Edmonton Oilers Tickets

The Oilers joined the NHL after the league’s merger with the WHA in 1979. Edmonton was exciting team from the beginning of their time in the NHL because they had already signed a young Wayne Gretzky to a long contract.

Gretzky, of course, is commonly considered the best player to ever play the game, and he had the best seasons of his career with the Oilers. Gretzky played like he was years ahead of everyone else. The goalies and defensemen who played against him — especially during his time in Edmonton — often looked foolish trying to stop him from scoring. As a result, Gretzky put up numbers we’re likely to never see again. It’s a major achievement in today’s NHL if a player scores 50 goals in an 82-game season. In the 1981-82 season, Gretzky scored 50 goals in just 39 games and finished the 80-game season with an NHL-record 92 goals. In the 1985-86 season, Gretzky scored 52 goals and added an NHL-record 163 assists for an incredible 215 points. Gretzky scored 200 points in a season four times.

The 1980s Oilers surrounded Gretzky with other players who were great in their own right. Their all-star lineups included Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, and Grant Fuhr. Gretzky and the Oilers won four Stanley Cups between 1983 and 1988, and the Oilers won a Stanley Cup without Gretzky in 1990. During the NHL’s 100th anniversary celebration, the 1984-85 Oilers were named the greatest NHL team of all time.

In 2015, after many disappointing seasons, the Oilers won the draft lottery and drafted Connor McDavid with the first overall pick. McDavid was highly coveted by many teams, and was considered the best hockey prospect since Sidney Crosby in 2005. And McDavid hasn’t disappointed. He’s scored at least 100 points (a rarity in today’s NHL) multiple times and has led the Oilers to the playoffs.