{"id":301587,"date":"2026-07-21T09:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301587\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T09:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:22:09","slug":"when-wayne-gretzky-came-to-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301587\/","title":{"rendered":"When Wayne Gretzky Came to Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A portrait of New York Rangers centers Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky on September 25, 1996 in New York. (Sporting News via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As a hockey child of the 1990s, I missed out on high-flying, stat-stuffing, Edmonton Oilers-era Wayne Gretzky. Instead, my entr\u00e9e to the Great One came during his stint with the Los Angeles Kings \u2014 specifically when L.A. made its surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final<\/a> in 1993 \u2014 followed several years later by a memorable few months<\/a> with one of my favorite teams at the time, the St. Louis Blues. Though he was far removed from the days of 92 goals<\/a> or 215 points<\/a>, this thirtysomething version of Gretzky still had the ability to dazzle with that old magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to Gretzky\u2019s free agency in the summer of 1996 \u2014 exactly 30 years ago today<\/a>. After giving up three players and two picks for No. 99, it was expected that St. Louis would bring Gretzky back for another go-round with pals Brett Hull and Grant Fuhr. But the Blues were run by \u201cIron\u201d Mike Keenan<\/a> \u2014 meaning the team first offered Gretzky an in-season extension and then pulled it after the playoffs<\/a> in favor of a lesser offer (which, of course, the Great One rejected). One thing led to another, and before you knew it, Gretzky had signed a 2-year contract with the New York Rangers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The deal had a lot of promise<\/a>. It reunited Gretzky with former Oilers teammate Mark Messier, and both were coming off seasons with at least 95 Adjusted Points in 1995-96. Both also starred in an NHL on FOX ad<\/a> that cast the pair as an Odd Couple<\/a> living on the Upper East Side \u2014 about 55 blocks uptown, and across town, from Madison Square Garden:<\/p>\n

New York needed Gretzky\u2019s playmaking, while Gretzky craved another shot at the Cup. And he would certainly get one of those \u2014 even if the Rangers\u2019 championship window slammed shut almost immediately after No. 99\u2019s first season on Broadway.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddfd<\/p>\n

Both Gretzky and the Rangers were at a crossroads by the summer of 1996. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A portrait of New York Rangers centers Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky on September 25, 1996 in New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-301587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}