TOP 100 OILERS: ETHAN MOREAU (54)
7 years ago
If you hang around a team like the Edmonton Oilers for years and years, you come across a handful of guys who play the game with so much heart – you can call it competitiveness or desire – that it’s difficult not to admire their tenacity and sheer will to succeed.
Like Kelly Buchberger, Igor Ulanov, Ryan Smyth and Jason Smith on the Oiler teams I covered, Ethan Moreau was one of those guys willing to pay a physical price every night. With players like that, the hands or the legs go and the rest of body usually breaks down long before the heart does. At the end, the spirit is willing, but the body is not. You have to rip the jersey off their back. Moreau was a charter member of that fraternity.
Ethan Moreau
Left Wing — shoots L
Born Sep 22 1975 — Huntsville, ONT
Height 6.02 — Weight 220 [188 cm/100 kg]
Drafted by Chicago Blackhawks
Round 1 #14 overall 1994 NHL Entry Draft
BY THE NUMBERS
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S% | ATOI |
1995-96 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0.0 | ||
1996-97 | 21 | 82 | 15 | 16 | 31 | 13 | 123 | 13.2 | ||
1997-98 | 22 | 54 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 0 | 73 | 10.3 | ||
1998-99 | 23 | TOT | 80 | 10 | 11 | 21 | -3 | 92 | 10.4 | 12:22 |
1998-99 | 23 | 66 | 9 | 6 | 15 | -5 | 84 | 11.3 | 12:30 | |
1998-99 | 23 | 14 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 6.3 | 11:47 | |
1999-00 | 24 | 73 | 17 | 10 | 27 | 8 | 62 | 16.0 | 15:07 | |
2000-01 | 25 | 68 | 9 | 10 | 19 | -6 | 90 | 9.3 | 14:11 | |
2001-02 | 26 | 80 | 11 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 81 | 8.5 | 12:43 | |
2002-03 | 27 | 78 | 14 | 17 | 31 | -7 | 112 | 10.2 | 13:30 | |
2003-04 | 28 | 81 | 20 | 12 | 32 | 7 | 96 | 11.1 | 15:04 | |
2005-06 | 30 | 74 | 11 | 16 | 27 | 6 | 87 | 7.3 | 15:59 | |
2006-07 | 31 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 12 | 5.6 | 15:08 | |
2007-08 | 32 | 25 | 5 | 4 | 9 | -4 | 39 | 9.3 | 15:55 | |
2008-09 | 33 | 77 | 14 | 12 | 26 | 0 | 133 | 8.8 | 15:22 | |
2009-10 | 34 | 76 | 9 | 9 | 18 | -18 | 62 | 6.3 | 14:24 | |
2010-11 | 35 | 37 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -9 | 24 | 1.8 | 12:29 | |
2011-12 | 36 | 28 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -3 | 20 | 3.4 | 10:32 | |
11 yrs | EDM | 653 | 112 | 100 | 212 | -12 | 782 | 9.4 | 14:32 | |
4 yrs | CHI | 210 | 33 | 32 | 65 | 9 | 284 | 11.7 | 12:30 | |
1 yr | CBJ | 37 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -9 | 24 | 1.8 | 12:29 | |
1 yr | LAK | 28 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -3 | 20 | 3.4 | 10:32 | |
Career | 928 | 147 | 140 | 287 | -15 | 1110 | 9.4 | 14:07 |
PLAYOFFS:
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S% | ATOI |
1996-97 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 10.0 | ||
1998-99 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.0 | 17:26 | |
1999-00 | 24 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 15:46 | |
2000-01 | 25 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 0.0 | 10:35 | |
2002-03 | 27 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -4 | 16 | 0.0 | 12:23 | |
2005-06 | 30 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 5.0 | 14:35 | |
Career | 46 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 52 | 3.9 | 14:17 |
NOTABLE
When Moreau arrived in Edmonton in March of 1999 with Daniel Cleary, Chad Kilger and Christian Laflamme in a trade that sent Boris Mironov, Dean McAmmond and Jonas Elofsson to Chicago, he was a 23-year-old winger already tagged as a bottom-six forward. Not exactly marquee stuff for a player who was selected 14th overall in the 1994 Entry Draft.
Moreau could score a little, having potted 15 goals in his second season with the Blackhawks, but his calling card was his willingness to bang, do the grunt work along the boards and hustle. Moreau could be out-skilled by opposing players, but he was seldom outworked. He was a fitness freak whose sweat and toil in the gym never translated to the kind of numbers you’d like to see from a forward picked in the top-15.
Doug Weight, Smyth, Alex Selivanov and Bill Guerin were the go-to guys up front back then, while guys like Moreau, Todd Marchant and Mike Grier did the shutdown work. Even so, Moreau scored 17 goals in this first full season with the Oilers and his 27 points left him seventh among Oiler forwards. Numbers aside, Moreau brought it just about every single night – something that wasn’t lost on his teammates. I can tell you first hand, he had the respect of everybody in the room.
THE STORY
The hard-nosed Moreau had his best season as an Oiler in 2003-04 with 20 goals and 32 points. He was part of the Oiler team that made it to Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup final. When Moreau was signed to a four-year contract extension in October 6, 2006 and then took over from Jason Smith as Oiler captain Oct. 2, 2007 it seemed liked a natural progression. Instead, the new deal and the “C” on his jersey marked the beginning of the end.
Beset by injuries – a shoulder injury and a lower leg fracture – Moreau played just 32 games in total during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. In February of 2009 he took a high stick and sustained a scratched cornea. It’s impossible to lead if you can’t stay in the line-up. Now on the wrong side of 30, a diminished Moreau still talked the talk, but he couldn’t walk the walk.
In the summer of 2010, with the Oilers ready to buy out the remainder of his contract, Moreau was claimed on waivers by Columbus. He played less than half a season for the Blue Jackets in 2010-11 and just 28 games with the Los Angeles Kings in his final NHL season, 2011-12. When I think of Moreau’s time in Edmonton, I think of his first six seasons with the Oilers — a leader who gave you all he had — not the final chapters when he just couldn’t get it done anymore.
This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
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