{"id":539623,"date":"2026-04-04T02:53:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/539623\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T02:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:53:21","slug":"caleb-jones-season-is-over-after-surgery-and-oilers-fans-will-remember-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/539623\/","title":{"rendered":"Caleb Jones\u2019 season is over after surgery, and Oilers fans will remember why"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Edmonton <\/p>\n

Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Caleb Jones is done for the season, and Dan Muse now loses one more depth option on Pittsburgh’s blue line.<\/p>\n

The Penguins announced on Friday, April 4, that Jones underwent successful surgery on his right shoulder.<\/p>\n

The recovery timeline is expected to be 4 to 6 months, with the expectation that he will be ready for the start of the 2026-27 regular season.<\/p>\n

For Oilers fans, this one lands with a little more familiarity than a routine injury note.<\/p>\n

Jones was Edmonton’s 117th overall pick in 2015, and he spent the early part of his NHL career in an Oilers sweater before his path took him elsewhere.<\/p>\n

He never became a fixture in Edmonton’s top four, but there was always a stretch where his skating and puck movement made you think there was more there.<\/p>\n

That’s why updates like this still register.<\/p>\n

Jones only appeared in 7 NHL games this season and finished with 1 point.<\/p>\n

Career-wise, he has played 255 NHL games and put up 56 points, which tells the story of a defenseman who has had to fight for every shift.<\/p>\n

That fight got harder in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Jones was already a depth piece on a Penguins team sitting at 38-21-16, so this surgery wipes out whatever chance remained for a late push into a bigger role.<\/p>\n

Former Oilers blueliner Caleb Jones done for season after shoulder surgery<\/p>\n

In Edmonton, Jones is still tied to a very specific chapter.<\/p>\n

He was part of the trade package that sent Duncan Keith to the Oilers, which locked him into franchise memory even after he moved on.<\/p>\n

That’s also why this news hits differently than a standard injury update around the league.<\/p>\n

Fans remember the player, the trade, and the feeling that Jones still had another level if he ever found stable usage.<\/p>\n

The Penguins have scored 244 goals this season, so this is not a club starving for offense from the back end.<\/p>\n

But losing another left-shot option still matters when coaches start sorting pairings and bench trust in the final stretch.<\/p>\n

From an Edmonton angle, the contrast is sharp.<\/p>\n

The Oilers are 39-28-9 and still built around push-from-the-blue-line hockey, the exact kind of environment where Jones once looked like he might stick long term.<\/p>\n

Now the focus shifts to recovery.<\/p>\n

A shoulder issue for a defenseman can affect battles, retrievals, puck protection, and simple confidence under pressure.<\/p>\n

So while Jones is no longer part of Edmonton’s plans, this is still a former Oiler many fans watched develop.<\/p>\n

Friday’s update was a reminder that his career has never lacked for detours, and now he has another one to get through.<\/p>\n

Previously on Edmonton Hockey Daily<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

8 HOURS AGO|41 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Caleb Jones\u2019 season is over after surgery, and Oilers fans will remember why<\/p>\n

Did the Oilers give up on Caleb Jones too early ?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Caleb Jones is done for the season, and Dan Muse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5125],"tags":[3282,5833,8207,198,146,5300,5,61815,4,24,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-539623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-caleb-jones","9":"tag-dan-muse","10":"tag-duncan-keith","11":"tag-edmonton","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-edmontonoilers","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-kyle-dubaschatgptcaleb-jones-season-overgoogle-discover-score-6-8-10-why-it-underperforms-it-is","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-oilers","18":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116344180842531754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}