It’s safe to say that the 1990s are the craziest period in the history of the Edmonton Oilers. When the decade began, the Oilers were a dynasty that ruled the NHL, capturing their fifth championship in seven years when they decimated the Boston Bruins in the 1990 Stanley Cup Final. When the decade ended, the NHL had expanded by more than half a dozen teams, and the Oilers were now just a small-market squad for whom merely making the postseason constituted a successful season.
In between, the Oilers underwent a complete rebuild, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first four times in franchise history. Oh, and they almost moved. Twice. Not surprisingly, it was a period of massive roster turnover. By the end of the 1993-94 season, only two members of the 1990 Stanley Cup-winning team remained. A total of 180 players suited up for at least one game with the Oilers over the 10-year span that stretched from Jan. 1, 1990, to Dec. 31, 1999. Five, however, stand out.
5) Mark Messier
Mark Messier is mostly thought of as an Oiler of the 1980s, as he joined the team in 1979 and spent the next 12 years in Edmonton. But while he didn’t stick around for very long into the ‘90s, departing Edmonton in a trade to the New York Rangers on Oct. 4, 1991, what Messier accomplished at the start of the decade is simply too spectacular to leave him off this list.
The legendary forward captained the Oilers to their fifth championship in 1990, with a 4-1 series victory over the Boston Bruins, by tying for the league lead with 31 points that postseason. Less than two weeks after Edmonton hoisted the Stanley Cup in Boston Garden on May 24, Messier was awarded the Hart Trophy as most valuable player of the 1989-90 NHL regular season.
Messier played his final season with the Oilers in 1990-91. Despite being limited by injury to just 53 games, the centre still managed to rack up 64 points, including a team-high 52 assists. He recorded 15 points in the 1991 Playoffs, as Edmonton advanced to the Campbell Conference Final.
He ranks first among all Oilers for points per game in the regular season during the ‘90s, with an average of 1.43 from 132 points in 92 games.
4) Kelly Buchberger
Kelly Buchberger was the one constant for the Oilers throughout the ‘90s, bridging the dynasty era with that of the late ‘90s small-market underdogs. The hard-nosed forward made his Oilers debut during the 1987 Stanley Cup Final, helping Edmonton win its third championship, and went on to play 12 seasons with the team before being selected by the Atlanta Thrashers in the 1999 NHL Expansion Draft.
From 1995-96 until his departure following the 1998-99 season, Buchberger served as captain of the Oilers. It was during this period that the Oilers ascended from the depths of their rebuild and returned to the postseason. Buchberger scored a memorable overtime goal in Game 3 of Edmonton’s first round upset of the Dallas Stars in 1997.
Buchberger suited up for 680 regular season games with the Oilers in the 1990s, well over 200 more than any other player. He also played the most postseason games with the Oilers in the ‘90s, appearing in 75 playoff contests.
The beloved winger was voted by the fans as Edmonton’s Most Popular Player in 1991-92 and 1992-93, and he won the Oilers’ Top Defensive Forward Award a record five consecutive seasons, from 1992-93 to 1996-97.
3) Curtis Joseph
While he only played two and a half seasons in Edmonton, goaltender Curtis Joseph had a monumental impact on the Oilers. His arrival midway through the 1995-96 season coincided with the team’s turnaround, and in his first full season as an Oiler, 1996-97, Joseph backstopped Edmonton to its first playoff berth in five years.
His play in the postseason was sensational. Simply put, Joseph was the reason that the Oilers advanced to Round 2 in 1997 and 1998, the only two times Edmonton won a playoff series from 1993 to 2005.
Related: Curtis Joseph’s Oilers Debut Was Transformative Moment for Franchise
Over the 1997 and 1998 Playoffs, Joseph recorded five shutouts, which is still the most all-time by any goaltender in Oilers postseason history. His goals-against average (GAA) of 2.39 and save percentage (SV%) of .919 both rank as the best in Edmonton playoff history by any goalie with at least 19 appearances.
Joseph set the Oilers single-season record with six shutouts in 1996-97, then broke his own record by registering eight shutouts in 1997-98. He won the Oilers Molson Cup award for each of his two full seasons in Edmonton. In the 1998 offseason, Joseph signed as a free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
2) Bill Ranford
Bill Ranford was the face of the franchise for the first half of the ‘90s, and Edmonton’s one true star during the depths of its rebuild.
Originally acquired by Edmonton in a 1988 trade with Boston, the netminder emerged during the 1990 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP after backstopping the Oilers to the championship, going 16-6 while recording a GAA of 2.53 and a SV% of .912 in 22 games played.
The Brandon, Man., product appeared in 383 games for Edmonton during the ‘90s, which ranks first among goaltenders and fifth among all players. He won the Oilers Molson Cup award four times, including three straight seasons from 1992-93 to 1994-95.
While the names on the backs of the players in front of him were constantly changing, Ranford firmly held the role as Edmonton’s starting goaltender until he was traded back to Boston in January 1996, following the arrival of Joseph. He returned to Edmonton for the final season of his career in 1999-00 and retired as an Oiler.
1) Doug Weight
Doug Weight had just recently turned 22 when he came to the Oilers in March 1993, traded from the Rangers in exchange for Esa Tikkanen. The trade – promising young talent for a veteran that was key during Edmonton’s dynasty – was a sign of the times: the Oilers were going all-in on a full-scale rebuild.
Over the next eight years, Weight would grow into the heart and soul of the Oilers, a fitting leader for the team of that time. He ranks first on the Oilers for the 1990s in every major offensive category: goals (115), assists (329), points (444) and shots (1,109).
For five straight seasons from 1993-94 to 1997-98, Weight led the Oilers in both assists and points. He racked up 104 points from 25 goals and 79 assists in 1995-96, the only time an Oilers player reached triple-figures in points over a span of 25 seasons between 1989-90 (Messier) and 2016-17 (Connor McDavid).
Weight succeeded Buchberger as Oilers captain and wore the ‘C’ for two seasons before being traded to the St. Louis Blues on July 1, 2001.
Numerous other players deserve honourable mention for their place in Oilers’ 90s history. But above all, the aforementioned five define that decade of NHL hockey in Edmonton.
