Whatever Happened to ex-Oilers Blueliner Etan Bear?
Remember Ethan Bear? The smooth-skating, right-shot defenceman the Edmonton Oilers developed and once hoped would become part of their future blue line has taken a much different path than many expected. For a while there, it looked like the Oilers had found themselves a pretty good player.
When he was on his game, Bear could move the puck. He made a smart first pass that actually helped create offence. He wasn’t just the guy who cleared the puck out and changed lines. There was a belief that Edmonton might have found a legit top-four defenceman.
The Oilers found him low in the NHL Entry Draft in 2015.
The Oilers drafted Bear in the fifth round back in 2015, and when he finally got his chance, he made people notice. His best season in Edmonton came in 2019-20, when he put up 21 points and looked like exactly the kind of young right-shot defender teams are always searching for. He wasn’t perfect, but he was improving, and you could see the potential.
Then came the trade. In 2021, Edmonton sent Bear to Carolina for Warren Foegele. At the time, it was one of those deals where people wondered if the Oilers were giving up on a player who hadn’t reached his ceiling yet. After the trade, things never really settled down for Bear. He had a solid stretch in Vancouver, but injuries got in the way. A shoulder injury while playing for Canada at the 2023 World Championship eventually required surgery and slowed down his progress.
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After his injury, Bear found fewer opportunities to establish himself at the NHL level.
After that, the NHL opportunities became harder to find. The Canucks didn’t give him a qualifying offer, and Bear signed with Washington. He played some NHL games, but much of his time was spent in the AHL with the Hershey Bears. And that’s where something interesting happened — he started looking like the player people remembered.
In 2024-25, Bear put together a terrific season with Hershey, scoring 46 points in 62 games and earning a spot on the AHL’s Second All-Star Team. It was the kind of year that made you look twice and wonder, “Maybe there’s still something here.”
Last summer, Bear signed a one-year, two-way deal with the New York Islanders. Most of his 2025-26 season was spent with Bridgeport, but once again, he produced. He put up 27 points in 40 games, led Bridgeport defencemen in points per game and showed that the offensive ability never really disappeared.
So where does that leave Ethan Bear today?
Bear is still in the Islanders organization. He’s probably not viewed as the future top-pairing defenceman some once imagined, but still a player who can help. At 28, he’s no longer a “building block” prospect. But that doesn’t mean his story is finished.
Not every fifth-round pick turns into a star. Not every promising young player follows a straight line to NHL success. Sometimes careers take detours. Sometimes players have to fight their way back. Bear’s path hasn’t gone exactly where people thought it might in Edmonton, but it hasn’t disappeared either. For a player who once looked like he could become part of the Oilers’ future, that still means something.