A key member of the Edmonton Investors Group that helped keep the Oilers in town, Cal Nichols, died Saturday at the age of 84, the team announced.

A native of Paradise Hill, Sask., Nichols, born in 1942, rose through the oil and gas industry, first owning an Esso station near his home in the town of St. Walburg. By the time he was 23, he was a town councillor and would later move to Edmonton in 1969 with his wife, Edna, as his business career took off.

While Nichols worked for Esso and Imperial Oil, he would later help found Northridge, Canada’s first private crude oil and natural gas marketing company, and Gasland Oil, which became one of Western Canada’s largest service station chains.

But Oilers fans will remember him very differently, as the man who may have single-handedly helped save the franchise from leaving the city of Edmonton.

When Peter Pocklington was in financial turmoil in the late 1990s and the team went up for sale, Nichols built support from locals to keep the team in Edmonton. First, it was by way of a 1996 Friends of the Oilers ticket drive that helped nearly double the team’s season ticket base.

Then, a year later, he helped form the Edmonton Investors Group. His work mustered $110 million from 38 investors to keep the team from being moved to Houston, and the group, of which Nichols became the chairman, took control of the team in May 1998.

It set the groundwork for the Oilers to remain in Oil Country, and paved the way for Daryl Katz to purchase the team in 2008 and turn it into one of the league’s highest-valued teams.

“If it wasn’t for Cal, the Oilers wouldn’t be in Edmonton,” said Katz when he took over ownership of the team.

Nichols, who was a longtime season ticket holder until his final day, leaves behind his wife Edna, children Ken (Heather) and Kristine (Scott), his grandchildren Sarah, Josh, Max, Joel, and Katie, and countless friends whose lives he touched, the Oilers said in a statement.

Zach Laing is Daily Faceoff Edmonton’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.