Edmonton Oilers 2025-26 NHL Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

Edmonton Oilers 2025-26 NHL Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

The Edmonton Oilers. Oh, the Edmonton Oilers finished third in the division last year. Can you imagine that? They were only third. Only third. Now, oh, mice killed them in the first round. It’s You know what? It’s too hard to play at home for Edmonton. Steamrolled. They had 101 points and they for the second straight year had a terrible October and still got 101 points. The odds makers at Bet MGM have them at 104.5. So, Chumf, not Chumf. No, it’s a 10 104 and 1/2. Look at that. Or under one and a4 and a 104 and 1/2. So 180 to go over, 195 to go under. You have to think that they’re not going to have another bad October. I know they don’t. I know them and like they and Florida do not care. Yeah, they know what they’re going to do. They’ve both play teams have played 13 games in the Stanley Cup finals in the last two years. That’s more than anybody else because everybody else is zero. The Edmonton Oilers regular season though. I’m I’m in danger here. Adam, do either of you remember if I had the Ducks over or under? You had them under. Oh, thank God. Did you? Because I thought you did. I don’t remember. Cuz I was about to Cuz last year I got made fun of cuz I thought everyone was going to be over. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought I was about to do three straight overs. I can’t remember what I said for the Ducks. The Flames are an egregious over, I think. Um, uh, Oilers, I have over. You have over 104 and a half. I like them. Okay. Jesse Blake, I have over as well. I don’t care how narrative driven this sounds, but I think with all of the McDavid contract noise in training camp and before training camp and all that stuff, I think they come out of the gate fired up and ready to play this season because their star player is here right now and his only decision for staying will be dependent on how good they are. And if winning is a thing they do in Edmonton, McDavid will want to stick around. And if it’s not, then the noise starts coming out about the all of his contract and where’s he going to play. So I think they come out of the gate really hot and that’s what’s killed them the last few years about winning the division. So if they’re hot out of the gate, I can see them finishing very high in the division and getting a lot of points. And I think they will because of McDavid and how his desire to win is the whole reason he’ll stay up. There’s there’s a lot of anger about them not doing anything with their goalending. Don’t don’t let that and you know, well, what if we replayed the Stanley Cup final today, right? Like, don’t let that cloud the regular season. This team’s excellent. They literally do not need to be good for the first month to two months, as we saw, and then they’ll be totally fine. Uh, they’re going to get a full season out of Jake Walman. Mhm. They’re going to get a full season out of Trent Frederick. And some of you are going to roll your eyes, but I think he’s a very good player. I think people underrate him. A healthy Trent Frederick could be a torpedo for you. Y um you’re going to get Andrew Majapane who I mean smallalish winger who can score and kill penalties and yeah he can he can bury and and I think on the Oilers he will I think it’ll work out a little bit better than Jeff Skinner. And to me the biggest one of the biggest wild cards in the entire league is Isaac Howard being on the Oilers. Yes. Now, tell tell us how did he get there and who is he? Uh, he is Whoop, sorry. Uh, he is a firstround draft pick, I believe, of the Tampa Bay Lightning who murdered college hockey. Uh, Heisman Heisman, Hobie Baker, not Heis, the other H college award. Hobie Baker. Um, was absolutely unbelievable and excellent. And he just told Tampa, “No, I don’t want to.” Which is weird, man. Not a lot of people tell Tampa that these days. Uh, but no, I don’t want to. And he ends up in Edmonton via trade. I mean, of all the teams to land this guy, there’s a greater than 0% chance he plays with McDavid. There’s a greater than 0% chance he plays with Dry Cidle. Uh, keep in mind that they’re beginning the season without Zack Heyman, right? And obviously that’s a bad thing for them. And you know, that that might cost them points in the standings, but it’s an opportunity for someone else. Yeah. Is that someone else Mapani? Is that someone else Howard? Uh I I expect big things from this kid. There’s a couple things in there, guys, that that make me I mean, I really agree with you. Uh as much as they may not care about the uh the beginning of the season, and they shouldn’t, I do think they’re going to be shot out of a cannon, too, Jesse, because here’s what I I see. I see a lot of change on the horizon besides McDavid being a UFA next year as of this recording. Adam Henrik, uh, Casper Kappa and Tom David Thomas. Yeah, I’m I really liked Kappa in the playoffs, man. But Eholm, Walman, Kulak, and Staturer are all UFAS, too. And so are Skinner and Pickard. And so this is, you know, how the the Tampa Bay Lightning had the last dance or whatever they had that on their on their rings. This is kind of that for a lot of these guys. And so now you’re looking at it’s like, okay, we really love each other and we just fell short and we probably were just a Zack Heyman away at least from a game seven. Yeah. So you got that. The other thing I think is there’s no way and I could be I could live to regret this. There’s no way the the Oilers goending is as bad this year as it was last year. I think Stuart Skinner, you think about the opinion we all had of Stuart Skinner coming out of the playoffs in 23 24, right? Those were Oh, he looked awesome. And and yet he got pulled in the playoffs. People forget that he got pulled against Vancouver. By the end of it, it was sorry for doubting you. 100%. And he was in talks. They were like, “Man, he might be a foreign nations guy. Outside shot, blah blah blah blah. He has come to camp this year and people are laughing at him going, I want to make the Olympic team now chances aren’t great from this point, but boy, he couldn’t be on a better team to give give him a shot at that.” And hey, uh, the captain of your team happens to be the, uh, the probably the next captain of team Canada once Crosby retires. I’m sure he can advocate for you. So, I feel like they are fired up to be together. This could be it for a lot of them. And there’s no way Skinner is bad in that way. And if he is, then they got a serious problem, but they got an entire season to figure it out. Again, like you’re going to hear me say this for a lot of teams. I just think there’s goending available. Yeah. Like, and not necessarily a Skinner replacement. Mhm. I think there could be a Pickered replacement potentially. Oh, yeah. No question. Potentially. I I They probably keep him. Mhm. But doesn’t hurt to have depth. We forget how bad the beginning of last season was in October specifically for the Edmonton Oilers. They started off 0 and3 with 6 nothing loss to the Jets, 5-2 to the Blackhawks, and then 4-1 to the Flames. And those were all three games at home. Like you start the season four game home stand and you go one and four or one in three. It’s a disaster start and then after that you lose a couple of games to the Stars and Hurricanes as well. I don’t foresee them dropping Blackhawks Flames Jets games again to start the season. They’re going to be better just by automatically there are more points on the board for them. So I I see them having a very good season. Plus, you mentioned Howard Seavoi is the other guy who’s gonna have an impact on this team. The the trade from Buffalo with um Tulio, I think it was Tyler Tulio and Ryan Mloud. They make that trade, they get Seavoy. So, Seavoid and Howard are going to fill in the gaps where they lose a couple of the older vets, but they have these young guys who are magic beans, but could be really good. I’m going to throw another name at you. Quinn Hudson, brother of Lane. Um he is fighting with Seavoi for for ice time going into it. And we know we found that out from the Grant McKay interview uh with his dad. So listen, it’s straight from the source. You know, this is a guy who ate at Boston University the last three years. Scored a ton, right? And maybe he doesn’t start the year with the team. He did play a couple of games with the Oilers last year, didn’t score. But that could be one of those guys where, oh, someone gets someone needs a break cuz they tweak something. He gets a good couple of weeks in there and all of a sudden, hey, I don’t I don’t think we need to make a trade at the trade deadline. We’ve got good winger depth. Howard, uh, Hudson, those guys coming up. This is the this is the amazing thing about the Oilers is they have some pretty bright lights coming now, which is kind of amazing. Stan Bowman has a a bit of a delicate walk to do, I think, come opening night. Um, because I think the Vultures are going to be circling that waiver wire. Sure. is there’s going to be guys I I think that might surprise you who could be available. I’m going to ask you guys something that is a unfair question, but I’m going to ask anyway. How much and Jesse, you alluded to this off the top. How much did this Conor McDavid thing become tiresome, right? Cuz the guys are going to have to answer questions. Conor’s going to have to answer questions. The Edmonton media is going to have to talk about this and the national media will talk about this. I don’t think Mark Spectre is going to let this go. You don’t think he’s going to let this go? I think he’s going to be mad at us for talking about it. No, I I don’t think he’s just going to sit on the sidelines and be like, I’m not going to bring this up. Yeah, I think he’ll be talking about it all a whole bunch. Just Jesse, when do the Oilers play the Leafs? Just Just look it up. That’s when he’s going to get bothered about it. And I think for the most part, the Edmonton media is going to leave him alone. Really? Uh-huh. I think it’ll be a conversation. No, there’s going to be a They don’t want him to go either, by the way. Who would? Well, of course not. You want to write about that guy? There’s gonna be a time, and I think it’s going to be fairly soon, where he’s gonna get asked a question, he’s gonna answer it eloquently, and then he’s gonna go, “I’ll let you know when there’s an update. Don’t ask me again,” in his very Conor McDavidish way. In in the way where in the Conor McDavidy way where you know he’s not kidding, right? And he’s telling you to shut up, he’ll shut I think in most of the game notes and the postgame reports from this season from the specs alike, you will see some sort of mention of that contract. I I don’t think it’s like Mitch where the Toronto media was told shut up and we all kind of listened. You know, they didn’t. They said, “We’re not going to talk about it.” We all like, “Okay.” And then we all did that. I think with McDavid, it is different. I think that’s some of the sentiment from the NHL fans across the entire league that it is different and I think you’re going to hear this come up time and time again. They’ll talk about it, but will they talk about it with him? I’ll give you I I’ll tell you when they talk about it when there’s a losing streak if there is one. So Edmonton, okay, they finished. Just don’t go on one. Yeah, exactly. And they don’t have to. They finished third in the division last year, 101 points. Remember, their betting odds are 104.51 or over or under. Gentlemen, where do you have the Edmonton Oilers finishing in this division? I’m gonna start with Jesse. I have the Edmonton Oilers winning the Pacific. Wow. First place over. First place and over. Jess or Steve Dangle. Uh I have them second place uh in the division, but I also have them over. Um I think people are uh it’s a combination. They’re giving them the Panthers treatment where they’re like, “Ah, they don’t care about the regular season.” Um, they’re looking at the Zack Heyman injury and they’re also looking at the goalending and their disappointment in that and just going, “Yeah, I don’t know. It’s the regular season. They’re not going to do much.” I I think you’re way undervaluing the guys that they’ve brought in. I think you’re way undervaluing uh the guys they brought in last year and are just about to play a full season. I think you’re just undervaluing the Edmonton Oilers and Conor McDavid who didn’t even have that crazy of a season last year. They’re going to be unreal. But I still have them second. I have them second as well because I think there’s a team in the division that is more motivated to prove it right now than the Oilers have to be. The Oilers have played, as I said, 13 games in the Stanley Cup finals the last two years. Nobody else other than the Panthers can match them on that one. So, we’ll find out what happens. But there’s your Advent Oilers season preview.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake preview the upcoming season for the Edmonton Oilers and predict where they will finish in the Pacific Division.

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