If you’re a below average player on the Edmonton Oilers, keep your head up. Your days are likely numbered.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch and GM Stan Bowman come across as quiet, calm, reasonable, and measured. But if you take a look at Edmonton’s roster this year, it’s evident that circumstances have amped up the pressure, pushing them to quickly and forcefully axe under-performing players from the Oilers roster.
The only question I have at this point is: who’s next?
So far Noah Philp, Troy Stecher, Calvin Pickard, Ike Howard, and Alec Regula have all been waived, David Tomasek released from his contract, and Brett Kulak, Stuart Skinner and Andrew Mangiapane traded away at no small cost in assets. Mattias Janmark was also put on Long Term Injured Reserve when it was clear he couldn’t perform at his old level due to an injury that required surgery.
Each one of these players had something in common: they were all under-performing (at least if you go by their Grade A shots plus-minus metrics at even strength) and, outside of No. 1 goalie Skinner, they were all at the bottom end of the Edmonton roster.
67 games
Every single one of these players was below average on the team when it comes to their Grade A shots plus-minus at even strength. Little patience was shown for them to get it together and perform better. They struggled, they got moved down the roster, then off the roster.
By comparison last year just three players, centre Derek Ryan and d-men Josh Brown and Travis Dermott, got axed from the early roster, all of them waived off the team. Players were added to the squad, but there was no max exodus.
This kind of massive ten player in-season turnover has been driven by two facts. First, there’s immense pressure to win right now with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl still in their peak seasons, and with 30-something veterans Mattias Ekholm, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all still at peak or near peak levels of play for now.
Second, combined with this huge burden of pressure, Edmonton’s been pressed right up against the top end of the salary cap all season, forcing difficult decisions around salary.
For instance, Kulak was off to a weak start in 2025-26 with the Oilers, but he would not normally have been moved out most year given how well he’s played the last four playoff seasons. This year, though, Skinner and Pickard’s poor starts in net pushed the team to make several moves in goal, which required clearing out cap space, and Kulak on his expiring $2.75 million per year deal was the obvious choice to be traded to maintain cap compliance.
Cap issues will fade as driver of player change when the playoffs hit and only the 20 players who dress for a game must be under the NHL’s $95.5 million cap. I don’t see the Oilers having an issue with that, at least if my reading of the new rules is accurate.
But performance issues will be maximized in the playoffs, and it’s possible more roster players will be bumped out of the line-up. Even now there’s a debate about whether or not the Oilers should find a way to recall Calvin Pickard from the minors and go with three goalies in Edmonton (as Tristan Jarry can’t now be sent to the AHL).
I’m not yet in favour of such a drastic move, and with Connor Ingram playing well and only on more back-to-back game situation scheduled for the rest of the regular season, Edmonton isn’t now forced to make any major change. But if Jarry does not pull it together, it won’t be surprising to see Pickard become the back-up goalie here.
On defence both Jake Walman and Spencer Stastney are struggling in their own end, but Stastney is the seventh d-man. If Ty Emberson is healthy, he’ll of course take his regular spot in the line-up. But if Stastney continues to struggle and Alec Regula plays well in the AHL, it would be no surprise to see Regula take over the 7th d-man slot.
At forward, Trent Frederic was the only Oiler to avoid getting waived or traded when he under-performed this year, but that only happened because Edmonton is so heavily invested in Frederic, who just signed an eight-year deal. He was essentially impossible to move out. The good news is that Frederic is finally playing solid two-way hockey. He’s more than earned his keep the past 20 games.
Adam Henrique’s two-way play at third-line centre has steadily dropped off since he was acquired, but he’s still a useful penalty killer and he amps up his physical play in the playoffs. I can see him holding his spot in the playoffs, but I also would not be surprised if he was sent to the pressbox now and then.
On this 2025-26 pressure cooker of an Oilers team, it’s perform or you’re out.
At the Cult of Hockey
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