Top 100 Oilers: Wayne Gretzky (1)

Photo credit:ALLSPORT USA /Allsport

6 years ago

In between being bought by Peter Pocklington in November of 1978 and being sold by Pocklington in August of 1988, Wayne Gretzky not only became the greatest player ever to lace his skates with the Edmonton Oilers, making him an absolute no-brainer atop this Top 100 Oilers list, No. 99 was well on his way to claiming his place as the greatest player the NHL has ever seen. If there’s any compelling argument about that, I haven’t heard it yet. Have you?

Gretzky was a rake-thin 17-year-old when he arrived in Edmonton on a private jet from the Indianapolis Racers during the final season of the WHA, purchased by Pocklington from Indy owner Nelson Skalbania along with Ed Mio and Peter Driscoll for $825,000. By the time Pocklington sold him to the Los Angeles Kings for $15 million a decade later, Gretzky had won four Stanley Cups with the Oilers and re-written the franchise and NHL record books in big, bold letters. The Great One was the greatest in the game then and, in my mind, he remains so today.

Wayne Gretzky

Center
Born Jan 26 1961 — Brantford, ONT
Height 6.00 — Weight 185 [183 cm/84 kg]

BY THE NUMBERS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	SH	S	S%
1979-80	19	EDM	79	51	86	137	15	21	1	284	18.0
1980-81	20	EDM	80	55	109	164	41	28	3	261	21.1
1981-82	21	EDM	80	92	120	212	81	26	2	369	24.9
1982-83	22	EDM	80	71	125	196	60	59	4	348	20.4
1983-84	23	EDM	74	87	118	205	76	39	11	324	26.9
1984-85	24	EDM	80	73	135	208	98	52	7	358	20.4
1985-86	25	EDM	80	52	163	215	71	46	15	350	14.9
1986-87	26	EDM	79	62	121	183	70	28	6	288	21.5
1987-88	27	EDM	64	40	109	149	39	24	4	211	19.0
1988-89	28	LAK	78	54	114	168	15	26	10	303	17.8
1989-90	29	LAK	73	40	102	142	8	42	2	236	16.9
1990-91	30	LAK	78	41	122	163	30	16	1	212	19.3
1991-92	31	LAK	74	31	90	121	-12	34	2	215	14.4
1992-93	32	LAK	45	16	49	65	6	6	1	141	11.3
1993-94	33	LAK	81	38	92	130	-25	20	3	233	16.3
1994-95	34	LAK	48	11	37	48	-20	6	3	142	7.7
1995-96	35	TOT	80	23	79	102	-13	34	0	195	11.8
1995-96	35	LAK	62	15	66	81	-7	32	0	144	10.4
1995-96	35	STL	18	8	13	21	-6	2	0	51	15.7
1996-97	36	NYR	82	25	72	97	12	28	1	286	8.7
1997-98	37	NYR	82	23	67	90	-11	28	0	201	11.4
1998-99	38	NYR	70	9	53	62	-23	14	0	132	6.8
9 yrs		EDM	696	583	1086	1669	551	323	53	2793	20.9
8 yrs		LAK	539	246	672	918	-5	182	22	1626	15.1
3 yrs		NYR	234	57	192	249	-22	70	1	619	9.2
1 yr		STL	18	8	13	21	-6	2	0	51	15.7
1 yr		EDO	72	43	61	104	23	19		253	17.0
1 yr		INR	8	3	3	6	-3	0		17	17.6
Career			1487	894	1963	2857	518	577	76	5089	17.6
Career			80	46	64	110	20	19		270	17.0

PLAYOFFS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S	S%
1979-80	19	EDM	3	2	1	3	-3	0	8	25.0
1980-81	20	EDM	9	7	14	21	10	4	39	17.9
1981-82	21	EDM	5	5	7	12	-1	8	27	18.5
1982-83	22	EDM	16	12	26	38	20	4	76	15.8
1983-84	23	EDM	19	13	22	35	18	12	86	15.1
1984-85	24	EDM	18	17	30	47	28	4	67	25.4
1985-86	25	EDM	10	8	11	19	0	2	42	19.0
1986-87	26	EDM	21	5	29	34	10	6	55	9.1
1987-88	27	EDM	19	12	31	43	9	16	62	19.4
1988-89	28	LAK	11	5	17	22	-4	0	42	11.9
1989-90	29	LAK	7	3	7	10	-4	0	13	23.1
1990-91	30	LAK	12	4	11	15	0	2	26	15.4
1991-92	31	LAK	6	2	5	7	-3	2	11	18.2
1992-93	32	LAK	24	15	25	40	6	4	76	19.7
1995-96	35	STL	13	2	14	16	2	0	25	8.0
1996-97	36	NYR	15	10	10	20	5	2	44	22.7
Career			208	122	260	382	93	66	699	17.5

AWARDS

1979-80 Hart Memorial Trophy, Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
1980-81 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy
1981-82 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award
1982-83 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award
1983-84 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award
1984-85 Art Ross Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award
1985-86 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy
1986-87 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award
1987-88 Conn Smythe Trophy
1988-89 Hart Memorial Trophy
1989-90 Art Ross Trophy
1990-91 Art Ross Trophy
1990-91 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
1991-92 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
1993-94 Art Ross Trophy
1993-94 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
1998-99 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

NOTABLE

It’s impossible to begin to chronicle Gretzky’s time in Edmonton or even list the highlights and unforgettable moments in one item like this because you could write a book about that – something that has been done a half-dozen times. What’s your most vivid memory? Is it his sensational rookie season, when Gretzky not only lived up to great expectations but exceeded them (only to be jobbed out of the Calder Trophy)? Is it the night he scored five goals to reach 50 goals in 39 games? That first Stanley Cup in 1984? Is it the day, Aug. 9, 1988, when fans reeled in anger and disbelief at the announcement Gretzky had been sold to the Kings? “I promised Mess I wouldn’t do this.” Mercy, that 99 Tears day is burned into a lot of brains.

Gretzky’s NHL tenure here, before stops in Los Angeles, St. Louis and New York, saw him score 583 goals and 1,086 assists for 1,669 points in 696 regular season games. Gretzky won seven consecutive scoring titles with the Oilers, usually by ridiculous margins. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as MVP eight consecutive seasons here. By the time Gretzky retired in 1999 with 894-1,963-2,857 in 1,487 regular season games, he held or shared 61 NHL records – 40 in regular season, 15 in playoffs, six in all-star games. To this day, he’d lead NHL career scoring with his 1,963 assists alone (Jaromir Jagr is second with 1,914 career points).

Simply put, from the moment Gretzky arrived at Edmonton Municipal Airport on that private jet looking like something of an unlikely hero, he energized this city. He brought instant credibility to the Oilers, one of four teams to join the NHL for the 1979-80 season. Gretzky was something very special right from the get-go. “It took one practice and one game,” Glen Sather said when asked how long it took him to realize the skinny kid from Brantford would be a game-changer. “I watched him in the morning at the practice and I watched him play that night, and I was convinced that this guy was going to be an incredible player.”

THE STORY

On a rising young team that would go on to be known as The Boys on the Bus during the run to those first four Cups, Gretzky sat atop a marquee that included Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Grant Fuhr and Paul Coffey. Gretzky’s on-ice vision, his ability to go where the puck was going to be instead of where it had been and a sometimes under-appreciated burning desire to excel made him the best of a rather magnificent bunch. Simply put, Gretzky had no equal during his playing days in Edmonton – not in his own dressing room or in any other.

While it’s difficult to compare one era to another because of significant changes in scoring rates from the days when the Oilers regularly scored 400 goals a season to now, Gretzky was in a class of his own, even allowing for the inflated scoring totals of the day. For context, the scoring margins Gretzky had in points over the runner-up for the Art Ross Trophy during his time with the Oilers were 29, 65, 72, 79, 73, 74 and 75. As terrific as Connor McDavid has been, becoming the first Oiler to win the Art Ross Trophy (100 points) since No. 99 did it in 1986-87, will McDavid ever win a scoring title by the same margin, even adjusted?

With the Gretzky statue having been moved from the old rink where he set the NHL on its ear in the 1980s to Rogers Place, and Gretzky himself back in Edmonton as a vice-chairman in the OEG with McDavid being heralded as the centrepiece to what fans hope will be a return to Stanley Cup contention, there’s something of a full-circle vibe going on in the minds of many. With the 2017-18 season on the horizon, there are better days ahead to be sure. The best days, of course, began with Gretzky’s arrival in Edmonton back in 1978. The Great One, his No. 99 retired by the NHL, is the greatest of them all and, it follows, No. 1 on the Top 100 Oilers list. No contest.

This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.

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