With the calendar flipping over to August, we are officially in the dog days of the hockey offseason. While Edmonton Oilers fans wait hopefully for an announcement of a Leon Draisaitl contract extension, there is not much else to focus on.
The Oilers provided a little bit of news recently, announcing the jersey numbers of the newly acquired players. Let’s take a look at those numbers and how previous players fared while wearing them.
Jeff Skinner, #53
A player that many Oilers fans are excited about is forward Jeff Skinner, who signed a team friendly, one-year $3M deal after being bought out by the Buffalo Sabres.
Skinner chose the same number he has worn his entire NHL career, being #53. Skinner becomes the first ever Oiler to wear the number, which isn’t necessarily surprising given how much of a random number it is. Skinner grew up wearing #23, but when it was taken in juniors he wore #53 instead.
Considering Skinner has had a pretty impressive career wearing #53, let’s hope the good luck continues with it on his back while with the Oilers.
Viktor Arvidsson, #33
Viktor Arvidsson becomes the 22nd player to don #33 with the Oilers. It is a number with some decently sized shoes to fill, with Marty McSorely and Cam Talbot having worn it in the past. Also, Oilers franchise leader is save percentage and goals against average, Matt Berlin, wore it. So actually some pretty big shoes.
One would hope that Arvidsson can make a claim during his time to be one of the best Oilers to wear it, as one would think he has a good chance to become the highest scorer to wear it, given McSorely currently holds the Oilers career record for goals (24), assists (36), and points (60). The season records belong to Scott Pearson, who posted 19 goals, 18 assists, and 37 points in 1993–94. Arvidsson has beat those season and career numbers multiple times in his career in just one season, so it looks like a decent bet he would do it again over his two seasons as an Oiler.
Matthew Savoie, #22
Although there is no guarantee Matthew Savoie makes the NHL roster this year, he still got to pick a number, so one can assume it is not out of the realm of possibility.
Assuming he does make it, he will be the 14th player to wear it, following some pretty good players in Charlie Huddy, Roman Hamrlik, Anson Carter, and Tyson Barrie, along with long time character guys Luke Richardson and Rem Murray.
Hopefully that will be the path follows, and not that of other former #22s that didn’t pan out like Jani Rita, Jean-Francois Jacques, and Tobias Rieder.
Josh Brown, #44
I’m going go out on a limb here and say that Josh Brown is not going to be in the discussion for the best Oiler to wear this number. There are eight other players who have worn it, and only three (Rob Schremp, Doug Lynch, and Jason Demers) have not had better season highs than Brown—Corey Potter is the only other one to have not put up more points in one season than Brown has in his entire career.
When your competition is three top pairing defencemen and one Hall of Famer in Janne Niinimaa, Sheldon Souray and Chris Pronger, it’s going to be tough to get yourself in the conversation.
Connor Carrick, #58
If Connor Carrick manages to snag that number seven defence spot away from Brown or Troy Stecher, he will be the sixth player and fourth defencemen to wear #58. It’s not exactly a whose who in terms of company, with Johan Motin, Andrew Miller, and Dmitri Samoroukov all wearing it for small cups of tea in the big leagues.
But Jeff Petry wore it in his first two seasons in the league and Anton Slepyshev wore it in his three seasons here, so Carrick still has a bit of ground to make up if he wants to be in the conversation as the best.
Collin Delia, #60
With Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard, along with Olivier Rodrigue, the chances of Collin Delia seeing much, if any action, in an Oilers uniform seems slim. But if he does, he will be the third Oiler to wear #60, after Sebastion Bisaillon and Markus Granlund, the latter of whom I completely forgot played for the Oilers (don’t ask me how Bisaillon is somehow fully etched in my brain as an Oiler, as I definitely thought he played more than just two games). Given that company, it’s not exactly a high hurdle for Delia to make a claim for the best, but that first step of making the team is going to be an issue.
Roby Jarventie, #61
Roby Jarventie, recently acquired in a trade for disappointing former first-round pick Xavier Bourgault, played price is right rules obviously, picking just one number higher than Delia.
No Oiler has ever worn this number, so Jarventie is making the smart choice here. He’s a pretty good prospect, as demonstrated by him finishing #4 in our prospect rankings, and so has a chance to make the Oilers at some point in his career and therefore become the best #61 ever.
He previously wore #52 with the Ottawa Senators, but then he would be competing with the likes of Allan Rourke, Patrick Russell, and prized trade deadline acquisition Jerred Smithson. Tough crowd for sure.
