Wayne Gretzky

Janet Jones

Luc Robitaille

Glen Sather

Peter Berg

Bruce McNall

Keith Clinkscales

John Dahl

Jonathan Koch

John Skipper

Michael Tollin

Eric M. Johnson

Mitch Wright

Deirdre Fenton

Bill Simmons

Shelley Storm

Chris Connelly

Steve Michaels

Joan Lynch

Alex Piper

Tiffany Reis

Connor Schell

Todd Crites

Scott Duncan

David Arkenstone 

On August 9, 1988, the NHL was forever changed with the single stroke of a pen. The Edmonton Oilers, fresh off their fourth Stanley Cup victory in five years, signed a deal that sent Wayne Gretzky, a Canadian national treasure and the greatest hockey player ever to play the game, to the Los Angeles Kings in a multi-player, multi-million dollar deal. As bewildered Oiler fans struggled to make sense of the unthinkable, fans in Los Angeles were rushing to purchase season tickets at a rate so fast it overwhelmed the Kings box office. Overnight, a franchise largely overlooked in its 21-year existence was suddenly playing to sellout crowds and standing ovations, and a league often relegated to “little brother” status exploded from 21 teams to 30 in less than a decade.