17
his age when he turned professional
In 1978 Gretzky was 17 and already famous in Canadian junior hockey. The NHL would not let him in. Its minimum age was 20, which meant he could not be drafted until 1981.
The World Hockey Association had no such rule, and it was willing to sign teenagers. In June 1978 Nelson Skalbania, owner of the Indianapolis Racers, announced a personal services contract with Gretzky, reported as seven years and $1.75 million. A personal services contract is a deal with the owner himself rather than a standard player contract with the team, and that detail turned out to matter more than anyone could have guessed.
Gretzky played eight games for the Racers, with three goals and three assists. The Hockey News put him on its cover in a Racers sweater under the headline "Gretzky Big Hope for WHA's Future."
The hope did not last. The Racers started badly, the crowds stayed away, and Skalbania needed money. On 2 November 1978 he sold Gretzky to Peter Pocklington's Edmonton Oilers, together with goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll. The announced price for the three was $850,000. One later account puts the real figure nearer $700,000.
The Racers folded in December, after 25 games. Had the sale come a few weeks later, there might have been no club left to sell him.
On 26 January 1979, his 18th birthday, Gretzky signed a new deal with Pocklington at centre ice in Edmonton, in front of about 12,000 people before a game against the Cincinnati Stingers. It was a personal services contract again, and it ran for 21 years.
That spring the NHL agreed to take in four WHA clubs: Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec and Hartford. The established NHL teams were allowed to reclaim WHA players whose NHL rights they held, and each newcomer could protect only two skaters and two goaltenders.
No NHL team held Gretzky's rights, since he had never been eligible to be drafted. And because his deal was with Pocklington personally, not a standard contract, the Oilers kept him as one of their protected players. In return they agreed to pick last in every round of the 1979 entry draft. It was a bargain that looks absurd now.
O-Pee-Chee did make WHA cards in the 1970s, with sets from 1974-75 through 1977-78. It made none for 1978-79, the league's last season. So Gretzky's eight games in Indianapolis and his WHA season in Edmonton were never put on an O-Pee-Chee or Topps card.
His first card had to wait for his first NHL season. In the autumn of 1979 O-Pee-Chee and Topps both printed card 18, Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers. That is the card this site is built around, and it is an NHL card only because of everything above: an underage signing in a rival league, a sale made to keep a failing club alive, a contract with an owner rather than a team, and a merger that let the Oilers keep him.
Because no genuine Racers card was made, one is exactly what a forger would want to sell. The Hockey News has written about a counterfeit Gretzky card showing him as a Racer, of unknown origin and with no copyright date on the back. Its giveaway is the sleeve, which carries a number 7 rather than his familiar 99.
If someone offers you a Gretzky Racers trading card, the safe assumption is that it is not what it claims. Genuine Racers material from that season does exist, such as ticket stubs, but that is a different kind of collectible from a card.
The 1979-80 card is called his rookie card, and in the NHL sense it is. But it was not printed when he was a rookie professional. By the time it reached the shops he had already played a full season of professional hockey, scored his first professional goals in an Indianapolis sweater, and been sold.
That is part of why the card carries so much. It is the first card of a player who was already a professional, already famous, and already the subject of one of the most unusual journeys any hockey player ever took into the NHL.
Sources. The NHL minimum age of 20, the June 1978 announcement of a seven-year, $1.75 million personal services contract with Skalbania, the March 1979 merger approval and Edmonton's claim of Gretzky are from HockeyDB's account of why he was never drafted. The eight games with three goals and three assists, the purchase of Mio and Driscoll alongside him, the $700,000 figure against the announced $850,000, and the Racers folding after 25 games are from Wikipedia's 1978-79 Indianapolis Racers season article. The Hockey News covers, the seven-year term, the $850,000 sale and Gretzky leaving Indianapolis on 2 November 1978 are from The Hockey News. The 26 January 1979 signing at centre ice before about 12,000 fans against Cincinnati, and the 21-year term, are from The Hockey Writers. The four WHA clubs, the reclaim rules, the two-skater and two-goaltender protection, and Edmonton picking last in each round of the 1979 entry draft are from Wikipedia's 1979 NHL expansion draft article. O-Pee-Chee's WHA sets from 1974-75 to 1977-78 and no set for 1978-79 are from the Vintage Hockey Cards Report. The counterfeit Racers card is from The Hockey News. Checked on 14 October 2026.