Sam Gagner: One Unlucky Journeyman

Sam Gagner is one unlucky journeyman. While Gagner isn’t a star player nor is he a household name in most cities around the league, he has been a remarkably consistent player at the NHL level. His lack of luck doesn’t come from a long list of injuries or anything of that sort, it mostly stems from the unfortunate teams he has been a part of and how they all seemingly fail to find any sort of meaningful success.  

Early Career in Edmonton

Drafted by the Edmonton Oilers sixth overall in the 2007 NHL entry draft, Sam Gagner had the rare opportunity to immediately step in and play top minutes at an NHL level. In 79 games, he scored 13 goals with 36 assists to total 49 points which was good enough to place third on the team in points during his rookie season. Gagner became a reliable 15 goal scorer for the Oilers and cemented himself as a solid player but not living up to his expectations when he was drafted 6th overall. 

Gagner became a solid second or third line player in Edmonton but never managed to accumulate more than his rookie point total. While he became a reliable 15 goal scorer and cemented himself as a solid player for the Oilers, he did not live up to his expectations when he was drafted 6th overall. 

 It doesn’t help that the Oilers were desperately trying to retool their lineup during Gagner’s first two seasons then immediately bottomed out during the 2009-2010 NHL season where they selected their new Franchise player in Taylor Hall 1st overall in the following NHL Draft. While Taylor Hall brought life to the Oilers fanbase, the team’s results were laughable. Since Hall arrived in 2010, the Oilers never finished above 24th in the league and picked first overall three straight years in the NHL Entry Draft. 

Edmonton Oiler’s record and Gagner’s production

Gagner himself performed consistently during Edmonton’s worst years despite not having any tools around him. 

Becoming a Journeyman 

After spending seven fairly miserable seasons in Edmonton, Gagner’s luck was ready to turn around! In the 2014 offseason, Sam Gagner was sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Teddy Purcell. However he was quickly sent to the Arizona Coyotes the same day alongside a depth player for a 6th round draft pick. At the time, Tampa Bay had a solid core that was built to compete for years to come, but were swept by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. His luck was over when he went to the Desert. 

Arizona on the other hand… Was a team who made it to the conference finals in 2012 but immediately fell out of the playoffs the following year. The Coyotes were having an abysmal 2014/15 season. By the trade deadline, they got rid of who they could and were left to completely rebuild the roster. Somehow Gagner ended up second on the team in scoring with 15 goals and 26 assists totalling up to 41 points. The Coyotes finished 29th in the league while the Oilers were 28th. 

Play-oofs

The following summer, Gagner was shipped off to the Philadelphia Flyers alongside a 4th round draft pick for Chris Pronger’s cap hit and Nicklas Grossmann. In Phili, Sam Gagner didn’t really do much, he played a bottom six role scoring eight goals and assists in 53 games. Gagner also had a brief nine game conditioning stint in the AHL after an injury took him out for a few weeks. The Flyers were a middle of the pack team who made the playoffs as a wild card team in 2016 but were quickly sent packing by the President’s trophy winning Washington Capitals in six games. Gagner only had two assists during his first taste of the playoffs in his eight year NHL career up to that point.

In 2016, Sam Gagner hit the free agent market for the first time in his career. The end result was Gagner taking a one year league minimum contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Which actually went quite well for him, as he hit career highs with a Columbus team that was surprisingly formittible. Especially for a team that finished fourth last in the NHL the year prior. Gagner himself hit the 50 point mark for the first time in his career with 18 goals and 32 assists which was good enough to be fifth on his team in points in the regular season. The playoffs were a much different story. The Blue Jackets got annihilated by the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first round in five games. Once again, Sam Gagner had no goals and two assists to his name. 

Playing with Philadelphia and Columbus were the first two times that Gagner played for teams with a winning record. However, they simply were dismantled by two teams that were just better in every aspect. It is also not like Columbus was expected to win it all either, due to their path to the Stanley Cup Finals being incredibly difficult. Prior to that season, Columbus wasn’t expected to be good but benefited by John Tortorella taking over the head coaching reins. One of the only offers that he got was from a Blue Jackets team that didn’t even look like they had a shot at the playoffs before the season started. 

Up to this point, in 10 NHL seasons, Gagner has only won three playoff games and only had a winning record twice with four different teams. Things start to get worse for Sam Gagner after his time in Columbus. 

Back North

After having a 50 point season in Columbus, the Vancouver Canucks offered Gagner a three year contract giving him $3.15 million each year. Vancouver appeared to be testing the waters to see if they could land themselves a playoff spot in the Sedin brothers final season in the NHL, but were unsuccessful. The Canucks had the sixth worst goals for and against and finished 27th in the league with a team that simply didn’t work out. Statistically, Gagner didn’t perform outside his usual norm, but was on a team that was bidding farewell to two of the franchises greatest players. It also just happened that he signed a pretty hefty contract and only scored 10 goals and 21 assists with the Canucks in his first season and started to become one of the players that fans took aim at.  

The following 2018/19 season was not an enjoyable experience for Sam Gagner. The Canucks featured a roster that quickly became the ninth youngest team in the league. The opening day roster did not include Sam Gagner as he cleared waivers to start his season in the AHL. After about a month, Gagner was called up to the NHL for a short seven game stint but was promptly sent back afterwards. 

The year somewhat turned around as the Edmonton Oilers re-acquired Gagner from the Canucks for Ryan Spooner right before the trade deadline. He was immediately called back up to Edmonton where he finished out the season scoring five goals and assists in 25 games. This was probably one of Gagner’s worst years since coming into the league, but still showed that he can play in the NHL once he got back to Edmonton. 

The 2019/20 season will go down in history as a wild year. Prior to Covid-19 forcing the season to be cut off at 70ish games, the Edmonton Oilers were looking the best they have for a very long time. While Gagner started the year off in the minors, he only played four games before being called back up to the NHL. Scoring wise, Gagner was not on the scoresheet often; only registering five goals and seven assists in 35 games with the Oilers. 

Disaster 

Mid February of 2020, disaster struck Sam Gagner. He was sent off to the Detroit Red Wings alongside two second round draft picks in a deal that saw Andreas Athanasiou go the other way. This trade robbed Gagner from his first real chance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and sent him to one of the only teams eliminated from playoff contention at that time. After playing six games in Detroit, Covid-19 struck the continent and shut down every sporting league completely. Thus ending the Detroit Red Wings season and sparing poor Sam Gagner of more pain and suffering. 

Looking toward 2021

Sam Gagner’s contract has expired and he is currently a pending unrestricted free agent. When he was acquired by Detroit, they expected Gagner not to be a long term fit in their lineup. According to the NHL’s return to play plan, free agency will be in a condensed time period as well as the salary cap across the league will remain the same for the next three seasons. This will make the market for a player like Sam Gagner very small. When free agency hits, Gagner will be 31 years of age and looking at another league minimum contract in the NHL. There is a possibility that Gagner could go overseas to play in Europe but early speculation from Mark Spector suggests otherwise. (https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/oilers-mailbag-taylor-hall-jesse-puljujarvi-pizza-toppings/) Spector believes Gagner may try to sign with the Oilers if possible as a fourth liner on a short term contract. Time will tell what is to come for Sam Gagner in the rest of 2020, but history has shown that he is one very unlucky man.