- Nugent-Hopkins opens 2026-27 with 1,031 games as an Oiler, six behind Kevin Lowe’s franchise record of 1,037
- He ties Lowe on Oct. 13 in Los Angeles and breaks the record two nights later at home against Utah
- Read below for the full picture on the record chase and where Nugent-Hopkins sits in Oilers history
Kevin Lowe has owned the Edmonton Oilers games-played record since April 1998. That is about to end, and it will not take long.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins starts the season with 1,031 regular-season games in an Oilers sweater, six shy of Lowe’s mark of 1,037. Play the first six on the schedule and he ties it Oct. 13 in Los Angeles.
Play the seventh and it belongs to him on Oct. 15, at Rogers Place against the Utah Mammoth. Oil Country gets to watch the record fall in person, which almost never works out that neatly.
Lowe’s number carries a different kind of weight. He was Edmonton’s first NHL draft pick, scored the first goal in franchise history, won all five Stanley Cups, wore the C and went into the Hall of Fame.
His 1,037 games came in two stints, 966 of them before the 1992 trade to the Rangers. The Oilers retired his No. 4 in 2021.
Nugent-Hopkins has only ever pulled on one jersey. He became the first player in franchise history to play his first 1,000 NHL games entirely with Edmonton, hitting the number Jan. 18 against St. Louis. His teammates all wore No. 93 sweaters in warmup that night and copied his pregame routine.
A pregame ceremony put his parents, his brother, his wife and his daughter on the ice, and the room handed him a silver stick and a custom Rolex. He then scored the opening goal in a 5-0 win.
Watch the full ceremony:
Nobody else is left from Edmonton’s three straight No. 1 selections between 2010 and 2012. Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Justin Schultz all got moved out.
He sat through five straight seasons out of the playoffs, then reinvented himself once Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl arrived. He slid from franchise center to top-line winger, killed penalties, ran a power play unit and did it without ever asking out.
The counting stats put him deep in the franchise top 10. His 291 goals rank eighth, the 513 assists rank sixth and the 804 points rank seventh. He posted 20 goals and 56 points in 72 games last season at age 33, on an Oilers team that still has real questions on the back end.
Edmonton has him signed through 2028-29. That leaves him 196 points from 1,000 with three more seasons to chase a second franchise milestone.
