With training camp less than a month away, the Edmonton Oilers are in a very different spot than they were a year ago. They’ve got a new head coach in Mike Babcock, they’ve added multiple free agents, and they’ve already thickened the roster up front. That’s exactly why there’s no real need for them to dive into the professional tryout market this season.
PTOs make sense when a team has open questions and limited internal options. That doesn’t really describe Edmonton right now.
The Oilers already have players under contract who can handle different jobs and play meaningful games this season, and general manager Stan Bowman has done a solid job of building out the forward group. In other words, the competition is already there.
The free-agent pool hasn’t helped much either. This was a weak class, and the remaining unrestricted free agents are mostly older players on the decline.
Edmonton spent last season as an aging team, but the organization is finally moving toward a younger look and putting more value on youth. Bringing in older players on PTOs would cut against that direction.
The roster crunch also makes the case pretty clear. On defense, Edmonton has eight legitimate NHL blueliners fighting for seven spots.
If a trade doesn’t happen before the season, one of them is likely to be waived. That leaves no obvious opening for another defenseman, especially when none of the current free agents look like an upgrade.
Up front, the squeeze is even tighter. The Oilers have 16 forwards competing for 14 spots, and only 12 jobs in the opening night lineup.
The main battles are already set, with Mattias Janmark, Colton Dach, Mathieu Joseph, Josh Samanski, Isaac Howard, Eduards Tralmaks, and Max Jones among the names in the mix. PTOs are supposed to create competition, but Edmonton already has plenty of that without adding outsiders.
The shortened preseason only strengthens that argument. The NHL has cut the exhibition schedule from eight games to four, and while that trims the fat, it also leaves less time to sort out roster decisions.
There simply won’t be much ice to go around, and everyone needs a chance to play. The established guys need a game or two to get ready, fringe players need their shot to earn a job, and the club also wants to get looks at young AHL talent.
That includes Connor Clattenburg, Owen Michaels, and Quinn Hutson, who should all see preseason action even if they’re unlikely to break camp with the NHL club. With only four games to work with, it becomes difficult to fit everybody in. Adding PTOs would only make that puzzle harder.
Edmonton’s biggest need remains an impactful top-six scoring winger, but that wasn’t found in free agency. The smarter play is to wait and look for that kind of addition later, likely closer to the trade deadline.
For now, the Oilers have enough middle-six and bottom-six depth to get by, and Bowman has already created some salary cap flexibility. The patient approach makes the most sense.
The Oilers open their preseason schedule on Sept. 19 against the Winnipeg Jets.
In Other News...
Oilers May Have A Real Blue Line Decision On Atro Leppanen
Atro Leppnen spent most of the 2025-26 season doing what a lot of late-blooming defensemen have to do in the Oilers organization: quietly stacking good AHL shifts in Bakersfield and making it hard to ignore him. The Finnish blueliner, signed by Edmonton in April 2025, showed steady offensive growth and finished as the Condors top-scoring defenseman, the kind of progression that got him a contract extension in February and kept his name in the conversation as the season moved along.
The tricky part for Edmonton is that progress in the minors does not always map cleanly onto a path upstairs, especially on the left side of the blue line. The Oilers already have established options there, and Leppnen is approaching age 28 while also trying to prove his game fits the demands of Mike Babcocks system. He has made himself a legitimate depth decision, which is a win in its own right, but the next step for him is where the real uncertainty begins. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Fans Have A New Reason To Feel Lane Hutson Is Overlooked
Edmontons offseason had enough encouraging moments to give fans a reason for optimism, but the conversation around the front office has not exactly cooled off. Stan Bowman and the Oilers still have plenty of skeptics watching closely, because even with some improvement in the summer, the teams recent track record keeps hovering over every move and every missed opportunity.
The frustration is tied to a bigger question about whether the organization has truly corrected course or just patched over old mistakes. Fans are still weighing the decisions that have drawn the most criticism, along with the latest attempts to reshape the roster, and the next step will be measured not by talk but by whether the team looks better when it matters most. [Read more 🡒]
Connor McDavid Rumors Raise One Uncomfortable Question For Oilers Fans
The Connor McDavid chatter that surfaced this week was less about a sudden change in his stance and more about the uncomfortable exercise of imagining what life would look like if Edmonton ever had to answer the question it has long tried not to ask. McDavid has not made any public demands or decisions about his future, but the latest round of reporting has naturally put the Oilers back in the spotlight, because any discussion of his next step starts with the same basic truth: his priority would be finding the best path to another Stanley Cup.
That is what makes the latest list of possible destinations so jarring for Oilers fans. The teams being floated are the Flyers, Red Wings and Rangers, which says plenty about how little a market size or big-city profile would matter if McDavid ever reached that stage. It also leaves the same nagging issue unresolved, since observers are already skeptical that any of those clubs offers a direct, obvious route to a title. [Read more 🡒]