Sheldon Souray’s time as a member of the Edmonton Oilers should have been a hockey match made in heaven. Souray, an UFA coming off a career 64-point season with the Montreal Canadiens, was an Elk Point boy who had grown up cheering for the Oilers. The five-year deal worth $27 million he inked in July 2007 with Edmonton was his chance to come home to play.
In Souray, the Oilers were getting a big, tough, proven defenceman who had an absolute bomb of a shot from the point that terrified goaltenders, could run a power play like a boss and eat up 23 minutes a night. There isn’t one team in the NHL who can’t use a player like that.
Instead, what should have been that perfect hockey match, began badly when Souray re-injured his shoulder six games into his tenure and ended even worse. It was a messy split that saw Souray go public with criticism of management, demand a trade and get buried in the minors by overwhelmed GM Steve Tambellini before being bought out of his contract.

Sheldon Souray

Defense — shoots L
Born Jul 13 1976 — Elk Point, ALTA 

Height 6.04 — Weight 233 [193 cm/106 kg]
Drafted by New Jersey Devils

Round 3 #71 overall 1994 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season
Tm
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
PIM
S
S%
TOI
ATOI
1997-98
NJD
60
3
7
10
18
85
74
4.1
1998-99
NJD
70
1
7
8
5
110
101
1.0
1045
14:56
1999-00
TOT
71
3
8
11
1
114
113
2.7
1261
17:45
1999-00
NJD
52
0
8
8
-6
70
74
0.0
894
17:12
1999-00
MTL
19
3
0
3
7
44
39
7.7
367
19:18
2000-01
MTL
52
3
8
11
-11
95
103
2.9
1072
20:36
2001-02
MTL
34
3
5
8
-5
62
56
5.4
618
18:11
2003-04
MTL
63
15
20
35
4
104
186
8.1
1476
23:26
2005-06
MTL
75
12
27
39
-11
116
202
5.9
1669
22:15
2006-07
MTL
81
26
38
64
-28
135
224
11.6
1878
23:11
2007-08
EDM
26
3
7
10
-7
36
71
4.2
633
24:21
2008-09
EDM
81
23
30
53
1
98
268
8.6
2012
24:51
2009-10
EDM
37
4
9
13
-19
65
113
3.5
837
22:37
2011-12
DAL
64
6
15
21
11
73
179
3.4
1310
20:28
2012-13
ANA
44
7
10
17
19
52
80
8.8
921
20:56
6 yrs
MTL
324
62
98
160
-44
556
810
7.7
7080
21:51
3 yrs
EDM
144
30
46
76
-25
199
452
6.6
3482
24:11
3 yrs
NJD
182
4
22
26
17
265
249
1.6
1939
15:54
1 yr
ANA
44
7
10
17
19
52
80
8.8
921
20:56
1 yr
DAL
64
6
15
21
11
73
179
3.4
1310
20:28
Career
758
109
191
300
-22
1145
1770
6.2
14732
21:06

NOTABLE

There were plenty of lowlights in the fiasco that was Tambellini’s bungled tenure as Oiler GM, but the Souray saga likely tops the list. Souray would miss 55 games during his first season with the Oilers when he re-injured his shoulder in a fight with Vancouver’s Byron Ritchie. Souray felt that he was pressured by management to come back early from off-season surgery.
While Souray would recover and produce 23-30-53 in 81 games during his second season, resentment over that first season – Souray felt his character had been questioned — lingered on both sides. By the time Mark Spector of Sportsnet broke the story in April 2010 that Souray had requested a trade, rumblings of his discontent had been circulating for at least a year.
The 2009-10 season saw Souray miss 16 games when he was slammed into the boards by Jarome Iginla. Bad turned to worse in January of that season when Souray broke his hand looking for payback in a scrap with Iginla, then missed more time with an infection after surgery. He’d play just 37 games that season. Then, Souray went public with the trade demand he’d made several months earlier. The ugliness didn’t end there.

THE STORY

While Souray backed Tambellini into a corner by going public – I wrote at the time I thought sounding off was a mistake that wasn’t going to help his cause – Tambellini botched the whole affair. If he was going to stand his ground after being outed as a bungler, fine, but he at least had to move Souray and get a return. Instead, he got nothing, zippo. Tambellini buried Souray in the minors on loan to Hershey, then bought him out.
“It’s not a player’s thing,” Souray told Spector. “It’s not a fans thing or a city thing. It’s a management thing. They’ve given up on me, and it’s a two-way street. Management has soured on me, and I’ve soured on them. The fans are great, they’ve accepted me here, I see the jerseys in the stands. I couldn’t have pictured a more opposite vision of what my experience here would be like. What the organization here would be like, overall.”
Upon retiring after stops in Dallas and Anaheim, Souray reflected on his time in Edmonton in a piece in the Players’ Tribune. The entire item is here. In it, he addresses fans in Edmonton.
“The people of Edmonton: Thanks for treating me so well even when things got ugly with management. All I ever wanted to do since I was a little boy was play for the Oilers. I wish it turned out better in the end, but you always made me feel at home.”
Home. For Souray, it never was what it 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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