Nuge Week: A one-on-one with Oilers\u2019 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins discussing his 1,000th Game<\/p>\n
Tonight, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins<\/a> will become the first Edmonton Oiler<\/a> to play his first 1000 NHL games with the Oilers. Next season, he will pass Kevin Lowe for the most games played in Oilers history.<\/p>\n Lowe played 966 games with the Oilers before joining the New York Rangers in 1992\/1993. He won his 6th Stanley Cup with the Rangers in 1994 and then returned to Edmonton and played 64 games in 1997 and seven in 1998 before retiring. RNH has already surpassed Lowe\u2019s record of 966 consecutive games as an Oiler, and tonight he will join Lowe as the only two players to play 1000 games. RNH will pass Lowe\u2019s franchise mark of 1037 games early next season, but tonight he will be honoured with the Silver Stick, among other gifts, for playing his 1000th NHL game.<\/p>\n I sense this is a big deal for Oilers fans, young and old. Nugent-Hopkins is one of the most beloved Oilers of all time. He was never the best player on the team, but he\u2019s been incredibly consistent and his offensive skills are likely a bit underrated because he plays with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Those who are superstars, and while RNH isn\u2019t a superstar he\u2019s a really good player.<\/p>\n He is the 417th player in NHL history to play 1000 games. He\u2019s currently 208th all-time in scoring with 782 games and seems destined to reach 1000 career points. Leon Draisaitl was the 103rd player to do it early this season, and RNH will likely he the 112th-115th depending on how productive he and some other active players are over the coming seasons. RNH has had an amazing career, and he\u2019s only 32 and likely has at least six more seasons to play.<\/p>\n Tonight\u2019s game will be a celebration of his accomplishments with the Oilers, but it also represents something bigger. Loyalty, resiliency and perseverance. The Oilers and RNH have been equally loyal to one another. RNH was handed a $6m contract for seven seasons after only two years in the NHL and Nugent-Hopkins repaid them by signing his third contract at what has become a great value contract at $5.125m for eight years. He is a great example of why not taking a major payday can benefit the team and player. RNH has already made over $70m and has another three years remaining on his contract, but he has never been looked at negatively by fans because of his AAV. It isn\u2019t always fair to judge a player solely on their salary, but many do, and RNH has masterfully made great money, while also remaining in the city he loves and adhering himself to the fans because his AAV isn\u2019t out of whack. It is unfortunate that some fans only view a player through the lens of their salary, but it is something players should consider. I\u2019d argue the pressure of living up to a large contract is more than living up to a being a high draft pick. There is an ugly side to how people view money and RNH has avoided that.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also performed well. As outlined above, he\u2019s on track to score 1000 points and could easily finish his career in the top 100 scorers of all-time. That illustrates how consistent he has been, without being flashy, and is a great reminder how being consistent and reliable is as important as being great. It is difficult to be great, but it is also challenging to be consistent for 15 years and RNH has done that.<\/p>\n I had a chance to speak with Nugent-Hopkins about his upcoming milestone and his time with the Oilers.<\/p>\n Jason Gregor: You will be the first player in franchise history\u00a0to play his first 1,000 games in the NHL as an Oilers. What does that mean to you?<\/p>\n Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: \u00a0Yeah, it definitely means a lot. I mean, I\u2019ve been very fortunate, first of all, to be drafted here to this organization and to be able to have kind of stuck around through some tough times and to have the trust of the organization behind me. It is a huge honour for me. It\u2019s been a privilege to play these years here in Edmonton and with such a great group and a great group of fans. So just very fortunate and obviously I\u2019m not stopping now. I want to keep going and I want to keep playing a lot more in this building.<\/p>\n Gregor: You\u2019ve had a really unique relationship with the fans. They called you \u201cBaby Nuge\u201d from a young age. You\u2019ve been here through the worst times and now some very good times and for a generation of fans, Ryan Nugent Hopkins is their guy. How do you relate to that as a player? \u00a0Do you feel that from the fan base?<\/p>\n RNH: I definitely feel the support from the fans for sure.\u00a0They\u2019ve always been great to me. They supported me.\u00a0Obviously, I came in as a first overall pick, so you have a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations. I feel like they kind of stuck with me\u00a0through some tougher years. They\u2019ve been great to myself and my family.\u00a0I mean, they\u2019re in general just a great fan base, but I\u2019ve been very fortunate the way that they\u2019ve treated me\u00a0and I definitely don\u2019t take it for granted.<\/p>\n Gregor: Looking back, how tough was the Decade of Darkness. You lived the last half of it.<\/p>\n RNH: Or course you want to have success\u00a0as a hockey player. I feel like a lot of us growing up on your junior teams and your minor hockey team you have that success and you\u2019re not used to losing a lot.\u00a0But then in the NHL we faced some adversity. A lot of it. My first few years, obviously we were going through it a little bit, and you had to find a way to deal with that\u00a0and focus on trying to improve the team any way you can. But at the same time, improve your own game individually.\u00a0And it wasn\u2019t always easy. To be honest it was really frustrating at times,\u00a0but to be on the other side of it now is very rewarding. It almost made the hard times worth it. Almost (laughs).<\/p>\n Gregor: You mentioned those early years, and you came in as the number one pick overall. There was a lot of expectations, and you were mainly an offensive player prior to to the NHL, but early on you seemed to embrace the defensive responsibility and in a way sacrifice offense. Where\u2019d that come from? And was that a tough decision looking back?<\/p>\n RNH: \u00a0Yeah, I think it was pretty quick for me to understand that it was something that I needed to work on and an area of my game where I maybe needed a little more focus than other parts of my game. If I wanted to be able to help the team in that sense, I didn\u2019t want to just be that running around player and just be a pure offensive guy.<\/p>\n And I had to change some things, and I definitely focused on it for a few years. And whether or not it hurt me offensively a little bit, that\u2019s kind of the growing pains you go through as a young player in this league. I\u2019m happy that I took that time to kind of grow my game. And I\u2019m still trying to. Everybody\u2019s always trying to find the right mix of offense and defense.<\/p>\n I\u2019m happy that I took that time\u00a0and in that stage of my career to focus on the defensive side of things.<\/p>\n Gregor: \u00a0You will play your 1000th game on Sunday at home. Did you ever think of doing it? Was that a goal at some point in your career where you thought I want to play 1000 as an Oiler?<\/p>\n RNH: To a certain extent,\u00a0I don\u2019t know about the number itself,\u00a0but I mean, when I first got here it definitely it was a goal of mine to play my whole career here. I want to win here\u00a0and be on a successful team here. The 1000 game mark, obviously it\u2019s a milestone,\u00a0but it\u2019s more so I think in my mind\u00a0was I want to have my career in Edmonton.<\/p>\n I know it doesn\u2019t happen a whole lot in this league. And I think as a young kid, you think it happens more than it actually does. And as I\u2019ve kind of grown up in this league, you start to realize that it\u2019s not that often it happens. So, I take a lot of pride in that and I\u2019m very lucky to have been able to do it so far to this point.<\/p>\n Gregor: You\u2019ve been here the longest, and you have some superstar teammates who really respect you and look up to you. Do you feel a bit like a proud big brother when you watch the growth of the younger top picks in Connor, Leon and Darnell?<\/p>\n RNH: It\u2019s been a lot of fun for me. Especially Connor,\u00a0he came in with these crazy expectations. I mean, we talked about my own expectations, but they\u2019re a lot different than what Connor came in with and to see him embrace that and turn into the player he is, and probably exceeding expectations. It is impressive and it has been a lot of fun to be a part of and a lot of fun to watch.<\/p>\n And same thing with Leon.\u00a0I mean, the way that he took some steps\u00a0early in his career to just excel himself\u00a0to become one of the best players in the world. It is really impressive. And Darnell has rounded his game out\u00a0as one of the best defensive defensemen, with some good offensive ability. He is one of the harder guys\u00a0to play against in the league.<\/p>\n In that group, they\u2019re mature, they are not kids anymore, but they came in and they came in together too, which I think helped them a decent amount. They were tight right from the get-go and they kind of fed off each other and learned from each other a little bit. But to see the evolution for those three has been pretty special for me.<\/p>\n Gregor: Who was your funniest teammate?<\/p>\n RNH: The funniest ever.\u00a0That\u2019s so tough.\u00a0Actually, I lived with that Mark Arcabello.\u00a0He was a character. He always had us laughing. \u00a0He was always yapping and had some great jokes. But Kass (Zach Kassian) was another guy who you just sit there\u00a0and kind of listen to all day.\u00a0He had a lot of funny moments. There\u2019s so many guys who have come through here.\u00a0And a lot of guys,\u00a0I feel like that\u2019s kind of part of their identity is keeping things light in the room, but those two would stand out.<\/p>\n Gregor: Who\u2019s your most competitive fantasy football teammate?<\/p>\n RNH: Probably Hymes (Zach Hyman).<\/p>\n Gregor: Does he think he\u2019s a GM\/owner like he is in the OHL?<\/p>\n RNH: (laughs). Yes, and I think that\u2019s what helps him. He\u2019s kind of got that mind for it. He\u2019s good with it and it\u2019s not just fantasy sports, but any of the pools and stuff that we do, especially football, he\u2019s pretty dialed into.<\/p>\n Gregor: A sneaky element of your game is when you\u2019ve dropped the mitts you\u2019ve done quite well. Which one of your teammates was most surprised by your fighting prowess?<\/p>\n RNH: I think the guy who I surprised the most with fighting in general was Ekky (Mattias Ekholm). I think it was his first game as an Oiler, and I think that was when I fought Holl from Toronto. He was taken back a little bit. He didn\u2019t expect that for sure. Obviously, I\u2019m not out there running guys\u00a0and trying to pick fights and stuff, so new guys to the team or younger guys don\u2019t expect it. I think Ekky\u2019s reaction was probably the funniest.<\/p>\n Gregor: What are you expecting for your t-shirt?\u00a0Do you know what picture will be on it?<\/p>\n RNH: I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve been wondering that, actually.\u00a0I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some stupid ones out there.\u00a0They always try to go with something\u00a0not flattering, so I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll find one. I\u2019m actually excited about it.<\/p>\n Gregor: Enjoy the night, it is well deserved.<\/p>\n RNH: Thanks, Jason. I appreciate that.<\/p>\n Nugent-Hopkins will receive a massive ovation tonight. He\u2019s earned it.<\/p>\n Other Nuge week contentARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nuge Week: A one-on-one with Oilers\u2019 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins discussing his 1,000th Game Tonight, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will become the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-418719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}