Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Blair MacDonald comes in at No. 52 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 47 on Brownlee’s original list.

If TikTok were around in 1980 and you stumbled on an Edmonton Oilers highlight of Blair MacDonald scoring off a feed from the Great One, no doubt one sarcastic jerk would call him a “Wayne Gretzky merchant.”

Luckily, TikTok wasn’t around back then. Perish the thought of what kids will say about players 40 years from now.

But there is some truth to it in MacDonald’s case. He was the first NHLer who reaped the benefits of playing with Gretzky, and many more would follow.

He scored 46 goals and 94 points in the Oilers’ inaugural NHL season in 1979-80, his highest point total of his career in either the World Hockey Association or the NHL. MacDonald was an Oiler for five seasons in the WHA, another one-and-a-half years with Edmonton in the NHL.

His name is in Oilers lore for multiple reasons.

Notable

MacDonald had a choice to make coming out of junior in 1973. He was a sixth-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Kings, and a third-round pick of the soon-to-be-renamed Alberta Oilers.

He’d just scored 63 goals in 64 games with the Cornwall Royals, and the upstart WHA was gaining a reputation for big money contracts.

So he went that route to play in Edmonton, where he played for three seasons before going to the Indianapolis Racers. In 1977-78, he found himself back with the Oilers, as the team was starting to round into form.

The reason being, newly hired general manager Brian Conacher was still working for the Racers for a whole two months (if you can believe such a WHA story), leading owner Peter Pocklington to try and lure MacDonald out of Indy. While it wasn’t quite that easy, MacDonald was one of the great Oilers trades for a long time.

The next season, an even greater talent in Wayne Gretzky was also acquired from Nelson Skalbania’s Indianapolis Racers, while MacDonald recorded his third straight 34-goal season in 1978-79.

MacDonald was one of just a few Oilers who’d remain from that team as they entered the NHL, as the franchise was gutted in the intraleague draft.

His NHL career didn’t last too long, however. Injuries and disgruntlement with general manager Glen Sather led to his trade to Vancouver in 1981. He’d play parts of just two more seasons before his days playing top-flight hockey were done.

The Oct. 20 edition of the Edmonton Journal, where Jim Matheson breaks down a hat-trick performance from Blair MacDonald in the historic occasion.

The Story

Entering the fourth game of the 1979-80 season, the Edmonton Oilers were still looking for their franchise’s first victory, after one loss and two ties. That night would come on October 19, 1979, when Blair MacDonald scored a hat-trick, and the Oilers defeated the Quebec Nordiques 6-3.

Nordiques’ coach Jacques Demers glowed about MacDonald’s performance in the next day’s Edmonton Journal, quoted by Jim Matheson as saying:

“MacDonald just does everything well. I’ve never seen a guy put on such a performance. Offensively, he got the team going with a great goal (while on his knees) in the second period…but his defensive play was sensational too. He made about 10 good plays in his own end, including stopping passes.”

Along with Brett Callighen, the “GMC line” hummed along and earned MacDonald an all-star game nod, as well as Lady Byng Trophy votes, en route to his career year.

In fact, MacDonald scored the first home goal, first game-winning goal, and first three hat-tricks in franchise history.

The Oilers finished 16th overall out of 21 teams and were quickly dispatched in the first round by the Philadelphia Flyers, but NHL hockey had arrived in Edmonton, and MacDonald showed – at least this year – that it was no fluke.

MacDonald was given the “C” and became the second captain after Ron Chipperfield, who had been dealt to Quebec for goaltender Ron Low. However, there was speculation he wasn’t happy about his contract, especially after finishing 11th in the league in goals.

While producing 43 points in 51 games in 1980-81 and missing some time with a thumb injury, Sather elected to trade MacDonald. Jari Kurri was adapting to the North American game quite well and fans would soon become enamoured with the Gretzky-Kurri combination for years to come.

It’s worth noting that only nine Edmonton Oilers have surpassed that 46-goal season from MacDonald. They include Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey, Jimmy Carson, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman.

What Brownlee said

“For those too young to remember, stand-up comic and actor Rodney Dangerfield carved out a nice career in the 1970s and 1980s with his bug-eyed, tie-tugging “I don’t get no respect” shtick. For those who don’t remember Blair MacDonald, he was pretty much hockey’s version of Dangerfield as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.
“Edmonton GM Glen Sather made sure of that with his infamous quip that a fire hydrant could score 40 goals playing on the wing with Wayne Gretzky. That was in reference to MacDonald, who spent parts of two NHL seasons playing the part of the hydrant alongside The Great One, including 1979-80, when he scored 46 goals.
“With good reason, everybody remembers the dynamic and prolific duo of Gretzky and Kurri during the glory days, but MacDonald occupied that prized RW spot first and he was damn good at it in Edmonton’s very first season in the NHL. All told, MacDonald’s tenure in Edmonton saw him score 65-72-137 in just 131 games. That’s one helluva fire hydrant.”

The Last 10

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.