This past summer, the Edmonton Oilers were forced to make tough decisions with their roster because of their cap crunch. This caused the club to walk away from some players in free agency, leaving them to sign with other teams and trade some away to dump their salary.
The club repurposed this cap space by signing defenceman Evan Bouchard to a large contract extension and sign players such as Andrew Mangiapane -- who has struggled himself this season. General manager Stan Bowman and Co. replaced these players largely with rookies like; David Tomasek, Matt Savoie, and Isaac Howard.
Although it was a necessary change for the team, there have been some growing pains and the Oilers struggled earlier in the season, even making their playoff hopes look like dreams by the quarter season mark.
All is well now though, as the team has turned their season around in recent games and look to be on the right trajectory. Even still, I am sure with the club's continued depth scoring struggles, they regret not having a few of these names still in their lineup.
Connor Brown
The 31 year old winger, Connor Brown spent two seasons in Oil Country and had become a beloved depth player for the club. However, the team let him walk in free agency, leaving him open to sign a four-year contract worth $3 million per season with the New Jersey Devils.
Brown has struggled with injuries over the past few seasons, even causing him to miss nearly the entire 2022-23 season due to a knee injury. This would make any team nervous to give out a long term comittment but so far, it looks like a smart choice by the Devils and might make the Oilers feel some regret.
So far in 28 games this season, he has potted nine goals and six assists for 15 points, already halfway to his point totals from last season in 54 less games.
Viktor Arvidsson
Another injury prone player that the Oilers took a chance on, Viktor Arvidsson. At 32 years old and with his extensive injury history, there is a real risk to Arvidsson, one that the Oilers were not willing to spend $4 million on, especially after he scored only 27 points in 67 games in 2024-25.
The Boston Bruins on the other hand, were more than willing to take on the risk given their position as likely sellers attempting to rebuild back to their former glory. As of right now, they seem to have made the correct decision, even if their whole plan is just to flip him at the trade deadline.
In 25 games this season, he scored seven goals and seven assists for 14 points. This puts him on a much better pace than last season with the Oilers, even if he played only 67 games, he is on pace to score roughly 37 points. Not bad given the Bruins paid only a fifth round pick for the winger.
Evander Kane
The much maligned Evander Kane is many things, a talented hockey player included and he spent parts of four seasons in an Oilers jersey showing that. However, between stretches of middling production and missing the entire 2024-25 regular season, he became a costly investment at $5.125 million.
That is why the Oilers dealt the troubled winger to his hometown team, the Vancouver Canucks for a fourth round pick -- the pick that became David Lewandowkski. There, he has been a bright spot for the organization that has seen a lot of turmoil over the past year. In 34 games with the Canucks, Kane has racked up 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) and is on pace for an above half-point per game season.
This would be a welcomed addition to the Oilers depth scoring this season given the team's struggles with their depth.