The Edmonton Oilers were quite active ahead of the 2026 NHL trade deadline, adding multiple key pieces, primarily focusing on improving their overall team defence.
General manager Stan Bowman added rental top-four defenceman Connor Murphy at fifty percent retained for the remainder of this year, making a trade with his former club the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a second round pick in 2028.
He then made another trade with the Blackhawks, acquiring another rental, this time in third line shutdown centre Jason Dickinson (also at fifty percent retention) and Colton Dach. Going the other way was struggling Oilers unrestricted free agent signing, Andrew Mangiapane and 2027 first round draft pick.
Although they neglected to address their depth scoring struggles at the deadline, there was a clear objective; improve their defence. They did this by adding Paul Coffey back behind the bench and by adding at the deadline. Despite being labelled deadline winners, so far, it has not really been working.
How the Oilers deadline adds have fared so far
I should clarify, Murphy and Dickinson are by-and-large doing their job. Looking at the splits and using most defensive metrics, the Oilers have improved defensively.
According to evolving-hockey.com, in their 11 games leading up to March, the Oilers ranked 18th in corsi against per 60 (CA/60) at 5-on-5 and 32nd in expected goals against per 60 (xGA/60). Unsurprisingly, they ranked 32nd in actual goals against per 60 minutes (GA/60).
In their 11 games during the month of March, the Oilers have improved to 17th in CA/60, seventh in xGA/60, and yet still a putrid 26th in GA/60.
The club has drastically improved the quality chances they are sacrificing and somewhat improved the volume of chances they allow but still cannot keep the puck out of their own net. The problem gets even worse, especially now with star forward Leon Draisaitl sidelined with an injury.
Oilers offence has dried up
Whether related or not to the Draisaitl injury, the Oilers have had issues both keeping pucks out of their net but also putting pucks into their opponents' net. The Oilers also went from fifth in goals for per 60 down to 17th during this time and also 16th and eighth in CF/60 and xGF/60 to 27th and 14th, respectively.
The offence struggling now only compounds their struggles giving up goals and amplifies them further as both Connor Ingram and Tristan Jarry have had poor outings in recent games. Their season stats are not much better with neither goalie currently rolling with a save percentage above .890.
Oilers deadline failed to properly address needs
GM Stan Bowman clearly had a plan in place and executed that plan, adding two high quality defensive pieces. However, by putting all of his eggs in this one basket, he failed to address their more pressing issues; goaltending and depth scoring.
Now as both goalies fail to shut the door and with one of their main stars out of the lineup for an undetermined amount of time -- although we are assured he will be back by the playoffs -- the Oilers offence has faltered.
These issues risk only becoming further exposed in the playoffs when the games get even tighter. The club will need to address these concerns in the off-season and will need to make major changes to keep their contention window alive.