Top 10 Who Got Away: Ray Whitney (1)

5 years ago

Ray Whitney could have been one of the best local-boy-makes-good stories of his generation when he showed up on the doorstep of the Edmonton Oilers as a free agent in the late-1990s. Instead, the undersized kid from Fort Saskatchewan, a former stick boy with the Oilers whose dad Floyd was a city cop and a practice goaltender with the team, goes into the franchise record books as one of the team’s greatest blunders.

A lot of teams blew it on Whitney, a prolific forward with the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL who wasn’t even drafted in his first year of eligibility. The Oilers, though, doubled-down on that, missing him in the draft and then letting him go on waivers in November 1997, just over a month after they’d brought him in as a cast-off by the San Jose Sharks. The Florida Panthers got Whitney for a waiver fee. The local boy angle would play out elsewhere to the tune 1,064 points over 1,330 regular season games, just nine of those with the Oilers, and a 2006 Stanley Cup celebration with the Carolina Hurricanes. Oops!

Ray Whitney

Left Wing — shoots R
Born May 8 1972 — Fort Saskatchewan, ALTA
Height 5.10 — Weight 180 [178 cm/82 kg]

Drafted by San Jose Sharks

Round 2 #23 overall 1991 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S%
1991-92	19	SJS	2	0	3	3	-1	0	0.0
1992-93	20	SJS	26	4	6	10	-14	4	16.7
1993-94	21	SJS	61	14	26	40	2	14	17.1
1994-95	22	SJS	39	13	12	25	-7	14	19.4
1995-96	23	SJS	60	17	24	41	-23	16	16.0
1996-97	24	SJS	12	0	2	2	-6	4	0.0
1997-98	25	TOT	77	33	32	65	9	28	18.9
1997-98	25	EDM	9	1	3	4	-1	0	5.3
1997-98	25	FLA	68	32	29	61	10	28	20.5
1998-99	26	FLA	81	26	38	64	-3	18	13.5
1999-00	27	FLA	81	29	42	71	16	35	14.6
2000-01	28	TOT	46	10	24	34	-17	30	8.3
2000-01	28	FLA	43	10	21	31	-16	28	8.5
2000-01	28	CBJ	3	0	3	3	-1	2	0.0
2001-02	29	CBJ	67	21	40	61	-22	12	10.0
2002-03	30	CBJ	81	24	52	76	-26	22	10.2
2003-04	31	DET	67	14	29	43	7	22	11.8
2005-06	33	CAR	63	17	38	55	0	42	11.6
2006-07	34	CAR	81	32	51	83	-5	46	14.9
2007-08	35	CAR	66	25	36	61	-6	30	12.3
2008-09	36	CAR	82	24	53	77	2	32	11.0
2009-10	37	CAR	80	21	37	58	-6	26	12.3
2010-11	38	PHX	75	17	40	57	0	24	10.9
2011-12	39	PHX	82	24	53	77	26	28	13.0
2012-13	40	DAL	32	11	18	29	1	4	17.7
2013-14	41	DAL	69	9	23	32	-6	14	7.3
6 yrs		SJS	200	48	73	121	-49	52	15.6
5 yrs		CAR	372	119	215	334	-15	176	12.4
4 yrs		FLA	273	97	130	227	7	109	14.6
3 yrs		CBJ	151	45	95	140	-49	36	10.0
2 yrs		DAL	101	20	41	61	-5	18	10.8
2 yrs		PHX	157	41	93	134	26	52	12.0
1 yr		DET	67	14	29	43	7	22	11.8
1 yr		EDM	9	1	3	4	-1	0	5.3
Career			1330	385	679	1064	-79	465	12.7

PLAYOFFS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S%
1993-94	21	SJS	14	0	4	4	-4	8	0.0
1994-95	22	SJS	11	4	4	8	-3	2	26.7
1999-00	27	FLA	4	1	0	1	-2	4	5.9
2003-04	31	DET	12	1	3	4	-4	4	4.8
2005-06	33	CAR	24	9	6	15	-1	14	22.5
2008-09	36	CAR	18	3	8	11	-9	4	5.5
2010-11	38	PHX	4	1	2	3	0	2	9.1
2011-12	39	PHX	16	2	5	7	-1	10	5.9
2013-14	41	DAL	5	0	0	0	-1	0	0.0
Career			108	21	32	53	-25	48	9.9

WITH THE OILERS

I’ve never heard what I consider a reasonable explanation why the Oilers, with Glen Sather the GM and Ron Low the coach at the time, let Whitney go. Then again, the Oilers made a habit of drafting bigger and less talented players than Whitney during the 1990s, so maybe that illustrates the bigger-is-better mentality of the era. Sather and Low couldn’t or wouldn’t find a spot for Whitney after nine games on a team that wasn’t very good, so off he went to Florida.

It didn’t take the Oilers very long to find out they’d soiled the sheets and made the wrong call on Whitney, who put up a modest 1-3-4 in his nine games with Edmonton. He’d go on to tally 32-29-61 in 68 games with the Panthers. Those numbers alone would have put Whitney second in Oilers’ scoring behind Doug Weight, who had 70 points that season. That, of course, was only the beginning for Whitney, who’d spend the rest of his NHL career making his critics look stupid.

DOWN THE ROAD

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Had Whitney been six-foot-two instead of five-foot-10, he likely wouldn’t have kicked around like he did with San Jose, who drafted him 23^rd overall in 1991 after seasons of 113 and 185 points in Spokane. I’m thinking the Oilers fell victim to that mentality too. The old saying is that big players have to prove they can’t play while small players have to prove they can. From age 25 on, Whitney proved that beyond any doubt.

All told, Whitney scored 20-or-more goals 10 times in his career, including two seasons of 30-plus (33 and 32). He had 60-or-more points eight times, with his career-high of 83 points coming with Carolina in 2006-07. When the Hurricanes beat the team that sent Whitney away for nothing in the 2006 Stanley Cup final, he had 55 points during the regular season and 15 more in the playoffs. The Wizard got his storybook moment – against the Oilers instead of with them.

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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