Adam Henrique is not returning to the Edmonton Oilers next season.
I don't know why I was half-convinced he would. The way the Oilers re-signed Kasperi Kapanen (very, very different situation and a different kind of fit, yes), I kept thinking Henrique would quietly slot back in the same way he always has. Ready. Reliable. But it isn't happening. His two-year deal expired, he's a UFA and at 36 coming off an injury-interrupted season, the Oilers have apparently moved on. So that's it. His time in Edmonton is done.
Henrique arrived at the 2024 trade deadline in a deal that didn't exactly set the fanbase on fire. Edmonton sent a first-round pick to Anaheim for him and Sam Carrick and plenty of people thought Holland should've swung for someone flashier. A real top-six scorer maybe. Someone who could change a series.
And change a series he did, pretty or much.
In the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, with the Oilers down 3-0 to Florida and facing elimination, Henrique scored the game-winning goal in Game 4 tipping a Janmark pass past Bobrovsky to make it 2-0 in what became an 8-1 blowout. Then in Game 6, Janmark finds him again, wrist shot, 2-0, another game-winner. Two game-winning goals in a single Stanley Cup Final series making him the fourth Oiler in history to do it, joining Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Fernando Pisani.
We still lost in seven. But those two goals sure kept the dream alive.
After all that, Henrique re-signed on July 1st for two more years at $3 million a season. He could've realistically chased money or a bigger role somewhere else at the time. He came back to Edmonton.
Adam Henrique's 2024-25 regular season was what it was. 12 goals, 27 points in 81 games, third-line minutes, penalty kill duties, faceoffs. He was part of a team that made the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive year, and he put up 7 points in 22 playoff games doing the grinding work that makes a contender function.
Then came 2025-26, his final season. An injury against Nashville in January put him on LTIR for nearly two months. He came back, played out the year, finished with 14 points in 60 games. The playoffs came, he suited up and then he was hurt again. The curtain fell quietly. That's how it ended.
What I'll remember
I don't think it gets said enough that Adam Henrique was a pro in the truest sense. 15 years in this league, over a thousand career games (did that feat in an Oilers jersey, if you'll remember), and he had always been a team player.
He took the tough faceoffs. He killed penalties. When the stars went down with injuries, he stepped into a bigger role and held the line without complaint. And when the lights were at their absolute brightest at a Stanley Cup Final, backs against the wall, season on the line, he scored two game-winning goals and put his name next to even Gretzky's in some record books.
So long, Henny
We probably won't make a big deal out of this, and that's a little sad. There won't be a ceremony or a tribute video. He'll just... not be on the roster next season, and we'll move on. But he was part of two consecutive Stanley Cup Final runs, something this franchise hadn't done since the dynasty years, and he gave everything he had while he was here.
So thank you, Adam. For the game-winners. For the grind. For coming back when you didn't have to.
It was a good run.
Goodbye, Henny.
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