Oilers open preseason with Battle of Alberta split squad games

The Edmonton Oilers are set to open their preseason schedule ahead of the 2025-26 regular season on Sunday.

The game comes against their bitter provincial rival Calgary Flames in split-squad action, meaning they will have one part of their training camp roster playing against the Flames in Edmonton and another in Calgary.

This game comes a week following the home-and-home between the Oilers and Flames rookie camp squads. Aside from those two games, this is the first time that Oilers fans will see their team play since losing to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals in June.

Where to watch the Oilers games tonight

The game in Edmonton will be held at Rogers Place and it starts at 6:00 pm MST and can be watched on OilersPlus.com or on the radio on CHED880.

The game in Calgary will be held at the Scotiabank Saddledome at 6:00 pm MST and can be watched on CalgaryFlames.com or on the Flames app in their region.

Lines

Since there are two sets of games, the lineup are hard to predict but assuming the Oilers will want to play McDavid in front of their hometown crowd, this below post on X by Tony Brar for their group one lines makes the most sense.

Directly from the Flames website itself, these are the projected lines for the game being played in Edmonton.

FORWARDS

Joel Farabee - Morgan Frost - Martin Frk

Ryan Lomberg - Martin Pospisil - Adam Klapka

Dryden Hunt - Rory Kerins - Lucas Ciona

Jacob Battaglia - Clark Bishop - Parker Bell

DEFENCE

Kevin Bahl - Axel Hurtig

Yan Kuznetsov - Brayden Pachal

Ilya Solovyov - Daniil Miromanov

GOALTENDERS

Ivan Prosvetov

Arsenii Sergeev

This is the lineup that is likely going to be playing in Calgary below from Tony Brar again.

This is the projected Flames lineup that will be in Calgary:

Matvei Gridin - Nazem Kadri - Matt Coronato

Connor Zary - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman

Sam Honzek - Justin Kirkland - William Stromgren

Aydar Suniev - Sam Morton - Andrew Basha

Nick Cicek - Rasmus Andersson

Joel Hanley - MacKenzie Weegar

Jake Bean - Zayne Parekh

Devin Cooley

Owen Say

Storylines to watch

Given this is the first game(s) of the preseason, it will be interesting to see the different line combinations and the chemistry for players and to see how they interact with one another. There are multiple players who will be playing in an NHL lineup for the first time and the Oilers.

Much has been made this training camp of Leon Draisaitl and his commitment to the defensive side of the game so it will be interesting to watch if he starts those habits in the preseason and how that may effect the chemistry with his linemates.

Speaking of linemates, it is possible that captain Connor McDavid starts the season without his winger Zach Hyman as he is expected to be sidelined with the same injury that kept him out of the Finals. It will be good to keep an eye on how his new linemates play with him as it could be an indicator of who will start the year on his wings.

Players to watch

David Tomasek

It is the Oilers top European free agents first time in an NHL jersey and will be a good test to see how he can keep up while playing on a line with McDavid. His shot has received a lot of praise in the early days of training camp so he will be a player to keep an eye on.

Andrew Mangiapane

Mangiapane came over this summer as the Oilers top free agent signing and looks to make his mark on McDavid's wings. He will also be playing against his former team for the first time on the other side of a Battle of Alberta. He will be a player to watch tonight.

Ike Howard

Finally, Ike Howard will be an Oilers player to keep an eye on. If Mangiapane was the Oilers marquee free agent, Howard was arguably their top acquisition overall. He won the Hobey Baker last year and after a relatively underwhelming showing at the rookie camp, it will be good to watch him to see if he can rebound.