It was hard to watch the Edmonton Oilers fail to advance to round two of the NHL playoffs when you know that they are capable of high intensity hockey with two of the best players in the game. We saw that in game five and they overwhelmed the Ducks. Why could they not play that game in game two, three, four and certainly in game six? We may never get a straight answer from them but as fans and writers, I think it is very clear what happened.
We have seen this team struggle in the regular season this year with inconsistent play and certainly struggles on both powerplay and penalty kill. They had issues with their coaches and goaltending doubts that ultimately led to firings and trades. Unfortunately, the pieces that arrived from the firings and trades did not help this team become a Stanely Cup contender.
The Oilers took the same team into the playoffs this year without improving on goaltending, penalty kill and defensive blunders and giveaways. In my opinion, it was the defensive blunders and giveaways as well as the leaky penalty kill that hurt them against as the speedy, opportunistic Duck team. Anaheim dominated with a high-scoring offense (26 goals) and a lethal 50% power play percentage.
They had resilience in multi-goal comebacks and explosive third periods and that can be attributed to the youth and fast play of the team. Oilers lost the series in 6 games as they could not counteract that offense.
Why the mediocre season and playoffs?
The end interviews by the team says volume as to why they could not make it to round two. McDavid's comments were, “We were an average team all year,” …“An average team with high expectations, you’re going to be disappointed.” Leon said “we were not good enough” and “Our centres — one, two and three — are playing through stuff”. Connor went on to say ““They played very fast and we weren’t very fast,” and added, “We weren’t very good on the penalty kill. Our power play didn’t get off to a good start but found its way into the series.” So, enough said.
These are all true statements and both superstars were honest in describing their performances. They were both asked about fatigue from the playoffs runs in the past 4 years and they did not answer truthfully. We all know that playoff fatigue must be a factor. Just look at the Florida Panthers who did not make the playoffs.
The Edmonton Oilers played 409 games over the last 4 seasons while the Florida Panthers played 406 games in the same time period followed by the Dallas Stars with 397 games played (totals from both regular season and playoff games). Teams will play 328 regular season games in 4 years, so these three teams have played another full season almost than most teams because they had deep playoff runs. That is a lot of stress on your body that does not even include stress from injuries.
It might be a blessing to have this happen now as the Oilers will now have 4 months to recover instead of 2 for the next regular season. The Ducks have an average age of 27 years with the Canadians and Sabres not too far behind. The average age of the Oilers and Panthers is close to 30. Two extra months of recovery will go a long way to get then ready for what we hope will be a better regular season then what we just saw.
We all forget that Edmonton played in the weakest division in the NHL and still could not perform well. Injuries towards the end of the regular season did add up with early injuries in the first round series vs the Ducks (including McDavid). McDavid did comment, “Too hurt, too soon,”. They tried to play through it but could not against the speedy Ducks. As Mark Spector reported, “Playoff-fatigued Oilers overwhelmed by upstart Ducks”.
Rebuilding for the 2026-2027 NHL Season
Oilers fans have not openly voiced the need for a “rebuild” but it is certainly being whispered now. Stan Bowman has tried for 3 seasons to build a team for playoffs runs and in 2023-2024 we thought we had it when we went to game 7 of the Stanely Cup Playoffs. But, we started to lose pieces during the summer of 2024 with Broberg and Holloway leaving. I don’t think we were the same after that. The 2024-2025 edition did take us to game 6 of the Stanely Cup finals but we struggled in that series, then the collapse in 2025-2026. What to do next?
It is clear that starting now, the Anaheim Ducks are the team to beat in the Pacific. The Kings have aged as well as the Golden Knights. Edmonton will have to figure out how to stay relevant out west and find ways to beat a speedy young team in the Ducks. We are well aware of the fact that the McDavid-era competitive window has begun to close and who knows what might happen in the off season.
McDavid wants to win the Stanley Cup and if Stan Bowman cannot rebuild this team to win the Stanley Cup next year, then McDavid will walk and rightly so. He deserves to win a Cup as he is one of the greatest players we have seen in the past 20-30 years. We may have to let him go soon and lead a better team to the Stanley Cup.
How to Rebuild a Crippled Oilers Roster?
This will be a very interesting question in the offseason. There are some many aspects to focus on – defenseman, center, wingers for McDavid and Leon and, always, goaltending. Mattias Ekholm is over 32 years of age as is Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Mattias Janmark. I think they all have a chance at having a good season next year but they are aging and we have to think if we can get into the playoffs in 2027 with these players.
Key players that I think should be considered not a good fit any more for the team are: Darnell Nurse, Henrique, Tristan Jarry and Trent Frederic. They did not contribute significantly this year and have combined salaries over $21 million a year. Their combined salaries account for 20% of the salary cap in 2026. Nurse has had very poor seasons the past 5 years and with only 24 playoff points in those 5 years compared to 88 points by Bouchard in the same time peroid; 14 points for Henrique and 9 points for Frederic. Jarry has had playoff statistics of move than 3 goals against average and below 0.9 save percentage in the past years he has been in the playoffs.
We need better to become a defensively minded team in the 2026-2027 season
I think we can all agree that we need better pieces from a group costing the team 20% of the salary cap. These players will not be better in 2026-2027 and Stan Bowman will have to find ways to trade them for better pieces. This team needs to be more defensive to complement the high octane offensive they normally have. The Oilers will continue to be offensive next year but they have to dramatically cut down the amount of goals given up.
We know Bouchard makes defensive blunders but he can score. Nurse just makes blunders and is often in the wrong position while defending…I counted 3-4 goals that went off his body or stick in the first round playoff match vs the Ducks (including the highly controversial goal overtime Ducks win in game 4). Yet another reason to trade him.
We need more players like Connor Murphy, Ty Emberson and Jason Dickinson. They are out there and we can get them for way less than $21 million a year combined salaries. We should look at teams like the Penguins, Blue Jackets, Canucks, Jets, Predators and Leafs that are need of a Nurse or Jarry or Frederic. A change of scenery will be good for most players. Who knows, maybe Crosby or Maklin might be willing to come to Edmonton for year to win a Cup in a manner that say Raymond Bourque leaving Boston to win a cup with Colorado.
I honestly do not think Jarry can improve next year based on how is played this year. We have Connor Unger in our system that posted a GAA of 2.01 and save percentage of 0.931 in 37 games this year in the ECHL/AHL. Those are impressive statistics at a young age of 24. We need that goalie next year and see how he can perform in the NHL. So, letting Jarry go will not be a huge loss.
It will be hard to watch playoff hockey and not see the Oilers. I hope the Oilers scouts searches are starting to ramp up as we need to find “diamonds in the ruff” and “needles in a haystack”. Actually, I think it will be easier than that as there are many teams with players with salaries less than $2-4 million a year. In fact, the Ducks are $11 million under the cap while the Oilers are $2 million over the cap so winning teams can be built without exceeding the salary cap. Stan Bowman has lots of work ahead and it will be interesting to see what this team will look like come training camp in September.
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