EDMONTON -- Doug Weight and Charlie Huddy played in different eras, but both were vital members of the Edmonton Oilers in their day.
The two will be inducted into the Oilers Hall of Fame on Thursday when Edmonton hosts the New York Rangers at Rogers Place (9 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN1, MSG).
Huddy a defenseman, played 11 seasons in Edmonton from 1980-1991 and won the Stanley Cup five times.
“It was real special, when you start your career you are never really sure what’s going to happen, if you’ll get into the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup and I was fortunate to get five of them,” Huddy said on Thursday. “But you don’t get there without the teammates that you had. For me, credit to ‘Slats’ (general manager Glen Sather) he would always get the right people and he had his thumb on that pulse of that room and he’d make sure it was right.”
Huddy, 64, was part of the Oilers’ 80s dynasty, and won the Stanley Cup with Edmonton in 1984,1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990, along with teammates Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier, Randy Gregg, and Jari Kurri. Wayne Gretzky won the Stanley Cup four times in that span and former defense partner Paul Coffey won three.
“It was just a special time, how could it not be,” Huddy said. “You go through it and different teammates come through the years to fill out the team and that was the exciting thing, was after you had won a couple of Stanley Cups, to see a guy win his first Stanley Cup was exciting.”
Weight, 52, was part of the next generation and played with the Oilers from 1993-2001. He was part of a rebuilding team and led to the Oilers to upset wins in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Dallas Stars in 1997 and Colorado Avalanche in 1998.
“Coach Ronnie (Low) would remind us that we were severe underdogs, and we didn’t belong, but I think that was a huge part of it,” Weight said. “You look at the standings and we’d have 84 points and just barely got into the playoffs. I think the greatest thing about it is that everyone was out of their comfort zone in our team, and everybody was buying-in, and raised their level and nobody cared that we were around 40 points behind the team we were playing.”
