It's safe to say at this point that the Oilers have not gotten off to the best start. It wasn't as bad as last year but it hasn't been as good as we wanted it to be - I mean last season's start wasn't exactly a high barometer to begin with so clearing that even a little bit while better still isn't as good as coming out swinging to start the season. We're now just over 25 percent done with the season, so let's see what the Oilers' opening night roster was and see what it's evolved to.
The Oilers opening night roster looked like this.
Forwards
Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Skinner - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
Podkolzin - Ryan - Perry
Defence
Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Emberson
Kulak - Dermott
The goalies are the same as last season, Stuart Skinner expected to get most of the starts while Calvin Pickard would back him up.
What's happened since then
Vasily Podkolzin moves into the top six
Probably the biggest story of what's happened to the roster is the promotion of Vasily Podkilzin to second line LW. He was one of the few bright spots in the bottom six to start the season, and from past seasons in Vancouver we know he has the talent to succeed in a top six role, in fact if his hands were to get going, we might have a legitimate power forward on our hands. Although he largely failed to secure a top six role in Vancouver, with a change of scenery, different coaches, teammates, etc., that he just might do better here. The results have been mixed so far as Podkolzin just scored his first goal as an Oiler last night against the Rangers, but he's been contributing in other ways to the club, and Leon Draisaitl, the center he's most played with, seems to have some good things to say about playing with him. If he can keep up with Draisaitl that's a good thing - Podkolzin inserts an element of youth and speed that is largely missing from the lineup otherwise. Even when he's not scoring, Podkolzin has found other ways to contribute to the team - he leads the team in hits with 52 in the early going and is fifth on the team in PIMs with 11, so there's a physical toughness to his game that again is largely missing from the Oilers lineup, especially with Evander Kane out of the lineup due to injury. He's even been able to start the season eighth on the team in blocked shots - only Adam Henrique has more out of the forward group.
The only thing I would question Kris Knoblauch on as far as his usage is why he hasn't put Podklzin on the PK. Podkolzin's youth and speed would help with the transition between all the personnel we lost from last season's 15th ranked PK that you could at least say is middle of the road - not so much this year, where the Oilers have plummeted to 29th place in the league on the PK at the time of this writing. Podkolzin has expressed a desire to add PK time to his toolbox - and honestly if he's prepped well enough, I say why not give him the chance? What have you got to lose on a 29th ranked PK? At any rate, so far Podkolzin has been well worth the fourth round pick we sent to the Canucks for him in 2025.
Jeff Skinner disappoints in the early going
As impressive as Podkolzin has been in terms other than boxcars, Jeff Skinner has been equally disappointing, only putting up 4-3-7 in 22 games and currently holds the worst +/- on the team right now at -9, so it's no wonder he's fallen from the top six to the bottom six forward group.
Wingers also disappoint as a unit
Before their injuries, Zach Hyman (3-5-8 in 20 games), and prize free agent pickup Viktor Arvidsson (2-3-5 in 16 games) were also disappointing but at least they weren't hemorrhaging defensively like Skinner was as Hyman was a 0 and Arvidsson was a +2 prior to injury. We could've given Arvidsson a free pass for the first 10 games of the season due to him being a new arrival, but that time has passed. The fact that both of Jeff Jackson's prize free agent forward pickups in Arvidsson and Skinner have both disappointed in the early going doesn't bode well for the Oilers future, but both have played enough NHL games that at least in theory they have the experience and the toolbox to rebound. Not to be outdone, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins might not be injured but he's been almost as disappointing as Skinner and Arvidsson going 2-7-9 in 22 games with a -1 to boot. He's better than that, we know that. The longest serving Oiler might be purged from the roster at some point if he can't pick it up.
More minor moves
To the surprise of no one, Evander Kane has started the season on LTIR. He might not be back until February at the earliest is the last projection we've heard. Defenceman Josh Brown, brought in as a veteran bottom pairing/extra guy, didn't even make the roster during training camp and has spent the entire season so far in Bakersfield. He won't be here for the duration of his three year contract unless he shows he can play here. Travis Dermott, who came here on a PTO, ended up getting a contract with the team this year but has played in a rather vanilla, forgettable fashion. Give him more credit than Josh Brown though - at least he's made the roster so far. The one good thing about the injury bug - the Oilers are accruing LTIR cap space at a crazy rate. Right now other than Kane, Arvidsson's $4,000,000 pact is accruing LTIR, as was Darnell Nurse's $9.25 million pact until he recently came back from his injury. Hyman is only expected out for seven days at the longest so don't expect his contract to go on LTIR - that's for players who are out at least two weeks. Moving on, Raphael Lavoie was caught in a waivers tug of war between the Oilers and the Golden Knights earlier on in the season, which the Oilers have seemingly lost as the Knights ended up getting his services. The book on him is he's an AHL bubble player at this point, although he was one of the Oilers better prospects. He's spent the season so far playing for the GK's minor league team, the Henderson Silver Knights, but has disappointed in the early going.
Drake Caggiula is back, Noah Philp makes his NHL debut
A combination of injuries and players in the doghouse led head coach Kris Knoblauch to bring up a couple of guys from the minor leagues - Noah Philp, one of the last cuts of training camp, and Drake Caggiula, who is back for a second tour of duty.
Philp is very much a late bloomer, as the 26 year old, after taking a year off from hockey for personal reasons, comes back and has already looked better than incumbent Derek Ryan at times for the fourth line center spot. Philp brings a combination of youth and speed to the role, something Ryan at the age of 37 doesn't seem to have anymore. Ryan's contract is up after this season so don't be surprised if the Oilers let him walk and bring up Philp full time in his stead. Philp looked good in limited sample size early on in the season, putting up an assist and +1 in three games, not bad for a guy on his debut callup. Ryan continues to struggle as a bottom six forward, so don't be surprised if in the near future Philp and Ryan swap playing destinations. This is an easy peasy way for the Oilers to add youth and speed to their lineup.
As for Caggiula, he's back with the Oilers for the second time after initially going undrafted and signing with the Oilers as a college free agent back in 2016. He had some modest success with the Oilers initially before ex-GM Peter Chiarelli traded him to Chicago with Brandon Manning coming to the Oilers as the centerpiece coming from Chicago. He has since become nothing more than a journeyman AHL bubble player, bouncing around from Chicago to Arizona, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, before spending all of last season in Bakersfield. Hard to say if Caggiula can stay here but certainly working in his favor is the fact that he's far and away the youngest player on the fourth line, which is saying something as his linemates are Derek Ryan and Corey Perry.