Let's rewind all the way back to the 2017-18 NHL season, when former Columbus Blue Jackets forward Jussi Jokinen accomplished a very rare feat of playing on four different teams in the same season.
Jokinen, who at the time was 34 years old, started the season with the Edmonton Oilers after signing there on a one-year deal as a free agent. His time with the Oilers didn’t start out so great, and after 14 games he had only managed to record one assist. As a result, he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Mike Cammalleri.
To no surprise, his time with the Kings went just as poorly as it did with the Oilers. He scored one goal and four assists in 18 games. After those 18 games, he was placed on waivers and claimed by the aforementioned Blue Jackets.
Interestingly enough, he did worse with Columbus, recording just one assist in 14 games. At that point, the Blue Jackets were looking to make a bigger move and decided Jokinen was going to be involved. On Feb. 26, 2018, he was packaged in a deal with Tyler Motte to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Thomas Vanek.
His last stop in the four-team season, as well as his NHL career, was with the Canucks, where he didn’t do much better. However, he did manage four goals and six assists for 10 points in 14 games and ended the season with the club.
In total, he played in 60 NHL games in 2017-18, scoring five goals and 12 assists for 17 points. That doesn’t seem that bad for a fourth-liner, but Jokinen was never known for that role. At 34, he was already in decline, but the year prior with the Florida Panthers he had 28 points, and back in 2015-16 he posted 60 points in 81 games.
As mentioned, this was the end of his NHL career. It also put him in elite company with only three other NHL players: Dennis O’Brien, Dave McLlwain, and Marko Arcobello, as the only players to suit up for four teams in one season. Another interesting tidbit is that he played exactly 14 games with three different teams, which is a strange but fun piece of trivia in itself.
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