Wayne Gretzky might have never played for the Vancouver Canucks, but that hasn’t stopped him from hanging out with the top dog in the organization.
As per a post from the team’s Instagram account, Gretzky joined Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini for a 54th birthday party last night at Vancouver’s Elisa steakhouse, with the duo joining Denver Broncos (and former New Orleans Saints) head coach Sean Payton for a photo.
And booking a reservation was probably pretty easily, considering the restaurant is run by Toptable Group, a restaurant conglomerate acquired by the Aquilini Group back in 2014.
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Interestingly, the Canucks actually turned off comments on the post.
Gretzky and Payton are far from the first celebrities to be spotted at the steakhouse, with John Cena and Keegan-Michael Key visiting in 2019.
The restaurant, which opened in Yaletown in 2018, is located at 1109 Hamilton Street and brands itself as “an award-winning steakhouse sharing our passion for flame-grilled premium cuts,” as per their Instagram bio.
These days, the 62-year-old Gretzky is working on the TNT NHL broadcasts as a recurring host as part of their panel, now more than two decades removed from his playing days.
In 54 games against the Canucks over the course of his career, Gretzky had 23 goals and 62 assists for a total of 85 points. And while he never played for the team, he revealed on an episode of UNREEL: West Coast Express earlier this year that Vancouver was one of the teams he was interested in joining as a free agent back in 1996 before ultimately playing the final three years of his career with the New York Rangers.
âI got to have a great relationship with [former Canucks coach and GM Pat Quinn] after I retired, and we had some wonderful great days, great moments, and great memories,â Gretzky said on the podcast. âWe kind of used to look at each other and giggle and think âwhat could have been.’â
While that obviously never came to fruition, we can only imagine how many steak dinners he would’ve had in Vancouver had he chosen to sign in the city instead.
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