So long, Mr. Game 7.
On Sunday evening, the Edmonton Oilers traded Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenceman Ty Emberson. Seen as a move to make cap space to potentially match Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway’s offer sheets, the Oilers later elected not to match either contract.
With all that being said, Cody Ceci’s tenure with the Oilers was filled with good memories, even if his play wasn’t the best at times. In this article, we’ll look at his best moments with the team.

Cody Ceci signs with the Oilers

Coming off an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets in the very odd 2020-21 season, long-time Oiler defenceman Adam Larsson signed with the 32nd National Hockey League team, the Seattle Kraken.
This left a massive hole in Edmonton’s defence. More specifically, they needed a shutdown right-shot defenceman for their second pairing. A week after Larsson’s departure, the Oilers agreed to a four-year contract worth $13 million with Cody Ceci.
Ceci was born in Ottawa at the end of 1993 and played parts of three seasons with the Ottawa 67’s from the 2009-10 season until he was traded to the Owen Sound Attack during the 2012-13 season. The right-shot defenceman was selected by his hometown Ottawa Senators 15th overall in the 2012 draft, making his debut with the team in 2013-14.
Spending six seasons with the Senators, Ceci scored 32 goals and 118 points in 440 games, including a career-high ten goals in the 2015-16 season. That same season, the Senators made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, only to be denied by a post in overtime.
Ceci was eventually traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, with the Senators acquiring Connor Brown in the process. After that season, Ceci agreed to a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins before coming to terms with the Oilers during the 2021 off-season.

Cody Ceci’s stats during his tenure as an Oiler

In his first season as an Oiler, Ceci scored five goals with a career-high 28 points to boot in 78 games. Once again, the Oilers made the postseason in 2022, but unlike the previous two seasons, they actually won a round and even won in the semi-finals for the first time since 2006. In 16 postseason games, Ceci scored one goal (that we’ll get to later) and seven points.
Ceci’s numbers dipped in 2022-23, scoring one goal and 15 points in 80 games, along with an assist in 12 postseason games. In year three of his deal, Ceci’s offensive performance improved once Kris Knoblauch and, more importantly, Paul Coffey took over as the defenceman coach behind the bench.
Ceci scored five goals and 25 points in 79 games and looked like the player the Oilers had in the first year of his deal. Moreover, he scored a career-high two goals in 24 games during the 2024 postseason, along with five points.

Cody Ceci’s 700th career game

Before getting to what Ceci is most well-known for as an Oiler, the 30-year-old right-shot defenceman hit a few milestones during his tenure with the Oilers. During his three seasons with the Oilers, he played his 600th career game as well as his 700th career game.
On Mar. 3, 2022, Ceci played in his 600th career game, a 4-3 overtime defeat to the Chicago Blackhawks. In that game, he was a -1 with no points, along with two hits in 21:36 minutes of ice-time. This game also marked the only time Duncan Keith played in Chicago as a member of a different organization.
Just over a year later, on March 25, 2023, Cody Ceci played his 700th game against the Vegas Golden Knights, which ironically also saw the Oilers lose 4-3 in overtime. Ceci had a much better game, as he was held pointless, but had a +1 and a shot on goal while playing 20:03 minutes.
I looked to see how many of Ceci’s century-milestone games finished in a 4-3 overtime defeat. Unfortunately, his 600th and 700th games are the only ones with those scores. However, his 500th game saw the Pittsburgh Penguins fall 3-2 in overtime to the Boston Bruins, while his 300th game was a 4-3 win for the Sens. His 199th career game was a 4-3 overtime loss as well.
Here’s the score of all the century-milestone games…
  • 100th career game: 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets
  • 200th career game: 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets
  • 300th career game: 4-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche
  • 400th career game: 6-3 loss to the New York Islanders
  • 500th career game: 3-2 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins
  • 600th career game: 4-3 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks
  • 700th career game: 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights
He’s set to play his 800th game this season, so check back in to see how he does!

Cody Ceci’s 200th career point

On Feb. 6th, 2024, the Edmonton Oilers’ 16-game winning streak ended thanks to the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights, the same team that ended their 2023 postseason hopes. Eventually, the Golden Knights won the 2023 Stanley Cup, but their celebration after an empty net goal to ice the game on what would have been a record-matching 17th-straight victory was just a bit of a celebration.
Anyway, that was the first game of what would be a seven-game stretch with six road games. Their one home game came on Feb. 13 against the Detroit Red Wings, the same game where Ceci picked up his 200th career point
In the first period of what turned out to be an 8-4 drubbing, Ceci picked up a secondary assist on Leon Draisaitl’s opening goal for the Oilers. Realistically, Ceci did nothing on this goal, as his defence partner Darnell Nurse rang the puck around the boards to Draisaitl, who held the puck for over seconds before scoring. Even in the clip, Ceci doesn’t have the puck.
Just over two minutes later, Ceci picked up his 201st career point thanks to a shot from the point that deflected off Draisaitl’s countryman, Moritz Seider. This was Ceci’s first goal of the season, and from Feb. 13 to the end of the season, Ceci scored five goals and 12 points in 31 games.

Cody Ceci’s Game 7 heroics

What Cody Ceci is best known for during his tenure as an Oiler is his Game 7 heroics.
In his first season with the Oilers, the team was in a dogfight with the Los Angeles Kings, with the Oilers winning Game 6 to force a Game 7. You know the story: Connor McDavid scored a terrific goal to make it 2-0 with just minutes left in the game, and the Oilers closed out the rest.
However, it was Cody Ceci who picked up the game-winning goal towards the end of the second period, as McDavid found Ceci jumping in from the point, with the right-shot defenceman burying it over Jonathan Quick’s right shoulder to give the Oilers a crucial 1-0 lead.
For context, how important this goal was, the Oilers hadn’t won a postseason series since the 2017 postseason, McDavid’s sophomore season. After two seasons of flat-out missing the postseason in 2018 and 2019, the Oilers lost in the qualifying round to the Blackhawks during the 2020 COVID pandemic before being swept by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2021 postseason.
Another first-round exit, especially against the inferior Kings, and who knows what would’ve happened. Ceci’s game-winning goal helped them into the second round, even if it wasn’t the most memorable play of the 2022 postseason run.
The Oilers have had a ton of great defencemen throughout their 44 seasons in the National Hockey League, but there is arguably no better defenceman than Paul Coffey. Serving as the Oilers’ defence coach from Nov. 12, 2023, onward, he wasn’t even able to achieve what Ceci did on May 20, 2024.
Early in the second period of the second round’s Game 7 against the Vancouver Canucks, Ryan McLeod won an offensive zone faceoff, with the puck finding its way to Brett Kulak. After a D-to-D pass, Ceci received the puck and wired it over Artūrs Šilovs’s left shoulder to open the scoring for the Oilers.
While it wasn’t the game-winning goal, the Oilers eventually won Game 7 3-2, despite a late pushback from the Canucks. Moreover, this was Ceci’s second-career Game 7 goal, the most in franchise history for a defenceman.
This wasn’t Edmonton’s only Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup postseason. It’s still painful to talk about their 2-1 defeat to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals, especially after the Oilers fought back from being down 3-0 in the series, but their only goal in that game was one of Ceci’s best passes in his career.
Shortly after the Panthers opened the scoring in Game 7, Ceci received the puck behind the goal line and delivered a terrific saucer pass to the streaking Mattias Janmark, splitting the defence. Janmark, the dawg he is, beat Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game at one.
This was Ceci’s last point as an Oiler, and my oh my, was it ever a beautiful pass.

Best of luck to Cody Ceci

At the end of the day, hockey is a business. The Oilers were over the salary cap and needed to make a move at some point or another, electing to trade Ceci and his $3.25 million salary. Their hands were tied with the St. Louis Blues offer sheeting both Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
Ceci had his flaws. He’s a solid defensive defenceman, but playing alongside Darnell Nurse on the second pair didn’t really help him have much success. In a different time, he’d be a terrific third-pair defenceman for the Oilers, and maybe that time could be when his contract runs out after this season.
For all his flaws, Ceci provided great memories with the Oilers, shining the brightest when it mattered most in do-or-die situations. Not just that, but he chipped in offensively every now and again, scoring five goals and 12 points in the final 31 Oilers games. He was also well-liked in the Oilers dressing room, an important characteristic that isn’t always noticeable to us fans.
With that being said, best of luck to Ceci in San Jose, and personally, I’m open to a reunion with the right-shot defenceman further down the line. Thank you for everything, Mr. Game 7.

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