The Edmonton Oilers will hold a ceremony on Sunday ahead of their game against the St. Louis Blues to honour Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ 1,000th NHL game.

The 32-year-old will reach the milestone Sunday, where he’s set to become the first player in franchise history to play all 1,000 of his career games with the Oilers. The ceremony will be attended by his Oilers teammates, his family, and “other special guests,” the club said.

“I think if you can get to this point in your career, play 1,000 games in this league, things have to go right for you and you have stick with a lot of it, and I’m very proud to be able to have done it,” said Nugent-Hopkins earlier this week. “Obviously, coming in as the first pick, there’s a lot of expectations and talk around you, but what I started to learn is that I’m just who I am, and I can’t control the outside things and I’m going to be the player that I’m going to be and try to be the best version of myself.”

Now in the fifth year of an eight-year, $5.125 million AAV contract, Nugent-Hopkins sits second in franchise history for games played, trailing just Kevin Lowe’s 1,037 games played over his two stints. Drafted by the Oilers first overall in 2011, he’s scored 282 goals and 785 points over his 998 games, adding another 23 goals and 81 points in 96 playoff games.

“At that time (signing new contract) there was not a question this is where I wanted to be,” Nugent-Hopkins added. “I wanted to do whatever structure, whatever to make it work here, and there was not a serious thought that I had about leaving.

“Part of it was that I went through a lot of dark days, struggled, and then the team was coming and we were building something. We were getting to a point where we were going to have a chance to win and I didn’t want to leave that.”

The Oilers take on the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night at 8:00 PM MT, before hosting the Blues Sunday night at 6:00 PM MT.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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