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Top 100 Oilers: No. 53 – Martin Gelinas
Photo credit: Jacob Lazare
Jan 28, 2026, 19:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 28, 2026, 13:33 EST
Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Martin Gelinas comes in at No. 53 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 50 on Brownlee’s original list.
You talk about being thrust into the spotlight – that’s how Martin Gelinas’ career started.
Before he played his first NHL game, he was traded for the Great One in the massive deal that sent Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles, with Gelinas as one of the big pieces that came back for the Edmonton Oilers.
It wasn’t easy in the beginning. He didn’t know a lick of English. He made rookie mistakes like missing a team flight and forgetting his luggage.
But that would soon be forgotten as he adapted to become a great pro hockey player. Gelinas’ name was engraved on the Stanley Cup in 1990 as one-third of the “Kid Line,” and a promising career lay ahead in Edmonton.
Or so everyone hoped.
Gelinas played four seasons with the Oilers before he was yet another salary casualty in 1993, when he was traded to the Quebec Nordiques.
Notable
The Shawinigan, Quebec native had a fantastic 1987-88 season with the Hull Olympiques, scoring 63 goals and 131 points as Gelinas helped them win a QMJHL championship.
That vaulted his draft status to be taken seventh overall that summer by the Los Angeles Kings. But on August 9, 1988, the day the hockey world stood still, he was one of the pieces sent to Edmonton in return for Wayne Gretzky.
After getting another season to mature in junior, he made the jump to the NHL full-time in 1989 and didn’t look back. Gelinas played 1273 career regular-season games, with stops in Quebec, Vancouver, Carolina, Calgary, Florida, and Nashville, and collected 309 goals and 660 points.
He ended up playing in the Stanley Cup Final for four different teams, which is a rare accomplishment, totalling 147 playoff games.
His best chance of winning a second Cup likely came with provincial rival Calgary in 2004, scoring critical clinching goals, and not scoring (or did he?) on the most controversial play in Game 6 against Tampa Bay.
The story
How could anyone live up to being Gretzky’s replacement? It certainly messed with Jimmy Carson.
Originally drafted for his goal-scoring prowess, Gelinas instead provided an energy role to cut his teeth in the league. He’d use his speed and physicality to impact games.
Coach John Muckler had ideas after the Oilers acquired Adam Graves and Joe Murphy, two fellow youngsters and high draft picks, in November of 1989, wanting to see them play with Gelinas.
It had been ages since Edmonton had such a youthful injection. Gelinas scored 17 goals in 46 games in his rookie year.
After the Kid Line struggled in Game 1 of the Smythe Division semifinal against the Winnipeg Jets, Muckler gave them another chance to play together with the Oilers’ backs against the wall in Game 4. They stuck together and proved crucial in their depth roles.
Muckler’s hunch paid dividends in helping the Oilers win their fifth Stanley Cup.
Edmonton Journal, May 25, 1990.
“I remember my first year, I was so nervous I couldn’t do nothing,” said Gelinas after the Cup win, in the May 25, 1990 edition of The Edmonton Journal.
“They said ‘you’ve got to work hard’ and that’s what we did. Our line, we wanted to win the Cup so bad.”
He followed that performance with early career highs, scoring 20 goals and 40 points in 1990-91. After two more seasons with the Oilers, general manager Glen Sather had a decision to make.
Unfortunately, it followed a similar pattern to many other former Cup winners. The Oilers couldn’t afford to pay him, so Sather traded Gelinas to Quebec City for Scott Pearson, who had been drafted one pick higher back in 1988.
He didn’t last in Quebec City long, being claimed off waivers by Vancouver, and playing a significant role in the playoffs, and growing into a player who is 91st all-time in games played.
A pretty good career if you ask me.
Gelinas scoring one of his two playoff goals in 1990, as seen in the April 21, 1990 Edmonton Journal.
What Brownlee said
Gelinas scored 17 goals in just 46 games during the 1989-90 season, but it was the secondary offense that he, Murphy and Graves would provide coach John Muckler during the playoffs on the way to a 4-1 Stanley Cup final series win over the Boston Bruins as the Kid Line people still remember him for. Gelinas was just 19 at the time.The Kid Line didn’t put up huge numbers – Murphy had 6-8-14, Graves scored 5-6-11 and Gelinas chipped in 2-3-5 – in support of Mark Messier, Craig Simpson, Jari Kurri, Esa Tikkanen and Glenn Anderson, but it helped push the Oilers over the top as Edmonton celebrated its first, and so far only, Stanley Cup of the post-Gretzky era.
The Last 10
- No. 63 — Mike Grier
- No. 62 — Marty McSorley
- No. 61 — Ken Linseman
- No. 60 — Evander Kane
- No. 59 — Adam Larsson
- No. 58 — Cam Talbot
- No. 57 — Boris Mironov
- No. 56 — Mike Comrie
- No. 55 — Fernando Pisani
- No. 54 — Jeff Beukeboom
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.