{"id":645511,"date":"2026-08-19T07:39:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/645511\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T07:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:39:58","slug":"why-the-oilers-biggest-roster-flaw-could-once-again-stand-between-edmonton-and-the-stanley-cup-in-2027-nhl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/645511\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Oilers\u2019 biggest roster flaw could once again stand between Edmonton and the Stanley Cup in 2027\ufeff\ufeff | NHL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WhyOilers NHL season preview (Getty Images) The Edmonton Oilers got bounced in six games by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2026 playoffs — not a close series, not a runner-up finish, just a quiet, jarring exit. General manager Stan Bowman moved fast this offseason. Darnell Nurse got his trade request granted, landing with San Jose. Frederik Andersen signed on a one-year deal after Carolina’s Cup run. Defensive prospect Ryan Shea locked in for five years. And Devon Levi arrived from Buffalo. With Connor McDavid<\/a> entering the final two years of his contract, the urgency is real and the margin for error is essentially gone.<\/p>\n

Is Edmonton’s goaltending good enough to win the Stanley Cup?<\/p>\n

The Oilers now carry four goaltenders with distinctly different profiles and a lot of uncertainty binding them together. Tristan Jarry came over from Pittsburgh midseason and was, by most accounts, nearly unplayable. Connor Ingram, acquired from Utah before last season, held up but doesn’t project as a true number one. Devon Levi has upside but has barely scratched the surface of what NHL goaltending demands. And Andersen, who only dropped one game across the first three rounds of Carolina’s Cup run, is nearly 40 with an injury history that makes any long-term projection feel shaky at best.That’s the tension here. Andersen is probably the early favorite to start, and his pedigree makes sense on paper. But Carolina’s defensive structure gave him a completely different environment than what Edmonton can offer. The Oilers are not a shut-down team. They win with speed and firepower, which means their goalie absorbs more pressure, not less. Asking Andersen to replicate a championship run in a looser defensive setup, at his age, is an uncomfortable ask.<\/p>\n

Can the Oilers do anything else to fix their goaltending before 2026-27?<\/p>\n

Realistically? Not much. The Oilers have already brought in two new goaltenders this offseason. The depth chart looks different than it did twelve months ago. The problem isn’t the quantity of options — it’s that none of them inspire the kind of confidence a team chasing a Stanley Cup wants in their crease. Bowman would need a trade for someone like Connor Hellebuyck, and the Jets are not exactly in the business of moving their franchise goalie.The window isn’t slammed shut. Any one of these four could get hot at the right time, and playoff runs have been built on stranger things. But it’s telling that after a summer of active roster construction, the most vulnerable position on the ice is still the one generating the most questions. Edmonton enters 2026-27 with legitimate star power and a real chance — and still, goaltending remains the issue it’s always been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oilers NHL season preview (Getty Images) The Edmonton Oilers got bounced in six games by the Anaheim Ducks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[29,155,198,146,5300,1239,5,4,62845,24,14,6769],"class_list":["post-645511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-frederik-andersen","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-playoffs-2026","tag-oilers","tag-stanley-cup","tag-tristan-jarry"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117121045550817294","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645511","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=645511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}