TOP 100 OILERS: JASON ARNOTT (42)

7 years ago

Jason Arnott was everything you could want in a hockey player. He was big, tough and talented. Arnott was certainly everything the Edmonton Oilers wanted when they happily snapped him up seventh overall from the Oshawa Generals in the 1993 Entry Draft and then watched him establish a franchise record for goals by a rookie with 33 during 1993-94 season.

Alas, history tells us that a tenure that began with Arnott looking like he might be the next great Oiler, a franchise cornerstone at a time when they needed one, ended badly and all-too-quickly amid declining on-ice performance and off-ice issues that included a paternity suit. Then, there was the infamous quote after one notably bad performance that soured fans once and for all – “I just wasn’t into it.”

Jason Arnott

Center — shoots R

Born Oct 11 1974 — Collingwood, ONT

Height 6.05 — Weight 220 [196 cm/100 kg]

Drafted by Edmonton Oilers

Round 1 #7 overall 1993 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
1993-94	19	EDM	78	33	35	68	1	104	194	17.0
1994-95	20	EDM	42	15	22	37	-14	128	156	9.6
1995-96	21	EDM	64	28	31	59	-6	87	244	11.5
1996-97	22	EDM	67	19	38	57	-21	92	248	7.7
1997-98	23	TOT	70	10	23	33	-24	99	199	5.0
1997-98	23	EDM	35	5	13	18	-16	78	100	5.0
1997-98	23	NJD	35	5	10	15	-8	21	99	5.1
1998-99	24	NJD	74	27	27	54	10	79	200	13.5	1140	15:24
1999-00	25	NJD	76	22	34	56	22	51	244	9.0	1299	17:05
2000-01	26	NJD	54	21	34	55	23	75	138	15.2	875	16:12
2001-02	27	TOT	73	25	20	45	2	65	197	12.7	1267	17:21
2001-02	27	NJD	63	22	19	41	3	59	169	13.0	1085	17:13
2001-02	27	DAL	10	3	1	4	-1	6	28	10.7	182	18:13
2002-03	28	DAL	72	23	24	47	9	51	169	13.6	1166	16:12
2003-04	29	DAL	73	21	36	57	23	66	143	14.7	1241	16:00
2005-06	31	DAL	81	32	44	76	13	102	167	19.2	1393	17:12
2006-07	32	NSH	68	27	27	54	15	48	190	14.2	1223	17:59
2007-08	33	NSH	79	28	44	72	19	54	248	11.3	1500	18:59
2008-09	34	NSH	65	33	24	57	2	49	196	16.8	1229	18:55
2009-10	35	NSH	63	19	27	46	0	26	216	8.8	1178	18:42
2010-11	36	TOT	73	17	14	31	-6	40	169	10.1	1133	15:31
2010-11	36	NJD	62	13	11	24	-9	32	139	9.4	958	15:27
2010-11	36	WSH	11	4	3	7	3	8	30	13.3	175	15:53
2011-12	37	STL	72	17	17	34	13	26	142	12.0	1014	14:05
6 yrs		NJD	364	110	135	245	41	317	989	11.1	5356	16:17
5 yrs		EDM	286	100	139	239	-56	489	942	10.6
4 yrs		DAL	236	79	105	184	44	225	507	15.6	3982	16:52
4 yrs		NSH	275	107	122	229	36	177	850	12.6	5130	18:39
1 yr		STL	72	17	17	34	13	26	142	12.0	1014	14:05
1 yr		WSH	11	4	3	7	3	8	30	13.3	175	15:53
Career			1244	417	521	938	81	1242	3460	12.1	15658	16:58

PLAYOFFS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
1996-97	22	EDM	12	3	6	9	-3	18	27	11.1
1997-98	23	NJD	5	0	2	2	1	0	6	0.0
1998-99	24	NJD	7	2	2	4	-3	4	12	16.7	118	16:48
1999-00	25	NJD	23	8	12	20	7	18	56	14.3	379	16:29
2000-01	26	NJD	23	8	7	15	8	16	42	19.0	364	15:49
2002-03	28	DAL	11	3	2	5	-2	6	18	16.7	171	15:35
2003-04	29	DAL	5	1	1	2	-1	2	11	9.1	87	17:23
2005-06	31	DAL	5	0	3	3	-1	4	17	0.0	100	20:04
2006-07	32	NSH	5	2	1	3	0	2	11	18.2	96	19:17
2007-08	33	NSH	4	1	0	1	-1	4	6	16.7	74	18:29
2009-10	35	NSH	6	2	0	2	-3	0	26	7.7	107	17:51
2010-11	36	WSH	9	1	5	6	4	2	13	7.7	144	16:03
2011-12	37	STL	7	1	0	1	-1	0	11	9.1	76	10:53
Career			122	32	41	73	5	76	256	12.5	1717	16:21

NOTABLE

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The end for Arnott as an Oiler came after just five seasons and 286 games when, to hear GM Glen Sather tell it, the pressure of playing in Edmonton and the off-ice distractions that became the focus of local media became too much. Sather maintained he never wanted to trade the kid, but, you know, the relentless negative attention left him little choice.

“He got into a (paternity) problem but only one time,” Sather told the Edmonton Journal. “He was young. It became such a sensational scoop for everybody and it chased him out of town. He was sensitive, but what kid his age isn’t? I never wanted to get rid of him.” While there’s a kernel of truth in Sather’s take, that far from the whole story.

Yes, Arnott was guilty of handling the trappings of wealth and youth badly. He enjoyed zipping around town in the flashy, new Viper he bought with his first contract. He partied. Then, the paternity suit. Arnott wasn’t the first Oiler, nor the last, to make mistakes. Players from the Stanley Cup teams did the same. The difference was that by the time Arnott arrived, the Oilers were clearly a team in decline. Success mitigates miss-steps, while failure tends to amplify them. Arnott’s Oilers had Shayne Corson as captain. Full stop.

THE STORY

Sather could have stuck with Arnott but the bottom line is he chose not to, instead dealing him to New Jersey with Bryan Muir in January of 1998 for Valeri Zelepukin and Bill Guerin. Arnott was just 24 when Sather pulled the trigger on that deal. While Guerin certainly was a nice return, at least for the short term, the Oilers never got the consistent, quality years a grown-up and more mature Arnott had to offer in New Jersey, Dallas and Nashville.

Gone too soon was Arnott, who, off-ice distractions and all while playing on bad teams, managed to score 100 goals and 239 points in his 286 games as an Oiler. Arnott would go on to score 317 more regular season goals in his other NHL stops and finish with 938 points in a career highlighted by his overtime winner to give the Devils the 2000 Stanley Cup.

How many times in the years following Arnott’s departure have Oiler fans lamented the lack of having a big, tough, skilled forward like him? I’ve lost count. Arnott was all that, but it wasn’t to be – even though, in hindsight, it could have, and probably should have, been.

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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TOP 100 OILERS: JASON ARNOTT (42)

BY THE NUMBERS

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THE STORY

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