Top 100 Oilers: No. 23 — Lee Fogolin

Notable

Lee Fogolin was a sought after prospect in the mid-1970s, drafted 11th overall in the 1974 NHL Draft to the Buffalo Sabres. His dad was a hockey player too, playing in the Original Six era as a member of the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.

The Windy City was where “Fogey” was born in 1955, but Buffalo is where he cut his teeth as a pro, joining a team that made a trip to the Stanley Cup final in his rookie year.

Shortly after, he got the opportunity to play on the international stage and represent the United States at the 1976 Canada Cup.

A sturdy, tough, dependable pro, Fogolin eventually shook loose in the 1979 expansion draft as the Oilers were leaving the WHA, and would remain in Oilersnation until 1986-87.

Despite never being an offensive dynamo, Fogolin tied an NHL record in 1981 held by Bobby Orr. He scored four short-handed goals that campaign, a record that would stand for one season until beaten by Philadelphia Flyers blueliner Mark Howe, and later by teammate Paul Coffey, whose mark of nine remains unbeaten. Only seven defencemen have ever scored four or more shorthanded goals in one year.

In total, Fogey played 586 regular season games with Edmonton, which is still the fourth-most by a defenceman in franchise history, while suiting up in 78 playoff games.

As playing time gradually decreased over the years, in March 1987, he and Mark Napier were traded to Buffalo for Normand Lacombe, Wayne Van Dorp and future considerations. Edmonton Journal writer Jim Matheson described Fogolin as holding back tears knowing the best days of his career were behind him.

“He was the toughest of all the Oilers…with apologies to Dave Semenko, nobody ever gave more blood, sweat than Fogolin,” wrote Matheson on March 7, 1987.

The Story

Lee Fogolin helped teach a group of skilled kids how to play against men in a league that rewarded toughness. 

That culminated in a pair of Stanley Cups, a missing tooth, and the type of lay-it-on-the-line effort that gets the utmost respect from your teammates. This infamous story comes from Peter Gzowski’s book The Game of Our Lives, where he followed the Oilers in the 1980-81 season.

Before a game in Hartford, Fogolin couldn’t sleep because of a terrible toothache. He elected not to see a dentist, but instead yanked it out himself with a bent-up coat hanger in his hotel room.

Ouch.

During that post-season, the Oilers first put themselves on the hockey map with a shocking first-round upset of the Montreal Canadiens, who had many players left over from their 1970s dynasty. Fogolin played through severe pain caused by a charleyhorse injury, and didn’t miss a shift.

As they say: the pain threshold of a cadaver.

“It was just such an honour for me,” said Fogolin in 2022, who was part of the first class of inductees into the Oilers Hall of Fame beside Ryan Smyth. “I think back nowadays, and how blessed I was to have such a group of wonderful teammates. It would be special, just like the perfect storm when you get a group of guys together like that—that play so hard and care about what’s happening, and I’ll never ever forget that.”

Fogolin was not a guy to put up points on those record-setting Oilers teams — his career-high was 13 goals and 30 points after all — but he is the type of player you win with. And his legendary teammates haven’t forgotten that through the years.

Take it from Wayne Gretzky, who made the phone call to tell Fogolin the Hall of Fame news nearly 40 years after their first Stanley Cup together.  

“The culture and the work ethic and the unselfishness you displayed each and every day throughout your career in Edmonton,” Gretzky told Fogolin. “Not only as a teammate, but as a father figure to a lot of us young guys who weren’t quite mature enough yet, you were definitely the guy that set the tone and the culture for years to come, and that winning attitude and that unselfishness.

“I don’t think there’s any question that everyone agreed upon the fact that you should be one of the first guys that goes into the Oilers Hall of Fame.”

What Brownlee said

“It goes without saying Lee Fogolin is best remembered in Edmonton Oilers’ folklore as the player who turned over the captaincy of the team to Wayne Gretzky. While the shift of that letter from one jersey to another in October 1983 coincided with Edmonton’s transition from WHA upstarts and new kids on the NHL block to Stanley Cup champions, there was much more to Fogolin than that,” wrote Brownlee.

“Acquired by the Oilers from the Buffalo Sabres in the 1979 Expansion Draft, Fogolin wasn’t just a placeholder for the Gretzky captaincy, he was an honest team-first player who was as tough as anybody and did whatever it took to win. In that regard, he was very much the same as Jason Smith…More than that. Fogolin was one of a handful of veterans who showed a group of brash and ridiculously talented young Oilers the ropes before that first sip from the Stanley Cup.”

The Last 10

• No. 33 — Curtis Joseph
• No. 32 — Dave Semenko
• No. 31 — Dave Hunter
• No. 30 — Dave Lumley
• No. 29 — Sam Gagner
• No. 28 — Jordan Eberle
• No. 27 — Jason Smith
• No. 26 — Zach Hyman
• No. 25 — Andy Moog
• No. 24 — Steve Smith