The pain of a quick Stanley Cup playoff exit may now be gone for most Edmonton Oilers fans. The off season trades have distracted Oilers fans from the painful exit and this could be the biggest off season trade during tenure of Connor McDavid. Two impactful changes, as many have written about, was the departure of Darnell Nurse to the San Jose Sharks and the entry of Stanley Cup winning goalie, Frederik Andersen, from the Carolina Hurricanes.
The loss of Nurse allowed Bowman to bring in multiple key defensive and offensive pieces that will have huge impacts such as defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin and Ryan Shea, future defenseman Zack Sharp and forward Mathieu Joseph. The Nurse trade in July has had a ripple effect to acquire key pieces in return and opening up discussions for many other players. Management finally is thinking the right way and effectively using the cap space dollars from the Nurse trade.
The impact of Frederik Andersen
Andersen has a career goals against average of 2.59 and save percentage of 0.913. Out of 13 NHL seasons, his save percentage has fallen below 0.900 only once with two seasons of 0.899 and 0.895 (essentially 0.900). The Oiler’s have not had a goalie below a 3.00 GAA and save percentage above 0.900 since Stuart Skinner had that in 2023-2024 season.
Before Skinner, Mike Smith posted comparable statistics with GAA below 3.00 and save percentage above 0.900 from 2019 to 2022. The Oilers during those seasons have done well in the playoffs but not quite had the team composition of a Stanley Cup contender.
The acquisition of Andersen, we hope, will take us back to those years when we had realiable goaltending, good team defense and a very good penalty kill.
Andersen proved to all in the 2026 playoffs that, even at 36 years of age, he was reliable and gave the Hurricanes a chance to win in almost every game. He gave a solid performance during the 2026 NHL playoffs and surprised many posting a 1.89 GAA and 0.910 save percentage with 13 wins and three shutouts. If he can give the Oilers those statistics in the 2027 season and especially in the playoffs, we will have a very good chance of bringing home the cup.
Andersen will give the Oilers confidence
Goalie confidence is so important to the success of this team and to any team really. We have seen confidence in the goaltender at times with Skinner in net, when Connor Ingram took over for Tristan Jarry when he got injured and the amazing performance of Calvin Pickard when Skinner was injured during the 2024 NHL hockey playoffs.
Goalies that give you timely saves when defensive breakdowns happen instills so much confidence that pushes the defence to play even better as they are not making tentative moves with thoughts of misplaying the puck or having puck giveaways. Andersen will providence confidence for the defensive core that will push the Oilers towards success. But can he maintain that for long stretches?
Uncertainty on who will be the back up
I think we all know and hope that Andersen is the No, 1 goalie to start the NHL season in September and will remain our No. 1 goalie in the 2026-2027 NHL regular season. Who will be the backup? Jarry or Devon Levi? Nice problems to have. My guess it will be Jarry but if he does not improve his dismal play that we saw after he came to Edmonton, the Oilers will switch to Levi who inspires a lot of optimism.
My guess is Levi will be our backup goalie for most of the upcoming season. I am still hoping for the NHL debut of Connor Ungar, the young goalie in Bakersfield that posted a 2.50 GAA and save percentage above 0.910 with above 0.940 in a number of games last season in the ECHL and AHL. As I wrote in an article in may Ungar is a composed, efficient, reads‑first goaltender who keeps beating out internal competition. I hope management will give him NHL experience this year and who knows where that may end up.
Excitement to start the 2026-2027 NHL season
The new look Oilers this year have five new players acquired in the off season and three players obtained at the trade deadline in 2026. Essentially eight new players when compared to the beginning of the 2025-2026 season. That is yet another major turnaround. This time we have lost a core player in Darnell Nurse. I do believe management did it right this time and addressed our goaltending and defence issues.
Both should significantly improve this year. Focus now is on secondary scoring to help McDavid and Draisaitl. Vladimir Tarasenko has been rumored to be of interest to the Oilers and that will be amazing if we could land him. He has had some difficult years but he is proven top-six scorer and will be an amazing addition with a cap hit of less than $5 milion at 34 years of age. I think he will fit right in with the Oilers core. Matt Savoie could have a breakout year in his contract season and we all hope Josh Samanski, Kasperi Kapanen, and Vasily Podkolzin will continue to develop and be significant contributors to the already potent offence of the Edmonton Oilers.
We, as fans, are optimistic this year will start out the right way and that we will have an exciting year with the entire team now rested (3 months of rest!) and refreshed to pursue the Stanley Cup. We have to get to the Stanley Cup final this year as it might be our last shot with McDavid on the team
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