The Edmonton Oilers marked a special moment in team history on Sunday night. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins skated in the 1,000th game of his NHL career. All while wearing the blue, orange, and white. He’s the first player to do so with the franchise.
Nugent-Hopkins’ tenure with the Oilers is under the spotlight due to his recent achievement. He recently admitted that there were times early in his career when he wasn’t sure whether he would still be with the team as they struggled in the early 2010s. On Wednesday, he made an appearance on TSN’s OverDrive, where he reflected on those difficult times and how happy he is to still be playing in Edmonton.
“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.”
Nugent-Hopkins continued with; “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.”
Oilers and Nugent-Hopkins Having Another Good Season
Nugent-Hopkins is enjoying a productive 2025–26 season. His current stats are 12 goals and 28 assists for 40 points in 42 games. The 32-year-old is in year five of the eight-year, $41 million extension he signed with the Oilers back in 2021. If everything keeps going the way it is, he’ll likely retire in Edmonton as a career-long Oiler.
The only thing left for Nugent-Hopkins to accomplish in Edmonton is to win the Stanley Cup. They’ve come close, and luckily for him, the Oilers appear to be ready for another deep postseason run.
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