L.A. All-Star Game to be key moment in NHL’s centennial celebrations

The NHL’s All-Star festivities in Los Angeles will play a prominent role in the league’s celebration of its 100th anniversary and will be the site of a gathering of the players voted the 100 greatest in its history. Those players are scheduled to be onstage during a gala at the Microsoft Theater on Jan. 27, two days before the All-Star Game will be played at Staples Center.

The NHL on Tuesday announced that Wayne Gretzky will be its official ambassador for its many centennial activities. Gretzky, whose 1988 trade to the Kings from Edmonton glamorized the game and boosted hockey’s popularity in non-traditional areas, had kept a distance from the NHL since his brief stint as coach of the then-Phoenix Coyotes. He will appear at various events on the league’s behalf.

“I owe just about everything I have in my life to the National Hockey League,” Gretzky said Tuesday.

That’s not as much as the NHL owes him. “He made it cool to play hockey in a warm environment,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday during a news conference before Game 1 of the World Cup of Hockey final between Canada and Team Europe.

The NHL was formed on Nov. 22, 1917, in Montreal. The league will kick off a yearlong celebration of its centennial Jan. 1 with an outdoor game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs at BMO Field. On Jan. 2, the Kings, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and the NHL will be represented in the Tournament of Roses Parade by a hockey-themed float. The parade will be followed on NBC by coverage of the Winter Classic between the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

The 100 greatest players, as voted by a blue-ribbon panel, will be announced in two stages. The top players of the league’s first 50 years will be announced Jan. 1 in Toronto, and the top players from the second 50 years will be announced Jan. 27 in Los Angeles. The living members of the top 100 have been invited to attend the event in L.A. Many are expected to participate in some fashion in the skills contests, to be held Saturday, and in the game itself on Sunday.

“It’s going to be an amazing night,” NHL Executive Vice President Steve Mayer, who is in charge of programming and creative development, said of the Friday gala. “The vision of all those players onstage to close the show, the greatest players in the history of the National Hockey League, I think that will be a great event to start things off.”

He said a celebrity host and musical act soon will be announced and added, “The star of the show will be those players.”

Mayer also said events related to the All-Star festivities will begin Jan. 26 with kid-themed activities. In addition, he said the league hopes to conduct events in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, among other places. “We want to spread the NHL throughout L.A. We feel like we want to make L.A. come alive with All-Star,” he said.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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