{"id":34025,"date":"2018-08-08T21:21:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T01:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=34025"},"modified":"2018-08-08T21:21:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T01:21:27","slug":"wayne-gretzky-named-ambassador-for-khl-kunlun-red-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/08\/08\/wayne-gretzky-named-ambassador-for-khl-kunlun-red-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Gretzky named ambassador for KHL Kunlun Red Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As reported via the official Twitter account of HC Kunlun Red Star,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gretzwa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wayne Gretzky<\/a> has been named a global ambassador for Beijing\u2019s team in the KHL with a long-term agreement.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Wayne Gretzky is our new Global Ambassador! The Kunlun Red Star announced today that the hockey legend will assist in promoting the game of ice hockey in China. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/krs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#krs<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/redstarhockey?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#redstarhockey<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hOZ5brsEYN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/hOZ5brsEYN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kunlun Red Star (@KRSchina) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KRSchina\/status\/1027221546593447936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Wayne Gretzky commits to helping China grow the game of hockey<\/h1>\n<p>Wayne\u00a0Gretzky\u00a0will help in promoting the game of ice hockey in China. Also, the Kunlun Red Star announced the opening of the KRS-Gretzky Hockey School.<\/p>\n<p>The school will provide young\u00a0players with a top level of hockey training. Initially, there will be two locations which will host the branches of the KRS-Gretzky Hockey School. This September, the schools are opening in Shenzhen and Beijing. Overall, there are plans to expand the program to at least 20 locations across the country. The aim is that this will happen over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>The official <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/a\/201808\/08\/WS5b6a49cea310add14f3848af.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">China Daily<\/a> newspaper quoted Red Star\u2019s Executive Director <strong>Ao Meng<\/strong> as saying Gretzky\u2019s involvement would be a \u201ctremendous boost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo now have him part of the growth of hockey in China in the buildup to the 2022 Winter Olympics will promote interest and participation in the sport, especially among young people,\u201d Ao said.<\/p>\n<p>As winter sports\u00a0participation in China is still in a relatively premature state, the country aims to boost hockey by bringing in NHL celebrities.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kovalal01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Kovalev<\/a><\/strong> was named an assistant coach of the Red Stars.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL In China<\/h2>\n<p>As in the previous year, the National Hockey League will hold promotional pre-season games in China. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/bruins\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Bruins<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/flames\/\" target=\"_self\">Calgary Flames<\/a> will face off in Shenzhen on September 15th and in Beijing on September 19th.\u00a0Gretzky is also visiting Beijing and Shenzhen around these dates.<\/p>\n<p>Wayne\u00a0Gretzky played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/oilers\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/kings\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Kings<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/blues\/\" target=\"_self\">St. Louis Blues<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Rangers<\/a>. He won four Stanley Cups and a record nine Hart Trophies as a league MVP. The Legend established more than 60 records during his career. Which made him the all-time leading scorer in the National Hockey League.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:\u00a0TORONTO, ON &#8211; SEPTEMBER 27: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and hockey icon Wayne Gretzky unveil the League&#8217;s Centennial celebration plans for 2017 during a press conference at the World Cup of Hockey 2016 at Air Canada Centre on September 27, 2016, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reported via the official Twitter account of HC Kunlun Red Star,\u00a0Wayne Gretzky has been named a global ambassador for Beijing\u2019s team in the KHL with a long-term agreement. Wayne Gretzky is our new Global Ambassador! The Kunlun Red Star announced today that the hockey legend will assist in promoting the game of ice hockey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2459,"featured_media":1881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,2003],"tags":[517,1737,590],"class_list":["post-34025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-khl","tag-khl","tag-kunlun-red-star","tag-wayne-gretzky"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}