Edmonton Oilers Heritage Website

The four teams that entered the National Hockey League (NHL) from the World Hockey Association (WHA) were treated with disdain the moment they entered the NHL. The majority of players from the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques were stripped from the rosters and forced into an expansion draft that saw the established clubs pick up the best players from the WHL. Luckily, the Oilers held on to the player rights of their their future supserstar, Wayne Gretzky.

Stripped of their best players, the hockey media expected the ex-WHL teams to fail. When the NHL expanded to 21 teams for the 1979-80 season, only five teams would miss the playoffs, and the Whalers, Jets, Nordiques and Oilers were expected to be four of those five teams.

The Nordiques and Jets were dismal, and neither team threatened for a playoff spot throughout the season. However, the Whalers, led by the fifty-plus-year-old Gordie Howe, had enough experience to claim a playoff spot.

Meanwhile, the Oilers were under pressure to display the talent of 18-year-old Gretzky. The sporting world focused on the young star and wanted to see if the teenager could make the transition to the NHL.

Gretzky passed the test. By Boxing Day of 1979, he had already hit the 50-point mark, even though the team struggled. The Oilers won their first-ever game at Northlands Coliseum on October 19, 1979, against their old WHA rival, the Quebec Nordiques. It would take over a month of regular-season play until the Oilers won a road game, and that came against the hapless Washington Capitals.

Despite the early hardships, one of the highlights of the first season included a visit to Maple Leaf Gardens on November 21, 1979. The game would be televised from coast-to-coast on Hockey Nig

ht in Canada (HNIC), and would be the first opportunity for a national audience to see the Oilers play

The game ended in a 4-4 tie, but Gretzky put on a performance that even had the home fans at the Gardens cheering. In front of his southern Ontario family and friends, the teen sensation scored twice and added two assists.

“It was really intense for the guys who grew up in Ontario always wanting to play in Maple Leaf Gardens,” said Gretzky.

Still, after a January 11, 1980, home loss to the New York Rangers, the Oilers’ record stood at a dismal 9-22-9, and even the most hopeful fans had written the team off as a playoff threat. But coach and general manager Glen Sather never lost faith in his team and pulled off a trade that changed the team’s fortunes. He acquired veteran goalie Ron Low from the Quebec Nordiques, and the Oilers’ new net minder responded by winning eight of the team’s final eleven games of the regular season. That push allowed the Oilers to sneak into the post-season with the final playoff spot.

"...Even though we started off extremely poorly, I think just 27 points in the first 40 games, Glen never gave up on us,” recalled Lee Fogolin, who was selected by the Oilers from the Buffalo Sabres in the expansion draft. “He was the kind of person that never conceded anything. After that, as a team we showed what we could do.”

In the playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers swept the Oilers. Despite the loss, the Oilers had already exceeded expectations by making it to the post season.

Thanks to his 137-point season, the teenage kid named Gretzky, who many predicted would fail in the NHL, was selected as the winner of the Hart Trophy as the League’s most valuable player.