Top 100 Oilers: No. 42 — Bill Guerin

Notable

The trade tree to follow as a result of Bill Guerin is a fascinating one.

They traded Guerin and a draft pick to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Anson Carter, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick.

After a few seasons in Edmonton, Carter was then flipped for Corry Cross and Radek Dvorak. Cross was then a part of the 2006 trade deadline deal to land Dick Tarnstrom, who was later flipped for Curtis Glencross.

The first-round pick turned into Oilers great Ales Hemsky, who had a tremendous career in Edmonton before being traded to the Senators for a couple of draft picks that didn’t turn out.

The second-round pick turned into Doug Lynch, who was a part of the massive package that the Oilers traded for Chris Pronger who after his short time in Edmonton was flipped for a trio of assets including Joffrey Lupul (who became Geoff Sanderson and Joni Pitkanen), Ladi Smid (who was eventually in a trade for Laurent Brossoit) and Jordan Eberle (who you can then turned into Ryan Strome, then Ryan Spooner, then Sam Gagner and then Andreas Athanasiou).

It’s pretty wild to trace things back and think how many future assets that Bill Guerin trade branches off into.

The Story

Guerin went on to play for six more teams in his NHL career. He signed a massive $40m ticket with the Dallas Stars shortly after leaving Edmonton, a signing that cemented the fact that he had price himself out of the world that the small-budget Oilers were operating in.

His time in Edmonton is just a small footnote on a very successful NHL career. He had his best individual seasons came with the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars and he eventually won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009.

One thing that even Guerin himself would tell you that he still values from his time in Edmonton though is his friendship with Doug Weight.

Not only did the two click on the ice, but they were instantly tight off the ice as well.

The two American-born players spent time playing with eachother at tournaments before being teammates in Edmonton but when their relationship grew once they become Oilers.

Weight even talked about his heartbreak over Guerin’s trade with Robin Brownlee saying “I’ve got to sleep on this one. I don’t know what to tell you. Obviously, this is a time that’s difficult. Billy’s a big part of this team and a big part of my life. He’s a very close friend of mine and that’s first and foremost. I’m disappointed he’s leaving.”

Guerin says that he still remains tight with Weight to this day and it’s a bond that might not exist if it wasn’t for their time with the Oilers.

What Brownlee said

I can say without any doubt Bill Guerin absolutely loved playing for the Edmonton Oilers, and he felt that way at a time when the glory days of five Stanley Cups were little more than a faded memory. Teammates and fans, in return, felt the same way about Guerin, a speedy power forward from Massachusetts who arrived in Edmonton via the New Jersey Devils in the 1998 trade that sent Jason Arnott the other way. On the ice, Guerin was a lethal blend of speed, toughness and talent who could play the game any way you wanted to. Off the ice, he was a popular teammate with the gift of the gab, a cutting sense of humor and a penchant for pranks. It sucked, then, when Guerin was traded to Boston just 211 games after arriving – a transaction he found out about not from Oiler GM Kevin Lowe, but from a fan at his daughter’s figure skating practice on Nov. 15, 2000. In between, Guerin was a helluva player for the Oilers.

The Last 10

• No. 52 — Blair MacDonald
• No. 51 — Ethan Moreau
• No. 50 — Stuart Skinner
• No. 49 — Janne Niinimaa
• No. 48 — Jason Arnott
• No. 47 — Oscar Klefbom
• No. 46 — Craig Muni
• No. 45 — Tommy Salo
• No. 44 — Kevin McClelland
• No. 43 — Kelly Buchberger