Blair MacDonald Blair Neil Joseph " B . J . " MacDonald ( born November 17 , 1953 in Cornwall , Ontario ) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association between 1973 and 1983 . He is best known for his time with the Edmonton Oilers , the club where he spent the majority of his career and where he served as one of Wayne Gretzky ' s first linemates at the start of Gretzky ' s NHL career . Playing career . WHA . MacDonald won the Memorial Cup in 1972 with the Cornwall Royals of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League . He had a stellar final year of junior hockey with Cornwall in which he scored 63 goals in 64 games . MacDonald was selected 86th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft . However , he was also selected 30th overall by the Edmonton Oilers of the rival World Hockey Association in their draft , and chose to forego the NHL to sign in Edmonton . MacDonald would have a solid rookie professional season in 1973 – 74 , finishing the year with 21 goals and 45 points in 78 games , and would post nearly identical numbers 1974 – 75 with 22 goals and 46 points . After a sluggish start to the 1975 – 76 campaign , he was dealt to the Indianapolis Racers , where he rediscovered his scoring touch to finish the year with a career - high 26 goals . In 1976 – 77 , he blossomed into a top player for the Racers , leading the team with 34 goals and finishing with 64 points , and then added 15 points in 9 games in the playoffs . For 1977 – 78 , MacDonald was dealt back to the Oilers , where he would put up another fine season with 34 goals and 68 points . Just after the start of the 1978 – 79 season , Edmonton traded for 17 year old wunderkind Wayne Gretzky , who would dominate the sport for the next two decades . As the Oilers ' top right winger and a natural sniper , MacDonald became one of Gretzky ' s regular wingers along with Brett Callighen and finished the year with 34 goals and a career high 71 points . NHL . For the 1979 – 80 campaign , Edmonton joined the NHL as part of the WHA merger , and MacDonald would have the finest year of his career . Riding the playmaking wizardry of Gretzky , he would finish the season with 46 goals and 48 assists for 94 points , a total good for 10th in the league . He was also selected to represent the Oilers at the 1980 NHL All - Star Game . With just 6 penalty minutes all season , he finished 4th in balloting for the Lady Byng Trophy as the league ' s most gentlemanly player , an award ultimately won by Gretzky . MacDonald continued to produce well in 1980 – 81 , but ultimately lost his place on the Oilers ' top line with the development of talented young players like Mark Messier , Glenn Anderson , and especially Finnish star Jari Kurri , who would form the most lethal scoring duo in the league with Gretzky for most of the 1980s . At the trade deadline , MacDonald was dealt to the Vancouver Canucks , where he responded well with 14 points in 12 games to finish the season with 24 goals and 57 points in 63 games between Edmonton and Vancouver . Despite scoring fairly regularly when in the Canucks ' lineup , MacDonald would have a tumultuous tenure in Vancouver where his lack of grit and defensive play failed to endear him to the coaching staff . He scored 18 goals and 33 points in 59 games for the Canucks in 1981 – 82 , but was briefly assigned to the minors for the first time in his career and then barely played in the playoffs as the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup Finals . He would appear in only 17 games for the Canucks in 1982 – 83 , spending most of the season in the minors before being released at the end of the year . After being released by the Canucks , MacDonald spent three more seasons playing in Austria before retiring in 1986 . He finished his career with 91 goals and 100 assists for 191 points in 219 NHL games , and added 171 goals and 165 assists for 336 points in 476 games in the WHA . Following the conclusion of his playing career , MacDonald accepted a head coaching job in Austria , and has spent most of his time since coaching in both Europe and North America . In 1988 – 89 , he was named the International Hockey League Coach of the Year after leading the Muskegon Lumberjacks to a 57 – 18 – 7 record and the league championship .