Edmonton Oilers who have done multiple tours of duty

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room when it comes to the Edmonton Oilers

Without much going on in the NHL right now, I thought it’d be good to have a history lesson.  There’s been lots of Oilers who have done multiple tours of duty.  I hope I’m not leaving anybody out, but I might be as information on this topic is a bit sketchy.

Let me know in the comments section if this is the case.  I’m going to leave out guys like Dave Hunter, Jussi Markannen, and Taylor Chorney who were here, left briefly, and then came back.  If you’re gone for 15-20 games and then come back, you’re barely gone.

Scott Ferguson, Left D

Ferguson didn’t make much of a blip on the NHL radar screen, but he was an NHL regular for about 3 seasons.  Ferguson is from Camrose, so he was fortunate in the fact that he spent most of his career with his hometown NHL team.  He had a cup of coffee with the Oilers in the 1997-98 season, putting up no offence and no PIMs with a +1 in 1 game, typical stats for a 1st NHL game.

He got traded to what at the time was the Mighty Ducks franchise, spending a couple of seasons with their minor league team with another 2 NHL games before making his way back to Edmonton for his 2nd tour of duty.  He then spent 20 games back with the organization in the 2000-01 season, spending the rest of the season in the AHL farm team of the day in Cape Breton.

He then made the NHL full time the next season, and spent that season as well as the next 2 with the Oilers as a bottom pairing d-man, putting up no more than 3 goals and 8 points in a season, with a +11 to boot.  He did have 120 PIMs that same season, though, so he was a tough guy.

He played in Sweden during the full season NHL lockout in 2004-05, then spent 1 season in Minnesota before spending a season on San Jose’s farm team of the day, then 1 season in the German pro leagues before wrapping up his career.  Not much information on what he’s doing now, although he was an assistant coach for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers for 1 season in 2009-10.

219 NHL games all told, 201 with the Oilers.

Reijo Ruotsalainen, Right D

Ruotsalainen could’ve been a solid NHL player if only he’d stuck around the continent more.  But if you look at his career, it looks like he may have become homesick for Europe. Ruotsalainen started out his career in his home country of Finland, playing for the same Karpat team that Jesse Puljujarvi spent last season and part of this season playing for in Finland.

After putting up an eye-popping 28 goals and 51 points in 34 games in the SM-Liiga, he caught the attention of the New York Rangers, who drafted him in 1980 and brought him over there the next season.  His offence translated well to the NHL, as he spent the next 5 seasons with the Rangers, putting up no less than 17 goals in a season and 2 seasons of 20 and 28 goals.  Oh, and no less than 59 points in a season.  That was easier back in the offence-powered 80s, but still a phenomenal accomplishment.

After his contract expired, the Rangers inexplicably didn’t re-sign him, which is bizarre in my books for the amount of offence he put up.  He went to play in the Swiss leagues the next season until the Oilers came calling late in the year and signed him for 16 games in the 86-87 season, where he put up 5-8-13 in those 16 games with a +8 and 2-5-7 in 21 playoff games, sticking around the Oilers long enough to win the cup with them that season.

Instead of re-signing, he went back to Europe, playing 1 season each in the Swedish and Swiss pro leagues before coming back to the NHL in 1989-90 with the Devils.  The Oilers rescued him from a lousy franchise at the trade deadline that year, where he put up 1-7-8 in 10 games and a -1 before elevating his game in the playoffs, putting up 2-1-13 in 22 playoff games as the Oilers won their last cup in 1990.

After that he went back to Europe for good, cycling once again between the Swedish and Swiss pro leagues before wrapping up his career on Karpat’s development team in 1997-98.  If only this guy would’ve stayed in the NHL, he would’ve had a much longer NHL career, and missed out on at least 1 more of the Oilers cups in the 80s, and would’ve been a pillar on D for at least a few seasons in the 90s.  Oh, what might’ve been.

Petr Nedved, LW

Nedved was a very solid winger, spending 982 games in the NHL and piling up 310 goals and 717 points during those games.  He only spent 35 of those games with the Oilers, in 2 separate times.  He started out his career in Seattle of the WHL and was drafted by the Canucks #2 overall in 1990 after putting up 65-80-145 in 71 games with Seattle. He spent 3 seasons with Vancouver, with point totals improving every year – wow, no wonder this guy bypassed the minors.

As was the norm of the day in the pre-salary cap era, though, he became a bit of a journeyman as the best players of the day would routinely change teams going to the highest bidder.  After Vancouver, he had stops in St. Louis, New York, Pittsburgh, the Czech pro leagues, the now-defunct IHL, then became a part of the “retirement home” Rangers again in the late 90s-early 2000s – remember them?

The team that had the highest payroll in the NHL year after year but never made the playoffs because all they did was sign the biggest free agents to huge contracts year after year?  Boy did the salary cap ever save the Rangers from themselves.

Anyway, the Oilers part of things starts at the deadline of the 2003-04 season, when the Oilers would trade for Nedved in a bid to make the playoffs, which would fail, but Nedved went 5-10-15 in 16 games for the Oilers that season with a +1 to boot. He signed in Phoenix as a free agent the next season and then spent 2 seasons in Philadephia after that, spending 14 games on Philly’s farm team as well.

Philly had buried his contract in the minors, so in order to come back to the NHL, he had to clear re-entry waivers.  This was how he returned to Edmonton for 19 games in 2006-07 as the Oilers claimed him on re-entry waivers, but this time he only went 1-4-5 in 19 games with a -5 as the now 36-year-old Nedved was past his prime and his body had succumbed to age.

He spent the final 7 seasons of his pro career playing in the Czech pro leagues.  The guy never hung up his skates for good until he was 43, an impressive accomplishment. Only 35 games spent with the Oilers, and his 1st stint was memorable but his 2nd stint wasn’t.

Josh Green, L Center

Bottom 6 winger Josh Green was a scorer at the WHL whose offence just couldn’t translate to the NHL.  Nonetheless, he still had an NHL career of 341 games where he put up 36-40-76 in his career with 206 PIMs.

Drafted by LA in the 2nd round of ’96, he was an NHL bubble player until he made his way to the Oilers as he was traded by the Islanders to us after Roman Hamrlik became too expensive in the pre-cap era and we had to trade him.  Besides Green, the Oilers also got Eric Brewer and a 2nd round pick in the 2000 draft.

Green made his debut for the Oilers in the 2001 playoffs, having been injured for most of the season and only getting in 2 AHL games for the Hamilton Bulldogs, the farm team of the day. The next season was Green’s career-best, as he put up 10-5-15 and 52 PIMs and a +9 in 61 games.  However, after putting up only 2 assists in 20 games with a -3 and 12 PIMs, he was traded to the Rangers in 2002 for a conditional pick in 2004.

He then bounced around the NHL and elsewhere, with stops in Washington, Calgary, Vancouver, the Rangers again, 4 different AHL teams, the Swedish pros, and the Austrian pros before ending up in Anaheim for 2011-12.  He signed a 1 year, 2-way contract with the Oilers for 2011, but spent only 7 games with them before being placed on waivers and subsequently sent down to OKC, the farm team at the time.  After another full season in OKC, he spent the remainder of his career in the Finnish pro leagues, where he was finally able to put that scoring touch to good use.

88 games spent with the Oilers, almost a third of his career.  Not bad.

Dick Tarnstrom, Left D

This one might not count in some people’s books, but because it’s 2 separate transactions I’m counting it.

Anyway, drafted by the Islanders in the 11th round in 1994, Tarnstrom started his career by spending 9 seasons in the Swedish pros.  After 9 AHL games, the Islanders brought him over to New York, then after that 1 season traded him to Pittsburgh.  In 2006 he requested a trade from the Pens and the Oilers traded Cory Cross and Jani Rita in exchange for him.  He was a bottom pairing guy for the Oilers as they went on their Cinderella run to the 2006 Stanley Cup finals.

His contract finished, he left to go play in the Italian pro leagues for 1 season before re-signing with the Oilers as a free agent in 2007.  However, with point totals of only 4 points in 22 games (another 2 assists in the 2006 playoffs) and 5 points in 29 games for the Oilers by 2008, he was deemed expendable by the Oilers and traded to Columbus in exchange for Curtis Glencross.  After 1 season in Columbus, he went back to Europe to once again play in the Swedish pros and finish up his career.

Kent Nilsson, L Center

Swedish center Nilsson was drafted 4th overall by the Atlanta Flames in the 1976 NHL draft, and in the 2nd round by the Toronto Toros of the WHA in the same year.  He played his first 3 years in Sweden and eventually chose the Winnipeg Jets in the WHA to start his North American pro career.  After the WHA folded, his rights reverted to Atlanta, where he played for 1 season before the team moved to Calgary.

From Calgary, he was traded to Minnesota for 2 seasons.  It’s unknown how he came to be an Oiler, but he came to the Oilers from Minnesota for 17 games in the 86-87 season, where he put up 5-12-17 in 17 games with a +10 and another 6-13-19 in 21 playoff games as the Oilers won the cup in ’87.

He then left the NHL to play in Europe where he played in the Italian, Swedish, Austrian, and Swiss pro leagues before returning to the Oilers in the 1994-95 season where he played 6 games, scored 1 goal and finished with a -5.  He then played 1 more season in Germany before retiring.  A brief time as an Oiler but he made it count by winning a cup.

Mike Comrie, L Center

Now we get into the really interesting names.  Drafted by the Oilers in the 3rd round of the ’99 draft, local boy Comrie starred for the University of Michigan and the NCAA for 2 seasons and the Kootenay Ice of the WHL for 1 season before bypassing the AHL and jumping straight to the Oilers.  In his rookie season, he put up 8-14-22 and a +6, with another 1-2-3 in 6 games in the playoffs.

After seasons of 33 goals and 60 points with a +16 and 45 PIMs in 82 games the next season and 20 goals and 51 points with a -18 and 90 PIMs the season after, things started to go south for Comrie.

He turned in a lacklustre performance in the 2003 training camp, and by this time had developed a bit of an ego so he elected to holdout in a contract dispute.  The GM of the day, however, Kevin Lowe, was no stranger to having an ego and a competitive streak himself.  These attributes are fine as a player, but as a GM not so much.  Lowe had a deal in place to ship off Comrie to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Corey Perry in his prime and a 1st round pick.

However, Lowe ended up cratering that deal with an 11th-hour request that Comrie returns his $2.5 million signing bonus.  Comrie rightly balked, so this became a soap opera of a player and a GM – both with huge egos – holding their ground to see who would blink first.

Lowe was forced to settle for a lesser deal with Philly when he shipped Comrie off to Philly in exchange for Jeff Woywitka, a 1st round pick in 2004, and a 3rd round pick in 2005.  Neither the draft picks nor Woywitka turned out to be anything, so this trade was very much a failure for the Oilers.

Comrie became plagued with injuries for the rest of his career, though, so he moved around a lot after this trade.  From Philly, he went to Phoenix, Ottawa, the Islanders, then back to Ottawa again.  Wanting to bury the hatchet with the organization, Comrie signed an inexpensive 1-year deal to return to the Oilers for the 2009-10 season.  He still suffered from injuries, but put up a respectable 13-8-21 in 43 games.  He had 30 PIMs and a -9 to go along with that.

He only had 1 more season in Pittsburgh after that in his career, then injuries forced him to retire.  In retrospect, there are 2 important questions to ask about Comrie:  1)  Would Comrie have been a poor man’s Mario Lemieux if he’d been able to stay healthy?  and 2)  Imagine what might’ve been if that trade for Perry had been pulled off.  Even if we had to trade him, we could’ve traded him for a huge trade haul and potentially gotten the team out of the decade of darkness a lot sooner.  Otherwise, we would’ve had a core player for many years, possibly 2 depending on how that 1st rounder panned out.

Petr Klima, L/R winger

Klima was a Czech-born winger who had to secretly defect to the Detroit Red Wings to have an NHL career.  One of many cloak and dagger moves necessary to get Iron Curtain citizens to the NHL back in the days of the Soviet Union.

Klima played 4 full seasons and parts of another one for Detroit, eventually being part of the blockbuster trade to the Oilers for Jimmy Carson in 1990.  Carson, you may remember, was the centerpiece of the Gretzky “trade”  the previous 2 offseasons in 1988, and demanded a trade out of Edmonton because he felt too much pressure having been traded for Gretzky.

So, 13 games into the 89-90 season, the Oilers traded Carson, Kevin McClelland, and a 5th round pick to Detroit in exchange for Petr Klima, Adam Graves, and Joe Murphy.  Klima had a pretty solid career as an Oiler, winning a cup in his first season here in 1990 and scoring between 21-40 goals every year he was here the 1st time and between 53-68 points.

Having a toughness streak helped too, as he cracked the 100 PIMs mark 2 out of 4 years.  He was -1 and +24 his 1st 2 years here, but was a bit of a defensive adventure the last 2, going -18 and -15 respectively.  In 1993 Klima was traded to Tampa Bay, and from there to LA and Pittsburgh, later finishing up his season back with the Oilers, his 3rd team that year.

He put up 1-5-6 in 16 games as an Oiler that year – 1996-97 – with a -1 and 6 PIMs to go along with it.  He also played 6 games in the playoffs but produced no offence.  He’d also spent time in the IHL and the Czech and German pro leagues.

After his time with the Oilers, he went back to the German pro leagues, then to the AHL, then his final season in the NHL with Detroit, then 2 seasons in the Czech pros again to finish off his career.  All told Klima played 786 NHL games, finishing 313-260-573 in that time with 671 career PIMs.  Not bad.

Bill Ranford, Goalie

Ranford reminded me a lot of Grant Fuhr as a goaltender – his underlying stats are pretty cringeworthy but the numbers don’t tell the whole story – once the games count, he elevates his game and shuts the door.

Drafted by Boston in the 3rd round in ’85, Ranford played his junior hockey with New Westminster of the WHL.  He had a 4 game cup of coffee with the Bruins in the 85-86 season before making the Bruins again the next season but getting sent down to the AHL.

Then Boston had a coaching change, and as is often the case, certain players fall out of favour with the new coach and that’s exactly what happened with Ranford.  Meanwhile, in Edmonton, Andy Moog, who had tandemed with Grant Fuhr for years, was dissatisfied with his playing time, and the Oilers dealt Moog to Boston for Ranford straight up.

Ranford started out by backing up Fuhr for a couple of seasons but became the Oilers starter when Fuhr had to leave the team to get into the NHL’s substance abuse program due to a coke problem that had emerged over the last few seasons.  Ranford was entrenched as the starter after Fuhr was subsequently dealt to Toronto in a blockbuster trade that included Glenn Anderson.

Ranford would win the cup in 1990 as a starter with the Oilers, winning the Conn Smythe trophy in the process with a .912 sv% and a 2.53 GAA – for that era those were phenomenal stats.  He went on to start for the Oilers for the next 6 seasons, always with an sv% just below .900 and a GAA of 3.5 to 4.0.

Just after his 30th birthday, he would be dealt back to Boston in a trade that produced Mariuz Czerkawski, Sean Brown, and a 1st round pick in the ’96 entry draft.  After another 2 seasons in Boston, he would go on to Washington, Tampa Bay, and Detroit before Ranford came back to the Oilers as a free agent in the 1999-00 season to back up Tommy Salo before announcing his retirement at the end of the season.  Ranford has been the LA Kings goalie coach since the 2006-07 season.

Ryan Smyth, LW

If you were an Oilers fan as a kid in the 90s, chances are your favourite player was Ryan Smyth, or Smytty, as his nickname went.

One of the few 1st round picks in the 90s that actually panned out for the Oilers, Smyth was drafted in the 1st round in 1994.  He started out in the WHL with Moose Jaw, where he had a stellar junior career and finished his last 2 seasons in junior with 50 and 41 goals respectively and 105 and 86 points respectively in 72 and 50 games, again respectively.

He had a 3 game cup of coffee in 94-95 producing no offence and a -1.  He started next season in the AHL but only spent 9 games there before coming back to the big leagues.  For the next 10 seasons Smyth, unless he was injured, rarely finished below the 20 goal mark, even cracking the 30 goal mark 4 times.

After a very bitter and public contract dispute between Smyth and Kevin Lowe – once again as the egos of player and management clashed, the Oilers were unable to sign him to a contract and dealt him to the Islanders at the 2007 trade deadline in exchange for Ryan O’Marra, Robert Nilsson, and a 1st round pick in 2007.

He signed with Avalanche as a free agent but eventually was dealt to LA for another 2 seasons.  It was in that 2nd season with LA that Smyth demanded a trade to the Oilers so he could finish his career where it started and raise his kids in what he felt was a better environment in Edmonton vs. Tinseltown.

He was traded back to the Oilers in the 2011 offseason for 4th line C Colin Fraser and a 2012 7th round pick.  That trade worked out well for Fraser, who was playing for the Kings when they won their 1st Stanley Cup in 2012, something Smyth missed out on due to the trade.

In his first season back he put up pretty good numbers, scoring 19-27-46 in 82 games.  However, age would catch up to the then 37-year-old Smyth and he was relegated to a bottom 6 position for the next 2 seasons.  He retired after the 2013-14 season as an Oiler having played 1270 NHL games, going 386-456-842 to go along with 976 PIMs.  971 of those games would be with the Oilers.

Glenn Anderson, R/LW

One of the core players of the 80s dynasty, Anderson was drafted in the 4th round in the 1979 NHL draft.  He played 1 season of NCAA hockey and 1 season in the WHL, before doing what few rookies can do and transferring seamlessly to the NHL, completely bypassing the minor leagues.  A fantastic achievement for a 1st rounder, never mind a 4th round pick.

He would go on to play 11 seasons as an Oiler in his 1st tour, only once scoring less than 20 goals, and scoring 30 goals in 9 of those seasons, 40 goals in 4 of those seasons, and 50 goals in 2 of them.  He also cracked the 100 point barrier on 3 of those occasions.

But, faced with rising salaries and an owner’s crumbling business empire around him, GM Glen Sather at the time knew he couldn’t afford to keep Anderson, and packaged him in a blockbuster trade with Toronto that included Grant Fuhr and Craig Berube, Anderson was sent to TO for Scott Thornton, Vincent Damphousse, Peter Ing, Luke Richardson, and future considerations.

Anderson would spend 3 seasons in TO before stops with the Rangers (being part of the Rangers team that won the cup in ’94) and Blues, then going over to Europe to play in the Swedish and German pro leagues.

Due to the strange CBA rules of the day, any player coming back from Europe had to clear re-entry waivers, even if they signed as a free agent with a team.  Anderson was victimized by this rule as he signed as a free agent with his hometown Vancouver Canucks, but would never play a game for them as the Oilers claimed him on re-entry waivers in the 1995-96 season.

He wasn’t happy but played through it, putting up 4-6-10 in 17 games with the Oilers.  Either because the organization sensed they may have erred in doing this, or maybe due to the fact he was 35 years old at this point, or maybe both, Anderson was put on waivers and claimed by St. Louis, where he spent the last 15 games of the season and 11 playoff games, putting up 4 points in those 15 games and another 5 in 11 playoff games.

Anderson went back to Europe the next season, where he finished up his career in the Italian and Swiss pro leagues before retiring for good.  All told, Anderson played 1129 NHL games and put up 498-601-1099 points and 1120 PIMs.  Not including playoff games.  Truly one of the NHL’s all-time great players.  If it weren’t for bigger names in the 80s like Gretzky and Messier, Anderson likely would’ve been a bigger name in his career.

Anderson might be the only player on this list who came back to the Oilers begrudgingly.

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Kevin Lowe, Left D

Lowe is one of the Oiler’s all-time great puck-moving D.  He was the first NHL draft pick of the team after they got absorbed by the NHL when the WHA folded.

He started out in junior with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, in his last 2 seasons putting up stellar point totals of 65 and 86 points, totals that are virtually impossible for defencemen but more attainable for forwards.

Bypassing the minors altogether, Lowe became a full-time NHLer after 3 seasons of junior.  Over 13 seasons with the Oilers, Lowe would 10 times score 20 points, 6 times score 30 points, and 3 times score 40 points.

Sather was then forced to trade Lowe as his contract was coming to an end due to rising salaries and the extreme crumbling of Peter Pocklington’s business interests.

He was part of the New York “Oilers” team that won the cup in ’94 and played for the Rangers for 4 seasons.  He then came back to the Oilers for 2 seasons starting in 1996-97 after that time as a bottom pairing D but was forced to retire in his last season after only 7 games due to injury.  He ended up putting in another 71 games over those 2 seasons putting up 14 points and 72 PIMs during that time, and a -1 and -3 respectively.

Lowe would go on to finish playing 1,254 games putting up 84-348-432 in those games, not including playoffs.  He also finished with a whopping 1,498 PIMs over his career.  At the end of his playing career, Lowe would go on to have a checkered career post-hockey.  It’s believed Lowe signed as a free agent with the Oilers in part due to a promise of a post-playing career in hockey operations.

After he retired as a player, Lowe would go on to be an assistant coach, then a head coach, then a GM, then as president of hockey ops.  His time as a GM was much different from his time as a player.  Other than the aforementioned public disputes with Mike Comrie and Ryan Smyth, there was the threat of renting a barn to fight Brian Burke, which was stopped by Gary Bettman.

There was his tone-deaf comment about “Tier 1 and Tier 2” fans.  Lowe was the poster boy for the nepotism that existed for years in the Oilers management ranks.  Oh, it wasn’t all bad.  The sign and trade deal for Chris Pronger, the genius of a trade that brought Dwayne Roloson to Edmonton, the trading for Jaroslav Spacek and Dick Tarnstrom to solidify the defence, and the trade for Sergei Samsonov to help out in the forward ranks all led to the cinderella cup run of ’06, and he was the GM of the team at the time.  But Lowe’s management will always go down in history more for the bad he did than the good he did.

But, one of the things that Bob Nicholson has put a stop to in his time as president is to stop the nepotism in its tracks as Lowe works on the business side of the organization and Craig Mactavish isn’t here anymore.

Bonus material

After Oscar Klefbom was officially put on LTIR recently, and Anton Forsberg was assigned to Bakersfield as expected, the Oilers are now below the NHL’s 23 man roster limit, and they have an extra $4.1 million in cap space because of Klefbom’s contract being on LTIR.  Personally, I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as cleaning up the glut in the bottom 6 forwards.  We’ll see what Holland does with that.