On the opening day of free-agency, the Edmonton Oilers signed forward Drake Caggiula to a two-year, two-way contract with an average annual value (AAV) at the NHL level of $775,000.
The 29-year-old center returns to Edmonton, where he played 156 games over parts of three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19. He has since had stints with the Chicago Blackhawks, Arizona Coyotes, and Buffalo Sabres, and most recently made four appearances with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2022-23.
Caggiula is now one of only 15 players in franchise history that have come back for a second stint with the Oilers after playing elsewhere in the NHL. Some returns haven’t worked so well – like in 1996 when future Hall-of-Famer Glenn Anderson lasted only 17 games after being brought back against his wishes when general manager (GM) Glen Sather claimed him off waivers.
But other Edmonton returns have gone much better, with players contributing to team success, providing leadership, or just finishing their story. Here are the top three:
Kevin Lowe
Only months after Anderson wanted no part of the rebuilding Oilers, another essential figure from the team’s dynasty years returned to Edmonton of his own accord.
Kevin Lowe was the Oilers, and the Oilers were Lowe: Edmonton selected the blueliner with its first-ever NHL draft pick in 1979 and he scored the first NHL regular season goal in franchise history. The trade departures of Anderson, Grant Fuhr, and Mark Messier in 1991 also left Lowe as the last remaining member of all five Oilers’ championship teams (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990) and he succeeded Messier as team captain.
Lowe held out for a contract going into the 1992-93 season, which ultimately resulted in the franchise leader in games played being traded to the New York Rangers two weeks before Christmas. Lowe went on play 217 games over four seasons with the Blueshirts and won his sixth Stanley Cup in 1994.
Related: Oilers’ Trade of Kevin Lowe 30 Years Ago Marked End of an Era
On Sept. 20, 1996, Lowe signed with the Oilers, rejoining an Edmonton team that since his departure had fallen on hard times, missing the playoffs four straight seasons. But the Oilers were now on the rise, with plenty of potential in a core of young skaters led by center Doug Weight and a superstar goalie in Curtis Joseph. But they didn’t have a lot of experience with success. Enter Lowe.
The veteran defenceman only played 71 games in his second stint with the Oilers – 64 in 1996-97 and seven in 1997-98 – but his veteran presence can’t be overstated; with Lowe back in their locker room, the Oilers not only returned to the playoffs, but advanced to the second round, stunning the Dallas Stars in 1997, and upsetting the Colorado Avalanche in 1998.
Lowe retired at age 39 in the summer of 1998. He served as an Oilers assistant coach in 1998-99, was promoted to head coach for 1999-00, and then took over from Sather as GM on June 9, 2000.
When Lowe retired, the Oilers had been in the NHL for 19 seasons. They were 15/15 making the playoffs with Lowe, and 0/4 without him. It wouldn’t be until 2006, after Edmonton’s 26th NHL season, that the Oilers won a playoff round without Lowe on the roster – and that was with a team he assembled as GM.
Josef Beranek
Drafted 78th overall by Edmonton in 1989, Josef Beranek notched 12 goals and 16 assists in 58 games for the Oilers as a rookie in 1991-92. The Czech centerman recorded eight points in 26 games with Edmonton the following season before Sather dealt him to the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 16, 1993.
Beranek went from Philadelphia to the Vancouver Canucks to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and finally back to the Oilers via trade with the Pens on June 16, 1998.
Edmonton’s re-acquisition of Beranek proved providential just eight games into the 1998-99 season when Weight suffered a serious knee injury that sidelined the Oilers’ top offensive player for two and a half months. In the 34 games that Weight missed, from Oct. 30, 1998, to Jan. 16, 1999, Beranek tied for the most goals (12) and the most points (12) on the Oilers over that span, helping Edmonton stay afloat in the Western Conference standings.
The Oilers ended up clinching a playoff spot, thanks in no small part to Beranek, who finished the season with 19 goals and 30 assists in 66 games. The forward’s 49 points ranked second on the 1998-99 Oilers and stands as the most scored in a season by a player during his second go-round in Edmonton.
In 1999-00, Beranek had nine goals and eight assists in 58 games with the Oilers before being traded to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline on March 14, 2000.
Ryan Smyth
Smyth’s second go-round in Edmonton, from 2011-12 to 2013-14, did not coincide with team success: it came during the Decade of Darkness, the Oilers’ streak of 10 consecutive seasons without a playoff berth that stands as the lowest point in franchise history.
It also didn’t yield big individual statistics. In his first season back, Smyth had 19 goals and 27 assists, but then managed just 12 goals in 119 games over his final two years, a significant drop-off for a forward with 11 20-goal campaigns to his credit.
But more than anything, Smyth’s return was about righting the second-greatest wrong in team history (the first, of course, being the Wayne Gretzky trade), and on that front, the mission was accomplished.
At the 2007 Trade Deadline, Smyth had been traded from Edmonton to the New York Islanders in a shocking move by Lowe, who was now in the role of GM. The pending unrestricted free agent and the Oilers could not agree on a contract, reportedly separated by only $100,000 per year on a five-year deal (from ‘Deal Died Needlessly’, The Edmonton Journal, 3/1/97).
No one bled orange and blue more than the beloved winger, who had spent his entire 12-year NHL career in Edmonton, and he was overcome by tears during a press conference at the Edmonton International Airport, where scores of heartbroken fans came to say goodbye.
The beginning of the Decade of Darkness can be traced to this trade. With their heart and soul gone, the Oilers won just two of their final 20 games of 2006-07 and missed the playoffs for the first of 10 consecutive years.
Following a brief stint with the Islanders, Smyth signed in the offseason with the Colorado Avalanche. He played two years with the Avalanche before being dealt to the Los Angeles Kings on July 3, 2009. Then, after two seasons in L.A., Smyth asked Kings management to be traded to Edmonton. The Kings obliged, and on June 26, 2011, he returned to the city he’d never really stopped calling home.
Smyth played the final three years of his career in Edmonton. He is the only player to return to the Oilers and play more than two seasons in his second go-round.
There wasn’t a dry eye for Smyth’s final moments as an Oiler, but instead of the gut-wrenching scene from the airport seven years prior, he was able to say goodbye to Oil Country on his terms. He played his last game at Rexall Place on April 14, 2014, ending the night awash in emotion as he spent several minutes skating around the ice and being showered by cheers.
It’s probably safe to say that the world didn’t stop in Edmonton when Caggiula’s first stint with the Oilers came to an end on Dec. 28, 2019. Likewise, his return to Oil Country on July 1 didn’t stop traffic. But he’s easy to root for, a solid depth player, and if he can play a role, however small, in helping Edmonton capture the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990, he might one day get mentioned as having one of the best returns to the Oilers, too.