About Edmonton Oilers
The franchise was founded in 1971 and played its first game in season 1972 as one of the franchises that established the WHA. The team was based in Alberta as Oilers. A year later team was renamed to Edmonton Oilers and in 1979 joined the NHL through the merger with the WHA.
Joining the league was like a spark for the team as the Oilers qualified for the playoffs 13 consecutive seasons, grabbing five Stanley Cups in the run which still stands as the most championships won by any team since the NHL-WHA merger.
Having such a high success in the eighties the team of this era was honoured with a dynasty status by the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Oilers’ fortunes started slowly changing for the worse in nineties and probably reached it’s lowest currently as the city if Edmonton has been awaiting their team to reach the playoffs since 2006.
The franchise is a member of Pacific Division in Western Conference that was created in 1993 and the team is yet to win its title despite having won 9 divisional championships. The Oilers’ colours are blue, orange and white and they are one of only three teams without an official mascot but the fans are proud of their Octane Cheerleaders.
Todd McLellan was chosen to be the 14th head coach of the Oilers in off season 2015. He formerly played as a center, then coaching across variety of leagues, eventually settling in 2008 when he started coaching the Sharks.
The goaltending duties are somewhat split in between Anders Nilsson and Cam Talbot with Talbot being the first choice due to more experience but Nilsson had a stellar training camp and the duo will be competing against each other.
The franchise named 4 alternate captains but have no captain at the start of the season 2015-16. The most notable ones are Andrew Ference and Taylor Hall.
Terence who served previously as the team’s captain plays on defence and he made his NHL debut in 1999. He won Stanley Cup playing for the Bruins in 2011. He joined his home team, the Oilers in 2013 when he also was named the team’s captain.
Hall who was the first overall pick in 2010 draft spent all his NHL career with the Oilers and he didn’t wait long to show off his shooting skills as in 2013 he broke Gretzky’s record by scoring two goals in eight seconds, one faster than the legendary hockey player.
With a bit more time and careful team building the franchise has a chance to dig themselves out of this rather bleak place they’re in now.
