Oilers to honour team Hall of Fame inductees head of Thursday’s game against Devils

The inaugural class of the Edmonton Oilers’ Team Hall of Fame will be honoured with a pre-game ceremony ahead of Thursday’s match against the New Jersey Devils.

The ceremony will recognize this year’s two new inductees, Ryan Smyth and Lee Fogolin, along with the handful of inductees who were automatically added by virtue of being enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in the past, Al Hamilton, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe, Glen Sather, and Rod Phillips.

Fogolin, Smyth, Hamilton, Kurri, Coffey, Lowe, and other team alumni will be in attendance for the ceremony, which will see the names permanently enshrined in the ring above the PCL Loge Level at Rogers Place.

Smyth was selected with the No. 6 overall pick by the Oilers at the 1994 NHL Draft and he quickly endeared himself as a heart-and-soul player on the team. He ranks second in franchise history in all-time games played at 971, fifth in goals with 296, and eighth in points with 631.

 

Fogolin was selected by the Oilers in the 1979 expansion draft from the Buffalo Sabres, where he had been a solid defender for six seasons. He provided the club with a rugged, veteran presence on their blueline and was a part of the team’s first two Stanley Cup championships in 1984 and 1985.

The Oilers have a team policy of only retiring the number of players who are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, so the team’s ring of honour allows the Oilers another avenue to celebrate individuals who are important to the team’s history. Beyond Smyth and Fogolin, some other names we’ll likely see added in the coming years are Charlie Huddy, Dave Semenko, Esa Tikkanen, Doug Weight, Curtis Joseph, and Ales Hemsky.