PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Wayne Gretzky is one of the most iconic ice hockey players of all time, and it is not uncommon for him to be called the best of all time.
Gretzky reaped great success in the NHL with several clubs.
But the fact is that he could actually have ended up in Sweden.
Wayne Gretzky, 61, probably needs no further introduction. The Canadian center is considered by many to be the world’s greatest hockey player of all time, and it’s easy to see why. Gretzky is, among many other things, the only player who managed to collect more than 200 points in one and the same season. A feat he has also succeeded in four times.
Shooting star Gretzky
In 1978, Wayne Gretzky was 16 years old, and already at such a young age he stood out from the crowd with his skill. At the time, the NHL did not allow the clubs to sign contracts with such young players, but you had to be 20 years old. But Gretzky himself felt he was more than ready.
– I see it as very unlikely that I will play junior hockey for four more years before becoming a professional. The rules say I can’t be drafted until four years from now, but I feel like I just need another year. After that, I don’t know if there’s much left to learn, Gretzky told the Montreal Gazette in 1978.
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As the minimum age to be drafted was 20, the options were limited for those who had not yet turned 20. Gretzky ended up in the then competing league WHA (World Hockey Association) where there were no such rules.
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Considered Sweden
But the fact is that there was another option. Namely Sweden, which had functioned as something of a loophole for Gretzky. According to the initiated hockey blog “Nitzy’s Hockey Den”, Wayne Gretzky considered a move to Sweden and the Elitserien, in order to get the chance to play professional hockey.
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According to him himself, it would have been a perfectly good solution.
– I could go over there and play with one of the teams in the top league for a couple of years. The risk of injury would not be as great and it would have been a perfect experience to be able to develop. I could play there for two seasons and then come back and play in the NHL when I was old enough, Gretzky said at the time.
Unfortunately for Swedish hockey, there was no Elitserien, instead he signed for the Indianapolis Racers in the WHA. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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