Fort McMurray native Upshall accepts offer to tryout for Oilers
When he was just a child, Scottie Upshall was all Oilers, all the time.
“Yeah, I had the sweater and I wore the Gretzky Jofa helmet,” Upshall said with a laugh.
It’s taken the 34-year-old left winger from Fort McMurray six NHL teams and 16 pro seasons to finally get a chance to play for the team he was fascinated with as a child. And it’s only an audition, not a sure thing.
But Upshall sounded thrilled over the phone Sunday from his summer home in Newport Beach, Calif., even though he’ll only be at camp with a professional tryout offer. No contract yet.
Upshall, who has played 759 NHL games, with stops with the Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers, Arizona Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues, has been down the PTO road before. This will be his third try.
He earned a contract with the Blues in 2015, then was at the Vancouver Canucks camp on a tryout last fall but was released and the Blues re-signed him. Now it’s the Edmonton Oilers’ turn as they look to him for help as either an extra forward or a fourth-line player.
The Oilers could have the Blues’ penalty-killing tandem of Kyle Brodziak, signed on July 1, and Upshall, who played the fourth most forward minutes shorthanded on the Blues last year. With free-agent signee Tobias Rieder and Zack Kassian, that’s four good penalty-killers on the roster, which is a positive considering they need major reconstruction there after finishing 25th in the league while short-handed last year — and dead-last at home.
There are no guarantee Upshall makes it, but off what he’s done over his NHL career as a solid role-player, he might rate higher on the depth chart than Pontus Aberg as a 13th or 14th forward, especially with Aberg not winning over the coaches last year after he came to the Oilers in a trade. Even at 34, Upshall is still a good skater and he’d be a cheap addition in the US$700,000 range.
“I had a great chance to go back to St. Louis on a PTO this year, but when I saw Kyle signing with the Oilers, they got onto my radar. The chemistry I had with Kyle didn’t go unnoticed by me,” said Upshall, who played for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, then the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League before being the sixth overall pick in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Predators.
While there were no contract offers this summer for Upshall, who injured his kidney late last season, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said he would put in a good word with his counterparts around the league.
“Doug and Peter (Oiler GM Chiarelli) are great buddies,” said Upshall, who had good conversations with Chiarelli and Oilers head coach Todd McLellan before signing the PTO.
“Going to camps without a contract is very, very difficult. It is a challenge, but this is my third time.
“The first time it happened I was coming off a long tenure in Florida. I was kind of in panic mode … with no contract offers you are on edge.”
McLellan, who has seen Upshall plenty in Western Conference action, knows what to expect — a fiery, smart player with leadership qualities. And if he makes the team and proves he can be a fourth-liner, maybe that opens the door to trading a younger forward and something else for a defenceman.
“I have that (tryout) experience in my back pocket … you just have to drown out the noise,” Upshall said. “You can’t take any shifts or drills or nights off. You have to stay healthy, play through the bumps and bruises.”
ON THE BENCH
The Oilers will almost surely be adding a defenceman on a PTO as well with Andrej Sekera’s torn Achilles. Brandon Davidson is the leading candidate.