“You will probably never see me on the ice again. I will immediately end my career, – joked Ovi, who had no idea how close he would get to the Great, but was already tired of talking about this topic.

And five facts you need to know about Wayne's career at once

• at age 19, he became the NHL's top scorer and MVP for the first time, jumping in with a team that had never played in the league before. He spent almost the entire season with Brett Culligen https://1win-azerbaycan.com/ and Blair McDonald – and they've never played at this level before at 26.

• at 21, he crushed three NHL records in one season: in goals (92), assists (120), and points (212). None of the trinity of great Coffey – Messier – Kurri, who played with him in the team, did not manage to score even 100 points then, and the brilliant sniper Mike Bossy, having played all 80 games in that regular season, knocked out "only" 64 83.

• by age 26 he had 3 Stanley Cups and more Hart Trophy than anyone in the NHL even to this day. And yes, this is his Oilers. stopped the Islanders dynasty, which crushed everyone in the playoffs for 4 years in a row.

• at 28, he became the highest scoring player in NHL history, and if he had ended his career then – in the fall of 1990 – then he would have retained the leadership until now.

• finally, in the spring of 1994, the 33-year-old Gretzky became the best in the number of goals in the NHL, ahead of Gordie Howe, and at the same time won the tenth title of the season's top scorer in 15 years of his career.

In short: at the age, when Ovechkin won the first Stanley Cup, Wayne had everything any professional athlete could dream of.

Could have done more

Gretzky made no secret of the fact that place in history has always been important motivation for him and especially his father at the beginning of his career. After scoring 92 goals in the regular season-81/82, he set a goal to knock out a hundred for the entire season (including the playoffs) – and did so in just two years. Having set this record, he tried to be the first in history to score at least a point in every league match and lasted 51 games, despite injuries, illnesses and emotional fatigue.

He so wanted to be the first striker to score plus 100 ; for the championship, that in the last game of the regular season-84/85 with the Jets; didn't leave the court until he set up a goal for Dave Semenko. Reminds someone, doesn't it?