Big money. Big hair. Big music. Big trades.

Yes, indeed, things were big in the 1980s. In the NHL, there plenty of new places and players as four teams from the folding World Hockey Association -- Edmonton, Quebec, Winnipeg and Hartford -- came aboard. Players like Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin, Mark Messier, Clark Gillies, Grant Fuhr and Billy Smith all helped define the decade as the Oilers and Islanders built dynasties.

But as much as some things change, they remain the same. Trades were still part and parcel of NHL life, but in keeping with the tenor of the times, they just seemed bigger.

Presented for your approval – and/or outrage -- are six trades that shook the decade.

1. Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles -- This one hit like a bolt out of the blue. There was a lot of scurrying around in Edmonton and Los Angeles on Aug. 9, 1988 and for good reason. Wayne Gretzky, fresh off a Stanley Cup championship and a fairy-tale wedding, was adding another huge chapter to his life in rapid fashion.

The cold, hard facts read as follows in the transaction section of newspapers across North America -- Edmonton Oilers trade centers Wayne Gretzky and Mike Krushelnyski and defenseman Marty McSorley to the Los Angeles Kings for forwards Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, first-round draft picks in 1989, 1991 and 1993, and $15 million.

The cash was king. Former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington was experiencing hard times financially in his other businesses and the cash being offered by new Kings owner Bruce McNall solved more problems than the one created by dealing the best player in the history of the sport. Oilers GM Glen Sather stepped in and turned it into a trade so the team would recoup some assets. But the bottom line was an era had ended.

The reaction to the trade was swift and to the point. While Los Angeles celebrated in Hollywood style, Edmonton and Canada were devastated to see No. 99 headed to the United States.

"For the benefit of Wayne Gretzky, my new wife and our expected child in the new year, I thought it was beneficial to all involved if they let me play with the Kings," Gretzky said at a tearful farewell in Edmonton. "It's disappointing having to leave Edmonton, but there comes a time when ..."

As we now know, Gretzky eased the public backlash at Pocklington by saying the trade was his idea.

"I don't want to try and philosophize on what happened," Sather said at the time. "We tried to do what was good for Wayne, the Oilers and the NHL. We all would like to be proud of what we do for a living ... I know we'll adjust."

Indeed, the shock did wear off. The Oilers successfully integrated in new players like Adam Graves, Joe Murphy and Gelinas and remained atop the heap in the NHL.

And while Gretzky's tenure in Los Angeles didn't produce a Stanley Cup, his trade to the States sparked a great interest in the sport that can still be seen today with NHL franchises now calling non-traditional cities like Dallas, Phoenix, Anaheim, San Jose, Nashville and Tampa home.

"I remember that first summer, I spent every day going to hockey clinics and doing interviews trying to sell the game," Gretzky told the Los Angeles Daily News. "It didn't happen overnight, and a lot of people put in a lot of hours. The one thing I worried about was being a $15 million bust."

Hardly a bust. While the Kings didn't win a Stanley Cup with Gretzky, they did reach the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals and Gretzky went on to finish his career as the NHL's all-time leading scorer and to own dozens of League records and trophies.

It's tough to argue that this isn't the biggest trade of the 1980s. Heck you can make a pretty good argument this is the biggest trade in NHL history.

Upon joining the Bruins, Cam Neely redefined the term power forward in Boston carving a swath of destruction as wide as the rink as he scored, checked and fought his way into being a legend.

2. Cam Neely to Boston (1986) -- This is one of those trades that didn't have folks agog early, but let's say it was a big-time finisher for the Boston Bruins. If you need evidence, look into the rafters of the FleetCenter, where Neely's trademark No. 8 now hangs amidst the likes of Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Milt Schmidt.

The Vancouver Canucks had drafted Neely in 1983, and his progress wasn't immediate. So when the Bruins proposed a swap of Barry Pederson, then a top-flight center, for Neely and a first-round pick in 1987, the Canucks agreed.

At the time, the trade had little dramatic appeal on either side, certainly nothing in the Gretzky context. But almost as soon as Neely landed in Boston the forces of nature made Neely a legend and Canucks fans rue the day the trade went down.

The Bruins used the first-round pick on defenseman Glen Wesley, who is still plying his trade in the League today. That made it doubly tough for the Canucks, who saw the Bruins get two regulars in the lineup.

To be fair, Pederson scored 60 goals and 137 assists in 233 games with the Canucks. But Neely redefined the term power forward in Boston carving a swath of destruction as wide as the rink as he scored, checked and fought his way into being a legend. In all, Neely appeared in 525 regular-season games for the Bruins before he was forced to retire prematurely because of injury. In those 525 games, Neely scored 344 goals and 246 assists. In Stanley Cup Playoff competition, the fierce Neely netted 55 goals and 32 assists in 86 games.

For his part, Wesley appeared in more than 500 games with the Bruins and another 100 playoff games before being traded to the Hartford Whalers in 1994 for first-round picks in 1995, '96 and '97. The Bruins used those picks on Kyle McLaren, Johnathan Aiken and Sergei Samsonov.