The Edmonton Oilers have called up Noah Philp after the injury to Connor McDavid this week, and Oilers fans will have plenty of reasons to cheer for this kid.
When speaking to the media today, Philp recalled the hilarious way he found out he was being called up to the NHL. He apparently had his phone on silent, and was unaware for hours until Keith Gretzky called his wife.
"I had my phone turned off, my wife and I were making dinner. I just kinda put it aside for a couple hours. Eventually she got a call, and it was from Keith Gretzky from Bakersfield and he said tell Noah to answer his phone. That was two night ago, and I was heading out in the morning."
-Noah Philp
Philp is now 26 years old, and was an undrafted free agent signing by the Oilers from the University of Alberta in 2022. He played one season for the AHL's Bakersfield Condors before suddenly stepping away from hockey for a full season. Philp hasn't gone into too much detail, but explained that he just needed to follow a gut feeling to leave hockey temporarily.
After one year away from hockey, Philp committed to returning to play and signed a two-year contract with the Oilers last summer. He had an incredible training camp, but the Oilers needed to send Philp down just to get more in-game reps after missing so much time. Philp was first in line to be called up after his great training camp, it's just unfortunate circumstances that it's McDavid out.
Philp is a player that has worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and now he's got a promising future in the NHL. He'll be playing in his first career game tomorrow night against the Nashville Predators.
