The Edmonton Oilers have just announced the most important offseason hire

Weber spent 2013 to 2019 as president of the New Jersey Devils and Prudential Center before being promoted to run parent company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment through 2022.

Most recently he was president of business operations for Seattle Sounders FC, a role he took in February 2023.

That resume usually gets summarized as "veteran executive." The more useful detail is what he built while sitting in those chairs.

Under Weber, the Philadelphia 76ers became the first NBA club to sign a jersey patch deal and the Devils became the first NHL club with a helmet decal sponsor, per the Sounders' own biography of him.

When New Jersey legalized sports betting, the deals his Devils signed became the template other franchises copied.

Both of those experiments turned into league-wide inventory. Jersey patches are now standard across the NBA, and helmet advertising is standard across the NHL.

So the calm read is that Daryl Katz did not hire a ticket-sales manager.

He hired an executive with a long record of inventing revenue streams the rest of the league eventually copies.

Edmonton is an unusually good laboratory for that work. Rogers Place and ICE District give Weber real estate to sell, and Connor McDavid's extension keeps the sport's most valuable individual brand in the building.

Whatever Weber tries here has a real chance of showing up on your team's jersey, arena or broadcast within two years.

Stan Bowman and Mike Babcock will decide how the season goes, while Weber quietly shapes what the business of hockey sells next.

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