Gretzky’s Daughter Got Engaged to a Football Player the NFL Didn’t Want but Her Toddler Already Has Grandpa’s Gift

Emma Gretzky posted a video of her one year old son skating for the first time this month.

Days later, she gave Wayne Gretzky another big reason to celebrate his family.

Now everyone can see exactly where that little boy gets it from.

SMU Tight End Who Went Undrafted Gets A Different Kind Of Draft Pick

Wayne Gretzky's youngest daughter Emma announced her engagement Tuesday to former Southern Methodist University tight end Stone Eby, and the timing tells its own story.

Eby spent his college career blocking for the Mustangs on offense and special teams.

No NFL team called his name this April.

Three months later, the 23 year old football player who couldn't land an NFL contract landed something the league never offered him.

Emma announced the news on Instagram with a caption that needed exactly one sentence.

"The easiest yes to a lifetime with you ❤️," she wrote.

Emma and Eby found each other as SMU athletes, her on the tennis courts and him on the football field, and she left campus this past spring with a sports management degree to go with it.

They have been together since November 2022.

Emma is the baby of the Gretzky family, four siblings behind her in Paulina, Ty, Trevor, and Tristan.

The Gretzky Family Has Seen This Story Before, Just Not On A Football Field

Here's what makes this engagement land harder than a typical celebrity announcement.

Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player who ever lived, was never drafted into the NHL either.

League rules in 1978 blocked anyone under 20 from signing an NHL contract, so a 17 year old Gretzky signed instead with the rival World Hockey Association, bounced from the Indianapolis Racers to the Edmonton Oilers, and rode a merger straight into the NHL without ever hearing his name called on draft day.

He walked away from his career as the sport's all time leader in goals, assists, and points, a record no scouting department saw coming.

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So when Stone Eby went unpicked this spring, the man now welcoming him into the family had already lived that exact rejection himself, decades earlier, at the start of his own legendary career.

Gretzky Family Reaction Shows Where Their Priorities Actually Sit

Wayne Gretzky did not build his reputation waiting for anyone's approval.

https://x.com/egotastic/status/1735419393788490172“>https://x.com/egotastic/status/1735419393788490172

His family's reaction to Eby's engagement suggests they never needed the NFL to validate him either.

Emma's older sister Paulina, who is married to golfer Dustin Johnson, commented on the announcement.

"Im crying!! no one deserves this more," Paulina wrote.

Their mother Janet Gretzky added her own congratulations in the comments.

Wayne Gretzky has spent years telling reporters that education matters more to him than a pro contract ever could, and that only a small fraction of athletes ever get the chance to turn pro at all.

A snubbed draft board clearly did not change how this family measures a son in law.

Eby played in every one of SMU's 13 games last season, doing the kind of blocking work that never makes a highlight reel and rarely catches an NFL scout's eye either.

That grind is the exact trait Wayne Gretzky has praised in his own kids for years.

https://x.com/GretzkySchool/status/493807691811139584“>https://x.com/GretzkySchool/status/493807691811139584

The Detail That Makes This Bigger Than A Draft Snub

Emma and Eby welcomed a son, Walter, back in August 2025.

Walter is Wayne Gretzky's sixth grandchild.

Earlier this month, Emma posted video of Walter on skates at an ice rink.

"He got it from his papa," she wrote.

A grandson gliding across the ice before his first birthday is a legacy no NFL roster spot could ever replace.

Eby's football career may have ended without a single phone call from a general manager.

His place in hockey's most famous family just became permanent.

An NFL front office decided Stone Eby wasn't worth a roster spot.

Wayne Gretzky's family decided he was worth everything else instead.

Somewhere out there, 32 teams passed on a tight end who now shares a last name with hockey royalty by marriage.

Every one of them can watch the wedding from home.

Emma Gretzky already knew what she had.

She just needed one Instagram caption to tell the world.

Sources:

• Staff, "Wayne Gretzky's Daughter Emma Is Engaged to Ex College Football Tight End Stone Eby," Yahoo Entertainment, July 29, 2026.
• Staff, "Wayne Gretzky's Daughter Emma Is Engaged to Former College Football Star Stone Eby," Yahoo News, July 30, 2026.
• Staff, "Wayne Gretzky's Daughter Emma Is Engaged to Ex College Football Tight End Stone Eby," AOL, July 29, 2026.
• Staff, "Wayne Gretzky's youngest daughter Emma gets engaged to undrafted NFL prospect Stone Eby," Sportskeeda, July 29, 2026.
• Staff, "The Shocking Reason Wayne Gretzky Was Never Drafted Despite Being Hockey's Greatest Player," Pro Football Network, June 27, 2025.