Oilers Greats Huddy and Weight are Right Choices for Hall of Fame

The Oilers Hall of Fame was established last year to honour the most extraordinary players, coaches, trainers, staff, and executives involved with the franchise since it was founded in 1972. Last year’s inaugural class included the 10 individuals whose banners hang in the rafters at Rogers Place, as well as Fogolin and Smyth, who were chosen by the Oilers HOF selection committee. 

As they reconvened this year, the selection committee had many worthy candidates to consider; All-Stars, Stanley Cup champions, and team captains among them. It couldn’t have been easy to narrow the field down to Huddy and Weight, but the selection committee got it right, and here’s why. 

Huddy Was a Winner 

There are hundreds of games in the NHL every season. Each is a huge event, watched by thousands of fans, requiring hundreds of people and scores of resources to pull off. Between these games, coaches and players devote countless hours of preparation. And it’s all so that maybe, just maybe, they can one day experience winning the Stanley Cup. And that’s something Huddy did. A lot. 

The blueliner was part of every one of Edmonton’s Stanley Cup-winning teams, capturing the championship in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990. He is one of only 42 players in NHL history to win five Stanley Cups with one team.  

Among defencemen on the Oilers’ all-time regular season leaderboards, Huddy ranks second to Lowe in games played (694), second to Coffey in goals (81), and third behind Coffey and Lowe in both assists (287) and points (368). He is one of just three blueliners in franchise history with a 20-goal season (1982-83). 

Huddy was given the Oilers’ Defenceman of the Year Award in 1982-83 and 1988-89 and won the team’s Unsung Hero award back-to-back in 1988 and 1989. In 1982-83, Huddy received the inaugural Emery Edge Award after leading the NHL with a plus/minus of plus-62, his first of three consecutive seasons registering a rating of 50 or higher. 

All told, Huddy spent two decades as a member of the Oilers organization, combining his tenure as a player (1980 to 1991) and assistant coach (2000 to 2009). 

Weight Defined a Decade 

Ask any Oilers fan who the team’s best skater of the 1990s was, and nearly all will tell you it was Weight. His importance to the team for the better of a decade can’t be overstated. 

The centre saw the team through one of its most difficult periods on and off the ice, getting Edmonton from the depths of its post-dynasty rebuild in 1993 and 1994 to the heights of playoff series wins in 1997 and 1998 and serving as captain from 1999 to 2001.  

Between 1993-94 and 2000-01, Weight led Edmonton in points and assists seven times and scored at least 20 goals six times. He had 25 goals and 79 assists in 1995-96, making him the only Oiler with a 100-point campaign in the 25 seasons between 1989-90 (when Messier did it) and 2016-17 (Connor McDavid’s first of many seasons doing it). 

Weight represented the Oilers at three All-Star Games (1996, 1998, 2001) and received the Zane Feldman Trophy as team MVP twice (1995-96, 1997-98). He has the eighth-most assists (420), 10th-most points (577), and third-most power-play assists (207) in franchise history. 

Gregg and Ranford Should Be Next 

While not officially mandated by the Oilers Hall of Fame, judging by the first two classes, the selection committee’s intent appears to be each year inducting one player from the franchise’s dynasty years (Fogolin and Huddy) and one from the teams of the ‘90s and ‘00s (Smyth and Weight). With that in mind, the next two players to get the call, in 2024, should be Randy Gregg and Bill Ranford. 

With Huddy’s induction, Gregg is now the only of the seven players who were part of every Oilers Stanley Cup-winning team (Anderson, Coffey, Fuhr, Huddy, Kurri, and Messier being the others). On that fact alone, the blueliner needs to be there alongside his fellow five-timers.  

Gregg ranks near the top among defencemen in Oilers playoff history, with 13 goals (third), 39 assists (fourth), 52 points (tied for third), four game-winning goals (second) and a plus-78 rating (second). His regular season plus/minus rating of plus-173 is eighth in franchise history, and the seven skaters above him (in descending order; Gretzky, Kurri, Coffey, Huddy, Lowe, Anderson, Messier) are all Oilers Hall of Famers. 

On one hand, Ranford could be considered a dynasty-era player: He was acquired by Edmonton in 1988 and backstopped the Oilers to their last championship in 1990 when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy. On the other hand, he was the face of the franchise during much of their 90s rebuild and returned to finish his career with the team in 1999-00.

Either way, Ranford is arguably the most deserving player from any era not in the Oilers Hall of Fame. He’s the all-time franchise leader in saves (11,502) and second to Fuhr in wins (167). He was Edmonton’s Molson Cup winner four times (1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95) and received the Zane Feldman Trophy as Team MVP four seasons in a row, from 1990-91 to 1993-94. 

But that’s a conversation for next year. In the meantime, the moment will belong to Huddy and Weight on Oct. 26, when their names are placed in the ring above the PCL Loge Level at Rogers Place during a ceremony before the Oilers host the New York Rangers.