Former Oiler Sam Gagner Finds New Team

Edmonton Oilers fans have been patient for a long time. This past summer, they were treated to another almost-won Championship after falling one win short of a Stanley Cup in 2006. Although the Oilers almost completed a miraculous comeback in the final series, things haven’t always been rosy in Alberta’s capital.

“The decade of darkness” was highlighted by many years of poor performances, which led to many high draft picks. Fortunately, one of those selections was Sam Gagner.

Gagner was the sixth overall pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft. Despite the high selection, he never truly reached his full offensive potential.

However, during his first tenure with the Oilers, he quickly became a fan favorite and was a symbol of hope for the fans.

Gagner had a stint with the team last year. In 28 games, he recorded 10 points despite only averaging 10:13 per game.

Up to this point of the 2024-25 season, he hasn’t found a new team to play for until now.

The Belleville Senators announced an AHL professional tryout with Gagner just this morning. According to the team’s press release, Gagner is expected to play for the Senators tonight.

I’m sure many Oilers fans would have loved seeing Gagner return to Edmonton. However, their patience was not rewarded in that way.

Instead, Gagner has an opportunity to play hockey at a high level and be close to home in Ontario.

In that sense, Gagner’s patience has definitely been rewarded.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — There are a lot of people that would love to be living Travis Kelce’s life these days. He’s a bona fide NFL star for the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. He’s appearing everywhere from TV shows to advertisements, and he just happens to be dating the biggest pop star on the planet.

When Kelce thinks back to his days growing up, though, he always wanted to be like … like Josh Allen?

Yep, Kelce always envisioned himself under center, just like the Bills quarterback, making big plays with his arm and legs in the NFL. But it turned out that he never quite had Allen’s arm talent, so somewhere along the way a very prescient coach switched him to tight end, and he has turned out to be one of the best at that position to ever play the game.

“Josh is who I used to dream of being like in the NFL,” Kelce said Friday, after a final practice before his Chiefs face Allen and the Bills at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night in an AFC championship game that has all the makings of a heavyweight fight.

“Big, athletic quarterback. Big arm. Being able to be a dual-threat guy,” Kelce continued, almost wistfully. “His ability to do everything — you can tell, he really took the bull by the horns and been their leader up front, and channeled that. Guys come in and out of the building and he’s the main guy that makes them go, and I have a lot of respect for that guy.”

There are certainly some similarities between the two. Kelce is 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, which is about ideal for a tight end, while Allen stands 6-5 and goes about 240. Both starred at colleges that often struggle for the spotlight, Kelce at Cincinnati and Allen at Wyoming. And both have continued to keep their teams near the top of the NFL pecking order.

The Chiefs are in the AFC championship game for the seventh consecutive season. The Bills are back for the second time in five seasons, trying to avenge a 38-24 loss at Arrowhead Stadium in 2021 that propelled Kansas City to a Super Bowl triumph.

While Kelce may not have Allen’s big arm, he can certainly spin it. He threw for 1,523 yards passing with 15 touchdowns while running for 1,016 yards and 10 more scores his senior year at Cleveland Heights High School in Ohio.

He’s even had a couple of chances in NFL games. During a 2020 matchup with the Raiders, he threw a 4-yard pass that picked up a first down. The following week against Tampa Bay, Kelce got another opportunity but threw incomplete.

Then there are the off-script throws. Kelce has filled an entire highlight reel of plays in which he catches the ball, laterals to someone else and watches them take off for more yardage. They are close-your-eyes moments for Chiefs coach Andy Reid and Kelce’s good buddy, Patrick Mahomes, but he’s earned the leeway to make such audacious plays.

“He does that in practice,” Mahomes said with a smile, “and it started off as kind of a joke, and now it’s kind of become a thing. As long as he completes it, Coach is going to keep letting him do it. But he knows the consequences if he doesn’t.”

It’s unlikely that Kelce will do anything too crazy against the Bills, who led the NFL in turnover differential this season. But the Chiefs would certainly take another vintage playoff performance like he had in the divisional round against Houston.

The 35-year-old Kelce caught seven passes for 117 yards and a touchdown in the 23-14 victory last weekend.

There were a lot of folks who thought Kelce was washed up after a below-his-standard regular season, one in which he still had 97 catches for 823 yards. Those critics said he wasn’t focused on football anymore, that Kelce spent too much time in front of TV cameras and globe-hopping with his girlfriend, Taylor Swift. And that he must be nearing the end of the road.

Kelce heard it all, by the way. But it didn’t faze him one bit.

“I laugh at it,” he said. “It’s fine, man. As long as we’re going out there and winning, that’s all that matters.”