The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs have a unique history linking their rosters together dating back decades. Back in 1980, former owners Peter Pocklington and Harold Ballard reportedly had a deal in place for the Oilers and Maple Leafs to swap cities.
Essentially, the teams would have traded their rosters entirely.
Luckily for the Oilers and the city of Edmonton, Ballard backed out near the end and saved the city from losing one of the greatest dynasties in NHL history.
But that near swap created a tie between these two teams that apparently is still alive. In recent seasons, the Oilers have acquired an oddly high amount of former Leafs on their roster. Most recently, the signing of defender John Klingberg.
Here’s an overview of all 12 of the former Toronto Maple Leafs that the Oilers have iced over the past five seasons.
Tyson Barrie
Before joining the Oilers for a few seasons, Tyson Barrie spent some time with the Maple Leafs. A very brief time, mind you. He was only in Toronto for one season, playing 70 games while totalling five goals and 39 points. His tenure with the Maple Leafs was not overly successful and he very nearly got played entirely out of the lineup after a poor start. But, he did bounce back and have a respectable season.
The Leafs left Barrie unsigned, however, and he subsequently joined the Oilers for two and a half seasons where he helped to oversee the rise of one fo the NHL’s most dominant powerplays ever.
Connor Brown
Now a fan favourite in Edmonton, Connor Brown originally got his career started with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a sixth-round draft pick of the team back in 2012 and his first four seasons of NHL action were with the team. From 2015–16 through 2018–19, Brown played in 253 games with the Maple Leafs, recording 43 goals and 99 points.
Jack Campbell
This is one that we’d rather forget, but goaltender Jack Campbell is another player whose career took him from Toronto to Edmonton. Campbell struggled to find his footing around the league, jumping from the Dallas Stars to the Los Angeles Kings until he ended up with the Maple Leafs for parts of three seasons, the last of which he finally had a ‘break-out’ season. It fooled a few people, including then-Oilers GM Ken Holland. Campbell then signed a lucrative five-year contract in Edmonton.
Campbell spent one season and one month with the Oilers before being waived and assigned to the Bakersfield Condors, and was subsequently bought out the following offseason.
Sam Carrick
One of the more short-lived members of this list is Sam Carrick. All the way back in 2010, he was a fifth-round draft pick of the Maple Leafs. He made his debut in 2014–15 and played games in two seasons with the Leafs. Those totaled just one goal, two points and 19 games.
After spending years with the Anaheim Ducks, the Edmonton Oilers acquired him at the trade deadline last season with Adam Henrique where he played 26 combined regular season and playoff games, scoring two goals and six points.
Cody Ceci
Cody Ceci’s legacy lives on in infamy with the Maple Leafs. Despite playing just one season with the team in 2019–20, he is still quickly associated with the team, even moreso than other organizations that he spent far more time with.
In his one season, Ceci played 56 games, scoring one goal and eight points. He was not re-signed by Toronto and spent one year with the Pittsburgh Penguins before joining the Oilers.
With Edmonton, Ceci played 237 games over three seasons. Although his offensive contributions were not the focal point of his game, with just 11 goals and 68 points, he earned a reputation for making huge plays, whether they be goals or assists, in Game 7 of playoff series.
Travis Dermott
Travis Dermott was a former Maple Leafs draft pick, selected in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft. He turned pro shortly after and made his NHL debut in 2017–18.
He ended up spending parts of five seasons in Toronto, though he never quite lived up to the hype he once had as a prospect. In 251 games with the Leafs, he had 12 goals and 52 points.
Since then, he has not been able to stick around in any organization for long. He joined the Oilers on a PTO this preseason and did play well enough to earn a contract. But that was his peak as an Oiler. After just 10 games spread out over a couple of months, he was waived and claimed by the Minnesota Wild.
Tyler Ennis
Tyler Ennis jumped around on a lot of teams late in his career, with the Maple Leafs and Oilers being two of them. In 2018–19, he played for Toronto. That season, appearing in 51 games, Ennis scored 12 goals and record 18 total points.
Ennis spent part of the 2019–20 season with the Ottawa Senators before being traded to the Oilers at the trade deadline. His play was good enough to earn a contract the following offseason as he signed to play one more season with in Edmonton. Unfortunately, he struggled to stay in the lineup and only played 30 games.
In parts of two seasons with the Oilers, Ennis played in 39 games with five goals and 13 points. He has since retired after returning to Ottawa the following season.
Seth Griffith
Seth Griffith is the least prominent member of this group, but he still technically is a former Maple Leaf who went to Edmonton. In 2016–17, he played three games with Toronto. Later in his career, he signed with the Oilers. And although he has spent most of that time with the Condors in the AHL, he did play one game in an Oilers uniform in 2021–22.
Griffith had zero points in those four games between the Maple Leafs and Oilers.
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Zach Hyman
What will go down as one of the greatest free agent signings in team, and maybe even NHL, history is the Edmonton Oilers signing Zach Hyman away from the Maple Leafs. He spent the first six seasons of his career with Toronto, where he kept working his way up the lineup until he was averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game. Over those six seasons, he had 86 goals and 185 points with career highs of 21 goals and 41 points.
Hyman signed in Edmonton for the 2021–22 season after failing to come to terms on a long-term deal with the Maple Leafs. Since then, his career has taken off as he found incredible chemistry with Connor McDavid.
Now in his fourth season with the Oilers, Hyman has 132 goals and 240 points with career highs of 54 goals and 83 points.
Kasperi Kapanen
Another player who made his NHL debut with the Maple Leafs before heading to the Oilers later on is Kasperi Kapanen. Although he was not drafted by the Leafs, he did make his debut with them in 2015–16. Kapanen enjoyed some early career success. In his first full season in 2018–19, he played in 78 games in which he had 20 goals and 44 points.
He is long removed from Toronto at this point, having last played in Toronto in 2019–20. But the Oilers picked him up on waivers earlier this season to add his name to this list. So far, Kapanen has exceeded expectations with four goals and seven points in 24 games. Although he has found himself as a healthy scratch more often than not lately.
John Klingberg
John Klingberg can take credit as the inspiration for this post. His signing with the Oilers last week added yet another player in recent years who went from Toronto to Edmonton.
Klingberg’s time in Toronto, unfortunately, was a low point for him. After reportedly struggling with a hip injury for a while, he played in just 14 games in the 2023–24 season with the Maple Leafs before being shut down to have hip surgery.
Now healthy, the Leafs were interested in bringing him back but Klingberg ultimately decided to join the Oilers.
Calvin Pickard
Rounding out the list is Oilers backup goalie Calvin Pickard. Surprised to see him on the list? He actually started in one game for the Maple Leafs back in 2017–18. Not a great game, unfortunately, but a game nonetheless.
After jumping around between a few other teams and leagues, Pickard landed in Edmonton for the 2023–24 season, where he has found a role as a serviceable backup who has stepped up in big moments. Like when he played in (and won) his first career playoff game at the age of 32, becoming the oldest goale to start his first playoff game.
That is quite the list, and it definitely shows a clear pathway from Toronto to Edmonton, especially from the players who went directly from the Maple Leafs to Oilers.
Which former Leaf should be the next addition to this list? Drop a comment down below!
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
