Nugent-Hopkins to pass Lowe as Oilers’ games leader

File photo, not from Tuesday’s game: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at Capital One Arena in Washington, Feb. 2, 2022. Photo: All-Pro Reels via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is set to become the franchise’s all-time leader in games played Tuesday night when the team visits the New Jersey Devils, passing Hockey Hall of Famer Kevin Lowe.

Nugent-Hopkins is tied with Lowe at 1,037 career games with the Oilers, TSN reported. His next appearance will be his 1,038th, according to NHL.com. Puck drop at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

Lowe and Nugent-Hopkins are the only players in team history with at least 1,000 games in an Oilers sweater, NHL.com reported. Lowe won five Stanley Cups with Edmonton between 1979 and 1992 and was the team’s president when Nugent-Hopkins was selected first overall in the 2011 NHL draft.

Nugent-Hopkins made his debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rexall Place on Oct. 9, 2011, NHL.com reported. He scored his first NHL goal with 4:55 left in regulation of a 2-1 shootout victory.

“I’m very lucky and fortunate to have been able to hit this milestone with this team,” Nugent-Hopkins said, according to NHL.com. “I feel the love.”

He also said that playing his whole career in Edmonton was the goal from the start. “This was the dream when I got drafted,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Start my career here, finish my career here.”

Lowe, in comments carried by the Edmonton Journal and TSN, praised the player who is about to pass him. “He’s been a solid player and a fan favourite since he arrived,” Lowe said. “Playing that many games for one organization says tons about his talent, consistency and, of course, his character.”

Devils forward Connor Brown, who was Nugent-Hopkins’s teammate in Edmonton from 2023 to 2025, told NHL.com: “He does everything right.”

NHL.com reported the Oilers marked the occasion with a morning team celebration that included T-shirts and a video. The T-shirts carried the number 1,038. Nugent-Hopkins also said he had received messages from his wife, Breanne.

The milestone arrives as the player is producing again after missing time with a lower-body injury. Nugent-Hopkins has three goals and four assists, for seven points, in six games this season, according to NHL.com and TSN.

Among Oilers career leaders, he ranks eighth in goals with 294, sixth in assists with 517 and seventh in points with 811, both outlets reported.

Edmonton was without a playoff berth in seven of Nugent-Hopkins’s first eight seasons, TSN reported, but the club has been a fixture in the postseason in recent years. The Oilers enter Tuesday first in the Western Conference at 11-2-2 through 15 games.

Recent Oilers results on this site include a 4-0 win over the New York Islanders on Oct. 31, a 4-0 shutout of the Calgary Flames on Oct. 28 and a 4-3 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 26.

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Via TSN and NHL.com: NHL.com, TSN.