The Edmonton Oilers are trending up in these early days of the 2025-26 season, but a few veteran players are trending down.
The key ingredient in this improvement has been slot defence. Last year the Oilers gave up 5.8 of the most dangerous shots per game. I’m referring here to wide open looks often coming on cross-ice passes into the slot, which the Cult of Hockey refers to as 5-alarm shots.
So far this year that number is down significantly to just four 5-alarm shots against per game. That’s a massive improvement, 5.8 to 4.0.
The improvement is even more drastic if we consider the 2025 playoffs, when the Oil gave up 6.9 5-alarm shots per game.
Oilers team 3 games
Of course, these are early days and the sample size is exceedingly small. It’s also the case that Calgary, Vancouver and the New York Rangers don’t come close to the same quality of competition as Edmonton’s 2025 playoff opponents Los Angeles, Vegas, Dallas and Florida.
But the trend is nonetheless positive and largely responsible for Edmonton’s strong start.
As for individual players, moving Leon Draisaitl to Connor McDavid’s wing has worked out well so far. Both Draisaitl and McDavid are off to hot starts in terms of two-way play at even strength, as are defenders Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard, with that partnership simply killing it. Ekholm, in particular, has looked outstanding now that he’s healthy again.
Draisaitl has seen the benefits of wing play, where the defensive responsibility isn’t nearly as great as what it is asked of centres in the NHL. But this move has been made possible because of the improved defensive play of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at centre.
RNH was always a conscientious defender at centre, but earlier in his career he wasn’t strong enough to consistently win key battles in the defensive slot. Now he is. He’s got the physical and mental toughness to shut down much bigger opposing players, most often by freezing them out of the play with sound body position or out-racing them to loose pucks.
If RNH can keep this up — and he was great on defence when he was used at centre in the 2025 playoffs — he should be considered for the Selke Trophy.
Grade A 3 games players
As for players trending down, Adam Henrique has been solid enough on the PK, but he’s struggling to keep up with the pace and to lead a line at even strength. He might well be better off on the wing there, with Noah Philp at centre. If the Oilers have back-to-back games, it might also be wise to sit Henrique for a game and play Curtis Lazar.
On defence, the bottom pairing of Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson is also struggling, leaking Grade A shots against.
Emberson seems a step behind the play and is moving the puck poorly. Where is the confident and aggressive Emberson we saw last December and January? He’s capable of stepping it up, but has to assert himself.
Kulak, too, has struggled, including getting beat on the break-in with three minutes to go against the Rangers and the Oil protecting a one goal lead.
Kulak is entirely capable of playing shut-down defence and moving the puck well in a third-pairing role. Emberson has shown flashes of that same capability, but for now Alec Regula has moved ahead of him on the depth chart. Regula, of course, is injured, having been run over twice by Evander Kane.
But if Jake Walman is back in the line-up on Thursday, as has been rumoured, it’s an easy choice to sit Emberson for him, with Troy Stecher or Regula teaming up with Kulak on the bottom pairing.
As for Stu Skinner, is he not moving better and sealing off the bottom of the net better this year. He’s also benefitted from a lack of cross-seam passes on 5-alarm shots. When Skinner faces a shooter head on, and is set to make the save, Skinner is at his best. If the Oil defence can continue to prevent a high number of such passes, Skinner will do well this season.
Finally, when it comes to the new Oilers forward, Jack Roslovic looked sharp and fast in his first game, but the real standout was David Tomasek, who three times bulled his way to the net. Tomasek looks ready to play on a top line, no?
How about going McDavid, Draisaitl and Mangiapane, then RNH, Roslovic and Tomasek?
Savoie would then play with Philp and Henrique, and the grind line would be Kapanen, Frederic and Podkolzin.
Ike Howard played under eight minutes last game, and is far better off in Bakersfield if he’s going to get that amount of ice time. Howard has yet to contribute to a Grade A shot in his 28 minutes of ice time this year.
P.S. In ownership news, Mark Spector of Sportsnet reports, “Harrison Katz in NY, joining Jeff Jackson for the Edmonton Oilers at the NHL’s Board of Governor meetings.”
I also note the passing of Bruce Saville, who was huge in the late 1990s effort to save the Oilers from the crumbling leadership of Peter Pocklington.
Saville was one of the key investors in the local group that bought the team and kept it here when our economy was poor and the team was weak. Saville was also deeply committed to Edmonton, took a keen interest in city politics, and was always quick to offer sage, behind-the-scenes advice to writers like me. I’ll miss him. Here is my colleague Jim Matheson’s obituary of Saville.
At the Cult of Hockey
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