EDMONTON — It’s a soft opening for the Edmonton Oilers roster, with four veterans on injured reserve allowing a few players to hang around longer than expected.
You can shelve the three-goalie system for now, with Frederik Andersen in town and rehabbing, but not yet ready to play. That’s one roster spot left open, while Owen Michaels gets an Opening Night start as Jason Dickinson is expected to miss the first week.
With Matt Savoie and Mattias Janmark both hurt, Max Jones stays around as the 13th forward. And while it is likely Spencer Stastney keeps a hold of his NHL roster spot, he begins the year as the Oilers’ eighth defenceman.
Here’s a look at Edmonton’s 23-man Opening Night roster, as their redemption tour begins after a very forgettable 2025-26 season:
Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisaitl
Hyman-RNH-Kapanen
Howard-Michaels-Frederic
Formenton-Dach-Joseph
Jones
Ekholm-Bouchard
Walman-Murphy
Shea-Mukhamadullin
Stastney-Emberson
Jarry
Levi
On injured reserve: Janmark, Savoie, Anderson, Regula, Dickinson
Here’s what we like about this lineup:
• The top line, if it stayed together all season long, could well be the most productive in the National Hockey League. Prediction: By the trade deadline, Edmonton will be in search of a second-line, right-shot centre who can come in to keep Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the same line. That’s how much they’ll like it when those two hop the boards together as a line.
• The second line has legit Top 6 players in Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and we would predict that Kasperi Kapanen would surprise with his production if left in that role. If Kapanen is pushing my Top 6, then you’ve likely got a decent group up there. (See above prediction.)
• This is a proper fourth line: A tough, young centreman flanked by two legit penalty killers — and all three can skate. Both Alex Formenton and Mathieu
Joseph have excellent speed, and if Colton Dach can win his draws (a legit concern), this line should win its shifts and set the table well for the next line coming over the boards.
• Through their Top 7 defencemen, all can handle/move a puck. There isn’t a guy in the group, including Ty Emberson at No. 7, who you worry about if the puck ends up on his stick in a high-pressure situation. No "off-the-glass-and-out" guys on this D corps, and plenty of guys who can service a forward group and keep pucks moving north.
And here are the question marks as the Oilers break camp:
• Owen Michaels has not played a pro game in his life. He may be a good 3C one day, but he isn’t one today. Not on a Stanley Cup contender.
Sure, he’s Edmonton’s only right-shot centre. But this team is too far along to go into the playoffs with a rookie 3C and Dach at 4C. Jason Dickinson will take that 3C job back ASAP when he’s healthy, but the hunt for a right-shot centreman will continue.
• The goalies. If the team tightens up the defensive environment, Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi could quite possibly provide enough goaltending to build confidence. But if they struggle under a new coach for a while, can you trust Jarry to buy them some time? Or Levi, who’s played 39 NHL games? Or Andersen, who gets hurt all the time?
Goaltending is going to be a question mark in Edmonton until it’s not. It’s as simple as that.
• Is Trent Frederic a third-line winger? He hasn’t been one yet in Edmonton. Either it begins this season, or he will be the first to test Mike Babcock’s doghouse to see if it’s as harsh a place as it’s been in previous stops.
He is the one regular who has the most ground to cover after just seven points in 74 games last season.
The one thing to remember about this roster: It’s not the finished product.
The Oilers will have enough cap room come March, barring a bunch of injuries, to find at least one addition. Maybe two. But the most important variable is if Babcock can install a defensive posture that this team has lacked, and the scoring doesn’t suffer because of it.
This is a good roster, with a few question marks. In a cap system, there isn’t a team in the league that doesn’t have a hole or two.
That’s why it’s more about getting the guys you have to play the right way, then finding other guys to come in and make you better.
This roster is good enough to win a Pacific Division regular season title.
But that’s not the banner they’re looking for in Edmonton.
