Former Oilers forward Jordan Eberle has joined an exclusive club as he takes part in the 1000th game of his NHL career against the Golden Knights Tuesday night.
The Regina native becomes the 393rd player in league history to reach this feat, and this game comes nearly 5000 days after he made his NHL debut on October 7, 2010. He and Oilers fans will certainly remember that day well because he also scored his first career goal in style.
Originally drafted 22nd overall in the 2008 NHL Draft, Eberle spent the first seven seasons of his career donning the Blue and Orange. He recorded 382 points, 165 goals and 217 assists in 508 games with the Oilers, along with two assists in 13 playoff games before being traded to the Islanders in exchange for Ryan Strome in 2017.
Eberle spent the next four years on Long Island and helped carry his new team to two Conference Finals appearances. Then, he was selected by the Kraken in the 2021 Expansion Draft, where he has been ever since. Heading into his 1000th career game, he has 296 goals and 695 points to his name with plenty of runway left to continue to produce.
There was a chance that Eberle could have reached this monumental milestone back where it all began as rumours were circulating of the Oilers interested in bringing him back. It ultimately did not materialize as he signed a two-year extension with Seattle on deadline day thus delaying the reunion until 2026 at minimum.
When asked by Darren Brown of NHL.com about the prospect of reaching the feat elsewhere in the league, Eberle admitted it was hard not to think about it but this did not factor into his choice to stay with the Kraken.
“That went through my mind, no question,” Eberle said. “I knew, obviously, which game it was going to be in, and then you know the date of the Deadline. So, it’s just […] it crossed my mind, but it didn’t really go into my decision [to re-sign with Seattle] at all.”
He later added that although he maintained his desire to remain in Seattle, he was at least prepared for the possibility of getting traded.
“I expressed I wanted to be here, but ultimately, if that didn’t happen, who knows what would have happened?” he said. “This game is funny in that there’s a lot of uncontrollables that we can’t control. And you just kind of have to go day by day, especially when you get into those situations of the Deadline.”
While the potential reunion in Edmonton will have to be put on the back burner indefinitely, there is no doubt that this is an incredible achievement for Eberle to reach and it couldn’t have happened to a better player. For the sake of the Oilers faithful, here’s hoping that someday soon he can return to where it all began before Eberle hangs up his skates for good.
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