Rank Esa Tikkanen's tenure with teams he played for

Michael Whiteacre

Registered User
Dec 25, 2016
242
11
Los Angeles, CA
Esa Tikkanen played for the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals, and played from 1984-85 through 1998-99. He went on to become a 5-time Stanley Cup winner ('85, '87, '88 and '90 for Edmonton and '94 for the N.Y. Rangers), and was known for his ability to score clutch goals and to play a chippy and aggressive style, had the ability to irritate opponents via trash talk. And now, where would you rank his respective tenures with the Oilers, Rangers (1st stint), Blues, Devils, Canucks, Rangers (2nd stint), Panthers, Capitals and the Rangers (3rd stint)? Superb, high, good, okay or bad?

Superb tier: ?

A (high tier): ?

B (good tier): ?

C (okay tier): ?

D (bad tier): ?
 

Bluesguru

Registered User
Aug 10, 2014
1,957
823
St. Louis
He played good (B) for the Blues. Never understood why Keenan traded him away and then subsequently got Gretzky later in year. Would of liked to have seen Esa on that 96 playoff squad that came within a goal of Conference Finals.
 

FerrisRox

"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
Sep 17, 2003
20,265
12,890
Toronto, Ontario
He played good (B) for the Blues. Never understood why Keenan traded him away and then subsequently got Gretzky later in year. Would of liked to have seen Esa on that 96 playoff squad that came within a goal of Conference Finals.

The funny thing is, the Blues traded him to New Jersey for a 3rd round pick ('97). 21 days later the Devils traded him to Vancouver for a 2nd round pick ('96.) Nice asset management.
 

Brodeur

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
25,834
15,218
San Diego
The funny thing is, the Blues traded him to New Jersey for a 3rd round pick ('97). 21 days later the Devils traded him to Vancouver for a 2nd round pick ('96.) Nice asset management.

On paper definitely nice, but '96 was a historically bad year and '97 was normal (initially was touted as being 1979 deep). Devils got the 38th pick in 1996 (Wes Mason, didn't make it), gave up the 78th pick in 1997 (eventually ended up with Colorado who took Ville Nieminen who was a useful pest for a few years).

5153-87Bk.jpg


The funny thing for me about Tikkanen's "blink and you'd miss it" tenure with the Devils was that the a couple companies produced hockey cards that had Tikkanen on the Devils. I have that card somewhere in my collection.

And just because this story was always funny to me: I went to a Devils@Kings game on January 25, 2003. During the intermission, the scoreboard is showing the usual messages like "Welcome to Initech Technologies", "Happy 8th birthday Michael", "Happy anniversary to Tom and Michelle", etc. Then the scoreboard shows "Happy birthday Esa Tikkanen" and there's an audible "What?" from those in attendance. Like it seemed odd that a seasoned NHL vet probably would care about having the arena acknowledge his birthday.

I thought maybe that was just a thing where they'd show the birthday of some NHL alum who wasn't actually there. But sure enough, we were walking back to parking lot after the game and there's a drunk Esa Tikkanen stumbling by. [/coolstorybro]
 
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Brodeur

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
25,834
15,218
San Diego
He played good (B) for the Blues. Never understood why Keenan traded him away and then subsequently got Gretzky later in year. Would of liked to have seen Esa on that 96 playoff squad that came within a goal of Conference Finals.

Found a snippet from a NY Times article about the trade:

Another factor in the trade might be the St. Louis payroll. Keenan, coach and general manager of the Blues, has been ordered to trim it. Tikkanen is making $906,000 this season and will earn $900,000 next season in the final year of his contract.

However, Tikkanen and his agent, Rich Winter, have been trying to restructure Tikkanen's contract to get some deferred money paid to him sooner. Winter said he would discuss the matter with Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello this weekend, when the Devils play in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Tikkanen moved from the Rangers to St. Louis along with Keenan in the negotiated settlement that followed Keenan's contested departure from the Rangers in the summer of 1994.

Keenan, who has recently had disputes with Tikkanen, was not happy when Tikkanen reported to training camp less than fully rehabilitated from knee and shoulder surgery.

"Lots of fights going on right now," Tikkanen said of the St. Louis scene. Winter said he was perplexed by the trade because, he said, Keenan did not offer Tikkanen to several teams who might have wanted him.

"Why would he trade the consummate playoff performer to a team likely to win the Stanley Cup again?" Winter said. "This is mind-boggling"

Telephone calls to Keenan seeking an explanation of his intention were not returned; his team played the Mighty Ducks in Anaheim tonight.
 

Bluesguru

Registered User
Aug 10, 2014
1,957
823
St. Louis
Found a snippet from a NY Times article about the trade:

Thanks for that article. It was just weird because Keenan was all about bringing in those winning vets and then an unexplained move like that

Keenan gets looked at as a failure here but he did some exceptional things like getting Pronger and believing in and revitalizing Grant Fuhr’s career.

I always felt if Gretzky didn’t have that bad back during the playoffs and if Tikannen had stayed here, the Blues might of pulled it off. Both Gretz and Tikannen played with the Rangers the next year and the Rangers made the Final 4 with both Gretzky and Esa netting 10 goals each. Wayne wasn’t a 100% in his post season with Blues which was a shame.
 

Plural

Registered User
Mar 10, 2011
33,703
4,852
Is A tier reserved for the best players on the team? If so, I don't think he deserves A from Oilers time. But I could almost describe his tenure there as superb.
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,110
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
Tikkanen was actually pretty crappy with the Oilers in 1991-92 and 1992-93, before he was traded late in the season.

He closed out 1991-92 with 11 goal-less games (9 games + 2 late after returning from injury) and then another 4 games to start the playoffs, making 15 games without a goal and only 3 assists (!) in that span. Other than one game vs. L.A., he wasn't really a factor in the '92 playoffs at all.

In 1992-93, he started off with one goal in his first 26 games and finished with two goals in his final 15 games (-13 over that span). He was just playing to be traded by then.

But I can't really blame him. In the summer of '91, he'd already lost his buddy, countryman and linemate Kurri, then lost his captain (Messier), a bunch more of his friends (Anderson, Fuhr, Smith, Huddy), and then his head coach (Muckler). Wasn't really a happy time in Edmonton.
 

sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
11,845
6,289
And just because this story was always funny to me: I went to a Devils@Kings game on January 25, 2003. During the intermission, the scoreboard is showing the usual messages like "Welcome to Initech Technologies", "Happy 8th birthday Michael", "Happy anniversary to Tom and Michelle", etc. Then the scoreboard shows "Happy birthday Esa Tikkanen" and there's an audible "What?" from those in attendance. Like it seemed odd that a seasoned NHL vet probably would care about having the arena acknowledge his birthday.

I thought maybe that was just a thing where they'd show the birthday of some NHL alum who wasn't actually there. But sure enough, we were walking back to parking lot after the game and there's a drunk Esa Tikkanen stumbling by.

Whaaaat. This guy have the best anecdotes by far. This is up there with naked Craig Rivet body-checking naked Saku Koivu into a hotel toilet slicing up Koivu's back.
 

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