When Kasperi Kapanen put pen to paper on a one-year, $2.6 million deal with the Edmonton Oilers on July 1, plenty of fans probably felt a lot better about the winger sticking around. The regular-season results have been uneven at times, but Kapanen has been a different player when the games matter most, especially over the last couple of postseasons alongside Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin.
Now there’s another layer to this story. In 2026-27, Kapanen will be back under Mike Babcock, the coach who once helped unlock his best NHL season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Edmonton already has Zach Hyman and Frederik Andersen as former Leafs in that same orbit, and Kapanen’s history with Babcock makes this reunion worth watching closely.
The connection goes back to Kapanen’s early days in Toronto. He made his NHL debut with Babcock in charge during the 2015-16 season, then spent the next couple of years moving between the Leafs and the AHL with the Toronto Marlies.
In 2017-18, he got into 38 games with Toronto and put up nine points, including seven goals and two assists. The real breakthrough came the next season.
With William Nylander holding out because of contract issues, Babcock needed help on the top line and turned to Kapanen. After training camp, the coach made it clear what he wanted from the Finnish forward. In a 2018 article from The Athletic, Babcock said:
“The bottom line for us, for him to be successful, he’s gotta understand what kind of player he’s going to be in the National Hockey League.” He added, “You’ve been a top-two line player your whole life, and now you’ve got to find a way to survive, and you’ve got to find a way to be important on a team. So, his way is going to be with his speed, with his tenacity, with his heavy play, with (his effectiveness) on the cycle, with finishing checks, with getting to the net.”
Kapanen responded with the best offensive season of his career. He spent most of 2018-19 on the top line, with Patrick Marleau and Auston Matthews as his most common linemates according to Natural Stat Trick, and finished with 44 points - 20 goals and 24 assists - which still stands as his career high.
That blueprint also looks familiar now. The same style Babcock described back then - speed, forechecking, physical play, and getting to the net - is a big part of what has made Kapanen effective in Edmonton over the last two playoffs. His overtime winner in Game 5 against the Vegas Golden Knights in 2025 was a clean example of that approach paying off.
Babcock also pushed Kapanen into more defensive work, and the penalty kill became a major part of his value. In 2017-18, Kapanen logged 41:25 of shorthanded ice time and scored one shorthanded goal.
By 2018-19, Babcock had leaned on him even harder, saying, “That’s the way you’re going to play in the NHL.” He added, “You’re not playing on the PP, so better find a way to make yourself important.”
That season, Kapanen played the third-most shorthanded minutes among forwards at 125:22 and scored two shorthanded goals, both a team high. In 2019-20, he was second among forwards in PK ice time with 115:19 and again scored two shorthanded goals.
His shorthanded work even carried into the playoffs. On April 25, 2018, against the Boston Bruins, Kapanen became the youngest player ever to score a shorthanded goal in a Game 7 when he buried a breakaway chance.
There’s also the matter of what Kapanen’s return might mean in Edmonton beyond just familiarity. Before he re-signed, the chatter suggested he might test free agency.
Maybe he did look around. Either way, he ended up back with the Oilers, and the comfort of playing for a coach who once trusted him enough to give him his most productive NHL season could matter.
It could also mean a bigger role on the penalty kill next season, especially with Connor McDavid’s PK minutes expected to be reduced. Babcock’s old comments about wanting Kapanen to play like Zach Hyman offer another clue about what he’ll be looking for now: “We’d like him to decide he wants to play like Hyman; that’s what we’d like him to decide to do,” Babcock said of Kapanen.
“Get to the net. Be on the inside all the time.
Bring it every single night. If he can do that, he can play a big part (for us).”
That message fits more than one player in Edmonton. Podkolzin already brings a lot of that edge, and Trent Frederic is another guy who could be pushed in that direction, even if he hasn’t yet found that consistency in Oil Country.
For Kapanen, though, the reunion is the headline. Babcock believed in him early, got his best season out of him once before, and now gets another shot at doing it again in Edmonton. Whether that leads to another jump remains to be seen, but the trust between coach and player is already there.
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