Wayne Gretzky Net Worth 2026: How 'The Great One' Built $250 Million

On This Page

• What Is Wayne Gretzky’s Net Worth?
• How Does Wayne Gretzky Make Money?
• How Did Wayne Gretzky Build His Fortune?
• What Does Wayne Gretzky Own?
• 🏠 Real Estate
• 🍷 The Winery & Spirits Brand
• 🏒 Team Stakes & Roles
• 🚗 Lifestyle
• Wayne Gretzky’s Business & Investments
• How Does Wayne Gretzky Compare?
• Why Wayne Gretzky’s Fortune Keeps Growing
• Net Worth: Year by Year
• Connected Wealth
• Top Takeaways to Success
• Frequently Asked Questions

You already know Wayne Gretzky is a hockey legend. What you probably don’t know is that the salary from his record-breaking career is now the smaller half of his fortune.

Here’s the reality: Gretzky is worth an estimated $250 million, and much of that was built after his last shift, through endorsements, ownership, real estate, and a winery bearing his number.

In this breakdown, you’ll discover:

• The single 1988 trade that quietly doubled his commercial value overnight
• Why “The Great One” earned more from his name than from his stick
• The Canadian winery that turned his jersey number into a bottle
• How a backyard rink in Brantford launched a billion-dollar sport in the US
• What Gretzky actually owns, from real estate to team stakes
• The “brand beats paycheck” money lesson at the heart of it all

And that is barely the half of it. Let’s dig in.

What Is Wayne Gretzky’s Net Worth?

Wayne Gretzky’s net worth is an estimated $250 million in 2026, one of the largest fortunes in hockey history. He earned well as a player, but the bulk of his wealth came from turning the most famous name in the sport into a decades-long business.

That figure is an estimate compiled from public reporting, and outlets like Celebrity Net Worth and Forbes land in a similar range depending on how they value his ownership stakes, real estate, and winery interests. Treat $250 million as a well-researched approximation rather than an audited number, since private holdings shift constantly.

By the way, the story of how he got here starts not with a contract but with a nickname. Here’s how.

How Does Wayne Gretzky Make Money?

Gretzky’s fortune is a diversified portfolio, not a single paycheck. The big pillars:

• NHL salary. Across a record-shattering career with Edmonton, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and the Rangers, Gretzky earned a strong salary as the face of the sport.
• Endorsements. For decades he carried blue-chip deals across brands, one of the most marketable athletes of his era, an income stream that outlasted his playing days.
• Team ownership and executive roles. Gretzky has held ownership and executive positions in hockey, including a stake in the Phoenix Coyotes and later an ambassador role with the Edmonton Oilers group.
• Real estate. He has bought and sold high-value properties in California and elsewhere over the years.
• No. 99 Wine Estate. His Wayne Gretzky Estates winery and distillery brand in Canada turned his jersey number into a consumer product.

The lesson is in the mix: his name kept earning long after the goals stopped.

How Did Wayne Gretzky Build His Fortune?

Gretzky’s fortune began on a backyard rink in Brantford, Ontario, where his father Walter flooded the yard each winter and drilled the fundamentals into a tiny prodigy. By his teens, Gretzky was a national phenomenon, and by his early twenties he was rewriting the NHL record book with the Edmonton Oilers.

The financial turning point came in 1988. His stunning trade to the Los Angeles Kings shocked Canada but transformed hockey’s commercial reach, planting the sport in the huge American market and turning Gretzky into a mainstream celebrity. That move multiplied his endorsement value and set up the business empire that followed.

Here’s why it mattered so much financially. Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, and suddenly hockey’s greatest star was skating there every night. Celebrities showed up to games. National advertisers took notice. The NHL later expanded into Sun Belt markets like Anaheim, San Jose, and Tampa Bay, a wave many credit to the “Gretzky effect.” For Gretzky personally, that meant a level of mainstream fame no hockey player had ever reached, and the endorsement income that comes with it. It’s why he sits comfortably among the wealthiest names on our richest hockey players list and the broader richest athletes rankings.

By the way, the financial habits mattered as much as the fame. Gretzky didn’t simply cash endorsement checks. He steadily built ownership positions, restaurants, and eventually his winery, converting celebrity into assets that keep producing income whether or not he lifts a finger.

What Does Wayne Gretzky Own?

Gretzky’s holdings reflect a life spent building a brand across two countries.

🏠 Real Estate

Gretzky has owned a series of high-end homes, particularly in California, buying and selling luxury properties over the decades as his family’s needs changed. He has held estates in the Los Angeles area since his Kings days, tying his footprint to the market that made him a US star.

🍷 The Winery & Spirits Brand

The signature asset is Wayne Gretzky Estates, a winery and distillery in Canada that produces wine and whisky under the No. 99 name. It turned his jersey number into a shelf-stable business that earns whether or not he makes an appearance.

🏒 Team Stakes & Roles

Gretzky has held ownership and executive stakes in the sport, including a past interest in the Phoenix Coyotes and later a vice-chairman ambassador role tied to the Edmonton Oilers ownership group, keeping him financially attached to hockey long after retiring.

🚗 Lifestyle

For a man of his fame, Gretzky’s public spending has skewed toward family and business rather than flash. His marriage to actress Janet Jones since 1988 anchored a life built around their children and a steady expansion of his ventures.

Wayne Gretzky’s Business & Investments

Strip away the hockey and Gretzky still looks like a diversified brand company. The centerpiece consumer play is Wayne Gretzky Estates, his winery and distillery, which puts the most famous number in hockey on bottles sold across Canada and beyond.

Beyond wine, Gretzky has moved through ownership and executive roles in the sport, from a stake in the Phoenix Coyotes to an ambassador position connected to the Edmonton Oilers group. He has run restaurants bearing his name, invested in real estate, and lent his image to blue-chip endorsement campaigns for decades.

Here’s the reality of his real estate alone: Gretzky has bought and sold multimillion-dollar homes across Southern California over the years, and property appreciation in those markets has quietly added to his fortune independent of anything he does on camera. Meanwhile, his winery and distillery keep bottles moving through retail year-round, a business that scales without his time. The through line is durability. “The Great One” became a brand, and that brand kept generating income across industries long after his final game, from restaurant tables to store shelves to real estate deeds.

How Does Wayne Gretzky Compare?

Gretzky’s $250 million places him near the top of hockey’s wealth ladder, and the instructive comparison is with his great rival. Mario Lemieux, worth an estimated $300 million, concentrated his fortune on owning a single franchise, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and rode it to a reported $900 million valuation. Gretzky spread his money across endorsements, a winery, real estate, and team stakes instead.

Against the modern generation, Sidney Crosby has earned enormous active-player money, but Gretzky’s decades-long brand shows the compounding power of being the sport’s defining name. What separates Gretzky is the breadth of his wealth: he monetized fame across industries rather than betting it all on one asset. For the full ranking of how he stacks up, see our richest hockey players list.

Why Wayne Gretzky’s Fortune Keeps Growing

What separates Gretzky from most retired players is diversification. His money sits across appreciating and brand-driven assets, a winery, real estate, ownership stakes, and endorsement equity, rather than salary that ended with his career. That structure is why his net worth climbed from roughly $180 million in 2010 to $250 million by the mid-2020s.

It’s the ultimate version of the brand-first playbook: turn a nickname into a business, spread the bets, and let the name keep working. The difference is Gretzky was doing it before most athletes understood the model. For the full picture of where he ranks, see our richest hockey players list.