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.
Alas, history tells us that a tenure that began with Arnott looking like he might be the next great Oiler, a franchise cornerstone at a time when they needed one, ended badly and all-too-quickly amid declining on-ice performance and off-ice issues that included a paternity suit. Then, there was the infamous quote after one notably bad performance that soured fans once and for all – “I just wasn’t into it.”
Jason Arnott
Center — shoots R
Born Oct 11 1974 — Collingwood, ONT 
Height 6.05 — Weight 220 [196 cm/100 kg]
Drafted by Edmonton Oilers
Round 1 #7 overall 1993 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season
Age
Tm
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
PIM
S
S%
TOI
ATOI
1993-94
19
EDM
78
33
35
68
1
104
194
17.0
1994-95
20
EDM
42
15
22
37
-14
128
156
9.6
1995-96
21
EDM
64
28
31
59
-6
87
244
11.5
1996-97
22
EDM
67
19
38
57
-21
92
248
7.7
1997-98
23
TOT
70
10
23
33
-24
99
199
5.0
1997-98
23
EDM
35
5
13
18
-16
78
100
5.0
1997-98
23
NJD
35
5
10
15
-8
21
99
5.1
1998-99
24
NJD
74
27
27
54
10
79
200
13.5
1140
15:24
1999-00
25
NJD
76
22
34
56
22
51
244
9.0
1299
17:05
2000-01
26
NJD
54
21
34
55
23
75
138
15.2
875
16:12
2001-02
27
TOT
73
25
20
45
2
65
197
12.7
1267
17:21
2001-02
27
NJD
63
22
19
41
3
59
169
13.0
1085
17:13
2001-02
27
DAL
10
3
1
4
-1
6
28
10.7
182
18:13
2002-03
28
DAL
72
23
24
47
9
51
169
13.6
1166
16:12
2003-04
29
DAL
73
21
36
57
23
66
143
14.7
1241
16:00
2005-06
31
DAL
81
32
44
76
13
102
167
19.2
1393
17:12
2006-07
32
NSH
68
27
27
54
15
48
190
14.2
1223
17:59
2007-08
33
NSH
79
28
44
72
19
54
248
11.3
1500
18:59
2008-09
34
NSH
65
33
24
57
2
49
196
16.8
1229
18:55
2009-10
35
NSH
63
19
27
46
0
26
216
8.8
1178
18:42
2010-11
36
TOT
73
17
14
31
-6
40
169
10.1
1133
15:31
2010-11
36
NJD
62
13
11
24
-9
32
139
9.4
958
15:27
2010-11
36
WSH
11
4
3
7
3
8
30
13.3
175
15:53
2011-12
37
STL
72
17
17
34
13
26
142
12.0
1014
14:05
6 yrs
NJD
364
110
135
245
41
317
989
11.1
5356
16:17
5 yrs
EDM
286
100
139
239
-56
489
942
10.6
4 yrs
DAL
236
79
105
184
44
225
507
15.6
3982
16:52
4 yrs
NSH
275
107
122
229
36
177
850
12.6
5130
18:39
1 yr
STL
72
17
17
34
13
26
142
12.0
1014
14:05
1 yr
WSH
11
4
3
7
3
8
30
13.3
175
15:53
Career
1244
417
521
938
81
1242
3460
12.1
15658
16:58
PLAYOFFS
Season
Age
Tm
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
PIM
S
S%
TOI
ATOI
1996-97
22
EDM
12
3
6
9
-3
18
27
11.1
1997-98
23
NJD
5
0
2
2
1
0
6
0.0
1998-99
24
NJD
7
2
2
4
-3
4
12
16.7
118
16:48
1999-00
25
NJD
23
8
12
20
7
18
56
14.3
379
16:29
2000-01
26
NJD
23
8
7
15
8
16
42
19.0
364
15:49
2002-03
28
DAL
11
3
2
5
-2
6
18
16.7
171
15:35
2003-04
29
DAL
5
1
1
2
-1
2
11
9.1
87
17:23
2005-06
31
DAL
5
0
3
3
-1
4
17
0.0
100
20:04
2006-07
32
NSH
5
2
1
3
0
2
11
18.2
96
19:17
2007-08
33
NSH
4
1
0
1
-1
4
6
16.7
74
18:29
2009-10
35
NSH
6
2
0
2
-3
0
26
7.7
107
17:51
2010-11
36
WSH
9
1
5
6
4
2
13
7.7
144
16:03
2011-12
37
STL
7
1
0
1
-1
0
11
9.1
76
10:53
Career
122
32
41
73
5
76
256
12.5
1717
16:21

NOTABLE

The end for Arnott as an Oiler came after just five seasons and 286 games when, to hear GM Glen Sather tell it, the pressure of playing in Edmonton and the off-ice distractions that became the focus of local media became too much. Sather maintained he never wanted to trade the kid, but, you know, the relentless negative attention left him little choice.
“He got into a (paternity) problem but only one time,” Sather told the Edmonton Journal. “He was young. It became such a sensational scoop for everybody and it chased him out of town. He was sensitive, but what kid his age isn’t? I never wanted to get rid of him.” While there’s a kernel of truth in Sather’s take, that far from the whole story.
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 STORY

Sather could have stuck with Arnott but the bottom line is he chose not to, instead dealing him to New Jersey with Bryan Muir in January of 1998 for Valeri Zelepukin and Bill Guerin. Arnott was just 24 when Sather pulled the trigger on that deal. While Guerin certainly was a nice return, at least for the short term, the Oilers never got the consistent, quality years a grown-up and more mature Arnott had to offer in New Jersey, Dallas and Nashville.
Gone too soon was Arnott, who, off-ice distractions and all while playing on bad teams, managed to score 100 goals and 239 points in his 286 games as an Oiler. Arnott would go on to score 317 more regular season goals in his other NHL stops and finish with 938 points in a career highlighted by his overtime winner to give the Devils the 2000 Stanley Cup.
How many times in the years following Arnott’s departure have Oiler fans lamented the lack of having a big, tough, skilled forward like him? I’ve lost count. Arnott was all that, but it wasn’t to be – even though, in hindsight, it could have, and probably should have, been.
This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up. 
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
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