The Edmonton Oilers almost traded Wayne Gretzky to the Detroit Red Wings

There are few more impactful trades in NHL history than when the Edmonton Oilers moved Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings in 1988. But according to Gretzky, who was on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast this week, he was almost traded to the Detroit Red Wings. It all began in 1988 after the Oilers beat the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals. This whole thing started to transpire and [Edmonton Oilers owner] Peter [Pocklington] called me and said “listen…” because I only had one year left on my deal and then I was an unrestriced free agent. Basically we sat down and said “listen, you can trade me wherever you want but i’m not going to re-sign… so whatever they’re giving up to you won’t be worth anything if I don’t sign.” We kind of got to a point where I knew they were going to trade me, but I was able to control where I was going to be moved to. It came down to LA, Detroit, New York and Philly. Then New York and Philly kind of went away and we had sat down and decided we were going to Detroit. I remember sitting t