Conspiracy theories abound on the cause of hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky leaving Edmonton, Canada for Los Angeles. It was not that he had no support from his team to win championships: the Oilers had four of them in Gretzky’s five seasons. On the other hand, Edmonton was a fairly small market, and the NHL might have wanted the best player in the game (possibly the greatest hockey player in the history of the league) in a big city like Los Angeles. Then again, Gretzky himself just married, and his young bride, Janet Jones, was an aspiring Hollywood actress. Whatever the case, hockey history was changed forever when the Edmonton Oilers concluded a deal that sent the league’s best player to a town that hardly knew what hockey was.

On this day, August 9, in 1988, the Edmonton Oilers traded the marquee player Wayne Gretzky, along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, to the Los Angeles Kings for $15 million in cash and the Kings’ first round picks in 1989, 1991, and 1993.

Edmonton fans felt something akin to what Cleveland fans must have gone through at the departure of LeBron James. Gretzky was more than a star player; Edmonton fans, and to an extent all of Canada felt him part of the family. A Wayne Gretzky coin was issued in 1983, and used as legal tender in all of Canada. The feeling in Los Angeles was of unbridled curiosity: the Kings sold 4,000 new season tickets within a week of the trade, with buyers often commenting they were never really hockey fans, but wanted to see what Gretzky could do.