Q & A with former Oilers great Kevin Lowe

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Six-time Stanley Cup champion Kevin Lowe was in Saskatoon as special guest for the15th annual Off The Leash Luncheon.

Lowe, who now serves as an ambassador for his former National Hockey League Edmonton Oilers, won five Stanley Cups with the Oilers and one with the New York Rangers.

Lowe made hockey history by scoring the first-ever goal for the NHL’s Oilers.

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He was the 21st overall NHL Draft pick in 1979, playing 1,254 regular-season games in the NHL and collecting 431 points, plus another 214 playoff games in which he registered 58 points.

The former King Clancy Memorial Trophy winner was inducted in into the Hockey Hall of Fame during 2020-21. He holds the record as the all-time leader in regular-season and playoff games played with the Oilers.

Not only a player for the Oilers, Lowe later worked in hockey operations and business operations. He served as a coach, general manager, executive vice-president and president of hockey operations.

The Oilers retired his jersey in 2021.

He was in Saskatoon for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ fundraising event.

Q: Are you involved with many of these hockey fundraising events?

A: Yeah, more and more. I retired a couple of years ago from the Oilers where I was actively involved, then they rehired me to be an ambassador. I do all that on my own time and this would be one example of that. I do quite a bit of it. I spend a bit more time down south in the winter-time. And I did a lot of it when I was on the business side of the Oilers when I got out of hockey operations and I was alternate governor and more of supporting the business aspect. I did a lot of that probably over a decade, which meant that I’d get out to functions and businesses.

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Q: Have you done anything for the Huskies’ rival University of Alberta Golden Bears?

A: I did a couple of times over the years speak to the team just prior to nationals and stuff like that.

Q: When you attend events like this and get together in sort of a team-building atmosphere, does it bring back memories of when you were a player,  with the camaraderie and all of that?

A: Very much so. It was great to be around the team and all the alumni that put on this event. We’re all hockey guys so we speak the same language, which is really cool. I live right across the street from Roger’s Place so I’m in the building a lot. I don’t spend a ton of time in the (Oilers) dressing room. I respect the sanctity of the room but I’m down around the room and see the guys from time to time … How do I feel like events like this? First of all, I’d say that having been on the business side of the Oilers, I know we have a lot of season-ticket holders from Saskatoon, which I always thought was amazing, that people would drive 4 1/2 or five hours to a game and then drive home. It was unfathomable when you compare it to Europe or anything like that. I don’t assume that the northern part of Saskatchewan is all Oilers and the southern part is all Calgary, but I want to think that there are more Oiler fans in the province than Flames fans. I don’t know that for certain, but I have great regard for Saskatchewan as province. I do think, being on the business side, there was a metric that suggested that the Oilers were most Canadian hockey fans’ second favourite team, obviously because of the 80s and stuff, and the style of play.

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The other story I like to tell is that, when I went to Edmonton in 1979, Edmonton was a little over 400,000 people and we’re 1.2-million now. I come from Quebec. I was born and raised just outside of the west side of Montreal, so I grew up in an English-speaking family but I am bilingual, an Irish-Catholic guy who naturally liked to meet people and talk to people. You get out to functions and house parties and inevitably say, ‘Are you from here?’ and five times out of 10, it’s ‘Saskatchewan.’ It was, like, surreal. Fast forward to today and business owners I associate with, ‘Where are you from?’ and it’s ‘Saskatchewan.’ Our team doctor, who is one of the leads for the medical profession in the NHL, is a proud Saskatchewan guy. Long story short, any time I can get to Saskatchewan and do something like this, I’m super proud. Also growing up in the Montreal area, the Montreal Canadiens and Jean Beliveau was my biggest hero, to think that I have an opportunity to come to speak to people the way he might have done it, it’s surreal for me what’s happened in my life.”

Q: Do you find yourself analyzing the Oilers team — for example, how the injury to Connor McDavid earlier this season changed things? Do you find yourself critiquing and analyzing, or are you more of a fan now and leave it at that?

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A: More of fan, for sure, but no question I gravitate to the (critique), especially if they’re not doing well because I’ll be asked. I’ll be asked and I’ll want to give an assessed objective (response). Sometimes you can’t see the forest before the trees and problem is simple. It might be just guys might not be finishing their checks and that simple, as an example, or whatever. All the time, for sure, but I try not to do it too much and I try not to watch all the games. The reason for that is I do get frustrated. Not because I could do it better. I just hate to lose. And even though I’m not running the team anymore, I still hate to lose.

Q: What have you been asked about the Oilers more recently and what’s your response been?

A: Well, I’m bullish on the team. Again, that’s not a pad answer. I’m very careful to assess. Likewise, I was (also) last year even when they started off slowly. Their body of work prior to last season when they struggled early was enough to know that it’s a legitimately good team. Cup winner? Who knows. When they dug themselves in a hole at the beginning of the year, I knew that, a) We weren’t in a really super strong conference or division and I knew that team could easily have a seven-game winning streak just as easily as they could have a four-game losing streak. I’m kind of the same this year. They’re obviously ahead of where they were last year. The (recent) Vegas game, they played well enough to win the game but just a couple of bone-head mistakes at the end of the game that cost them the game. Sadly, you have to go through those every year and they’re not experienced enough team to know it. I know from decades of being on the top with a team is that last year is last year. Everybody starts with zeros. You’ve to start all over again and the reality is the teams are so close in the National Hockey League even though there are obvious contenders. If you’re not on you’re A-game, just that slight adjustment of whatever, it’s a fine line. You got to come out of the gate playing Stanley Cup hockey and you’re coming out of the gate thinking ‘I played Stanley Cup hockey just a few months ago.’  I think they’ll be fine. The other main reason is the two main guys (McDavid and Leon Draisaitl) are really motivated to win. They know that the clock is clicking. They know that their place in hockey history is going to be based on whether they win Cups or not.

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Q: Being an ambassador for the Oilers, you probably haven’t had a chance to really miss the game that much?

A: I’ve been lucky, certainly blessed, as only one of few in the history of the game to do what I’ve done. I haven’t really checked it out but guys like Bob Gainey, Bobby Clarke were players, coaches, managers. There were four Olympics I was part of — 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014. The first two with Wayne Gretzky, the last two with Steve Yzerman. I had the Olympic experience as well and then to be able to, after I moved away from (Oilers) president of hockey operations, then I stayed on as vice-chair of Oilers Entertainment Group and had the privilege of luxury of learning the business side of the game and being more involved with the P&L (profit and loss) of the company. One day, we were having a whole company presentation with all the employees so our gal who was at the receptionist desk had to leave and so I went and sat at the reception desk, so I took deliveries and stuff. So I’ve literally done everything there and blessed to be able to do it.

Q: So you’ve been involved with hockey your entire life pretty much. Do you ever think what you might have done if it wasn’t hockey? Firefighter, teacher, lawyer? Business owner?

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A: As a kid, I wanted to be a dentist because the dentists in our home town had the nicest house so I thought that might be something I‘d want to do. And then our family was in the dairy business. We weren’t farmers but we produced milk and ice cream and cheese. We would import milk from the farmers. Lowe’s Dairy was very famous in my hometown in Quebec essentially halfway between Ottawa and Montreal on the west side. I might have been in the business, I guess.

Q: Lastly, you likely get asked this all the time but can you pinpoint a highlight of your career?

A: Yeah, too many to pick one but winning the Stanley Cup is always a highlight. That’s always the ultimate. That’s what you strive for and it never gets old. When you win, you want more of it. You want that feeling. We were fortunate to do it a bunch of times. That’s a professional achievement. On a personal front, I’d say (something else). Wayne was traded in 1988 and, although we were friends, as you get older and start having family and kids, you tend to grow apart and I’d see him from time to time. He was involved with the Coyotes for a while so obviously he was working on the business side but it was around 2000 when Bob Nicholson asked him to head up Team for the Olympics in ’02 after what happened in 1998. Wayne’s first call was to me to ask me if I would assist him. And when he called that day, the tone was more ‘Hey Gretz, how are you doing?’ I had no idea what he was phoning about. I had no idea. When I think back on it now, I’m like, ‘Holy crap.’ That was a big challenge because 1998 didn’t go well and some guys wanted to have a summit of hockey and what we’re doing wrong and remember that craziness? There was a lot of pressure to go to Salt Lake and win — we didn’t feel any of that pressure initially — but it was just an honour to not to have been in his circle for maybe a decade to get that call. That was special.

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