Gretzky Could Have Ended Career in Europe

Special thanks to Paul Kukla for making me aware of this gem from The Sporting News:

"The bottom line is there's only one National Hockey League," Gretzky said. "When I retired I got an offer to go play in Switzerland and it was a crazy amount of money. I remember thinking, 'You know what, it's all fun and that's great but there's only one National Hockey League. And if you can't play with the best and against the best it's just not the same."

Gretzky talks about a number of subjects, from the Russian threat to NHL expansion into Canada.

It was all part of a speech Gretzky gave to Economic Club of Canada.

By the way, the pic to the right is of Gretzky in the old Soviet jersey. As you can probably figure out, Gretzky and Viacheslav Fetisov exchanged jerseys. This was part of the Rendez Vous '87 tournament.