Nugent-Hopkins rewarding Oilers' loyalty by paying dues as unheralded performer

EDMONTON — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was riding high at the pinnacle of a long and fruitless career as an Edmonton Oiler last spring, coming off a two-goal, first-star performance in Game 4 of Edmonton’s second-round series against the Calgary Flames.

After 11 years of toiling away in Edmonton with one playoff series win to show for it, Nugent-Hopkins and the Oilers were hopping a plane down to Calgary up 3-1 in Round 2. They were ready to put the dagger into the hated Flames, the focus of a hockey country finally trained on him and his Oilers for all the right reasons.

Then on an off day between games, his beloved Golden Retriever Sophie died suddenly. She was only seven.

“Hemangiosarcoma,” he said Monday, referencing a common, fatal form of cancer that strikes dogs. “It was after Game 4, in between games. It was pretty rough. It just happened, and I wasn't there….”

Ah, the grand existence of an NHL player. The dog that he and wife Breanne raised from a pup was gone, and there they were, hugging via FaceTime. Neither had the other’s shoulder to cry on.

On Saturday, Vancouver defenceman Ethan Bear missed a game due to the death of his dog. Would Nugent-Hopkins, a true animal lover who owns horses and loves dogs, make the same decision?

“I mean, if it was the regular season, yeah. I think so,” he said. “It's just different when you’re in Game 5.”

Coming off of that two-goal Game 4 in which he led the Oilers in shots on goal (5), had five blocked shots and went 41 per cent in the circle, he hit the Saddledome ice with a heavy heart that only a pet owner knows. Nugent-Hopkins had an assist, a shot on goal, and won only two of 12 faceoffs in the game.

He played.

He wasn’t really good, but he played, and his teammates picked him up in a 5-4 overtime win.

This is life, right? Pets, friends, and loved ones who sometimes leave us too soon.

“You're trying to think about something, but your mind is only on one thing,” he admitted. “I mean, she kind of made us fall in love with the breed. We're (Goldie people) now. And we have the other guy he's awesome.”

Today the Nugent-Hopkins have another Goldie named Willow and a shepherd mix named Rocco, living happily ever after in a beautiful home in Edmonton’s West End.

He has become part of Edmonton’s sports fabric, the baby-faced Nugent-Hopkins, a guy who just never found a reason not to sign another contract with the team that drafted him first overall back in 2011.

“It would have been easy to ship me out for somebody else when things weren't going well in a lot of years,” he recognized. “We've had different GMs, different coaches, and the organizations has stayed loyal to me.”

This season, more than ever, the reward for that loyalty has been rich. At age 29 Nugent-Hopkins is on Year 2 of an eight-year, $41 million deal that should make him an Oilers for the remainder of what will be a 1,200-game career — and he’s posting career numbers.

Nugent-Hopkins is tied for 11th in NHL scoring with 57 points, and has 22 goals. His career highs are 28 goals and 69 points, and the Oilers have 34 games to play.

His cap hit of $5.125 million, coupled with Zach Hyman’s $5.5 million, are two massive bargains for the 11th and 13th leading scorers in the league. Nugent-Hopkins has one more point than Mitch Marner, even if he gets less than one-tenth the love from the networks.

“I don't think it's a surprise that he's having the year that he's having given the fact that he has displayed a level of compete that I think is upper echelon,” said his coach, Jay Woodcroft. “His versatility of being able to either drive a line or make people around him better … he complements a lot of different people up and down our lineup.

“He's a real important piece. He helps make us go up front.”

Like that favorite old turntable that may have seemed expendable over the years, today — as the waxy groove of team success rings through Rogers Place — the thought of Nugent-Hopkins finishing his career where it started is sweet, sweet music indeed.

“I've talked to many guys who go around (the NHL). Maybe one thing is better (elsewhere), but it can be worse in certain ways,” he observes. “And, I love playing in a hockey market. I want to be in a spot where it means something to the city and it means something to the people that live here.”

Nugent-Hopkins has become the alternator on this high-powered engine driven by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

On hockey’s best power play, he simply distributes pucks to the correct destination with an acute consistency. Until the moment requires a shot, at which time he has learned to bear down and make them count.

His shooting percentage is 19.6 per cent — seventh among those who have scored 20 or more this season.

He slips onto McDavid or Draisaitl’s left wing like a favorite old football jersey, or centres his own third line between guys like Klim Kostin and Mattias Janmark. He kills penalties, defends a five-on-three, and Woodcroft throws him over the boars in the final minute whether his team is winning 2-1, or losing.

And while McDavid stocks the highlight shows, Nugent-Hopkins just thinks his way through the game. Somehow a rosy-cheeked first-overall pick who never weighed more than 185 pounds has matured into a savvy vet who knows what hole needs to be plugged long before the leak has sprung.

“One of the things I try to be is a smart player. Try to distribute the puck well and make the right plays,” he said. “I try to use my brain and be a more cerebral player out there.

“It doesn't maybe show up on the highlight reel, but I’m just trying to help my team in whatever way I can.”

He’s hoping to help them back to where they went last spring, and perhaps even another step further.

And if it ever happens for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oilers lifer, here in Edmonton, no one can say he didn’t pay his Northern Alberta dues.

“I don't want to be somewhere else in the warm weather,” he said, “looking at this team and what's going on in this room.”