The 2026-27 Edmonton Oilers' schedule is out!
With the full schedule out, it's now possible to dissect the schedule in its entirety while offering a projection of what the Oilers' final record could be and what the possible takeaways from such a record could look like.
September and October will feature plenty of divisional rivalries and a chance to start strong
Each of the first six games on the Oilers' 2026-27 schedule will see the team take on Pacific Division opponents.
The Oilers will kick off their campaign with a home-and-home series against the Vancouver Canucks, while their first Saturday game of the new season will see them host the Seattle Kraken. Then, it's a three-day break before the Oilers contest a rematch of their first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks, while another two-day break separates the team from a contest against the San Jose Sharks. The Oilers will conclude their season-opening divisional run on Tuesday, October 13 when they travel to play the Los Angeles Kings.
From there, a home-and-home series against the Utah Mammoth, a five-game homestand, and a Halloween night contest against Matthew Schaefer and the New York Islanders will make up the second-half of the Oilers' opening month.
The six-game run against Pacific Division opposition should see the Oilers come out with four wins at worst. The Canucks are expected to be at, if not near the bottom of the NHL standings, and there's a strong chance the Ducks won't be that far away. And given that the Kraken are always a mixed bag, the only two games of genuine concern for the Oilers should be the contests against the Sharks and the Kings. The former could easily contend for the Pacific Division title should Macklin Celebrini and the rest of the offense enjoy a strong campaign, while the latter could once again be a genuine playoff contender under Peter Laviolette.
The second-half of October should see the Oilers split their home-and-home with the Mammoth while winning at least two of the five games during their home stand (three of those games are against the Minnesota Wild, Carolina Hurricanes, and Toronto Maple Leafs). With the Islanders game in mind, the absolute worst record that the Oilers should have after October is 8-5-1.
Another easy month awaits the Oilers in November
Let me list the 12 teams that the Oilers will face in the month of November:
The New York Rangers (twice)
The New Jersey Devils
The Ducks
The Canucks
The Philadelphia Flyers (twice)
The Leafs
The Florida Panthers
The Tampa Bay Lightning
The Hurricanes
The St Louis Blues
The Vegas Golden Knights
The Kraken (twice)
Of those 12 teams, seven didn't make the playoffs last season, while the Rangers and Canucks were among the worst teams in the entire league. The Oilers will play the Canucks and Rangers a combined three times during November.
While the Oilers will have to contest just six games against playoff opposition from last season, only three of them will be at home. The Oilers get the benefit of playing the Golden Knights at home, but they will have to play Tampa Bay, Carolina, and one of their two games against Philly on the road.
But even with that stretch in mind, the Oilers should finish November with an 8-4-3 record. With October's record in mind, the Oilers should be around 16-9-4 after the first two months of the season.
December is where things get tough ...
I've made my thoughts clear about the Oilers' World Juniors stretch in a separate piece. But for the sake of putting a number to that six-game stretch spanning late-December and early-January, let's say they go 3-2-1 in those games.
Now, let's go to the rest of the month, which represents a stark turnaround from their early-season stretch. All but two of the teams that they will face before their six-game World Juniors road trip made the playoffs last season, and one of those two teams is a Cup-contending Washington Capitals side. Of those games, the Oilers will play the Atlantic Division-winning Buffalo Sabres home and away during the first week of the month, while their early-December slate also includes the Capitals and Wild. After playing the Senators and Habs, the Oilers will get a three-game homestand against the Ducks, Mammoth, and Dallas Stars.
This is going to be the month where the team slips up. The Capitals could very well be no joke, and the Stars and Wild should easily be in or leading a fight for the Central Division advantage. At the same time, Buffalo will be out to prove that their 2025-26 season was not a fluke, while the Habs and Senators will have their own playoff interests at heart.
Add on the fact that the Oilers play only five home games during the month of December, and it's possible to see that they won't have too many chances to secure wins before the calendar flips to 2027. Even then, especially considering that the Ducks and Senators are already behind the eight-ball heading into the campaign, a .500 record seems doable. The Oilers will go 6-6-1 in December, putting their record in 2026 at 22-15-5.
... but January is no better
See above for my projection of the team's World Juniors stretch.
After the tournament concludes and the Oilers return to the confines of Rogers Place, they'll have to face both Florida teams and the Sharks while also playing the first of three games against Stuart Skinner's new team: the Winnipeg Jets. Their six-game slate to conclude the month features three of the four Conference Finalists (two of those games are away from home) in addition to the Kings and Sharks.
This is probably going to be another .500 month for the Oilers. Three Conference Finalists over the span of 10 days is probably going to take the team's attention away from the other three games during that end-of-month run; even if the team starts 2027 strong, that late-January run will temper any optimism to start the year.
A 7-7-1 record this month is doable, but a .500 run over two months could slow the Oilers' early-season momentum. By the end of the month, the Oilers will have a projected record of 29-22-6.
Home-heavy February could help the Oilers
Each of the first six games on the Oilers' February slate will be played at Rogers Place. Though the NHL All-Star Break will separate them, there is still space for the Oilers to build some mid-month momentum. After a back-to-back against the Blues and Penguins kicks off Valentine's Day weekend, the Oilers will have a three-day break before taking on the defending Presidents' Trophy winners: the Colorado Avalanche. They'll then conclude the homestand against the Bruins and Senators before ending February with a pair of Central Division opponents in Dallas and the Nashville Predators.
If Edmonton can secure a result against Vegas to open the All-Star Break and then earn both points against St Louis and/or Pittsburgh, they will have the recipe for a strong month. I'm going to say that the team goes 5-1-2 during February; that run should put the Oilers at 34-23-8 heading into the final two months of the season.
Winnable runs separate tough, must-win stretches in March and April
The first three games of the month for Edmonton will see them travel to play the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames before heading home to play host to the former. That is followed by home games against the Kings and Predators, though a Saturday game against the Kraken sandwiches a trip to Denver. That game against the Avs is followed by games against the Blues and Stars.
The Oilers will get a reprieve to start the next week when they travel to Vancouver and Calgary, though games against the Wild, Kings, and Sharks could very well determine the team's playoff positioning and/or hopes of winning the division/conference/Presidents' Trophy.
After starting April with one last game against the Golden Knights, Edmonton will conclude the regular season against Calgary and Anaheim before taking on the Winnipeg Jets in a home-and-home series.
With the likes of the Blackhawks, Flames, and Canucks more than likely outside the playoff picture at this point, these contests will become must-win games that could easily determine where the Oilers finish in the standings. Win and you gain ground on fellow playoff contenders, drop points and you could easily fall from the top-three spots to a Wild Card position.
There's also a chance the Ducks and Jets find themselves here come April, so let's throw them into the conversation.
This is a period of time where the Oilers must play their best hockey. There is no excuse for a team fighting for the Stanley Cup to be losing to Tank Bowl teams; the Oilers must be winning those kind of games, or there will be no path for them to a favorable playoff position. Though such games represent half of the Oilers' end-of-season stretch, they should win the majority of them.
I think the Oilers will conclude the season on an 11-5-3 run, with only a few slip-ups against the league's bottom-half. That will put the Oilers' final projected record at 45-28-11, good for 101 points in the standings.
What would 101 points do for the 2026-27 Oilers?
101 points would represent an eight-point improvement on last season, though it would not surpass the Oilers' record in the previous four seasons. That point total would also more than likely be good enough to see the Oilers into the top-three of the division, but only once since the 2021 COVID season has that been enough for a team to win the Pacific Division.
Would it be enough for the Oilers to navigate the concerns surrounding the hiring of Mike Babcock?
Absolutely not.
Though it would help to temper concerns of a complete locker-room collapse, it would likely do little in terms of best positioning the Oilers to get out of the Western Conference. Beyond the Pacific Division, not once in the last five years has a top-three team in the Central Division finished below 101 points, meaning that the Oilers would almost certainly face a road-heavy path back to the Stanley Cup Final.
The schedule might yield an improvement, but only just getting above 100 points will do little to push the Oilers back towards Cup contention. More will have to be shown during the regular season itself; therein lies the question for Babcock and Co.
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