Daily Faceoff list the Oilers as one of their losers to begin free agency

It wasn’t the greatest of starts to free agency for the Edmonton Oilers.

On Tuesday, they saw Connor Brown depart for the New Jersey Devils, Corey Perry leave for the Los Angeles Kings, and John Klingberg head off for the San Jose Sharks. Before free agency even opened, the Oilers traded Viktor Arvidsson to the Boston Bruins for a late pick, similar to what they did to Evander Kane last week.

Late on Tuesday evening, the Oilers finally made a notable move, signing Andrew Mangiapane to a two-year deal with a $3.6 million cap hit. An encouraging move, no doubt, but there’s still plenty of work to do.

Daily Faceoff released its winners and losers from the first day, listing the Oilers in the latter category. Here’s what Matt Larkin had to say about what the Oilers did on the opening day of free agency:

“The Oilers got two big swings at the Stanley Cup and missed. Now Leon Draisaitl’s and Evan Bouchard’s new deals kick in at a combined $24.5 million, and voila, you’ve squeezed Corey Perry, Connor Brown, Evander Kane, Arvidsson and John Klingberg from your roster while adding nothing on July 1. 

It’s not an utter catastrophe given the Oilers’ top-end stars remain aboard, but when your depth gets decimated and you don’t address your goaltending problem…we have to call it like it is and say the Oilers are a significantly weaker team now than they were even two weeks ago. Andrew Mangiapane helps, but the overall roster losses still outweigh the gains To top it off: divisional rivals Vegas and Anaheim, and probably Utah, got better.”

In defence of the Oilers…

As bad as their bottom-six depth looks at the moment, it’s still early in free agency. With Wednesday’s signing of Curtis Lazar, the Oilers have just $175,834k in cap space, but they can bury David Tomasek and Max Jones to gain an additional two million. They also have two expendable contracts with Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark, which, if traded, would give the Oilers an additional $4.45 million in cap space.

If the Oilers can’t trade Henrique because of his no-move clause, his contract is buyout-friendly, costing the Oilers just $1 million in cap hit over the next two seasons. So if they do all this (sending Tomasek doesn’t seem likely), the Oilers will have $6.626 million to $4.626 million. As of right now, the Oilers have three notable holes.

There are two pressing issues – a goaltender and a top-six forward to play alongside Leon Draisaitl. It’s assumed Matthew Savoie will get a look in the top six, solving Draisaitl’s right side. The left side is a little more open, perhaps Mangiapane gels with Draisaitl, but he’s best described as a middle-six forward who can play up and down the lineup.

It’ll be nearly impossible to get a top-six winger on a cheap contract, unless through trade. One of those players could be the unsigned Isaac Howard, who the Oilers were linked to by Bob Stauffer. In fact, Frank Seravalli reported on Kevin Karius’ show on Wednesday that both the Oilers and Howard’s camp believed that he was heading to Edmonton.

If that somehow gets done, they could slot Howard into their top six, and he’ll only be on an entry-level contract. It sounds like the Tampa Bay Lightning nixed the deal, which is odd considering that if he walks, the Lightning will get a compensatory pick at the end of the second round in the 2026 draft. 

The goalie is a little bit trickier, as there aren’t any upgrades for Stuart Skinner on the free agent market unless they give an offer sheet to someone like Lukáš Dostál. That means they have to trade for a netminder, which is difficult due to their lack of cap and lack of assets.

It’s also worth noting that many people considered the start of Edmonton’s 2025 free agency a win, as they re-signed Perry, Brown, Henrique, Janmark, and Stecher, while signing two top-six forwards in Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson. As we saw, there wasn’t really a fit there, and it ended up costing the Oilers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway when they were given an offer sheet.

Moral of the story, while it looks bad a day in, the off-season is over two months long. Give it time.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.