13 former Oilers players set to represent at Beijing Olympics

Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

The Edmonton Oilers will be well represented at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Indirectly.

Though the NHL isn’t participating in the Winter Games, that hasn’t stopped the Oilers connection to the tournament from piling up.

In all, the Oilers have 13 former players set to represent their respective countries in the Olympics from February 9 to 20, 2022, in Beijing, China.

The NHL and NHLPA came to an agreement to withdraw from the Olympics last month. The decision was made as a result of rising cases of COVID-19 and the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Still, there’s plenty of reason to keep watch.

Starting with Team Canada.

The Oilers have two former players, including current Bakersfield Condors farmhand Adam Cracknell. The Olympic nod will actually be a homecoming of sorts for the journeyman NHLer, who spent the 2019-20 season playing for Kunlun Red Star in China. He’ll be joined on the team by David Desharnais, who spent 18 of his 524 NHL games with the Oilers.

Canada will play opposite the United States, Germany, and China in Group A.

Edmonton won’t have any representatives on either Team USA or China, but do have a pair of teammates set to skate with Germany in Tobias Rieder and Dominik Kahun. Rieder played in Edmonton in 2018-19 and Kahun skated with the club last season.

Three former Edmontonians will skate in Group B.

Anton Slepyshev, who played 102 games with the Oilers from 2015-2018, will represent the Russian Olympic Committee, and Gaetan Haas, who played two seasons in Edmonton, will play for Switzerland. Patrick Russell, who played eight of his 59 games with Edmonton last season, will skate for Denmark.

Group C will be the most active for former Oilers.

Finland will skate three former players in Markus Granlund, Iiro Pakarinen, and Teemu Hartikainen, and Finland will dress Anton Lander. Tomas Jurco and Martin Marincin, familiar faces in their own right, will represent Slovakia, too.

As an added bonus, Rihards Bukarts will represent Latvia. Bukarts never played for the Oilers, but did attend training camp with the team in 2015.

Here’s every player that’s suited up for the Oilers that is set to play at the Olympics:

GROUP A

CANADA

Adam Cracknell
David Desharnais

UNITED STATES

None

GERMANY

Dominik Kahun
Tobias Rieder

CHINA

None

GROUP B

ROC (RUSSIA)

Anton Slepyshev

CZECHIA

None

SWITZERLAND

Gaetan Haas

DENMARK

Patrick Russell

GROUP C

FINLAND

Markus Granlund
Iiro Pakarinen
Teemu Hartikainen

SWEDEN

Anton Lander

SLOVAKIA

Tomas Jurco
Martin Marincin

LAVTIA

None

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