Wayne Gretzky reveals the origin story of his iconic quote about taking shots on the ice

Wayne Gretzky is the ultimate goat. When he retired in early 1999, he held or shared 61 NHL records. 23 seasons later, he still holds or shares 59 of them. In over two decades, Gretzky has just lost three of his many records, and many of them will probably hold forever.

Gretzky is, without a doubt, the most influential player of all time, and it’s actually hard to comprehend what he’s done for the game.

880101 ishockey, NHL: Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles © Bildbyrån – 13507

Gretzky has 2,857 points, and the person in second, Jaromir Jagr, has 1,921. Gretzky’s name will forever be in the hockey history books.

Gretzky is also one of the most well-liked players in history. Few people have a bad word to say about him, and his love for the game is just so pure. Gretzky has many famous quotes that also will live on forever.

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The best and most famous one is probably: ”You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

The quote is a real classic and is perhaps even more renowned for when Michael Scott talked about it on the American TV show The Office. But what’s the story behind the quote?

Source: Getty Images

Wayne Gretzky now reveals the origin story of the iconic quote.

“I always felt like it doesn’t matter who scores, as long as the team scores. And so I used to get frustrated when people would say he should shoot more. ’Wayne you should shoot more. You got to take more shots.’ And finally it got to a point, it was about 1990. And I heard it over and over and over, I guess since I was about 12,” Gretzky said on MasterClass.

”I don’t even know how I thought of it, and I just said, ’I know, I know. 100% of the shots you don’t take don’t go in.’ So it was kind of a back story to how that quote sort of… where it came from and how it kind of got out there. 

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