A former Edmonton Oilers fan favourite has returned to the organization, but it won’t be an on-ice role.
Zack Kassian, who played for the Oilers for seven seasons between 2015 and 2022, will rejoin the organization as a pro scout after officially retiring from professional hockey last season.
No formal announcement was made about the hire, but his name did appear in the Oilers training camp guide given to members of the media on Wednesday morning.
The 33-year-old will join an Oilers pro-scouting team that already includes Chris Cichocki, Warren Rychel, and Dani Rylan-Kearney.
Kassian joins an #Oilers pro scouting team that includes Chris Cichocki, Warren Rychel, and Dani Rylan-Kearney https://t.co/UZ5uhaQfKe pic.twitter.com/zFe9FWAWqQ
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) September 18, 2024
This is a reunion that should not surprise many people. Kassian’s best years in the NHL came with the Oilers and he was around the team for much of last season’s playoff run, famously even featuring in the team’s pre-game hype video on the jumbo-tron.
Kassian was initially drafted by the Buffalo Sabres 13th overall in the 2009 NHL draft. He played a total of 27 games for the Sabres before being traded to Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Cody Hodgson. From there, Kassian built up a reputation of being one of the toughest players in the league, spending four seasons on the West Coast before then being flipped to the Montreal Canadiens.
The bruiser wasn’t able to get any playing time with the Canadiens and was plagued with a bevy of personal issues. In 2015, the Oilers decided to give Kassian a second chance at an NHL career, trading for him in a deal that sent goaltender Ben Scrivens the other way.
It was a gamble that paid off for Edmonton as Kassian was able to overcome his personal issues and blossomed into a productive middle-six winger, topping out with a 34 point season in 2019-20.
When the Oilers faced a tight cap in the summer of 2022, the team traded Kassian to the Arizona Coyotes, where he spent a single season before briefly playing overseas and calling it a career.
While Kassian might not have been known as the most-skilled Oilers player at any given time, we’ll see if all that time playing alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can help him identify skilled players for the team target.