Ontario Reign, thank Wayne Gretzky.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Wayne Gretzky's trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles, and in the opinion of the Great One himself, there would be no Ontario Reign without the royal lineage that Gretzky brought to the Kings.
"I remember the first weekend I was in L.A.," he told TSN. "I was going by these tennis courts and I stopped the car and told my friend, 'If we were in Canada, people would be playing inline and ball hockey here.' A year later there was a sign on the fence that read, 'No Inline Hockey Allowed.' It's come a long way; there are minor hockey teams in California now and in Arizona that can compete with the top teams in Canada and they're very good. There aren't as many, but we are getting to that point."