The Great One's Legendary 34-Year Old Trade Tree Finally Comes to an End
Wayne Gretzky's trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings went down as one of the most iconic moments in sports history, serving both as an agent to grow the game and as the dismemberment of arguably the greatest dynasty ever. August 9, 1988 -- 34 years, one month and five days ago -- the trade was made official:
Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorely, Mike Krushelnski all went to L.A. in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, the Kings' first-round draft picks in 1989, 1991 and 1993, along with $15 million in cash. And the wildest aspect of the trade, is that all these years later, NHL transactions are still being made as descendants of that fateful August day.
A trade-tree, for those who are unfamiliar, is the trail of transactions that follow one specific one. Think of a family tree, but for sports nerds.
Steve Dangle's YouTube series on the subject is both entertaining and educational, and he has a full-accounting of the trade tree here:
For time's sake, we are going to focus on the final peg of the tree: Nelson Nogier. If you have never heard of him, do not worry. I hadn't either. However, Nogier was a fourth round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 2014, who played 11 games in the NHL. He recently signed with Nur-Sultan Barys of the KHL, which would otherwise not even be newsworthy.
However, Nogier's departure from the NHL ultimately caps off Wayne Gretzky's enormous trade-tree, planted some 34 years ago. It is mind-boggling that one transaction could have such a deep affect on the NHL's landscape all these years later.
Notable transactions within the trade tree include Dustin Penner going to Los Angeles in 2011 -- just before they won the club's first Stanley Cup in 2012, Ben Bishop's trade to Dallas, where he is not a player development coordinator, and the draft pick that ended up being Tyler Myers sent to the Buffalo Sabres. I implore anyone with the time to watch, Dangle's video on the Gretzky trade tree, as it is a fascinating and detailed mapping of how one transaction can pave the way to hundreds of others. The only caveat is, it is almost an hour long, so throw in those headphones and play it while you are mowing the lawn, working out, or doing the dishes.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||