“I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. But I don’t think you should force your kid to become a professional athlete.”

What you want to do with your best players is, it doesn’t matter how many goals and assists they get, but when they get goals and assists. The best players get them at the most important times, and that’s when we need those guys to come through.

The only way a kid is going to practice is if it’s total fun for him and it was for me.

Skating alone is an art. Doing it on a substance? I don’t know. That’s got to be tough.

Not doing it is certainly the best way to not getting it.

Thankfully, in my youth I had the best financial advisor a son could ask for: my dad Walter. When I got that first signing bonus in 1978, Dad took my cheque, announced, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and bought an annuity with it.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

One hundred percent of shots not taken don’t go in.

Your friends, family, and kids have to understand that’s your priority. It’s the only way you can be successful.

People in general want to build somebody up and then try to knock them down. They always root for the underdog.

I’m probably the only guy in hockey who can win a scoring title and everybody is saying I had a bad year. I don’t worry about it.

It’s just amazing how many companies suddenly want you to hold up their products after you’ve held up the Stanley Cup.

He brings something special. I don’t know what it is, but if you ask him, you couldn’t understand his answer.

The biggest difference between L.A. and Edmonton was that instead of people looking at me I was looking at them.

When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn’t make the NHL. Now it’s kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can’t be a good coach because I was a great athlete.

You know, I’ve held women and babies and jewels and money, but nothing will ever feel as good as holding that Cup.

Canadian players have started to put more of an importance on the World Championships in the sense that as soon as they lose, they are called, they want to go play and they don’t go only on the basis of if they are injured.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

I am always motivated. I am ambitious and I want to always improve.

I want to consistently play well and win titles. I’m only at the beginning.

If there were camera phones back in the day, the biggest athletes in the world would have had a lot of explaining to do.

If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.

The reason I became such a successful athlete was my mind was saying that no matter who you put up against me, I am better, I am the best.

The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.

If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?