Edmonton Oilers Heritage Website

While Wayne Gretzky’s 99 was the first number raised to the rafters of Northland's Coliseum, it was not the first sweater number honoured in Oilers’ history. Nearly two decades before the Great One’s sweater was raised to the roof, Al Hamilton’s number 3 was retired by the club.

"It was really introspective with respect to how lucky I was to be able to play, stay here and live," said Hamilton of the jersey retirement. "It was an honour I never went looking for."

Look in the National Hockey League (NHL) record book, and you will find Hamilton has some meager NHL statistics: just 10 goals and 78 assists in 257 career games with the New York Rangers, the Buffalo Sabres and the Oilers. But Hamilton’s glory years came with the Oilers during their World Hockey Association (WHA) years. He was a team leader, one of the WHA’s top defencemen, and the franchise’s all time WHA leader in assists (258) and points (311).

Hamilton grew up in Flin Flon, Manitoba, home of the famed junior Bombers team that rivaled the Edmonton Oil Kings throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Hamilton, however, did not star for the Bombers, he traveled west to Alberta to be a part of Bill Hunter’s famous Oil Kings squad that took the Memorial Cup in 1966. With the Oil Kings, he established himself as a puck-rushing defenceman who was often compared to Bobby Orr. At the time, Orr was a kid coming up through the Ontario junior system.

Hamilton took a few years longer to mature than Orr, and even though he enjoyed a couple of short stints with the Rangers, he did not have his first full season with the team until 1969-70. Hamilton learned a lot from the Rangers that season, especially from his road-trip roommate and goaltending legend Terry Sawchuck. From the Rangers organization, Hamilton soon packed his bags and moved across the state to Buffalo, after the Sabers expansion franchise selected him. Hamilton played solidly in Buffalo, earning 64 points over two seasons with a team that was clearly suffering expansion growing pains.

In 1972, Hamilton’s former Oil Kings’ boss, Bill Hunter, offered him a job. Hunter wanted Hamilton and Sabres teammate Ron Anderson—who also played on the 1966 Oil Kings Memorial Cup winner—to come play for the new Oilers franchise. Both Hamilton and Anderson accepted the offers, and Hamilton established himself as one of the new league’s top defencemen. In 1972-73, his first season with the Oilers, Hamilton registered an impressive 61 points in 78 games, followed by 59-points the next year. Those great early campaigns earned him the chance to represent Canada in the WHA/Soviet series of 1974, where Hamilton played in three of those eight games.

Hamilton’s career took a turn for the worse when a shot hit his eye in 1978. The severe injury should have forced him to retire immediately, but he managed to fudge a mandatory eye exam and play out the 1978-79 campaign. That season saw the Oilers go to their only Avco World Trophy Championship series, which they eventually lost in six games to the Winnipeg Jets.

Still hampered by the eye injury, Hamilton rejoined the Oilers in the team’s first National Hockey League season, but he played just 31 games before the injury forced him to retire at just the age of 33.

Hamilton remained in the Edmonton area with his family, and is still a key member of the Edmonton Oilers Alumni.