The Oilers don’t need to drag this out. With Frederik Andersen expected to miss the start of the season because of an injury suffered during offseason training, Edmonton has a clean opening to sort out its crease - and the simplest path is to use Tristan Jarry as the backup until Andersen is ready, then send Jarry to Bakersfield.
That approach gives Edmonton a chance to evaluate Jarry and Devon Levi early without letting the situation linger into the middle of the season. Levi, in particular, doesn’t have to outplay Andersen.
He just has to show he’s better than Jarry by being steady and earning trust. If he opens the year with a solid month, that should be enough to keep him in Edmonton.
If not, the alternative gets messy fast. An ugly start from Levi could leave the Oilers with shaky goaltending and force them to keep Jarry around longer than they want. But anything that looks like competent NHL goaltending should be enough to keep Levi in the mix.
Jarry’s time in Edmonton last season already gave the team a pretty clear picture. After coming over from Pittsburgh in December, he played 19 games and went 9-6-2 with a 3.86 GAA and an .858 save percentage. Connor Ingram eventually took over as Edmonton’s starter, and Jarry made just one start during the Oilers’ six-game first-round loss to Anaheim.
That production came with a heavy price tag. Jarry carries a $5.375 million cap hit through the end of next season, and that money could be put to work elsewhere.
Under NHL rules, Edmonton can only bury part of his contract in the AHL, which would still leave the club on the hook for some of the cap hit. Even so, the Oilers would free up room and create an NHL roster spot by moving him down.
That matters because the Oilers need flexibility. They can spend the early part of the season figuring out where the holes are once Mike Babcock has time to work with the roster.
A top-six winger would help. A middle-six winger would help too, especially once injuries start piling up, which they already have.
Defensive depth could become a need as well. Keeping Jarry just because of the money attached to his deal only limits what Edmonton can do later.
Andersen was brought in to play in the NHL, not sit in the press box, and his return will force a decision unless another injury takes care of it first. The Oilers should make that call now and set the tone for the rest of the season.
Carrying Jarry, Andersen and Levi would only stretch the issue out and cost Edmonton another roster spot. Sending Levi back to the AHL after a strong start would waste the opening created by Andersen’s injury. If the Oilers are serious about winning a Stanley Cup right now, every roster spot has to matter, and every dollar has to count.
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Oilers Depth Gamble Suddenly Has A Real Opening To Make Noise
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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
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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 🡒]