Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is set to play the 1000th regular season game of his NHL career on Sunday (Jan. 18) when Edmonton hosts the St. Louis Blues at Rogers Place.
The Oilers will have a pre-game ceremony honouring their alternate captain, who will join defenceman Kevin Lowe as the only players in franchise history to suit up for 1,000 regular season games.
Selected first overall in the 2011 NHL Draft, Nugent-Hopkins is now in his 15th season with the Oilers. He’s seen it all in Edmonton, from the latter half of the Decade of Darkness to consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances.
Among the hundreds of regular season games that Nugent-Hopkins has played for Edmonton’s NHL team, a few stand out. Here are the top five:
Spectacular Debut
Less than four months after being drafted with the No. 1 pick, Nugent-Hopkins made his NHL regular season debut on Oct. 9, 2011, when Edmonton hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rexall Place. A sellout crowd of 16,839 had come to see the 18-year-old sensation, and Nugent-Hopkins didn’t disappoint.
With Edmonton trailing 1-0 late in the third period, Nugent-Hopkins got on the puck in front of Pittsburgh’s net and back-handed it past goaltender Brent Johnson to tie things up. The arena erupted while Nugent-Hopkins was mobbed by his teammates.
The game went to overtime, which solved nothing, before Edmonton eventually prevailed in the shootout. Nugent-Hopkins finished the night with one goal, two penalty minutes, three shots on goal, and was named one of the three stars of the game.
First Hat Trick
After such a spectacular debut, Nugent-Hopkins somehow managed to top himself in his second home game, against the Vancouver Canucks at Rexall Place on Oct. 15, 2011. While Edmonton lost 4-3, the rookie accounted for all his team’s goals, becoming the fourth-youngest player in NHL history to record a hat trick, at only 18 years and 186 days.
The third goal came late in the second period when Nugent-Hopkins fired a wrist shot into a jumble of players in front of Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo. It initially wasn’t clear who would be credited with the goal, and when Nugent-Hopkins’ name was announced a minute later, referees were forced to halt play as the fans showered the ice with hats.
Nugent-Hopkins has since notched three more hat tricks in the regular season, the most recent coming against the Seattle Kraken on March 22, 2025.
5-Assist Game
The Oilers got off to a tremendous start in Nugent-Hopkins’ rookie season, going 9-3-2 over the first month of their 2011-12 schedule. But then they hit a rough patch, losing four straight games while being outscored 20-8, and Oilers fans were already starting to think, “Here we go again”.
Related: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Is an All-Time Great Edmonton Oiler
So, when Edmonton hosted the powerhouse Chicago Blackhawks at Rexall Place on Nov. 19, 2011, no one predicted that the Oilers would have their highest scoring game since 1996, with a shocking 9-2 victory.
Nugent-Hopkins led the way, racking up a game-high five points, all from assists, which is still his career high to this day. It was a historic individual performance, as he became just the 12th player to record at least five assists in a game in their first NHL season. Only one other player has accomplished that feat since then: Anton Lundell of the Florida Panthers in 2021-22.
Big Night in Vegas
Nearly a dozen years after his first five-point effort, Nugent-Hopkins equalled his career high when he scored a goal and added four assists as Edmonton defeated the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights by a score of 7-4 at T-Mobile Arena on March 28, 2023.
Nugent-Hopkins recorded all of his game-high five points in the opening 40 minutes. He had a goal and two assists in the first period, then set up a pair of goals in the middle frame, including the game-winner from blueliner Darnell Nurse. Nugent-Hopkins became the 10th player in franchise history with multiple regular season games of five or more points.
Edmonton’s victory in Las Vegas was the ninth straight regular season game that Nugent-Hopkins recorded at least one point. To this day, that stands as the longest point streak of his career, a feat he also achieved during the 2021-22 season.
Milestone 100th Point
In 2022-23, Nugent-Hopkins eclipsed the 100-point mark for the first – and so far only – time of his career, racking up 37 goals and 67 assists in 82 games. His milestone point came during Edmonton’s 79th game, a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on April 5, 2023.
Late in the third period, with Edmonton leading 2-1 and Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal pulled for the extra attacker, Nugent-Hopkins got his 100th point with an assist after he passed to Zach Hyman who scored an empty-net goal.
Nugent-Hopkins became just the sixth player in NHL history to record his first 100-point campaign in his 12th season or later, while Edmonton became the first team since the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins to have three players with at least 100 points (Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid).
Sunday’s game will be another memorable one for Nugent-Hopkins, who has 10 goals and 19 assists in 37 career games against the Blues. Meanwhile, he continues to get closer to Lowe, who holds the all-time franchise record with 1,037 games played in the regular season with the Oilers. Nugent-Hopkins is on pace to pass Lowe early next season.
