If you are a long-time Edmonton Oilers fan, you have suffered through the “Decade of Darkness” from 2006 to 2016, when the team failed to make the playoffs. At the time, this 10-year stretch tied the NHL record for the longest playoff drought…until the Buffalo Sabres recently took sole possession of that.
In 2016-17, a young Oilers team surprised everyone in just Connor McDavid’s first full season in the league, making it to Game 7 of the second round. They should have gone further, but we won’t talk about that today. What you’re here for is the team that ended that drought and where they are now. Let’s kick things off with the players that are still on the roster or in the organization.
Oilers Who Are Still Here
It hasn’t been an extremely long time since the Oilers made that run in 2016-17, but a ton has changed since then. Only four key members remain in the organization. Those members are McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Darnell Nurse.
McDavid and Draisaitl steered the ship back then and are still doing so now. They are as dominant as ever, both during the regular season and playoffs. Nugent-Hopkins wasn’t the scorer he is now, but he is a strong complete player and leader in Edmonton. Nurse is also a leader and part of the core, regardless of what is thought about him and his contract. He is a big part of what is happening in Edmonton right now but wasn’t nearly as big of a piece back in 2016-17.
Former Oilers Who Are Playing for Different Teams in the NHL
A lot can change in seven years. Players become more expensive, drop off, or just need to move on. Many of the members of the 2016-17 Oilers did just that, whether it was through trades, free agency, or the expansion draft. The players who are still either playing in the NHL or AHL on different teams include Jordan Eberle, Milan Lucic, Pat Maroon, Zack Kassian, Adam Larsson, Matt Benning, Tyler Pitlick, Jesse Puljujarvi, Jordan Oesterle, Cam Talbot, Laurent Brossoit, and Jujhar Khaira.
Larsson was taken in the expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken, and it is unfortunate because he is still missed in Edmonton on the right side. He might have been the sole player that came back in the Taylor Hall trade, and it didn’t look good after an MVP campaign by Hall soon after, but Larsson was what the Oilers needed. Eberle happens to be teammates once again with Larsson as he was also taken in the expansion draft but from the New York Islanders.
Talbot and Brossoit are doing fairly well for themselves in net. Talbot was the starter for the Los Angeles Kings in 2023-24 and found success since leaving Edmonton soon after that great season. He had strong seasons with the Calgary Flames and Minnesota Wild before being the number one for the Ottawa Senators 2022-23. Brossoit built himself back up in the latter half of 2022-23 with the Vegas Golden Knights and was excellent as Connor Hellebuyck’s backup on the Winnipeg Jets in 2023-24.
Lucic and Maroon, both tough depth players, are still playing but are approaching the end of their careers. Both found themselves on new teams this season, Lucic with the Boston Bruins and Maroon with the Wild. They were much more impactful six years ago with the Oilers before the game got a lot faster.
Three of the four remaining players have remained depth players. Who is doing the best right now is Benning, who might not be on a great team (San Jose Sharks), but after Erik Karlsson was traded, he moved up and is the number one right side defence.
Members of the 2016-17 Oilers Who Retired or Are Playing Overseas
Retired
While certain players are still on the Oilers and many others are still in the league and on different teams, there are quite a number of players who have retired or made the move overseas so they can play at a higher level than the AHL professionally. Those who have since retired are Oscar Klefbom (not official), Mark Letestu, Andrej Sekera, Benoit Pouliot, Kris Russell (not official), Matt Hendricks, Eric Gryba, David Desharnais, Mark Fayne, Jonas Gustavsson, and Dillon Simpson.
Two players aren’t playing anymore but haven’t officially announced their retirement. This tends to happen, especially when it’s fairly recent. Klefbom’s contract with the Oilers ended a year ago, but his career ended long before that. The Oilers unfortunately lost their number one defenceman after the 2019-20 season due to injury, and he won’t play in the NHL again. Russell couldn’t get himself a contract last season in the NHL and is 36 years old, so without a contract for next season, his official retirement should come soon.
Desharnais has been playing in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and National League (NL) since his last season in the NHL in 2017-18 and reports from 2022-23 were that he planned on retiring after the season.
That just leaves the players who actually retired. Many weren’t huge parts of the Oilers in the 2016-17 season, but the most impactful were definitely Letestu and Sekera. Letestu finished second in playoff scoring on the Oilers, ahead of McDavid, while Sekera was the second most effective defenceman on the team throughout the year. That was Letestu’s best season, regular season and playoffs as he had 35 points from a fourth-line role and was almost a point-per-game player in the postseason that year (from ‘Letest-who? Fourth-line Oilers centre has more playoff points than Connor McDavid,’ Edmonton Journal, May 8, 2017).
While Pouliot, Gryba, and Gustavsson weren’t at the age players typically retire at, Hendricks for sure was, especially after playing two more seasons after that run in Edmonton and hanging up the skates at age 38. Of the four, Pouliot was the best piece during his time on the Oilers as he put up 33 goals and 70 points in 133 games in his first two seasons with the team before falling off the final year.
Overseas
There are only five players from that Oilers team playing overseas, Anton Slepyshev, Iiro Pakarinen, Anton Lander, Brandon Davidson, and Taylor Beck. Slepyshev was only 22 that season, while all four of the others were 25 years old. None of their careers worked out in the NHL, but they did find opportunities in various other professional leagues.
Slepyshev has played for CSKA Moskova for six consecutive seasons and has put up a good amount of points since leaving the NHL, the way the Oilers hoped he could for them. Pakarinen played for three different KHL teams in four years before making the jump over to Liiga where he put up big numbers in 2022-23 with 19 goals and 36 points in 58 games. Lander did well for himself for four seasons in the KHL, consistently putting together 30-plus point seasons before finally returning home to Sweden to play in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) in 2022-23.
Davidson bounced around a ton in such a short time in the NHL the following years after leaving the Oilers before finally heading to Sweden to play in the SHL for part of 2022-23 where he remained in 2023-24. Finally, Beck was one of those players who thrived once he headed to the KHL. He has played in Russia every season after 2016-17 with the Oilers and put up 55 points in 67 games in 2022-23.
The 2016-17 season was a nice surprise that started the Oilers on this path of success and gave them a taste of winning. The right players are still around leading the team, and big things are to come for this Stanley Cup contender.
