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Top 100 Oilers: No. 39 — Todd Marchant
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Michael Menzies
Apr 4, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 4, 2026, 00:59 EDT
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Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Todd Marchant comes in at No. 39 on our updated 2025 list. He was number 43 on Brownlee’s original list. 
From the immortal words of Bob Cole, you can imagine the goal in your mind’s eye. The 1997 Western Conference quarterfinal between the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars. Rookie upstarts against Stanley Cup contenders. Game 7. Overtime. 
“Who’s gonna beat Joseph? Or who will get one for Edmonton?… They’re gonna try here. Rushing in from centre and down the wing. It is Marchaaaaaant…..SCORES. Marchant. Scores. And the Edmonton Oilers are gonna move on…” 
Curtis Joseph had made a stunning diving stop on a Joe Nieuwendyk just moments before. Stars coach Ken Hitchcock looks skyward. Stars general manager Bob Gainey rolls his eyes. 
Then Doug Weight sent the puck to Marchant in flight down the right wing. Grant Ledyard got twisted up, leaving the lightning-quick Marchant alone on Andy Moog, wristing the shot up over the blocker. 
No goal in Marchant’s 678 regular-season or 43 playoff games as an Oiler can compare. Few can in the team’s history. It’s one of just two Game 7 overtime goals in franchise history (Esa Tikkanen in 1991 vs Calgary).  
It’s a moment immortalized for a long-time Oiler, who provided strong two-way play throughout his time in Edmonton. The 39th-best player on our list left a memory that stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest in Edmonton Oilers franchise history. 

Notable

Looking back in the post-Cup era of the Oilers, acquiring Todd Marchant was a sneaky, lower-profile trade made by then-Oilers GM Glen Sather.  
A terrific collegiate player out of Clarkson University, Marchant was just dipping his toes in professional hockey. He’d played at the 1993 World Juniors and represented the United States at the 1994 Olympics just weeks before his trade. 
The New York Rangers were bulking up for a title run and wanted Craig MacTavish as a fourth line centre. The deal came together in March 1994 and the Oilers would get the former seventh rounder in Marchant. But not without confusion.
In fact, according to Ranger’s GM Neil Smith at the time, Sather thought he was trading for Terry Marchant, Todd’s younger brother. (The Oilers would draft him just a couple months later). 
“So we made the trade. I swear on this: the next day, Sather called me and he said, ‘You f—ed me on this trade. Marchant is f—-ing 5’8”.’ I said, ‘I know he is.’… Sather said, ‘F—! It says in the book that he is 6’1”.’ I said, ‘You’re looking at the wrong Marchant. That’s his brother,’ because Todd’s brother was in the book, too,” Smith said in his book Behind the Moves. 
Marchant proved to be an excellent pro, despite his diminutive stature of 5’10”, officially. Spending almost a decade in Oilers’ threads from 1994-2003, the Buffalo native would go on to play a tremendous 1195 NHL games. 
Marchant would be good for roughly 15 goals and 35 points a season until his final year with the Oilers. In 2002-03, he exploded with a career-high 20 goals and 60 points, coinciding with needing a new contract. 
He signed as a free agent with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but after a short stay, he was picked up by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, where he’d win the Stanley Cup in 2007.
Todd Marchant 1997’s series clincher. Credit from April 21, 1998/Edmonton Journal.

The story

“Only one headline fits for this,” said Marchant in the aftermath of Game 7 heroics, “Un-BEE-lieveable.” 
So it was for Marchant, who would score three shorthanded goals for the Oilers during that run, the most in nine years for NHL playoff scorers. A player who “couldn’t put the puck into an ocean” according to one local reporter just a couple months prior, elevated his game to another level that post-season.
Making the playoff six times in his nine seasons with Edmonton, Marchant’s three future playoff goals couldn’t match the offensive output of his spring in 1997.
Although he never took that next step and become a consistent 20-goal guy, his role was fulfilled just fine as a reliable third-line centre, trusted to kill penalties and chime in 14 goals a year. Especially for a team that needed to check like hell to win games on a regular basis.
Marchant finished second in team scoring in 02-03 with his 60 points, just one back of Ryan Smyth.
His skillset would flourish in today’s game, with clutch-and-grab obstruction the stuff of dinosaurs now. In 2005-06, with the new rules that made hooking and holding legitimate penalties, Marchant had his best playoff productivity with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, putting up 13 points 16 games.
History is kind to Marchant and the memories he left behind. Despite not playing for the Oilers in over 20 years, he finished higher in this Top 100 ranking than he did in 2015.
That’s a heckuva career for an honest hockey player like him.

What Brownlee said

“Aside from his final season in Edmonton, when he hit the free agency jackpot with 20-40-60 in 2002-03, Marchant never did show the same offensive flair with the Oilers. He instead earned his keep as a two-way player who could kill penalties and chip in offensively here and there. In that regard, Marchant was remarkably consistent – he was always in the mid-teens in goals and finished with 30-40 points seven times.
“Marchant’s best work came during his years playing with Mike Grier and Ethan Moreau, a trio dubbed the MGM Line. Moreau and Grier provided the crash and Marchant provided the dash. They drew the tough assignments as shutdown guys most nights. For several seasons, many people, me included, considered the threesome one of the best third lines in the NHL.”

The Last 10

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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