The Edmonton Oilers almost never landed franchise icon Wayne Gretzky
While Wayne Gretzky played for four teams over his illustrious NHL career, he is mostly remembered for his time spent with the Edmonton Oilers, where he helped lead the team to four Stanley Cups while also winning many individual awards. However, it turns out Gretzky's incredible tenure with the Oilers almost never happened to begin with.
Speaking to Jason Gregor on Edmonton's TSN1260 radio show, former NHL goaltender Eddie Mio, who was traded from the WHA's Indianapolis Racers to the Oilers with Gretzky, said that they were both almost dealt to the Winnipeg Jets instead.
“We were told to go to the airport,” said Mio. “We didn't know where we were going. It was either going to be Edmonton or Winnipeg. The trade wasn't finalized yet. We ended up going to Edmonton.”
This has to be tough for Jets fans to hear even all these years later, as they were apparently that close to landing the greatest hockey player of all time. Mio joked that he believes that the Oilers weren't so interested at acquiring Gretzky at the time as they were himself.
“Edmonton was looking for a goalie. The kid only played five games at that time. No one knew how good he'd become. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It was 42 years ago yesterday we were traded to Edmonton.”
It doesn't need to be said, but acquiring Gretzky was huge for the Oilers franchise, as they were able to win four Stanley Cups with him from 1983-1987, and one additional Cup in 1989 after he had been traded. Gretzky's career with the Oilers was one of the most dominant tenures an athlete has had in all of sports, as he posted an unfathomable 1669 points in just 696 games.
The rest of his career, which came with the L.A Kings, St. Louis Blues, and New York Rangers wasn't too shabby either, as by the time his career was over he had 2857 points in 1487 games. That point record, along with many of Gretzky's other records, will never be touched. There is a reason his number 99 is retired throughout the league.
shownhl_1009_shownhl
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Filip Forsberg | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Adam Gaudette | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| David Perron | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brady Tkachuk | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Artem Zub | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Ridly Greig | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jonathan Marchessault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Shane Pinto | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Sanderson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Thomas Chabot | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Claude Giroux | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Matthew Highmore | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Vinnie Hinostroza | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Roman Josi | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan O'Reilly | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tim Stutzle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mike Amadio | - | - | - | |
| Drake Batherson | - | - | - | |
| Anton Forsberg | - | - | - | |
| Kevin Gravel | - | - | - | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 54 | 37 | 14 | 3 | 77 | |
Capitals | 52 | 34 | 11 | 7 | 75 | |
Stars | 52 | 34 | 17 | 1 | 69 | |
Oilers | 52 | 32 | 16 | 4 | 68 | |
Hurricanes | 53 | 32 | 17 | 4 | 68 | |
Golden Knights | 53 | 31 | 16 | 6 | 68 | |
Panthers | 54 | 32 | 19 | 3 | 67 | |
Wild | 53 | 31 | 18 | 4 | 66 | |
Maple Leafs | 52 | 31 | 19 | 2 | 64 | |
Avalanche | 54 | 31 | 21 | 2 | 64 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||