The Next One is a nickname that has belonged to the following ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 players:

• Eric Lindros
  Eric Lindros
  Eric Bryan Lindros is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player. Lindros played junior hockey in the OHL for the Oshawa Generals prior to being selected first overall in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft by the Quebec Nordiques...
  
  
• Sidney Crosby
  Sidney Crosby
  Sidney Patrick Crosby ONS is a Canadian professional ice hockey player and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League . Crosby was drafted first overall by the Penguins out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League...
  
  
• John Tavares

The name is a play on Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...

's nickname, "The Great One". Each of the players listed has been or is currently billed as the next Wayne Gretzky. Phil Kessel

Phil Kessel

Philip Joseph Kessel, Jr. is an American professional ice hockey forward, and an alternate captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League . Kessel is a product of USA Hockey's National Development Team and became that program's all-time leader for goals and points in his final...

 was considered to be on the list during his junior career, but his performance dropped in 2006 and he was taken off the list. To date, no player given the moniker has broken a National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 record set by Gretzky. Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux, OC, CQ is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He is acknowledged to be one of the best players of all time. He played 17 seasons as a forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League between 1984 and 2006...

, "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.