50 Fun Facts About Edmonton Oilers

Under which name did the Oilers play their first WHA season in 1972-73?

Alberta Oilers. The idea was to split home games between Edmonton and Calgary, but it fell through: every home game stayed in Edmonton, and the city's name returned a year later.

Which Oilers co-founder also helped found the Western Hockey League and owned the junior Oil Kings?

Wild Bill Hunter. The two Americans who dreamed up the WHA had come from pro basketball; they brought him in, and he set about lining up owners for the new league's first franchises.

Which WHA club entered the NHL in 1979 alongside the Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques?

New England Whalers. Renamed for Hartford on joining the NHL, they later moved south to become the Carolina Hurricanes, the team that beat Edmonton in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final.

Which journeyman forward joined the Oilers in 1976, became player-coach and ran the team for over two decades?

Glen Sather. A hard-working grinder who passed through six NHL teams without starring, he built the Oilers dynasty that won five Stanley Cups between 1984 and 1990, coaching the first four.

From which struggling WHA club did Peter Pocklington buy 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky in 1978?

Indianapolis Racers. Gretzky played only eight games for them before owner Nelson Skalbania, short of money, sold the teenager's contract to Edmonton.

Which Oiler scored the last goal in WHA history in the 1979 Avco Cup final?

Dave Semenko. Better known for his fists as Wayne Gretzky's on-ice bodyguard, he went three exhibition rounds with Muhammad Ali in Edmonton in 1983, a bout judged a draw.

How did Pocklington keep Gretzky out of the 1979 NHL entry draft pool?

A 21-year personal-services contract. Signed at centre ice on Gretzky's 18th birthday, it made him Pocklington's own employee rather than the team's, and the NHL let Edmonton keep him.

Whose single-season record of 76 goals did Wayne Gretzky shatter with 92 in 1981-82?

Phil Esposito. Gretzky also reached 50 goals that season in just 39 games, when the old mark was 50 in 50, getting there with five in one night against Philadelphia.

Which team erased the Oilers' 5-0 lead in the 1982 'Miracle on Manchester'?

Los Angeles Kings. Down 5-0 after two periods, they tied the game with five seconds left and won 6-5 in overtime; the name comes from Manchester Boulevard, where their arena stood.

Which team swept the Oilers in the 1983 Final before Edmonton beat them for the 1984 Cup?

New York Islanders. Walking past the winners' dressing room after the sweep, the young Oilers saw veterans covered in ice packs and decided they had not hurt enough to win.

Which Oiler's 54 goals ranked second on the team in 1983-84?

Glenn Anderson. Drafted by Edmonton in 1979, he chose to play for Canada at the 1980 Olympics before joining the Oilers, then helped them score a record 446 goals in 1983-84.

Which Oilers defenceman piled up 37 points in the 1985 playoffs?

Paul Coffey. He had 12 goals and 25 assists that spring, more points than every forward in the playoffs except Wayne Gretzky, who took the playoff MVP award with 47.

Which Oilers rookie scored on his own net on his birthday to decide Game 7 against Calgary in 1986?

Steve Smith. His clearing pass banked in off his own goalie's skate; a year later, when Edmonton won the Cup back, Wayne Gretzky handed it to him first.

Which Flyers rookie goalie won the 1987 Conn Smythe despite losing Game 7 to Edmonton?

Ron Hextall. He dragged Philadelphia back from 3-1 down to force that seventh game, and later that year became the first NHL goalie to score by shooting the puck into the net.

Which 1987 documentary went behind the scenes with the Oilers on the way to their third Stanley Cup?

The Boys on the Bus. Director Bob McKeown started filming in 1985-86, saw the Oilers knocked out by Calgary, and came back for another season to get his Stanley Cup ending.

Why was Game 4 of the Oilers' 1988 Stanley Cup Final in Boston abandoned?

A power outage hit the arena. Boston Garden went dark with the score 3-3 in the second period, so the game was scrapped and Edmonton finished its sweep at home two nights later.

Which Stanley Cup tradition did Wayne Gretzky start after the Oilers' 1988 win?

The team photo on the ice. Gretzky waved players, coaches and staff to centre ice for an unplanned picture with the Cup in what proved his last game as an Oiler, and champions have posed that way since.

Which young centre came to Edmonton in the 1988 Gretzky trade, scored 49 goals, then asked to leave?

Jimmy Carson. Edmonton also got Martin Gelinas, three first-round picks and US$15 million, but Carson never settled and was traded to Detroit four games into his second season.

Which Oilers enforcer went to Los Angeles with Wayne Gretzky in the 1988 trade?

Marty McSorley. Five years later the two reached the Stanley Cup Final together, where his illegal stick drew a late penalty that let Montreal tie Game 2 and turn the series.

Which Oiler scored in the third overtime of Game 1 of the 1990 Final, having been benched for much of the night?

Petr Klima. Benched for long stretches, he came on to end the longest game a Stanley Cup Final had seen, starting Edmonton toward its first Cup without Wayne Gretzky.

Which Oilers star spent the 1990-91 season with Devils Milano in Italy?

Jari Kurri. A free agent after ten seasons in Edmonton, he scored 75 points in 30 games for the Milan club, then came back to the NHL to rejoin Wayne Gretzky in Los Angeles.

Which NBA owner nearly bought the Oilers in 1998 to move them to Houston?

Leslie Alexander. The Houston Rockets owner made a formal offer, but local buyers were given a deadline to keep the team for US$70 million, and a group of Edmonton business people raised it in time.

Whose overtime goal in Game 7 completed the Oilers' 1997 upset of the Dallas Stars?

Todd Marchant. He blew past defenceman Grant Ledyard, broke in alone on Andy Moog and beat the Dallas goalie at 12:26 of overtime.

Which team beat the Oilers 4-3 in the 2003 Heritage Classic, the NHL's first regular-season outdoor game?

Montreal Canadiens. Their goalie Jose Theodore pulled a tuque over his mask against the bitter cold, and 57,167 fans sat through it in an outdoor football stadium.

As the West's eighth seed, the 2006 Oilers reached the conference final by knocking out which two teams?

Detroit and San Jose. The Red Wings had the NHL's best record and fell in six games; the Sharks won the first two games of their series before Edmonton took four straight.

Which goalie's Game 1 knee injury in the 2006 Final forced Edmonton to turn to Jussi Markkanen?

Dwayne Roloson. He had played every minute of those playoffs until a late collision wrecked his knee; replacement Ty Conklin then misplayed the puck behind his net and gifted Carolina the winner.

Whose short-handed overtime goal won Game 5 of the 2006 Final for the Oilers?

Fernando Pisani. With Edmonton a man down and one loss from elimination, he picked off a pass and scored the first short-handed overtime goal in Stanley Cup Final history.

Which star Oilers defenceman asked for a trade just days after the 2006 Stanley Cup Final?

Chris Pronger. Sent to Anaheim that summer, he won the Stanley Cup with the Ducks the very next season, while Edmonton went ten years without a playoff game.

Which pharmacy magnate bought the Oilers from the Edmonton Investors Group in 2008?

Daryl Katz. His first bid of $145 million was turned down with the words 'the Oilers are not for sale'; a year later the Rexall drugstore owner got the team for about $200 million.

Which star refused a 2009 trade to Edmonton and ended up in San Jose instead?

Dany Heatley. He had asked Ottawa for a trade, yet refused to waive his no-move clause for Edmonton even after Oilers executives visited his home in Kelowna to talk him round.

Which four players did the Oilers take first overall between 2010 and 2015?

Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Yakupov and McDavid. Three straight top picks from 2010 to 2012 could not lift Edmonton into the playoffs; the club got back only in 2017, McDavid's second season.

Whom did the Oilers receive from New Jersey in the 2016 one-for-one trade of Taylor Hall?

Adam Larsson. Edmonton gave up its top winger to steady its defence, and two years later Hall was voted the NHL's most valuable player as a Devil.

Whose record as the NHL's youngest captain did Connor McDavid break in 2016?

Gabriel Landeskog. McDavid got the C at 19 years and 266 days, 20 days younger than the Colorado captain had been, after a season in which the Oilers had no captain at all.

Whose franchise record of 40 wins by a goalie did Cam Talbot break in 2016-17?

Grant Fuhr. His 40 wins came in 1987-88, when he played a then-record 75 games; Talbot's 42 took the Oilers back to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

Which trophy did Connor McDavid win by unanimous vote in 2021, as only Wayne Gretzky had before him?

Hart Trophy. All 100 voters named him the league's most valuable player after he scored 105 points in a 56-game season; Gretzky's clean sweep had come back in 1982.

Connor McDavid's 153 points in 2022-23 were the NHL's most since whose 161?

Mario Lemieux. No one had reached 150 since his 161 in 1995-96, yet McDavid's 64 goals and 153 points still ended in a second-round playoff exit.

Which coach took over the Oilers from Jay Woodcroft in November 2023 and went 46-18-5 the rest of the way?

Kris Knoblauch. Hired from the minor leagues to a 3-9-1 team, he saw the Oilers reel off 16 straight wins and come within one game of the Stanley Cup.

Which team beat Edmonton in both the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup Finals?

Florida Panthers. In 2024 Edmonton lost the first three games, won the next three and fell 2-1 in Game 7; the 2025 rematch was over in six.

Whom did the Oilers hire as general manager in July 2024?

Stan Bowman. He had resigned in Chicago over the club's handling of a player's 2010 abuse complaint, and the NHL reinstated him only three weeks before Edmonton made him general manager.

Which comic-book creator and minority owner designed the Oilers' 2001 flying-gears jersey?

Todd McFarlane. The Spawn creator, a part owner of the team, hid a tribute in the logo: five rivets around the oil drop for the Stanley Cups and ten gear teeth for the captains.

Which colours did the Oilers adopt in 1996, dropping the look of their 1980s dynasty?

Midnight blue and copper. In 2008 the club brought back its 1980s jersey as an alternate, and after a single season it became the main home jersey.

Oilers fans answer Calgary's 'C of Red' by turning their own arena which colour?

Orange. The 'Orange Surge' began with a 2015 alternate jersey that nodded to the club's WHA sweaters, and it caught on so well that it became the home jersey two years later.

Which Edmonton club's 1952 Olympic gold for Canada inspired the Oilers' 2023 Heritage Classic uniforms?

Mercurys. Named for the car dealership that sponsored them, the amateurs won what turned out to be Canada's last Olympic hockey gold for 50 years.

Which arena did Rogers Place replace as the Oilers' home in 2016?

Northlands Coliseum. It was called Rexall Place by its final NHL game in April 2016, when Wayne Gretzky and other Oilers greats came back for a farewell ceremony on the ice.

Edmonton and which other city hosted the NHL's 2020 playoff bubble?

Toronto. The East played there and the West in Edmonton, then both conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final moved to Rogers Place, though the host Oilers had gone out in the opening round.

Which OHL club did Connor McDavid join at 15 after receiving exceptional-player status?

Erie Otters. The league's draft age is 16, so he needed a special ruling, only the third ever granted, before Erie could take him with the first pick in 2012.

Which injury cost Connor McDavid three months of his rookie season?

A fractured clavicle. He was hurt against Philadelphia in early November 2015 and missed 37 games, yet still scored 48 points in the 45 he played.

Which legendary Canadiens goalie briefly played for the WHA Oilers and entered the Hall of Fame in 1978?

Jacques Plante. The first goalie to wear a mask as a matter of course, he had been coaching in Quebec when he pulled the pads back on at 45 for one last season, with Edmonton in 1974-75.

In 2015, the Oilers moved their AHL affiliate from Oklahoma City to which California city?

Bakersfield. Five NHL clubs moved their farm teams to California at once to form a new Pacific Division, and Edmonton's took the Condors name from the lower-league team it replaced.

Which coach replaced Craig MacTavish behind the Oilers bench after the 2008-09 season?

Pat Quinn. Back in the city where he won junior hockey's Memorial Cup in 1963, he lasted one season: the Oilers finished last in the league and Tom Renney took over.