Top 100 Oilers: No. 90 — Pat Maroon

Notable

Maroon’s lone full season in Edmonton was the best of his career. He scored 27 goals in 81 games in 2016-17 and played a key role in snapping the playoff drought known as the Decade of Darkness.

From the start, he meshed with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. They were his most common linemates, and with Maroon on the ice with one of them, the Oilers controlled 57 percent of the goals. His 2017-18 was quieter, but he still scored 14 goals in 57 games before a pre-deadline deal to the Devils.

After Edmonton, Maroon joined his hometown St. Louis Blues and helped the team win their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2018-19. Maroon then won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021, putting him in the company of NHLers who have won at least three consecutive championships.

The Story

“The Big Rig” became a fan favourite for more than just scoring goals. In Edmonton, willingness to drop the mitts goes a long way, and Maroon never hesitated. He was not an Oiler when Flyers defenceman Brandon Manning injured McDavid, but he made sure to answer for it the first chance he got.

Fans also saw his softer side. In December 2016, in St. Louis, Maroon teared up when Sportsnet’s Gene Principe showed him a video of his son, Anthony, watching from the crowd. Ask an Oilers fan for a favourite Maroon memory, and many will pick that moment over any of the 52 he scored in Edmonton, including playoffs.

Maroon was traded at the 2018 deadline and then won three straight Stanley Cups: one with St. Louis in 2019 and two with Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021. He arrived in Edmonton as a run-of-the-mill bottom-six winger. He left with real questions about whether he could produce away from McDavid. He did, and along the way became one of the sport’s most beloved personalities.

While he didn’t win here and may be remembered more for what he did in other sweaters, it’s hard to imagine Maroon’s career unfolding the same way without his stop in Edmonton. He was given a shot as a top-line player with the Oilers and earned a reputation as somebody who could deliver.

What Brownlee said

I’m a sucker for underdogs and longshots. That’s why I’ve always liked Patrick Maroon. That, and the fact Maroon is big, bottom-six tough and has shown he has top-six hands when he keeps his gloves on and just plays the game.

Players like Maroon can be a real find, especially when you get them for cheap, like Edmonton Oilers’ GM Pete Chiarelli did at the trade deadline in sending spare part Martin Gernat and a draft pick to Anaheim to acquire the hulking winger. The Ducks even sweetened the pot by retaining $500,000 of Maroon’s $2-million salary.

Simply put, the six-foot-three, 230-pound Maroon, like reclamation project Zack Kassian, brings dimensions the Oilers need – he’s a combination of size, nastiness and skill the Oilers have been lacking for years among their top-nine forwards. If all your crashers and bangers are stuck on the fourth line because they aren’t capable of playing higher, you’re doing it wrong. Until now, the Oilers have been doing it wrong.

Maroon, playing right wing on a line with Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl, scored his second goal in three games with the Oilers in a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets Sunday and has two assists. He scored his first goal as an Oiler and was a physical force in a 4-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday. That’s a helluva first impression.

The Last 10

• No. 100 — Mark Lamb
• No. 99 — Bryan Marchment
• No. 98 — Kent Nilsson
• No. 97 — Dean McAmmond
• No. 96 — Ladislav Smid
• No. 95 — Marty Reasoner
• No. 94 — Jeff Petry
• No. 93 — Dave Manson
• No. 92 — Willy Lindstrom
• No. 91 — Sheldon Souray