Franchise History Lookbacks: Wayne Gretzky rewrites the NHL record books every year

Edmonton Oilers superstar and WHA steal, Wayne Gretzky, was the greatest single component to the team’s four Cups from 1984 to 1988. This was a span in which the Oilers could well have won five straight if not for the infamous Steve Smith blunder. And both before and during this period, in the regular season and playoffs, Gretzky basically authored an entirely new book of league records. Beyond the records, Gretzky accomplished many statistical feats that either haven’t been matched, or set a very lofty bar to match.

We covered Edmonton’s first five NHL seasons in the previous two Lookbacks, as the team grew into a Stanley Cup Champion. Now, it’s time to observe how number 99 helped the Oilers achieve and maintain their dominance. Goalies and defencemen beware, this tale won’t be for the faint of heart.

The Gretzky benchmarks of the first five NHL seasons

When the previous two Franchise History Lookbacks followed the young Oilers and their path of growth, they didn’t delve into too many statistical specifics. So it’s worth starting off with those early seasons spectacles. Ultimately, they did end up becoming a harbinger of things to come.

Gretzky could have had a record off the bat had it not been for technicalities. Because of his 1978–79 WHA season, he was not considered a “rookie” by the NHL when playing in 1979–80, despite that being his age 18 and 19 season. That first season in the league, Gretzky potted 51 goals and added 86 assists, for 137 points. Mike Bossy had the rookie goals record at the time with 53, so Gretzky didn’t challenge that. 137 points, though, has not been done by any rookie in NHL history. Alas, that does not officially count for anything more than a footnote.

On February 18, 1981, Gretzky would join an elite club, with a four-goal period against the St. Louis Blues. While it had been done before, most of the other instances were in the early days of the NHL. In the 35 years prior to Gretzky’s instance, only Red Berenson had managed to turn the trick.

Post-1980: Bring on the records

The 1981 Stanley Cup playoffs is when things started to get serious. In Game 1 of the Oilers’ first-round series versus the Montreal Canadiens, Gretzky recorded five assists. The five-assist game set a playoff record for its time. Gretzky ended that three-game sweep with a total of 11 points- nearly half of them coming in that legendary Game 1.

1981–82 became the year of Gretzky the goal-scorer, in addition to Gretzky the playmaker. Gretzky had already had a good start to his NHL career as far as goals went, with 51 his first season and 55 his second. Keep in mind, however, that this was the early 1980’s. Players like Bossy made 50-goal campaigns look easy. So Gretzky took things to the next level.

The Great One would tally 50 goals before the 1981 part of the season was over. His five-goal outing on December 30 completed the famed 50-goals-in-39 games record. By the 50-game point of the season, Gretzky had recorded 61 red lights, also far and away a record. And by season’s end, Phil Esposito’s 76-goal single season record had fallen, with Gretzky establishing 92 tallies as the new high score.

Oh, and causally overlooked in all this? By the end of the 1981–82 season, Gretzky had broken the single season assists record twice. Bobby Orr had set it at 102, in 1970–71. Gretzky broke it first with 109 assists in 1980–81, then completed the first-ever 120-assist season in 1981–82. And yes, the 212 points resulting from 92 goals and 120 assists was also a singleseason high-water mark.

1983 to 1988: Becoming the greatest of his generation

Gretzky would take a moment to set another single season assists milestone (125 in 1982–83) and help the Oilers get to their first Stanley Cup Final. But he was far from finished recording mind-boggling statistics.

1983–84, while not the ultimate peak of his single-year scoring totals, still proved to be unlike anything the NHL previously had seen. Gretzky would begin the season with points in his first 51 games, a streak that lasted up to the end of January. Over that span, he notched 61 goals and 92 assists (153 points). The 61 goals came in the first 50 games of that streak, matching 1981–82 in the first-50-games benchmark.

Despite missing six games in that 80-game season, more records were set. Gretzky had the highest goals-per-game and points-per-game averages in league history. His 87 goals and 205 points metered out to 1.18 goals per game and 2.77 points per game. Gretzky tacked on 13 playoff goals, to become the first player to hit 100 goals, regular season and playoffs combined, in one season.

1984–85 and 1985–86

The NHL continued to be Wayne’s world following the Oilers’ first Cup victory. Any records he hadn’t yet set, Gretzky would get to in this span. Still some records that he did hold, he would put a new number on.

After taking a step back on the assists front in 1983–84, Gretzky yet again established a new single season high bar. 135 would be the number he reached in 1984–85, to go along with 73 goals. This was his fourth straight 60- and 70-goal campaign, both records. In the 1985 Stanley Cup playoffs, Gretzky would tally an astounding 47 points as the “Greatest Team in NHL History” romped to a second straight Cup. The 255 total points also set a record for a single NHL campaign, regular- and postseason combined.

Anticipating that some future phenoms would reach triple-digits in assists in one season, Gretzky did one more thing in 1985–86. He set a new assists record one more time, but emphatically that year. 163 became the new total, and he set a new high for points in a regular season with 215.

Saving a couple records for later postseasons

The 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons saw drops in point totals from Gretzky during the regular season. However, by this point, Gretzky had already established a whole new set of high-water marks to stand the test of time. Stanley Cups became the focus of the Oilers, especially after falling short in the 1986 playoffs. In signature Gretzky fashion however, even those postseasons had to be utterly dominant.

Early in the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs, Gretzky would tie a record held by Mikko Leinonen with six assists in a single postseason game. Throughout that postseason, he would tally 29 assists, one shy of the league record that he had set.

And in 1988, Gretzky would power Edmonton to their fourth Cup in five years by actually setting a new record. He would rack up 31 assists over the entire postseason, a feat that would stand unmatched for 36 years. His 10 assists and 13 points to clinch the Cup against the Boston Bruins are both Stanley Cup Final records as well.

How many of these records still stand today?

At the time of his retirement, Wayne Gretzky officially owned 61 league records. Many of them have long been considered unbreakable, though a few have indeed fallen. Most notably, this past season saw Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin break Gretzky’s vaunted goals record.

At the time of writing, 55 of those 61 records still remain intact. The other five to fall, besides the career goals mark, are as follows:

Specifically during Gretzky’s Oilers tenure, numerous league records were established, some broken by Oilers Gretzky himself. Below is a chart, separated into goals, assists and points, of his more significant records set between 1979 and 1988.

Which Gretzky conversations have McDavid and Draisaitl entered?

The modern equivalent to Gretzky and Messier, of course, is Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. These two have been the dynamite engine powering the Oilers since 2015. They have aided the team to six consecutive postseason appearances, seven in nine years, and back-to-back Cup Finals. They, too, have been in on some statistics that have mentioned Gretzky’s name.

Connor McDavid

For McDavid, the 2022–23 season was the brightest example of this. His 64 goals that year was the most in a single year by an Oiler since Gretzky and Jari Kurri of 1984–85 and 1985–86 respectively.

Additionally, reaching 150 points put him in the same club as just five other players, with Gretzky and Mario Lemieux the headliners. The Gretzky record that fell in that season was most 10-plus-game point streaks. Gretzky’s previous record had been four; McDavid registered five.

You will note that two of the five listed Gretzky records to fall besides career goals have no name attached to them. McDavid is the answer to one, thanks to his 2024 playoff run. His 34 assists that postseason surpassed the 31 Gretzky racked up in 1988.

As bonuses, McDavid has been in select company in two other categories. Only Gretzky, Lemieux and Bossy got to 1000 points faster than the current Oilers captain. And only Gretzky got to 100 playoff assists quicker than McDavid.

Leon Draisaitl

2022 playoffs Leon Draisaitl was the stuff of legends, even if the end result was being swept in the Western Conference Final. Remember, after Game 6 of the first round, he basically played on one leg, with the other having been broken. He still put up 15 assists against the Calgary Flames in the second round that year. He needed only five games in that series to break Gretzky’s record of 14 assists in one round.

More recently, Draisaitl just registered his fourth 50-goal season, the same number Kurri put up. Naturally, who is the only Oiler with more than Draisaitl? Gretzky, with eight 50-goal campaigns. At the rate Draisaitl can, and has, gone before, that franchise mark is certainly in play.