The day the pros left town

Cape Breton Oilers moved to Hamilton 25 years ago today

EDITOR’S NOTE:

This story is part of a series highlighting the Cape Breton Oilers, a team that played eight American Hockey League seasons in Sydney from 1988 to 1996.

SYDNEY — From sitting in the stands watching the team practice for the first time to being inside Centre 200 when they won the Calder Cup, local hockey fans have countless memories of the Cape Breton Oilers' time in Sydney.

As the American Hockey League affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers, fans witnessed firsthand the experience of having a professional sports team in the

community while following up-and-coming NHL players like Mark Lamb, Shaun Van Allen, Kirk Maltby and Scott Thornton to name a few.

Despite the economic challenges facing Cape Breton Island at the time, the Oilers franchise was a welcome relief to a community that needed something to call its own.

The franchise moved from Halifax to Sydney following the 1987-88 season. The club would defeat the Newmarket Saints 6-4 in its first game on Oct. 7, 1988.

The Oilers, who had their fair share of ups and downs, went on to spend eight seasons in Cape Breton and during that time captured a Calder Cup championship in May 1993.

Cape Breton would reach the Atlantic Division semifinal in the 1993-94 season despite not having a winning record. The next two seasons would see the club have losing records and not make the playoffs both years.

If the disappointment of the previous two seasons wasn't enough for Oilers fans, the darkest day of the franchise was yet to come.

Media reports began circulating shortly after the 199596 season that the team's days in Cape Breton were over. The reports turned out to be true.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the day the AHL board of governors approved the Oilers' move to Hamilton, Ont. The decision was made at the league's annual meeting.

Edmonton would move their affiliate team to Hamilton's 17,000-seat Copps Coliseum where the club would be renamed the Hamilton Bulldogs.

The team would remain in the Ontario city for several years before relocating to St. John's, N.L., to become the Icecaps under the affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens.

WELCOME TO CAPE BRETON

When the old Sydney Forum was torn down to make way for the new $15-million Centre 200, Sydney Mayor Manning Macdonald envisioned the facility being home to a professional sports team.

“With the AHL having teams in Halifax and Moncton at the time, we felt the league was struggling because there weren't enough teams in Atlantic Canada,” said Macdonald.

“I felt that Sydney would have been a good fit and that's when we started looking for a team and a full-time tenant for Centre 200.”

Macdonald and his team began the search for a franchise and approached the Winnipeg Jets about bringing their affiliate team to Cape Breton's capital, but discussions didn't go as planned.

“They had their eye on going to Moncton and becoming the Hawks and that's what they did,” he said.

“Having been burnt on that negotiation, we knew that the Nova Scotia Oilers were thinking about leaving Halifax and we decided to make a play for them.”

Macdonald would meet with David Andrews, the general manager of the Nova Scotia Oilers, and Glen Sather, the president, head coach and general manager of the Edmonton Oilers, on three separate occasions before coming to an agreement.

The team would move to Sydney in the summer of 1988, just a few weeks before the bombshell trade by Edmonton that saw “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky shipped to Los Angeles.

The agreement didn't come as easy as one may think. The deal would see Centre 200 and the City of Sydney become partners with the Edmonton Oilers, owning 50 per cent of the team.

“It was the only way Edmonton would agree to stay in the area,” said Macdonald, noting the cost of splitting the partnership at the time was $250,000 — money the city never lost because of the success of fan support.

Andrews considered the move to Sydney as an overall opportunity for the Oilers franchise.

“AHL hockey in Halifax had been doing OK, but just OK, so we felt there was potential to be really successful in Cape Breton,” said Andrews in an interview with the Cape Breton Post earlier this week.

“It seemed like an opportunity to improve our business and create a better environment in many ways for our players in terms of having full buildings and the kind of interest that we were able to develop.”

Andrews, who lived in Sydney River during his six years in Cape Breton, recalled the clandestine move to Sydney.

“It was a dark of the night move and not a lot of notice given to our landlords in Halifax. It was an awkward time for me because it wasn't my idea, I was simply managing the business,” said Andrews.

“It was almost like the Baltimore Colts. It was pretty short notice for us in terms that we were going to go and being told to pack up and move to Cape Breton — packing up a hockey team when you have equipment and everything else was quite a challenge.”

GAME ON

The Oilers began their tenure in Cape Breton during the 1988-89 season. Despite a struggling team, which would finish last in the seven-club North Division with a 2747-6 record, local star Fabian Joseph was a draw for the hometown faithful.

“We weren't a very good team but we were really active in the community and we wanted everyone to know that we were their team and we were proud to be in Cape Breton,” said Andrews.

“Having Fabian on the team certainty helped because he was one of our top players, he really helped build a bridge to the community.”

Having a losing team at the time didn't seem to matter to local hockey fans.

The club averaged 2,800 to 3,000 fans during the first three months of the inaugural season before selling out Centre 200 for the remaining four months of the year, a sellout that would continue for at least the next six years.

“There's a misconception that we were sold out from the very beginning,” Andrews said.

“The fan support turned out to be amazing. The mood of the city and the area was quite clearly reflected how we had done on a Friday night because if you went to Tim Hortons on Saturday morning, the mood told you

whether we won or lost the night before.”

Meanwhile, on the ice, the team slowly began improving. The club would have a winning record in each of the next three seasons but was unable to get past the division semifinal in the playoffs.

As the team's record improved, Oilers games became a hot ticket in Cape Breton to the point where fans were calling Macdonald at city hall asking for entry to the contests.

“It got so bad that when we were playing on a Friday night, I'd have to leave the office at city hall and not take any calls in the afternoon because every call was for a ticket,” laughed Macdonald, who considered landing the team in Sydney as his “labour of political love.”

THE CALDER CUP CHAMPIONS

After playoff disappointed the previous three years, the Oilers entered the 1992-93 season with lofty expectations and the motivation to win.

The team had an average regular season, finishing third in the Atlantic Division with a 36-32-12 record under head coach George Burnett.

Cape Breton secured its spot in the playoffs late in the regular season but the players came together and committed to winning. They didn't disappoint.

The Oilers surprised teams across the AHL, knocking off the Fredericton Canadians in the division semifinal in five games, before sweeping their division final with the first place St. John's Maple Leafs in four games.

Cape Breton swept the league semifinal series against Springfield 2-0, setting up a Calder Cup final with the Rochester Americans. The Oilers would lose the opening game 5-4 in Rochester, before taking the next four games and winning the title on May 30, 1993, on home ice at Centre 200.

The Oilers posted 16 wins and two overtime losses on their way to their lone championship in Sydney.

Oilers co-captain Dan Currie said one of the reasons for the team's success was the fact it had several free agents at the end of the season.

“There was a lot of guys who were playing for contracts,” he said. “Everyone stepped up their play. Once you have the pedigree of being a winner, you're always a champion and other teams want you and that's how the guys looked at it.”

As the final seconds ticked off the clock in the Oilers 7-2 win over the Americans in Game 5 to secure the championship, fans came to their feet to watch the team celebrate in front of the Cape Breton Post board banner behind the Oilers net.

Post reporter Ken Macleod, who didn't expect to be covering the game when he arrived at work that day, rushed to ice level and was inside the team's dressing room for the celebration.

“The dressing room was chaotic as you would imagine, but two things really stood out to me,” said Macleod, who retired from the Post in February 2020.

“Assistant coach Norm Ferguson told me that it was his first championship that he had been part of at any level and that he was enjoying the moment.

“It was great to talk to playoff scoring hero Bill Mcdougall and some of his relatives from Cape Breton, who came to the dressing room to congratulate him on the big win.”

Meanwhile, Andrews couldn't have been prouder of the club.

“We had a really solid team that came together at the right time. We had a really physical team, we had a really skilled team — Billy and Wayne Cowley were outstanding in that championship run.”

SHIPPING OFF TO HAMILTON

The Oilers would stay in Cape Breton for the next three seasons, making the division semifinal during the 1993-94 year with a losing record.

As the Edmonton franchise began to rebuild its team, Cape Breton would be part of the struggle. The team went on to post a 27-44-9 record in 1994-95, and a 33-40-3 record in 1995-96, failing to make the playoffs in back-to-back years.

When reports circulated in late April 1996 that the Oilers were considering moving the team from Cape Breton, it left a sour taste in the mouth of fans.

“I won't sugarcoat it, at the end of it, there was a lot of wheelin' and dealin' with the Edmonton people,” said then-sydney mayor Manning Macdonald.

“I knew what their game plan was, and I believe a lot of people knew that, but there were some who didn't realize.”

Macdonald, who said Edmonton had to purchase the City of Sydney's half of the team before moving the club, admits he respected Sather but didn't like him much, especially when he made the decision to leave Cape Breton.

“He wanted to move the team from Sydney to Hamilton because of the Copps Coliseum, which was a bigger venue than Centre 200,” said Macdonald. “I think there were other things going on there too.”

The AHL would approve the relocation of the Oilers to Hamilton on May 8, 1996, leaving Centre 200 and Cape Breton without a professional team.

Andrews, who would leave Cape Breton in July 1994 after accepting the position of president with the AHL, was disappointed with the team leaving the island.

Longtime fan Brad Stevens was upset by the club's announcement.

“I hated the fact the team was moving,” said Stevens, who was living in L'ardoise, Richmond County, at the time of the news.

“I had some great times watching them play. I got to see a bunch of great players — so many great memories.”

Macdonald believes Centre 200 and Sydney should have pursued another AHL team at the time the Oilers left.

“I wasn't the mayor of Sydney at the time, I was in Halifax at that point, but I talked with provincial and municipal people about the possibility of getting either the Montreal or Toronto AHL team, but it never happened.”

The following year, in 1996-97, the Cape Breton Pepsi Islanders called Centre 200 home, playing in the Maritime Junior Hockey League for one season, before eventually folding.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Granby Prédateurs would relocate to Sydney and become the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles — now known as the Cape Breton Eagles — for the 199798 season. The Eagles will celebrate their 25th anniversary next season.

As for the Edmonton Oilers, the club's current AHL affiliate is the Bakersfield Condors, located in Bakersfield, Calif.