Wayne Gretzky flexes about nailing an Edmonton Oilers prediction
To perhaps no one’s surprise, Wayne Gretzky has been loving what he’s been seeing from the Edmonton Oilers this postseason.
The NHL’s all-time scoring leader hopped on the New Heights podcast today with Travis and Jason Kelce, broaching all sorts of topics ranging from his short stint in coaching to his trip to Cleveland for an NHL preseason game.
And with his first NHL franchise now just one game away from returning to the Stanley Cup Final for a second time in as many years, Gretzky made sure to point out how he saw their success coming.
Back in October, Gretzky had picked the Oilers to return to the Stanley Cup Final, facing off against the defending champion Florida Panthers, who had beat them in seven games last June in an all-time series.
Prior to the start of the NHL playoffs last month, Gretzky stuck by his Oilers but swapped out one Florida team for another, opting to see the Tampa Bay Lightning emerge as the top team in the Eastern Conference.
It’s been a LONG season so now we have to look back at the guys’ Stanley Cup picks from Opening Night 👀 pic.twitter.com/JeetN4ZUfb
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) April 19, 2025
“I want you to know, I’m the only guy in TNT on that panel that picked Edmonton to get to the finals,” Gretzky told the hosts.
While former NHLers Paul Bissonnette and Henrik Lundqvist had picked the Oilers in the preseason to win the Western Conference, they’d flipped to the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights ahead of the playoffs. TNT host Liam McHugh also flipped his Edmonton pick from the preseason to Vegas. Meanwhile, former NHLer and fellow TNT panellist Anson Carter had initially picked a Panthers-Dallas Stars final, but later flipped his Western pick to the Avalanche.
“I picked Tampa Bay from the East, but part of my pick at that point in time was [Matthew] Tkachuk was hurt and he’s such a big part of the success of the Panthers. I wasn’t sure he was coming back, but he’s such a great player and such a good team player,” Gretzky explained.
The Oilers have a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night, when they take on the Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. The Oilers currently hold a 3-1 series lead, as do the Panthers over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.
“They’ve still got to get through Dallas, because Dallas is so well coached… that series I still think is going to go seven games,” Gretzky added.