The Edmonton Oilers have spent most of the opening stretch of the 2026-27 season looking like a team with few obvious problems. At 11-2-3, they’ve gotten the kind of start that usually keeps the noise down. But Jake Walman has become the exception.
The veteran defenceman has stumbled badly out of the gate, and the mix of injuries and shaky defensive play has pushed him into the spotlight. He has one point in nine games, missed three games early because of injury, and has been a healthy scratch for three of the past four contests. For a player on a $7 million cap hit, that’s not a quiet situation.
Walman’s path to this point has been a sharp contrast from the way things looked when he first arrived. Edmonton picked him up in March 2025 at the trade deadline, and he quickly became both a fan favourite and a key part of the club’s second straight run to the Stanley Cup Final. That summer, the Oilers locked him up with a seven-year extension worth $7 million per season.
Since then, though, the slide has been hard to ignore. His 2025-26 season was interrupted by injuries, and he finished with 20 points in 53 games.
He did turn in a strong 2026 postseason, but the Oilers were eliminated in six games. This season has brought a different kind of frustration, with Walman looking a step behind from the start.
Head coach Mike Babcock has kept his comments on the situation fairly guarded, saying only that the team is trying to put together the best lineup right now. There has also been speculation about Walman’s motivation and whether that has played a role in his drop-off. Whatever the reason, the first move is obvious: the player and team need to get on the same page.
Babcock has brought in a new system and a new set of standards, and Walman may simply need more help settling into it. He had success under former coach Kris Knoblauch for the most part, but this is a different setup, with different blueliners around him. If the Oilers are going to get him back on track, it’s going to take cooperation from both sides.
There was at least one encouraging sign on Tuesday night, when Babcock put Walman back into the lineup against the New Jersey Devils. That points to a chance for this to be little more than an early-season speed bump, especially if the injury has left him needing time to catch up.
If that doesn’t solve it, a trade would be the next option, though it would hardly be the preferred one. Edmonton already moved on from Spencer Stastney in an early-season deal and has Alec Regula on injured reserve, so another departure would leave the blue line even thinner.
Even then, the market is unclear. There’s been no indication that either side wants to push toward a deal, but a veteran defenceman one season removed from 40 points would almost certainly draw calls.
For now, though, moving on from Walman doesn’t sound like the right answer. The Oilers have the staff and the structure to try to bring him back to the level he showed in postseason play in 2025 and 2026.
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Connor McDavid kept his run going with another point and assist, and Evan Bouchard continued to lead defensemen in scoring this season, but the bigger story was how much Edmonton leaned on its power play to stay afloat. Tristan Jarry finished with a .912 save percentage, and while the Oilers escaped with a point, it was hard to miss how uneven the performance looked at five-on-five. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Could Sacrifice A Familiar Piece For A Bigger Playoff Push
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Isaac Howard, Matt Savoie and Jake Walman are among the pieces being discussed as possible trade currency, with the idea being that Edmonton could use one or more of them to land a more impactful playoff addition. There is already plenty of speculation around bigger names around the league, including Nikita Kucherov and Jake DeBrusk, but nothing is settled yet, and the real question for the Oilers is how much of their current depth they are willing to sacrifice to make a deeper run. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Suddenly Have A Wing Problem At The Worst Time
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Filip Hallander has been the next man up in Howards spot, giving Edmonton at least a temporary answer while the injury plays out. The timing is less than ideal for a team that would rather be building chemistry than shuffling pieces, and it puts a little more pressure on the rest of the wing group to absorb the minutes until Howard is ready to return. [Read more 🡒]