Tonight, the Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will skate in career NHL game number 1,000. He will become the 417th member of the 1,000 games-played club, and just the second player to log 1,000 games as an Oiler. However, the way he got to this milestone is one never before seen, for this franchise.
Nugent-Hopkins will be the first player ever to play all of his 1,000 NHL contests as an Edmonton Oiler. The other player to skate in 1,000 games as an Oiler was Kevin Lowe – but he had to return to Edmonton for the 1996–97 season, following a stint as a New York Ranger, to achieve that feat. Never before has a player logged 1,000 games, with every single one listing his team as the Edmonton Oilers.
As “The Nuge” prepares to make this piece of franchise history, it’s time to look back on how he got here. There have been times where this looked like it wouldn’t happen, yet it has. Nugent-Hopkins is far and away the team’s elder statesman currently. And here’s how he achieved that distinction.
One of the bright spots in an era where those were hard to come by
The 2009–10 Edmonton Oilers finished in 30th place, out of 30 teams. Despite drafting forward Taylor Hall 1st overall, the Oilers again finished dead-last in 2010–11. Doing so allowed them a second consecutive 1st overall pick, with which they drafted Nugent-Hopkins. Surely then, paired with 2008 1st-rounder Jordan Eberle, would propel the Oilers to glory, right? Right?
The Oilers would stay bad for a while longer, it turned out. The most hopeful this observer, along with many other fans, got in the Hall-Nuge-Eberle years was when the team entered the final quarter of the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season in 8th place in the Western Conference standings. It gets forgotten, that 2012–13 team had some legitimate talent to it. Alas, the team went 3–9 in its final 12 games to dash any playoff hopes that year.
Nugent-Hopkins, at least, was not to blame for the Oilers’ playoff misses. As early as his rookie season, he was putting up a hat trick against the Vancouver Canucks, something veteran Canucks play-by-play man John Shorthouse mentioned during last night’s game. Nugent-Hopkins registered 50-point seasons in each of his first three full NHL campaigns, 2012–13 excluded. This included bursting out for 24 goals and 56 points in 2014–15.
It was clear Nugent-Hopkins wasn’t gonna be a transcendent, generational talent like who the Oilers would draft at the conclusion of 2014–15. But the talent was undeniable, and he was a very solid centreman. The only concern would be whether be could withstand “the Oilers being the Oilers”.
As other former stars got traded, RNH stuck around
The drafting of Connor McDavid in 2015 was a seismic event for the Oilers franchise. Not only did it signal a potential return to competitiveness after nine years of postseason misses. But it also meant players who couldn’t do their jobs would now have to worry about being replaced. Leon Draisaitl emerging as a superstar himself meant double trouble, in that regard.
After the Oilers closed the book on the Northlands Coliseum in 2015–16, they would move on from names like Anders Nilsson, Mark Fayne, and Nail Yakupov. But not even the stars were safe. Because the most notable departure was Hall, who was shipped out in the infamous “one-for-one” trade.
Though the Oilers made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2017 (and as such, avoided ever being sole record-holders for the longest playoff drought), they weren’t done. Eberle was traded after a rough first taste of the playoffs. Other solid-initially signings, such as Cam Talbot, Milan Lucic, and Mark Letestu saw exits in either 2018 or 2019. The management corps was leaving no stone unturned in their quest for Edmonton’s sixth Cup.
Through it all, Nugent-Hopkins quietly endured, and upped his game. He put up 28 goals and 41 assists over a full 2018–19 campaign, and then in the COVID-shortened 2019–20 season, finished just shy of being a point-per-game player. He was getting really good. Only extenuating circumstances would force him to leave.
Questions about long-term future answered with 8-year extension
A new problem emerged with COVID: the NHL had a flat salary cap that lasted for a few seasons. Nugent-Hopkins was already making $$6M annually, and now, in the middle of his prime, could command a raise with how he kept getting better. The only bit at all that could be used against him was putting up just 35 points in 52 games during the behind-closed-doors 2020–21 season.
Would he choose to move on, as a 2021 free-agent? With McDavid and Draisaitl as centres ahead of him, would be seek a top-six centre role in a new market? Would he get eight or nine million dollars annually with his next deal?
Nope, Nope, and Nope would be the answers to those questions, respectively. In June 2021, the month before he could have hit free-agency, Nugent-Hopkins re-signed in Edmonton. It would be an eight-year deal, taking him to his age-35 season by which point you might expect decline. But he accepted $875,000 less per year than what he previously made. So began the trend, some might say, of players giving the Oilers a sweetheart deal in the name of winning.
The Oilers would have Nugent-Hopkins under contract throughout the 2020’s, just like he was theirs throughout the 2010’s. The smartphone rose to prominence in 2011–12, and like smartphones, “The Nuge” would keep getting better. This contract extension was also what officially enabled Nugent-Hopkins to set his sights on eventually playing all of the first 1,000 games of his career in Oilers colours.
Transitioning from third-line centre to McDavid’s wingman
The long-standing issue since McDavid and Draisaitl’s emergence has been how much money gets devoted to all three Oilers “centres”. Paying five or six sheets for a third-line centre isn’t overly heinous, but far from desirable too. Especially with the cap not rising, or barely rising initially after COVID, the math needed to work out better.
Little did we know that, back in 2016, we got a glimpse of the future solution to that problem. With Nugent-Hopkins still being 23, and McDavid having just finished his rookie NHL season, the two joined forces on Team North America, created specifically to give talents 23 years of age or younger a chance to shine internationally. Joining them would be budding Colorado Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon. Nugent-Hopkins saw a tiny bit of time with McDavid during the tournament, but put on MacKinnon’s flank often, he flourished.
Back to the future now, where the Oilers brass (allegedly) re-watched this tournament, and had an epiphany. If Nugent-Hopkins starred well with MacKinnon, could he also play well with McDavid? That would then mean you’re paying $$5M per McDavid winger (counting the recently acquired Zach Hyman), which is a lot easier to stomach.
Lo and behold, it turned out to be the answer they needed. Though he missed some time in 2021–22 due to injury, he still put up 50 points in just 63 games. And then, in 2022–23, Nugent-Hopkins exploded for 37 goals and 104 points, both far and away career highs. Even as that high-flying, 80’s-esque 2022–23 season remains an aberration, Nugent-Hopkins is still very often seen alongside McDavid and Hyman, to the point that stickers have been made depicting them as a dynamite trio.
It often takes elite chemistry to form the best lines. The most obvious example is Detroit’s famed “Russian Five” for the 1990’s Red Wings teams. A lesser-considered example is how the “Lotto Line” (of numbers 6, 40, and 9) of Brock Boeser, Elias Petterssons, and J.T. Miller propelled the Vancouver Canucks to success in 2023–24. Somehow, “McNugeHyms” just works as a trio, but we are all thankful it does.
The Oilers may do what everyone wanted, and Keep Nuge Forever
Entering play today, Nugent-Hopkins has 39 points through 40 games played this season. After a somewhat down year in 2024–25 that had certain Edmonton sports media pundits suggesting it was time to move on, Nugent-Hopkins instead turned the heat back on. And at just 32 years old currently, Nugent-Hopkins could still be elite for another five years, potentially.
With how he’s playing this season, he’s certainly not getting traded anywhere in 2026. And by playing 2026–27 here, even if he has another season like 2024–25, he’ll have two seasons left on that contract. That’s palatable, and probably exactly what the vision was in 2021.
By extending Nugent-Hopkins for eight years back then, the Oilers ensured something even more crucial. When Nugent-Hopkins signs a new deal in 2029, that contract (or future one-year deals he might sign) could contain some degree of 35+ contract structure, given he will be 35 years old that year. In other words, the deals could become more favourable for the Oilers for the rest of Nugent-Hopkins’s career.
Even regardless of those quirks, there’s no reason the Oilers should move on from “The Nuge”. He should be an Oiler for life, retire here, get inducted into the Oilers Hall of Fame someday, and never be seen wearing another NHL jersey. Full stop, end of story, signed and sealed. Make Nuge the “forever player” the Oilers have never had.
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