Basic information
The team colours of Edmonton Oilers are orange, navy blue and white. The current General manager is Dave Holland and the head coach is Dave Tippett. Oilers has two minor league affiliate teams: Bakersfield Condors in AHL league and Wichita Thunder in ECHL league. The home arena of Oilers is Rogers Place, which is also home of Edmonton Oil Kings of Western Hockey League (WHL). Rogers Place has over 18 000 seat capacity for ice hockey matches.
Oilers dynasty and huge success
After getting a place in NHL, General manager Glenn Sather did great job in acquiring huge talent in Oilers Roster. The most important pair was one of the most iconic duos in sports: Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri. After Gretzky left after year 1988, Oilers managed to grab one more Stanley Cup. After 1990, the success of Oilers has been somewhat limited, resulting only one Stanley Cup final position in season 2005-06.
Gretzky and Kurri broke all imaginable records in NHL, but Oilers were more than just this duo. They had other quality players as well and for a few years, they were unstoppable. The long period without any notable success seemed to end when Connor McDavid was drafted in 2015. Still, the team can only dream of remaking the 1980’s success years.
Gretzky and Kurri
Kurri and Gretzky played almost 13 seasons together in Oilers and LA Kings. Nobody assisted Gretzky’s goals more than Kurri and Gretzky assisted more than a half of Kurri’s NHL goals. They had different player type, but they fitted together perfectly. Kurri has later said that he wanted to move to LA Kings because of Gretzky. Gretzky and Kurri have been called as Batman and Robin of NHL.
Other dynasty era legends
Mark Messier played amazing 25 years in NHL. Messier is a true legend – he played 1756 regular NHL games and scored 1887 points. He won six Stanley Cups in his career. After his playing career, he served NY Rangers in different positions.
Paul Coffey played seven seasons for the Oilers. The Canadian defenceman had a great shot and he was a good skater as well. Coffey won the Norris Trophy – an award for best defender – for three times. Coffey scored more than 100 points in five seasons, which is a rare achievement for defenceman.
Grant Fuhr played ten seasons for Oilers and won five Stanley Cups with them. Fuhr was chosen six times to NHL All Star team. He was inducted in Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.
Other legends include Glenn Anderson, Esa Tikkanen and Bill Ranford. We should not forget the future legends that are part of today’s Oilers: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are some of the best players currently around.