Sam Gagner is back with the Oilers organization... kind of
Sam Gagner is officially under contract with the Edmonton Oilers organization… kind of.
The Bakersfield Condors, the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, announced on Monday morning that they had signed Gagner to a one-year AHL deal.
The Condors have signed winger Sam Gagner to an AHL deal. He will wear 89 in #Condorstown.
📰 https://t.co/yLGbamOTQo pic.twitter.com/PdNHPetsuB
— Bakersfield Condors (@Condors) October 23, 2023
Gagner was invited to the Oilers training camp on a professional try-out last month. He was able to practice with the team but did not appear in any preseason games. This was due to some lingering issues stemming from hip surgery over the summer.
Now that a deal has been signed, it appears that Gagner is ready to step back into game action. This will be his second time playing for the Condors, as he previously had a brief four-game conditioning stint with the club back in 2019.
This means that the 34-year-old veteran will not be eligible for an NHL call-up. That would require him to sign an NHL deal, which is still possible.
Sam Gagner has signed an AHL deal with Bakersfield. Before going down he was looking forward to getting in games and "seeing how it goes." No guarantee this will lead to NHL contract, but he wants to get back on the ice after hip surgery and see where he is at. Believes he can…
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) October 23, 2023
Oilers fans are no strangers to Gagner. The team drafted him sixth overall at the 2007 NHL Draft and he has played 542 games in an Oilers jersey. Over that time he has been able to pick up 317 points.
Despite this long history, Gagner has also been traded twice by the Oilers.
The first came in 2014 when he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Teddy Purcell. Gagner was then traded back to the Oilers from the Vancouver Canucks in 2019. That second stint in Edmonton only lasted a year as he was then traded to the Detroit Red Wings at the 2020 trade deadline for Andreas Athanasiou.
Gagner is coming off an eventful season with the Winnipeg Jets. The London, Ontario, native played in his 1,000 NHL game on December 29 with the Jets. He also served as a depth forward for the team, notching 14 points in 48 games.