After journeyman NHL career, Sam Gagner pivots to Senators player development
When the trade deadline passed in March and no contract came for Sam Gagner, the NHL journeyman began to reflect on his long playing career.
The winding road began 18 years ago in Edmonton, when he made the Edmonton Oilers out of training camp after being selected sixth in the 2007 draft. He spent seven seasons there and scored eight points in a game in 2011-12, the most recent NHLer to accomplish the feat. Stops in Arizona, Philadelphia, Columbus, and Vancouver followed, then back to Edmonton, then Detroit for a few seasons before one in Winnipeg. Then a 28-game stint last season, back where it all began in Edmonton again.
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After a professional try-out agreement with the Hurricanes didn't work out during the 2024-25 preseason, he signed one with the Senators — in Belleville, Ontario, where Ottawa's AHL affiliate took a chance on him in early January. Gagner drove two hours from his Toronto suburb home in Etobicoke to home games and practices. He had 10 assists in 19 games, but the Senators released him from his PTO after the trade deadline.
It was time for Gagner, his wife and three children to settle somewhere.
'We've moved around a lot,' Gagner told The Athletic. 'And as much as I wanted to continue to play, and I still felt like I had a lot to offer as a player, I thought it was important to just get rooted somewhere.'
Gagner didn't wait long for his second act with the Senators, but not as a player. The NHL veteran is now over a month into his newest gig as their director of player development. His former Oilers teammate, defenceman-turned-general manager Steve Staios, gave him the opportunity. Gagner will lean on the fact that he's played every forward role possible throughout his career, from first-line talent to fourth-line contributor, as a way to connect with the players he'll be responsible for helping.
'I think a lot of people look at player development like it's something that can only be done when you're young,' Gagner said. 'And then, once you're a pro, it's like that's who you are. I think that I've proved over the course of my career that's not the case. There's a lot of guys that have done that. They continue to develop throughout their career. They evolve, they add different layers to their game.
'It's something I'm really passionate about. I like seeing guys improve. I like seeing guys get better.'
Starting next season, he'll work primarily out of Belleville to help the organization's prospects get to the next level. Gagner will also provide guidance and support for Senators draft picks in the system, reviewing video of their play and being a 'touchpoint' for them whenever needed.
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Gagner already has built relationships with a few players thanks to his brief stint in Belleville, including Stephen Halliday, the Sens' fourth-round pick from the 2022 NHL Draft. The Ajax, Ont. native just played his first pro season with the AHL Senators, scoring 19 goals and 51 points in 71 games. Thanks in part to his size and frame — the forward is listed as 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds — Halliday has become a tantalizing prospect for the Senators entering training camp in the fall.
But even Halliday felt a bit starstruck when he realized he'd be playing alongside a longtime NHLer he watched on 'SportsCentre' as a child.
Halliday and his teammates practiced shootouts one morning, and it was Gagner's turn. The young forward waited patiently, hoping the elder Gagner would pull off a highlight-reel move that he had perfected when Halliday was in pre-school: the backhand toe-drag fake, where Gagner drags the puck before going backhand to forehand and beating the opposing goaltender. A staple in the golden era of late 2000s/early 2010s hockey YouTube:
Sure enough, when Gagner did his patented move and 'undressed' the goalie at practice, Halliday said he went 'bananas.' When it was the youngster's turn to emulate Gagner's skill, he stuffed it into the goaltender's pads.
'Not even close,' Halliday chuckled.
Halliday and Gagner — or 'Gags,' as Halliday calls him — became fast friends, texting during games about possible plays they could repeat on the ice, or about the latter's glory days as a player. As Gagner's playing tenure in Belleville wound down, he was already trying to teach Halliday about the finer details. Gagner once sent a highlight package of Leon Draisaitl protecting the puck.
'We were joking, like, I don't think he should be sending me anything of (Connor) McDavid because I don't think he could emulate anything that guy does,' Halliday said.
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Now Halliday is training with Gagner in Toronto and working alongside Matt Nichol, the Senators' director of player health and performance. The goal is for Halliday to hammer down on some crucial details at even strength and on special teams. Instead of typical drills with cones and pylons littered all over the ice, many sessions involve Halliday and Gagner recreating in-game situations with nets at either end of the ice, from retrievals after pucks are rimmed around the boards to working along the boards during the power play.
'He created a lot, I think, (in his) full first pro season,' Gagner said of Halliday. 'He learned a lot about the grind and how much work has to go into it to be successful. He's already such a dangerous player, but we want to get into that next level and want him to be a full-time NHLer, and be a really effective one that produces at the NHL level.'
Gagner will also keep an eye on Carter Yakemchuk, Ottawa's first-round pick from last year's draft. The two have already exchanged texts and phone calls as Yakemchuk prepares for his summer and will meet each other for the first time at next month's development camp.
'There's just a big jump from the Western Hockey League and the American Hockey League to the NHL, and space is a lot harder to come by,' Gagner said of Yakemchuk. 'It's getting that timing and understanding those reads. There's a different pace to it.
'There's so many great qualities to his game, and it's just about translating that to a different pace and different timing, different spacing.'
This won't be Gagner's first time working with players. In 2020, he created Muskoka Hockey, a camp for players who want to get better while enjoying the sights and sounds of Muskoka, Ontario — a common summer getaway for NHLers. In starting his own venture Gagner drew inspiration from his father, former Olympian turned sports agent Dave Gagner, who co-owns a custom rink-building company. Muskoka Hockey offers summer intensive day camp programs for youth up to the age of 14, with campers performing drills and activities with high-performance coaches.
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Muskoka Hockey also has an 'invite-only' pro camp where you can find some of the NHL's best players sharpening their skills; Auston Matthews, Bo Horvat and Taylor Hall are among those who've participated. Adam Nicholas, the Montreal Canadiens' director of hockey development, is one of the featured coaches at the camp.
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'I just wanted to create something up there that allowed guys to stay up there the whole summer and train at a really high level,' Gagner said. 'So it's kind of grown since we first started it.'
Gagner will keep the camp going even with his current duties. This summer, he'll continue working with Halliday at his camp. Ottawa Senators forward Dylan Cozens is among this year's list of NHLers who will spend parts of their summer in Muskoka as well.
Gagner's transition into player development seems to be going smoothly, but that fire to play hasn't left him either.
'He's still so passionate about hockey,' Halliday said. 'Even in drills when he messes them up, you can tell he wants it to be perfect. He could have more in him, to be honest, because he does the drills a lot better than me sometimes.'
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