Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Oilers have won the Stanley Cup on five occasions, in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990. The team was founded in 1972 as the Edmonton Oilers, a founding franchise of the major professional World Hockey Association (WHA). Notably, the team was renamed the Alberta Oilers when the Calgary Broncos, a fellow WHA founding franchise in Alberta, relocated to Cleveland. The team returned to the name Edmonton Oilers the following year. The Oilers joined the NHL in 1979 as one of four franchises merged from the WHA and is the only remaining WHA team in-place.

The NHL's dominant team in the 1980s, the Oilers greatest success since the dynasty era was a run to Game Seven of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.

The Oilers have an intense rivalry with the Calgary Flames, known as the Battle of Alberta, since the Flames' relocation from Atlanta in 1980.

Franchise history

WHA years (1972-1979)
In 1972 the Edmonton Oilers joined the World Hockey Association as one of 12 founding franchises. After fellow founding franchise Calgary Broncos relocated to Cleveland before commencement of the inaugural season, the team was renamed the Alberta Oilers as it was planned to split their home games between Edmonton and Calgary. For various reasons, possibly financial or the possibility of allowing easier expansion of the WHA to Calgary, the team played all of its games in Edmonton, and changed its name back to reflect this the following year. The team began their inaugural year wearing the name of the province ("ALBERTA") along the backs of their jerseys where the players' names would usually appear, but switched to presenting the players' names midway through the season. The team was originally owned by Bill Hunter. Hunter had previously owned the junior hockey franchise Edmonton Oil Kings and founded what would become the Western Hockey League, but his efforts to bring major professional hockey to Edmonton via an expansion NHL franchise were rebuffed by the NHL. It was Hunter that originally chose the name "Oilers" for the new WHA franchise, a name that had previously been used as a nickname for the Edmonton Oil Kings in the 1950s and 1960s.

The team proved popular with the fans, behind stars such as defenceman and team captain Al Hamilton, star goaltender Dave Dryden, and forwards Blair MacDonald and Bill Flett. The team's performance would change for the better in 1978, when new owner Peter Pocklington scored one of the greatest trades in hockey history, acquiring already-aspiring superstar Wayne Gretzky as an under-age player (consequentially, his first year of WHA experience did not make him an official 1979-80 NHL rookie), as well as goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll, from the recently-folded Indianapolis Racers for a token sum. Gretzky's first and only WHA season, 1978-79, saw the Oilers shoot to the top of the WHA standings, posting a league-best 48-30-2 record. However, Edmonton’s regular season success did not translate into a championship, as they fell to the rival Winnipeg Jets in the Avco World Trophy Final. Young Oilers enforcer Dave Semenko scored the last goal in WHA history late in the third period of the final game.

The Oilers joined the National Hockey League for 1979-80, with fellow WHA teams Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and the Jets. Of these four teams, only Edmonton has avoided relocation and renaming; the Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, the Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996, and the Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997

Entry into the NHL (1979-1983)
The Oilers lost most of the players from 1978-79 when the NHL held a reclamation draft of players who had bolted to the upstart league. They were allowed to protect two players and two skill players, including Gretzky.

However, GM/coach Glen Sather carefully restocked the roster in the expansion draft. He later said that out of 761 players on the draft list, only 53 really interested him. He concentrated on drafting free agents, since the Oilers would get compensation if they signed somewhere else. He estimated that this saved the Oilers as much as $500,000 that could be used in the Entry Draft.

This strategy allowed the Oilers to put together a fairly respectable team quickly. In marked contrast, the Jets finished dead last in the league two years in a row. The Oilers benefited from an early run of success in the Entry Draft. Within three years, Sather and chief scout Barry Fraser bagged an outstanding core of young players, including Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe, Grant Fuhr, and Andy Moog.

Blessed with an abundance of speed and skill and given room to grow by Sather, this impressive group of young talent matured into one of the greatest teams in hockey history, dominating the NHL in the mid-to-late 1980s. Many experts consider the Oilers from that decade not only to be the best team ever in the long history of the NHL, but also one of the best sports teams ever, as evidenced by a recent Sporting News poll in February 2006 when the 1987-88 Oilers were listed as one of the top-five teams from the last 120 years.

The Oilers made a name for themselves very early, making the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their first NHL season (1979-80) with a dramatic late-season winning streak, but were swept by the Philadelphia Flyers in three games. Gretzky’s rookie disappointment was not limited to the “merger” rule that disqualified him from Calder Memorial Trophy voting — the Los Angeles Kings’ Marcel Dionne was awarded the Art Ross Trophy (point-scoring crown), even though the rookie Gretzky had an equal point total, 137: Dionne with 53 goals and 84 assists; Gretzky with 51 goals and 86 assists. Dionne won the Art Ross on the basis of more goals, even though Gretzky had played only 79 regular season games to Dionne's 80. In his 1985 biography of his son, Gretzky: From the Backyard Rink to the Stanley Cup, Walter Gretzky argued that the NHL was inconsistent and unfair with regards to Wayne's eligibility for the Calder Trophy and "loss" of the Art Ross Trophy. While the letter of the law was against him, Gretzky won over the voters with his remarkable performance, and was awarded the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, an unprecedented feat for a teenager.

In the 1980-81 regular season, Gretzky began to take serious aim at the record book, scoring 109 assists and 164 points to break records held by former Bruin greats Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, and Bill Cowley. The Oilers unveiled a spectacular crop of rookies: Kurri, Anderson, Coffey, and Moog. The youthful Oilers, whose seven key players were 21 or younger, stunned the hockey world by sweeping the heavily-favoured Montreal Canadiens in three games and pushing the (successfully) defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders to six games.

In the 1981-82 season, the Oilers made a dramatic leap in the standings – jumping from 74 points (16th overall) in the previous season to 111 points (second overall, behind only the Islanders). Gretzky not only became the third NHL player to score 50 goals in 50 games, joining the Islanders’ Mike Bossy from the previous season and Canadiens legend Maurice Richard from 1944-45, he obliterated their mark by accomplishing the feat in just 39 games. Gretzky finished the season with unprecedented totals of 92 goals and 212 points, and the explosive Oilers became the first NHL team to score 400 goals, a feat they accomplished in five consecutive seasons. But youthful lapses of discipline led to a first round defeat at the hands of the Kings, even as Gretzky beat Dionne for the Art Ross—in the 1980-81 to 1986-87 seasons, Gretzky won the Art Ross trophy every season, beating the annual runner-up by a colossal average of 66 points. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player in each of his first eight seasons.

In 1982-83 the Oilers solidified their status as an elite team, making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, they were swept in four games by the three-time defending champion Islanders, who had already-greats like Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Denis Potvin. Goaltender Billy Smith played a huge role in the Finals, holding the high-scoring Oilers to just 6 goals. Despite the sweep, many hockey pundits believed it was only a question of when, not if, the Oilers would finally break through.

Dynasty years (1983-1990)
In 1983-84, the Oilers roared through the regular season, earning a franchise-record 57 wins and 119 points – by far the best record in the league – while scoring a still-unmatched NHL record 446 goals. They earned a rematch with the Islanders in the Stanley Cup Finals. They won the opening game in Long Island by a very un-Oilerlike score of 1-0, and were pounded 6-1 in the next game. However, the Oilers erupted on their home ice to outscore the Islanders 19-6 over the last three games of the series. Gretzky scored his 99th and 100th goals of the season in the finale, a 5-2 Oiler triumph on May 19, 1984. Mark Messier, a former All-Star left wing switched to center late in the season in an inspired move by Sather, emerged from Gretzky's shadow with a dominating Finals performance that earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Edmonton repeated as Stanley Cup champions in 1985, overpowering the Philadelphia Flyers and star netminder Pelle Lindbergh, who died tragically later that year after a car crash. Gretzky, Coffey, and Kurri all established playoff scoring records, with Gretzky capturing the Smythe Trophy for his virtuoso 47-point performance. The Oilers were unstoppable, scoring eight goals in the final game of each of their last three series.

The Oilers seemed invincible after another record-smashing regular season in 1985-86, in which they won the first-ever President's Trophy, awarded to the team finishing with the most points in the regular season. Kurri, Anderson, and Gretzky all scored over 50 goals, while Coffey notched 48 to break Bobby Orr's record. Gretzky's 163 assists established a seemingly-unbreakable league record; in fact, at that point no other NHL player had ever scored that many points in a season. Shockingly, their bid for a third straight championship — “three-peat” — came to an end in Game 7 of the 1985-86 Smythe Division Finals against the Flames. In the third period of a 2-2 tie, rookie defenceman Steve Smith banked his breakout pass off goaltender Grant Fuhr's left skate and into the Oilers' net. The goal stood as the game- and-series-winning goal. In 1986-87, Edmonton returned to the Stanley Cup Final and again defeated the Flyers in a tense seven-game series, overcoming a Conn Smythe Trophy winning performance by Philadelphia rookie goalie Ron Hextall. In the seventh game Oiler stars Messier, Kurri, and Anderson were able to solve Hextall for a goal apiece, and a mature Edmonton squad held the Flyers to just two shots in the third period en route to a convincing 3-1 victory. In the post-game celebration, Gretzky immediately passed the Stanley Cup to Steve Smith, now vindicated after his costly miscue the previous season.

The following season saw some trouble with fluid blueliner Coffey, who was unhappy with his contract. He held out, prompting a trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team on which Mario Lemieux was the main star. The key player acquired in return was Craig Simpson, who went on to score 56 goals that season. Without Coffey in 1987-88, the Oilers were dethroned as Smythe Division champions by their provincial rivals, the Flames--who also won the President's Trophy. However, the playoffs saw the Oilers made their strongest run to the Cup, losing only two playoff games (the lowest loss total ever for the Cup winners under the "16 wins" playoff format), and sweeping the Boston Bruins to win their fourth Stanley Cup in five years. In doing so, the Oilers left their mark as one of the greatest teams of all time.

A notable event in Finals history occurred in Game Four on May 24. With the score tied 3-3 in the second period, a power outage struck the legendary Boston Garden, forcing cancellation of the whole game. Then-NHL President John Ziegler ordered the game to be re-scheduled, and, if necessary, played in Boston after the originally scheduled Game Seven in Edmonton. The Oilers would win the next game (originally scheduled as Game Five) back in Edmonton 6-3 to complete the series sweep. All player statistics accrued in the aborted Game Four in Boston are counted in the NHL record books. Gretzky established yet another record with 13 points in the Finals en route to his second Smythe Trophy. After the Cup-clinching game, Gretzky implored his teammates, coaches, trainers, and others from the Oilers organization to join at centre ice for an impromptu team photo with the Stanley Cup, a tradition since continued by every subsequent Stanley Cup Champion.

On August 9, 1988, Gretzky, along with fan favourites Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, was traded to Los Angeles for $15 million, two rising young players (Jimmy Carson and Martin Gelinas), along with three first-round draft picks. Carson only played two seasons in Edmonton before being traded to the Detroit Red Wings. Gelinas played five years for Edmonton, never scoring more than twenty goals. The Oilers traded the 1989 pick (Jason Miller) to the New Jersey Devils for defenceman Corey Foster, then used the 1991 and 1993 picks to select Martin Rucinsky and Nick Stajduhar, respectively, neither of whom were major contributors during their time in Edmonton.

The 1988-89 season was a troubled one, as the Oilers were booted out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 1982, losing a seven-game series to Gretzky's Kings. On top of this defeat, they had to see the Cup ultimately claimed by their provincial rivals, the Flames. Gretzky and Kurri had been the dominant offensive pairing of the 1980s, and many said that Kurri without Gretzky would be ordinary. But in making the NHL Second All-Star Team in his first season without Gretzky, with 44 goals and 58 assists, Kurri proved his critics wrong.

It was seemingly the beginning of the end for Edmonton's brilliance. 1989-90 seemed set to continue the turmoil for the former juggernaut. Fuhr, the team's All-Star goaltender and a future Hall of Famer, was injured for most of the season and playoffs with a badly separated shoulder. He would be traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1991 after publicly acknowledging his cocaine problem (for which he was suspended an NHL record 60 games during the 1990-91 season). However, the team rallied behind Fuhr's backup Bill Ranford and an MVP season from new team captain Mark Messier to achieve a second-place finish in the Smythe Division behind Calgary. In the playoffs, the Oilers, led by their "Kid Line" of Gelinas, Adam Graves, and Joe Murphy (not to be confused with the 1932 Leafs line of the same name consisting of Busher Jackson, Joe Primeau, and Charlie Conacher), got by Winnipeg, Los Angeles, and Chicago before disposing of the Boston Bruins in five games to claim their fifth Stanley Cup in seven years. Ranford won the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff Most Valuable Player for his brilliant goaltending, and Kurri said of the victory, “Just a great load off the backs of us Oilers — we’re not a one-man show, and everybody knows it now, after we won without Wayne.” This season was also a test for Mark Messier, who was named captain one season prior. He proved his leadership skills, having a career season with 129 points, finishing second to none other than Gretzky in scoring, scoring 5 more goals than Gretzky, and captaining his team to the Stanley Cup.

Seven Oilers, including Messier, Anderson, Kurri, Lowe, Randy Gregg, Charlie Huddy, and Fuhr, played on all five of those championship teams. Three of them, Lowe, Messier (who was the captain), and Anderson, subsequently won a sixth Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994; by remarkable coincidence, they were the first three draft choices in the history of the NHL Oilers.

Rebuilding years (1991-2004)
The Gretzky trade had opened up a new reality of rapidly climbing salaries in the NHL, and small-market teams like Edmonton simply could not compete with salaries offered by larger-market teams, mainly in the United States. This rash of escalating salaries hit the Canadian teams particularly hard; only Toronto, Montreal, and (to a lesser extent) Vancouver had the resources to compete in this new environment. In addition, Pocklington's business empire sank under the weight of recession, scandal, and corruption.

Messier, Kurri, Fuhr, Anderson, and later Craig MacTavish all left the team in rapid succession, leaving behind an underdeveloped base of young players and unproven prospects and exposing the Oilers' poor drafting through the dynasty years. Many of the players from the dynasty years continued to play at an elite level well into the 1990s, leading to speculation about how many more Cups the Oilers would have won had Pocklington been able to keep the team together. For instance, in 1994, the New York Rangers won the Cup with seven former Oilers--Messier, Lowe, Anderson, MacTavish, Esa Tikkanen, Jeff Beukeboom and Adam Graves.

Despite appearances in the Conference Final in 1991 and 1992, the Oilers were nowhere near the powerhouse that had dominated the league in the previous half-decade. In 1993 the Oilers missed the playoffs for only the third time in franchise history, and their first time as an NHL team. They would not return for four years, despite the emergence of young centremen Doug Weight and Jason Arnott.

Trouble followed the team off the ice as well. For most of the 1990s, the Oilers were desperately trying to stay alive. In 1998, the team was nearly sold to Houston interests who sought to move the team, but before the sale was finalized, and with just hours left on the deadline, the Edmonton Investors Group, a consortium of 37 Edmonton-based owners, raised the funds to purchase the team from Pocklington, vowing to keep the Oilers in Edmonton. The Oilers received support in this endeavour from the NHL, which had already seen two Canadian teams (the Nordiques and Jets) move to the United States earlier in the decade.

In 1997, the Oilers made the playoffs for the first time in five years, and in the first round, they upset the Dallas Stars, who had compiled the league's second best record, in an exciting seven-game series. Riding on the hot goaltending of Curtis Joseph, the Oilers completed the upset on a breakaway by Todd Marchant in overtime. Another highlight of that playoff series was on April 20. Down 3-0 with just under four minutes to go in Game Three, the Oilers rallied for three goals in the final three minutes of the third period to tie the game and eventually win 4-3 in overtime on Kelly Buchberger's game-winning goal.

Though Edmonton would lose to the defending Cup Champs, Patrick Roy and the Colorado Avalanche, in the next round, fans were ecstatic about the Oilers' return to the playoffs. In 1998, Joseph led the Oilers to another first-round upset. After spotting the Avalanche a 3-1 lead, the Oilers held the powerful Avalanche scoreless for eight straight periods en route to winning the series in seven games. Dallas and Edmonton met again in the second round, but this time, the Stars were the victors. This was the start of one of the most unusual rivalries in hockey: between 1997 and 2003 the Oilers and Stars played each other in the playoffs six times, five of them first-round matchups. The only year in which they did not meet was 2002, when neither team made the playoffs. This streak was not formally ended until 2006, when the 2nd-seeded Stars (in the Western Conference) were eliminated in the first round by the Avalanche, while, for the first time in 16 years, the 8th-seeded Oilers went to the Stanley Cup Final.

On November 22, 2003, the Oilers hosted the Heritage Classic, the first outdoor hockey game in the NHL's history and part of the celebrations of the Oilers' 25th season in the NHL. The Oilers were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in front of more than 55,000 fans, an NHL attendance record, at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. A few days earlier, on November 17, 2003, the Edmonton Oilers desperately needed a centre, and signed veteran Adam Oates to a contract. However, the 2003-04 NHL season was a disappointment as the Oilers failed to make the playoffs, despite also acquiring centre Petr Nedved from the New York Rangers at the trade deadline as the team went on a late-season surge.

On July 23, 2004, the team announced that its American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Roadrunners, would play the 2004-05 AHL season at the Oilers' home arena of Rexall Place. The decision, an unusual one for a North American professional sports organization, was likely influenced by the expectation that the 2004-05 NHL lockout would wipe out the 2004-05 NHL season. After an unsuccessful year, the Edmonton Road Runners were suspended, and as of 2007, have not yet been revived in any form. Those plans have all but been terminated as the Oilers' long-planned push to own an expansion Western Hockey League major-junior franchise were granted on June 27, 2006. That team began play in the 2007-2008 season.

Post-lockout years (2005-present)
The Oilers struggled with their small-market status for years as big-market teams scooped up high-priced help, but after the wiped-out 2004-05 season, the Oilers looked poised to compete again. 2004-05 NHL lockout negotiations led to a collective bargaining agreement between the NHL owners and players that included a league-wide salary cap, forcing all teams to essentially conform to a budget, as many small-market teams had been doing for years. Sold-out buildings and a more reasonable conversion rate of Canadian dollar revenues to U.S. dollar payroll in the new millennium have also helped the Oilers to return to profitability.

Although Edmonton was one of the last teams to make a big splash in the free-agent market, they were able to acquire the rights to and sign former Hart- and Norris Trophy-winner Chris Pronger from the St. Louis Blues to a 5-year, $31.25 million contract, as well as trade for New York Islanders forward Michael Peca, two-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy for best defensive forward. Although the club had to give up Mike York and Eric Brewer to the Islanders and Blues, respectively, fans now hoped the team could at least return to the playoffs, if not to the glory the franchise enjoyed during its late 1980s dynasty era.

However, the team suffered again from inconsistency during the first few months of the regular season, especially in goal and on offence. Goaltender Ty Conklin was injured during training camp, and when he returned, was unreliable in net. Nominal backup Jussi Markkanen showed flashes of brilliance, but still was not quite ready for regular NHL goaltending duty. Edmonton even tried third-string goalie Mike Morrison, called up from the East Coast Hockey League, but after a strong start, he too faded. A streaky goal-scoring production led by left-wingers Ryan Smyth and Raffi Torres had trouble putting pucks in the net at times, but Torres did produce back to back two goal games on his 24th birthday, October 8, 2005 against the Vancouver Canucks and on October 10, 2005 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Chris Pronger also struggled early on with the rule changes restricting the amount of obstruction and front-of-the-net abuse — Pronger's previous specialty — that could be performed without a penalty, while Peca simply had trouble adapting to the Oilers' system and expectations, desperately underachieving. Many called for head coach Craig MacTavish to be fired; others wanted a big trade, some miracle. Nothing major materialized, but by the end of December, the Oilers led the Northwest Division with a 22-18-4 record for 48 points.

However, the Oilers remained inconsistent. By the end of January, the Oilers traded for scoring defencemen Jaroslav Spacek from the Chicago Blackhawks and Dick Tarnstrom from the Pittsburgh Penguins, and both defencemen, Spacek in particular, secured their shaky blue line. However, their goaltending was still in doubt, and the Oilers struggled after the Winter Olympic break. But right before Trading Deadline 2006, the Oilers added 2004 All-Star goaltender Dwayne Roloson from the Minnesota Wild, and speedy forward Sergei Samsonov, a former rookie of the year, from the Boston Bruins. The Oilers gave up a pair of picks for Roloson, and checking centre Marty Reasoner and prospect Yan Stastny (previously acquired from the Bruins) along with a 2006 2nd round draft pick for Samsonov. Reasoner returned to Edmonton after the 2006 playoffs ended.

The new acquisitions paid off, and Edmonton finished the regular season with 95 points, clinching the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference over Vancouver. Oiler youngsters Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff, and Jarret Stoll led the way in scoring, with break-out seasons of 77, 73, and 68 points, respectively. Smyth finished with 36 goals and 66 points, the second-best seasons of his career in both respects. Smyth led the team in goal-scoring, with Raffi Torres next on the list at 27.

2006 playoff run
In the first round of the playoffs, the Oilers played the Presidents' Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings. Though not given much of a chance by experts around the league, the Oilers pulled off a six-game upset, neutralizing Wings' offensive weapons Brendan Shanahan, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, in an "oil press" that MacTavish designed. It was the team's first playoff series win since 1998. Edmonton would meet the San Jose Sharks in the Conference Semifinal. The Oilers weren't expected to win here either, after point champion Joe Thornton (also acquired from the Bruins to go to San Jose) and goal champ Jonathan Cheechoo had torn through Nashville Predators in just 5 games. After trailing the series two-games-to-none, the Oilers won the next four, vaulting them into Conference Final. In Game Six, Roloson had a 2-0 shutout — his first ever — and Michael Peca netted the game- and series-winning goal. In doing so, the Oilers became the first eighth-seeded team to reach a Conference Final since the NHL changed the playoff format in 1994. There the Oilers would beat the sixth-seeded Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in five games, claiming the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl for a record seventh time.


Edmonton faced the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Finals (marking the first time two former World Hockey Association teams met in Stanley Cup play). Tied at 4 in the first game, Oilers starting goalie Dwayne Roloson was hurt and put out of action for the rest of the playoffs after a collision when Oiler blue-liner Marc-Andre Bergeron knocked 'Canes winger Andrew Ladd into him with under 6 minutes to play in Game One. With Roloson out, Rod Brind'Amour scored the game winner on a mix up by Ty Conklin and Jason Smith with only thirty seconds left. After trailing the series 2-0 and 3-1, the Oilers forced a seventh game while riding backup Jussi Markkanen, a miracle overtime shorthanded goal in game 5 by local hero Fernando Pisani, and a 4-0 shutout win at home in Game 6. They could not complete the comeback, however, as the Hurricanes won Game 7 by a score of 3-1 (third goal was an empty net) to capture their first ever Stanley Cup championship.

2006 off-season
Two days after their heartbreaking loss to the Hurricanes, Chris Pronger surprised Oiler fans and management when he issued a trade request on June 21, citing unspecified personal reasons. On July 3, he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for sniper Joffrey Lupul, top defensive prospect Ladislav Smid, Anaheim's first round draft pick in 2007, Anaheim's second in 2008, and a conditional first. In addition, many of the Oilers' 2005-06 acquisitions signed for contracts elsewhere: Jaroslav Spacek went to the Buffalo Sabres on July 5, Sergei Samsonov signed with the Montreal Canadiens on July 12, and Michael Peca with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs on July 18. In addition, enforcer and fan favourite Georges Laraque, despite offering the Oilers a substantial pay cut in exchange for a no-trade clause, wound up signing with the Phoenix Coyotes, and goaltender Ty Conklin, seeking to rebuild his reputation, signed a two-way contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets the following day. The Oilers also lost 2002-03 New York Rangers acquisition Radek Dvorak to unrestricted free agency as the St. Louis Blues signed him on September 14.

Despite these losses, many of the Oilers' core players were re-signed. Playoff heroes Fernando Pisani and Dwayne Roloson signed as unrestricted free agents (UFAs) on the first day of eligibility, July 1. Jarret Stoll, Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky filed for arbitration as restricted free agents, but all settled for multi-year deals before their hearings came up; Hemsky, in particular, signed for six years and $24.6 million. The Oilers also brought back centre Marty Reasoner, whom they had traded for Samsonov in March, prospect Tom Gilbert from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, defenceman Daniel Tjarnqvist from the Minnesota Wild, and defenceman Jan Hejda from Mytishchi Khimik of the Russian Super League, whose rights were acquired from the Sabres for a seventh-round pick. On August 11, Rangers UFA forward Petr Sykora and the Oilers agreed on a one-year contract. Just over a month later, on September 12, Joffrey Lupul and the Oilers agreed to a three-year contract worth $6.935 million.

2006-07 season
The Oilers posted a 32-43-7 record, their lowest point total since the 1995-1996 season, finishing in 11th place in the Western Conference and missing the playoffs. Throughout the season, the Oilers lost various players to injury and illness. At one point, they had eleven players out of the line-up had to rely on emergency call-ups to fill their roster.

In May 2007, Daryl Katz offered $145 million towards the purchase of the team. Sources close to the Edmonton Journal state that, as part of the deal, the team will remain in Edmonton. No negotiations took place as the Board of Directors immediately responded that the Oilers were not for sale. In July 2007, Katz tried again, this time increasing the offer to an amount over $170 million dollars. Katz bypassed the Board of Directors and brought the offer directly to the shareholders.

Other highlights include:

October 12, 2006 - Ryan Smyth records the fastest Oilers hat trick in franchise history at 2:01 minutes, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record of 2:12 minutes.
January 2, 2007 - The Oilers win their 1000th NHL game. They are the 3rd fastest team to reach 1000 wins after the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers.
February 27, 2007 - The Oilers traded Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders for Ryan O'Marra, Robert Nilsson, and a 1st round pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. The trade was announced just after the official deadline passed, which was sparked after failed contract negotiations to keep Smyth with the Oilers. Kevin Lowe and the Oilers management characterized the trade as an opportunity to build for the future. The trade was on the same day of Mark Messier's jersey retirement by the Oilers. To avoid disrupting the emotional ceremony with possible harassment from fans, Lowe was not seen on the ice with other Oiler alumni in attendance. The trade of Smyth, however, seemed to take more out of the Oilers than people realized. After the Smyth trade, the Oilers won 2 of their remaining 19 games, which included 11 consecutive losses.


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