Andersen, Joseph provide Stanley Cup rings to Oilers

The position group the Edmonton Oilers needed to address most in the off-season was goaltending. 

General manager Stan Bowman was busy adding two goaltenders to push Tristan Jarry next season, who needs a reset instead of a rebound.  

Whether Frederik Andersen or Devon Levi is a true solution can only be determined by the games, but where one lacks, the other makes up. 

Andersen has experience and pedigree, but lacks health and availability. The opposite is true for Levi, who wants to graduate full-time from the NHL but is a wildcard at this level. 

However, Andersen’s Stanley Cup experience can’t be discounted, even if he didn’t play the final games.  

The 2025-26 Edmonton Oilers didn’t have a player on the roster who’d won a Stanley Cup before, one of four teams a season ago that didn’t have a ring in their lineup. 

The previous two seasons, the Oilers had Corey Perry, who was almost 20 years removed from his championship in his sophomore season, but after he signed in Los Angeles, the Oilers never filled that gap. 

For a team looking to climb the mountain, that’s significant. Think of the clamouring for Paul Coffey to return to the bench mid-season. I can’t help but think that part of his influence on the Oilers is that he’s “been there, done that” when it comes to winning. 

Whether Frederik Andersen provides that on a nightly basis is another matter. 

Ups and downs

He struggled early in the 2025-26 regular season, producing his highest goals against average (3.05) and lowest save percentage .874 of his career. But after the Olympic break, he went 9-4, and his save percentage got a lift, going .886 down that stretch. 

“Probably since the Olympic break, I really felt like I was finding my game again, being comfortable with things, the way I was moving around and the structure in my game,” Andersen told reporters on Monday in his introduction to Edmonton media. 

“I think that was kind of a reset for me, and just trying to continue to build towards the playoffs.” 

It wasn’t clear what direction Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour would go in Game 1 of the playoffs against the Ottawa Senators. Would it be Andersen, who’d had the experience, or Brandon Bussi, who started more games with better numbers? 

Ultimately, Andersen got the call and went 12-1 in the first three rounds. 

“I was really, really excited about getting the nod from Game 1,” said Andersen. “I felt like I just took it from there and really just laid it out there for each game. It was a really fun run to be part of, and obviously the ending – I would have loved to play it, but it still felt amazing to be able to be part of that.” 

Bussi came in relief in Game 4 of the Final and didn’t relinquish the net, as Andersen would not dress due to injury. 

He has since revealed that it was a knee injury that luckily won’t require surgery, just rest. But it is something Andersen says he and coach Mike Babcock will have to talk about as the season goes along. 

Bowman and the Oilers brass look to be mirroring Carolina’s goaltending approach this upcoming season. 

During his July 1 availability, Bowman likened Levi to Bussi, who’d been an AHL fixture until this past season. Levi has put together comparable numbers, if not better than Bussi, during their AHL careers. 

Rings required

While not a hard-and-fast rule, having someone who’s been through that playoff struggle and succeeded has been proven valuable to eventual Stanley Cup champions. 

So much so that Daily Faceoff’s managing editor, Matt Larkin, has Stanley Cup Rings as its own category in his annual Stanley Cup Ingredients series. 

In the past 45 seasons, only one National Hockey League team has won the Cup without a previous winner on their team: the 1988-89 Calgary Flames. 

Edmonton is poised to have two, with Mathieu Joseph winning with Tampa Bay in 2021, and three if you count coach Mike Babcock, whose hiring is predicated on his experience in pressure-packed situations. 

The Oilers are hoping there will be fistfuls of rings this time next year, knocking on the door for years now, just like the Hurricanes were. Andersen said he wants to help get them over the hump. 

“I can’t speak to the locker room yet, and how the team is under a new coach, but I think the one thing I would take with me is just knowing that the better a team can know their identity and their strengths – it’s going to be better,” said Andersen. 

“I think that’s really what we showed in Carolina the last few years. We’re working towards just being really confident and comfortable in the way we play. That really was probably the biggest reason that got us to the top.” 

Until he gets that chance, Andersen is home in Denmark resting that knee. It’s a busy offseason. He’s set to get married in the next two weeks, then have his day with the Stanley Cup.

Talk about summer plans.