The Edmonton Oilers didn’t sit still this summer, and the front office made it clear where it wanted to change the look of the roster. From the bench to the blue line to the crease, there’s been a real attempt to reshape the group after last season. The only real question now is whether those moves add up to a better team.
Start with the biggest swing: the coaching change. Kris Knoblauch is out, and Mike Babcock is in.
That one reads as a win on paper, though it comes with plenty of risk. The Oilers decided the message had stopped landing and that a new voice was needed, especially with a fresh contract about to begin.
They went through a strange process to get there, but the result is Babcock. If he can channel elite talent, star players, and depth pieces without slipping into the kind of old habits that could make things messy, this could end up being a major boost.
For now, it’s an upgrade because change was needed.
The defense got a major reset too. Darnell Nurse was finally shipped to the San Jose Sharks in a deal that brought back Shakir Mukhamadullin and prospect Zach Sharp, and then the Oilers moved quickly to sign Ryan Shea.
Shea is the player expected to take Nurse’s spot, and the Oilers are hoping for similar or better production at about 40 percent of the cost. He has been improving year by year, and if he found something during the 2025-26 season that carries over, this is a smart bet.
Even without the cap angle, the value proposition makes this an upgrade.
In goal, the Oilers chose volume over certainty. Connor Ingram is out, and Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi are in, giving the team a three-goalie setup.
Ingram remains unsigned in free agency, which is a little surprising. Andersen arrives after winning a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes and does so on a one-year, cost-friendly deal.
Levi comes over in a trade from the Buffalo Sabres and still carries solid upside, even if he remains unproven. The logic here is simple: three options are better than one when things can go sideways quickly.
That makes this another upgrade.
There wasn’t much movement at forward, but one depth addition stands out. Adam Henrique is gone after the Oilers let his deal expire, and the team brought in Mathieu Joseph as a lower-cost piece.
Henrique had value when Edmonton acquired him, but age seems to have caught up with him and his production fell off. Joseph doesn’t bring much offense, but he may have more impact at this stage of his career simply because he’s younger and cheaper.
That leaves this spot as a wash.
Not every hole got filled, though. Jack Roslovic walked out the door, and the Oilers didn’t replace him with a proven player.
That leaves a gap they’ll need to address either from outside or by giving a look to someone internal like Ike Howard or Quinn Hutson. Until that happens, it’s a downgrade.
There was also a small but meaningful addition on the back end in Shakir Mukhamadullin. Edmonton kept its depth defensemen and added another one, even if he isn’t a lock to make the team right away.
He’ll have a chance to compete with Ty Emberson, Spencer Stastney, Alec Regula and others. That gives the Oilers more choices, and more options are always useful.
That’s an upgrade.
Put it all together, and the picture is pretty clear. Edmonton improved on defense, may have upgraded in coaching and goal, and added a depth forward.
The one real drag is the top-nine forward situation, where the Oilers clearly took a step back. Even so, the team should be better, and it still has money available to keep improving if these changes don’t go far enough.
In Other News...
Oilers Face A Tough Spencer Stastney Decision On Defense
Spencer Stastney spent much of last season filling in as a useful stopgap on the Edmonton blue line, stepping into a bigger role when Brett Kulak was out and getting into 66 games along the way. He also signed a one-year contract extension in July, a move that reflected his value as a depth defenseman who could be trusted when injuries thinned out the lineup.
Since the Oilers got healthier, though, Stastneys role has been squeezed, which is the sort of depth-chart reality that can force a team to make uncomfortable decisions. Edmonton has enough defensive depth to at least consider whether keeping a player in that spot is the best use of the asset, and the idea of moving him for a draft pick has surfaced as the kind of option that would help the organization balance now versus later. [Read more 🡒]
McDavid Superteam Buzz Will Hit Oilers Fans Right In The Gut
With Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews both two years away from free agency in 2028, the NHLs rumor mill has started to wander into territory that naturally grabs attention in Edmonton. The idea of two franchise centers, two captains and two of the leagues biggest names eventually landing on the same roster has been floated in recent chatter, and it is the kind of speculation that immediately lands with extra force for Oilers fans.
Fueling the conversation is the fact that McDavid and Matthews share the same agent, which only makes the hypothetical feel a little more plausible on the surface. Still, for now it remains exactly that, a hypothetical, with no confirmed plans on either side. Even so, once the superteam idea is out there, it is the sort of thing that is hard for an Oilers crowd to simply shrug off. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Just Saw Another Offseason Staff Change Take Shape
The Oilers offseason staff picture took another turn this week as the coaching carousel kept moving across the hockey map. Around the league, Quinn Hughes is still unsigned but expects to work toward an extension with Minnesota as market shifts continue to shape the timing and price, Shane Smith landed a one-year deal with Henderson in the AHL, and Samu Tuomaala moved on to Linkoping in Sweden after Dallas decided not to tender him a contract.
For Edmonton, the most relevant development is on the bench, where Ryan Marsh will not be part of the organization going forward after taking an assistant coaching job with Shanghai in the KHL. It is another reminder that the Oilers summer is not only about roster questions, but also about how much turnover they will have around the team behind the scenes before training camp gets underway. [Read more 🡒]