An NHL insider believes the Oilers should seek revenge on the Golden Knights

The Edmonton Oilers, specifically general manager Stan Bowman, enter the 2026 off-season with a clear mandate to improve the team back to Stanley Cup contention.

After back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances in 2024 and 2025, the Oilers limped into the playoffs and were ousted in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks. Shortly after, it was revealed that the team was withheld permission to speak with Bruce Cassidy, firing head coach Kris Knoblauch soon after.

As Bowman and company tries to bring a new bench boss on board, they also should be preparing for the player free agent market opening on July 1st. The Oilers will have holes to fill and will need to make trades and signings to find ways to upgrade their underperforming roster.

NHL insider Jeff Marek recently floated an idea on his podcast that gained plenty of traction around the hockey world on social media.

Marek floated the idea that the Oilers should offersheet Golden Knights' 25 year old Russian winger, Pavel Dorofeyev.

Should the Oilers offersheet Pavel Dorofeyev?

After the clip of Marek went viral, NHL salary cap and contract aggregator website PuckPedia took to X to clarify what the Oilers would need to do to pull this off.

In Marek's hypothetical, he says the Oilers should offersheet Dorofeyev to a two-year contract, carrying an $11.9 million annual average value. This would put them just inside the second highest offersheet compensation tier, requiring them to send two first round picks (in two of 2027, 2028, and 2029) along with a 2027 second and 2027 third round pick to the Golden Knights, should they choose not to match.

The Knights young restricted free agent winger is having a breakout playoff run that is putting him on the map for many fans. He currently leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs in goals with 10 through 13 games. He has proven himself as a lethal sniper in the NHL, having scored 35 and 37 goals the past two seasons while seeing his point production grow from 52 points in 82 games to 64 points in 82 games this past regular season.

There is no denying that Dorofeyev is a talented player who could likely help the Oilers. However, the one wrinkle to doing such a big offersheet is that it would lock the Oilers into a bind between owing him nearly $12 million in compensation for each of the next two seasons and would takeaway two legitimate trade assets in their first round picks in 2028 and 2029.

Especially since the compensation will have to be the Oilers' very own picks, they will also be forced to acquire their very own 2027 third round pick back from the Nashville Predators, when they sent it over for defenceman Spencer Stastney. The Predators in theory could hold the Oilers for ransom if they attempt to reacquire that draft pick.

At the end of the day, allocating this much cap space on Dorofeyev is a risk and could legitimately hurt the Oilers chances of improving the team going forward. We have seen teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs get harmed by concentrating such a large amount of their cap space to a handful of players.

If the Oilers can get away with a lesser offersheet with lower financial and draft pick compensation required, it would be a much better move for them. However, it should not be completely ruled out as an option as Bowman and the Oilers will have to be bold if they want to improve the team in quick order.

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