Don Cherry was offered a scouting job with the Edmonton Oilers; Mark Messier requested a trade in 1991

Article content

Here for your summer hockey fix are two pieces of Edmonton Oilers history: First, former Boston Bruins coach Don Cherry was promised a scouting job with the Edmonton Oilers, and second, Oilers great Mark Messier asked to be traded away from Edmonton.

Cherry once recalled getting into trouble on Hockey Night in Canada for something he said — a common occurrence even in the cruder, more brash, more freewheeling 20th century — when Oilers hockey team boss Glen Sather came up to him and said, “I hear you’re getting fired?”

Article content

Cherry said that might well be the case.

“Well,” Sather said, “you still got a job with us as a scout if you ever get fired.”

Cherry recounted the story on his latest Grapevine podcast, adding of the offer: “It made me feel pretty good. I would have taken a pretty significant pay cut.”

As for Messier’s story, the former Oilers star was on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast where he said in 1991 that he knew it was time for a change after winning five Stanley Cups in Edmonton. His Oilers made it to the semifinals in 1991 but were eliminated.

“At the end, I felt like I needed a change. The team needed to restructure. Wayne was gone. Paul was gone. Grant was gone. Personally, I needed a different challenge, professionally, and I told Glen that when the buzzer rang, I thought, ‘Wow, this is the last game I’m going to play for the Edmonton Oilers.’ I called Glen and said, ‘Glen, you need to restructure the team. It’s been 12 years. That’s more than we ever expected, I’m sure.’ We knew Wayne was going to win, but did we ever think we were going to win five Stanley Cups? Probably not. He was like, ‘Where would you like to go?’ And I was like, ‘If you get the chance, I’m 31, I wouldn’t mind going to play in New York.’” “So he was able to make an exchange with New York.”

Article content

It’s a happy ending to the Messier trade story, as it was not known at the time that Messier had asked out. It was reported at the time that Messier and the Oilers were in a contract dispute.

There was bitterness in Edmonton because the city didn’t get much in return for Messier. There were also rumors that had been brewing for years that Edmonton had had no luck getting players from New York in return for Messier because Oilers owner Peter Pocklington had demanded millions of dollars in cash in return. I finally confirmed this fact, once and for all, in a 2010 interview with Pocklington, who said he got $2 million in the deal.

Of course, in 1991, many Edmonton fans would have been upset, even outraged, if they had known Messier wanted to retire. I probably would have felt the same way. But that was 34 years ago. The world was different then and the NHL was certainly different.

We’ve all become much more accustomed to the idea that NHL players have a say in where they play. I’m happy for Messier that he got to live out his dream of playing in the NHL in New York.

The Basics of Politics

Article content

Share this article on your social network