from Michael Traikos of PostMedia Network,

The story of Wayne Gretzky spending countless hours on a backyard skating rink built by his father is a familiar one. But when he was a kid, one of the best parts of the year was when the snow finally melted and he could put his equipment away and pick up a baseball bat or lacrosse stick.

“I was absolutely ecstatic to see the end of the hockey season,” Gretzky told the National Post in 2000.

“One of the worst things to happen to the game, in my opinion, has been year-round hockey and, in particular, summer hockey. All it does for kids, as far as I can tell, is keep them out of sports they should be doing in the warmer weather.”

Gretzky is not alone.

Brendan Shanahan took a break from hockey by spending the summer playing lacrosse. Hal Gill was a highly regarded high school quarterback. Daniel and Henrik Sedin excelled at soccer. And Jarome Iginla was the starting catcher on Canada’s national junior baseball team.

But multiple-sport athletes are becoming a thing of the past, as more and more young players are being pressured to play hockey year-round and even during the school day at sports academies.

continued (this is a four part series, links to the first three are available too)