Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll be counting down the days until the Edmonton Oilers begin their 2023-24 season with a daily trip down memory lane. Today at No. 22 we have Roman Hamrlik, one of the best defencemen the team had during the 90s.

The Tampa Bay Lightning made Hamrlik their first-ever draft pick with the first-overall selection in the 1992 draft. He jumped into the NHL as an 18-year-old and was immediately tasked with being one of the top defencemen on a brand-new team.

Hamrlik had some big seasons offensively with the Lightning, highlighted by 1995-96 when he scored 65 points and finished seventh in Norris Trophy voting, but struggled on the defensive side of the ice and posted a minus-124 rating with Tampa over 377 games.

The Oilers traded for Hamrlik in the middle of the 1997-98 season. The team had a paltry 11-20-9 record at the end of December and badly needed a defenceman who could move the puck and provide offence. They traded two struggling former top picks, Steve Kelly and Jason Bonsignore, along with veteran shutdown defender Bryan Marchment to the Lightning for Hamrlik and Paul Comrie.