After failing to capture hockey's holy grail, the Stanley Cup for a second straight season, the Edmonton Oilers had plenty of hard decisions to make heading into the 2025 offseason.
There were multiple players with contracts expiring, some needing to be re-signed and some not but the Oilers were tight to the NHL salary cap ceiling. This caused the team to let multiple players walk in free agency like; Connor Brown, Corey Perry, and Jeff Skinner. General manager Stan Bowman also had to pull the trigger on a couple moves to dump salary by moving Viktor Arvidsson and Evander Kane.
There was plenty of turnover and with the team needing to fill holes throughout their lineup, they were forced to make a series of low cost bets. Bringing on board a top European free agent in David Tomasek and Atro Leppanen, adding prospects in Josh Samanski and Viljami Marjala. They also added buy-low forward Andrew Mangiapane to hopefully bounce back and some depth forwards.
The team also traded for a second highly touted prospect in as many years, acquiring 2025 Hobey Baker winner Isaac Howard from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Oilers' former first rounder, Sam O'Reilly. Him along with Matt Savoie and Noah Philp were expected to come in and win roster spots out of training camp and provide depth.
Overall, the vision was clear and to most, seemed logical. It is what many people beg teams to do rather than overpaying in free agency or on the trade market to add a hopefully impact player at an inflated cost.
So far, things have not worked out as well as many would have hoped so as we pass the quarter mark of the season and enter into US Thanksgiving -- a checkpoint that many put a lot of stock into -- was the 2025 off season a failure?
Re-grading GM Stan Bowman's off season
The main thing to get out of the way is the fact that it is still quite early and much can change from game 24 to game 82 but so far, things are not going to plan. The Oilers are on the outside of the playoff picture with a record of 10-9-5, holding on for dear life by their overtime losses. The fact of the matter is that the Oilers are below .500 and have only five regulation wins so far this season.
Not to mention, the one thing that Bowman did not address that everybody begged them to address seems to be their Achilles heel with both Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard holding putrid save percentages of .885 and .851, respectively.
Even the areas that Bowman did address, like the additions of Tomasek, Savoie, Howard, and Mangiapane and more have not worked out well. The team is getting little to no surplus value from any of these players and Howard was even sent down to the American Hockey League's Bakersfield Condors to find his game.
Of the three still on the roster, Savoie seems to be heating up at least a bit while Tomasek is in-and-out of the lineup as a healthy scratch. Mangiapane looked like a potential bounce back candidate but has been disappointing so far. However, he has been the most successful, giving the Oilers some depth scoring help while providing value at both ends of the ice.
What can the Oilers do now?
It is hard to know exactly what will fix the team, who can you fire or trade that will definitively turn the season around? The most obvious is the head coach but given he has lead them to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals appearances and is one of the winningest in Oilers history, it feels a little too trigger happy. Although, Kris Knoblauch should be on the hot seat, especially if things do not come around.
In terms of trading, the Oilers making a change between the pipes would be the most ideal but there are plenty of issues coming with that. The available goaltenders on the market are probably not a tangible upgrade and if they are, you have to pay the cost of acquisition but there is also the salary cap to navigate. There is no sure fire answers.
The issue with the Oilers this year is that many of their issues appear to be deep rooted, ranking below average by most metrics and are as mentioned before, outside of the playoff picture. Not only are the results not in favour of the team but the process is not either.
This indicates that the Oilers results are not a case of bad luck but on the contrary, that they are getting the results they deserve. Even still, the season is salvageable if the team makes a combination of necessary roster moves and tactical changes.
However, it might be the case that the team is forced to take a step back, make changes in the summer and try again next year. On the bright side, their 2026 first round pick that they used to acquire Jake Walman at the trade deadline is top-12 protected, meaning that if the Oilers do fail to make the playoffs, they will most likely retain a high draft choice.
This could put the Oilers on Gavin McKenna watch as we get closer to the 2026 NHL Draft.