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Gretzky effect
DCHP-2 (Jul 2016)
Spelling variants:Gretzky Effect
1n. — Hockey
Wayne Gretzky's popularization of hockey in California and other US states.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Gretzky's trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings in 1988 was a significant event in both Canadian and American sports history. Many Canadians were upset and felt Gretzky's departure also meant a more general departure of hockey from Canada (see CBC reference), and this opinion is still prevalent 25 years later (see the 2013 quotation). Gretzky's trade to the LA Kings, however, immediately popularized hockey in California among residents and the local celebrities alike, and eventually led to the expansion of the NHL into other cities in California (Anaheim and San Jose) and into other US states. Gretzky's presence also encouraged youth in California to take up hockey themselves, which has expanded the sport's talent pool (see the 2010 quotation). As Chart 1 shows, the term is nearly exclusive to Canada.
See: The Great One
Quotations
1993
Still, there's one place where real faith [in Canadian football] prospers.
No, it's not Calgary, where Flutiemania is a phenomena born of pure star-power, like the Gretzky effect in Los Angeles.
2004
The NHL had actually exceeded its natural limits to growth in the United States. The Gretzky effect wasn't sustainable.
2007
There have been 19 Southern Californians in the NHL.
"I think it's the Gretzky effect," Taylor said. "It started when Wayne came here in the late 1980s. I mean, if you look at the number of rinks that we had then compared to today, I'd say we went from a handful of rinks to maybe 25 in the greater L.A. area. So that just means there's a lot more kids playing."
2007
Call it the Gretzky effect. When number 99 was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles almost 20 years ago, his arrival made the game cool, trendy here. Former NHL player Nelson Emerson is an assistant coach with the L.A. Kings and says Gretzky's legacy is still being felt.
2009
Like many players his age, Watson is a product of the Gretzky effect.
When the Edmonton Oilers traded superstar Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, the game saw a surge in popularity in the U.S. and especially California.
2010
When Canada takes on the U.S. in Tuesday night's much anticipated gold medal game at the 2010 world junior hockey championship, there will be evidence on both teams that areas once regarded as non-hockey territories are now producing world-class players.
You'll be witnessing, to some degree, the Gretzky Effect.
Team Canada winger Brandon Kozun, for example, was born in L.A. two years after Wayne Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to the Kings and spawned new levels of participation in the sport that had been played professionally in southern California since the 1950s.
"I notice every year in the WHL more guys coming in from places like Arizona, California and Texas that aren't exactly known for hockey," said Kozun, who spent his youth learning the game in L.A. before moving to Canada.
2011
The Gretzky Effect created a monster. Our Wayne made hockey glamorous. And he gave the best of him - to them - carrying the Kings and their suntanned celebrity fans to the 1993 Stanley Cup finals while fortifying NHL commissioner Gary Bettman with the necessary chutzpah to pursue his diabolical expansion scheme of planting hockey teams like palm trees in Anaheim and San Jose and other sunny climes. [...] When the Great One skated south way back in 1988, it was a change of address that, 22 years later, triggered a watershed event at the 2010 NHL entry draft. Two California kids, Emerson Etem and Beau Bennett, were selected near the top of the NHL's talent ladder last June. It was a historic moment. It was a first.
And it was Gretzky's fault - or perhaps, it was his finest contribution to the growth of the game ... in California.
Since the early 1990s, the number of Californian tykes (and adults) who have been bitten by our ice-bound obsession has shot up by 240%. There are 20,000 of them now, showing up at their rinks in their flip-flops and shorts and T-shirts, learning the fine art of the twofooted stop and the crossover while waiting for a California-manufactured Zamboni to give them a fresh sheet of 100% California ice.
2013
What is more Canadian than Wayne Gretzky — and what has done more to hurt hockey in Canada than Gretzky’s famed trade to the Los Angeles Kings 25 years ago?
In all the noise and celebration of the Great Moment, that reality seems lost.
[...]
Not long after the deal, the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix and the Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado. Everything was about American expansion, American growth, all of it stripping the veneer from Canadian hockey.
Twenty years have gone by since a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup.
2n. — Hockey
Wayne Gretzky's effect on his teammates, making them better players overall.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Gretzky's natural leadership, sportsmanship, and abilities positively affected his teammates' playing (see the 2009 quotation).
See: The Great One
Quotations
2001
Typically, one twin could boast more skill than the other, but their aim was to make it to the world's premier league together. "We're not going to have a Mario Lemieux or a Wayne Gretzky effect on the Rangers, but what my brother and I have to bring is double power," opined Peter.
2009
Kessel has an immeasurable gift many supreme talents possess, allowing them to unlock whatever greatness -- and happiness -- there is inside the players fortunate enough to play alongside them.
There was a Gretzky Effect wherever Wayne Gretzky went -- until he became a head coach in Phoenix -- and an equally potent Lemieux Effect in Pittsburgh that, in 1988-89, saw the otherwise unheralded Rob Brown explode for 49 goals and 115 points on a line with Mario Lemieux.
3n. — now rare
brain drain; a movement of talent (both hockey and otherwise) from Canada to the US.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Early meanings of the term refer to the meaning of skilled hockey players, starting most significantly with Wayne Gretzky, leaving Canadian teams to play for American ones. The Gretzky effect was adopted as a term by some in the social sciences (see the 1989 quotation), but this meaning seems to have been superseded by meaning 1 above.
See: The Great One
Quotations
1989
The article discusses emigration of Canadian doctors to the United States: "There may be some loss of superstars to the U.S., but . . . there is always some leakage of stars in any field from countries with small populations to populous neighbors - the Gretzky effect."
The Gretzky Effect. Not bad. Sounds better than brain drain.
1999
But New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik asked on CBC-Radio whether what's good for the NHL is also good for hockey, or Canada. What you could call the Gretzky effect helped kill NHL hockey in Quebec City and Winnipeg, and menaces it in "small markets" like Edmonton. Bit of irony there. It has meant robbing Europe of its skilled players and turning Canada into a pool of low-skill players.
References
- CBC • "The Gretzky Effect"
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