Alex Formenton is back in the NHL, and the Edmonton Oilers are the team giving him that next crack.
On Wednesday, Edmonton announced a one-year deal worth $850,000 for the 26-year-old winger, bringing the former Ottawa Senators forward into an organization that has already shown it is willing to hand out second chances.
From a pure hockey standpoint, the fit is easy to see. Formenton is not as fast as Connor McDavid, but he is about as quick as anyone in the league.
In his last NHL season, he put up 18 goals and 32 points, and five of those goals came while shorthanded. That kind of speed and penalty-killing ability makes him a useful add at close to the league minimum, especially when no trade asset is required to get him.
But this signing comes with far more baggage than the typical low-cost roster move.
Formenton was one of five players from Canada’s 2018 World Junior team charged with sexual assault after a Hockey Canada event in London, Ont., in June 2018. After a long trial, all five were acquitted in July 2025, and the judge said she did not find the complainant’s evidence and testimony to be "either credible or reliable."
The NHL later cleared all five players to return after a period of ineligibility. Hockey Canada recently upheld the suspensions of four of them, while Formenton was reinstated immediately last month.
Of that group, only Carter Hart has returned to NHL success so far, joining the Vegas Golden Knights and helping them reach this year’s Stanley Cup Final.
Formenton’s path back to the NHL has been different. He played last season with HC Ambri-Piotta in Switzerland, where he scored 13 goals and totaled 23 points in 42 games. He had already left Ottawa for Europe because his future with the Senators had been settled.
Last September, at the opening of Senators training camp, GM Steve Staios said he had spoken with Formenton’s agent and that both sides agreed a fresh start elsewhere would be best. Staios is believed to have looked into trading Formenton’s rights, but nothing came together.
The Senators later removed Formenton from their free-agent list a week after their season ended, giving up his rights and making him an unrestricted free agent.
Formenton last played for Ottawa in 2021-22. The former second-round pick finished his Senators career with 39 points in 109 games, and his speed made him one of the organization’s most intriguing young players. More than four years have passed since he last skated for the club.
Edmonton’s connection to him runs through former Senators head coach D.J. Smith, now an Oilers associate coach. Smith was behind the Ottawa bench during Formenton’s best NHL season and knows exactly what the winger can bring in terms of pace, forechecking, and penalty killing.
Still, this is a signing that will spark plenty of discussion beyond hockey. The Oilers have made a habit of taking on controversial second chances, and this one fits that pattern.
In 2024, they hired Stan Bowman as general manager after he had been ruled ineligible to work in the NHL for nearly three years. An independent investigation found that Bowman and other Blackhawks executives failed to respond properly after learning of allegations that video coach Brad Aldrich had sexually assaulted prospect Kyle Beach in 2010.
This summer, Bowman hired Mike Babcock as Edmonton’s head coach. Babcock’s resume includes public accounts of humiliating treatment of former players at more than one NHL stop, including a brief stint in Columbus that ended with his resignation before he coached a game.
Before the Oilers made that hire, the NHL conducted another review and decided there was no basis to limit Babcock’s employment.
Even with league approval, the public reaction is a different matter. Being cleared and being forgiven are not the same thing, and no other NHL team moved to sign Formenton.
Edmonton did. And once again, the Oilers chose to lean into their reputation as the league’s most visible destination for second chances.
In Other News...
Brad Marchand Is Already Stirring Drama Around The Brady Tkachuk Trade
With Brady Tkachuk now in Florida, the Senators are moving into a new era and one of the biggest decisions on the horizon is who will wear the captains letter next. Tim Stutzle has emerged as a finalist, and the conversation got an extra jolt when Brad Marchand, now with the Panthers, weighed in on social media in a way that quickly turned a routine leadership debate into a little more noise than Ottawa probably wanted.
Stutzle brushed it off, saying he does not care and still respects Marchand as a player, while Drake Batherson also got a look at the exchange and called it typical Marchand. For the Senators, the bigger issue is still internal and far more important than an outside chirp, but the teams next captain is being chosen under a brighter spotlight now, and Marchand managed to make sure of that without even putting on a Senators jersey. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Just Opened A Roster Debate Fans Wont Ignore
Eeli Tolvanen is off the board after signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Rangers, and that only sharpens the conversation around what Ottawa is trying to build up front. The Senators have already added William Eklund to their forward group, a move that leans further into skill, but Tolvanen would have offered a different layer with his physical edge, finishing touch and ability to move around the lineup.
For Ottawa, the appeal was never just about another scorer. Tolvanen could have fit alongside the teams more creative forwards while also bringing value on the penalty kill, which is the kind of two-way utility contenders tend to covet. Instead, the Senators are left to weigh whether they have enough of that mix already, or whether the spot Tolvanen filled in New York is exactly the sort of opening they still need to address. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Face Two Huge Decisions After Brady Tkachuks Exit
With Brady Tkachuk now gone, Ottawas front office is working through a pair of franchise-shaping issues at once, and both are tied to the clubs next chapter. One is the contract status of Drake Batherson, an important piece who remains in negotiations with the Senators, with the new NHL CBA deadline adding another layer to how long a deal can be.
The other centers on the dressing room leadership void left behind by Tkachuks move to Florida. Tim Stutzle and Thomas Chabot are among the top candidates to wear the captains C, and the decision would say plenty about where the Senators believe their identity is headed. How Ottawa handles both matters will go a long way toward defining the team beyond this season. [Read more 🡒]