What was Wayne Gretzky's first professional hockey team?
Every legend has an origin story, and hockey's greatest tale started with a teenager who could barely grow a beard and couldn't even drink. Before Wayne Gretzky became The Great One, before he rewrote the record books and redefined what was possible on ice, some team took their first chance on him. Which organization can claim they discovered hockey's future king?
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The answer is: Indianapolis Racers
The Indianapolis Racers signed a baby-faced, 17-year-old Gretzky in 1978, kicking off the weirdest eight-game stint in hockey history. Owner Nelson Skalbania had gambled that the teenage phenom could save his struggling World Hockey Association franchise.
Unfortunately for Skalbania, it was too little too late and he was forced to sell Gretzky, goaltender Ed Mio and left winger Peter Driscoll to the Edmonton Oilers for $850,000 (and some reports claim the final amount was even lower). Imagine selling your Ferrari for the price of a Pinto.
Over the next decade, Gretzky turned the Oilers into an unstoppable force, racking up four Stanley Cups and numbers that look like typos: 200+ points in a season (four times!), 92 goals in one year, and a mind-bending 163 assists in another. The Racers? They folded before the season even ended - a reminder that even legends sometimes start their stories in unlikely places.
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