The Management Team

From the Oilers’ emergence in the NHL in 1979 to their run of championships from 1984 to 1990, the management team was as stable as any found in hockey. Glen Sather was not only the team’s head coach through most of the period, he was also the team's architect.  As general manager, he was responsible for adding the key elements to produce the cup winning teams.

Sather worked under owner Peter Pocklington, who purchased the team during the Oilers time in the World Hockey Association.  As owner, Pocklington enjoyed a  financially sound team, and his other business interests were doing well. Not until a contract dispute with Paul Coffey in 1987 and the trading of Wayne Gretzky in 1988 did the cracks in Pocklington’s empire appear—cracks that would eventually lead to a major team collapse a decade later.

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