One of the big what-ifs for Vancouver Canucks fans was when the team nearly landed Wayne Gretzky ahead of the 1988-89 season. The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup the year before., Gretzky’s fourth with the team. Wayne was coming off another season of posting video-game numbers: 40 goals, 109 assists for 149 points! There had been rumors for several years that the Oilers were looking to move Gretzky, allegedly due to the financial issues facing Oilers owner Peter Pocklington. However, in the summer before the 1988-89 season, a Gretzky trade was in the cards, and the two teams poised to land him were the Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings.
Wayne Gretzky was coming off a 149 point season in the summer of 1988.
However, the asking price was astronomical. The Oilers asked for $25 million in cash, three first-round picks, franchise goaltender Kirk McLean and Greg Adams, who was coming of a 36 goal 76 point effort the season before. As much as Brian Burke wanted to land the Great One, the numbers just weren’t there. Even if the team opted to sell their future for Gretzky, who was already 28, in a comparatively smaller market like Vancouver, recovering 25 million dollars is nearly impossible. Burke explored every possible option to swing the deal. Still, ultimately, he and then-GM Pat Quinn decided it was in the team’s best interest to pass.
We all know what happened next; in a move that rattled the hockey world, Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988. What stings for Canucks fans is that Los Angeles landed him for less than what the Oilers asked of Vancouver. Only $15 million in cash, Martin Gelinas, Jimmy Carson, and King’s first-round picks in the 89 draft.
In hindsight, though the move may have been a difficult pill for Canucks fans and all Canadians to swallow, Gretzky going to Los Angeles was ultimately a good thing for the NHL. Along with Mike Modano, by playing in an unlikely hockey market, Gretzky was instrumental in growing the game’s popularity in the United States. The NHL made more fans and created more teams.
During his first tenure with the team, Brian Burke brought the pieces together that made the 1994 Stanley Cup run possible.
Despite not being able to land the “Great One,” Brian Burke would do great things for the Canucks. He would draft Trevor Linden in the upcoming draft and go through a logistical nightmare to get Pavel Bure to play in Vancouver. Along with Kirk McLean, these two would be key figures in the team’s 1994 run to the Stanley Cup final. So no, we didn’t get Gretzky, but everything worked out alright. Don’t forget, the Great One would never win the cup again after leaving Edmonton!