Okay now that that's out of the way, we can continue on with the article and name three additional individuals who need to find another gear down the stretch drive. The Edmonton Oilers have made the Stanley Cup Finals in each of the last two seasons. Those teams were good enough to make it, but not good enough to win it all. The 2026 version of the Oilers has yet to prove they can match the last couple rosters.
The team needs to improve their penalty killing, goals against, and depth scoring. A Cup contender shouldn't be below the league average in any of those areas but the Oilers have allowed 191 goals against versus a league average of 174, are 2.25% below the league average in penalty killing, and are only on pace for seven players other than Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to pass the 10-goal mark. It's not the worst version of the Oilers in the McDavid era, but it does feel like a down year.
Some of these struggles have forced the team to bring former assistant coach Paul Coffey back behind the bench to solidify their defensive efforts. An area that the Oilers clearly need to improve.
How to kill a penalty
Mattias Janmark has been a solid piece of the two post-season runs. He's added timely goals, killed penalties, and added constant forechecking pressure on any shift. This season, however, his offence is almost nonexistent, and his advanced stats show a continual drop off. It might be time to move on from the "Janitor" when Oilers general manager Stan Bowman is considering deadline trade pieces.
Naturally the other way a team can improve its penalty killing is by taking fewer penalties. It's worth noting that Trent Frederic has 47 PIMs.
How to avoid goals against
Two other players, Darnell Nurse and Jake Walman, need to improve their overall play. They aren't the worst in terms of basic or advanced metrics, but the pair of them play approximately a period of any given game. Slightly behind the first pairing in ice time, they lag well behind in production.
With Nurse ninth in team scoring, it seems clear that he's sacrificing a portion of defensive responsibility for those scoring chances. Walman has battled injury this year, and with better health it's reasonable to predict some positive regression there.
Trent Frederic is also minus 13 on the season.
Depth scoring required
Bottom six offense wins games. The Oilers are blessed to have TWO superstars on the roster,
each good for over a point per game on average. In a 3-2 league, that means a single depth goal per game (along with league average defending) should guarantee the win on many nights. The Oilers need to get more out of their depth.
Last playoffs, Brad Marchand joined the Florida Panthers. With 20 points in 23 games, his added scoring pushed them past early round scares, and put the Cup Final out of reach for McDavid and company. That's the sort of acquisition Edmonton needs to make if they're going to legitimately compete for the championship this time around. The Panthers were so happy with the trade that they signed Marchand, and he's continued to play well for them (and made Team Canada).
Meanwhile Oilers management has to be wondering if it's better to buyout Frederic just to get him off the roster, even if it means his cap hit sticks around until 2040.