NHL history: Best trade in Edmonton Oilers history
There are a lot of bad Edmonton Oilers trades in the past. The Gretzky trade is probably the most famous trade in the history of the league. One literally just happened with Duncan Keith going to Edmonton on a deal that still pays him north of $5 million on the salary cap. However, the history of the Oilers has some really good trades.
Doug Weight is one that stands out above the rest. After the dynasty years of the 1980s, the Oilers went to playing spoiler in the 90s. Often, they took down the power houses of the Western Conference. That was on the backs of their star Doug Weight.
The Rangers traded Weight to the Oilers at the 1993 trade deadline for Esa Tikkanen. We’ll get to Tikkanen in a second, but Weight went on to play nine years in Edmonton. He was only 22 years old when he was traded, so the Oilers got his entire prime. He scored just under a point per game in his time in Western Canada (577 points in 588 games), and he was just as good in the postseason.
Meanwhile, Tikkanen played parts of two seasons (before a second two-year stint later in his career). He scored 54 points then left for St. Louis. He was on that Rangers championship team in 1994 and put up eight points in 23 games. Maybe those eight playoff points were worth the loss of a franchise legend for the Rangers, but this will always be a superstar trade for the Oilers.