Are the Edmonton Oilers Still Legit Stanley Cup Contenders?

The NHL has now reached its Olympic break. There are no games from Feb. 6 to 24, allowing for players to compete in men’s hockey at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.

This pause in action provides time to take stock of the current NHL season and get a true sense of things without overacting one way or another to the daily ups and downs that happen throughout a six-month season.

All 32 of the league’s clubs have played somewhere between 55 and 59 games, representing more than two-thirds of the 82-game schedule. That’s a significant sample size, more than enough to fairly analyze a team’s performance. As far as the Edmonton Oilers are concerned, the findings are not at all positive.

Edmonton concluded its pre-Olympic schedule on Wednesday (Feb. 4) by suffering a third consecutive loss, falling 4-3 to the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome. The two-time defending Western Conference champions now have a record of 28-22-8 for 64 points through 58 games.

Oil Country keeps waiting for this team to hit the switch and start racking up the wins that they did the last couple of seasons on their way to a Stanley Cup Final appearance. But they’ve only won more than two straight games once all season, and that was a modest three-game winning streak at the end of January.

With eight straight games at home from Jan. 18 to Feb. 3, including five against teams not in a playoff spot, the Oilers were well-positioned to put together a stretch of wins. But they fumbled that opportunity, going just 4-4-0 on the homestand (and that record would have been 2-6-0 were it not for a pair of miraculous last-minute comebacks that led to overtime wins).

Now with just 24 games remaining on the Oilers’ regular-season schedule, it’s fair to ask: Is this team a legit Stanley Cup contender in 2026?

Oilers’ Position in Standings Is Misleading

Edmonton currently sits second in the Pacific Division, which is exactly where the Oilers finished each of the last two seasons when they went on to make the Stanley Cup Final. But the Oilers’ position in the standings is a little misleading, because the team is well off its pace from the last two seasons. At the 58-game mark, Edmonton had 74 points in 2023-24 and 72 points in 2024-25.

The only reason Edmonton occupies second place is that its division is so weak. If the Oilers were in either Eastern Conference division, they would be in sixth place and five points out of a playoff spot. If the Oilers were in the Central Division, they’d be tied for fourth.

Looking at the entire league provides a more accurate picture of how Edmonton stacks up. With a point percentage of .552, the Oilers are only 19^th among the NHL’s 32 teams. They also have the 19^th-most wins, with more than a quarter (8) of their 28 victories coming in overtime.

But the clearest indication that Edmonton does not rank among the league’s elite this season is based simply on how it has fared against said clubs. Against teams currently in a playoff spot, the Oilers are 9-13-3. Against the 11 teams with a point percentage of .600 or better, Edmonton is 5-12-3. In six contests against the top three teams in the Western Conference, the Oilers are 0-5-1 and have been outscored a combined 33-12.

Oilers Have Taken a Step Back in Several Areas

There are several aspects in which the Oilers appear to be weaker than in prior seasons and below the calibre of a championship-contending team.

For one, they lack the depth that was provided in the past by the likes of Connor Brown and Corey Perry, among others. When superstar centres Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, along with high-scoring winger Zach Hyman and gifted offensive defenceman Evan Bouchard, are filling opposition nets as no other team can, the Oilers appear unstoppable.

But on the nights that the quartet isn’t going full superhero mode, the Oilers struggle to win, and their lack of secondary scoring becomes painfully obvious. McDavid has been held pointless in 10 games this season, and the Oilers have lost all of them.