We welcome walk-ins almost always, but we do have some black out dates that you should be aware of:
Thursday March 25th from 4:00pm to 8:00pm the Restaurant and Bar will be CLOSED for a private event. Please note that we do recommend that you call ahead for reservations, especially if you are coming with a larger group. See you soon!
Click here for more information on the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic.
We are now accepting registrations for the 2010 Volunteer Group. The Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic, presented by Samsung, Canada’s only Nationwide Tour event, will be held at The Georgian Bay Club and the Raven at Lora Bay from July 8th to 11th.
A tournament is only as good as its volunteers, and that is why I am hoping you will join in making this event a huge success.
There are several committees available, such as player registration, transportation, walking scoring, and admissions to name a few. You can also get a group together (friends, golf course, charity group or sports group) and represent your group by Marshalling one or more golf holes.
We are requesting that each volunteer work a minimum of three days due to the schedule requirements of the Nationwide Tour. Each volunteer will benefit from the following volunteer package at no charge:
We invite you to join the excitement. Please feel free to spread the word and invite friends and family to join the volunteer group as we work to make the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic a success. Register Now.
Thank you!
Kelly Dixon
Volunteer Coordinator, Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic
Click here for more information on the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic.
Even The Great One needs to fuel up, and when it comes to vino, he’s not averse to plugging his own vintage at the 2010 Winter Games. So when Wayne Gretzky showed up at Vancouver’s posh CinCin restaurant for a bite Friday evening, he left a heck of a calling card, reports Top Table Restaurant Group director Shelley McArthur. Full Story
Click here to register your team for the 2010 Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament
When filmmaker Kevin Smith first learned about the Gretzky family, he never imagined he would get the chance to stage a press conference with Canada’s most famous hockey dad.
On Wednesday, a dream came true, as he and Walter spoke to the press at Wayne Gretzky’s Restaurant in Toronto to announce their plans for the fourth annual Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament.
Wayne Gretzky Estate Winery was awarded Best of Show in the Assemblage Category for its 2007 Estate Series Shiraz Cabernet at the 22nd annual Cuvée wine Awards. This is the second year in a row for the wine to achieve a top score in this competitive wine category.
Gretzky Winery also was awarded gold medal designation for the 2007 Estate Series Cabernet Merlot. The gold medal designation indicates the general consensus among the judging panel that while not the top scoring wine in the category, the wine was of a superior quality level that it could win at International competition.
2010 continues to build on the success the winery experienced last year, winning top awards in 3 different national competitions in 2009. This is the third best of Show award for the Gretzky Estate Series Shiraz Cabernet in the last year alone. As an added benefit to wine fans hoping to get a bottle, the wine is being released today to Vintages stores across Ontario.
Cuvée is the annual awards competition for the Ontario wine industry, commonly referred to as the ‘Oscars’ for Ontario Wines. The red carpet gala was held Friday February 19th in the Grand Ballroom of the Fallsview Casino. The competition, judged by an independent panel of experts and Ontario Winemakers is a ‘blind’ tasting of the province’s best VQA wines.
This year, 45 winemakers tasted over 200 wines from 56 wineries to determine the winners. In addition, during the judging process, judges are asked to indicate if wines merit a Cuvée Gold designation, demonstrating international standards for excellence in quality.
Click here for more information on Wayne Gretzky Estate Winery.
The two men known respectively as “Mr. Hockey” and “The Great One” are hopeful that Team Canada can win gold at the Vancouver Olympics, but they say it will be a tough competition.
Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky spoke out about the chances for the men’s hockey team when they gathered in Saskatoon for a sports celebrity dinner Friday.
“They’ll win,” Howe said when asked for his prediction in an interview with The Canadian Press before the gala. “Unless they lose,” he quipped.
“But I think they’ve got a strong a port of hockey players.”
Howe said he saw the team practise and thought they were very good.
“They’ve got some of the elderly statesmen who have been around the game for a while and if that rubs off on the younger ones they’ll be doing fine.”
Gretzky’s prediction came before a crowd of more than 1,200 people at the dinner where Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a well-known hockey historian, refereed a conversation between “The Great One” and “Mr. Hockey.” Gretzky said the game will come down to two things.
“One, goaltending. I always told Marty Brodeur ‘You don’t like hearing this Marty but the pressure’s on you’ and he would always tell me ‘I know.’ Secondly, if your best players play at the calibre they’re capable of playing at under high scrutiny then they’ll be fine,” said Gretzky.
Gretzky said Team Canada is a favourite to win a gold medal, but unfortunately will play against some tough teams, including the Russians, the Czechs, the Swedes and the United States.
“Competition’s going to be great and I think it’s going to be exciting and I think it’s going to be great for the country. Hopefully we’re in that gold medal game and get a chance to win gold again.”
“It is our game. It is our country,” said Gretzky.
“This will be the one place in the world that come February 28th will shut down in the afternoon so everybody can watch a hockey game and you just don’t get that in any other country.”
The 40-minute long conversation with Howe and Gretzky was like a dream for hockey fans as the men talked about the future of the game and its past. Gretzky recalled that he was 10-years-old when he first met Howe, his hockey idol. The men would later face off on the ice.
“The first game we played I was 17-years-old and I remember skating around the warmup and thinking ‘Oh my goodness I’m playing against Gordie Howe,”‘ said Gretzky.
“Gordie was over there and he was looking at me, he was winking to me and he was telling me ‘Good luck.’ So the first shift I go down and I lifted his stick up and I got the puck and I’m going back the other way and he came down the ice and he gave me a whack in the hand and I went ‘Oh my goodness.’ And he got the puck and he went back the other way.”
“I said ‘I’m never taking the puck from him again.’ That was it,” laughed Gretzky and the crowd.
Toward the end of the conversation, Harper asked the men about their worst or toughest moment in their long hockey careers.
“My first punch on Rocket’s nose,” joked Howe. “No, not really. I think Rocket was mad at me. I beat him at golf.”
Howe said in the interview that he’s too old to skate for Team Canada now, but joked that “maybe” the team can win without him.
“I hope they do,” said Howe. “If they play well and everything falls in line they’ll do it. If they don’t they should be respected for the effort they’re putting in.”
Wayne Gretzky Fantasy Camp VIII announces that Hall of Fame forward Denis Savard is the latest legend of the game to be confirmed for the camp, set for March 24-29 at the Bellagio hotel and resort in Las Vegas. Learn More
Wayne Gretzky Fantasy Camp VIII announces that Hall of Fame forward Denis Savard is the latest legend of the game to be confirmed for the camp, set for March 24-29 at the Bellagio hotel and resort in Las Vegas. Savard – a 17-year NHL veteran and All-Star with Chicago, Montreal and Tampa Bay – joins fellow Hall of Famers Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Larry Robinson, as well as noted tough guy Marty McSorley, as former professionals joining Wayne and other celebrities at this one-of-a-kind hockey experience.
Attendees at Fantasy Camp VIII not only get to skate alongside these greats of the game, but also have plenty of off-ice opportunities to mingle with these professionals and hear stories and tales that any hockey fan would treasure. Additional professionals and celebrities will be revealed as the camp approaches, so please check back at www.gretzky.com/fantasycamp for the next announcement.
In addition to the on-ice action, Wayne Gretzky Fantasy Camp VIII also features five days of luxury hotel accommodations, hockey equipment, fantasy camp apparel, special gifts and entrance to VIP events, such as an opening cocktail reception, closing ceremony and a private poker tournament. Space is limited and filling up quickly. Cost for the camp is $10,999. Click here for more information and/or to register.
Don’t miss out on this chance to bring your hockey dreams to life.
Purchase your limited edition numbered Wayne Gretzky Wine Stopper presented in a classic branded pine box with a bottle of his award winning estate series cabernet merlot. Contact the winery today for pricing and shipping instructions. Contact Us
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
Can somebody please drive a broken composite stick through the heart of that saying that is trotted out every time a big trade is made in the National Hockey League?
You know the saying; whichever team ends up with the best player wins the trade.
Yeah, says who?
Sam Pollock, that’s who. The legendary general manager of the Montreal Canadiens worked the phones at a time when it often seemed that half of his fellow GM’s in the league approached their job like it was a hobby, something they did for kicks after the dishes were done.
In this day-and-age, despite what the frothing fan base of a particular franchise may feel, every one of the thirty NHL general managers are top notch. In this instantaneous over-informed society we live in, there is no way a GM not up to the job would last for any length of time. They would very quickly be exposed. Bob Pulford should thank his lucky stars he handled the job at a time when dinosaurs such as Bill Wirtz walked the Earth.
When two teams make a major trade, such as the one the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs engineered on the last day of January, some hockey pundit somewhere will bring up that old Sam Pollock saying.
It’s often true; just think of the Montreal Canadiens moving disgruntled goaltender Patrick Roy (along with Mike Keane) to the newly minted Colorado Avalanche in exchange for goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, and forwards Andrei Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky (December 6th, 1995).
But it’s not always the case.
Steve Simmons uttered the Sam Pollock phrase on “The Reporters” on TSN, citing defenceman Dion Phaneuf as the best player in the Flames/Maple Leafs deal.
If that is indeed correct, then why did Flames’ GM Darryl Sutter trade the best player? Did Sutter bump his head during a weekend trip to Okotoks?
Of course not; Sutter appraised his team, what it needed and what could be sacrificed, all the time keeping in mind the underlying factor of the salary cap, and its often far-reaching implications.
Maple Leafs’ GM Brian Burke did the same thing to his team, and presto, we had a big trade to discuss.
On paper, or at least on a piece of paper dated January 31st, 2008, Phaneuf is without question the best player in the swap. But that is a long two years ago. Since then, Phaneuf has become everybody’s favourite whipping boy, and as the Flames were awash in expensive defenceman, it was pretty clear they would move the underachieving, at times selfish, rearguard.
Time will tell if Phaneuf is the best player in the deal. Maybe big defenceman Keith Aulie will end up being the best player. That’s the chance any team takes when it swaps warm bodies.
The Calgary Flames traded Brett Hull to the St. Louis Blues. The young emerging sniper went on to a Hall-of-Fame career. The Flames profited from that trade by winning the 1989 Stanley Cup. Hull would not win a Cup in St. Louis.
The Golden Brett was the best player in the trade in hindsight. Even at the time of the transaction, the Flames knew they were giving up a future superstar. Still, who won that trade?
That March 7th, 1988 trade breaks down as such…Brett Hull, and Steve Bozak to the Blues for defenceman Rob Ramage and goaltender Rick Wamsley. The Flames were upset that spring by the Edmonton Oilers (Wayne Gretzky’s final hurrah as an Oiler), but Ramage was a key part of the Redwood defence that helped the Flames win it all a year later.
Speaking of blockbusters, how about Gretzky going to the Los Angeles Kings during the summer of 1988? It put hockey on the map, as the cliché goes, in many non-traditional markets in the U.S. (feel free to debate the pros and cons of that result), but the Kings never won the Stanley Cup. They lost to Montreal in 1993, while the Oilers won the 1990 Cup, two seasons after trading The Great One. As for Gretzky, he never won another Stanley Cup after 1988.
Who won that Gretzky trade? Well, the Kings, even though they never won the Cup. If anything, that trade was a harbinger of what the NHL would face during the 1990’s; the marginalization of small market teams and the resulting player moves necessistated by monetary concerns.
That August 9th, 1988 trade breaks down as such…Gretzky goes to the Kings along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski. To the Oilers goes Martin Gelinas, Jimmy Carson, 1st round draft picks in 1989, 1991, and 1993 and money.
Money, because Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington was beginning to experience the first of his many business/legal headaches to follow. “I’d Trade Him Again”, indeed.
Gelinas and Carson were key members of that 1990 Stanley Cup winning squad in Edmonton.
Even if either Phaneuf or Aulie outperforms the players sent to Southern Alberta in this latest blockbuster, when a GM makes a trade, he’s looking to improve his team, not worrying about the legacy of the trade. If his team improves, either short-term for a playoff drive, or long-term, then the legacy issue usually takes care of itself.
Exhibit B about the foolhardiness of investing 100% faith in the Pollock saying also involves the Calgary Flames.
Flames fans were up-in-arms when Magic Kent Nilsson was traded to the Minnesota North Stars on June 15th, 1985. Through that trade, the Flames received two draft picks, one which they used to grab Joe Nieuwendyk in the second round (27th overall) in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft.
When Nilsson hoisted the 1987 Stanley Cup with the hated Edmonton Oilers, many Flames’ fans decried the earlier trade, asking “Joe Who?” about Nieuwendyk, until Joe Who popped in 51 goals as a rookie in 1987-88.
Joe Who was part of the Flames 1989 Stanley Cup team, so when it came time for Calgary to move him along to the Dallas Stars (December 19th, 1995), they got Corey Millen, and some guy named Jarome Iginla.
Iginla had been the Stars 1st round draft pick in 1995, and all these years later, the captain of the Flames is a reasonable bet to make the Hockey Hall-of-Fame upon his retirement.
Still, some Flames’ fans grumbled about losing Joe Who to the Stars. You’d think they’d have learned their lesson; the team that gets the “best player” in the trade doesn’t necessarily win the trade.
The Minnesota North Stars got Nilsson, but he won a Cup with the Oilers. The Dallas Stars got Nieuwendyk, and he helped them win their only Cup, but they paid a heavy price in giving up Iginla.
Arguably, both teams won that trade.
Then there’s the June 13th, 1987 swap between the Quebec Nordiques and the Washington Capitals. Dale Hunter, the heart and soul of the 1980’s Quebec Nordiques went to D.C., and coming back to Quebec was a draft choice that ended up being Joe Sakic.
(The actual trade was Gaeten Duchesne, Alan Haworth and a 1st round draft pick to Washington for Dale Hunter and Clint Malarchuk).
Perennial playoff failures, the Capitals got a shot-in-the-arm with the inclusion of Hunter on their roster, and they finally won a Game Seven in overtime when La Petite Peste scored on a breakaway against the Flyers’ Ron Hextall the following spring.
The Nordiques entered some very bleak years, before stockpiling high draft picks, and emerging as a young, promising team, led by Sakic.
Both teams can claim to have won that trade, all depending on how you view it. The Capitals needed to change up their chemistry, and the Nords needed to rebuild. Both succeeded thanks in large part to that trade.
In reality, the team that really won that trade was the Colorado Avalanche, but no-one had any inkling of that reality back when the Hunter trade was consummated.
A final note. Even if Dion Phaneuf wins the Norris Trophy, the Leafs/Flames trade is not even close to being a duplicate of the January 2nd, 1992 trade that brought Doug Gilmour to Toronto, despite what the Toronto-based hockey media has been repeating over and over and over again.
The Flames and Maple Leafs exchanged five players each that day, with Gilmour being the prime asset. He was a very good player with Calgary (and St. Louis before that), and thanks to a contract impasse with GM Doug Risebrough and the Flames’ brass, Gilmour was shipped out-of-town.
This transaction actually fits the Sam Pollock saying about which team wins a trade.
Even on that day, unless you were a diehard Flames fan, one could see the Leafs “won” that trade. The inspired play of Gilmour, and the sizeable contributions of the likes of Jamie Macoun, and Ric Nattress, far out shadowed the meager contributions in Cowtown of the likes of Gary Leeman and Michel Petit.
I know, for I had a sprited argument with the Calgary cabbie who was dropping me off at the Calgary airport that evening, as I was returning to Toronto after spending Christmas with the family. He was convinced that the Gilmour trade would put the Flames over the top, as they were getting 50-goal scorer Leeman.
Leeman would win his only Stanley Cup two seasons later as a role player with the 1993 Montreal Canadiens. His stay in Calgary was brief and uneventful.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and GM Cliff Fletcher won that trade easily. It helped revive, on-ice, that franchise, and set up the Leafs to enjoy, for the most part, a rather successful decade. In both 1993, and 1994, the Leafs were legitimate Cup contenders.
That was a trade that shook up the NHL. The current Flames/Maple Leafs trade only shakes up those two teams.
- Mick Kern
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s