Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll be counting down the days until the Edmonton Oilers begin their 2023-24 season with a daily trip down memory lane. Today at No. 15 we have Kent Nilsson, a Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames star who won a Stanley Cup with the Oilers.

Nilsson broke into Sweden’s top league playing for Djurgardens IF as a 17-year-old in 1973-74 and quickly developed into one of the top players. He tied for the league lead in scoring in 1975-76 and switched teams to AIK for 1976-77 and finished fourth in both goals and points.

The Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association had leaned heavily into signing players from Sweden and Nillson joined the likes of Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson and came overseas to continue his career. Nilsson scored 42 goals and 107 points in his first season in North America and was awarded the WHA’s Lou Kaplan Trophy for the league’s top rookie.

Hedberg and Nilsson left Winnipeg to join the New York Rangers the following off-season and the Jets saw their record drop from 50-28-2 in 1977-78 to 39-35-6 in 1978-79. Despite the mediocre results during the season, the Jets swept the Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs and beat Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers in the Avco Cup Final.

The Jets were among the four WHA teams to be absorbed into the NHL but they lost Nilsson’s rights because the Atlanta Flames had drafted him with the 64th overall pick in the 1976 draft. Nilsson made his NHL debut for Atlanta in 1979-80 and led the team with 40 goals and 93 points.

The Flames lost to New York in the first round of the playoffs and then packed up and moved north. Nilsson had a huge first season in Calgary. He scored 49 goals and 131 points in 1980-81, which still stands in the all-time record books as the most assists and points by a Flame in a single season.

Nilsson spent a few more seasons in Calgary before the Flames moved him to the Minnesota North Stars for a couple of draft picks, one of which was used to select Joe Nieuwendyk. The North Stars lost in the first round of the playoffs in Nilsson’s first season in Minnesota and they fell well out of contention during his second, so they traded him to the Oilers as a cash dump.