Over the years, there have been 71 players who have played a game for both the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks. No better player has played for both teams than Mark Messier.
When the Oilers face the Canucks for the 270th regular season game on Saturday, it will have been 27 years, three months, and 12 days (or 9,966 days) since the famously bald centre signed with the Canucks. Less than three years later, the all-time great was bought out by the Canucks.
Messier’s tenure with the Oilers is rightfully celebrated, playing 851 games from the 1979-80 season until the 1990-91 season, scoring 392 goals and 1,034 points. In his career, he won six Stanley Cups (five with the Oilers and one with the New York Rangers), amassing 694 goals and 1,887 points in 1,756 games. Messier has the third-most points of any player in league history, before the ageless Jaromír Jágr and former teammate, Wayne Gretzky.
Messier’s tenure with the Canucks though? Whoof. Points-wise in three seasons, he scored 52 goals and 162 points in 207 games, not too shabby for a player in his late thirties. But the drama was interesting (as an Oilers fan) as it arguably made him the most hated Canuck of all time.
On July 28, 1997, Messier signed a five-year deal with the Canucks and became the 10th captain in franchise history before the beginning of the 1997-98 season as he succeeded Trevor Linden. Without question, Linden is a Canucks legend and served as the team’s captain from the 1990-91 season until Messier’s arrival. In fairness, Messier was and remains the only player to captain two different franchises to a Stanley Cup, but this was not well received. 
In fact, Linden was traded in February of the same season for what was actually a solid package, Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe, and a third-round pick that turned out to be Jarkko Ruutu. Canucks fans can find solace in the fact that Linden returned to the Canucks via trade early in the 2001-02 season, moving two picks that were used to pick future Oilers, Boyd Gordon and Zack Stortini. The latter was mentioned in a different Throwback Thursday article, as he was involved in the Paul Coffey trade tree.
Another point of contention early in Messier’s Canuck career was the legend demanding #11 that he wore for both the Oilers and Rangers. A player of Messier’s stature is allowed some leeway in asking for such trivial things as this in most cases, but this situation wasn’t like most cases, and it certainly wasn’t trivial in the eyes of Canucks fans.
The Canucks didn’t and still haven’t officially retired #11, but it hadn’t been in use for nearly 25 seasons before Messier showed up. The first player to wear the number for the Canucks, Wayne Maki, tragically passed away from brain cancer in 1974 after playing two seasons for the Canucks. Chris Oddleifson wore the number in 1974, but it hadn’t been used until Messier signed with the Canucks and hasn’t been used since Messier’s departure.
Messier’s first season with the Canucks didn’t go great, as he scored 22 goals and 60 points, one of the worst point-production seasons of his career. Moreover, two future Oiler coaches, Pat Quinn and Tom Renney, were fired that season as the Canucks finished with a 23-47-12 record.
In his final two seasons with the Canucks, Messier played 125 games, scoring 30 goals and 102 points. During the 1999-2000 off-season the Canucks elected to use a buyout in the contract that cost them $2 million, but ended Messier’s tenure with the team two years early. The contract was something, to put it mildly.
The Canucks didn’t make the playoffs in the three seasons of Messier’s leadership, but immediately made it the season following his departure. While he’s an Oilers legend and one of the greatest players of all time, he’s not well-revered by Canuck fans.

Other players who’ve played for both the Canucks and Oilers

Messier is one of just 71 players who’ve played for both teams. Another 80s dynasty legend, Esa Tikkanen played 522 games for the Oilers in eight seasons and like Messier played for the Canucks in the twilight of his career from 1995-96 until 1996-97.
Skipping ahead a decade or so, Raffi Torres was drafted by the Islanders in 2000 but found his way to the Oilers during the 2002-03 season. During the 2006 postseason, he scored four goals and 11 points in 22 games, as the Oilers fell short in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Five years later with the Canucks, the same happened against the Boston Bruins.
Zack Kassian was traded early in his career from the Buffalo Sabres to the Canucks and high-sticked Sam Gagner in a preseason game before the 2013-14 season. Both players had a tenure with the Canucks and played for the Oilers as teammates. Awkward. Kassian now works as a scout and Gagner is without a team as an unrestricted free agent (but is destined to join the Oilers in some capacity for a fourth time).
An interesting tidbit about Jussi Jokinen’s career is that in his final season in the National Hockey League, he played for four different teams. Three of which, he played 14 games for, as well as 18 games with the Los Angeles Kings. He started his season with the Oilers, playing 14 games and being held goalless, but picking up an assist. On Nov. 14 (no I’m not doing a throwback Thursday next week about this trade), he was traded to the Kings for Mike Cammalleri. 
Jokinen played 18 games with the Kings where he had one goal and five points, before being placed on waivers and claimed by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Another 14 games there saw him without a goal and picking up an assist, before being traded to the Vancouver Canucks for fellow journeyman Thomas Vanek. In the 14 games he spent with the Canucks, Jokinen scored four goals and 10 points, a nice end to what was a productive NHL career.
As it stands, there are three former Canucks on the Oilers’ roster: Troy Stecher, Travis Dermott, and Vasily Podkolzin. The Podkolzin trade in the summer marked the 10th trade between the two teams, while Vincent Desharnais departed the Oilers as a free agent to sign with the Canucks after the 2023-24 season.
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