"Pittsburgh South" and the Rangers - Oilers Connection

After the huge Marian Hossa trade, the Atlanta Thrashers (who have lost 7 games in a row) now feature 6 ex-Penguins on their roster.

Colby Armstrong

Erik Christensen

Mark Recchi

Johan Hedberg

Chris Thorburn

Joel Kwiatkowski

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"You're not kidding," said Kwiatkowski, who was acquired by the Penguins at the trade deadline last year but played in just one game the rest of the season. ...

"When I saw them in the hotel, we just looked at each other and smiled," Kwiatkowski said. "For them, I think it was nice to see some familiar faces."

This got me to thinking about how certain teams tend to trade with one another and immediately, the New York Rangers - Edmonton Oilers connection tends to stick out. Now this is an unofficial list, but off the top of my head, the following players have played for both teams at one point in their careers:

Wayne Gretzky
Mark Messier
Doug Weight
Jari Kurri
Glen Anderson

Esa Tikkanen
Craig MacTavish
Jeff Beukeboom
Adam Graves
Don Murdoch
Anson Carter
Tom Poti
Kevin Lowe
Mike York
Petr Nedved
Marty McSorley
Todd Marchant
Greg DeVries

.

I'm sure there have been others (and feel free to point them out) but those are the big ones. It would take some research, but I doubt that no two teams since 1980 have shared as many players as the Oilers and Rangers.