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Top 100 Oilers: No. 71 — Anson Carter

Originally posted on Oilersnation | By Tyler Yaremchuk | Last updated Oct 10, 2025 11:03 AM ET

Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Anson Carter comes in at No. 71 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 46 on Brownlee’s original list.

Anson Carter was never supposed to have the career that he did.

Drafted in the 10th round in 1992, a round that no longer exists, it took Carter until the 1996-97 season to make his NHL debut, and it would take another two seasons for him to become a full-time NHLer with the Boston Bruins.

Carter found his way to Edmonton via trade in November of 2000 when the Oilers traded Bill Guerin and a first-round pick to the Bruins in exchange for Carter and a pile of draft picks, one of which would turn into Ales Hemsky.

Carter was only in Edmonton for three years, but they were damn fine seasons.

Highlighted by a 28-goal campaign in 2001-02, the only season he played in all 82 games, Carter finished his Oilers career with 157 points in 211 games.

Edmonton traded Carter to the New York Rangers at the 2003 deadline in a deal that brought them Radek Dvorak and Cory Cross.

Via The Nation Network

Notable

Carter’s best season did not come in copper and blue. It actually came on the West Coast when he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks.

He spent exactly one season with the Canucks, and it was the best year of his career. He played on a line with Henrik and Daniel Sedin, and the trio was known colloquially as The Brothers Line.

Those three set the league on fire that season, and Carter scored a career high of 31 goals.

It seemed like a perfect fit, but that summer, Carter did not re-sign with the Canucks and instead went to Columbus, where his career began to fizzle out.

He had a decent season with the Blue Jackets in 2006-07, but it would be his final season in the league. After returning to the Oilers on a PTO in the fall of 2007, Carter would ultimately be released.

He would play one season in Europe before announcing his retirement.

The Story

Carter’s involvement in hockey did not end after his retirement in 2008.

The man they call ‘Ace’ is now one of the sport’s most popular commentators and holds a seat on the main panel for TNT’s national broadcasts in the USA.

On top of that, Carter is also a minority owner of the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators and is a part of a group that is looking to bring the NHL back to Atlanta for a third time.

For a kid whose parents immigrated from Barbados, who didn’t start seriously playing hockey until he was eight years old, and who was drafted 220th overall, Carter has become a hockey lifer, and his passion for the game, even long after his playing days, is something that should be admired.

Via The Nation Network

What Brownlee said

Carter makes my list because of what he did on the ice, but there’s so much more to him. He defied the odds just to make it to the NHL after being drafted 220th overall in 1992. Carter’s work ethic was impeccable. His talent undeniable. Off the ice, his interests were many – he loved exotic cars and took great interest in the entertainment industry, fashion and hip-hop in particular. Carter was the best dressed player I’ve ever seen – no matter what anybody else wore, it looked like they were clad in potato sacks compared to Ace. Carter had it going on. And he could play.

Raised in Toronto, history tells us that Carter was a longshot to have any kind of NHL career as a 10th-round draft pick when he finally hit the pros after four seasons with the Michigan State Spartans. Play he did, with his best years coming with the Oilers after being acquired in a November 2000 trade that sent popular and prolific Bill Guerin to the Boston Bruins (the trade also landed the Oilers a first-round pick that turned into Ales Hemsky).