Description
Wayne Gretzky (b. 1961), known as “The Great One,” is considered one of the most outstanding hockey players ever to play the game. After retiring from professional hockey in 1999, he was named executive director of Team Canada, the Canadian men’s Olympic hockey team. Gretzky put together the players who went on to win a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending a 50-year drought in Canadian attempts to win the top prize in Olympic hockey. In July 2003, he was a member of the Vancouver Olympic bid team that travelled to Prague to make a final presentation to the International Olympic Committee in support of the ultimately successful Canadian campaign to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. From 1978 to 1988, Gretzky played for the Edmonton Oilers hockey team. During Gretzky’s tenure with the Oilers, the team won four Stanley Cups, forever earning him a place in the hearts of Edmontonians. The trade of Gretzky-No. 99-to the Los Angeles Kings by Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington in 1988 was greeted with outrage by loyal Oilers fans. The draw of the hockey legend, then only 27 years old, in the United States, however, spurred National Hockey League expansion in warm-weather markets like Phoenix, Miami and Raleigh, North Carolina. Since his departure from Edmonton, he and his wife, Janet Jones, and their four children, have lived in the United States. During his 20-year career in the National Hockey League, Gretzky scored 894 goals and had 1,963 assists. He holds or shares 61 records listed in the NHL’s Official Guide and Record Book. Gretzky received the Order of Canada in 1984 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998. Wayne Gretzky Drive was formerly known as Capilano Road (1967), Capilano Freeway (1974) and Capilano Drive (1995). The Capilano Bridge carries Wayne Gretzky Drive across the North Saskatchewan River.
Feature Type
Road
Designation Year
1999