September is about to turn into a packed month for the Edmonton Oilers, with rookie camp, main camp and the first preseason games all landing on the calendar before the regular season even gets rolling.
The first marker comes on September 11, when rookie camp opens and the Oilers’ newest prospects get a five-day jump on the rest of the team. It may not be a group loaded with top-end hype, but these camps always leave room for someone to surprise.
Most of the players who took part in Oilers Development Camp will be back on the ice at Rogers Place, all chasing a chance to work their way toward the pro roster. Quinn Hutson is one of the names to keep an eye on.
Main camp follows on September 16, with medicals and physicals getting underway at that point. The preseason setup will also look a little tighter this year under the updated rules in the collective bargaining agreement, which limit the number of practices and games.
Edmonton’s preseason slate starts with Winnipeg at Rogers Place, then shifts three days later to Canada Life Centre for a rematch with the Jets. After that, the Oilers head to the coast to face the Vancouver Canucks on September 24, before wrapping up the preseason at home against the Calgary Flames on September 26.
The games start to count on September 29, when Edmonton opens the season with a two-game set against Vancouver. The first one is at home, and the second comes on the road in Vancouver.
That matchup gives the Oilers a chance to bank points early against a Canucks team that is expected to bounce back after a rough 2025-26 season. For Connor McDavid and company, taking four standings points before some teams have even played their first game would be a strong start for a club that has often been slow out of the gate.
After that, the spotlight shifts to October and beyond, where fans will get their first real look at how new head coach Mike Babcock handles this version of the Oilers compared with Kris Knoblauch. McDavid’s two-year contract will also start ticking, adding even more pressure around a team that knows exactly what’s at stake. Either way, hockey is back, and September is set to bring it all in fast.
In Other News...
Oilers Depth Gamble Suddenly Has A Real Opening To Make Noise
Eduards Tralmaks has spent a winding pro career proving he can score wherever he lands, whether that was in the Czech leagues, the NCAA or the AHL, and now the 29-year-old undrafted forward is getting a fresh look with the Oilers after signing as a free agent on July 1, 2026. He also brought that touch to Team Latvia at the Olympics, which helps explain why Edmonton was willing to add him as another depth option for a group that is always searching for usable offense beyond the stars.
The opening may be bigger than it first looked a few weeks ago, because injuries have thinned the competition among the bottom-six forwards and created a real lane for Tralmaks to press his case for NHL minutes. The one thing that has long trailed his scoring profile is skating, so the question now is whether he can do enough in camp and early-season looks to make the Oilers keep him around when the roster starts to settle. [Read more 🡒]
Connor McDavid Faces One Oilers Question That Could Shape Everything
Edmontons offseason conversation has drifted beyond the usual questions of depth and special teams and landed on a far bigger one: how Mike Babcock will handle Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at five-on-five. The pairing has obvious offensive upside, but it also sits at the center of the Oilers defensive concerns, especially with a new coach inheriting a roster that has already spent plenty of time trying to balance scoring with structure.
For McDavid, the discussion is not just about who skates beside him, but what version of his game the Oilers will get if the alignment changes. His 2016-17 numbers are part of the argument, as are the defensive and offensive trends that have followed him into the 2025-26 season, and a recent fan survey leaned toward splitting him and Draisaitl at even strength. The result is a familiar Oilers tension heading into the new season: whether a different lineup arrangement can unlock more balance, or whether the team is simply asking its best players to solve a problem that keeps coming back. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Prospect Situation Suddenly Feels Bigger Than Routine Draft Chatter
The Oilers track record with draft picks from Russia has been a mixed one over the last decade, with Edmonton cycling through several selections between 2010 and 2019 and getting only limited NHL returns from that group. That history gives extra weight to every new prospect update, especially when it comes to players whose paths to North America already carry more uncertainty than most. Maxim Berezkin remains part of that broader conversation, but the more immediate intrigue now sits with another young player whose development has started to matter in a bigger way.
Paul Fischer has drawn attention because his play has been encouraging, yet his contract situation still hangs there without a resolution. The Oilers brought him in through the August 2024 offer-sheets trade, but he still has not signed, and that leaves his long-term fit with the organization feeling less routine than draft churn usually does. For a team that has already learned how hard it can be to get talented players to stay and succeed in North America, the next step with Fischer carries a little more urgency than it might have a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]