There’s a high probability that Connor McDavid will reach 1,000 points for his NHL career on Thursday.
For the third time in five Thursdays, the Edmonton Oilers play the Nashville Predators. On Oct. 17, we looked at Leon Draisaitl’s four-goal game against the Preds in early March 2020. On Oct. 31, we looked at the Oilers’ record on Halloween. In this article, we’ll look at every former Oiler to reach 1,000 points.
Here’s a fun fact for you: In games where a former Oiler has reached 1,000 points, whether that be with Edmonton or another team, the team the player was on has gone 8-1-0-1, with the latter being a tie. Of the 10 players we’ll look at in this article, only three of them reached the 1,000-point mark as an Oiler.
Some had brief stints, there have been a few captains, and there were plenty of dynasty members to reach the mark. Let’s start with the Great One.
Wayne Gretzky
Not only did Wayne Gretzky register 1,000 points, but he’s the only player in National Hockey League history to reach 2,000 points. Jaromír Jágr is the closest to doing so, scoring 1,921 points in 1,733 games. Gretzky scored an insane 2,857 points in 1,487 games, by far the most in history.
The Great One started his career with the Indianapolis Racers in 1978-79 but made his NHL debut the following season with the Oilers. Overall, he compiled 696 games with the Oilers, scoring 583 goals and 1,669 points.
He reached the millennium mark on Dec. 19, 1984, and became the 18th player to reach the mark. Gretzky was also the fastest player (424 games) to ever reach the mark while McDavid will be the fourth-fastest player to reach it.
On Oct. 26, 1990, Gretzky reached the 2,000-point mark with the Los Angeles Kings.
Mark Messier
Less than a full month after Gretzky hit 2,000 points, his former teammate Mark Messier hit 1,000 points.
Messier was selected in the third round of the 1979 draft by the Oilers, playing 851 games with the team while scoring 392 goals and 1,034 points. Unlike Gretzky, Messier won all five Stanley Cups with the Oilers and then added one for good measure with the New York Rangers in 1994. He wasn’t able to do the same with the Vancouver Canucks, but you can read about that here.
Messier’s 1,000th point came five days before his birthday on Jan. 13, 1991, in what was his final season as an Oiler. It came on an assist on Glenn Anderson’s game-tying goal just over five minutes into the final period. Messier added two more assists in that game.
After the 1990-91 season Messier was traded to the New York Rangers, yes, we’ve covered that in a Throwback Thursday article. He won a Stanley Cup in 1994 with the Rangers and ended his career with 694 goals and 1,887 points in 1,756 games. That was second all-time until Jaromír Jágr surpassed him in late 2016.
Paul Coffey
Another dynasty member, Paul Coffey only won three Stanley Cups with the Oilers, as he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Nov. 1987. As you can imagine, we covered that trade in a Throwback Thursday as well.
Anyway, Coffey was selected sixth overall in the 1980 draft by the Oilers. With Edmonton, he scored 209 goals and 669 points in 532 games before the trade. Coffey also played 94 postseason games with the Oilers, scoring 36 goals and 103 points.
Coffey’s milestone came in between Wayne Gretzky reaching 2,000 points and Mark Messier hitting the 1,000-point mark, as the defenceman did so on Dec. 22, 1990, against the New York Islanders on Kevin Stevens’ power play goal. Funnily enough, then-rookie Jaromír Jágr picked up an assist on the game-winning goal, his 15th career point.
The same season, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup with Coffey getting his fourth ring. Overall, he finished with 396 goals and 1,531 points in 1,409 games. He has the second-most points for a defenceman, behind Ray Bourque’s 1,579 points.
Adam Oates
Adam Oates had a long and storied career, but most of it wasn’t spent in Edmonton.
The Weston, Ontario native was undrafted and signed with the Detroit Red Wings after three seasons in the NCAA. Overall, he finished with 341 goals and 1,420 points in 1,337 games. However, he signed with the Oilers in his final season as a 41-year-old in 2003-04, managing to score two goals and 18 points in 60 games.
Oates’ 1,000-point came in a 6-3 drubbing over the New York Islanders, with a shorthanded goal about 5 minutes into the game allowing him to reach that mark. He then proceeded to score two more goals and add two assists. Nice way to reach 1,000 points.
Jari Kurri
The final former Oiler to reach 1,000 points as an Oiler was Jari Kurri. With the 69th overall pick in the 1980 draft, the Oilers drafted one of the greatest wingers of all time.
In 754 games with the Oilers, Kurri scored 474 goals and 1,043 points but was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Kings to reunite with Gretzky. For the rest of his career, Kurri scored 127 goals and 355 points in 497 games, playing for the Kings, New York Rangers (once again joining Gretzky), the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and the Colorado Avalanche.
His 1,000th point came on Jan. 2, 1990, in the Oilers’ 6-4 victory over the St. Louis Blues. With just two minutes left in the game, Kurri assisted on Esa Tikkanen’s 17th goal of the season to become the 25th player to reach the millennium mark.
Bernie Nicholls
Like Adam Oates, Bernie Nicholls’ tenure with the Oilers was short. The Oilers acquired him from the Rangers for Mark Messier during the 1991-92 season.
Overall, Nicholls only played 95 games with the Oilers, parts of two seasons, where he scored 28 goals and 89 points to bring him to 392 goals and 957 points in 801 games. The Oilers traded him to the New Jersey Devils during the 1992-93 season.
On Feb. 13, 1994, the Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning tied 3-3, with Nicholls picking up a pair of goals. It was his first one, late in the second period, that brought him to 1,000 points in his career.
Vincent Damphousse
Vincent Damphousse was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Grant Fuhr, as well as the player we’ll look at in the next section.
Unfortunately, the Montréal native was the one who got away, only playing one season with the Oilers before they traded him to the Montréal Canadiens for Shayne Corson, Brent Gilchrist, and Vladimír Vůjtek. In 80 games with the Oilers in 1991-92, Damphousse (24 at the time) scored 38 goals and 89 points.
The rest of his career saw Damphousse score 276 goals and 787 points in 904 games with the Canadiens and the San Jose Sharks. It was with the latter that he picked up his 1,000th point, as he assisted on Marco Sturm’s shorthanded goal in a 5-2 San Jose Sharks win.
Glenn Anderson
The last Oiler from the dynasty era to achieve the 1,000-point mark was Glenn Anderson. He was selected 69th overall in the 1979 draft by the Oilers and spent 11 years in his first stint with the team, scoring 413 goals and 896 points in 845 games.
To acquire Damphousse, the Oilers sent netminder Grant Fuhr and Anderson to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The rest of Anderson’s career was rather unremarkable, scoring 85 goals and 203 points in 301 games with the Leafs, New York Rangers (winning his sixth Stanley Cup), and St. Louis Blues. Anderson also had a 17-game stint with the Oilers after they claimed him on waivers, but he later returned to the Blues.
On Feb. 22 in an 8-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, Anderson picked up his 1,000th point thanks to his 17th goal of the season to make it a 7-1 game. He was the 36th player to reach the millennium mark.
Ray Whitney
If you think Adam Oates, Vincent Damphousse, and Bernie Nicholls’ stints in an Oilers uniform were short, Ray Whitney only played nine games with the Oilers.
In his first six seasons with the San Jose Sharks, the Edmonton native scored 48 goals and 121 points in 200 games, not too shabby for a second-round pick. He signed as a free agent with the Oilers before the 1997-98 season and scored a goal and four points in nine games before the Oilers waived him.
That was a big mistake, as he was picked up by the Florida Panthers, immediately scoring 32 goals and 61 points in 68 games to bring him to 81 goals and 186 points in 277 games after seven seasons. The rest of his career saw him play an additional 1,053 games, scoring 304 goals and 878 points with the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, and Phoenix Coyotes.
Whitney’s 1,000th point came in his third-last season as a 39-year-old, picking up an assist on Radim Vrbata’s power-play goal in the second period while adding a goal to reach 1,001 points for good measure.
Doug Weight
Doug Weight was acquired from the New York Rangers for dynasty member Esa Tikkanen in his second NHL season. The Warren, Michigan native became a staple during the 1990s Oilers, playing nine seasons with the team and scoring 157 goals and 577 points in 588 games. He was also the third Oiler captain to reach 1,000 points.
Unfortunately, the Oilers traded him at the start of the 2001 off-season to the St. Louis Blues. Weight spent six seasons with the Blues and played for the Carolina Hurricanes, Anaheim Ducks, and New York Islanders to wrap up his career.
On Jan. 2, 2009, Weight became the 73rd player in history to reach the 1,000-point mark in an Islanders’ 4-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. On Richard Park’s eighth goal of the season towards the end of the game, Weight picked up his 24th assist of the year for his 1,000th point.
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