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January 11, 2012 - In a game against the New Jersey Devils, a game the Oilers would lose 2-1 in overtime, Milan Kytnar makes his first, and likely last, appearance in an NHL game.
Drafted by the Oilers almost five years earlier, in the fifth round of the 2007 draft, Kytnar was recalled on an emergency basis to fill in for Ryan O'Marra who was feeling ill. In his NHL début Kytnar played 5:31 and recorded one shot on goal. The next day he was sent back to the minors and by the end of the month, presumably frustrated with his playing situation - after spending all of the 2010/11 season with the Oilers AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City, Kytnar had split time between the AHL and the ECHL during the 2011/12 season - he was loaned to HPK Hämeenlinna of the Finnish SM-liiga. In the four years since Kytnar has played in the Kontinental Hockey League, Czech Republic League, and Slovakian Extraleague.
Kytnar has scored six goals and 12 assists for HC ’05 Banská Bystrica this season and will turn 27 May, at this point it's very unlikely that he will ever play another game in the NHL. If this was in fact Kytnar's lone NHL appearance he will join Dean Clark, and Jozef Cierny as players who played their only NHL game in an Oilers jersey. Johan Motin will likely join them on that list as he is now five years removed from playing in North America and doesn't look to be making a return any time soon. Curtis Hamilton is another name that could added to that list, he's playing in Prague with HC Sparta Praha currently after playing in one game for the Oilers last season.