Avid hockey fan Alan Thicke played a crucial role in Wayne Gretzky’s trade to the Kings
Actor Alan Thicke, who was best known for playing Jason Seaver on the TV sitcom Growing Pains, died on Tuesday at the age of 69. He reportedly suffered a heart attack while playing hockey with his son, Carter.
In addition to his acting work, Thicke was a beloved father (singer Robin Thicke is one of his three sons) and noted musician and sports fan. Born in Ontario, the TV icon was a huge hockey fan and could often be spotted at Los Angeles Kings games.
But Thicke wasn't just any old Kings fan. He also happened to play a major role in one of the most notorious trades in the history of not only the franchise, but also of the entire NHL.
When the Edmonton Oilers completed the monumental trade that sent superstar Wayne Gretzky to the Kings, Gretzky was house-sitting for Thicke at the time. The two had developed a friendship as Gretzky rose to prominence with the Oilers, and the two shared a mutual respect for one another's work. So, during the summer of 1988, Gretzky stayed at Thicke's house in L.A. while the local NHL team worked to acquire his services. Thicke recalled the circumstances to Sportsnet back in 2012:
I was reminded of it a few days ago on the occasion of the anniversary of his trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles (on Aug. 9, 1988). He was house-sitting at my house in L.A. the night he got traded. I was in Norway with my other son (Brennan), and Wayne and Janet were house-sitting for my son Robin (11 years old at the time). I called from Norway because I picked up the Oslo morning paper and saw pictures of Gretzky — but I couldn’t understand the text, of course. And I thought maybe there had been a fire, a mudslide, a drive-by shooting, who knows? So I called home, and I learned Wayne left early in the morning; he got traded last night. He got the call at about 9 p.m., and he was gone by 6 the next morning. So we had to find a substitute nanny instantly, which is not as bad as what Edmonton had to find to replace him.
As coincidental as that sounds, it seems like there's a bit more to the story. As Gretzky and former Kings owner Bruce McNall told Grantland a few years ago, Thicke actually had a somewhat key role in helping to facilitate the trade that landed Gretzky in L.A. and shaking up the landscape of the league.
McNall: Wayne was sort of hiding out there more or less when we were cutting this deal. Nobody really knew that Wayne was as involved with the transaction as he was, and I would be calling Alan’s house constantly for Wayne. So I let Alan know: “We got to keep this really on the QT because if any of this gets out to the press, it will probably get killed because of the backlash.” Alan was intimately knowledgeable about what was going on well before almost anybody else. I trusted him 100 percent. Wayne and I agreed that if there was one person that we could rely upon, it would be Alan.
Gretzky: Outside of the Oilers and the Kings and my wife and I, he was the first person that knew the trade was going to happen. I knew he wasn’t going to say anything. Most importantly, he was probably the biggest L.A. Kings fan in town, so he probably wanted it to happen more than anybody.
As a major sports fan, Thicke had ties to many more athletes across all the major notable sports, including Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, Jack Nicklaus and many more. But Thicke's greatest passion seemed to be hockey, and his role as a confidante for the Kings led to one of the biggest blockbusters in the history of the sport. Not a bad secondary legacy to leave behind.
