Things have not gone according to plan for Edmonton Oilers forward Trent Frederic this season.

After inking an eight-year, $30.8-million contract extension last summer, the expectation was that Frederic would be a pillar in Edmonton’s bottom-six group. Through the 34 games of the season, it looks like the 27-year-old can barely hack it on the Oilers’ fourth line.

Frederic has just two goals and three points so far this season, and has not played the physical brand of hockey that made him so attractive to the Oilers at last season’s trade deadline. Instead, the St. Louis native has coasted by for most of the season, leaving little to no impact in just about every game he’s played in.

According to HockeyStatCards, a hockey analytics model, Frederic is among the worst players in the league when it comes to net rating, which attempts to record a player’s overall impact, sitting at a dismal -6.8 on the season

That is good enough for sixth-last among all NHL players this season.

Trent Frederic ranks 6th-worst in the NHL this season in Net Rating #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/GOY1BCAO4n

— Golden Hockey (@GoldenHcky) December 17, 2025

Interestingly enough, Frederic is not the only player in the bottom-10 that have played on the Oilers this season. Former Edmonton defenceman Brett Kulak actually has a worse rating of -7.1 after having gotten off to a brutal season with the Oilers before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins last week.

To say this season has been disappointing for Frederic might be an understatement. Edmonton opted to make a long-term commitment to him over the summer, and still has seven more seasons left on that contract after this year. If he is unable to live up to expectations, this deal could wind up being a massive headache for the Oilers for quite a long time.

You could argue that Edmonton should try to shop Frederic on the trade market, but it’s unlikely that there will be many teams around the league interested in inheriting such a long-term contract for an underperforming player. Retaining money would also be unwise for the Oilers, due to the contract length as well.

The good news for both Frederic and the Oilers is that this is still very early into things, and there is potential for it to turn around. He is coming off a brutal ankle injury last season, and that may be impacting his on-ice ability.

However, it’s not great that questions have already started to circle the contract, not even halfway through the first year of it.