There is nothing people like more than an underdog. Movies like Rudy and Miracle hit you right in the feels, and even more so when they are based on a true story. They give us all a glimmer of hope that no matter the circumstances, there is the possibility of rising above it all and making your dreams come true.
This year’s Edmonton Oilers have a couple of feel good stories, such as Sam Gagner coming back for his third tour of duty and scoring two goals in his debut, and James Hamblin scoring his first NHL goal and dedicating it during his celebration to his late mother who unfortunately passed away from cancer.
Even without an emotional undertone, an unexpected player coming out of the woodwork can still bring the good vibes associated with a good underdog story. In light of the same, let’s go back through memory lane and revisit some of the Oilers’ most surprising underdogs.
Spoiler alert: they were almost all one-year wonders and majority of them were during the “Decade of Darkness” where Oilers fans were grasping for anything that was remotely considered positive.
Fernando Pisani, 2005–06
I mean, you knew this one was coming. Local boy Fernando Pisani was drafted in the eighth round in 1996, followed by four years of college hockey and another two and half years in the minors, before making the Oilers in 2002–03, posting a respectable 13 points in 35 games, and scoring his first playoff goal.
The next two seasons, Pisani would tally 16 and 18 goals, and 30 and 37 points. Pretty good numbers playing third line minutes.
The Oilers would go on to scrape into the playoffs as the eighth seed, ready to face the Presidents Trophy winning Detroit Red Wings, who were the overwhelming favourites.
Pisani’s productive playoff run
After losing Game 1, the Oilers would win Game 2 off a two point performance by Pisani. Pisani would score his second goal in Game 4, unfortunately another loss, and then his third in goal in Game 5 to start the scoring off on the Oilers third win of the series, pushing the Red Wings to the brink of elimination.
After the Red Wings took a 2–0 lead into the third period, it was looking like a Game 7 was very much on the horizon. Instead, Pisani scored two goals in the first seven minutes of the period to tie the game up, shifting the momentum and leading to Ales Hemsky’s own two straight goals to orchestrate another come back to win the game and the series.
His five goals led the Oilers in that series, and marked the start of a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Oilers then faced the San Jose Sharks in the second round, a team who was turned around by a mid-season trade for Joe Thornton and again the favourites to beat the Oilers. The Sharks raced out to a 2–0 series lead, but the Oilers won the next two games to tie the series up.
At that point Pisani did not have a single point in the series, and it looked like the first round was merely a typical outlying hot streak for a third liner.It would appear Pisani was not happy with that narrative, as he would then pot another two goals in Game 5, including the game winner.While those would be his only points in the series, Pisani still led the Oilers with seven goals in the playoffs entering the third round against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
In the Oilers 4–1 series win over the Ducks, Pisani added a further two goals and two assists, with both his goals being game winners, resulting in a team leading nine goals.
Pisani would score the first goal of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Oilers didn’t win that game for some reason that is completely blocked from my memory.
Heading into Game 5 down 3-1 in the series, Pisani again started the scoring off with his 11th goal of the playoffs. The game ended up heading to overtime, which was obviously a very calm time for all Oilers fans.
Three minutes into overtime, Steve Staios took a tripping penalty, giving the Hurricanes a golden opportunity to capture their first Stanley Cup.
And then a legend was born.
On the Hurricanes breakout, Pisani intercepted a pass at the blueline, leading to a shorthanded breakaway, which he made no mistake on. In addition to saving Steve Staios from the wrath of Oilers fans, he also became the first player in NHL history to score a short-handed overtime winner in the finals.
The momentum created from that winner led to a dominating 5–0 Oilers win on home ice in Game 6, where Pisani, you guessed it, scored the first goal which also happened to be the game winner, forcing a Game 7 for the Cup.
Pisani would tally his 14th goal in Game 7 (double the amount of the next highest goal scorer for the team and most in the playoffs that year), which was unfortunately the only one the Oilers would score en route to a tough loss and end to their run.
The hometown hero legacy
While the rest of his career never reached anywhere near the heights of 2005–06, Pisani will always be an Oilers legend for his playoff heroics. Pisani finished his career with 15 goals in his 30 playoff games for the Oilers, good for 17th in team history, and his 14 goals in one playoffs ranks ninth (for now anyway). He also holds two Oilers records from this run: his five-game winning goals that year is tied with Jari Kurri for the most in any playoff run in team history, and he scored the fastest goal to start a game in the playoffs when he scored just 16 seconds into Game 5 of the Finals.
Not bad for the hometown kid drafted in the eighth round.
Klim Kostin, 2022–23
If we want to talk about good vibes, Klim Kostin last season was the epitome.
After being traded from the St. Louis Blues in what was considered a minor league swap, Kostin was recalled from the AHL in November and never looked back.
He finished the season with a respectable 11 goals and 21 points in 57 games, and followed it up with three goals and five points in 12 playoff games. While those numbers may not fly off the page, they were pretty good for a depth player, and despite playing only 57 games, Kostin led the Oilers in hits with a whopping 157.
But the real value with Kostin, and what made him an instant fan favourite, was his antics off the ice.
Other than Leon Draisaitl, nobody seemed to give as good of an interview as Kostin. He won the hearts of many when he took a light-hearted jab at Oilers reporters about what fans think of their questions.
There also is his ongoing shenanigans with Oilers TV’s Tony Brar, which ranged from spraying him with his water bottle to straight up taking the microphone out of his hands in the middle of doing his post-game show.
And like Pisani, playoff performance can go a long way. Kostin scored the game winner in Game 2 in the first round series against the Los Angeles Kings, and then posted two goals and an assist on the series winner in Game 6. He also finished third on the team in hits with 38, although given his low ice time he ended up finishing first in hits/60 with 24.56, which was miles ahead of second place Nick Bjugstad with 16.58. (Also, am I the only surprised that Nick Bjugstad hit that much?)
I don’t think I know a single Oilers fan who wasn’t sad to see Kostin get traded, although most people understood that this team could not pay him the $2M Detroit did. But when a season seems to be going off the rails, one has to wonder if the “good vibes” may have been helpful.
Kailer Yamamoto, 2019–20
If I had a nickel for every time the Oilers drafted a winger under 6’ tall from the WHL at 22nd overall who scored 42 goals in their draft year, I would have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice, right?
Kailer Yamamoto was that second time, but unlike Jordan Eberle, hedid not necessarily come in with super high expectations.
He did get a nine-game tryout as an 18-year-old, posting three assists. But the next season saw him posting only three points in 17 NHL games, along with 18 points in 27 AHL games, followed by a season ending wrist surgery.
Due to the same, Yamo wasn’t available for training camp in 2019–20, and started the year in the AHL again, posting a so-so 16 points in 23 games.
He ended up being called up in December, and played his first game December 31. The Oilers were 20–17–4 at that point, but were on a 4–10–1 slide heading into the New Year.
Yamamoto ended up scoring an empty net goal that first game, and then proceeded to rip off another 25 points in the next 26 games while playing on the red-hot DRY line with Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Since the call up, the Oilers went 17–8–5 and looked well on their way to securing home ice advantage in the playoffs. However, some kind of unprecedented times followed, breaking that momentum and the Oilers ended up losing in the first preliminary round, even though they technically did get that home ice in the playoffs.
It looked like the Oilers had struck gold again, and had found a suitable top-six player to help split up McDavid and Draisaitl for good.
While Yamamoto’s offence did end up falling back to earth and eventually lead to him being traded and bought out last summer, his emergence in 2019–20 was definitely a pleasant surprise that helped the Oilers turn their season around after their usual mid-season/December slump.
Patrick Maroon, 2017–18
On February 29, 2016, the Oilers traded Martin Gernat and a fourth-round pick to Anaheim for Patrick Maroon, a player who had only 13 points in 56 games. There was some potential in Maroon though, as he did have 11 points in 16 playoff games the year prior.
Maroon seemed to have instant chemistry with rookie Connor McDavid, and ended up posting 14 points in only 16 games with the Oilers to finish off the season, more than doubling his season output.
The big question was whether that was just a blip or if Maroon could carry that over to the next season.
While he didn’t post a 0.875 points per game in 2016–17, Maroon did keep the chemistry going with 27 goals and 42 points in 81 games. His 27 goals was good for third in team scoring, only three goals behind McDavid who led the way with 30 goals.
Maroon followed that up with eight points in 13 playoff games as the Oilers lost in the second round to his former team, which every Oiler fan will agree was definitely not a series with some controversial calls. At least that’s what we tell Corey.
In addition to scoring, Maroon also brought the much loved physical play, and though he only played 154 games in an Oilers uniform, he was without a doubt an Oilers fan favourite and many were sad to see him go. Although I think most Oilers fans were stoked when Maroon won three straight Stanley Cups, and definitely would have loved to see him win a fourth in a row (especially since they were playing the Colorado Avalanche team that had just knocked the Oilers out of the playoffs that year).
Mathieu Garon, 2007–08
Following a disappointing 2006–07 season where the Oilers followed up a Stanley Cup Finals appearance with a sixth last in the league finish where the absence of Chris Pronger was extremely noticeable. Playoff hero Dwayne Roloson appeared to potentially be fading at 37-years-old, or at least no longer in a position to play 60+ games.
The Oilers therefore went out and signed Mathieu Garon as an unrestricted free agent, who would be able to take some of the burden off of Roloson.
Garon ended up usurping Roloson and started in 44 of the teams games (and playing 47 overall), finishing with a 26–18–1 record, a GAA of 2.66 and a save percentage of 0.913. He also went 10–0 in shootouts, only letting in two goals in the entire season.
The Oilers went 25–15–2 in the last 42 games of the season, and ended up finishing ninth in the Western Conference, missing the playoffs by only three points.
Garon’s performance in 2007–08, along with youngsters Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, and Robert Nilsson looked to be the foundation for the Oilers for years to come on the way back to building a playoff caliber team.
Unfortunately, that shine wore off real quick with Garon only playing 15 games the next season and subsequently being traded to Pittsburgh, but for one glorious season it looked like the Oilers had found the heir apparent to Roloson.
Ryan Jones, 2010–11
On March 3, 2010, the Oilers picked up a 25-year-old Ryan Jones off waivers from the Nashville Predators. This was during the second worst season in Oilers history which would lead to the first first overall pick for the franchise, so this move wasn’t really one anyone cared much about, as Jones had scored only 28 points in 87 games in his career. Jones would finish the season with just a goal in eight games, further making it appear to be a nothing move.
While the 2010–11 season wasn’t any better for the Oilers (they finished with 62 points again), Jones ended up surprisingly finishing tied for third in goals with 18. He also led the team with his 15 even strength goals, and was second on the team in hits with 152.
Jones would follow it up with 17 goals in 2011–12, along with a career high 16 assists and 33 points, and seemed like a strong contender to be a staple on the Oilers third line for years to come.
However, Jones would only score 13 more points in his final 79 games with the Oilers and subsequently finish his career out with the Cologne Sharks in the DEL. Not ideal.
But ask any Oilers fan about Jones and chances are you will only hear good things. Mostly about his hair and the fact that it seemed like the guy got at least one breakaway every game.
Denis Grebeshkov, 2008–09
Denis Grebeshkov was a former first-round pick that hadn’t quite found his footing in the NHL and ended up returning to Russia after a contract dispute with the New York Islanders.
He ended up being the main piece in a trade to the Oilers for Marc-Andre Bergeron, a polarizing figure for Oilers fans who loved that the 5’9” defenceman brought back the art of the hip check (Many times. Seriously. Can we bring it back?) but also was much maligned for potentially costing the Oilers the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Grebeshkov had a decent first season with the Oilers, scoring 18 points in 71 games in 2007–08 and was one of the members of the youth movement that made it look like the Oilers had a bright future.
The next season, Grebeshkov exploded offensively with 39 points in 72 games, second only to his partner Tom Gilbert in defenseman scoring.
In addition to his offence (or probably partially thanks to it), Grebeshkov was a team leading +12, a whole +5 over the next player.
The following season, Grebeshkov still maintained his offence with 19 points in 47 games, including six goals which was just one less than the year prior. However, his defence appeared to take a tumble, as he was a pretty awful -16 (although there were nine players with an even worse one, so maybe it was a whole team thing).
Grebeshkov’s departure and return
Grebeshkov ended up being traded to the Nashville Predators for a second-round pick, which seemed like a great trade for an Oilers team that had resigned itself to a rebuild. Unfortunately, the Oilers’ drafting woes bungled that pick.
Grebeshkov went on to score two points in six regular season games for the Preds (including a goal in his first game, which was against the Oilers, because of course) prior to an injury. He did manage to return for the playoffs and notched two points in two playoff games.
Grebeshkov returned to Russia for the next three seasons after not liking any of the offers he received in free agency.
However, Grebeshkov returned to the Oilers in 2013–14, no doubt due to his history with new GM Craig MacTavish, who was Grebeshkov’s coach during his career season. But, like lots of MacT’s gambles, Grebeshkov didn’t pan out, only managing one point in what would be his last seven NHL games as he was subsequently sent down to the minors for the rest of the season.
A nice little fun fact about Grebeshkov’s time with the Oil though: he scored the 8,000th goal in Oilers history. That has to count for something.
Another less fun fact that may cancel that out though: Grebeshkov is now a scout for the rival Calgary Flames, which makes him a traitor. Unless he is a double agent out to sabotage their drafting, in which case, he is a hero. Only time will tell.
Gilbert Brule, 2009–10
Gilbert Brule came into the NHL with sky high expectations. He was ranked the second best prospect for the 2005 NHL Draft by the International Scouting Services at the start of the 2004–05 season and the top WHL prospect in the Central Scouting Bureau’s preliminary rankings.
While he would fall to fourth overall by ISS and fifth among North American skaters by the CSB come draft time, Brule was still considered a blue chip prospect with franchise player potential. He was subsequently drafted sixth overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
He ended making the NHL as an 18-year-old, tallying four points in seven games prior to being returned to juniors. Unfortunately, Brule suffered two major injuries in between those seven games, first breaking his sternum and then his leg.
Upon his return to juniors, Brule won the WHL playoff MVP en route to the WHL Championship, and then lead the Memorial Cup tournament in scoring.
Brule did not seem able to translate that scoring to the NHL, notching only 28 points in 78 games and then nine in 61 games the next season. His scoring in the AHL during wasn’t much better, scoring 10 points in 16 games.
Brule’s time with the Oilers
With the “bust” title starting to become associated with him, the Blue Jackets traded Brule to the Oilers on July 1, 2008 in exchange for Raffi Torres, who was falling out of favour with the Oilers after his goal scoring touch started to fade.
Brule failed to make the Oilers out of training camp, and was sent down to the AHL, posting 24 points in 39 games. He did end up having a couple call-ups, notching three points in 11 games.
The next season, Brule made the Oilers as the fourth line center. However, an injury to Ales Hemsky gave Brule an opportunity further up the line up, and he rewarded the Oilers by scoring 17 goals and 37 points in only 65 games (he missed 11 games due to the flu and then the last week of the season due to a high ankle sprain). He was second in goals and third in points, and was one of few bright spots in an disastrous 2009–10 campaign. At only 22-years-old, it looked like Brule was finally putting it together and could end up as a steal of a deal for the Oilers.
Unfortunately, the next season was not great for Brule, who first missed four games for the flu, then 23 games for an abdominal injury, and then suffered a concussion, resulting in him only playing in 41 games. It is definitely possible that these injuries resulted in him only posting nine points that season.
What happened next with Brule
Brule was supposedly traded to the Los Angeles Kings to bring back prodigal son Ryan Smyth, but he was ruled to have not yet recovered from his season ending concussion, nullifying the deal as the Kings wanted to buy Brule out but would not be able to.
Brule ended up in the AHL to start the 2011–12 season but was recalled by the Oilers following Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ season ending injury (which also was apparently an injury that killed his Calder Trophy aspirations, since, y’know, scoring the same amount of points as the eventual winner in 20 less games is…worse?). However, this was back in the days of re-entry waivers, which I still don’t fully understand as I thought the whole purpose of waivers was to make sure a player still has a chance to play in the NHL, and being called up is, in fact, being given a chance to play in the NHL.
In any event, Brule was claimed by the Phoenix Coyotes, and put up a respectable 14 points in 33 games, along with three points in 12 playoff games, again appearing to look like he would be able to put together a respectable career, even if it wasn’t quite up to his draft expectations.
However, Brule would go on to play only three more NHL games before heading to Russia for the next eight seasons to close out his career.
Ryan Potulny, 2009–10
Another false hope from the 2009–10 season was Ryan Potulny. After posting a solid 118 points in 100 games for the University of Minnesota in the NCAA, including outscoring freshmen and fifth overall picks, Phil Kessel and Blake Wheeler, in 2005–06 (again with the matching draft positions in this article, I guess I get four nickels now?).
While Potulny showed some promise in the Philadelphia Flyers system, he was eventually traded to the Oilers for Danny Syvret in the summer of 2008.
In his first season, Potulny spent the majority of the time with Springfield Falcons of the AHL, leading the team with 38 goals and 62 in 70 games. To put into context of how good of a season that was, he led the team by 25 goals and 20 points. That performance earned him an eight-game trial with the Oilers, where he managed three assists.
The next season, after scoring eight points in 14 AHL games, Potulny was called up to the Oilers and played his first game on November 8, 2009. He would pot the game winning goal and add an assist to make a good first impression that saw him stay with the team for the rest of the year.
While he would go pointless for the next four games, Potulny would match that only one more time for the rest of the season, finishing with 15 goals and 32 points in his 64 games, good for third on the team in goals and sixth in points.
Like Brule, it looked like the Oilers had found another youngster (only 24-years-old at the time) who could be a solid piece to build around in the future.
As you can probably expect based on the other players in this list, that was not to be.
Despite his good season, the Oilers let Potulny walk and he signed with the Chicago Blackhawks in the off-season (which season also included Fernando Pisani from this list). Potulny would only play three games for the Blackhawks, and only seven more the next season for the Ottawa Senators before spending the rest of his days in the AHL and Europe.
Curtis Glencross, 2007–08
When the Oilers traded Dick Tarnstrom for Curtis Glencross on February 1, 2008, they were a middling 23–25–5, and lost their next game prior to him making his debut.
It seemed like another fairly nothing trade, as Glencross only had 12 points in 36 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets in his first real NHL season. It was also a slightly peculiar trade, as although Glencross was only 24-years-old he was set to become an unrestricted free agent, so it didn’t appear to be much of a trade for the future either.
Well, it turns out the trade was a stroke of genius.
The Oilers went 18–9–1 after the trade and, as discussed above, just barely missed the playoffs.
While 13 points in 26 games may not seem like a huge catalyst for such a run, but when you consider that the team was 7–2–1 in the games Glencross got a point, and that he was doing that averaging 10:19 per game (third least on the team) from the fourth line with Kyle Brodziak and career enforcer Zack Stortini, then it is mighty impressive.
His nine even strength goals were 10th on the team, with the leader Shawn Horcoff only scoring six more despite playing 27 more games.
Glencross became a fan favourite for his performance as a spark plug on a late run for the playoffs.
But you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. Sort of.
In Glencross’ case, he only played 26 games for the Oilers in his career, but went from beloved to hated on July 2, 2008 when he signed a three-year deal with the Flames. Although apparently the Oilers management weren’t as interested in re-signing him as the fans, so it’s hard to blame the guy for taking the money.
What other pleasant surprises can the future hold?
While it may appear that the Oilers don’t have any true pleasant surprise seasons on the horizon this year, the above shows that there is still plenty of time for a hero to emerge.
Perhaps Warren Foegele finally gets his goal scoring consistency that has been teased all these years? Maybe Raphael Lavoie gets another call-up at some point and sets the league on fire as many of the fans think he is ready to do? Do Sam Gagner and James Hamblin become fourth line spark plugs a la Curtis Glencross? Is there a trade that goes down that seems like a nothing burger and ends up being a key piece to turning around this season?
Only time will tell. In the meantime, I guess we just need to be happy with non-surprising point producers like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evan Bouchard, Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
