Raffi Torres reflects on Oilers camaraderie and Stanley Cup run
There isn’t a moment in Raffi Torres’ hockey career more poignant than the trade to the Edmonton Oilers.
Now retired and coaching youth hockey in Stouffville, Ontario, the former Oiler joined the Sekeres and Price Podcast to reminisce about his time in the NHL, which included a run to the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton in 2006.
“This was a team you wanted to play for,” Torres told hosts Matt Sekeres and Blake Price.
“The second we got on the ice for practice, it was all out, guys going out there, and there’s always a few scuffles, but at the end of the day, it was such a great environment, and I was happy that I was there.”
Torres played 276 games with the Oilers, scoring 67 goals, including a 27-goal season in 2005-06, the year following the NHL lockout.
Trade to Oilers was best thing to happen to him
After failing to settle in with the New York Islanders, the team that drafted him fifth overall in the 2000 NHL Draft, Torres found his footing with the Oilers, scoring 20 goals in the final year of the “dead puck era” ahead of the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
Torres agreed the move was the best thing to happen to him.
“Not to knock anyone on the Island, but it was tough; I felt like I was not wanted,” he said.
“There were guys in that room that were walking right by me like I was the first-round pick; you’d think a simple ‘congratulations, kid’ could go a long way for a young kid. A simple pat on the back and saying, ‘you looked good out there today in practice,’ can go a long way.”
After playing 31 games with the Islanders over two seasons and spending most of his time with the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Isles sent the former OHL star to Edmonton, along with Brad Isbister, for Janne Niinimaa and two draft picks.
The trade, however, was a game-changer for Torres, as he went on to a studded stint with the Oilers, including a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
“When I got traded there, and I walked into training camp for the first time, guys like Ethan Moreau, Steve Staios, Jason Smith, Igor Ulanov, Shawn Horcoff, they went out of their way to say ‘hey you, you’re coming out with us for lunch,” he said.
“I was like, ‘you guys are talking to me?’ I’m not used to this kind of stuff.”
After those first training camp sessions, Torres recalls a lunch at that he says was “the longest lunch” he’s ever had.
“We went and got buckled at Joey’s,” he said. “I was like, man, this is where I belong.”
Yet, it was the tightness of that group that stands out for Torres. “The atmosphere was great, great group of guys and everyone cared for each other and would do anything for each other.”
2006 Stanley Cup run powered by camaraderie
The Oilers’ camaraderie continued pushing them to success, eventually to the Stanley Cup Final and a seven-game series loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. But it was the opening series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings that changed the mantra of the Oilers’ locker room.
“When we knocked out Detroit,” Torres said of when he knew there was something special about the Oiler group those playoffs. “We knew that we had just knocked off a team that had guys like [Chris] Chelios, [Steve] Yzerman was on there, [Pavel] Datsyuk and all those big names.”
That season, as the Oilers snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed in the Western Conference, was the best of Torres’ career, potting a career-high 27 goals and 41 points without missing a game.
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