The Edmonton Oilers have been an interesting team to follow this season. They started 3-9-1 and now find themselves in a playoff spot at the halfway point of the season, and are now on a franchise-best 12-game winning streak with no signs of slowing down. While the fans and players are both focused on this season and winning a Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990, a few players left the Oilers before the start of the 2023-24 campaign and have been finding success with their new teams. In today’s article, we look back at four players who were a part of the Oilers last season and have been playing with different teams this season.
Klim Kostin – Traded To Detroit Red Wings
The Oilers had to deal with a bit of a cap crunch before the new season began and unfortunately, it led to the team trading fan favourite Klim Kostin to the Detroit Red Wings, where he ended up signing a two-year extension worth $2 million per season in which the Oilers weren’t able to afford. After a breakout season with the Oilers during the 2022-23 season, he was expected to get a massive pay raise and while it was deserved, it was a tough pill to swallow losing him for nothing in a trade.
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In his only season with the Oilers, Kostin scored 11 goals and added 10 assists for 21 points through 57 games which shattered his points record at the NHL level which was previously only nine points. He became a fan favourite in Edmonton because of his physical play, and it helped that the original deal between the Oilers and St. Louis Blues that brought him to the Oilers was supposed to be a “fresh start” for both players, and the Oilers easily won the trade sending Dmitri Samorukov the other way, who is now playing full-time in the American Hockey League (AHL) and never worked out in St. Louis.
This season, Kostin has taken a small step back with the Red Wings. In 25 games, he has scored three goals and added one assist for four points and is on pace to only finish with nine points. It seems as though the fit with the Red Wings hasn’t worked out quite as well as they’d hoped, and Kostin has found himself buried on the fourth line this season.
Jesse Puljujarvi – Traded To Hurricanes, Signed With AHL Penguins
The Oilers drafted Jesse Puljujarvi with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and he became a project since joining the organization. While his relationship with the team wasn’t always smooth and he ended up playing in the Finnish Liiga for parts of two seasons, he was given every opportunity to thrive with the Oilers and become the star they hoped he could be. While he was a fantastic defensive forward, he never found his offensive game with the Oilers and ended up being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes midway through the 2022-23 season.
In 17 games with the Hurricanes after the trade, he played the majority of his time on the fourth line and only put up two assists. He wasn’t re-signed by the Hurricanes for the 2023-24 season and he hit free agency, but he would miss a while with a major injury that sidelined him until very recently. While he fought to get back to the NHL, he ended up signing a professional tryout contract (PTO) with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL where he has scored two goals and added two assists for four points through six games.
It seems as though he will earn a contract for the remainder of the 2023-24 season with the Penguins AHL affiliate. He has played well enough coming off of a major injury to warrant a two-way deal in the NHL, but the team may opt to see how he plays for the remainder of the season and discuss a new deal in the offseason. Either way, it seems as though Puljujarvi is close to making it back to the NHL.
Devin Shore – Signed With Seattle Kraken
The Oilers chose to let forward Devin Shore hit free agency after he spent three seasons with the team. In 134 games with the Oilers, he scored 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points and provided a strong depth presence during his tenure with the team. After leaving the Oilers, he chose to sign a one-year contract with the Seattle Kraken where he has split the season between the NHL and AHL.
In 19 games in the NHL with the Kraken this season, Shore has scored one goal and added three assists for four points. In the AHL with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, he has scored three goals and added three assists for six points through nine games. While he was loved by many fans for his personality in Edmonton, the team simply had no cap space left to sign him, so it’s good to see he’s found himself a new opportunity in Seattle this season.
Kailer Yamamoto – Traded To Red Wings, Signed With Kraken
The Oilers drafted Kailer Yamamoto in the first round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft at 22nd overall after he had a strong showing in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Spokane Chiefs. In his draft year, he scored 42 goals and added 57 assists for 99 points through 65 games and was considered one of the top prospects heading into the draft. He earned a nine-game stint with the Oilers before they sent him back for another season of development with the Chiefs where he scored 21 goals and added 43 assists for 64 points through 40 games.
Yamamoto remained with the Oilers until the end of the 2022-23 season. He was involved in the Kostin trade which sent both players to the Red Wings in exchange for future considerations. The Red Wings opted to buy out Yamamoto, and he was free to sign wherever he pleased. He ended up signing a one-year contract worth $1.5 million with the Kraken, which is where he had always dreamed of playing hockey as a kid, even before Seattle had a team in the NHL.
“Never in a million years did I think Seattle was going to get a team, and it means so much to me just to be able to grow the game of hockey…It means a lot that a team’s here. It shows kids in the Spokane area, the Seattle area, that they can make it.”
– Kailer Yamamoto Prior to the 2024 Winter Classic (NHL.com)
This season with the Kraken, Yamamoto has scored seven goals and added five assists for 12 points through 42 games and has been a solid addition to the Kraken’s bottom-six forward group. He has found himself a new home and seems to be happy with where he is now that he isn’t an Oiler anymore.
All four of these players were solid with the Oilers, but it’s always fun to look back, as well as see where they are now. All of them have found their own types of success with their new teams and it would have been nice if they could all have remained Oilers but, they are pushing for a Stanley Cup and had to make some changes. Hopefully, these sacrifices work out and they can win their first championship since 1990.
