PHOTO: Bildbyrån
He is one of our top union captains in Tre Kronor.
But Pär Mårts did not have a particularly successful playing career.
Now he opens up about the unforgettable meeting with Wayne Gretzky himself on the ice.
Pär Marts The biggest moment with Tre Kronor was of course in the 2013 hockey World Cup when, as the national team captain, he made Sweden the first national team in 27 years to win World Cup gold on home soil. He will always be remembered for that.
March’s playing career
But the playing career was not something to hang on the Christmas tree right away. Mårts reached the SC final with AIK at the longest, where it ended with a silver medal.
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However, there was never a game in either the NHL or Tre Kronor. He never got further than the so-called B national team “Vikingarna”.
– I thought I was as good as many teammates who played in Tre Kronor and moved to the NHL. But when I wasn’t allowed to be in the national team, I thought: “Now I’m screwing this up”. I was only 27 years old. I still had the best time. But that’s just me in a nutshell, if I’ve decided on something, then I’ll do it, Pär Mårts tells Expressen.
The words to Gretzky
Then he chose to move back to Västerås in the second division and start winding down. At the age of 33, he left a faded playing career entirely and began a new one as a hockey coach.
– But at least I got to meet Wayne Gretzky…, Mårts reveals in the interview.
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It was in the late 70’s that the Vikings went on a tour to Canada and met WHA teams that were going into the NHL. Then Pär Mårts was pitted against a young man Wayne Gretzky on the ice, to this day the Swede remembers his unexpected words about the man who would become the greatest hockey player of all time.
– We met Gretzky and the Oilers in Edmonton and thought: “Damn it, we’re going to go in and show what we can do”. Then it was 3-0 to Edmonton after two and a half minutes. But we still looked at Gretzky and thought: “He probably won’t be that good,” he tells the evening newspaper.
READ MORE: Peter Jihde and Niklas Jihde fight back against the words that all Swedes say about the TV brothers: “I’ve heard it…”
When Gretzky went on to conquer the entire NHL and break records on an assembly line, Mårts went on to coach assignments in Västerås, AIK, HV71, Juniorkronorna and Tre Kronor. There was a nice collection of titles with Olympic gold, Olympic silver, WC gold, WC silver, WC bronze, JVM silver and JVM bronze as well as SM gold with HV71.
Since the 2016 Hockey World Cup and his departure to Tre Kronor, Pär Mårts has not had a coaching job, but has mostly acted as an advisor and mentor.
What do you think of Pär Mårts as a hockey coach? Share the article and have your say!
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