This Day in Hockey History – July 30, 1998 – Edmonton Gets the Lowe Down

Jul 30, 2019

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Six-time Stanley Cup winning defenseman Kevin Lowe retired in order to become an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers on July 30, 1998, just two days after Slava Fetisov similarly retired and went into coaching.

Lowe’s start in the NHL was quite portentous. He was the very first player the Edmonton Oilers drafted into the NHL in 1979, when he was selected 21st overall. That October 10th, he scored their very first NHL goal, with Wayne Gretzky’s very first NHL assist. Lowe helped the team win five Stanley Cup championships (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1989). After winning the King Clancy Memorial Trophy and the Budweiser/NHL Man of the Year Award in 1990, Lowe became the Oilers captain in 1991.

On December 11, 1992, the Oilers traded Lowe (as a restricted free agent) to the New York Rangers, where he would join six of his former teammates. Together, they won the 1994 Stanley Cup. Lowe played for the Rangers over four seasons. As a free agent, he re-signed with the Oilers on September 28, 1996. After a full season there, he developed an inner-ear virus affecting his balance and was only able to manage seven games throughout the 1997-98 season. He never played in the minors, and his team only missed playoffs once in his entire playing career.

Over his 19-season playing career, Lowe participated in 1,254 regular season games and 214 playoff games. In doing so, he holds the Oilers’ record for the most games played in an Oilers uniform. He was also (until 2010) the only one in Edmonton to wear No. 4.

When the Oilers offered 39-year-old Lowe an assistant coaching position in July 1998, he officially retired as a player. When he made the announcement, Lowe said, “I prefer to speak from the heart” instead of writing a speech, and he teared up when reminiscing. “I guess that’s the way I played my whole career – on instinct and heart. So I just listened to my heart and said, it’s time to move on.” Deciding to pursue coaching, he commented, “I think the challenge of winning, just helping players develop. That’s the challenge for me. I was very fortunate, coming up as a player, to have a lot of good coaches around me that I could feed off. I’d like to provide some of that.” In looking ahead, Lowe remained realistic, saying, “I don’t know, it’s new territory for me. If you’d have asked me in my first year when I got drafted here, what to expect coming in. I would have told you the same thing I’ll tell you now: I’m only going to give you as much as I have. And just go on heart and instinct.”

He joined Ted Green in assisting head coach Ron Low, his former teammate. Low told the press, “He brings an awful lot to the table. You don’t have his career by accident.” Also touching on his successful career, GM Glen Sather remarked, “He was the consummate team guy who helped keep everything together when things got a little bit scratchy. He leads with his heart, and he led a lot of those players. And I’m talking about Wayne, Mark, Jari, all of them. He was a guy who did a lot of great things for this hockey team.” Director of player personnel Kevin Prendergast completely agreed, commenting, “He’s been through all the battles. He’s been a player of the highest caliber, a captain here. He’s given everything he’s had to this organization.”

Lowe continued to give to the Oilers organization. After a year as assistant coach, on June 18, 1999, he became their seventh head coach. That season, they finished second in the Northwest Division (32-26-16-8). Almost exactly a year later, on June 9, 2000, Lowe was promoted to general manager, replacing Sather (the Oilers first GM). Under his guidance, Edmonton made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2006. Two years later, in 2008, Lowe became the Oilers President of Hockey Operations. In 2015, he took the position Vice Chair and Alternate Governor of Oilers Entertainment Group.