Edmonton Oilers Tickets

Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the N HL. When playing the Calgary Flames, the matches are often referred to as the Battle of Alberta.

Franchise history
WHA years
In 1972 the Alberta Oilers joined the World Hockey Association. The team was originally owned by Bill Hunter. Hunter had previously owned the Edmonton Oil Kings and founded what would become the Western Hockey League. Actually, the team had been named the Alberta Oilers as it was planned to split their home games between Edmonton and Calgary after the Calgary Broncos folded. The team played all of its games in Edmonton, and changed their name to reflect this the following year.

Championship years
The Oilers lost most of the players from the 1978-79 team. However, they were allowed to keep one key player, the 18-year-old Wayne Gretzky. However, GM/coach Glen Sather carefully restocked the roster in the expansion draft. This enabled the Oilers to put together a fairly respectable team quickly. In marked contrast, the Jets finished dead last in the league two years in a row. The Oilers benefited from an early run of success in the Entry Draft, acquiring within three years an outstanding core of young players.

The Edmonton Oilers rose as one of the greatest teams in hockey history, dominating the NHL in the mid-to-late 1980s. Many experts consider the Oilers from that decade the best team ever in the long history of the NHL, as evidenced by a recent Sporting News poll in February 2006 when the 1987-88 Oilers were listed as one of the top-five teams from the last 120 years.

2006 playoff runs:
The Oilers played the Presidents' Trophy. The Oilers pulled off a six-game upset. Edmonton would meet the San Jose Sharks in the Conference Semifinal. The Oilers weren't expected to win here either, after point champion Joe Thornton and goal champ Jonathan Cheechoo had tore through Nashville Predators in just 5 games. After trailing the series two-games-to-none, the Oilers won the next four.

2006-07 season
The Oilers posted a 32-43-7 record, finishing in 11th place in the Western Conference and missing the playoffs. Throughout the season, the Oilers lost various players to injury and illness. At one point, they had six players out of the line-up had to rely on emergency call-ups to fill their roster.Daryl Katz offered $145 million towards the purchase of the team in May 2007. No negotiations took place as the Board of Directors immediately responded that the Oilers were not for sale. Katz tried again in July 2007, this time increasing the offer to an amount over $170 million dollars. Katz bypassed the Board of Directors and brought the offer directly to the shareholders.

Other highlights include:
October 12, 2006
Ryan Smyth records the fastest Oilers hat trick in franchise history at 2:01 minutes, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record of 2:12 minutes. January 2, 2007 The Oilers win their 1000th NHL game. They are the 3rd fastest team to reach 1000 wins.

2007 off-season
The Oilers began the NHL free agency period on July 1st, trading Joffrey Lupul and Jason Smith to the Philadelphia Flyers for Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson and a third round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. Petr Sykora left the Oilers franchise and signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jan Hedja, left for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

On July 3, 2007
Netminder Mathieu Garon was signed.
Oilers had agreed to a contract with free agent Michael Nylander. While the Oilers were expecting a signed contract from Nylander and his agent, they later found out that he had signed with the Washington Capitals.