The Edmonton Oilers are still living off the strength of their core, but the Pacific Division is starting to look a lot less forgiving around them.
After a 2026 first-round Stanley Cup playoff loss to the Anaheim Ducks and a messy start to the offseason that included coaching drama, Edmonton heads toward the 2026-27 NHL season with more uncertainty than usual. The club is healthy and rested, which matters.
So does the fact that Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard remain the kind of top-end talent that can keep a team afloat. But the questions hanging over the roster are real: what happens with Darnell Nurse, how does the goaltending shake out and what kind of impact will new head coach Mike Babcock have?
There’s also the issue of time. Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are getting older, and for a team built around stars and experience, that clock matters.
At the same time, Edmonton’s rivals are not standing still.
The San Jose Sharks may have made the loudest leap at the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, landing Ivar Stenberg, Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin in the first round. Stenberg, who represented Sweden at the 2026 IIHF Men’s Hockey World Championship, turned heads with a goal against Team Slovakia that had scouts questioning whether he should have gone first overall.
He looks NHL-ready now, and if he clicks with Macklin Celebrini, that’s a dangerous combination. Verhoeff, once projected as a top-three pick, fell to ninth, while Lin, a defenseman with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, adds another piece to the blue line.
The Sharks are younger, deeper and better than they were before the draft.
Then there’s Anaheim, which may already be closer to the top of the division than anyone else.
The Ducks beat the Oilers in six games in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs and followed that by pushing the Vegas Golden Knights to six games in round two. That kind of run changes the temperature around a team.
Anaheim also used the offseason to get even younger, sending Mason McTavish to the St. Louis Blues for two first-round picks - #15 Nikita Klepov and #28 Marcus Nordmark - and moving veteran defenseman John Carlson to the Carolina Hurricanes for Kyle Masters and a sixth-round pick.
Pat Verbeek didn’t touch the core of Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke and Jackson LaCombe, but he did keep feeding the youth movement.
Edmonton should still be ahead of the rebuilding Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames, and right now it looks better positioned than the Seattle Kraken, Los Angeles Kings and the aging Golden Knights. Vegas could still change that if Kelly McCrimmon pulls another rabbit out of the hat.
That leaves the Oilers in a strange spot: still dangerous, still talented, but no longer comfortably alone in the division conversation. Stan Bowman’s offseason will matter.
If he can find a legitimate starting goalie and get a strong return for Nurse, Edmonton has a chance to steady itself. If not, the gap that once seemed wide could keep shrinking fast.
Free agency opens in just a few days, and for the Oilers, it feels like a critical stretch.
In Other News...
Oilers May Have A Surprising Path To A Darnell Nurse Trade
With free agency approaching, the Oilers are still working through a potential Darnell Nurse trade, and the market around the veteran defenseman has already taken on an unexpected shape. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston are among the clubs believed to be in the mix, giving Edmonton multiple avenues to explore as it tries to move a significant contract off the books and reshape its blue line.
The twist is that not every possible landing spot comes with the same kind of financial baggage, and that has made the process more complicated than a simple list of suitors. Nurse also has not agreed to widen his trade list to Anaheim, even as the Ducks remain part of the conversation around Edmonton, leaving one of the more intriguing possibilities unresolved as the Oilers try to find the right fit before the market opens. [Read more 🡒]
Stan Bowman's Worst Oilers Moves Are Already Hard To Ignore
Stan Bowmans first few major roster swings in Edmonton are already drawing second-guessing, and it is not hard to see why. The Oilers added Trent Frederic, Tristan Jarry and Andrew Mangiapane in moves meant to firm up different parts of the lineup, but the early returns have been uneven enough that each decision is now part of the same larger review as the offseason approaches.
Frederic, in particular, stands out because of the commitment attached to him after he was brought in at the 2025 trade deadline, and his production has not matched that level of faith. Jarrys arrival was supposed to change the look of the crease, but his stint has been complicated, while Mangiapane was another bet on offense that quickly lost steam. For a team trying to keep pace with championship expectations, the concern is less about any single move than the pattern forming around Bowmans early choices. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Just Made An Unusual Camp Move Fans Will Debate
The Oilers are doing something you almost never see at an NHL development camp, bringing in three female hockey players for an opportunity usually reserved for prospects in the mens game. It is a notable wrinkle for Edmonton, which announced the invites in a press release and is set to give Abbey Murphy, Caitlin Kraemer and Chloe Primerano a chance to work alongside the organizations young players.
Beyond the novelty, the move stands out because it opens a different kind of conversation about where elite womens hockey talent can fit into NHL development environments. Murphy, Kraemer and Primerano each arrive with a strong rsum from the womens game, and for the Oilers, the setup adds an unusual layer of interest to a camp that will already be closely watched for how players handle the jump in pace and expectation. [Read more 🡒]