The Edmonton Oilers are walking into the 2026-27 season with almost no room for error. It’s another Stanley Cup-or-bust year, and with an aging core plus Connor McDavid’s uncertain future hanging over everything, the stakes in Edmonton feel heavier than they do anywhere else in the NHL.
On paper, this should still be a strong team. The Oilers made major roster changes in the offseason, have finally had a long stretch to train and recover, and are carrying plenty of motivation after a frustrating 2025-26 campaign. But the problems that have dogged them before are still sitting there, waiting to become a real issue.
Depth is one of them. So is the goaltending. And then there’s the biggest wildcard of all: the decision to bring in Mike Babcock.
The nightmare scenario starts with the simplest one - the Oilers missing the playoffs altogether. That sounds unlikely, but it is not impossible after they finished 2025-26 with 92 points. That was enough for second in the Pacific Division, but it only placed them 14th in the league standings.
The division isn’t getting any easier either. Younger teams like the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks are on the rise, and the Stanley Cup finalist Vegas Golden Knights are still in the mix. Edmonton will need to be far more consistent in 2026-27 just to make sure it gets back into the postseason.
If the Oilers were to fall short, the consequences could be massive. It would be the kind of result that could push McDavid closer to the edge. Even if he didn’t ask for a trade, it’s hard to imagine him wanting to sign an extension next summer if that happened.
Then there’s Babcock, who brings a completely different kind of pressure. It was obvious Kris Knoblauch had to go, but management still stunned people by choosing someone as controversial as Babcock to replace him.
Nobody needs a refresher on Babcock’s past, and the concern here is simple: if he brings any of the same baggage into Edmonton, it becomes a major distraction fast. The NHLPA is watching him closely, and all it would take is one player saying something was out of line. That makes the hire a risky one from the start, especially when there were other competent and less controversial options out there.
Health is another area that could wreck the season. The Oilers looked worn down through 2025-26 after back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final, and the wear showed. Several key players missed major time during the regular season, and the team was nowhere near fully healthy in the playoffs.
A big reason Edmonton fell to the Anaheim Ducks was injury trouble. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were both playing hurt, which is hardly a surprise given how much hockey they’ve piled up in recent years.
The long summer should help, but this is still an aging group with limited depth behind it. If the injury bug bites again, another Cup Final run starts looking awfully far away.
And then there’s the goaltending situation, which the Oilers have tried to patch for years. This offseason, they made their biggest move yet at the position, keeping Tristan Jarry in the mix while signing Frederik Andersen and trading for Devon Levi.
Andersen, coming off a Stanley Cup win with the Carolina Hurricanes, looks like a real upgrade over both Jarry and Connor Ingram. But there are still red flags. He had a rough 2025-26 season even behind a much more structured team, and health has been a recurring issue for him lately.
Levi brings a different kind of concern. He has only 39 career games under his belt, which leaves Edmonton with even more uncertainty in goal. If both new options struggle, that could turn into a disaster in a hurry.
There’s no shortage of reasons to believe the Oilers can still be one of the NHL’s best teams. The star power is there, and if everything breaks right, they should be in the thick of the race again.
But the margin for disaster is thin. Depth, injuries, goaltending and the Babcock situation all have the power to knock this season off course.
For Edmonton, the formula is brutally simple: stay healthy, get enough from the crease, and keep the room together. If those pieces hold, another deep run is realistic. If not, the Oilers’ Stanley Cup window could close a lot sooner than anyone around the team wants to think about.
In Other News...
Oilers Front Office Still Has One Trust Problem Fans Havent Dropped
Even after a summer that brought some cautious optimism around Mike Babcock and a few moves aimed at tightening things up, Oilers fans still do not seem ready to hand the front office a clean slate. The latest read from The Athletic points to a base that remains wary of management, with concerns about the blue line and depth scoring still hanging over the conversation as Edmonton tries to convince people it is headed in the right direction.
Stan Bowmans group now has the usual burden of any hockey operation trying to reshape public perception: winning has to do the talking. The noise around the front office has not gone away, and until the Oilers show real on-ice progress, that trust problem figures to stay part of the backdrop in Edmonton. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Front Office Doubts Are Growing Around Connor McDavid's Window
The Oilers spent the offseason making major changes behind the bench, part of a broader effort to reset after a season that left plenty of questions about where the roster is headed. Firing Kris Knoblauch and bringing in Mike Babcock were the most visible moves, but they also fed a larger conversation around how Edmonton is managing the window around Connor McDavid and whether the organization is steering with urgency or just reacting to the latest setback.
That backdrop helps explain why the front-office conversation has turned so sharp. In a recent Athletic fan-based ranking, Edmonton slid further down the list as doubts continued to build around the way the team is being run, and the reaction has had less to do with one single move than with a growing feeling that the plan has been hard to pin down. For a franchise trying to keep pace with its superstar's timeline, that kind of skepticism is starting to matter. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers May Be Eyeing A Veteran Move That Reshapes The Bottom Six
The Oilers search for a little more certainty in the bottom six may be turning toward a familiar kind of veteran fix. Edmonton has been linked to a possible addition who could help stabilize the fourth line, bring some reliability at the dot, and give the coaching staff another trusted option when the game tightens up in the defensive zone.
A move like that would not just be about one player, either. It could ripple through the rest of the roster, forcing the Oilers to make a choice on younger depth pieces while they sort out how they want their checking lines to look heading into the next stretch of the season. More Oilers talk is expected soon on Sports 1440 and YouTube, where this kind of roster wrinkle should get plenty of attention. [Read more 🡒]