As former Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli once infamously stated, “centres are more important, wingers are easier to find.” Everyone knows that a centre is more valuable than a winger in the NHL, especially a good one. They’re responsible for face-offs, are often the engine of any given line, and their positioning can be the difference between a goal or defensive stop, and a missed chance or a goal against.
However, to suggest that wingers are simply “easy to find” in comparison is laughable, specifically because the Edmonton Oilers have had a long history of lackluster players in key wing positions. With the news that free agent signing Andrew Mangiapane has been given permission to seek a trade, let’s take a trip to the graveyard and analyze some famous winger busts in Oilers history.
The “just didn’t fit” guy: Andrew Mangiapane
Speaking of the man, let’s pay our respects to the latest in a long line of busts. Signed this offseason to a two-year, $7.2M contract carrying an AAV of $3.6M, Mangiapane seemed to be a worthy bet.
Sure, it had been a couple seasons from his 35 goal campaign in 2021–22 with the rival Calgary Flames, but he still managed 28 points last year in Washington playing primarily middle-six minutes. It wasn’t ridiculous to suggest that playing alongside Connor McDavid could reignite his scoring ways.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. He began this season with goals in consecutive games, but was never able to find chemistry in the top-six, and when the scoring dried up, he wasn’t able to find any place in the lineup. He was healthy scratched in the leadup to Christmas, and hasn’t suited up since December 31. A trade will be incoming soon, but it’s a shame Edmonton wasn’t able to find a fit for a winger that stylistically, seemed like a hit on paper.
The “draft disappointment” guy: Jesse Puljujarvi
Ah the Bison King. One of the more lovable Oilers in recent memory, when he fell into Edmonton’s lap at the fourth overall selection in the 2016 draft Edmonton fans were ecstatic. Jesse Puljujarvi was big and fast with a scoring touch, and had just come off 17 points in seven games at the World Juniors, tying a mark set by Eric Lindros and Wayne Gretzky.
It seemed that the Oilers had found the perfect winger to pair alongside Connor McDavid. Unfortunately for Puljujarvi, and Edmonton, he never found that level again. Development was partially to blame, as the Oilers yo-yo’d Puljujarvi between the AHL and NHL, all while his inexperience living in North America took a toll. He seemed to find a spot in the lineup as a physical depth winger, but the expectations of his draft selection and promise never went away. He would occasionally show flashes of the player he was expected to be, but they were too few and far between to stamp his place in the NHL. It’s honestly a shame he never panned out to the level many hoped.
The “they paid HOW MUCH?!” Guy: Andreas Athanasiou
Ken Holland’s first big inseason swing as Oilers GM, Athanasiou was acquired just weeks before COVID-19 stopped the 2019–20 NHL season. A scoring winger who had great foot speed, and a player whom Holland knew from his days in Detroit, Andreas Athanasiou profiled to be a surefire hit alongside Connor McDavid’s blazing skating ability.
Instead, he crashed and burned in Edmonton, recording just two points in nine regular season games and showed negative chemistry with McDavid. The worst part was the cost, as the Oilers sent two second rounders and well-liked veteran Sam Gagner to the Detroit Red Wings to accquire him.
Athanasiou wasn’t even qualified by the Oilers at the end of deal, and he of course went on to have a resurgent campaign with the Los Angeles Kings, before becoming a 20-goal scorer again when he signed the year after in Chicago.
Athanasiou is a chief example of a fatal flaw the Oilers have made with wingers in the McDavid era: just because a player has the skating to keep up with McDavid, doesn’t mean they also possess the hockey IQ to think like him.
The “falls off a cliff” player: Benoit Pouliot
Benoit Pouliot’s Oilers tenure actually had a pretty solid start. Signed in the 2014 offseason to a five-year, $20M deal, Pouliot’s first two years in Edmonton were actually productive. 19 goals and 34 points in 58 games, then 14 goals and 36 points. Pouliot wasn’t flashy, sure but he played a veteran style and was good for at least 30 points a year. For a franchise that had been searching for solid, dependable depth, Pouliot seemed to be working out.
Unfortunately in year three, he hit the age wall. Pouliot had always been a bit of streaky scorer, and he went into a prolonged dry spell, while his average and aging foot speed was exposed trying to keep with up McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Of course, the $4M AAV didn’t help. Pouliot became a subject of fan frustration, and his continued poor play exacerbated the circumstances.
Although he was part of the 2016–17 team that returned the Oilers to the playoffs, he was almost invisible, with just eight goals in 67 regular season games, and zero points in 13 playoff games.
Pouliot was bought out in the 2017 offseason, a decision that didn’t help the Oilers cap balances either. A move that started out with promise fizzled into a disaster.
The “free agency mistake” guy: Milan Lucic
One of Peter Chiarelli’s cardinal sins as Oilers GM was the big ticket signing of Milan Lucic. He was signed to a seven-year, $42M contract on July 1, 2016 and it was supposed to be a centrepiece deal for the Oilers. Lucic had become one of the NHL’s meanest power forwards during his time with the Boston Bruins, and due to Chiarelli’s history with him, he didn’t hesitate to bring Lucic into an Oilers team looking to give a young McDavid and Draisaitl support.
The first year of Lucic wasn’t terrible with 23 goals and 50 points in 82 games, six points in 13 playoff games, and a physical identity the Oilers had lacked for years. However, even more dramatically than Pouliot did Lucic hit the wall. His scoring crated from 23 goals to just 10 the following season, and he wasn’t able to establish his physicality like before.
The Lucic experiment dragged into 2018–19 with just six goals and 20 points in 79 games. Did I mention he was making $6M a season? Lucic was eventually traded to the Calgary Flames in a swap of overpaid, under-performing wingers for James Neal, who actually managed to turn his game around, at least scoring wise in Edmonton. Lucic’s signing was imagined as a big swing that would show the league the Oilers meant business. Instead, it only showed the league Chiarelli didn’t know a thing.
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Honourable mention, the “if only he scored guy”: Tobias Reider
Poor Tobias Reider. In one of the more insane longshot bets in NHL history, Edmonton signed Reider to a one-year deal with the idea that because he was German, he’d be the perfect winger to pair with emerging superstar and fellow German Leon Draisaitl.
What followed was one of the sadder seasons in the history of hockey, as Reider not only showed no chemistry with his countryman Draisaitl, but no chemistry with anyone, at all. In 67 games during the 2018–19 season, Reider didn’t even manage to score a goal, tallying just 11 assists.
Of course, the main reason people remember this is because of a quote from then-Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson, who infamously stated that, “Toby Rieder hasn’t scored a goal. Toby Rieder has missed so many breakaways. If Toby Rieder had scored 12–14 goals, we’d have probably made the playoffs.” Nevermind the fact that Oilers team had no forward depth to speak of. Nevermind the fact they didn’t have a defensive pairing outside Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson. It was somehow all Tobias Reider’s fault the Oilers didn’t make the playoffs that year.
Edmonton has long had a habit of trying to fit square pegs in round holes on the wings. This was trying to fit a MAC truck through an ant hill. Hilariously, Reider signed with the Calgary Flames the next season, and scored two goals in a preseason game against the Oilers. A true Chiarelli masterclass.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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