Oilers legend Wayne Gretzky tells hilarious Paul Coffey story

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Ryan Hall
August 26, 2024 (8:47)

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During a recent episode of the Missing Curfew podcast Oilers legendary captain Wayne Gretzky tells the hosts a hillarious story about coaching in the All Star game involving Paul Coffey and Justin Faulk.

During the 2017 All Star game that took place in Los Angeles, then head coach John Tortorella was forced to not participate due to a family emergency which led the league to call Wayne Gretzky to man the bench unexpectedly.

He asked Gary Bettman if he could have whoever he wanted on the bench with him and he chose Billy Smith and Paul Coffey as his assistant coaches.

He mentioned how he had the Crosby Ovechkin team, and they were down 2-0 early in the first period with first time All Star Justin Falk making mistakes. He asks coffee if Faulk is okay and Coffey told him that it was his first All Star game, so he was likely nervous.

Coffey then walked over to Faulk told him that Gretzky was going to bench him and that Coffey was willing to give him another chance which led to the laughter with everyone.

The on-going great stories between Gretzky and Coffey show how strong of a bond they had as teammates even though they went their separate ways later in the early 90s. Gretzky of course was traded in the most famous trade in NHL history to the Los Angeles Kings and Coffey went on to play with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

These stories never get old and hopefully they will continue to share them with many older NHL stars sharing their stories to the public and drawing the fans closer to the league with the power of social media.