August is a relatively uneventful time in the NHL. The draft is several weeks bygone. Free agency has been open for a month. Teams are mostly done making major moves, and now it’s just a matter of waiting for camp to get started in September.
August is also the month that brought us the biggest trade ever in hockey. In fact, it’s arguably the most monumental transaction in the history of North American pro sports.
On Aug. 9, 1988, Edmonton sent Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski, and Marty McSorley to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three future first-round draft picks, and cash.
That was 35 years ago, and the loss of No. 99 still cuts deep in Oil Country. Suffice it to say, if there’s any place on the NHL map where fans know what August can bring, it’s Edmonton.
With the amount that has been – and continues to be – written about the Gretzky trade, revisiting it again here doesn’t seem necessary. However, it’s far from the only significant swap the Oilers have made during the month of August. So, as we slog through the dog days of summer, here’s a look at the team’s other big August moves:
1979: North Stars trade
The merger of the NHL and the World Hockey Association (WHA) in June 1979 completely upended the offseason calendar and led to the NHL Draft taking place a couple of months later than usual on Aug. 9, 1979.
Edmonton, which was one of four WHA teams to join the NHL in the merger, swung a draft-day deal with the Minnesota North Stars. The North Stars received the 42nd and 63rd overall picks, which they used to select Neal Broten and Kevin Maxwell. Meanwhile, Edmonton got Dave Semenko and the 48th overall selection, which the Oilers used to draft Mark Messier.
Messier was an integral part of the Oilers’ first four Stanley Cup titles (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988). He then took over as captain when Gretzky was traded and led the Oilers to their fifth championship in 1990, the same year he was awarded the Hart Trophy as NHL’s regular season MVP.
Semenko served as Gretzky’s fearsome and loyal protector until being traded to the Hartford Whalers midway through the 1986-87 season. The pugilistic winger was a member of the Oilers’ first two Stanley Cup-winning teams.
1992: Canadiens trade
In his first season with the Oilers, 1991-92, Vincent Damphousse led Edmonton in goals (38), assists (51) and points (89) in the regular season and then helped his team reach the conference finals.
It was a tremendous campaign, but it was Damphousse’s only as an Oiler. The forward was apparently never happy in Edmonton and reportedly asked for a trade (from “Damphousse dealt for three Habs”, The Edmonton Journal, 08/28/92). He got his wish on Aug. 27, 1992, when Oilers general manager Glen Sather shipped Damphousse to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for all-star forward Shayne Corson along with Brent Gilchrist and Vladimir Vujtek.
Related: Edmonton Oilers’ Trade of Damphousse for Corson Began Period of Upheaval
The results that followed could not be more opposite for the respective teams. Montreal won the Stanley Cup in 1993, while Edmonton missed the playoffs for the first time since joining the NHL in 1979.
Gilchrist and Vujtek had largely forgettable stints as Oilers, playing just 60 and 70 games, respectively, before being traded away. As for Corson, Oilers fans only wish they could forget his time in Edmonton. The controversial Corson lasted just 35 games as Edmonton’s captain in 1995, before becoming the first and still only player in team history to be stripped of the ‘C.’
1995: Blues Trade
During the 1995 offseason, Corson signed an offer sheet (a five-year contract worth $6.95 million plus a $1.25 million signing bonus) with the St. Louis Blues, which Sather declined to match. As compensation for losing Corson, the Oilers were awarded the Blues’ first-round draft pick in both 1996 and 1997.
On Aug. 4, 1995, Sather traded those picks back to St. Louis in exchange for the rights to 20-year-old prospect Mike Grier, a forward from Boston University, and superstar goalie Curtis Joseph.
Joseph led Edmonton back to the playoffs after a four-year absence and backstopped the Oilers to first-round upsets in 1997 and 1998. He ranks second in Oilers history with 14 regular season shutouts and is the all-time franchise playoff leader with five shutouts.
Grier scored some huge goals during the Oilers’ playoff runs in 1997 and 1998. He spent six years with the team and is one of 12 players in franchise history to notch at least 10 regular season shorthanded goals.
2005: Blues and Islanders trades
The lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 NHL season wasn’t resolved until July 22, 2005, bumping the draft to July 30 and the start of free agency to Aug. 1. That set off a flurry of activity in early August, and the Oilers were right in the thick of it, making two monster moves one day apart.
First, on Aug. 2, the Oilers dealt Eric Brewer, Doug Lynch and Jeff Woywitka to St. Louis for Hart Trophy-winning blueliner Chris Pronger. The next day, Edmonton acquired Selke award-winning center Mike Peca from the New York Islanders for forward Mike York and a conditional draft pick.
The pair, who were both in their early 30s and had been teammates on Canada’s gold-medal-winning Olympic team in 2002, brought pivotal veteran experience to Edmonton, propelling the Oilers on a Cinderella run to Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final. Pronger led Oilers defensemen in plus-minus during the postseason, while Peca likewise had the best rating among Edmonton’s forwards in the playoffs.
Neither was back for a second season in Edmonton, however. Peca became an unrestricted free agent and signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Oilers shipped Pronger to the Anaheim Ducks in July 2006.
It’s been a while now since the Oilers have made headlines in August, and they’re not likely to start trending this month. That said, the trades that are made at this time of year are the ones that no one sees coming. Oilers fans probably wouldn’t mind a bit of excitement over the next few weeks — just as long as it’s nothing along the lines of trading this generation’s Gretzky, Connor McDavid.
