The Edmonton Oilers already know what Jason Dickinson can do when he’s put in the right spots. The real question heading into 2026-27 is whether they’ll use him that way.
Edmonton brought Dickinson in at the 2026 trade deadline, but the fit never really clicked the way the team hoped. His value at five-on-five was supposed to come from shutting things down, yet the Oilers were outscored 0-3 with him on the ice against elites in limited action. Dickinson’s time in Edmonton was also tangled up with injuries, and the Oilers’ centre depth chart was hit hard enough that it played directly into their early playoff exit against the Anaheim Ducks in the spring.
That’s why the summer extension from general manager Stan Bowman matters so much. Bowman kept Dickinson around on a long-term deal worth $4 million AAV for five seasons, and while plenty of fans liked the move, the contract length naturally brought some nerves with it.
If Edmonton wants a real return on that investment, Dickinson has to be used as a true matchup centre. That means defensive-zone starts, hard minutes against top opponents, and a line built to suppress offence rather than chase it.
The numbers from last season point to why that approach makes sense. Dickinson had 89 defensive-zone starts, compared with 36 in the offensive zone and 56 in the neutral zone.
From the deadline through the end of the regular season, his expected goals against per 60 minutes was 2.34, and his 63 minutes against elites ranked second on the team behind Connor McDavid, with Leon Draisaitl hurt. He also gave Edmonton strong penalty-kill minutes, posting a goals-against per 60 rate of 5.69 that ranked second among Oilers forwards in that late-season stretch.
The toolkit is there.
There’s also a precedent in Edmonton for using a centre like this in a heavy defensive role. During the 2013-14 season, Dallas Eakins leaned on Boyd Gordon in exactly that kind of job, with Gordon taking 640 defensive-zone faceoffs, or 60 percent of his total. Dickinson’s 49 percent defensive-zone start rate last season looks like a fair outer marker for what’s coming, though the Oilers could push it even further if they want to keep their skill lines away from the hardest assignments.
Dickinson brings enough skating to handle the workload, ranking in the 62nd percentile in max speed according to NHL Edge. Offensively, he’s not going to drive a line by himself - he produced 0.84 points per 60 at five-on-five in 17 late-season games - but his best work in Edmonton showed up on the penalty kill. Kasperi Kapanen was his most common short-handed partner, and that combination should be back in the conversation.
At five-on-five, Dickinson showed flashes with a few different wingers, including Trent Frederic, Colton Dach, Vasily Podkolzin and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, though those samples were limited. Which linemates he gets next season will depend on how new coach Mike Babcock wants to structure his forward groups.
If Babcock spreads Connor McDavid and Draisaitl across separate lines, Dickinson can slide neatly into the shutdown role on a third line. If he keeps the top-six structure similar to what Kris Knoblauch used last season, then Podkolzin, Kapanen, Matt Savoie and Zach Hyman would be in the mix for the top two lines.
Ike Howard could also enter the picture, though he would not be a natural fit for a checking assignment with Dickinson. If Howard replaces Kapanen on the second line, that could reopen the door for a Dickinson-Kapanen pairing at five-on-five and keep the two of them together on the penalty kill. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would be the obvious third piece, and his versatility makes him an easy fit for that kind of job.
Frederic is another name to watch. Bowman invested real money and cap space in him in the summer of 2025, and although Frederic hasn’t really gotten going in Edmonton, Bowman has pointed to him multiple times as someone who deserves a larger role.
There is also a blueprint from Dickinson’s time in Chicago, where he was effective at five-on-five alongside Ilya Mikheyev and Ryan Donato. That trio played 187 minutes together and posted a 68 percent goal share, with a 55 percent expected-goals share. They scored at a rate of 4.16 goals per 60, which stands out even more because Dickinson isn’t known for putting up offense.
Mikheyev and Donato both bring some scoring ability of their own. Mikheyev has averaged almost 19 goals per 82 games in his NHL career and has grown into a solid two-way player.
Donato, who has scored 18 goals per 82 games over his career, also found success with Dickinson. But there’s a catch: away from Dickinson last season, Mikheyev’s numbers were poor compared with his usual standard, and Mikheyev and Donato together without Dickinson had a 38 percent goal share in 272 five-on-five minutes in Chicago.
The problem for Edmonton is that the Chicago version of that line does not look like a championship template. Puck IQ shows Dickinson-Mikheyev played 228 minutes against elites with a 31 percent goal share, while Dickinson-Donato posted a 38 percent goal share in 112 minutes. Most of the line’s offensive edge came against weaker competition.
That’s why the Oilers should resist the temptation to recreate that exact setup. Dickinson’s best use in Edmonton is as the centre of a checking line with wingers who can still handle the puck and chip in a little offense, not as the anchor of a softer matchup line built around scoring balance.
The job description is clear. Dickinson should be on the penalty kill, starting in the defensive zone, and taking tough minutes against elite competition whenever the matchup allows.
He played 36 percent of his minutes against elites, 35 percent against mid-level opponents and 29 percent against easier competition as an Oiler, which is a solid distribution for a line designed to take on the hard stuff. But matchup hockey only works when the other coach cooperates, and no one is handing out easy minutes against McDavid and Draisaitl.
Babcock has a veteran shutdown centre in Dickinson. Now the Oilers need to deploy him like one.
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