After signing with the Edmonton Oilers on October 31, 2023, Sam Gagner began his third tour of duty with the club. Technically he is the second player to do so after Steve MacIntyre, but Big Mac didn’t actually play a game with the Oilers the third time around, instead only playing for the AHL affiliate Oklahoma City Barons.
He is making the most of it, having posted 10 points in his 20 games, good for eighth on the team in points per game. Gagner has been in and out of the lineup, much to the chagrin of many fans, both because of his consistent production but also because “Papa Clutch” is an absolute fan favourite and frankly should be the first player Connor McDavid passes the cup to if the Oilers do manage to win it this year (yes, that’s right, even before Leon Draisaitl. Come at me).
The Oilers have had their fair share of players coming back for another go around, and in light of Gagner’s success, let’s look at some of the best of those returns.
Ryan Smyth
Ryan Smyth was THE embodiment of the Copper and Blue Oilers era. He was a gritty, blue collar player who bled for the team while also being a legitimate star. He posted four 30-goal seasons and a further four 20-goal seasons in his 10 full years with the club, and led the team in goals seven times and in overall points three times.
Smyth getting traded was the millennial Oilers fan’s equivalent to the Wayne Gretzky trade, from the fact that the trade was due to money right down to the tearful press conference.
For myself, I remember going for lunch after the trade deadline had expired, breathing a sigh of relief that Smyth was not traded, only to return to classmates in a state of shock telling me that, no he had in fact been traded.
Further, the fact that the contract dispute ended up being over $100,000 was just a further kick in the balls for a fan base who was told that now that a salary cap was in place, the money issues of years prior would no longer be an issue. Given that Smyth had stuck with the team through the lean money years meant that most fans did not hold any ill will towards Smyth over sticking to his guns. Rather it was on General Manager Kevin Lowe, who only three years prior had nixed a deal to send Mike Comrie to the Anaheim Ducks due to his refusal to pay back a bonus, and instead took a worse deal from the Philadelphia Flyers. Although, hilariously, the Oilers did eventually end up acquiring both pieces from the Anaheim trade later in Ladislav Smid and Corey Perry.
So yeah, it was heartbreaking.
But in the summer of 2011, news broke out that Smyth told the Los Angeles Kings management that he wanted not just a trade, but specifically a trade to the Oilers so that he could finish his career with the team where it all started.
A deal was agreed to, but ended up being rescinded because Gilbert Brule, who the Kings wanted to buy out, was still injured and so could not be bought out under the CBA. Luckily, two days later another deal was struck, and Smyth was once again an Oiler, making everything in the world right again.
That excitement showed in his first season, where Smyth notched 19 goals and 46 points in 82 games, good for fifth on the team in scoring.
Smyth would go on to play a further two seasons with the Oilers, and although his scoring prowess dropped off immensely, he did end up breaking the Oilers career power play goals record in his last year, and in his last NHL game, the player affectionately dubbed “Captain Canada” finally got to be “Captain Oiler”. Damn onion cutting ninjas being around while I’m watching that video.
Kevin Lowe
Kevin Lowe is another person who is synonymous with the Oilers. He was the first ever NHL draft pick for the team, he scored the first ever NHL goal for the team, and he has played the most games for the team.
After four seasons and one Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers, Lowe signed back in Edmonton for the 1996–97 season. He played 64 games and posted 14 points, tying the point totals of his last two years with the Rangers.
Unfortunately, he was limited to only seven games the next season due to an inner-ear virus that forced him into retirement.
But Lowe’s second stint puts him on this list because of how his post-playing career blossomed out of it. He would become the Oilers assistant coach the following year, and then become the head coach in 1999–2000. Lowe then became the second NHL GM for the team, as well as the second longest tenured one (we don’t talk about how that ended though).
Mike Comrie
Mike Comrie was a hometown boy and son of a local businessman who was drafted by the Oilers in the third round of the 1999 NHL draft—although he was technically a free agent due to a loophole set by Mike Van Ryn since he played as an over ager in the WHL after his college career.
Comrie had a pretty good start to his career, with 22 points in 41 games (he signed halfway through the 2000–01 season), and a further three points in six playoff games. Comrie then broke out in his sophomore year with 33 goals and 60 points, leading the team in both categories. He followed that up with a fairly good 20 goals and 51 points in only 69 games, and was looking to be a mainstay on the Oilers top line for years to come.
He did have a thumb injury during that season and that affected his performance for the rest of the year, which fickle Oilers fans were a little hard on him for.
And then the next season Comrie held out after training camp in a contract dispute with the team. He ended up going from local hero to public enemy #1. After all, his rookie contract of $10M over three years (inclusive of bonuses) was miles ahead of the average rookie salary of $1.13M, and Edmonton at the time was a small market team that was used to having players leave once they got too expensive. Throw in the fact that Comrie came from a family of wealth and…yeah, he was unpopular to say the least.
Plus there was the whole non-Anaheim trade discussed above, which once Perry became a very good player left an even worse taste in the mouth of Oilers’ fans.
I for one remember going to a game when Comrie was playing for the Phoenix Coyotes and there was a “Comrie Sucks” chant that lasted approximately seven minutes long. Not saying I was involved in that, but not saying I wasn’t either.
But time heals all wounds, and in 2009–10 Comrie signed back with the Oilers on a one year, $1.125M contract (there’s some kind of irony or something that that was basically the same as the rookie salary back in 2000).
In his first pre-season game, the first time he had worn an Oilers jersey in over six years, the Prodigal Son assisted on all four Oilers goals and a fight, leading the fans that once booed him mercilessly started cheering his name. He would finish the pre-season first in the league in scoring with three goals and seven assists in five games.
While he wouldn’t continue his two points per game pace in the regular season, Comrie still posted 13 goals and 21 points in 43 games, his season interrupted by mononucleosis.
Comrie wouldn’t be re-signed, but going from loved to hated and loved again is one hell of a comeback story.
Reijo Ruotsalainen
For a guy who played in almost twice as many playoff games (43) as regular season games (26) as an Oiler, Reijo Ruotsalainen is arguably the most successful of the multi-stint Oilers.
After playing his first five seasons of his NHL career with the New York Rangers, where he scored 99 goals and 316 points in just 389 games, Ruotsalainen was traded to the Oilers prior to the 1986–87 season. He would sign in Switzerland however, but eventually come back to the Oilers and play 16 games to end the regular season, notching 13 points. He would play in all 21 of the Oilers playoff games as they would go on to win their third Stanley Cup.
Ruotsalainen would go back to Europe for two seasons before coming back to the NHL, signing with the New Jersey Devils for the 1989–90 season.
He would be traded back to the Oilers and put up eight points in 10 games. He would again go on to play in all 22 playoff games, leading the defence in assists with 11 and second in points with 13, on the way to the Oilers fifth cup.
So yeah, needless to say that Ruotsalainen’s 69 games with the Oilers were…nice.
Gagner’s future with the Oilers
Gagner seems like he has already met the Comrie type of return, as by the time he left his first stint with the Oilers he had met his fair share of criticism for not living up to the high expectations from his rookie season but came back to welcome arms (granted, there was no actual vitriol towards him).
His return on this third stint has serious Smyth vibes, of the old Oilers legend came back at what is most possibly the twilight of his career, and Oilers fans were not only happy to have him back but were almost begging management to sign him.
Hopefully Gagner will step up into the Ruotsalainen arc, bringing the cup home to Edmonton for the first time since the year after he was born. And I don’t think anyone would be surprised if he followed in Lowe’s steps to join the Oilers in a coaching or management position once he retires.
If not, well maybe fourth time will be the charm?
