NHL History: Detroit Red Wings sign future HHOF’er Adam Oates today in 1985

It was today in 1985 that the Detroit Red Wings signed future Hall of Famer Adam Oates.

Oates, then 22, had gone undrafted playing NCAA hockey at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for three years before inking his NHL deal.

At RPI, he scored an incredible 66 goals and 216 points in 98 NCAA games.

And it didn’t take long for his impact to be felt in the NHL. In only 38 games in his rookie season, he scored 20 points and it didn’t take long for him to improve on that, too.

After four seasons with Detroit, Oates had amassed 199 points in 246 games before in June 1989 he was traded alongside Paul MacLean to the St. Louis Blues for Bernie Federko and Tony McKegney.

Oates went on to have a legendary career playing in 1337 NHL games scoring 1420 points. He was elected to the HHOF in 2012.

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