Oct. 1 marks the 25th anniversary of the night the Edmonton Oilers raised Wayne Gretzky’s No. 99 to the rafters at Skyreach Centre.
In a ceremony before their 1999-00 season-opening game against the New York Rangers, the Oilers celebrated the career of the legendary centre, who had retired at the end of the previous season while a member of the Rangers.
The sellout crowd of more than 17,000 fans at the arena originally known as Northlands Coliseum gave Gretzky a lengthy standing ovation, thanking hockey’s all-time leading scorer for his 10 incredible years in Edmonton.
A quarter of a century later, Gretzky’s jersey retirement remains one of the most memorable occasions in Edmonton hockey history, which is saying a lot considering all that has happened since the Oilers first took the ice in 1974. Here are nine fun facts from Oct. 1, 1999:
Wayne Gretzky Day
That afternoon, a rally was held outside Edmonton’s City Hall, where 15,000 people braving unseasonably cold weather packed Winston Churchill Square to pay tribute to Gretzky.
Bill Smith, the city’s mayor at the time, declared that every year, the first day of October would be “Wayne Gretzky Day” in Edmonton. Gretzky received a number of gifts at the rally, including a book of memories signed by tens of thousands of Edmontonians.
Longtime Oilers radio play-by-play announcer Rod Phillips hosted the festivities, attended by many dignitaries. It was the start of a very busy day for Phillips, who would later emcee the pre-game ceremony before heading up to the pressbox to call the action.
Wayne Gretzky Drive
At the rally, the City of Edmonton announced that it was renaming “Capilano Drive” as “Wayne Gretzky Drive” in honour of The Great One.
The freeway in Northeast Edmonton runs past the arena that was home to the Oilers from 1974 to 2016, and was a road that many fans would take to get to Northlands Coliseum to cheer on Gretzky and his teammates.
Gretzky isn’t the only former Oiler to have an Edmonton road named after him: In 2007, part of “St. Albert Trail” between Edmonton and the suburb of St. Albert was renamed “Mark Messier Trail” as a nod to the Oilers legend who grew up in St. Albert.
Messier in the House
Messier, who became great friends with Gretzky during their many seasons together, first in Edmonton and later with the Rangers, attended the proceedings, even though he was playing for the Vancouver Canucks at the time. Vancouver’s first game of the season wasn’t until the following night, incidentally also against the Rangers, which saw Messier pick up a pair of assists to lead the Canucks to a 2-1 win over the Blueshirts.
Two other former teammates of Gretzky from the Oilers glory days were part of the ceremony: Dave Semenko and Jari Kurri, who flew over from Finland to be there. Gretzky’s old Edmonton roommate, Kevin Lowe, was behind the bench making his debut as Oilers head coach.
Memorable Moment for Moss
Just before his No. 99 ascended to the rafters, Gretzky was presented with a replica of the banner by Oilers locker room attendant Joey Moss. Gretzky grew incredibly close to Moss during the former’s Oilers tenure, and the pair remained so long after The Great One left Edmonton.
Related: Joey Moss Will Forever Be a Part of Oilers History
Born with Down Syndrome, Moss served as an inspiration and had a profound impact on both the team and the entire Edmonton community. He spent the better part of four decades with the Oilers before passing away in 2020.
Hottest Ticket in Town
Because demand was so high from fans wanting to be there to witness the Gretzky ceremony, the Oilers didn’t put any single-game tickets on sale, instead holding a lottery for all available seats: if you were one of the lucky entrants who had your name drawn, you were given the chance to purchase a pair of tickets.
The asking price on the secondary market was unlike anything seen in Edmonton before. Ads in local newspapers and postings on the internet listed tickets available for as high as $4,000 apiece.
All Eyes on Edmonton
From coast to coast, most of the hockey world was tuned into Edmonton that night, as the entire ceremony followed by the game was broadcast live on CBC on a special Friday night edition of Hockey Night in Canada. MSG carried the game in the United States.
The opening night of the 1999-00 NHL season featured only one other game, in Texas, where the defending champion Dallas Stars raised their 1999 Stanley Cup banner before taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Oct. 1 is the earliest date the Oilers have ever played their first game of the NHL regular season. Mother Nature got in the spirit, dumping over an inch of snow on the Alberta capital that day.
Fit to Be Tied
The players sat on their respective benches for nearly an hour during the pre-game proceedings, before the puck dropped on a game that turned out to be the opposite of the high-scoring affairs that were nighty occurrences during Gretzky’s Edmonton heyday.
Ryan Smyth scored early in the second period to give the home team a 1-0 lead, Tim Taylor replied for the Rangers a few minutes later, and that would be it. After 60 minutes of regulation and five minutes of sudden death overtime, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
While Gretzky obviously had many ex-teammates on New York’s roster, only two players in the lineup for Edmonton that night had played with the Great One: defenceman Sean Brown, who was briefly a teammate of Gretzky’s with the Los Angeles Kings in the mid-90s, and goaltender Bill Ranford, who dressed for the game but didn’t see the ice.
Do You Remember Them?
The song most associated with Gretzky’s retirement is “I Will Remember You” by iconic Canadian artist Sarah McLachlan. It was used during a highlight video that played after the final game of his career, with the Rangers against the Penguins at Madison Square Garden on April 18, 1999, and performed by a children’s choir during the Wayne Gretzky Day rally at city hall. Gretzky’s daughter, Paulina, even performed a cover of the song during the 2003 Heritage Classic game at Commonwealth Stadium.
But it wasn’t McLachlan who was the musical guest at the pre-game ceremony. Instead, it was the Moffats, a platinum-selling quartet of teenage brothers from B.C. who were among the biggest bands in the land at that time, having just won Much Music’s Fan Favourite Band of the Year award. The pop-rock act performed a song dedicated to the Great One, of whom they spoke with reverence, referring to him as “Mr. Gretzky”.
The Moffats are still together and making music to this day, but to much less fanfare than at the heights of the late ’90s boyband era.
First Time in Nearly Two Decades
Gretzky was just the second player to have his number retired by the Oilers, and the first since defenceman Al Hamilton had his No. 3 raised on Oct. 10, 1980. Hamilton was the first captain of the Oilers for their inaugural World Hockey Association (WHA) season in 1972-73 and served four years in that capacity. The defenceman is also the Oilers’ all-time WHA leader in games played, assists and points.
In the last 25 years, the Oilers have raised eight more banners, which now hang at Rogers Place. The honourees include players Kurri, Lowe, Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr, along with Phillips and coach/general manager Glen Sather.
There hasn’t been a number retired by the Oilers since Lowe’s No. 4 three years ago, and it could be quite a while before another banner goes up in downtown Edmonton: Current Oilers superstars Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid are in all likelihood the next two players to receive that honour, and both are probably a decade or more from retiring yet.
