The Edmonton Oilers are about to open training camp on September 16, and one of the more interesting names in the mix is Mathieu Joseph.
He hasn’t drawn the same buzz as some of the other newcomers, but the profile is there for a real impact. Joseph is a two-time Stanley Cup champion with more than 400 NHL games on his résumé, a 35-point season on his record, and the kind of straight-line speed that can change how a fourth line or penalty kill looks. He also arrives with something to prove.
The path to a bigger role starts with opportunity. Edmonton is moving on from Adam Henrique, who logged the second-most shorthanded minutes among Oilers forwards last season at 107:40.
Curtis Lazar, who had 24:54 of PK time last year, is also gone. There’s also been talk that Connor McDavid’s penalty-kill workload could come down.
Put that together, and the Oilers are heading into camp with real openings on the PK.
That’s where Joseph fits cleanly.
He’s built for that job. In 2022-23 with the Ottawa Senators, he played only 56 games but still finished second among forwards in shorthanded ice time with 140:07.
That season also happened to be under D.J. Smith, now Edmonton’s associate coach and the man expected to run the Oilers’ penalty kill.
That connection matters. Smith already knows what Joseph can do, and he made that plain in 2023 when he said, “He gives me the most consistent effort every night. He’s a really intelligent hockey player.”
Joseph kept handling PK duty the following season, ranking third among Senators forwards in shorthanded minutes in 2023-24. After a trade to the St.
Louis Blues, he averaged just under a minute of PK time per game across 99 regular-season games over two seasons. In 2024-25, the Blues allowed only two goals against with Joseph on the ice while shorthanded.
The style Edmonton wants to play should only help his case. Smith told Jason Gregor in June that he prefers an aggressive approach.
“I’ve been a pressure guy my whole life. I hate sitting back, but if that’s what is going to get the job done, that’s what we’re going to do.
Mike and I will sit down, and we’ll look at the best kills. But I know that the two best in the league every year is Carolina and Florida, and two years ago it was L.A. and we pressured everything that moved.
When we look at the forward group and the D group and ask can we do that and then we’ll make the best plan.”
The Oilers’ newly hired consultant, Misha Donskov, said something similar recently on the “ Oilers Now ” show:
“I do like pressure on the penalty kill. I just think with the skill of today’s player - you talk to any of the best players in the world, what do they want?
They want time and space. So, as quickly as you can take that away from them and take away options, the less they’re going to have opportunities to make the next play.”
That description sounds a lot like Joseph’s game. He can close quickly, and he has the wheels to make that pressure work.
NHL Edge data had him at a top speed of 22.78 m.p.h. last season, which put him in the 77th percentile. His seven bursts above 22 m.p.h. landed him in the 82nd percentile.
The other part is anticipation. Joseph has shown he can read plays and jump lanes.
In 2023-24, he played the third-most shorthanded minutes for Ottawa and led the team’s forwards with 12 shorthanded takeaways. Since that season, Natural Stat Trick says he ranks 12th among NHL forwards with at least 200 minutes played in takeaways per 60 minutes, at 2.36.
That combination makes him look like a strong fit for the exact penalty-killing role Edmonton is trying to build. It would not be a surprise if Smith already has Joseph penciled into some PK combinations before camp even starts.
The other reason Joseph is worth watching is motivation. His last two seasons in St.
Louis didn’t go the way he needed. He went on waivers last March for contract termination, was sent to the AHL, cleared waivers, became an unrestricted free agent, and then signed with the Los Angeles Kings for the rest of the season.
He finished that stint pointless in 12 regular-season games and two playoff appearances.
There’s a familiar feel to his situation, too. Joseph and Kasperi Kapanen were teammates in St.
Louis, and now they’re teammates again in Edmonton. Kapanen’s path has already taken a similar turn: a strong early NHL run, a rough stretch with the Blues, and now another chance in Oil Country.
Joseph is chasing the same kind of reset.
So while plenty of eyes will be on the bigger-name additions when camp opens, Joseph is the kind of player who could sneak into a meaningful role quickly. The opening is there, the coaching staff knows his game, and the penalty kill fits his skill set. Now it’s on him to take it.
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