from Vernon Fidler at The Player's Tribune,

I'm retiring today.

I know, I know. I really thought I was going to play longer than Jagr, too. But here we are are.

I’m going to get to how an undrafted kid from Alberta played almost 900 games in the NHL — and also how Joffrey Lupul is terrible at impressions — but first I want to tell you about a really bad day in the Fiddler household.

It was August 9, 1988. I was eight years old and enjoying the summer in Edmonton. I had just come home to eat some lunch after running around with my friends all morning. Like usual in our house, the radio was on. And that was when I heard it. Wayne Gretzky was getting traded to L.A.

You have to understand — to a kid growing up in Edmonton in the ’80’s, Wayne wasn’t just a hockey player, he wasn’t even a god … he was bigger than that. He was Wayne.

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