The way the Edmonton Oilers hung on to beat the Florida Panthers on Saturday night was emblematic of much of their long road trip, and largely indicative of their season overall.
The Oilers stormed out to a three-goal lead against their nemesis, chasing goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky before the halfway mark, yet allowed the Panthers to make things interesting. Edmonton needed two empty-netters to secure a 6-3 victory.
The win finalized a 3-3-1 record on the team’s arduous seven-game, 13-day trek away from Edmonton. It marked the Oilers’ 10th victory of the season in 24 games (10-9-5) and only the fifth time they didn’t require overtime to secure two points. It was just the sixth time in 10 tries they’ve won a game when leading after two periods, and their first regulation win since Oct. 28, a span of 12 games.
Savoie makes it 6️⃣ #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/iCovV215Fe
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 23, 2025
To suggest the Oilers underwhelmed for a good portion of Saturday’s game, the way they did on the road trip and have for most of the season, would be putting it charitably. They’ve looked largely pedestrian.
All that’s in the past. It’s time for the Oilers to prove they can leave behind all or most of what’s troubled them and show they can be an elite team. The opportunity before them is ripe to show it.
The first 24 games represented the toughest part of their schedule. The Oilers have played 16 times on the road, including five- and seven-game trips that spanned nine and 13 days. They’ve been in Edmonton for just five full days this month, though choosing to stay an extra night in Dallas for a rookie dinner more than two weeks ago shaved off a sixth day.
They’ve played just eight games at home this season, only six since they opened the campaign there. All that is about to change.
Starting with Tuesday’s contest against the Dallas Stars, six of their next seven games will be in Edmonton. They have only one more trip to the Eastern time zone this season, just before the December holiday break.
They’re home for most of January, and 21 of the 34 games they have before the Olympic break require no air travel.
It’s this stretch that will provide a far better indication of what this team is than anything so far.
There have been plenty of reasons why the Oilers have struggled so much, many of which either seem to be or should be getting resolved.
Let’s start with goaltending. Three of Stuart Skinner’s last five starts, including Saturday against the Panthers, have been good. Calvin Pickard’s work Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning was outstanding, even with late two goals against. There are positive signs here when considering the Skinner’s inconsistencies and Pickard’s massive difficulties this season.
The Oilers have played all but the last five games without Zach Hyman, their best natural winger who scored 70 goals between the regular season and playoffs in 2023-24. With all the turnover in their forward ranks, Hyman’s absence was sorely felt. They’ve relied on him heavily since his return last Saturday, playing him an average of 21 minutes. He has just two assists, but has been a force in the offensive zone, particularly around the net.
Then there’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was arguably their most consistent performer with 16 points in as many games until he sustained an injury in the 9-1 shellacking suffered at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 8. He’s missed the last eight contests, but he isn’t expected to be out much longer.
Jake Walman sat out the first six games of the season and is sidelined again after getting hurt in Thursday’s 2-1 overtime loss at Tampa Bay. The expectation is he’ll be back in a week, though his return from his last injury took far longer than anticipated.
Whenever Walman returns, he’ll rejoin a defensive corps that has nowhere to go but up. The blue line was supposed to be a major strength of this group — maybe its best attribute — but team defence has been poor for most of the season. None of the top five rearguards — Walman, Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm, Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak — has performed anywhere near his best. The Oilers will be in much better stead once that happens with some of them.
Walman’s absence required the Oilers to call up Connor Clattenburg from the AHL to fill out Saturday’s lineup. It took putting Noah Philp on long-term injured reserve to open enough cap space to make that possible.
The decision to summon Clattenburg from the minors for his NHL debut raised eyebrows because he’s 20 years old and was the 160th draft pick, only 17 months ago. He’s played a total of 16 games for the Bakersfield Condors and has racked up nothing but a goal and an assist.
Edmonton chose Clattenburg because they were seeking energy in a limited-usage, fourth-line role. The only other player the team considered was Max Jones, the winger the Oilers acquired along with Trent Frederic from Boston in March, but they didn’t have enough cap space to recall him and his $1 million salary.
Clattenburg accomplished the task against the Panthers, recording two shots, a hit and taking a roughing penalty against A.J. Greer in the last minute in 5:47 of work.
The Oilers didn’t have enough cap space to call up Ike Howard, the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner who started the season with Edmonton and has impressed in Bakersfield since his demotion last week. But the Oilers could have picked offensive talents like Quinn Hutson or Roby Jarventie.
That they didn’t speaks to the niche they wanted Clattenburg to fulfill and wanting to let those other players continue to cook in the AHL, so they’ll be in a better position to help the team later in the season. There was little use in interrupting their progress, considering Clattenburg’s stint will likely be a short one.
Nugent-Hopkins, Walman and depth winger Kasperi Kapanen are expected back soon. Their returns would bring Edmonton’s lineup back to full strength, save for Philp, the fourth-line centre.
Add it up, and the Oilers should be in a much better position as the season nearly enters its third month than they were in for the first two.
They haven’t impressed early on, but weathered the storm adequately. They’ll be judged on how smooth the sailing is from here. Luckily for the Oilers, it looks like the waters are clearing up.