The 2025-2026 NHL season is underway with 8 games played for the Edmonton Oilers with as 4-3-1 record. Captain Connor McDavid wanted a better start but that has not been as great as anticipated. Edmonton sits at 14th spot in league standings (in the second wild card spot for the Western Conference) with a $12.5 million dollar captain and Minnesota sits at 25th spot (way outside a wild card spot) with the highest paid player in the NHL, Kirill Kaprizov.
Although Kirill has 10 points in 8 games compared to McDavid’s 11points in 8 games, the two teams have had very different starts.
Oilers will have an improved special teams
The penalty kill has greatly improved to over 80 percent and the powerplay is above 25 percent and improving, so that is a different start to the year than in 2024. There are 9 new additions from last season an, I predict, that many will be significant contributors to the success of the Oilers in the 2025-2026 season. If fact, almost every person that is actively playing on the roster have scored at least 1 point.
Some of the new players are finding themselves on the penalty kill and new young guns (Howard, Tomasek and Savoie) have roles on the powerplay and significant spots on the roster. I think the young players will continue to have success and be an integral part of the Oilers penalty kill similar to how Broberg and Holloway impacted both penalty kill and powerplay.
Their youth and speed were missed last year but I think the Oilers may have found comparable replacements in significant trades and acquisitions by Stan Bowman in the off season.
The Oilers will find the right players for McDavid and Draisaitl
The Oilers have started out the new season with the “nuclear option” of Connor and Leon on the same line. It has worked well but we all know Leon is just holding a spot for Zack Hyman when he eventually returns in November.
Andrew Mangiapane will be a good fit on either first or second scoring lines but morso for Connor line as he is a former 35 goal scorer who likes to get into the corners and battle for the puck. David Tomasek may be an interesting fit for the McDavid or Draisaitl lines as he has size and speed and can keep up with them as well as a good net front presence. It will be interesting if he has some ice time with the top line.
Leon’s line has always suffered from lack of options after wingers end up with Connor. But, this year, there might be a few options to try with Leon including Matt Savoie, Issac Howard and more of Vasily Podkolzin this year of Kapanen. With the acquisition of center Jack Roslovic, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins could end up back on the wing on Leon’s line mid-season.
I think we will see some or all of these changes as the season progresses. By trade deadline, the Oilers need to have at least 3 scoring lines and a 4th that can also challenge against the top scoring lines of other teams. It will be very interesting to see the line combinations towards Christmas.
The rookies will make a big impact
The Oilers have nine new players on their roster that were not on their roster at the start of the 2024-2025 season. They have contributed more than 10 points to first 8 games and have made an impact. The average age of the Oiler is 29.12 years for 28th spot on the list of average age of NHL teams (the Canadians top the list with an average age of 25.23 years).
The hope is that the influx of players like Matt Savoie, Isaac Howard, and David Tomasek will ink permanent spots on the team and be significant contributors in the spring when they get ready for the playoffs.
I predict that Tomasek will be an important contributor to the penalty kill and powerplay, Howard to the penalty kill and Savoie on the penalty kill and 5 on 5 play. They are getting significant time on ice in the first 8 games to impact the team and will continue to do so as we head to 20 and 30 games into the season.
McDavid’s drive for success will push them to top Western Conference
The Oiler’s have had a relatively slow start with a 4-3-1 record in spite of the captain saying they want to have a more successful start to the season this year. They are coming off a horrible 5 game road trip going 2-3 and not showing much life. The came back and provided a much needed high tempo game against the Montreal Canadians to win the game 6-5 with a 40 percent powerplay and 100 percent penalty kill. We hope they can build on this in the next 10-20 games and continue to rise the Pacific Division standings.
This team is way better than their current record shows and they hope is that they will get better with each week. Both Edmonton and Florida have had slower starts to the season with Florida having a 4-5-0 record for 19th spot in the league standings. Both these teams have played a lot of hockey getting to games 7 and 6 in the 2024 and 2025 NHL playoffs, respectively.
So, do we expect a slow start…YES. But, the Oilers need to be better than they were at the start of the last two NHL seasons. Their lines need to be more stable and playing together for several games and not several shifts; their star players need to demonstrate the desire to compete more at this time of the season; and their special teams need to continue to improve as it will them games during the first half of the season.
Go to the Stanley Cup finals for the third straight time
McDavid only signed a two year deal after the 2025-2026 season. So, another three kicks at the prize is what is written between the speeches from management and McDavid. Let’s make this year count and the hope is that the players on the team feel the same vibe – unified in their play to get back to the Stanely Cup finals. I, as others, do feel that the defense and forward group did get better this year and we should see the outcome of that improvement. I worry about our goalies as both Skinner and Pickard have had difficult games to the start the season.
The acquisition of Connor Ingram was an excellent move as he will be a good back up and maybe even challenge for the #1 position by March 2026. Despite his years in Arizona and Utah, his overall save percentage is still above 0.900 and he can only get better playing lots of games for the Bakersfield Condors.
We all hope that Skinner can perform better this year, especially have consistent play in the playoffs. He had a milestone this year with 100 wins that put him sixth on the Oilers’ all-time wins by goalies: Grant Fuhr (226), Bill Ranford (167), Tommy Salo (147), Andy Moog (143), and Cam Talbot (104).
The Oiler’s have been favoured to get back to the Stanley Cup finals by many sports writers and fans. The new additions will fit in nicely and the prediction is that the Oiler’s can finish top 10 in the NHL at the end of the regular season. It will be a very interesting regular season and journey to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2026.