The Detroit Red Wings had some great teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Those teams, which were offensive powerhouses led by Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman, took a while to get going but eventually started winning championships near the turn of the 21st century. Imagine what the Red Wings could have done if Wayne Gretzky joined them in 1988.
The Edmonton Oilers gave Gretzky a choice between three teams when they decided to trade him following the 1987-88 season — the Red Wings, LA Kings or New York Rangers. Gretzky chose LA, but he spoke at an event in Canada earlier this week about how close he was to becoming a Red Wing.
“Everyone thought that my wife (actress Janet Gretzky) had picked L.A. and my wife said, ‘You should play in Detroit,'” Gretzky explained, according to The Canadian Press. “It was my dad who called me and said, ‘You should play in L.A.’ For whatever reason, he said, ‘I think you should move to L.A.’ and I became an L.A. King after that.”
This is at least the second time The Great One has made the fans of Detroit weep over what could have been. As James Jahnke of The Detroit Free Press pointed out, Gretzky made similar comments for the “Ultimate Gretzky” DVD that was released back in 2003.
“I grew up a Red Wings fan, and I felt like Detroit was a good fit,” he said then. “At the time, they were struggling, and Stevie (Yzerman) was just coming on, and I thought that would be the right place to go. I just thought, you know what? Hockey’s fine in Detroit.”
Gretzky never won a championship with the Kings, but he certainly put them on the map. Heck, look at them now. It should be noted that LA had to give up three first-round draft picks and two players for Gretzky, so you don’t know what Detroit would have had to pay. Still, you have to think Gretzky would have taken the Red Wings to the Promise Land sooner than they got there.
