The NHL renamed its divisions and conferences for the new season, but changing names didn’t change the fact the Oilers were no longer even a shadow of the team that won the 1990 Stanley Cup and would be lousy again in missing the playoffs for the second season in a row.
So bad were the Oilers, who’d finish 33 points behind the Pacific Division champion Calgary Flames on the season and 18 points out of a playoff spot, coach Teddy Green was fired just 24 games into his third season behind the bench when his team staggered to a 3-18-3 start. GM Glen Sather, who’d been dismantling what little was left of the last Cup team with owner Peter Pocklington trying to operate on the cheap, took over as coach.
RECORD: 25-45-14 (64 points). Finished 6th Pacific Division
GD 261-305 minus-44 SH% 10.2 SV% .897
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
1994-03-15 | Mats Lindgren traded by Winnipeg with Boris Mironov, and 1st (Jason Bonsignore) and 4th (Adam Copeland) round picks in 1994 for Dave Manson and 6th round pick in 1994 (Chris Kibermanis). |
1994-02-19 | Mike Stapleton claimed on waivers from Pittsburgh. |
1994-02-01 | Gord Mark signed as free agent (formerly with New Jersey). |
1993-12-15 | Brent Grieve traded by NY Islanders for Marc Laforge. |
1993-12-06 | Fredrik Olausson traded by Winnipeg with 7th round pick in 1994 (Curtis Sheptak) for 3rd round pick in 1994 (Travis Hansen). |
1993-12-06 | Geoff Smith traded to Florida with 4th round pick in 1994 (David Nemirovsky) for 3rd (Corey Neilson) and 6th (Chris Kibermanis (Winnipeg)) round picks in 1994. |
1993-11-11 | Bob Beers traded by Tampa Bay for Chris Joseph. |
1993-11-02 | Jeff Chychrun traded by Los Angeles for future considerations. |
1993-10-26 | Todd Elik claimed on waivers by San Jose. |
1993-10-07 | Adam Bennett traded by Chicago for Kevin Todd. |
1993-10-06 | Fred Brathwaite signed as free agent. |
1993-10-06 | Francois Leroux claimed on waivers by Ottawa. |
1993-10-03 | Mike Hudson claimed on waivers by NY Rangers. |
1993-09-15 | Brian Glynn traded to Ottawa for 8th round pick in 1994 (Rob Guinn). |
1993-09-13 | Wayne Cowley signed as free agent (formerly with Calgary). |
1993-09-01 | Jozef Cierny traded by Buffalo with 4th round pick in 1994 (Jussi Tarvainen) for Craig Simpson. |
1993-08-30 | Peter Ing traded to Detroit for 7th round pick in 1994 (Chris Wickenheiser) and future considerations. |
1993-08-13 | Bill McDougall signed as free agent by Tampa Bay. |
1993-08-10 | David Haas signed as free agent by Calgary. |
1993-08-04 | Norm Foster signed as free agent by Philadelphia. |
1993-07-22 | Shaun Van Allen signed as free agent by Anaheim. |
1993-07-16 | Dan Currie signed as free agent by Los Angeles. |
1993-07-13 | Brian Benning signed as free agent by Florida. |
1993-07-12 | Eldon Reddick signed as free agent by Florida. |
1993-06-26 | Jason Arnott drafted 7th overall. |
1993-06-26 | Ilya Byakin drafted 267th overall. |
1993-06-26 | Alexander Kerch drafted 60th overall. |
1993-06-26 | Miroslav Satan drafted 111th overall. |
1993-06-26 | Nick Stajduhar drafted 16th overall. |
1993-06-24 | Scott Mellanby claimed by Florida in expansion draft. |
1993-06-24 | Ron Tugnutt claimed by Anaheim in expansion draft. |
1993-06-20 | Martin Gelinas traded to Quebec with 6th round pick in 1993 (Nicholas Checco) for Scott Pearson. |
1993-06-16 | Petr Klima traded to Tampa Bay for 3rd round pick in 1994 (Brad Symes). |
LEADING SCORERS
Rk | Player | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
1 | C | 84 | 24 | 50 | 74 | -22 | 47 | 188 | 12.8 | |
2 | C | 78 | 33 | 35 | 68 | 1 | 104 | 194 | 17.0 | |
3 | RW | 84 | 22 | 35 | 57 | -11 | 8 | 158 | 13.9 | |
4 | LW | 64 | 25 | 29 | 54 | -8 | 118 | 171 | 14.6 | |
5 | D | 81 | 12 | 38 | 50 | -12 | 16 | 197 | 6.1 | |
6 | LW | 72 | 19 | 18 | 37 | -4 | 165 | 160 | 11.9 | |
7 | D | 66 | 10 | 27 | 37 | -11 | 74 | 152 | 6.6 | |
8 | RW | 63 | 17 | 15 | 32 | -10 | 36 | 129 | 13.2 | |
9 | D | 55 | 9 | 19 | 28 | -4 | 20 | 85 | 10.6 | |
10 | D | 44 | 8 | 20 | 28 | -3 | 30 | 51 | 15.7 |
SEASON RECAP
With every single one of their future Hall-of-Famer players already traded or sold, the 3-18-3 start under Green, who didn’t have the horses to compete, buried any hope of the Oilers returning to the playoffs after missing for the first time in franchise history in 1992-93. The remainder of the season was a salvage job by Sather, who went 22-27-11 the rest of the way.
The Oilers, who had scored 400-or-more goals a season for fun during the dynasty days, couldn’t score enough (their 261 goals was 18th in the league) to make up for their defensive and goaltending deficiencies – the Oilers gave up 305 goals (22nd out of 26 teams). This team simply didn’t have the option of outscoring opponents to make up for defensive shortcomings.
Compounding challenges at both ends of the rink, the line-up was further diluted of what little meaningful veteran presence it had when captain Craig MacTavish was traded to the New York Rangers for Todd Marchant and stalwart Dave Manson was sent to the Winnipeg Jets for Boris Mironov.
A SILVER LINING
Doug Weight, acquired from the Rangers for Esa Tikkanen in March of the previous season, served notice to fans and his teammates it wouldn’t be long until he took over as the undisputed leader of the team. Weight, 23, led the Oilers in scoring with 24-50-74.
The other bright spot was big rookie Jason Arnott, who’d been selected seventh overall from the Oshawa Generals by Edmonton in the 1993 Entry Draft. Arnott led the Oilers with 33 goals and was second to Weight in points with 68. Not only did Arnott provide the Oilers a promising tag-team down the middle with Weight, he brought some edge – 104 PIMs.
Other than Weight and Arnott, there wasn’t a whole lot to cheer about as the Oilers fell out of playoff contention early and didn’t recover. Those results were reflected at the turnstiles. The Oilers went from having a rink that was regularly sold out during the Stanley Cup years to averaging just 13,437 per game in 1993-94. On many nights, there were far fewer people in the seats than that. With good reason.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
