Quick, what year was Wayne Gretzky drafted? Give up?
Trick question. Wayne Gretzky was never drafted.
There's certainly no doubt he would have been drafted by an NHL team, but at the time, the NHL had an absolute rule on draftee age: no one under 20. No exceptions. And Gretzky was impatient and unhappy with his situation in Major Junior hockey.
As a 16/17 year old, Gretzky had scored 182 points for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, good for second in the league. At the 1978 World Junior Championship, he expressed his desire to play at a higher level and frustration at a 4 year wait. He was quoted as saying that he might even go to Sweden and play while he waited for his NHL eligibility, but claimed he was misquoted.
The next season, a mid-season coaching change saw his ice time go down, and struggles with his schoolwork and unnamed teammates led him to express a wish to play for another OMJHL team – or possibly even move home to Brantford and play Junior B. The OMJHL, however, would have none of it.
Play for us, the OMJHL said, or play college hockey. And we both know you're not prepared academically for college hockey.
In the meantime, the WHA was floundering, yet still fighting the NHL. A lawsuit by 18 year old Ken Linseman led to a ruling that the WHA couldn't set a minimum age restriction for players. The doors for Gretzky to play pro hockey were wide open.
Naturally, the WHA teams came knocking. In particular, the Birmingham Bulls and Indianapolis Racers were the most eager to sign young Wayne. In the end, Racers owner Nelson Skalbania signed the 17 yr-old to a $1.75 mil (US), seven year personal services contract, not a standard player contract. It was a far cry from the $75 a week he earned with the Soo.
After playing only eight games for the Racers, Gretzky's contract was sold to the Oilers, who became part of the NHL-WHA merger. The NHL was determined to make the upstart WHA teams pay for their temerity is stealing NHL players and forcing a rapid rise in player salaries, among other things. Therefore, all WHA players whose rights were still held by an NHL team went back to that team. The four WHA teams (Oilers, Nordiques, Jets and Whalers) would be allowed to protect only two goalies and two skaters each. The NHL teams were allowed to protect 15 skaters and two veteran goalies. They also got $125,000 for each player drafted.
Wayne Gretzky was a special case. His NHL rights weren't held by anyone, and he didn't have a standard player contract. He was also still underage.
The NHL saw the attractiveness of having Gretzky in the league, and made an exception to the minimum age restriction. Gretzky, however, wasn't willing to void his personal services contract with Pocklington for several reasons, one of which was entering the expansion draft meant being claimed as the first overall pick by the Colorado Rockies.
To make everyone relatively happy, the NHL allowed Edmonton to claim Gretzky as one of their protected skaters, and in return the Oilers agreed to chose last in every round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft.
To avoid lawsuits from other underage players (as one indeed threatened), the NHL decided to lower the minimum draft age to 19 in 1979 (though they'd been researching and debating this for a few years) and the year after, it was lowered to 18.
Gretzky was never drafted.
The Oilers drafted Kevin Lowe, got Dave Semenko and the 48th overall pick from the North Stars (which they used to choose Mark Messier), and Glenn Anderson.
Jennifer Conway is on twitter as @NHLhistorygirl and writer on her site: NHLHistorygirl.com. She is a historian, multi-purpose nerd, and librarian. ◉