The Next One is a nickname found in ice hockey attached to a new, up-and-coming player, who is deemed to have the capacity for being a top, sport-dominating player, akin to Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Maurice Richard and Mario Lemieux.
List of "The Next One"s
The moniker has been applied to the following ice hockey players (in order of bestowment):
Eric Lindros
Paul Kariya
Sidney Crosby
John Tavares
Connor McDavid
Connor Bedard
History
The name is a play on Wayne Gretzky's nickname, "The Great One". Each of the players listed has been or is currently billed as the next Wayne Gretzky. To date, no player given the moniker has broken a National Hockey League record set by Gretzky, and only Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon (both from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) have won the Stanley Cup. Mario Lemieux, "The Magnificent One", was the closest to breaking several of Gretzky's records, but he was never called "The Next One" by the media, because he was Gretzky's contemporary for most of his NHL career. The name continues to be used to highlight the achievements of young players still in their teenage years, who outcompete players older than them in minor league or international junior play as Gretzky did.