Edmonton Oilers
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Wasn’t Sure He’d Always Be an Edmonton Oiler
Even Ryan Nugent-Hopkins questioned how long he’d remain an Edmonton Oiler during the team’s dark years.
Sunday night marked a special moment in Edmonton Oilers history, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins skated in the 1,000th game of his NHL career—all of them spent wearing the blue, orange, and white, the first player to have ever done so with the franchise. To put a bow on the milestone night, the beloved Oiler opened the scoring with a goal that fittingly stood as the game-winner in a dominant 5–0 shutout of the St. Louis Blues.
The achievement has naturally put Nugent-Hopkins’ tenure in Edmonton under the spotlight, and he recently admitted that there were times early in his career when he wasn’t sure he’d still be with the organization long term throughout the franchise’s dark years in the early 2010s.
On Wednesday, the man of the hour made an appearance on TSN’s OverDrive, where he reflected on those difficult early seasons and how glad he is to have stuck around.
“Yeah, definitely. When I got drafted here, I would talk to my agent and my family about that—that it was kind of the dream to first of all play my whole career in Edmonton, and obviously the big one is to win in Edmonton. And then you play your first five-ish years, and you start to see guys going in and out of the lineup and on and off the team. You start to think, well, maybe that’s not going to be a possibility. But I was very fortunate to have stuck around through some tougher years, and definitely now we’re on the other side of it. It’s a lot more fun to be on this side than it was for the first few years,”
The 32-year-old Nugent-Hopkins is enjoying an excellent 2025–26 campaign, having recorded 40 points (12 goals, 28 assists) in 42 games. He’s in year five of the eight-year, $41 million extension he signed with the Oilers back in 2021.
Riding With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Has Proven to Be the Right Move
While there have been ups and downs along the way, both the Oilers and their fans have to be thrilled that Nugent-Hopkins remained in Edmonton through it all.
As much as this is Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s team, Nugent-Hopkins is the heart and soul—trusted in every situation: power play, penalty kill, five-on-five, and critical late-game scenarios. His value extends far beyond the scoresheet, though he continues to thrive piling up the points as well.
The only thing left for Nugent-Hopkins to accomplish in Edmonton is capturing that elusive Stanley Cup, and it certainly appears as if he and the Oilers are poised for another deep postseason run as they try to get over that final hump.
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