By / Andrew Chong
A decade ago, the Oilers and Flames had a few things in common: both were struggling to rise above mediocrity, both lacked a legitimate number one goaltender, and both had an emerging young Canadian star who would eventually lead them to within one win of the Stanley Cup.
Jarome Iginla led the Flames to Game 7 of the finals in 2003/04, while Ryan Smyth led the Oilers to Game 7 of the finals in 2005/06.
The 1998/99 regular season was the worst for the Edmonton Oilers in a nine-season span (1996/97 to 2006/06). The Oil recorded just 78 points and finished the year under .500 for the seventh straight time. Edmonton was then swept in the first round of the playoffs by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Dallas Stars. The Oilers lost all four games by a single goal.
A 22-year-old Ryan Smyth had a disappointing regular season with just 13 goals in 71 games. Smyth had 39 goals two seasons earlier, and scored more than 20 goals in six of his next seven seasons.
The Oilers signed former second overall pick and fourth-leading scorer Pat Falloon to a one-year, $297,810 contract that season. That’s over $150,000 less than today’s minimum player salary.
Bill Guerin led the team in goals, assists, and points and had a career-high 133 penalty minutes.
Mike Grier’s 20 goals and 44 points were the best of his still-active 13-year NHL career.
The loss of Curtis Joseph in the off-season left Bob Essensa and Mikhail Shtalenkov to split the goaltending duties until the late-season acquisition of new starter Tommy Salo.
From 1989/90 to 2002/03, the Calgary Flames never advanced past the first round of the post-season and missed the playoffs eight times.
A decade ago, the 1998/99 Flames found themselves in the thick of seven-straight years of missing the playoffs.
Because of some serious injury troubles, Calgary used six different goalies with fan-favourite Fred Brathwaite playing the most games – 28. Amidst the ‘keeper carousel was 21-year-old future Conn Smythe trophy winner Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was 6-7-1 in 15 games.
In his third full NHL season, Jarome Iginla was the only Flame to play all 82 games and his very respectable 28 goals that season was the lowest he’s scored since. Iginla followed up that campaign with 29, 31, 52, 35, 41, 35, 39, and 50 goals in 2007/08.
Ten years ago this month, the Flames traded leading scorer Theo Fleury and Chris Dingman to Colorado for ’98 first rounder Robyn Regehr, Wade Belak, and Rene Corbet. At the time, the Flames were unsure if they could meet the contract demands of their all-time leading-scorer, as he was set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer. Fleury played just four NHL seasons after that, while Regehr is in his ninth season with the Flames and is still just 28-years-old. |