The Edmonton Oilers are still living off the strength of their core, but the Pacific Division is starting to look a lot less forgiving around them.
After a 2026 first-round Stanley Cup playoff loss to the Anaheim Ducks and a messy start to the offseason that included coaching drama, Edmonton heads toward the 2026-27 NHL season with more uncertainty than usual. The club is healthy and rested, which matters.
So does the fact that Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard remain the kind of top-end talent that can keep a team afloat. But the questions hanging over the roster are real: what happens with Darnell Nurse, how does the goaltending shake out and what kind of impact will new head coach Mike Babcock have?
There’s also the issue of time. Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are getting older, and for a team built around stars and experience, that clock matters.
At the same time, Edmonton’s rivals are not standing still.
The San Jose Sharks may have made the loudest leap at the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, landing Ivar Stenberg, Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin in the first round. Stenberg, who represented Sweden at the 2026 IIHF Men’s Hockey World Championship, turned heads with a goal against Team Slovakia that had scouts questioning whether he should have gone first overall.
He looks NHL-ready now, and if he clicks with Macklin Celebrini, that’s a dangerous combination. Verhoeff, once projected as a top-three pick, fell to ninth, while Lin, a defenseman with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, adds another piece to the blue line.
The Sharks are younger, deeper and better than they were before the draft.
Then there’s Anaheim, which may already be closer to the top of the division than anyone else.
The Ducks beat the Oilers in six games in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs and followed that by pushing the Vegas Golden Knights to six games in round two. That kind of run changes the temperature around a team.
Anaheim also used the offseason to get even younger, sending Mason McTavish to the St. Louis Blues for two first-round picks - #15 Nikita Klepov and #28 Marcus Nordmark - and moving veteran defenseman John Carlson to the Carolina Hurricanes for Kyle Masters and a sixth-round pick.
Pat Verbeek didn’t touch the core of Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke and Jackson LaCombe, but he did keep feeding the youth movement.
Edmonton should still be ahead of the rebuilding Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames, and right now it looks better positioned than the Seattle Kraken, Los Angeles Kings and the aging Golden Knights. Vegas could still change that if Kelly McCrimmon pulls another rabbit out of the hat.
That leaves the Oilers in a strange spot: still dangerous, still talented, but no longer comfortably alone in the division conversation. Stan Bowman’s offseason will matter.
If he can find a legitimate starting goalie and get a strong return for Nurse, Edmonton has a chance to steady itself. If not, the gap that once seemed wide could keep shrinking fast.
Free agency opens in just a few days, and for the Oilers, it feels like a critical stretch.
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One Year Later John Gibson Trade Still Haunts Ducks Rebuild Debate
A year after Anaheim dealt John Gibson, the trade still sits in that uneasy middle ground where neither side can declare victory and neither can quite move on. The Ducks got Petr Mrazek plus future draft capital in return, while Gibson landed in Detroit and immediately gave the Red Wings a steady presence in net during his first season there.
For Anaheim, the debate is less about what happened than what comes next. Mrazek was a short stop for the Ducks before being moved again, and the picks only matter if they turn into real help down the line. Until the second-round selection plays out and Gibsons Detroit future settles into a clearer shape, this one remains more of a wait-and-see evaluation than a clean rebuild win. [Read more 🡒]