Welcome to Oilersnation’s top 15 stories of the year, where we count down the most-read stories you, the reader, clicked on in 2024.
Number one in our top stories countdown came a year ago today when Jason Gregor broke the news that our beloved colleague, Robin Brownlee, passed away due to a heart attack.
If you’ve been around this website long enough, you&#8217;ve probably read many of the 2,010 articles he wrote for it during his time with us. A beloved family man and father, Robin Brownlee was one of the best ever to do it, so when we started thinking about our top stories countdown, there was only one answer to be the No. 1 story of the year. Even though a year has passed since we lost our friend, his memory and impact live on within the website and with everyone lucky enough to know him.
Here’s some of <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/rest-in-peace-robin-brownlee">what Jason Gregor wrote</a> about what was a very difficult time in the website’s history:
<blockquote>“Robin was a big man. He could be gruff, but he also was incredibly loving and gentle. Most of our memorable conversations were about family, not sports. He had some great sports stories, but what really made him excited and happy was talking about his family. Meeting Analyn Augustin was life-changing for Robin as a man. It led to him becoming a father, and he was a great husband and father. His priorities changed when he became a father, and for the better. Robin used to be driven to chase down a lead or break a story, and he was very good at it, but becoming a father later in life, at age 48, changed his priorities.
He admitted at times it was difficult not being on the beat daily, but he’d always tell me he was much happier being able to be home and be around his boys. He introduced Analyn, Sam and Michael to his love of cars and music. He and Michael shared a love for music. Sam was really into basketball, and in the past few years, he’d dominate his old man on the court. Robin laughs about how he could see the day coming when Sam would school him. Many fathers do, and Robin looked forward to it.”</blockquote>
On the outside, Brownlee always seemed like a tough nut to crack, but I can personally tell you that this wasn’t the case. I’ll be the first to admit how much Robin scared me when I first met him, but as our relationship grew over the years, I got to know a much different side of him. I got to know a man who was as generous as he was knowledgeable. He was as talented as he was sassy, and I still feel very fortunate to have spent a decade learning from him.
Now that he’s been gone a year, what remains true is how impossible it is to fill those shoes. Not only was he my favourite sports writer of all time, but he also had a way of dissecting the game that I’ve yet to find anywhere else. Not only did he know hockey incredibly well, but he had a way of packaging his ideas in a way that was both entertaining and pointed, making him a unique figure in the Edmonton sports scene that can never be replicated.
A few days after his passing, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/off-the-top-of-my-head-talk-to-you-later-robin">I wrote an article about what Robin meant to me</a> and told a story from the pandemic that showed who he was as a person:
<blockquote>&#8220;Even though I would never say I knew Robin nearly as well as some of the others who have offered tributes to him over the past few days, what I can say for sure is that he helped me tremendously over the decade I was lucky enough to work with him. Things changed a lot after that first phone call when I messed up his article, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to soak up as much information from him as I could. It was not uncommon to get a note from Robin about my writing, about how the site was doing, or to offer a friendly word at a time when it was needed, and I would never have seen that coming back in 2014 when I first got this gig. Back then, I was just happy that my favourite sports writer even knew who I was let alone imagine the idea that we’d spend many hours on the phone sharing details from our lives.
That only happened because the website that he helped build grew into a place that offered opportunities to weirdos like me who just wanted to make jokes about the Oilers. Without him, none of this happens, and it’s almost impossible to imagine where we’d all be if he hadn’t taken Jay and Wanye’s phone call all those years ago.&#8221;</blockquote>
Reading that article again for the first time in almost a year, I still can’t believe he’s gone. I still can’t believe that Brownlee’s words aren’t appearing on the site anymore or that the bi-weekly phone calls we shared for months have dried up. Even though he was my co-worker here at the Nation and one I immensely respected, he was so much more than that to anyone lucky enough to know him. Robin Brownlee was truly one of a kind.
I can only imagine what kind of stories Robin would have put together about the Oilers&#8217; 2024 playoff run, what happened with the offer sheets this past summer, or why the Oilers would choose Stan Bowman as their next GM. As much as all of those items were big stories in the moment, they were all lacking because we didn&#8217;t have Robin&#8217;s voice to break them down for us. When something major happened in this sport, there was no one we trusted more than Robin Brownlee to make sense of the noise.
In the coming weeks, as a tribute to Robin, we’ll be posting highlights from some of his work here on the website so that we can remember how fantastic he was at his craft. We will also be rebooting his Top 100 Oilers series from years ago to not only refresh his work but also to bring new life into those words. The guy had the knack of infusing humour with analysis that I had never seen before him or since, and it’s a hole in our world that will never be forgotten.
As we hit the anniversary of Robin’s passing, I still miss him telling me off on social media or in my email more than I can describe. Still, we promise to do everything we possibly can to make sure he lives forever here on the site. Not only is he a major reason we all have jobs in the first place — he took the leap to create digital content long before it was popular — but he shared so much himself in every article he wrote. I learned so much from Brownlee just by being in his orbit for the 10 years we worked together, and those are memories I&#8217;ll cherish forever.
I miss you, Robin. Gord knows this website hasn’t been and will never be the same without you.

Welcome to Oilersnation’s top 15 stories of the year, where we count down the most-read stories you, the reader, clicked on in 2024.

Number one in our top stories countdown came a year ago today when Jason Gregor broke the news that our beloved colleague, Robin Brownlee, passed away due to a heart attack.

If you’ve been around this website long enough, you've probably read many of the 2,010 articles he wrote for it during his time with us. A beloved family man and father, Robin Brownlee was one of the best ever to do it, so when we started thinking about our top stories countdown, there was only one answer to be the No. 1 story of the year. Even though a year has passed since we lost our friend, his memory and impact live on within the website and with everyone lucky enough to know him.

Here’s some of <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/rest-in-peace-robin-brownlee">what Jason Gregor wrote</a> about what was a very difficult time in the website’s history:
<blockquote>“Robin was a big man. He could be gruff, but he also was incredibly loving and gentle. Most of our memorable conversations were about family, not sports. He had some great sports stories, but what really made him excited and happy was talking about his family. Meeting Analyn Augustin was life-changing for Robin as a man. It led to him becoming a father, and he was a great husband and father. His priorities changed when he became a father, and for the better. Robin used to be driven to chase down a lead or break a story, and he was very good at it, but becoming a father later in life, at age 48, changed his priorities.

He admitted at times it was difficult not being on the beat daily, but he’d always tell me he was much happier being able to be home and be around his boys. He introduced Analyn, Sam and Michael to his love of cars and music. He and Michael shared a love for music. Sam was really into basketball, and in the past few years, he’d dominate his old man on the court. Robin laughs about how he could see the day coming when Sam would school him. Many fathers do, and Robin looked forward to it.”</blockquote>
On the outside, Brownlee always seemed like a tough nut to crack, but I can personally tell you that this wasn’t the case. I’ll be the first to admit how much Robin scared me when I first met him, but as our relationship grew over the years, I got to know a much different side of him. I got to know a man who was as generous as he was knowledgeable. He was as talented as he was sassy, and I still feel very fortunate to have spent a decade learning from him.

Now that he’s been gone a year, what remains true is how impossible it is to fill those shoes. Not only was he my favourite sports writer of all time, but he also had a way of dissecting the game that I’ve yet to find anywhere else. Not only did he know hockey incredibly well, but he had a way of packaging his ideas in a way that was both entertaining and pointed, making him a unique figure in the Edmonton sports scene that can never be replicated.

A few days after his passing, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/off-the-top-of-my-head-talk-to-you-later-robin">I wrote an article about what Robin meant to me</a> and told a story from the pandemic that showed who he was as a person:
<blockquote>"Even though I would never say I knew Robin nearly as well as some of the others who have offered tributes to him over the past few days, what I can say for sure is that he helped me tremendously over the decade I was lucky enough to work with him. Things changed a lot after that first phone call when I messed up his article, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to soak up as much information from him as I could. It was not uncommon to get a note from Robin about my writing, about how the site was doing, or to offer a friendly word at a time when it was needed, and I would never have seen that coming back in 2014 when I first got this gig. Back then, I was just happy that my favourite sports writer even knew who I was let alone imagine the idea that we’d spend many hours on the phone sharing details from our lives.

That only happened because the website that he helped build grew into a place that offered opportunities to weirdos like me who just wanted to make jokes about the Oilers. Without him, none of this happens, and it’s almost impossible to imagine where we’d all be if he hadn’t taken Jay and Wanye’s phone call all those years ago."</blockquote>
Reading that article again for the first time in almost a year, I still can’t believe he’s gone. I still can’t believe that Brownlee’s words aren’t appearing on the site anymore or that the bi-weekly phone calls we shared for months have dried up. Even though he was my co-worker here at the Nation and one I immensely respected, he was so much more than that to anyone lucky enough to know him. Robin Brownlee was truly one of a kind.

I can only imagine what kind of stories Robin would have put together about the Oilers' 2024 playoff run, what happened with the offer sheets this past summer, or why the Oilers would choose Stan Bowman as their next GM. As much as all of those items were big stories in the moment, they were all lacking because we didn't have Robin's voice to break them down for us. When something major happened in this sport, there was no one we trusted more than Robin Brownlee to make sense of the noise.

In the coming weeks, as a tribute to Robin, we’ll be posting highlights from some of his work here on the website so that we can remember how fantastic he was at his craft. We will also be rebooting his Top 100 Oilers series from years ago to not only refresh his work but also to bring new life into those words. The guy had the knack of infusing humour with analysis that I had never seen before him or since, and it’s a hole in our world that will never be forgotten.

As we hit the anniversary of Robin’s passing, I still miss him telling me off on social media or in my email more than I can describe. Still, we promise to do everything we possibly can to make sure he lives forever here on the site. Not only is he a major reason we all have jobs in the first place — he took the leap to create digital content long before it was popular — but he shared so much himself in every article he wrote. I learned so much from Brownlee just by being in his orbit for the 10 years we worked together, and those are memories I'll cherish forever.

I miss you, Robin. Gord knows this website hasn’t been and will never be the same without you.

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