{"id":388208,"date":"2026-01-03T03:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T03:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:52:07","slug":"gretzky-swaps-stories-reminisces-ahead-of-winter-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388208\/","title":{"rendered":"Gretzky swaps stories, reminisces ahead of Winter Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI — Wayne Gretzky<\/a> looked out from the stage during the Discover Face-Off Panel and marveled at the sizeable crowd of Florida Panthers and New York Rangers fans in front of him outside loanDepot park on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing how our sport is growing,\u201d Gretzky said. \u201cI\u2019ve said this to people all the time. It\u2019s great when you go into Buffalo and Minnesota and Boston and Chicago, but hockey is big down in Florida and in California. People play the game, and they love the game and it\u2019s great to see the turnout today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fans were primarily there to see the Panthers host the Rangers in the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic. It was the first NHL regular season outdoor game in Florida, demonstrating the growth of the game Gretzky talked about during the panel, which was part of the 2026 Enterprise NHL PreGame Outdoor Fan Festival.<\/p>\n

Gretzky, the NHL\u2019s all-time leader with 2,857 points, swapped stories with retired former Rangers forward Nick Fotiu during the discussion, which was hosted by former goalie Darren Pang, an analyst for the “NHL on TNT.” Fotiu, who grew up in Staten Island, New York, played 13 seasons in the NHL (1976-1989), including eight during two stints with the Rangers (1976-1979, 1981-1985).<\/p>\n

His only outdoor experience in the NHL was an alumni game against the Philadelphia Flyers before the 2012 Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unbelievable,\u201d Fotiu said. \u201cThey had Bernie Parent. It was like the old Flyers. It was unbelievable. \u2026 And (coach) Mike Keenan wanted to win so bad. I said, \u2018Let the Flyers win. What are you kidding me?\u2019 This is unbelievable. It\u2019s great for hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gretzky experienced opposite ends of the spectrum in NHL outdoor hockey during and after his 20-season NHL career (1979-1999) with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and Rangers. He played in the heat during a preseason game with the Kings against the Rangers in a rink built in the Caesars Palace parking lot in Las Vegas in 1991, and in the extreme cold in the alumni game before the 2003 Heritage Classic between the Oilers and Montreal Canadiens at Edmonton\u2019s Commonwealth Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had 100 degrees (in Las Vegas), and I had a minus-40 (in Edmonton), so I played in both of them,\u201d Gretzky said. \u201cTrust me, the 100 degrees was a lot more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI — Wayne Gretzky looked out from the stage during the Discover Face-Off Panel and marveled at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-388208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}