The Edmonton Oilers have spent years leaning on elite talent and still coming up short when a series turns nasty. That’s the real free-agent question hanging over this team now: not who can score, but who can make life miserable for the other side.
Right now, the Oilers don’t do that often enough.
They’re quick, skilled and, too often, easy to knock off balance. That formula can work through the grind of the regular season.
It tends to crack once an opponent decides to lean into the physical side and drag the Oilers out of their comfort zone, the kind of thing Anaheim did this spring and Florida did in the two seasons before that. If Edmonton wants a different outcome, it has to stop shopping only for more offense and start valuing players who bring some bite.
Three names stand out.
Mason Marchment is the first. The 31-year-old left winger finished the season with Columbus after a December trade from Seattle and produced 45 points in 68 games across the two clubs.
He’s 6-foot-4, plays heavy, works the dirty areas and brings enough offense to fit in Edmonton’s top nine. He just wrapped a four-year, $4.5 million deal and should draw attention from Toronto, Montreal and other teams with cap space.
If the Oilers are serious about changing the makeup of this roster, Marchment is the kind of player who forces opponents to adjust how they play against you.
He isn’t a classic finisher. His value comes from making the game harder, winning battles that create room for McDavid’s line and giving opposing coaches something real to worry about when they sort out matchups. That kind of player doesn’t come around often at this price.
AJ Greer is the simplest case of the bunch, and maybe the easiest one to miss if you’re only scanning the stat line. He doesn’t bring much in the way of points, but he did pile up 113 penalty minutes and 17 goals on an $850,000 cap hit with Florida this season. For a team that needs more edge without spending big, that’s a strong return.
He’s 29, he’s big, and he plays mean in the right way. On a roster built around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, a player like Greer changes the tone. He tells opponents there’s a price for taking liberties with Edmonton’s stars, and that’s a message the Oilers haven’t delivered consistently enough for years.
Jeremy Lauzon rounds out the group. The 29-year-old Vegas defenceman finished his $2 million contract after playing 68 games this season, and he brings exactly the kind of bottom-pair profile Edmonton could use. He’s 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, logged 89 penalty minutes and adds penalty-kill value without needing the puck to be a part of his game.
Offense isn’t the point with Lauzon. He has 58 career points in 384 games, and that’s not why he’d be signed. His job is simpler than that: make the third pair harder to play against, help the penalty kill and clear space in front of the net.
All three players can hit the market on July 1 and all three fit the Oilers’ cap picture at different price levels. More importantly, they all attack the same issue from different angles.
Edmonton has enough skill. What it has lacked is the kind of personnel that protects that skill.
Mike Babcock was hired to change the culture. Bringing in Marchment, Greer and Lauzon would be a way to make the roster look like that idea actually matters. In the NHL, that only works when the personnel and the message are pulling in the same direction.
That’s the missing piece in Edmonton. And it’s available Wednesday at noon.
In Other News...
Oilers May Have Found The July Fix They Desperately Need
With free agency opening, Edmonton is still looking for a middle-six forward who can bring some offense without boxing the club into another expensive mistake. The Oilers have room to work with under the cap, and Matias Maccelli fits the sort of swing they can realistically take: a 25-year-old winger with real playmaking touch and the kind of offensive profile that stands out on a roster built around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
The appeal is easy to see because Edmonton has already kicked this tire before, and the need feels familiar after a few recent July 1 additions did not move the needle the way the club hoped. Maccellis track record suggests he could help right away in a top-nine role, but the real question is whether the Oilers can turn interest into a signing before another team gets there first. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Free Agency Shortlist Just Got A Lot More Intriguing
The Oilers still have some offseason housekeeping to do, and the cap math leaves them with just enough room to keep shopping. After re-signing Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy, Edmonton is looking at ways to round out the roster, with a need for more forwards and a left-shot defenseman shaping the conversation around free agency.
That is where the shortlist gets interesting, because the names attached to Edmonton range from familiar veterans to more intriguing fits. The pool includes nine potential targets, among them Ilya Mikheyev, Vladimir Tarasenko, Patrik Laine, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Mason Marchment, Boone Jenner and Corey Perry, with each player carrying a projected contract value that gives the Oilers a clearer sense of what kind of move might actually fit. [Read more 🡒]
A Major Oilers Blue Liner Is Suddenly At The Center Of Trade Buzz
With free agency creeping closer, the trade market around the NHL has started to tighten around some familiar names, and Darnell Nurse has suddenly become part of that conversation. Edmontons blue line has long been built with Nurse as one of its defining pieces, so any hint that he could be on the move naturally lands with extra weight for the Oilers, especially in a period when teams are probing the market and waiting to see which talks gain traction.
Nurse is being discussed alongside other high-profile players such as Dylan Larkin, Connor Hellebuyck, Jason Robertson and Zach Werenski, a sign of how much movement could still come before the offseason fully opens. For Edmonton, the immediate question is not just whether there is real momentum, but how far those discussions can go if the situation remains fluid and the list of workable landing spots stays narrow. [Read more 🡒]