Wrong place. Wrong time. If you subscribe to the theory that timing is everything, there’s not much argument Kirk Maltby’s arrival with the Edmonton Oilers for the 1993-94 season was about as lousy as it gets. With five Stanley Cups in the trophy case and the dynasty teams dismantled, Maltby joined an Oiler outfit that missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history the previous season and would do so for another three straight years – the span of Maltby’s tenure in Edmonton.
While Maltby scored 50 goals with the Owen Sounds Platers in 1991-92, prompting the Oilers to take him 65th overall as a 19-year-old after he was passed over in his first year of draft eligibility, his future was as a bottom-six winger, a checking forward. The problem is, the Oilers, stripped of high-end players, had plenty of guys just like him. Essentially, Maltby got lost in the shuffle. He was just 23 when GM Glen Sather traded him to the Detroit Red Wings for Dan McGillis. Maltby went on to spend parts of 14 seasons in the Motor City, grinding, yapping and checking his way to four Stanley Cups.

Kirk Maltby

Left Wing — shoots R
Born Dec 22 1972 — Guelph, ONT
Height 6.00 — Weight 200 [183 cm/91 kg]
Drafted by Edmonton Oilers
Round 3 #65 overall 1992 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season
Age
Tm
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
PIM
S
S%
ATOI
1993-94
21
EDM
68
11
8
19
-2
74
89
12.4
1994-95
22
EDM
47
8
3
11
-11
49
73
11.0
1995-96
23
TOT
55
3
6
9
-16
67
55
5.5
1995-96
23
EDM
49
2
6
8
-16
61
51
3.9
1995-96
23
DET
6
1
0
1
0
6
4
25.0
1996-97
24
DET
66
3
5
8
3
75
62
4.8
1997-98
25
DET
65
14
9
23
11
89
106
13.2
1998-99
26
DET
53
8
6
14
-6
34
76
10.5
13:13
1999-00
27
DET
41
6
8
14
1
24
71
8.5
13:30
2000-01
28
DET
79
12
7
19
16
22
119
10.1
14:17
2001-02
29
DET
82
9
15
24
15
40
108
8.3
13:23
2002-03
30
DET
82
14
23
37
17
91
116
12.1
16:10
2003-04
31
DET
79
14
19
33
24
80
123
11.4
16:16
2005-06
33
DET
82
5
6
11
-9
80
115
4.3
13:44
2006-07
34
DET
82
6
5
11
-9
50
113
5.3
13:11
2007-08
35
DET
61
6
4
10
-8
32
70
8.6
12:04
2008-09
36
DET
78
5
6
11
-9
28
58
8.6
9:08
2009-10
37
DET
52
4
2
6
1
32
43
9.3
10:06
14 yrs
DET
908
107
115
222
47
683
1184
9.0
13:19
3 yrs
EDM
164
21
17
38
-29
184
213
9.9
Career
1072
128
132
260
18
867
1397
9.2
13:19

PLAYOFFS

Season
Age
Tm
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
PIM
S%
ATOI
1995-96
23
DET
8
0
1
1
0
4
0.0
1996-97
24
DET
20
5
2
7
6
24
14.3
1997-98
25
DET
22
3
1
4
2
30
9.7
1998-99
26
DET
10
1
0
1
-2
8
7.7
11:32
1999-00
27
DET
8
0
1
1
0
4
0.0
13:45
2000-01
28
DET
6
0
0
0
-3
6
0.0
15:23
2001-02
29
DET
23
3
3
6
7
32
8.3
16:34
2002-03
30
DET
4
0
0
0
-2
4
0.0
17:18
2003-04
31
DET
12
1
3
4
2
11
5.6
17:34
2005-06
33
DET
6
2
1
3
2
4
16.7
13:02
2006-07
34
DET
18
1
1
2
0
10
5.0
10:46
2007-08
35
DET
12
0
1
1
0
10
0.0
9:47
2008-09
36
DET
20
0
1
1
-1
2
0.0
9:07
Career
169
16
15
31
11
149
7.3
13:02

WITH THE OILERS

LOCAL CAPTION: Leafs defenceman Todd Gill does his chin-up exercises on Oilers Kirk Maltby in front of goalie Felix Potvin.
While hindsight tells us Sather sent away the wrong player for McGillis, who was a decent return when the deal was made, one look at the roster during those days when the team was lousy and the building was half-empty shows a scarcity of talent but a surplus of bottom-six guys like Maltby. After Doug Weight and Jason Arnott on top, there was Craig MacTavish, Kelly Buchberger, Todd Marchant, Shjon Podein, Steven Rice, Tyler Wright, Scott Thornton, Dean McAmmond, Louie DeBrusk and Scott Pearson hanging around during Maltby’s time here.
It’s not like Maltby disappointed during his time in Edmonton. He played the role asked of him by coach Ted Green. His best season with Edmonton was his first one when he chipped in 11-8-19 in 68 games. His calling card was the ability to kill penalties, check and agitate. Maltby could grind opponents physically and verbally – traits he refined in Detroit – but that wasn’t enough to keep him here with Sather scrambling to rebuild. Slats needed help on the blueline, so in came McGillis and out went Maltby.

DOWN THE ROAD

The timing was perfect for Maltby. Detroit had veteran skill up front in Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov, plus Nicklas Lidstrom on the blueline. What the Red Wings needed was some sandpaper in the bottom six. They got that in Maltby. When coach Scotty Bowman put him on left wing with Kris Draper at centre and either Darren McCarty or Joey Kocur on right wing, the Grind Line was born. In the 1997 Stanley Cup final against Philadelphia, Bowman hard-matched the threesome against the Legion of Doom — Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikhael Renberg. The Red Wings swept the Flyers.
Maltby sipped from his second Cup the next season, 1997-98, and raised the silverware again in 2002 and 2008. Maltby’s best season numbers-wise was 2002-03 when he scored 14-23-37 to go with a handful of votes for the Frank Selke Trophy as top defensive forward (he finished 12th in voting and seventh the following season). You can make an argument Maltby had a better career than any of the players Sather kept ahead of him in his bottom-six mix, save for maybe MacTavish and Buchberger, but it wasn’t to be, at least not in Oiler silks.
This series of various Top 10 lists will focus on the post-1990 Oilers – the players who haven’t played on a Stanley Cup winner in Edmonton.

RECENTLY BY ROBIN BROWNLEE