September has arrived, and with it comes the start of another Oilers season on the horizon. As Edmonton rolls through its 2026-27 player previews, the focus now shifts to Spencer Stastney, the left-shot defenceman acquired from Nashville after the team moved Brett Kulak in December for a 2027 third-round pick.
Stastney’s first run in Edmonton was steady, if unspectacular. In 36 games, the 26-year-old posted one goal and no assists while averaging 16:02 a night. He finished at minus-10, but the bigger takeaway was simpler: he looked like what he is, a reliable depth blueliner who can hold down a third-pair role when needed.
The problem for Stastney was never really about his ability to defend. It was about the numbers game.
As the season progressed, he kept sliding down the Oilers’ depth chart. Connor Murphy arrived at the trade deadline and pushed him further down the lineup, while Ty Emberson also passed him down the stretch despite being a right shot.
Edmonton likes flexibility on the back end, and players such as Jake Walman can move to either side, which only made life tougher for Stastney.
The left side got crowded fast. With Walman, Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse all in the mix, Stastney had a hard time carving out minutes.
He was a healthy scratch for the final 12 regular-season games and did not appear in the playoffs. This offseason didn’t exactly open the door for him, either.
Stan Bowman traded Nurse, but then added Ryan Shea and Shakir Mukhamadullin, adding even more bodies to an already packed blue line.
That’s why the most realistic outcome may be a move out of Edmonton. The Oilers are expected to enter training camp with eight legitimate NHL defencemen and only room for seven, which creates a problem.
One of those players will have to be waived or traded, and Stastney looks like the likeliest candidate. Because teams are always hunting for defence help, the odds of him clearing waivers seem slim.
Edmonton would rather not lose him for nothing, so dealing him for an asset makes sense.
If he stays, the path is still murky. Stastney would likely have to wait for an injury before getting back into the lineup, and anything under 30 games would be a disappointing outcome. He would need to clearly beat out someone for ice time, and that is no easy task given the traffic ahead of him.
The best-case scenario for Edmonton is probably a trade that brings back a draft pick. If that doesn’t happen, then Stastney has to outperform Emberson and Mukhamadullin for the last spot. If he somehow clears waivers, that would be a win for the organization because he could stay in the system and play for the Bakersfield Condors in the American Hockey League instead of sitting in the press box.
There is still a useful player here. Stastney has never been brought in to drive offence, and his career numbers reflect that: four goals and 19 points in 117 games. But if he can give Edmonton around 10 points, stay on the right side of the plus/minus ledger and handle third-pair minutes in more than 50 games, that would count as a strong season.
He also brings value on the penalty kill. In his 36 games with Edmonton, he logged 52:07 shorthanded and was on the ice for six goals against, which is not a bad return given the team’s struggles in that area. If he gets into the lineup, that kind of work matters.
For the first time in a while, Edmonton has a defence group with real depth. Now the issue is too many NHL-caliber options, and Stastney is right in the middle of that squeeze. Whether he is traded, waived or somehow forces his way into the mix, his 2026-27 season will be defined by whether he can turn that logjam into value for the Oilers.
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