Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers jerseys go all the way back to when they were called the Alberta Oilers and were one of the original 12 teams in the upstart WHL, the World Hockey League. They team was going to be called Edmonton Oilers, but when the Calgary Broncos folded before the WHL even started, the name was changed to the Alberta Oilers and the plan was to play half of the home games in Calgary. That was in 1972. By 1973, the sharing of home games with Calgary didn’t work out and the name had been changed back to the Edmonton Oilers.
By 1978, the WHL was struggling and, in attempt to survive, began signing underage players, something the established National Hockey League would not do. One of these players was a 17 year old Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky originally signed with the Indianapolis Racers, but the Racers only survived 25 games into the season. Gretzky was sold for cash to the Edmonton Oilers.
The rookie Wayne Gretzky jersey is from his year, 1978 – 1979, with the WHA Edmonton Oilers. Other desirable Oiler jerseys are the Mark Messier jersey, the Paul Coffey jersey, the Jari Kurri jersey and the Grant Juhr jersey. That season Gretzky led the Oilers to the best record in the league and to the WHA Finals where they lost to the Winnipeg Jets. The following season the Edmonton Oilers were absorbed into the NHL with three other WHL teams. Because of his season with the WHA, Wayne Gretzky was never an official NHL rookie.
Very few teams outside of the “Original Six” have maintained the traditional look of their logo and uniforms more than Edmonton Oilers. The original blue, orange and white colors have been maintained. In the Oilers first season, when they were the Alberta Oilers, the jerseys had the word Alberta printed where the players names would ordinarily be. Into the first season, when it became obvious that all the home games would be played in Edmonton, they began to put the players names on the backs of the jerseys.
The early Oiler jerseys had orange as the dominant color trimmed out in blue. In later years, that pattern was reversed to the now familiar blue base with orange trim. The logo has also been consistent, a circle with the name Oilers and an oil drop hanging over the name. The logo was always a combination of the team colors whose arrangement would be changed for home and road games.
In the jump to NHL, the Oilers jerseys stayed essentially the same until 1996 when the colors were changed from orange and blue to midnight blue and copper. The so-called “rigger” alternate logo, where a an oil rigger is wielding a hockey stick, was added to the shoulders of the home jersey. Alternations since then have been minor and the colors were kept when the NHL switched to the Reebok EDGE jerseys.
Even the Hockey Hall of Fame honored the 1984 – 1990 Edmonton Oilers with “dynasty” status, for winning 5 Stanley Cups titles during that stretch.