Why it Can Work – The “Gretzky Effect”

August 9, 1988 marked a truly historic moment in the proliferation of the sport of hockey. In the wake of the Edmonton Oilers’ fourth Stanley Cup of the decade, the game’s star attraction, Wayne Gretzky was for all intents and purposes sold to Bruce McNall and the Los Angeles Kings for the sum of $15 million. Previously thought of as a Canadian game played north of the border and in the far reaches of the Northeast and Minnesota, hockey had arrived in Tinseltown aboard a private jet on the arm of Janet Jones.

With new uniforms (black and silver, much to the chagrin of Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis) and a new superstar in tow, the Kings rapidly ascended in the California sporting landscape to stand alongside the Showtime-era Lakers at the height of their popularity. Hockey was not only relevant, it was downright cool.

While the Gretzky-era Kings never managed to capture the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, the team’s legacy has perhaps yet to have been fully realized, even 15 years after Gretzky was dealt to the St. Louis Blues.

The success of the Kings in the early 1990s fueled not only the establishment of their cross-town rival, the (then) Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, but also gave rise to a generation of youngsters that gravitated toward the ice rink and not the football field, baseball stadium, or basketball court.

In seasons prior to the lockout, states like California, Florida, Texas and Arizona simply didn’t produce hockey players. The 2005 NHL Entry Draft marked the beginning of a seachange that has continued through this past summer’s draft. Exactly 17 years after Gretzky’s arrival in Los Angeles, players hailing from Southern California and other “Non-Traditional Hockey Markets” (NTHMs) began to hear their names called from the draft podium en masse.

This growing trend, or the “Gretzky Effect,” became most apparent in the 2010 Draft, where two players from the Los Angeles area (Bennett & Etem) were selected in the First Round. This doubled the number of 2010 first-rounders hailing from Sweden and Finland.

So it appears that it took the Gretzky Effect 20-years to have a demonstrable impact in the form of homegrown NHL talent. With the Sunbelt expansion of the early to mid-1990s, more prospects are sure to emerge from NTHM’s. While a club can claim to have cultivated a strong following, we can all agree that the most self-sustaining fanbases are comprised of fans who actually play the game. These are the fans that will endure losing seasons, draft-day busts, rebuilds, and salary cap casualties. In cases like that of Emerson Etem, some of these young fans might even suit up in the colors of the team that they grew up watching.            

With all of this in mind, shouldn’t the NHL and its member clubs look to expend greater resources toward cultivating hockey players and not just paying customers?

Yours in hockey,

JK