OilersNation Top 25 of 2020: #3 — Sam Gagner Says Goodbye
By Zach Laing
3 years agoWelcome to the yearly wrap up of the top read articles over the last year!
We’re back after a small Christmas break and today we’re looking at the worst thing to happen in 2020 before the world shut down in a pandemic.
And that was the Edmonton Oilers trading away Sam Gagner.
Jason Gregor interviewed Gagner and the article was the third most-read piece this year.
If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest going back and giving it a once (or twice) over.
Here’s one of my favourite excerpts from that piece:
Gregor: You’re at the later stage of your career and Ken Holland told me, ‘Most players start lower in the lineup, then they work their way up to the top and then they slowly start to make their way down. And the good ones can contribute at almost any line, it really doesn’t matter.’ You can help out on the power play, you think the game as an offensive player and you can play in a bottom six role as well. Is that how you see your game and how it has evolved over the years?Gagner: I think that my game has evolved a lot. Early on in my career I felt like if I wasn’t producing, I wasn’t helping. I don’t really feel like that’s the case anymore. I feel like I can help and contribute in a lot of different areas. I feel like my game is a lot more solid than it was before. I still want to create and produce some numbers, but I think that I look at my role in Edmonton this year and I felt like when I was on the ice I helped to push the play into the offensive zone. And when you have guys like Connor [McDavid] and Leon [Draisaitl] and the offensive weapons they have there, it’s always nice for them to start their shifts in the offensive zone.If you can contribute that way by making plays and getting the pick advanced and I feel like I’m a lot better defensively than I was earlier on in my career. There are a lot of layers to my game that I feel like I’ve evolved and you need to have that if you’re going to play for a long time. I still feel I have a lot of game left in me. I work really hard and make sure I’m in good shape and I’m prepared for the season, and so I’m going to keep going as long as I can. Hopefully I’ve got some more years in me.
On Twitter: @zjlaing
RUMOURS SPONSORED BY COLLIN BRUCE MORTGAGE TEAM
Find out why so many people are using Dominion Lending Centres #1 broker in Canada. We are paid by the banks on the size of the mortgage, not the interest rate, so we try to get you as low as rate as we can. Whether it is a purchase, renewal or refinance, contact us to see what we can do to help!
Recent articles from Zach Laing
