The Edmonton Oilers’ injury picture is only getting murkier, and the latest update from head coach Mike Babcock didn’t do much to calm anyone down.
Three names remain at the center of it all: Frederik Andersen, Matt Savoie and Mattias Janmark. Andersen and Savoie still haven’t played a game, while Janmark has been out since his season-ending surgery in 2025-26. For a team already dealing with a pile of man games lost to injury to open the 2026-27 NHL season, that’s a rough trio to be missing.
Babcock’s comments on Tuesday offered little in the way of a timeline. On Janmark, he said the forward had been on the ice for practice, though the coach noted he was filling in on defence because Edmonton was short on blue-liners. The message there was simple enough: practicing is better than not practicing, but it wasn’t exactly a full-throated return update.
Savoie’s situation sounded far less clear. Babcock said, “I ask that myself every day.”
He added, “I’d like to see him... That’s a great thing about the head coach has nothing to do with when guys return.
They tell me.” That’s about as fuzzy as an injury update gets, and it points to a return that does not appear close.
Andersen’s status sounded even more distant. Babcock said, “We don’t expect him for a while yet.
Like that’s not even talked about.” For a goalie brought in this summer to give the crease some dependable depth, that’s not the kind of news the Oilers wanted to hear.
The biggest concern remains Savoie. When his injury was first announced in August and it was made clear he would miss training camp, 2 Mutts Podcast reported that the issue was tied to cartilage problems he had been dealing with since he was younger.
Now, 2 Mutts has followed that up with a more troubling update, saying, “He’s having issues with his knee, A cartilage that they removed was worse than they originally thought so the timeframe for his return to the lineup is probably going to be a bit longer than expected,”
That kind of news naturally raises alarms. Knee problems can be brutal, and for a 22-year-old whose game leans so heavily on skating, the concern is obvious. It’s not just about this season - it’s the kind of issue that can hang over a player’s future.
That said, 2 Mutts has also been known to miss on occasion, and Oilers fans are surely hoping this is one of those times.
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The study stretched across major sports leagues and showed just how wide the gap can be in the way fans talk when they think nobody is grading them. Edmonton was followed by Athletic Bilbao and the Dallas Stars, while the St. Louis Cardinals were identified as the most polite fan base, a reminder that not every corner of the internet sounds the same when the game gets tense. [Read more 🡒]
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The roster picture is also shifting elsewhere, with Matthew Savoie heading to the minors for a few games as part of his ongoing injury rehabilitation. It is the kind of move that usually flies under the radar, but in Edmontons case it adds to the sense that the team is still sorting through health and availability issues at a time when every lineup decision matters. For a club trying to keep its defensive rotation stable, Walmans situation is the one that deserves the closest attention. [Read more 🡒]