If there’s been a more polarizing figure with the passionate fan base of the Edmonton Oilers over the past 10 years than Kevin Lowe, I can’t think of who it might be.
It follows, then, that discussion about whether the team should retire Lowe’s jersey No. 4 and hang it with the franchise’s other retired player numbers – 99, 11, 7, 9, 17, 31 and 3 — draws either “hell no” or “hell yes” responses with little middle ground.
If you’ve blown out more than 40 candles on your birthday cake, you likely remember Lowe more as a player – the franchise’s first-ever NHL draft pick, the guy who scored the team’s first NHL goal, a team captain, a tough as nails type and a member of all five Oiler Stanley Cup champions. Lowe, a seven-time all-star, played more games in regular season (1,037) and playoffs (172) than anybody in franchise history. He was a helluva player.
The younger crowd, while aware of his accomplishments as a player, tends to look at Lowe post-retirement, 1997-98, during his tenure as a coach, GM and president of hockey operations – a stretch that, aside from an unlikely run to the 2006 Stanley Cup final when he was GM, has seen far more failure than success. He’s characterized by some as a dusty, old remnant of the Boys on the Bus, a charter member of the old boys club and the guy pulling the strings in hockey-ops from behind the scenes, even today with the title of vice-chairman of the Oilers Entertainment Group.
Jim Matheson, who has covered the Oilers since 1972 during their WHA days and is in the writers’ wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame, hit 40 candles decades ago. Matheson has documented the best and the worst of times for Lowe and the Oilers. He made his pitch for retiring Lowe’s jersey Wednesday in an interview with Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer on 630 CHED.
WHAT MATTY SAID
“I think it’s a slam dunk,” Matheson said. “The Oiler fan now, first off, I’m sure they tuned right out in the first half-hour because we were talking the old days and they don’t want any part of the old days. I’m part of the old days and I’m showing my age, but they equate Kevin Lowe with his managerial style an keeping the old boys club and stuff.
“They feel he did a crappy job. I think he did a great job, certainly in 2006 when they got to the Stanley Cup final, failing to realize that, at worst, he was the second-best defenseman on one of the greatest teams in NHL history. Paul Coffey and Kevin Lowe were the top-two defensemen. His number would have been retired before but he was working for the Oilers in the hockey ops department. As long as he gave the number up to Taylor Hall they weren’t going to retire the jersey.
“Well, Taylor Hall is gone and Kevin Lowe, while he has some influence, I think, in hockey decisions, basically is in the business end of things now with OEG, so his sweater, No. 4, should be retired. No. 4 should be up there. He was the first Oiler draft pick. Five Stanley Cups. The most games played (with) the Oilers. He won six Stanley Cups – another one with the Rangers. Only 22 players in NHL history have won six or more Stanley Cups, which puts him in fairly elite company.
“If you can’t retire the first player you ever picked in the draft who played more games than anybody else with your franchise, 20 years in the NHL, and for a time at least, his name always came up as a possible Hall-of-Famer . . . he was every bit as good a player as Rod Langway, who won two Norris trophies for the Washington Capitals, but he played on a great team and he was overshadowed by a lot of other players, so his No. 4 should be up there.
“I don’t really care what the current fans think. It’s not about his managerial style, it’s about his playing and hos No. 4 should be retired for what he did as a player with the Edmonton Oilers.”
Stauffer then asked if younger fans can separate Lowe the player from Lowe the coach/GM/POHO.
“Probably not because they never saw the guy as a player,” said Matheson. “They’re younger fans and they don’t recall him as a player but he was a very good player and, like I said, he was the second-best defensemen on one of the greatest teams ever. That’s all I go by . . . when he was the executive was he wearing No. 4, his No. 4 jersey when he was doing that? You wear the jersey on the ice.”
THE WAY I SEE IT
While I’m not quite the same vintage as Matheson, with whom I shared the Oiler beat with for years before jumping to The Sun and writing against him, I share his take. I’ve seen Lowe at length as a player and as a coach and manager. I have no problem separating the two. I don’t give Lowe credit as a manager because of his feats as a player and I don’t diminish his on-ice contributions as a player because of his overall lack of success and mistakes in hockey ops.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – nobody, and I mean nobody, cares more about the Edmonton Oilers than Lowe. I’ve seen it. I know it. As passionate and competitive as he is, I don’t know how he’s had a decent night of sleep since 2006. I respect the loyalty he’s shown. That said, Lowe’s record as a coach and manager speaks for itself and his overall lack of success has been compounded by miss-steps that have been PR nightmares for the team – Lowe’s infamous “So I think I know a thing or two about winning, if there’s ever a concern” quote during a news conference and his ham-handed reference to second-tier fans. That perceived arrogance has clouded the question of retiring his jersey.
For me, based on solely on Lowe’s career and contributions as a player with the Oilers, his jersey should be retired. While I’d hesitate to hang it with the numbers of the players who have been inducted into the HHOF, I think there should be a place for Lowe’s number, and others, in Rogers Place when it opens – an honored jerseys area, or whatever the Oilers choose to call it. That’s not a new idea but it’s one I’d like to see pursued.
I’d not only hang Lowe’s No. 4 in an area like that, but I’d make room for Ryan Smyth’s No. 94, Doug Weight’s No. 39 and Jason Smith’s 21 when the new rink opens. All four of them served this franchise long and well as players without being honored by the HHOF, nobody more so than Kevin Lowe.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TEAM 1260.
