Edmonton Oilers Legacy

In June of 2000, hockey fans in Edmonton held their collective breath. Kevin Lowe, three years removed from his playing days, just completed his first season behind the Oilers’ bench. The question that haunted everyone in Northern Alberta was, "will he stay?" There was speculation that Edmonton’s first ever National Hockey League (NHL) draft pick would leave town for a job with the New York Rangers, like he had done as a player in the mid 1990s.

But Lowe decided to pass on Manhattan. Instead, on June 9, he made the risky move of taking over the coveted general manager’s job that his mentor Glen Sather had left behind. There was nothing on his resume that suggested the former defenceman could make the transition successfully, especially in such a short amount of time.

Lowe, however, had a plan.

"We haven’t won the Cup in a while, but we’ve been in the playoffs, and a lot of teams are envious of that," the pragmatic GM said at Edmonton’s 2000 training camp. "It would be really rewarding for me to ultimately do it with this group of guys."

Given the economic realities of the modern NHL, the idea of Edmonton winning another Stanley Cup may have seemed remote at best. Yet Lowe was groomed by a master. One of the points he took from Sather was that hockey really boils down to guys playing a game with a few sticks and a puck–the game should be fun, a simple fact that cannot be overlooked. Lowe fostered a fresh, new environment and insisted his coaches and players all buy into the concept that the Edmonton Oilers control their own destiny, not the bank accounts of the league’s elite teams. It was bold thinking and Lowe approached his managerial post with the same gutsy philosophy. From the start, he showed courage in the boardroom as he did on the ice. Only a few weeks into his GM tenure, Lowe shocked the NHL with a huge Draft Day deal (in Calgary, no less) that sent All-Star defenceman Roman Hamrlik to the New York Islanders for a young, untested blueliner named Eric Brewer, along with another player and a pick.

The new youth movement in the Edmonton Oilers organization was on. Lowe never shied away from pulling the trigger on a big deal, despite knowing the critics would pipe up. He shipped out unaffordable superstars like Bill Guerin and Doug Weight for skilled, younger players with more realistic salaries. Guerin went to the Boston Bruins for slick winger Anson Carter and when Carter’s worth rose, Lowe had no qualms about moving him, too. His main concern was making the right decision for the organization, and so be it if there was fallout.He was never scared to face the music.

In addition to his knack for recognizing Oiler-style talent, Lowe was naturally adept at intelligent drafting and negotiating contracts. Recently, he and his staff have selected impressive amateur talents like Ales Hemsky, Jeff Deslauriers and Jarret Stoll. On the bargaining side, Lowe signed team MVP goaltender Tommy Salo to a manageable long-term deal, young winger Ryan Smyth to another and then in December of 2000, he managed to land budding local superstar Mike Comrie when it seemed likely that the junior phenom would look elsewhere for an NHL job.

"For me, I knew at the time that the Oilers were doing well, they had some solid players in the lineup and maybe I wasn’t a good fit here," said Comrie. "I didn’t know. When they started making some moves and explained to me that they wanted to give me an opportunity, I realized that it was the place and I wanted to be a part of it because I had met most of the guys on the team and realized how good of an organization it is...and I also realized how much I wanted to play at home."

The "home" part was a big key. Since taking the lead post in the organization, Lowe has signed an abundance of local talent. He claims it is not a conscious thing but the numbers do not lie–at points during the 2002-03 season, there were as many as six Alberta-born players on the Edmonton roster.