Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll be counting down the days until the Edmonton Oilers begin their 2023-24 season with a daily trip down memory lane. Today at No. 18 we have Miroslav Satan, a skilled winger who unfortunately never played for the New Jersey Devils.

The Oilers selected Satan in the fifth round of the 1993 draft and he made a name for himself as a prospect the following season when he led Slovakia’s top professional league in scoring with 64 points in 39 games and scored nine goals in eight games for his country at the Lillehammer Olympics.

Satan came overseas for the 1994-95 season and dominated AHL competition, scoring 24 goals and 40 points over 25 games for the Cape Breton Oilers. He cracked the NHL club in 1995-96 and scored 17 goals and 35 points over 62 games as a rookie.

The Oilers traded Satan ahead of the 1996-97 trade deadline to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for two prospects, winger Barrie Moore and defenceman Craig Millar. Satan’s contract was set to expire at the end of the season and he was buried on the team’s depth chart at left wing behind Ryan Smyth and Mariusz Czerkawski.

Moore and Millar only played a handful of games with the Oilers while Satan went on to play 1,050 games in the NHL. He broke out with the Sabres in 1998-99 with 40 goals and 66 points and helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in team history.

Satan scored 224 goals and 456 points over eight seasons with the Sabres before leaving to sign with the New York Islanders following the 2004-05 lockout. He joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as a free agent for the 2008-09 season and was part of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin’s first Stanley Cup team.

After four seasons in Slovakia playing for HC Slovan Bratislava, Satan announced his retirement from professional hockey in May of 2014. He’s now the President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation and is the General Manager of their national team.