Top 10 Who Got Away: Andrew Cogliano (5)

5 years ago

I never had much faith in Steve Tambellini during his tenure as GM of the Edmonton Oilers. Tambellini, who sat in the big chair from 2008-13, seemed to me to be the hockey antithesis of Kyle MacDonald, the young man who rose to fame in 2005 for starting with a paperclip and trading up to a house in the course of 14 transactions made over a year. Tambellini, on the other hand, had a knack for turning a reasonably good asset into a hand sandwich, and that’s exactly what he did when he sent away Andrew Cogliano.

On July 12, 2011, Tambellini traded the speedy Cogliano, who’d been a pretty handy player in four seasons with the Oilers, to the Anaheim Ducks for a second-round draft pick in 2013. That pick turned into Marco Roy, a centre from the QMJHL who never did play a game for the Oilers or any other team in the NHL for that matter. Cogliano, meanwhile, turned into the reigning ironman of the NHL by playing in 830 consecutive games for the Ducks before having his streak snapped by a bogus two-game suspension last season. He’s not a big point producer by any stretch, but he’s a reliable winger who can score a little (or a lot, compared to Roy), play in the top-nine and kill penalties. Sure.

Andrew Cogliano

Left Wing — shoots L
Born Jun 14th, 1987 — Toronto, ONT
Height 5.10 — Weight 177 [178 cm/80 kg]

Drafted by Edmonton Oilers

Round 1 #25 overall 2005 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S%	ATOI	Awards
2007-08	20	EDM	82	18	27	45	1	20	18.4	13:40	Calder-9
2008-09	21	EDM	82	18	20	38	-6	22	15.5	14:24
2009-10	22	EDM	82	10	18	28	-5	31	7.2	14:11
2010-11	23	EDM	82	11	24	35	-12	64	8.5	17:15
2011-12	24	ANA	82	13	13	26	-4	15	11.3	14:42
2012-13	25	ANA	48	13	10	23	14	6	16.5	15:22	Byng-32
2013-14	26	ANA	82	22	20	42	13	26	13.9	15:24
2014-15	27	ANA	82	15	14	29	5	14	11.2	14:36
2015-16	28	ANA	82	9	23	32	2	28	6.9	14:26	Byng-38,Selke-23
2016-17	29	ANA	82	16	19	35	11	26	9.0	15:08
2017-18	30	ANA	80	12	23	35	18	41	6.9	15:12
7 yrs		ANA	538	100	122	222	59	156	10.3	14:57
4 yrs		EDM	328	57	89	146	-22	137	11.8	14:52
Career			866	157	211	368	37	293	10.8	14:55

PLAYOFFS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S%	ATOI
2012-13	25	ANA	7	0	1	1	-3	4	0.0	15:47
2013-14	26	ANA	13	1	6	7	-2	8	5.9	14:54
2014-15	27	ANA	16	3	6	9	9	4	6.4	16:16
2015-16	28	ANA	7	2	2	4	-1	0	33.3	14:24
2016-17	29	ANA	17	1	2	3	-3	9	3.1	13:49
2017-18	30	ANA	4	1	0	1	1	2	9.1	15:00
Career			64	8	17	25	1	27	6.5	15:00

WITH THE OILERS

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In the days before the Oilers’ decade-long rebuild “officially” began with the arrival of Taylor Hall, it looked for a brief time as if youngsters like Cogliano, Sam Gagner and Robert Nilsson might become a young core the Oilers could build on. In his rookie season, 2007-08, Cogliano had 18 goals and had 45 points (Gagner had 49 points and Nilsson 41 in just 71 games). I remember vividly how Cogliano bristled when Jim Matheson and I likened him to Todd Marchant, in large part because of his speed and stature, during a dressing room interview. Cogliano, politely, suggested he thought he could put up better numbers. Nothing wrong with a kid being confident.

It wasn’t to be, of course, as Cogliano never did manage to replicate that rookie season with the Oilers during his next three years in Edmonton (that 45-point season remains the high-water mark for his career). That didn’t mean, at least to me, that Cogliano didn’t have value, it simply meant he and Gagner would have to play behind the emerging Hall and Jordan Eberle. They would be top-nine guys, just not go-to guys. Tambellini, apparently, saw things differently. So, off Cogliano went to Anaheim and there he remains today. Roy spent last season in the ECHL with Fort Wayne.

DOWN THE ROAD

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Tambellini, you might recall, tried to unload Cogliano before the Anaheim deal. In the summer of 2009, he was part of a package with Ladislav Smid and Dustin Penner the Oilers offered — the offer was leaked — the Ottawa Senators in attempt to get Dany Heatley, but Heatley nixed the deal with his no-trade clause. It was obvious then Cogliano’s days with the Oilers were numbered. After back-to-back seasons of 18 goals, Cogliano dropped to 10 and then 11. That’s when Tambellini went to work.

Used mainly as a centre in Edmonton, Cogliano moved to the wing with the Ducks and he hasn’t looked back since. Through 11 NHL seasons, Cogliano has played 866 games, missing just those two games for a late hit on Adrian Kempe of the Los Angeles Kings. Simply put, Cogliano has been a reliable third-line player in Anaheim behind names higher on the marquee like Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. He’s been good for 35-40 points a season and he signed a three-year contract extension in January that’ll take him through the 2020-21 season.

This series of various Top 10 lists will focus on the post-1990 Oilers – the players who haven’t played on a Stanley Cup winner in Edmonton.

Previously in this Series:

Nation Takes

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