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Gone are the days of Oilers being first on no-trade lists: Player poll
Edmonton Oilers
Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
Feb 19, 2025, 14:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 19, 2025, 14:21 EST
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It’s not that long ago that Edmonton was a place despised by NHLers, often first on no-trade lists followed by a mix of the other Canadian-based franchises.
And for the longest time, it made sense: Cold weather, poor on-ice product, failing facilities — but you know all of that already. And you know those days are long gone.
Over the last number of years we’ve seen Edmonton become a destination city, of sorts, with more and more players choosing to come to the Oilers in hopes of chasing Stanley Cup glory alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
John Klingberg, Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Corey Perry, Jack Campbell, Brett Kulak, Evander Kane, Zach Hyman, and Tyson Barrie make the list of players who signed with the Oilers or chose to re-sign after being acquired in recent years.
They’ve broken down the barrier of Edmonton being a city players don’t want to play in, and a recent NHL player poll released by The Athletic further highlighted that. 82 players responded to a poll asking “If you have a no-trade list, what’s the first team on it?” None chose the Oilers.
In fact, 48.78 percent — or 40 of the 82 — chose the Winnipeg Jets as the No. 1 team on their list, followed by the Buffalo Sabres (19.51 percent), and the San Jose Sharks (8.54 percent). The Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators, Anaheim Ducks, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Utah Hockey Club, Vancouver Canucks and Vegas Golden Knights all received at least one vote.
The Oilers got some love with players in another area, as they clearly love the facilities Edmonton has to offer. 110 players responded to a question about which team has the best facilities for opposing teams, and Edmonton received the third most votes at 20 percent.
Two teams were ahead of them in the Seattle Kraken (21.82 percent) and the Detroit Red Wings (24.55 percent). The Golden Knights and Islanders each received 10 percent of the vote, but to the surprise of some, the Utah Hockey Club received the sixth most first votes at 7.27 percent.
“Utah was frickin’ nice,” one player told The Athletic. “Like, they had a full-on gym for us. Ice cold tubs, hot tubs that were like $10,000 each. We shared with the basketball guys. Our (visitors’) room is huge. Medical room is bigger than our medical room here.”

Other items…

  • The Calgary Flames received the second most votes for the team with the worst facilities gettng 20 percent of 105 votes, behind only the Carolina Hurricanes, who got a staggering 65.71 percent of the votes. Good thing the Flames are getting their new arena.
  • One of the poll questions was whether or not commissioner Gary Bettman should retire, and 54.55 percent of the 77 voting players voted yes. One player said “I think he’s done a great job with the league,” highlighting how the league has kept growing, while another felt Bettman’s time was up. “The culture of the league needs to change,” the player said. “The league needs to make hockey more accessible to lots of people. Stephen A. Smith doesn’t get fired up about hockey, and he should be.”
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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