The Edmonton Oil Kings will have the honour of hosting the first-ever hockey game at Rogers Place, when they take on the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday, September 24 at 7:00pm. Edmonton will open its 10th WHL season one night earlier, on Friday September 23, in Red Deer against the Rebels.
The Oil Kings 36-game home schedule will see an abundance of weekend games at Rogers Place this season as the team will play over 60% of their games on weekends. It will be Friday Night Lights this year at Rogers Place as fans will be watching the Oil Kings nine times on Friday evenings, including four straight Fridays in the month of October and the always-popular Fan Appreciation Night March 3 vs Swift Current.
Other key dates on the schedule include Saturday December 10 when the Kamloops Blazers come to town for the 10th Annual Teddy Bear Toss in support of 630 CHInfographic_v2ED Santas Anonymous. Last year a record crowd of 15,022 flooded the ice with 12,566 bears.
Just three weeks later the Oil Kings will once again play at home on New Year’s Day when they host the Calgary Hitmen at Rogers Place at 2:00pm. Last season Edmonton celebrated the New Year beating the eventual-WHL champion Brandon Wheat Kings 4-3 in OT.
Saturday January 28 Rogers Place will go Pink as the Oil Kings play their 5th annual Pink at the Rink game when they entertain the Prince George Cougars. The players will sport pink jerseys and sticks as the team continues to raise money for the fight against cancer!
The infamous “Hockey Hooky” will take place on Wednesday February 15 vs the Kootenay Ice at 11:30am. Last season saw a huge crowd of 12,220 play hooky to watch the Oil Kings and the Victoria Royals and this season even more kids are hoping to watch the Oil Kings “school” the Ice!
Fan Appreciation Night will be held Friday, March 3 against the Swift Current Broncos. The Oil Kings wrap up their regular season the exact same way they started; with a home-and-home series vs Red Deer. Saturday March 18 they will travel to the Enmax Centrium and return home to cap off the 2016-17 year by entertaining the Rebels on Sunday March 19.
November only sees three home games as Edmonton makes its way to the United States this season heading on a 12-day road swing from November 17-28. However there is one very big game on Tuesday November 8 as Rogers Place will host the CHL Canada/Russia Series game!
After that the team packs up for the longest road trip this year, which sees stops in Kootenay (November 18); Tri-Cities (November 19); Seattle (November 22); Portland (November 23); Everett (November 25); Spokane (November 26) and Kootenay once again (November 27).
Please click here to see the complete 2016-17 Oil Kings schedule.