The history of trades between the Oilers and Canucks

Despite being division rivals, the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks have had a rather lengthy trade history.

On Wednesday, the Oilers traded Evander Kane to the Canucks, clearing salary cap room to make room for other moves this off-season. In return, the Oilers received a fourth-round pick that has played hot potato between the two teams for the past year.

This trade was the 11th between the two Canadian franchises, dating back to their first trade in 1981. In this article, we’ll look at 10 of those trades.

The first trade

Toward the end of their second season in the National Hockey League, the Oilers traded Blair MacDonald and the rights to Lars-Gunner Petersson to the Canucks in exchange for Ken Berry and Garry Lariviere, on Mar. 10, 1981.

MacDonald joined the Oilers in their second World Hockey Association season, playing five seasons for the Oilers in the WHA years in two separate stints. In the Oilers’ debut season in the NHL, MacDonald scored 46 goals and 94 points in 80 games, second only to one player, I’ll let you guess who.

In 1980-81, MacDonald scored 19 goals and 43 points in 51 games, and followed it up with five goals and 14 points in 12 games with the Canucks to finish the season. MacDonald’s only full season was in 1981-82, as he scored 18 goals and 33 points in 59 games. He played 17 more games in the NHL before retiring in 1986-86.

Pettersson never played in the NHL, instead spending his career in the Swedish Elite League. Ken Berry didn’t have that long of a career, playing 55 games in the NHL, with 28 of them coming with the Oilers to start it. He later returned to the Canucks for 27 games.

Lariviere played 219 games in the NHL, scoring six goals and 63 points. He played two seasons with the Québec Nordiques and three seasons with the Oilers, including where he scored a career-high 22 points.

The dynasty trades

During the Oilers’ dynasty days, the two teams made two trades. Exactly six years after the first trade, the Oilers traded Raimo Summanen to the Canucks in exchange for Moe Lemay.

Lemay helped the Oilers win the Stanley Cup in 1987, scoring two goals and three points in nine postseason games. He played another four games with the Oilers in 1987-88, but he was traded to the Boston Bruins on Mar. 8, 1988. He scored four goals and six points in 15 postseason games. Lemay sadly passed away last October.

Summanen played two games with the 1983-84 Oilers, but appeared in five postseason games where he scored a goal and five points. His only full season was in 1985-86, scoring 19 goals and 37 points in 73 games. Summanen scored 10 goals and 17 points in 48 games before the trade, but scored just four goals and 13 points in 19 games to finish his NHL career.

The trade during the dynasty days saw the Oilers trade Greg Adams and Doug Smith for John LeBlanc and a 1989 fifth-round pick that turned out to be Peter White on Mar. 7, 1989.

LeBlanc played 83 NHL games, scoring 26 goals and 39 points. Only two games were played with the Oilers in 1988-89. White, selected 92nd overall, played 220 games in the NHL, scoring 23 goals and 60 points. He played 61 games with the Oilers in the 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1995-96 seasons.

Adams was in the tail end of his career, playing just 12 games with the Canucks in 1988-89, scoring four goals and six points. He only played one more season in the NHL, scoring four goals and 14 points in 35 games. Smith had a similar end to his career, scoring three goals and seven points in 10 games after the trade. He played 40 games in 1989-90, scoring four goals and nine points before heading to Austria to play out his last two seasons.

The post-dynasty trades

In the post-dynasty era (1991-2006), the Oilers and Canucks made three trades. You can also call this Oiler era the “Please stop beating us, Stars” era.

The first trade came on Apr. 7, 1995, as the Oilers traded Roman Oksiuta for Jiří Šlégr. After the trade, Šlégr played 12 games to finish the 1994-95 season, scoring once and picking up six points in 12 games. In his first and only full season as an Oiler, the defenceman scored four goals and 17 points in 57 games. Šlégr played eight more seasons, winning a Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2002. Overall, he finished with 56 goals and 249 points in 522 games.

Oksiuta scored 11 goals and 13 points in 26 games before the trade, finishing the 1994-95 season with five goals and seven points in 12 games. With the 1995-96 Canucks, Oksiuta scored 16 goals and 39 points in 56 games, before being traded to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and scoring seven goals and 12 points in 14 games. Oksiuta’s final season was in 1996-97, split between the Mighty Ducks and Penguins.

A few months later, on Aug. 24, the Oilers traded a 1997 sixth-round pick for Brett Hauer.  That pick turned out to be Larry Shapley, who never played in the NHL and retired after the 1999-2000 season. Hauer played in the NHL, but played just 37 games with four goals and eight points, with 34 of those games coming with the Oilers in two different seasons (1995-96 and 1999-2000).

The last trade during the post-dynasty/please stop beating us, Stars era came on Feb. 16, 2004, as the Oilers acquired Tyler Moss from the Canucks for Peter Sarno. Moss, a netminder, never played for the Oilers, but played 30 NHL games with an .891 save percentage and 3.25 goals against average. Before the trade, Sarno played six games with the 2003-04 Oilers, but played just one more NHL game.

The decade of darkness

The Oilers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, kick-starting the decade of darkness era, where they made just one trade with the Canucks. On Nov. 20, 2014, the Oilers traded Will Acton for Kellan Lain.

Acton played 30 games with the Oilers in 2013-14 and three games with them in 2014-15. His father, Keith, not only played for the Oilers and won a Stanley Cup with them in 1987-88, but he was on the coaching staff of the Oilers when his son was on the team. Will never played another NHL  game and spent his final five seasons in Germany.

Lain played nine NHL games with the Canucks in 2013-14, but spent the majority of his career in the American Hockey League, playing for both the Oklahoma City Barons and Bakersfield Condors.

The McDrai era

The last era, and the one we’re currently in, is the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl era. Not counting Wednesday’s trade, two of the three trades made with the Canucks had a direct impact on the 2024-25 Oiler team. The first trade was on Feb. 24, 2016 trade, when the Oilers sent Philip Larsen to the Canucks for a conditional pick that turned out to be a 2017 fifth. 

Quick history lesson tangent here: Long-time Oiler and then-Captain Shawn Horcoff was traded to the Dallas Stars on Jul. 4, 2013, for a 2016 seventh-rounder and Larsen. A few years later, Nail Yakupov was traded to the St. Louis Blues for Zach Pochiro and a 2017 third-round pick. On draft day, the Oilers traded the fifth-round pick they got from Larsen (126th overall), along with the third-round pick they got from the Blues (82nd overall), to move to the 78th overall pick, using it to select Stuart Skinner.

Skinner may get moved if/when the Oilers trade for a goalie, which would extend this trade tree further. It’d be fun if the Oilers traded him for a pick and used it to select William Horcoff.

Speaking of trade trees, there were two dismal trade trees started by Peter Chiarelli around this time. The one regarding this article saw the Oilers trade fan-favourite Jordan Eberle to the New York Islanders for Ryan Strome. This wasn’t that bad of a trade, but moving Strome, a third-line right-shot centre with control, to the New York Rangers for Ryan Spooner. 

He played just 25 games for the Oilers before being traded to the Canucks for another fan-favourite in Sam Gagner. Spooner played just 11 more NHL games before playing in Russia for the past six seasons.

This was Gagner’s second stint, and he scored five goals and 10 points in 25 games to end the 2018-19 season. The Oilers traded him again before the 2020 trade deadline. This was a nice little trade for the Oilers in a series of pretty bad moves.

That brings us to recent times. On Jul. 15, 2024, the Oilers traded their 2021 first-round draft pick, Xavier Bourgault, along with Jake Chiasson, to the Ottawa Senators for Roby Järventie and a 2024 fourth-round pick. Järventie recently re-signed and could find himself on the Oilers’ roster at some point this coming season.

Later in the summer, after Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway received offer sheets, the Oilers flipped that fourth round pick to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Vasily Podkolzin on Aug. 18, 2024.

Podkolzin found success with the Oilers in 2024-25, playing all 82 games and scoring eight goals and 24 points. In the postseason, he scored three goals and 10 points in 22 games, fine production for a player used in a middle-six role.

As for that fourth, well, that was the fourth the Canucks traded back to the Oilers in exchange for Evander Kane on Wednesday. Who knows what happens next with that pick? Could the Oilers find a diamond in the rough? Could it be packaged with the 83rd overall pick to move up?

It’ll be interesting to see what happens on Saturday.