OilersNation has reported:

Kailer Yamamoto picked up his third assist and fourth point of the season in the Utah Mammoth’s 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, continuing a strong start for the 28-year-old winger. The Spokane, Washington, product has spent the past three seasons with Utah, after earlier playing for Edmonton, Detroit and Seattle.

Yamamoto also became part of a second-period scuffle in Thursday’s game. He was close by when former linemate Leon Draisaitl was knocked down by Jack McBain, then Yamamoto himself was knocked down by Evan Bouchard.

Edmonton selected Yamamoto 22nd overall in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft, following its first postseason appearance since its 2006 Stanley Cup run. He stood 5-foot-9 and had played junior hockey for his hometown Spokane Chiefs, scoring 42 goals and 99 points in 65 games during his draft year.

The Oilers selected him while Peter Chiarelli was general manager. Despite his size, Yamamoto went on to establish himself as an NHL player. He made his NHL debut the following season, recording three assists in nine games; Edmonton kept him from using up a year of his entry-level contract.

Most of Yamamoto’s 2018-19 campaign was spent with the American Hockey League’s Bakersfield Condors. He also played 17 NHL games and scored his first career goal. The Oilers were not strong teams in 2017-18 or 2018-19, a fact that can be obscured by their performance in the 2017 postseason.

Ken Holland became Edmonton’s general manager before the 2019-20 season, and the club opened with a 7-1-1 record. It cooled by late November. After a 4-3 shootout win over the Arizona Coyotes moved the Oilers to 16-7-3, they went 4-10-1 from Nov. 27 until Yamamoto was called up on New Year’s Eve 2019.

His 2019-20 season became his breakout campaign. In 23 AHL games, he had eight goals and 16 points, numbers that were not especially eye-catching. His return to the NHL gave Edmonton a spark as the club began what became its current playoff streak.

Yamamoto scored his second NHL goal in his season debut on New Year’s Eve, a 7-5 victory over the New York Rangers. Edmonton went 12-4-3 over the stretch that followed, improving its record to 32-21-7 and establishing itself as a playoff team.

During that 12-4-3 run, Yamamoto scored nine goals and 18 points in 19 games. He added two goals and eight points in his final seven games before the global pandemic halted play. He finished the season with 11 goals and 26 points in 27 games.

His line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl also produced strong five-on-five results. In 317 minutes and 37 seconds together after Yamamoto’s call-up, the trio outscored opponents 28-8, outshot them and generated more chances. Their expected-goal share was 55.45 per cent, while their share of goals scored was 77.8 per cent.

Only one line has since posted a higher five-on-five goal share in at least 300 minutes: Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway had an 83.3 per cent share in 2021-22, outscoring opponents 25-5. The Tampa Bay Lightning line of Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov also had a 77.8 per cent goal share in 2025-26, matching Yamamoto’s trio.

The Oilers’ 2019-20 season ended in a play-in round against the Chicago Blackhawks after Edmonton narrowly missed a bye. The following season was shortened by the pandemic to 56 games. Yamamoto played 52 games for Edmonton in 2020-21, scoring eight goals and 21 points, and earned his first playoff point. The Oilers were swept by the Winnipeg Jets.

Yamamoto’s best full NHL season came in 2021-22. He played 81 games and set career highs with 20 goals and 41 points. In the playoffs, he added two goals and seven points in 14 games as Edmonton advanced to the Western Conference Final.

His final season with the Oilers was 2022-23. Yamamoto scored 10 goals and 25 points in 58 regular-season games, then contributed a goal and four points in 12 playoff games. Edmonton lost in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights, who went on to win the Stanley Cup.

On June 29, 2023, Edmonton traded Yamamoto and Klim Kostin to the Detroit Red Wings for future considerations in a move intended to clear salary-cap space. Yamamoto was earning $3.1 million. The move gave the Oilers room to sign restricted free agents Evan Bouchard and Ryan McLeod, re-sign Mattias Janmark and bring in Connor Brown.

Detroit bought out Yamamoto the next day. Two days after that, he signed with the Seattle Kraken, the only NHL team in his home state of Washington. He appeared in 59 games for Seattle and recorded eight goals and 16 points. The roster included several former Oilers: Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, Adam Larsson and Devin Shore.

Seattle did not give Yamamoto a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2024-25 season. He eventually signed a professional tryout agreement with the Utah Hockey Club, as the Mammoth were then known. Most of his season was spent in the AHL with the Tucson Roadrunners, where he scored 20 goals and 56 points in 54 games.

He also appeared in 12 NHL games for Utah that season, recording two goals and three points. In the following season, 2025-26, Yamamoto became a regular in the Mammoth lineup. He scored 13 goals and 23 points in 59 regular-season games and added a goal and five points in six playoff games.

So far this season, he has a goal and four points in three games. His contributions to the 2019-20 and 2021-22 Oilers remain central to his time in Edmonton: at his best, he was a top-six winger who developed chemistry with Draisaitl, one of the league’s top centres.

Cynthia Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for DFOEdmonton, DFOCalgary and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on X at @CynthiaRDelaney.

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