Oilers' Bjugstad flourishing while filling necessary support role

EDMONTON — We all become such experts each year around the trade deadline, when it comes to which players will help the teams we cover — or we cheer for — and who isn’t worth trading for. 

When a name like Nick Bjugstad comes up, folks in Edmonton talk as if we regularly watch Arizona play — or Florida — with the same intensity, say, that we watch our own team. Or even the way we watch the Leafs, Canucks, Flames or Jets. 

I was wrong on Nick Bjugstad. I thought I knew what he was, and as luck would have it, the few people I spoke to about him basically agreed with my assumptions. They were wrong too. 

He was big, but fairly soft, my limited viewings told me. He came into the league as a scorer, but he really never was one at the NHL level. So he wouldn’t help so much with the support offence that Edmonton sought.  

So that’s my mea culpa. 

But here’s why I’m not feeling shame, after watching Bjugstad much more closely in the eight games he has played since being traded at the deadline to the Edmonton Oilers. 

He’s a way more useful player than I thought he was, I now see. But now I come to learn, Bjugstad wasn’t exactly sure who he was as a hockey player either, until recently. 

“I had a lot to learn, I think,” began the 30-year-old, a first-round pick who has played 607 games for five different NHL teams. “I was a scorer. I played high school hockey until I was 17 and never really left Minnesota until I was 20. I always wanted to learn — it just took me a while to really learn the NHL game. 

“I talked to my coach since I was five years old, and he was preaching a lot of the stuff that I'm finally executing. It's finally kicking in 25 years later yeah. Slow learner.” 

Bjugstad laughs. 

“This game,” he said. “I've learned a lot about myself and a lot about the game throughout my career.” 

So, who is Nick Bjugstad? 

He is Andrew Cogliano, who came into the league as a 25^th overall pick and a centreman. Cogliano has reached the 1,200-game mark only because he figured out how to stick around as a speedy depth winger who kills penalties and gives up less than what his moderate production has become. 

Bjugstad is a poor man’s Mikael Backlund, Calgary’s first-rounder from 2007 who will get to 1,000 games as a trusty second- or third-line centre, always willing to check for his paycheck. 

On a good team, Bjugstad is a third- or fourth-line centre who gets his draws, wins his battles, kills his penalties and chips in a dozen even-strength goals a year. He is trusty and dependable — the two traits that secure ice time for a 30-year-old depth forward who is content in his role, from a 26-year-old who still fancies a job in the top six. 

There was probably a time when Bjugstad saw himself on this Oilers team as one of its four 30-goal, 75-point guys. Today he is on the team, but in a supporting role to those people. 

“I'm a big believer that, there might be time delay on things, but everything sorts itself out if you do the right things in your career,” he said. “When I was younger, it wasn't that I expected to be a first-line centre or anything. I just didn't totally understand what I was effective at. Like, when you’re not scoring, what are you bringing to the table? 

“I don't look back and say. ‘Oh, man. This isn't how I expected it to go.’ I mean, as a as a college kid, you don't even know if you're going to make it to the NHL. When I was a Peewee, I didn't even expect to make the Bantam team the next year. 

“So I never had that vision of expectation. I have goals — individual goals — but you learn over your career that you need to adapt and find roles.” 

Today, Bjugstad finds himself  at the intersection of preparedness and opportunity. He has defined himself, after all these years, at the exact time he has been acquired by a pretty good team that lacked the exact qualities that Bjugstad brings. 

And it’s kind of funny, isn’t it? 

For years, a veteran American player and his family would look at a trade from Arizona to Edmonton as a demotion of sorts. Like being plunged into winter with no chance of success. 

That’s something else that has changed for Bjugstad, with the Oilers having as good a chance as anyone to come out of the crowded West. 

“A lot of it has to do with what the room is like when you're coming into it,” Bjugstad said of joining the Oilers at the deadline. “This group is well solidified in the league, a lot of good players. But as far as humans, there aren’t many egos in the room. Everyone's pretty much on the same page and enjoy being around each other. So when you're walking into a room like that, it just makes it that much easier. 

“I'm just trying to contribute in whatever way they want me to. Penalty kill, five-on-five, whatever.”