In the 102-year history of the National Hockey League, 348 individuals have played 1,000 or more regular season games. 44 of them, or 12.6%, have played some part of their career with the Atlanta or Calgary Flames. We call these players Long-Timers.
Let’s take a look at Adrian Aucoin.
Originally from scenic Ottawa, Aucoin played junior-A hockey and then headed to Boston University… for one season. Selected in the fifth round by Vancouver in the 1992 NHL Draft, he left the Terriers and spent the next two seasons with the Canadian National Team, culminating in a silver medal at the 1994 Olympics before finishing the season with the Canucks farm team.
Going pro full-time the following season, he worked his way up from the AHL and was a full-time NHLer two seasons in. He spent the next five seasons with the Canucks. He missed most of the 1997-98 season with injuries, but bounced back huge the following year. In 1998-99, Aucoin had 18 power play goals (and 23 goals total). He dropped back to 10 goals the following season, but remained valuable.
In early 2001, the Canucks sent him to Tampa Bay with a second round pick for Dan Cloutier. He was traded the following summer to the Islanders with Alexander Kharitonov for Mathieu Biron and a second round pick. He had his best years on Long Island, scoring 12 goals and finishing eighth in Norris voting in 2001-02 and scoring 13 goals and finish fifth in Norris voting in 2003-04.
Hitting free agency, Aucoin bounced around a bit. He spent two seasons with Chicago, then was traded to Calgary with a seventh round pick for Andrei Zyuzin and Steve Marr. He had 10 goals in each of his two seasons with the Flames, then hit free agency again. He spent three seasons with Phoenix and one more with Columbus before hanging up his skates in 2013.
Post-retirement he worked as a development coach for the Blackhawks, then transitioned into coaching local youth hockey. All-told, he had a pretty impressive career. He never won a Stanley Cup, but he won an Olympic medal and got Norris consideration a couple times.
