Sunday night will be huge for the Nuge. That’s when the Edmonton Oilers will honour Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for playing in his 1,000th National Hockey League game. The 32-year-old forward will reach the milestone that night against the St. Louis Blues at Edmonton’s Rogers Place. The team will mark the occasion with a pregame ceremony that’s slated to be attended by teammates, family and other special guests. Nugent-Hopkins will be the second player in Oilers’ history to reach 1,000 NHL games played while playing for the team, following teammate Adam Henrique, who reached the mark earlier this season. Both players were finalists for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2012. Both Nugent-Hopkins and Henrique, who entered the NHL with the New Jersey Devils, lost out to the Colorado Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog. Nugent-Hopkins said “it means a lot” to be the first player to play his first 1,000 games with the Oilers. “I’ve been very fortunate to be drafted here and to this organization, to be able to stick around through some tough times and to have the trust with the organization behind me,” he told media on Thursday. “It’s a huge honour for me. It’s been a privilege to play these years here in Edmonton, and with such a great group and great group of fans.” Nugent-Hopkins is the longest-tenured Oilers player. Edmonton drafted the Burnaby, B.C., native first overall in 2011. Heading into action on Saturday in Vancouver, he had scored 282 goals and 503 assists for 785 points in 998 NHL games played. The versatile forward, who plays on the Oilers’ power play and penalty-killing units as well as among their top six forwards in five-on-five play, recorded his first 100-point campaign three years ago.
