly played minor hockey at a level far above his peers. Despite
his unimpressive stature, strength and speed, Gretzky's intelligence and
reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from
opposing players, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck
was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. Gretzky
also became known for setting up behind his opponent's net, an area that
was nicknamed "Gretzky's office" because of his adept skills in that
area. In 1978, he signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World
Hockey Association (WHA), where he briefly played before being traded to
the Edmonton Oilers. When the WHA folded, the Oilers joined the NHL,
where he established many scoring records and led his team to four
Stanley Cup championships. His trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August
9, 1988, had an immediate impact on the team's performance, eventually
leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, and he is credited with
popularizing hockey in California. Gretzky played briefly for the St.
Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers.
Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, ten Art
Ross Trophies for most points in a season, five Lady Byng Trophies,
five Lester B. Pearson Awards, and two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff
MVP.
After his retirement in 1999, he was immediately inducted
into the Hockey Hall of Fame, making him the most recent player to have
the waiting period waived. The NHL retired his jersey number 99
league-wide, making him the only player to receive this honour. He was
one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation's
(IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team. Gretzky became executive director for
the Canadian national men's hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics,
in which the team won a gold medal. In 2000, he became part owner of
the Phoenix Coyotes, and following the 2004--05 NHL lockout he became
the team's head coach. In September 2009, following the franchise's
bankruptcy, Gretzky resigned as coach and relinquished his ownership
share.
Mario Lemieux
(born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey
player. He is currently the principal owner and chairman of the National
Hockey League's (NHL) Pittsburgh Penguins and the American Hockey
League's (AHL) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He is widely acknowledged
to be one of the best players of all time. He played parts of 17
seasons as a forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL between 1984
and 2006. A gifted playmaker and fast skater despite his large size,
Lemieux often beat defencemen with fakes and dekes. He is currently the
Penguins' principal owner and chairman of the board, having bought the
team out of bankruptcy in 1999. He is the only person ever to win the
Stanley Cup as both a player and an owner.
Lemieux led Pittsburgh
to two Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, won a Stanley Cup as a chairman
in 2009 with the Penguins, led Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal in
2002, a championship at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and a Canada Cup
in 1987. He won the Lester B. Pearson Award as the most outstanding
player voted by the player four times, the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most
valuable player (MVP) during the regular season three times, the Art
Ross Trophy as the league's points leader six times, and the Conn Smythe
Trophy as playoff MVP twice, as the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in
back-to-back seasons in 1991 and 1992. At the time of his retirement, he
was the NHL's seventh-ranked all-time scorer with 690 goals and 1,033
assists. He ranks second in NHL history with a 0.754 goals-per game
average for his career, behind only Islanders great Mike Bossy (0.762).
In 2004, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Playing only 915
out of a potential 1428 regular season NHL games, Lemieux's career was
plagued by health problems. His numerous ailments included spinal disc
herniation, Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic tendinitis of a hip-flexor
muscle, and chronic back pain so severe that other people had to tie his
skates. He retired two different times over the course of his career
due to these health issues (and also missed an entire season because of
it prior to his first retirement): first in 1997 after battling lymphoma
(he returned in 2000), and for a second and final time in 2006, after
being diagnosed with an atrial fibrillation. Despite his lengthy
absences from the game, his play remained at a high level upon his
return to the ice; he won the Hart Trophy and scoring title in 1995--96
after sitting out the entire previous season, and he was a finalist for
the Hart when he made his comeback in 2000.
The Hockey Hall of
Fame inducted Lemieux immediately after his first retirement in 1997,
waiving the normal three-year waiting period; upon his return in 2000,
he became the third Hall of Famer (after Gordie Howe and Guy Lafleur) to
play after being inducted. Lemieux's impact on the NHL has been
significant: Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called him
the "savior" of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and after Lemieux's retirement,
Wayne Gretzky commented that "You don't replace players like Mario
Lemieux... The game will miss him." Bobby Orr called him "the most
talented player I've ever seen." Orr, along with Bryan Trottier and
numerous fans, speculate that if Lemieux had not suffered so many issues
with his health, his on-ice achievements would have been much greater.
