Dickinson has endured a challenging recovery from a nagging ankle injury he sustained late in the 2025-26 campaign on Apr. 8 against San Jose, resulting in him missing the rest of the regular season and being limited to four playoff appearances – scoring twice in Game 1 of their first-round series with the Ducks, including the overtime winner.
Over the summer, Dickinson said his recovery progress was often met with long stretches of no real improvement, pushing back his timeline to return for the start of the regular season.
Admittedly, he said he never got close to considering himself fully healthy, but after solid progress over the past month, the Georgetown, Ont. product says he’s reached a point where he feels ready to contribute for the Oilers on this upcoming road trip.
“If I’m being totally honest, I never quite got to 100 percent over the summer,” he said. “I was making jumps, but it felt like every jump I made, I would plateau for a couple of weeks. There was one where I just couldn’t make another jump, so I spent a month trying to figure out what wasn’t working, what I was compensating for, and why I wasn’t getting the reactions I needed out of my ankle. We spent a good month here figuring that out.”