By James Mirtle, Pierre LeBrun and Daniel Nugent-Bowman

The Edmonton Oilers signed free-agent forward Jack Roslovic to a one-year, $1.5 million AAV contract, the team announced Wednesday night.

The 28-year-old Columbus native is entering his ninth NHL season after recording 22 goals and 39 points with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. Roslovic has bounced around a lot of late, with the 2025-26 season marking his fourth team over three seasons after stints with the Blue Jackets and New York Rangers.

He has shown a knack for producing offense down the lineup, averaging 46 points per 82 games while putting in a little more than 15 minutes of ice time per game over the past five seasons. He has 102 goals and 260 points in 526 career NHL games.

Roslovic’s strengths are his skating, playmaking and puckhandling. He’s more of a pass-first player, with only two 20-goal seasons. A right shot, he can fill in at center as required, although last season was his first in the NHL with decent faceoff stats.

Roslovic has struggled at times with consistency and making the right decisions with the puck. He can be the type of player to bring fans out of their seats, but his tendency to overhandle the puck and turn it over has left recent teams reluctant to trust him higher up the lineup.

Roslovic was a star for the U.S. National Team Development Program alongside Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk in his draft year, which led to his selection in the first round at No. 25 by the Winnipeg Jets 10 years ago.

Why it works for the Oilers

Oilers GM Stan Bowman said he’s been in contact with Roslovic’s camp since the summer and then resumed conversations with the forward’s new agent, Justin Duberman, five weeks ago. A lack of cap space was a major holdup in getting a deal done then, but Roslovic’s group circled back — much to the Oilers’ delight.

“The type of player, looking at our team, that we’d be wanting to look for around the trade deadline would be this type of a player — exactly,” Bowman said. “He’s available now, and he’s a free agent. We could get him signed at a low amount. There were a lot of things that worked in our favor.

“Instead of waiting to see what was available, we think he could be a really nice piece to our group right now.”

The Oilers have wanted to add more speed to their lineup this season and added Andrew Mangiapane and Ike Howard in the offseason, along with making Matt Savoie a full-time NHLer. Roslovic certainly fits the bill there.

Roslovic was also an effective five-on-five producer last season, leading the Carolina Hurricanes with 34 points in that situation. That caught Bowman’s eye.

Bowman also likes that Roslovic is a right-handed center option, even though he mostly played on the wing for the Hurricanes last season. “We like guys that have that flexibility,” Bowman said.

Bowman said Roslovic will report to Edmonton. A determination will be made on how quickly he can get into the lineup. He missed all of training camp but has been skating on his own. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman, staff writer, Oilers

How Roslovic affects the roster

The Oilers will have to shed a player from their 23-man active roster to make room for Roslovic, though Bowman wouldn’t announce who would either be put on waivers or demoted to AHL Bakersfield. The prime waiver candidates among forwards are Noah Philp and Curtis Lazar, who was a healthy scratch in the season-opening game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. Howard is also an option as a waivers-exempt player.

“This was a really unique opportunity to get a player of his caliber without giving up any assets and have him come right into our team,” Bowman said. “We would be kicking ourselves if we looked back and he went somewhere else.”

The Oilers roster will look even more different after they get a couple forwards back from injury. Mattias Janmark ($1.45 million) is on IR and is scheduled for a return later this month. Zach Hyman ($5.5 million) is on LTIR and is slated to be ready for game action in November. Bowman said there is no change in Hyman’s outlook or timeline; the right winger took part in the morning skate as an extra on Wednesday.

The Oilers likely will have to go down to a 22-man roster once Janmark and Hyman are healthy. — Nugent-Bowman