Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Tommy Salo comes in at No. 45 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 59 on Brownlee’s original list.

Everybody has their favourite players growing up.

Sometimes it’s because the player endears themselves to you, or sometimes, it’s because your late Aunt Jackie gets you a McFarland-era Tommy Salo when you were a kid. I’m sure you can guess which is which for this scribe.

Nevertheless, Salo had one of the biggest rises in rankings from Brownlee’s version to our 2025 version, flying up from No. 59 to No. 45. And for those six years he spent in Edmonton, he became a household name.

Notable

Salo arrived in Edmonton in March 1999 in a deal with the New York Islanders, where the Oilers sent back Mats Lindgren and an eighth-round pick that year. The Oilers had an aging goaltending duo for much of the year between 34-year-old Bob Essensa and 33-year-old Mikhail Shtalenkov, who had spent much of the year fighting the puck.

Salo would step up in a big way for the Oilers, as in his 13 regular-season games played, he helped shut the door, posting a 8-2-2 record, allowing Edmonton to surge in the standings in a bad Northwest Division to make the playoffs with a losing 33-37-12 record. They met the Dallas Stars in the first round, getting swept in four one-goal games. Over each of the next three seasons, Salo would establish himself in Edmonton in a big way, earning Vezina votes in three straight seasons, averaging a .910 save percentage and a 2.34 goals-against average.

HOCKEY CARD SCREENSHOT (LEAVE FOR EDITOR)

The Story

The story of Salo isn’t so much what he did in Edmonton as a stellar netminder on some mediocre teams, but his career has been mired by a notable flub in the 2002 Olympics. Oops…

Drafted by the Islanders in the fifth round of the 1993 draft, it took time for him to hit the NHL. He earned the IHL championships with New York’s affiliate Grizzlies, winning in Denver in 1994-95 and then in Utah in 1995-96. He broke onto the scene in the NHL on a full-time basis in 1996-97, and never looked back.

He was solid down the stretch run of the 2001-02 season after the Olympics, posting a .929 save percentage and a 9-5-1 record, but his numbers fell off in 2002-03, and in March 2004, the Oilers traded him alongside a sixth-round pick to the Colorado Avalanche for defenceman Tom Gilbert.

Salo played just five games for the Avalanche before returning to play in the Swedish Elite League for three seasons.

What Brownlee said

When talks turns to Oiler goaltenders, Salo is seldom mentioned among the best who’ve played here. That, in large part, is because the team never won anything during his tenure. The Oilers made the playoffs with Salo between the pipes four straight seasons, but came up second best to the Dallas Stars in every one of them. Salo never won a series.
Salo never had great teams in front of him, but he never did manage to nudge the teams he did have past a superior opponent the way Curtis Joseph and Dwayne Roloson did when the post-season came. He was very good in the 1999 playoffs but the Oilers scored just seven goals in four games. More of the same in 2001 as the Oilers lost in six games, scoring just 13 goals.
Post-season futility against Dallas aside, you’ll find Salo among franchise regular season leaders in games played (third at 334), wins (third at 147), save percentage (third at .906), goals-against average (first at 2.44) and shutouts (first at 23). Not championship stuff, but an impressive resume when you take everything into account.

The Last 10

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.