Wayne Gretzky is using his voice and platform to speak out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During Saturday night's broadcast of the 2022 Stadium Series game on TNT, Gretzky said that Russia should not be allowed to participate at the re-scheduled World Junior tournament this summer.

"It's not good. Listen, we all agree that this is a senseless war. I talked to a couple of guys this morning who are living in Ukraine, they're actually driving from Kyiv with their families fourteen hours, dropping them off, driving back and picking up rifles and guns so they can protect their own city. So, you know, Alex (Ovechkin) isn't driving this bus. It's this one guy that's driving this bus and it's not good and we wish everyone in Ukraine all our best and our thoughts and prayers are with them.

But one of the things, I'm glad to see the Polish soccer team step up and say 'we're not going to play against them'. I think international hockey should say 'we're not going to allow them to play in the World Junior Hockey tournament'. I think we got to, as Canadians, take that stance, the games are going to be played in Edmonton," Gretzky said.

Gretzky, the greatest player hockey has ever seen, is of Ukrainian heritage. During an appearance at the United for Ukraine Gala in 2014, Gretzky said that his grandmother would speak to him in Ukrainian, while his late father, Walter, said in his biography that the first language he learned was Ukrainian.


In 2020, Gretzky was involved in a documentary called 'Uke'. The documentary featured interviews with ex-NHLers who had a Ukrainian background including Gretzky, Ruslan Fedotenko (born in and played for Ukraine), and others.

The 2022 World Juniors are set to be played this August in Alberta after they were cancelled back in late-December, a few days in, due to COVID-19 outbreaks within teams.

On Monday, the International Ice Hockey Federation is set to have a council meeting to discuss the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's likely that Russia's participation at the 2022 World Championship in May and 2022 World Juniors in August are going to be talked about. Russia is also set to host the 2023 World Juniors in late-December, and 2023 World Championship next May, so it's possibly the IIHF removes them as the host for those events.

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