Author: Stephen Vani

Oilers fan in Toronto. Staying up past my bedtime for Western games since the mid 2000s.

Ghosts Of Oilers Past: Nail Yakupov

After former Oilers defenseman, Sheldon Souray spilled beans on John Scott’s Dropping The Gloves podcast, inspiring an article of mine you can read here, another ex-Oiler appeared in an episode and gave his two cents on what went wrong during his time in Edmonton. Related Article: Ghosts Of Oilers Past: Sheldon Souray Nail Yakupov was […]

Ghosts Of Oilers Past: Sheldon Souray

It’s nice to sit through the last few weeks of summer, no longer worrying about Evan Bouchard re-signing. A big slapshot that every powerplay craves, right-handed, and making the league’s best man advantage even more lethal. The Edmonton Oilers have a gem in the 23-year-old defenseman. But the last time they had that kind of […]

Play It Again, Sam

An old friend is coming back to Oil Country. On Monday, the Edmonton Oilers signed forward Sam Gagner to a professional tryout. The 34-year-old, 16-year NHL veteran and former 6th overall pick of the organization has put up 317 points in 542 games for the Oilers. He played for Edmonton between the 2008 and 2014 […]

Brandon Sutter Signs a PTO with Edmonton Oilers

This past Tuesday, the Edmonton Oilers signed forward Brandon Sutter to their first professional tryout of the offseason. He hasn’t played an NHL game since 2021 due to battling long COVID. He’s a right-handed center that the Oilers would still like to add to the bottom six. I’m just not sure he’ll be healthy enough […]

Ryan McLeod Re-Signs With Edmonton Oilers

On Tuesday night, the Edmonton Oilers avoided the salary arbitration deadline of August 4th and re-signed restricted free agent forward Ryan McLeod to a two-year contract paying him $2.1M per season. McLeod has played three NHL seasons, recording 20 goals and 25 assists for 45 points in 138 games. A solid two-way forward for Edmonton’s […]

The Curious Case Of Darnell Nurse

Like the player, hate the contract. That’s the basic consensus of Oilers fans regarding the eight-year veteran defenseman taken 7th overall in the 2013 NHL Draft. Darnell Nurse will be entering the second season of his notorious eight-year contract paying him $9.25M per season. Is he overpaid by at least $2.5M or $3M? Yes. Is […]

Ghosts Of Oilers Past: Tyler Benson

Okay, maybe it’s too soon to put someone who played less than 50 NHL games in the same “ghost” category as I did with Dustin Penner and Justin Schultz. But with the news of Tyler Benson leaving the Oilers organization last week, let’s discuss a prospect that a lot of fans had high hopes for […]

Olivier Rodrigue Re-signs With Edmonton Oilers

It’s not a world freezing signing, but it’s an important one for the farm. The Edmonton Oilers re-signed prospect goaltender Olivier Rodrigue to a one-year, two-way contract that will pay him $775K. The 22-year-old, turning 23 on Thursday, drafted 62nd overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, is coming off his best season statistically with the […]

More Edmonton Oilers Depth Signings

Mattias Janmark Janmark Stats This was news before July 1st, but let’s bring it up now. The Edmonton Oilers re-signed Janmark for one more year at $1M. The first year Oiler had a solid season for the team as a bottom sixer. He put up 10 goals, 3 of them shorthanded, and 15 assists for […]

Drake Cagguila Signs in Edmonton

He used to play for our team, yet I completely forgot he was still in the league. Drake Cagguila was with the Edmonton Oilers from 2016 to 2019, part of the 2017 roster that ended the franchise’s ten year postseason drought. In 156 NHL games with the Oilers, he put up 49 points and scored […]