EDMONTON -- Warren Foegele nearly made it to the top of the mountain last season with the Edmonton Oilers. He may have to go through them to get there with the Los Angeles Kings this season.
Los Angeles and Edmonton are on a collision course to meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth straight time. They’ll face each other at Rogers Place on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SNW, FDSNW).
“It’ll be exciting,” Foegele said after the morning skate. “I know the last time we played each other it was pretty exciting for myself playing against your former team.
“Coming back here has brought about a lot of good memories. Skating here felt very familiar and just looking up at that banner there (2024 Western Conference champions), we didn’t get the ultimate goal last year, but in a way it’s nice to see that I’ll be up there for some type of reason. I had a lot of good memories here; everybody treated me really well and it was definitely a second home here in Edmonton.”
It will be Foegele’s first game back here since Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season with the Oilers, a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. The forward played three seasons with Edmonton before signing a three-year, $10.5-million contract ($3.5 million average annual value) with Los Angeles as an unrestricted free agent July 1, 2024. He has 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 40 games.
“He’s played very well. I thought he played really well for Edmonton last season; he probably had the best season of his career last year,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He’s a player that’s been cast as a forechecker, a worker, he does all those things really well, plays with a lot of energy.
“I thought you saw maybe last year him break out just a little offensively. He’s not really had that role in the League and playing with [Quinton] Byfield, they’ve created some chemistry here and they continue breaking out offensively a little bit.”
Foegele, 28, was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the third round (No. 67) of the 2014 NHL Draft. He played three full seasons with the Hurricanes before being traded to the Oilers on July 28, 2021. He signed a three-year $8.25 million contract ($2.75 million AAV) with Edmonton prior to the 2021-22 season to play in a bottom-six role.
He had 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists) in 82 games in his first season with the Oilers and 28 points (13 goals, 15 assists) in 67 games in 2022-23. Last season, he set NHL career highs in goals (20), assists (21) and points (41) in 82 games and eight points (three goals, five assists) in 22 playoff games.
“Honestly I think it just comes down to opportunity, and that’s a thing I’ve talked about in the past,” Foegele said. “I thought [Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch] really gave me a chance last year, playing meaningful minutes and taking pride in being on the PK, and that’s something that’s happened here as well.
“Jimmy has been crucial for that for me, giving me tons of confidence and putting me in roles that maybe in the past I haven’t got, and I’m just trying to make the most of that and come to the rink with a good attitude and work hard.”
