Wayne Douglas Gretzky was born on January 26, 1961 in Brantford, Ontario. Growing up here playing hockey was what most kids enjoyed to do, but Wayne wasn't like most kids. Starting at the age of 5 he was a main attraction at the rink. But when Wayne scored 378 goals in his Peewee year at the age of 10 his hockey skills was becoming more known. What was not known was that Wayne would shape up in to being the greatest Canadian. Wayne retired from the NHL is 1999 and is known as one of if not the best hockey player ever and broke and set many records. Wayne is also a very successful business man, owning many different sports teams, three restaurants and a wine vineyard. He does endless charity work and helps children become better at hockey and he even has his own foundation. He is also a worldwide celebrity and is a household name all over the world.
Wayne Gretzky is the greatest Canadian for money reasons one is because of his hockey skills and his talent. Wayne shares and holds 61 official NHL records even after being retired for 15 years. Some of his popular records include most NHL goals (894), most NHL assists (1963), most NHL points (2857) and just about almost every record is held by him (Kreiser 2013). An amazing statistic is that if Wayne never scored an NHL goal he would still have the most points ever. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame only 7 months after his last NHL game, there is a standard 3 year wait (hhof.com). Wayne was voted #1 on a list of the top 100 NHL players of all-time by The Hockey News (1998) and GreatestHockeyLegends.com (2013). The "Great One" earned his nickname from his record setting and record breaking accomplishments in professional hockey as a player. Joe Pelletier the writer at GreatestHockeyLegends.com said this about Gretzky, "The Great One wanted to be the best every day. He was not the most physically gifted, but with unmatchable passion and intelligence he did more with less.