A short-time
Edmonton Oilers defenceman has announced his retirement from professional hockey after a 901-game career in the NHL and overseason.
Philip Larsen, 36, played just one season for the Oilers in 2013-14, scoring three goals and 12 points. He had joined the team in July 2013 in a trade from the Dallas Stars, with whom he played 95 games across three seasons, alongside a 2016 seventh-round pick for
Shawn Horcoff.
His biggest game for the Oilers came in his 100th career game, posting a three-assist performance against the Chicago Blackhawks in a 5-4 loss, but some will remember his brief late-season stint playing on the right wing. Larsen also spent time with the Oilers AHL affiliate that season, the Oklahoma City Barons, scoring a goal and seven points in seven games.
That season would be Larsen’s only season in the Oilers organization, as he left North America to return overseas, playing for KHL’s Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk in 2014-15 and Jokerit the following season. He would return to North America in 2017-17, however, with the
Oilers trading him to the Vancouver Canucks for a conditional fifth-round pick in 2017. The threshold for the condition was never met.
He would play in 26 games for the Canucks, scoring a goal and six points, and returned overseas to spend the next five years playing for the KHL’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa. In 2022-23, he returned to his home country of Denmark to play in their top league, spending four years with his hometown team, Esbjerg Energy — the final two of which as a captain — scoring 14 goals and 81 points across 136 games. Internationally, he represented Denmark six times at the World Championships, and three times at the Olympics, though he didn’t play for them during the 2026 edition.
Larsen got his NHL break getting drafted by the Stars in the fifth round of the 2008 draft, playing his first full season in North America in 2009-10.
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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