Greatest Photos In Hockey History #6 The Gretzky Trade

I remember this image like it was yesterday. And sometimes I still can't believe it really happened.

This is, of course, a picture of Wayne Gretzky's tearful press conference where he has to say good bye to the Edmonton Oilers and their fans. At the very heigh of the greatest career in all of hockey history he is inconceivably traded away to the Los Angeles Kings, basically for cash.

This moment here really shook my generation's beliefs about hockey right down to the ground. We grew up loving hockey for the great sport it was. Now we were all far too aware that the NHL was not just about hockey, but about business.

The picture above is admittedly the Canadian perspective. Gretzky would go down to Hollywood and take the game to new heights throughout all of America and even the world. For many of those fans, the lasting image would likely have to be of Gretzky's other press conference concerning his trade.