Photo Credit: Ken White

By Shane Clausing

almost caught gretzky

Former Grande Prairie man’s hockey career ends just short of reaching Gretzky’s point total

Apr 14, 2021 | 1:13 PM

A former Grande Prairie resident has had his hockey-playing career come to an end at the age of 77, coming up just short of “The Great One’s” all-time points total – though he never played a game in the National Hockey League.

Ken White was a resident of the Grande Prairie area from 1979-1991 and worked for the radio station CFGP throughout his time in the Swan City. During his time in the Peace Region, White played various levels of hockey.

Throughout his childhood, White was always interested in hockey cards and the stats on the back of each card. Beginning at the age of 10, he decided to track his stats for every game of hockey he played.

From 1979-1985, White played in various Senior ‘A’ leagues in the Peace Region, including on teams in Beaverlodge, Spirit River and Peace River.

On the side of his league play, he would play on rec teams until he left Grande Prairie in 1991. Once gone, he would continue playing hockey, continuing to track each and every goal and assist he registered.

Meaningful Mementos

Remembering Someone You've Lost at Christmas

Dec 03, 2024

Seasonal Sorrow

How Do You Get Through The Holidays When You're Grieving?

Nov 01, 2024

Upcoming Events at Oliver's

Grief & Loss and Estate Planning Seminars

Oct 02, 2024

By the time the year 2000 rolled around, White had moved out of the Peace Region but still continued to play hockey.

In that year, White tallied up his goals and assists from Senior ‘A’ and rec hockey (youth career stats weren’t included) and realized he collected quite a few points over the years.

“I got this idea one day and wondered, ‘I wonder how close I am to Gretzky?’,” recalled White. “What I did was I took all of Wayne Gretzky’s regular season and playoff points in the WHA and NHL and added them up and got 3,369 (points).”

White tells EverythingGP during that year, he made it his goal to register more points than Gretzky did in his professional career by the end of his playing career.

When he played Senior ‘A’, White was a low-scoring, stay-at-home defenseman. By the time he moved to rec hockey, he says he realized he was able to start racking up the points as the games were a lot more open for him.

“Long and behold you get into rec hockey, then old-timers hockey, then old-old-timers hockey where you have to be 70 years old, and I’m racking up the points like crazy. So I challenged (Gretzky).”

As of his most recent count, White had 3,185 points, 184 points short of Gretzky, until he got injured playing in a rec league game.

White ended up dislocating his hip by attempting a one-timer and decided after the injury that was the end of his career.

“I don’t know if Gretzky’s (more) relieved or if my wife is (more) relieved that I’m not playing hockey anymore,” joked White.

Since the injury, White mentioned he’s doing well and said he just has to remember to not bend more than 90 degrees for the time being until his hip is fully healed.

According to White, if he had played 60 games a year for the next two years, he projected that he’d potentially be able to catch up or pass Gretzky’s point total.

While he didn’t get to catch Gretzky, he says it was a fun little experiment, even though keeping track of points in rec hockey is considered “bad form”.

He says his point tracking was mostly kept a secret until Saturday, April 10, when White’s friend, Tom Bedore, mentioned the story to Ron MacLean, the famed host of Hockey Night in Canada.

MacLean then told the story of White in front of the entire country on Saturday night.

Bedore used to work with MacLean back in Red Deer. White says he’s thankful nobody has chirped him for his stats collecting and bad form.

White says he currently is living in Sylvan Lake and is retired.