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.

Igor Ulanov, Right D

Ulanov is a bit of an interesting player.  He was never much of a scorer but seemed to find the Midas stick with the Oilers as he put up 2 pretty solid seasons of offence with the Oilers that couldn’t be duplicated anywhere else.

With the fall of the Soviet Union making it much less hazardous to bring Russian players to the NHL, Ulanov was drafted by Winnipeg (Jets part 1) in the 10th round of the ’91 draft.  He was a tough, gritty guy who finished with only 162 career points in 739 games but with 1,151 PIMs in his career.

He had 3 OK seasons in Winnipeg, putting up 11-17 points in his first 3 NHL seasons with stops in the AHL and 1 more season in Russia in between.  After that, he spent time in Washington, Chicago, Tampa Bay, and Montreal.

He found his way to Edmonton via trade from Montreal at the 2000 trade deadline as the Oilers traded Christian Laflamme and Matthieu Descoteaux to Montreal for Ulanov and Alain Nesreddine.

He didn’t do much the rest of that season, only putting up 3 assists in 14 games for the Oilers and no offence in the playoffs.  However, it was in the 2000-01 season where he really shone, putting up a career-best 3-20-23 in 67 games for the Oilers that season with a +15 and 90 PIMs.  No offence in 6 playoff games still that year.

He then signed with the Rangers as a free agent the next season, and spent time in Florida and more time in the AHL before wrapping up his career with 2 more seasons with the Oilers in 2003-04.  That first season in his 2nd tour he put up 5-13-18 with a +19 and 28 PIMs.  He wrapped up his NHL career the season after the lockout with 3-6-9 in 37 games and 29 PIMs with a -11.

He hung up his skates for good after 2 more seasons in Russia.  He was a head coach in the KHL as recently as 2018-19, but no indication what he’s done after that.  I’ll always remember Ulanov for being an Oilers-only puck mover.  It’s forever a mystery why he could only put up offence with the Oilers and no one else.  He came close in Winnipeg but never had seasons of 23 and 18 points like he did with the Oilers.

Josef Beranek, L Center

Unlike a lot of players on this list, Beranek was actually an Oilers draft pick.  Drafted in the 4th round in ’89, Beranek was brought to the Oilers in 1991-92 after finishing 27-27-54 in 50 games with 98 PIMs the season before in the Czech pro leagues.

He went 12-16-28 with 18 PIMs and a -2, adding 2-1-3 in 12 playoff games for the Oilers that season.  Not a bad rookie debut.  Next season he spent 6 games in Cape Breton before coming back up and putting up 2-6-8 and 28 PIMs and a -7 in 26 games before being traded along with Greg Hawgood to Philly for Brian Benning, recent Oilers d-man Matt Benning’s father.

After Philly, he went to Vancouver and Pittsburgh with single seasons in the Czech pro leagues again before circling back to the Oilers as he was traded back here from Pittsburgh in exchange for Bobby Dollas and Tony Hrkac, the “Hrkac circus.”

He had a pretty good year that first season, putting up 19-30-49 in 66 games with a +6 to boot.  He played 2 games in the playoffs that year but put up no offence.

He followed that up by struggling the next year, though, as he only put up 9-8-17 in 58 games with a -6.  Unsurprisingly, he was traded back to Pittsburgh in exchange for d-man German Titov.

After 2 seasons with Pittsburgh, he finished up his career in the Czech pro leagues, spending his last 9 seasons with the same team.

Ken Linseman, L Center

Back to the 80s, we go for the next one.  Bottom 6 forward Ken Linseman was a role player and he played his role well.  On most teams back then he probably would’ve been a top 6 forward but on the Oilers, he spent most of his career as a bottom 6 forward.  Drafted in the NHL by Philly in the 1st round in 1978 and by Birmingham of the WHA in 1977 in the 10th round, Linseman in my books might be one of the best bottom 6 forwards of all time.

He put up career totals of 256-551-807 with a whopping 1,727 PIMs in 860 NHL games.  That PIMs number is even more impressive considering Linseman only stood at 5’11” and 175 lbs.  That’s pretty small for an NHL player.  Anyway, Linseman played 1 season in Birmingham before the WHA folded and he then spent his 1 and only season in the AHL before going up to Philly for the 78-79 season.

He came to the Oilers via trade in 1982 with Hartford, who had just traded with Philly for Mark Howe and acquired Linseman in that trade, and Hartford subsequently traded Linseman to the Oilers with Don Nachbaur for Risto Siltanen and Brent Loney.

Being that this was just before the Oilers had all the pieces of their puzzle together, this was the 1 year that Linseman was a regular top 6 guy for the Oilers, putting up 33-42-75 and a +16 with a hardcore 181 PIMs in 72 games.  IIRC he got a “Gretzky bump” riding shotgun to the great one to get those numbers.  He added another 14 points in 16 playoff games.

The next season for Linseman wasn’t quite as electric, but still very solid as he put up 18-49-67 with a +30 and “only” 119 PIMs.  He added the same 14 points in 19 playoff games that year, winning the 1 and only Cup of his career as he and the Oilers would win it all in ’84.

The Oilers then dealt him to Boston for Mike Krushelnyski during that offseason – Krushelnyski would go on to infamy as one of the players included in the Gretzky “trade” to the Kings in the ’88 offseason.  Anyway, Linseman would go on to spend 6 seasons in Boston and 1 with the Flyers before signing with the Oilers as a free agent in the 1990 offseason.  He was a bit more mortal this around but still had a pretty solid season, going 7-29-36 in 56 games with a +15 and 94 PIMs to boot – the latter as you’d expect from “The Rat.”

Then cash-strapped owner Peter Pocklington, in the middle of dismantling the dynasty due to financial problems that stemmed from alienating his key network after being a shady businessman, had then GM Glen Sather trade Linseman to Toronto for cash.  After only 2 games he would be released by the Leafs and finish up his career in the Italian pro leagues.

Marty Mcsorley, RW/Right D

Mcsorley was a tough guy primarily known as Wayne Gretzky’s “bodyguard” in the late 80s and early 90s.  He played 961 NHL games, and as you’d expect, he only put up 108-251-359 in his career during said games but a crazy 3,381 PIMs.  In case you’re wondering, that last mark is 4th all-time in the NHL.

He started his career as an undrafted free agent for Pittsburgh after 2 seasons with the OHL’s Belleville Bulls and some time in the AHL.  He was traded to the Oilers, along with Tim Hrynewich and bottom pairing D Craig Muni, in exchange for goalie Gilles Meloche.  Look up Meloche’s stats and boy will you see this trade worked out big time for the Oilers.

Mcsorley would go on to spend about 15 games over 2 seasons in Cape Breton and 3 seasons with the Oilers.  Mcsorley was another guy involved in the Gretzky “trade” to LA.  After LA he went back to Pittsburgh, then back to LA again, then to the Rangers and Sharks before the Oilers signed him as a free agent for the 1998-99 season, where he put up 2-3-5 in 46 games with a -5 and 101 PIMs, with no offence and 2 PIMs in another 3 playoff games that season.

He then left the Oilers to sign as a free agent with Boston, which was where he committed his stick swinging incident against Donald Brashear and was convicted of assault charges and suspended by the NHL for 1 year.  That incident abruptly put an unofficial end to his career, as he only played 14 games in the IHL after that, before retiring for good.

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.