In 2018, Centennial Collegiate student William Dmytrow was scrambling to find a last-second grad quote for his class’s yearbook.

With the deadline looming, Dmytrow made his grad quote “Edmonton Oilers 2024, watch it happen.”

That year the Oilers finished 23rd place overall in the NHL standings – a year removed from nearly making the Western Conference Final in 2016-17.

The Oilers missing the playoffs in 2017-18 led to the team missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons. They were a team in salary cap hell and heading in the wrong direction with two of the world’s best players on their side.

Fast forward to 2024 and the Oilers are two wins away from fulfilling Dmytrow’s prediction and winning the Stanley Cup over the Florida Panthers.

“What if I predict the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup? I just picked a random date and did not think twice about it and here we are,” he said.

William Dmytrow holds up his yearbook with his now almost famous quote. (William Dmytrow)

Dmytrow said he mostly forgot about his grad quote and didn’t think about it until February when the Oilers were on a 16-game winning streak.

“I remembered it and I thought this is crazy. When the playoffs started, I put it on my story. If you look at my name on Facebook, you’ll see five days ago I made this post saying the Oilers were down 0-3 (against Florida). Nobody believes (in the team), I said I still believe and know they’ll do it,” he explained. “Here we are today and things have blown up.”

Within 24 hours of posting his grad quote for everybody to see, it had been picked up by TSN, BarDown and various other sports websites. He added Global News plans to feature him on their national news tonight.

He said it’s even started to get him some international attention.

“People in England who I have connections with are saying, ‘I saw (it in) the news.’ It’s going down a pretty big rabbit hole and it’s blowing up and it’s pretty exciting,” he explained.

Dmytrow is a die-hard Oilers fan and said when he made the post he wasn’t trying to garner any extra attention.

“Honestly, I just want free tickets to the Oilers game for Game 6, but it’s snowballed into this. It’s crazy,” he explained.

As of the publication of this article, Dmytrow has not had any leads on any free tickets.

Currently, the cheapest seat on Ticketmaster is selling for almost $2,000.

He thinks the Oilers will find a way to overcome a 0-3 series deficit to the Panthers and win the Stanley Cup in Game 7 on Monday.

Oilers merch is hard to find in Sask.

The Oilers playoff run has meant big business for those in Saskatchewan who are in the jersey-selling business.

Hudson Funk with Olympian Sports in Saskatoon said Oilers jerseys have been tough to keep on the shelves.

“Jerseys picked up as soon as they got in the playoffs there. Recently we brought in some more royal (blue) jerseys and some Gretzky and Messier jerseys and they’ve been going off the shelf pretty quick too,” Funk explained. “We had some orange jerseys they wore a few years back just sitting in the back there, so we had to bring those back just to keep up with sales.”

Lisa Mattice is the co-owner of Twilight Framing & Sports Gallery in Prince Albert and suggested sales at her store for Oilers gear are up 25 per cent.

“It’s been busier for sure over the last couple of months. Lots of merchandise going out the door for the Oilers. They’re completely out of jerseys at the main warehouse, so I’m just scrambling to get whatever I can in,” she explained.

Mattice said she still has gear coming in every day despite the challenge of getting it.

According to Mattice, Oilers fever is being felt in Prince Albert. Some fans are switching allegiances temporarily to see the Stanley Cup back in Canada.

“Montreal fans are buying Oilers gear. It’s cool (to see) all the Canadians rooting on because we want the cup here,” Mattice said.

She acknowledged when the Oilers series deficit dropped to 3-0 in the series merchandise sales fell a bit, but she thinks that will rebound with the Oilers within two wins of a Stanley Cup.

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Oilers and Panthers is set for Friday night in Edmonton.