The Edmonton Oilers took fans and a nation for a wild playoff ride in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. They were able to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals again but lost to the 2024 Stanely Cup champion Florida Panthers.
This time they lost in 6 games compared to seven games in 2024. Many feel that the Oilers were better prepared from the 2025 playoffs than in 2024 but what they were not prepared for was a dominant Florida Panthers team that had an amazing offense with eight players with > 20 playoff points, a Vezina caliber goaltender still playing at the top of his game and a forechecking team that the league has not seen in the playoffs for decades.
So, a better (and healthier) Oilers team could not beat an even better Florida Panthers team. So, what can the Oilers do to build a team to beat any NHL team and especially a team with the style of play of the Florida Panthers?
Stan Bowman starts to rebuild in the off season to make the team better
I wrote an article at the end of the Stanley Cup finals about what went wrong with the play of the Edmonton Oilers in Round 4. It was very clear that the Panthers were a championship caliber team and the Oilers were not there yet. If the Oilers did not meet the Panthers in Round 4, many strongly believe that the Oilers could have defeated that team and win the Stanley Cup.
Moving forward, in the offseason, I outlined in my June article several key things that the Oilers need to improve upon to have a chance to win the Stanley Cup in 2026. Did they achieve this?
Key areas for the new players to be impactful – creating better forward depth lines
The Oilers lost seven forwards: Jeff Skinner (to San Jose), Connor Brown (to New Jersey), Drake Caggiula (to Lausanne), Evander Kane (to Vancouver), Viktor Arvidsson (to Boston), Corey Perry (to the Kings), Lane Pederson (to the Flyers).
A few of these players did play on special teams for the Oilers and remember how impactful Connor Brown was in both the 2024 and 2025 playoffs and the impact of Evander Kane and Corey Perry in rounds 1-3 of the 2025 playoffs. So, many will be missed.
The Oilers signed or gained 10 significant forwards: Andrew Mangiapane to a two-year contract; Curtis Lazar to a one-year contract; Kasperi Kapanen to a one-year extension; Noah Philp to a one-year extension; Trent Frederic to an eight-year contract extension; the signing of an NCAA rising star in Isaac Howard from the Lightning, Quinn Hutson to an entry-level contract and the signing of Roby Jarventie (a Finnish winger).
All the new draft picks are < 25 years of age and are close to a point a game player on their last team. In addition, we had the signing of the German forward, Josh Samanski, and Czech forward, David Tomasek, both interesting prospects. A few more prospects were added that will be discussed in a later article.
In the end, they added seven new forwards/center and re-signed three to the team. We will thus have 10 available forwards/center to start the 2025 season. These signings have lowered the average age of the team and I think will they increase the speed of the team.
But, can they significantly improve the penalty kill, powerplay or play with McDavid or Draisaitl – areas that inhibited them from defeating the Florida Panthers and thus from winning the Stanley Cup?
Andrew Mangiapane and Curtis Lazar will both have time in the top line with Kasperi Kapanen, Noah Philp and Trent Frederic good choices to slot in an out to try to establish a fit with Connor or Leon.
Time will tell if the forward group actually is better this off season. If you believe in analytics, then the Oilers now do have more scoring wingers in their system with speed that can help improve the deficient areas that prevented them from winning the Stanley Cup.
Key areas for the new players to be impactful – exploring best fit with Leon and Connor
I think this is imperative now then ever that the Oilers find wingers that can play with Connor and especially Leon. To break the forecheck of a team the Florida Panthers, you have to have Leon and Connor on two lines and hope that their wingers will be strong AND fast enough to break through tight forechecking and allow Connor and Leon to do what they do best.
Florida stifled the life out of the ability of Connor and Leon to perform at the elite level and credit goes to the Panthers for sure. But, Bowman has to build the 2025 team to break through the Florida style of hockey and give the other team two superstars to deal with every other shift!!
The hope is that some of the new wingers can fit into the lines with Connor or Leon and be impactful to let the superstars do what they do best. In addition, the hope is that we have enough available wingers for RNH to have his own line and be threatening every shift.
New ideas from the coaches for breakouts will also be needed here for any chance of success in defeating a system like what Florida created in the 2025 playoffs.
Improvement of the penalty kill and power play
We know the Oilers have had the best power play in NHL history over the past several years and recently in the 2024 playoffs. How did it falter during the regular season and the playoffs a year later?
They lost significant pieces at the beginning of the 2024-2025 season in Broberg, Holloway, Ceci, Foegele and McLeod. They just could not find players capable to play like those players did and the penalty kill suffered even into the playoffs.
The same thing happened for the powerplay. So, who should they put on special teams in 2025-26 season?
They recently lost special teams coach, Glen Gulutzan, to the Dallas Stars, and the new power play coach has a lot of work to do. I think they have the talent to achieve the level they were at in the 2023-2024 season and 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Players like Lazaar, Mangiapane, Philp and Federic can help on the penalty kill as well as the power play. The Oilers need to give the young new recruits like Isaac Howard, Quinn Hutson (brother to calder winning rookie Luke Hutson), Roby Jarventie, Josh Samanski and David Tomasek a chance to contribute to either the penalty kill or second unit power play as some of them might be ready for those roles.
Improvement of defensive zone play
The Oilers lost three defensemen: John Klingberg to the San Jose Sharks, Ronnie Attard (to Colorado) and Phil Kemp (to the Penguins). But, they did acquire three new young defensemen to the system: Damien Carfagna from Ohio State, Atro Leppänen and Alec Regula.
They re-signed Ty Emberson to two-year extension and Evan Bouchard to four-year extension. So, it is hard to tell if their defensive core is improved and Paul Coffey will not be back as defensive coach.
We knew that that may happen as Coffey’s recommendations have not been getting through to the Oilers and especially to Bouchard who has been making huge defensive blunders all during the regular season and into the playoffs, including two in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
So, a new defensive coach is needed to spearhead a new “blunder reduced” play in the defensive end. The Oilers have demonstrated evidence of good defensive play in both the 2024 and 2025 playoffs but they could not maintain it to beat the Florida Panthers in both years. With a new defensive coach, we can reset to an improved level of play in the 2025-26 season.
Improvement in goaltending – is the Skinner/Pickard tandem good enough?
There was a lot of discussions entering the 2024 and 2025 playoffs about the goaltending duo of Skinner/Pickard tandem and if good enough to get the Oiles to the Stanley Cup finals in 2026 and win it all.
In 2024, the Oilers special team masked the non-elite caliber goaltending to get them to Game 7 of the Stanely Cup finals. In 2025, a healthy McDavid and Draisaitl as well as depth scoring got the Oilers to game 6 of the Stanely Cup Finals. Several games were lost due to the non-elite play of this tandem and Sergei Bobrovsky again demonstrated how elite he is.
The Oilers signed Nathaniel Day to an entry-level contract (an inexperienced professional goalie from the OHL) and Samuel Jonsson to entry-level contract (a goalie from the Swedish league with 1.88 GAA in 24-plus games). These goalies are not ready for the NHL, but Jonsson might be soon with the right development and could be an excellent third goalie to the Skinner/Pickhard tandem.
There are active rumours about Carter Hart linked to the Oilers but that comes with a huge uncertainty about Hart’s participation in a sexual assault case with other members of the 2018 Canadian World Juniors team.
If free of these charges, several believe that he might be headed to Edmonton. He has not played since January 2024 but is 26 years of age and thought to be an upcoming elite goaltender.
If any team would take him, it would be the Oilers as they have done so on numerous occasions with “problem” players such as Evander Kane, Corey Perry and Craig McTavish in years past for those that remember how he came to the Oilers from the Bruins. You can put Oilers Current GM, Stan Bowman, in this category coming from the controversial situation with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Thus, a lot of uncertainty in the goaltending position in the off season this year. Longtime goaltending coach since 2014, Dustin Swartz, has left the team so the incoming goaltending coach will hopefully get the Skinner/Pickhard tandem performing better in the upcoming season and a new era of goaltending improvements will happen.
Are these changes enough to get to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2026?
It will be another short off season for the Oilers players and staff. The rookies have started preparing for camp and soon the team will start pre-season games.
I think the additions will make the team better together with a new special teams and goaltending coach for a fresh start. Knobloch as been an excellent coach for the Oilers with a > 60% winning percentage in both regular season and playoffs.
With the contracts of the assistant coaches expiring this year, Knobloch has now hired three new coaches: Paul McFarland (assistant coach, former head coach of the WHL's Calgary Hitmen and assistant coach experiences with the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Seattle Kraken), Peter Aubry (goaltending coach, with experiences with the Chicago Blackhawks and the University of Nebraska-Omah), and Conor Allen (skills coach, with experiences working with USA Hockey's national under-17 team and in skill development roles in junior hockey). Paul Coffey transitions to an advisory role again for Katz.
McFarland will be responsible for the power play, Aubry will bring his analytical approach to goaltending and Allen will focus on player development and skill acquisition.
These changes come as the Oilers look to build on their recent success and improve their chances in the upcoming NHL season. The new coaching staff brings a mix of experience and fresh perspectives that could be pivotal for the team's development.
We await the start of the season with eager anticipation of what will happen. Fans should be ready for another fun ride.
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