Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Jason Arnott comes in at No. 48 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 42 on Brownlee’s original list.

Pop quiz: Which Edmonton Oiler scored the most goals as a rookie?

Well, considering you clicked on a Jason Arnott article, your guess would be correct. Arnott’s terrific 1993-94 season with 33 goals remains unmatched in the organization’s history, an impressive feat considering the plethora of franchise talent over the decades.

He seemed destined for super-stardom.

That season would be his own career high until the rule changes of the 2005-06 lockout, as Arnott carved out a long and productive career. In the wheeling and dealing era of 1990s Edmonton Oilers hockey, Arnott justified his top draft status early and looked like he could be on the team for a long time.

But there were issues. As good a player as Arnott was on the ice, he was inconsistent, even embroiled in a paternity suit that caught headlines. He enjoyed the good times and there was some bad publicity.

Maybe he would’ve been better amongst the 1980s group that also had their off-ice issues. Maybe these were lessons he’d just have to learn along the way. Maybe it was just doomed not to work here.

Notable

In a talent-laden 1993 NHL Draft, the Oilers’ snatching Arnott at seventh overall was a good bit of business by Glen Sather.

That’s especially true considering how the Oilers hadn’t drafted a contributing player in the first round in a decade, dating back to 1983 and Jeff Beukeboom. That’s ten picks – many of which never sniffed the NHL.

Out of the Oshawa Generals program, Arnott was big and talented, an ideal candidate to be the long-term number one center in Edmonton for a generation. He played four-and-a-half seasons with the Oilers, but was dealt at 23-years-old by Sather to New Jersey with Bryan Muir for Bill Guerin and Valeri Zelepukin.

Arnott would turn consistent and dependable, arriving in the biggest of moments in the 2000 Stanley Cup final, scoring in double overtime of Game 6 against the Dallas Stars to win the chalice.

He’d make stops in Dallas, Nashville, another trip to New Jersey, Washington, and St. Louis, playing a total of 1244 games and 122 more in the playoffs.

Truly, Arnott was a young kid who lived the fast life right out of junior, and saw immediate success. After some maturing, his talents carved out a career that was only 62 points away from 1000.

Even as it stands, only 120 players in the history of the league scored more points than he did.

The story

With Doug Weight already in Edmonton, Arnott’s addition could be seen as a great one-two punch down the middle. Ryan Smyth was added a year later (Jason Bonsignore notwithstanding), and young, exciting forward talent was back in Edmonton.

In 1993-94, Weight led the team in scoring at 22-years-old, and Arnott was second with 68 points at 18-years-old.

The stats in hindsight showed a productive player, but to watch him was another thing, leaving fans wanting more. After 37, 59, and 57-point seasons, questions circled whether Arnott could pop.

In fact, an Edmonton Journal poll right before the 1997 playoffs asked fans about his play, with 71 per cent dissatisfied and 41 per cent saying he should be traded. Some nights, he looked like he could be Eric Lindros-lite. Other nights, he even said, “he wasn’t into it.”

The media attention and scrutiny of the mid-1990s was still elevated from a decade before. Arnott admitted that handling things off the ice was a struggle.

Read these words after a tough retaliation penalty he took against the Winnipeg Jets put the Oilers behind in a loss:

“There’s a lot of problems happening right now, and maybe I have to handle the problems off the ice differently. I might have to go back to a psychologist. I’m young, and sometimes it’s hard for me to understand what I need to do,” Arnott said on February 9, 1995.

If a player said that today, there would be several avenues he could explore to get some help. Teams today help insulate their players, too. Reading such an honest quote, and thinking about the 20-year-olds I’ve seen routinely and gotten to know with the Bonnyville Pontiacs, I could only imagine if they were making huge money and under a ton of pressure.

Edmonton Journal Newspaper Clipping From June 17, 1994

But then next season, a paternity suit loomed over him. Eventually, he settled out of court.

He entered the league and made the game look easy. But it wasn’t so easy, and the longer it went on, his confidence – sometimes brash and cocky – became a shell of itself. Concussions and other injuries certainly didn’t help.

When he was traded, Ryan Smyth used the word “heartbreak” twice. Doug Weight took it hard. The fans were booing routinely, and after 18 points in 35 games in 1997-98, and a 24-game goalless drought, the swap to New Jersey was made.

“I think it was time for both sides to move on,” said Arnott on January 5, 1998.

Sather agreed.

“This was a trade we had to make.”

It was truly too bad, because the Oilers would search for a player with his natural talent and size for years…and years…and years…

What Brownlee said

“Jason Arnott was everything you could want in a hockey player. He was big, tough and talented. Arnott was certainly everything the Edmonton Oilers wanted when they happily snapped him up seventh overall from the Oshawa Generals in the 1993 Entry Draft and then watched him establish a franchise record for goals by a rookie with 33 during 1993-94 season.
“Yes, Arnott was guilty of handling the trappings of wealth and youth badly. He enjoyed zipping around town in the flashy, new Viper he bought with his first contract. He partied. Then, the paternity suit. Arnott wasn’t the first Oiler, nor the last, to make mistakes. Players from the Stanley Cup teams did the same. The difference was that by the time Arnott arrived, the Oilers were clearly a team in decline. Success mitigates miss-steps, while failure tends to amplify them. Arnott’s Oilers had Shayne Corson as captain. Full stop.”

The Last 10

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.

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