Kasperi Kapanen, the Edmonton Oiler who scored the biggest goal of his NHL career

The Edmonton Oilers are officially off to the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Western Conference Final for the second season in a row, and the third time in the last four years. It is all thanks to Kasperi Kapanen who just scored one of the biggest goals in his NHL career.

Quick off-top-of-head stat: Kapanen is the 16th different Oiler with a goal in these playoffs, the same number as the 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning and 2022 Avalanche throughout their entire Cup runs.

– Lexi

I will be looking into Kapanen’s career, how he has fared as an Edmonton Oiler and how he has performed in the playoffs as well.

Kapanen was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round (No. 22) in the 2014 NHL Draft after he had 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in 47 games with KalPa of Liiga, Finland’s top pro league.

The NHL career of Kasperi Kapanen

Toronto Maple Leafs

On July 1, 2015, Kapanen was acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade that sent forward Phil Kessel to the Penguins. Kapanen played a total of five seasons with the Leafs from 2015–16 to 2019–20, where he played 202 games and produced 90 points in the blue and white. Kapanen ended up with 41 goals and 49 assists, one power play goal, five power play assists and five short handed goals.

His average time on ice per game was as follows;

14:46, 10:41, 11:14, 16:36, and 15:47

Kapanen was definitely a pretty solid player for the Maple Leafs, but I do not think that he was everything that they wanted him to be.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Kapanen signed a two-year, $6.4M contract with the Penguins on July 21, 2022 as a restricted free agent and avoided a salary arbitration hearing. Kapanen played three seasons with the Penguins from 2020–21 to 2022–23, where he played a total of 162 games and put up 82 points in the process. Kapanen had 29 goals and 53 assists, four power play goals, and 15 power play points.

His average time on ice per game looked like this:

15:32, 14:32, and 12:02

Kapanen was able to produce a little bit more consistently for the Penguins and did quite well at scoring game-winning goals with seven respectively.

St Louis Blues

Kapanen was claimed off waivers by the St. Louis Blues on February 23, 2023, and signed a one-year, $1M contract with the Blues on July 1, 2024. He played three seasons with the Blues from 2022–23 to 2024–25, where he laced up for a total of 106 games and produced 37 points for Music City. Kapanen put up 15 goals and 22 assists, two shorthanded goals, and three shorthanded points.

His average time on ice per game was like this:

16:45, 14:23, and 11:19

Kapanen, although he has played most of his career in smaller roles, has continued to stay consistent and put some points on the board.

Edmonton Oilers

Kasperi Kapanen earlier this season, was claimed off waivers by Edmonton from St. Louis on November 19, 2024. He has only played one season with the Oilers so far (2024–25) where he played 57 games and was able to put up 13 points in the Orange and Blue. Kapanen tucked five goals and picked up eight apples, received 14 penalty minutes and also has one game winning goal.

This was his average time on ice per game:

12:01

This season seems like the first time that Kapanen was able to play a pretty important role in his career. Although he did not put up many points with the Edmonton Oilers, he definitely stood out in the playoffs and I will discuss how.

The Stanley Cup playoff career of Kasperi Kapanen

Kapanen has appeared in four Toronto Maple Leaf postseasons from 2016–17 to 2019–20. In 25 total post season games, Kapanen produced four goals and three assists for seven points. That gave him a points per game percentage of .28 respectively.

Kapanen then made an appearance in two straight Pittsburgh Penguins postseasons from 2020–21 to 2021–22. Dressed in 13 games, Kapanen put up one goal and five assists for a great six points. That gave him a pretty decent point per game percentage of .46%.

This is where things get pretty cool. Kapanen so far this year, has played for the Edmonton Oilers in two postseason games. With an average time on ice of 14:41 in those games, he managed to bury one goal and be +1 in the process. The goal that he scored wasn’t just any goal, it just so happened to be the series winner, game winning, Western Conference Final clinching, overtime goal against the team that eliminated them two years ago to that day.