25 Years Ago Today: Where were you when Wayne Gretzky became a L.A. King

[Whiskeypete]

August 9 now stands out in two ways for me. the 'trade' and remembering exactly where-what i was doing 25 years ago. fast forward to the present and last night the wife went into labor early. today a future LA Kings fans came into the world at 515PM. Kings attendance just went up +1. he already has his Kings onesie and his first jersey

August 9 will always stand out to me and literally bridge generations of Kings history

 

[etherialone]

August 9 now stands out in two ways for me. the 'trade' and remembering exactly where-what i was doing 25 years ago. fast forward to the present and last night the wife went into labor early. today a future LA Kings fans came into the world at 515PM. Kings attendance just went up +1. he already has his Kings onesie and his first jersey

August 9 will always stand out to me and literally bridge generations of Kings history

Atta BABY WP!

MASSIVE KUDOS TO YOU THE MISSES AND THE BOY!

Get him a Toffi jersey early, avoid the rush!


Great News Whiskeypete.

Enjoy the heck out of it!

 

[HolyShot*]

I was only 6 at the time. Didn't even know it was happening.

 

[KINGS17]

The loyal Kings fans before and after Gretzky weren't going to keep the team afloat though. They were getting what, 10,000 fans at the Forum before and after Gretz? I think the Kings needed an aggressive owner like McNall who was going to take chances. It was because of him and the Kings' growth in popularity that merchandising became a big thing. Let's not forget that after the trade Kings jerseys became one of the hottest (if not the hottest) selling NHL merch.

Now going back to team building and winning. This is the team that had traded a young #1 defenseman Larry Murphy for Brian Engblom and Ken Houston, who only appeared in 33 games with the Kings. We can rehash all of their disastrous mistakes throughout the 80s in giving up young talent for has beens or damaged goods.

I could see why fans may have been upset seeing some guys go like Nicholls and Duchesne, but the problem with the Kings during the Gretzky era was their lack of emphasis on player development. They still had draft picks, they still hit some decent picks, albeit sparingly, but look at how dismal their farm team was. Can you name how many NHL players were produced by the Phoenix Roadrunners franchise? Or the New Haven Nighthawks? You can't fault Gretzky for that.

They moved ahead with Gretzky and started to be taken as a serious franchise. Before the trade, the team was a laughing stock.

I disagree. As TG pointed out the Kings had some talented young players and were on the rise. I think going for the quick fix with the Gretzky trade and all the subsequent moves that were made diverted attention away from drafting and developing players properly. Years after Gretzky left that was reflected in management's attitude of hoping to throw the right mix of mercenaries together, then just make the playoffs, and anything can happen. That philosophy has been shown to be a complete fallacy.

I'm not blaming Gretzky for the trade itself, although I don't think he minded near as much as all the tears in his Edmonton press conference would suggest.

 

[Peter James Bond]

August 9, 1988. FaceWash - I was also on Burbank! I was working at a Video / Film Post Production Facility, AME Inc. I had been a King fan since 1974 and diehard, after attending my first game back then.

Anyway, I was working in cassettes and conversions, where we transferred video formats from other video broadcast formats and also conversions, where we converted video from 525 to 625 European, etc. This is an important part of the story, cuz this department was nutts, 24/7/365. This department ran continually, except for a few hours on Christmas and maybe New Years Day, 24 hours, every day. There were about 4 of us on 3, 8 hour shifts. Just to leave your post and go to the restroom, almost warranted you getting clearance.

You could only take 30 minute lunch breaks. One of my co-workers in the room, knew I was a big King fan. He told me around 11 AM that the Kings got Wayne Gretzky. I do not recall how he heard. I told him he was full of sh$t and just razzing me. He said it was true.

So, I ran out of the department and to my car and turned on the news.
I think one of those KFWB ? all news and knew they had sports updates at quarter after the hour and quarter before the hour. I listened until I heard the news. I left my post for about 15 minutes and would have been written up (seriously) if my superior knew this.
The mid-management there were trained to instill wrath into you,
if you didn't bust your a$$. Leaving your post meant, music videos and commercials could not be run, as they last a few minutes. I always had 3 to 4 jobs running simultaneously...a 2 hour movie, a 30 minute tv episode, a music video, etc.

I was stunned. I almost went to the press conf later that day / evening. I decided I probably wouldn't be able to get in, so I didn't.
I was bummed that they gave up Carson and Gelinas but what do you expect? I was surprised we got Krushelnyski and McSorley though.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I disagree. As TG pointed out the Kings had some talented young players and were on the rise. I think going for the quick fix with the Gretzky trade and all the subsequent moves that were made diverted attention away from drafting and developing players properly. Years after Gretzky left that was reflected in management's attitude of hoping to throw the right mix of mercenaries together, then just make the playoffs, and anything can happen. That philosophy has been shown to be a complete fallacy.

I'm not blaming Gretzky for the trade itself, although I don't think he minded near as much as all the tears in his Edmonton press conference would suggest.

The Kings were still able to add talent that they had drafted to the roster while they traded for Gretzky and his Edmonton teammates though. Yes, they dealt for the likes of Coffey and Kurri and Huddy in separate deals, but did they really lose anything significant in those transactions? Hell, look at how much Carson regressed. Gelinas was nothing more than a 3rd line grinding winger who can chip in, and those draft picks didn't amount to anything aside for Martin Rucinsky.

The Kings still drafted well and brought in prospects like Rob Blake, Alexei Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor, and found some gems in Mike Donnelly, Corey Millen, and Warren Rychel, who all came in without any expectations and exceeded what any of us thought they could produce.

Kings management, likely compounded by McNall's financial problems, is what ruined this team starting with the summer of 1993 when they allowed McSorley to be offer sheeted by the Blues, matched the offer, and then dealt him for Shawn McEachern. The Kings tried to replace McSorley with Brent Thompson and brought in Doug Houda as well and it failed and forced the Kings to trade Tomas Sandstrom, along with Shawn McEachern (two top six forwards) in order to get McSorley back along with a throw in dman in Jim Paek who wasn't really necessary. Hell you could even go back to the Coffey trade to see how mismanaged the team was as they brought back Jimmy Carson and barely even used him. At least Shuchuk turned into a decent trivia question.

How can you fault Gretzky for those decisions? The proof is in front of you and shows that adding Gretzky took nothing away from drafting and developing players properly. They weren't ever that good at that in the first place. As I stated earlier, look at the Kings' farm team before Gretzky ever arrived, New Haven and Phoenix was a dump. The Kings just never paid attention to any of that stuff, and that was on management, not Gretzky. And it was like that before his arrival. Trading Larry Murphy, Garry Galley, the rights to Kevin Stevens, Grant Ledyard, trading Mark Hardy in his prime for Ron Duguay who was near retirement. This all took place before Gretzky arrived.

And hey, did I mention there terrific first round busts? Wayne McBean? Craig Duncanson and Dan Gratton? Craig Redmond anyone? Hell, look at all of the 2nd round draft picks the Kings wasted away on nothing throughout the 80s before Gretzky was acquired. Have you heard of Dave Morrison? Mike Heidt? Brian Wilks? Par Edlund? Paul Holden? They got lucky with Luc Robitaille, they didn't even know what they were getting when they picked him. Sure, they had Luc, Bernie, Carson and Duchesne, and that's it. They didn't have a slew of young players knocking on the door of an NHL roster.

Let's not act like the Kings were already on their way up before Gretzky's arrival because the reality is that they weren't.

 

[KINGS17]

Again, I disagree. The Kings were a young team on the rise when the trade was made.

We will never know how Carson would have developed if he had stayed in LA. We will never know if the money put into acquiring Gretzky and many of his ex-teammates might have been better spent on scouting and player development.

We do know that the Kings got past the second round once during the Gretzky era, and that he was involved to some degree in player personnel decisions. I think it was fool's gold.

The Kings never did learn how to develop players until Lombardi arrived, because they lacked patience.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Again, I disagree. The Kings were a young team on the rise when the trade was made.

We will never know how Carson would have developed if he had stayed in LA. We will never know if the money put into acquiring Gretzky and many of his ex-teammates might have been better spent on scouting and player development.

We do know that the Kings got past the second round once during the Gretzky era, and that he was involved to some degree in player personnel decisions. I think it was fool's gold.

The Kings never did learn how to develop players until Lombardi arrived, because they lacked patience.

It took the Kings 26 years to get out of the first round (and that was with Gretzky) and it took them another 19 years after that to reach the Conference Finals and Cup Finals.

The Kings went all types of directions after Gretzky departed. They went on a complete rebuild starting in 1996, pursued a star forward to open up Staples Center in 1999, made some noise in the playoffs in 2001 and 2002, started a partial rebuild around that time as well with the Rob Blake trade when they acquired a bunch of draft picks, got hit with the injury bug for years and were in turmoil up to 2006 when Lombardi took over. They pretty much had to tank it and stunk up the joint up until 2009 when Lombardi's restructuring of the team finally started to come together and take shape.

Was that all really the result of the Gretzky trade? No, it wasn't. The Kings went from McNall to Sudikoff and Cohen in May of 1994, they were a couple of frauds who couldn't afford the team and sold the Kings to Anschutz and Roski in September of 1995. The Kings have been under a number of different owners and general managers since the last time Gretzky donned a Kings uniform, and not a single one of those decisions were a result of the Gretzky trade. McNall didn't really have the money to buy the Kings and he just continued to add to his debt and got help from Jerry Buss to secure the loan to transfer over to Pocklington to purchase Gretzky from the Oilers.

Hell, I even recall rumors of the Kings being sold and potentially moving to Las Vegas after Gretzky left the Kings. That's how crappy of the shape the organization was in after transferring from one failed owner over to another. If the deal to get the land for Staples Center fell through, rumor is that they were leaving town.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

One other thing I forgot to mention that adds to my previous examples of mismanagement by the Kings before and after Gretzky is their decisions in coaching hires (and firings). Watch the Kings' 25th anniversary video and look at the comments from Jim Fox. The Kings went through so many different coaches prior to Gretzky's arrival, and the ones they hired when he was here weren't much better.

Robbie Ftorek was a buffoon who benched Gretzky. Seriously, who the hell in their right mind would bench the greatest player of all time? Did Phil Jackson ever bench Jordan? Did Sather or Muckler ever bench Gretzky? Did Cherry bench Orr? Of course not. And Ftorek's history of getting fired speaks for itself.

Then came Tom Webster who seemed to get the most out of the Kings during the regular season and that was it. There wasn't much of a concept for team defense with him behind the bench. After Webster came Barry Melrose who find lightning in a bottle in his only successful season of coaching in the NHL. We quickly found out that it was the players who made him look good. And once Melrose got the boot, the Kings hired an inexperienced head coach in Larry Robinson who would just vent out his frustrations on his mostly young team as opposed to teaching them. The Kings would have only one good season with him behind the bench as well and he was fired well after Gretzky was gone.

So before and after Gretzky, you could say the Kings were a coaching graveyard. They were also a goaltending graveyard but that's a different topic and different story but another example that just adds to the history of mismanagement with this team. In the end, I think Gretzky is a reason why we still have hockey in Los Angeles.

 

[KINGS17]

It took the Kings 26 years to get out of the first round (and that was with Gretzky) and it took them another 19 years after that to reach the Conference Finals and Cup Finals.

The Kings went all types of directions after Gretzky departed. They went on a complete rebuild starting in 1996, pursued a star forward to open up Staples Center in 1999, made some noise in the playoffs in 2001 and 2002, started a partial rebuild around that time as well with the Rob Blake trade when they acquired a bunch of draft picks, got hit with the injury bug for years and were in turmoil up to 2006 when Lombardi took over. They pretty much had to tank it and stunk up the joint up until 2009 when Lombardi's restructuring of the team finally started to come together and take shape.

Was that all really the result of the Gretzky trade? No, it wasn't. The Kings went from McNall to Sudikoff and Cohen in May of 1994, they were a couple of frauds who couldn't afford the team and sold the Kings to Anschutz and Roski in September of 1995. The Kings have been under a number of different owners and general managers since the last time Gretzky donned a Kings uniform, and not a single one of those decisions were a result of the Gretzky trade. McNall didn't really have the money to buy the Kings and he just continued to add to his debt and got help from Jerry Buss to secure the loan to transfer over to Pocklington to purchase Gretzky from the Oilers.

Hell, I even recall rumors of the Kings being sold and potentially moving to Las Vegas after Gretzky left the Kings. That's how crappy of the shape the organization was in after transferring from one failed owner over to another. If the deal to get the land for Staples Center fell through, rumor is that they were leaving town.

If this is true, how exactly did Gretzky coming to LA save the Kings?

Sudikoff and Cohen owned the Kings for one season. AEG came in and scooped up the team at the first opportunity, and that was done because the real estate opportunities in Los Angeles were far too great to pass up, and the Kings were the key to unlock the development of downtown. The Kings weren't going anywhere.

I would love to have a link to even the whisper of a rumor like that. The ones that Doc Naysay started about KC don't count.

AEG and the real estate opportunities that existed in downtown LA are the reasons the Kings are still around, not Gretzky. Now, if you want to give Gretzky credit for having something to do with franchises in Anaheim, San Jose, and Phoenix, then I think you have a case.