Edmonton Oilers Sign Alex Formenton

The Edmonton Oilers announced that forward Alex Formenton has been signed to a one-year contract with a league-minimum cap hit of $850K. There is no word yet on whether the deal is a one-way pact or carries a two-way structure.

Formenton has not appeared in the NHL since the 2021-22 season. The Ottawa Senators held the exclusive rights to sign Formenton for the last few years, but officially relinquished those rights earlier this year. That decision paved the way for Formenton to become an unrestricted free agent, and sign this contract today with the Oilers.

The 26-year-old was one of five NHL players who were defendants in a high-profile sexual assault trial that reached a verdict in the summer of 2025. Formenton was charged with one count of sexual assault and was, alongside the other four people, found not guilty.

Formenton briefly retired from professional hockey to work in construction full-time during 2024 and 2025, while awaiting his trial date, but has otherwise kept playing since leaving the NHL. Outside of that one-year retirement, Formenton played three seasons for HC Ambrì-Piotta in the Swiss National League, where he scored 33 goals and 52 points in 88 league games.

The Oilers’ signing of Formenton today is not the first instance of an NHL team adding a player who was part of the 2025 trial. The Vegas Golden Knights signed Carter Hart to a two-year, $2MM AAV contract in October of last year. Hart was the team’s No. 1 goalie as the Golden Knights made a run to the Stanley Cup Final, where they ultimately fell to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina themselves added one of the five players as well, defenseman Cal Foote, albeit not an NHL deal. Foote signed an AHL contract in November of last year with the Chicago Wolves, whose hockey operations are controlled by the Hurricanes. Foote signed with Färjestad BK in the SHL over the summer, but the team backed out of the deal shortly afterward and he remains a free agent.

The two other players who were acquitted alongside Formenton, Michael McLeod and Dillon Dubé, are under contract for 2026-27. Dubé signed a one-year deal with the St. Louis Blues on July 1, while McLeod signed a three-year deal with Avangard Omsk of the KHL. Considering those signings, it does not come as a complete surprise to see Formenton return to the NHL.

The Oilers have been one of the NHL’s best teams over the last half-decade, winning back-to-back Clarence S. Campbell Bowls in 2024 and 2025. Their relentless chase of a Stanley Cup championship has, naturally, depleted the team’s talent pipeline and organizational depth.

The last Oilers draft pick to seize a full-time NHL role was picked more than a half-decade ago, 2020 first-rounder Dylan Holloway. And even he no longer plays for the Oilers, lost via an offer sheet made by the Blues. Edmonton has had to get creative in order to fill out its NHL and AHL rosters in the absence of many draft picks and prospects.

Oilers GM Stan Bowman is no stranger to this approach, and was one of the league’s most aggressive GMs in terms of mining the European professional leagues for NHL-ready talent during his days with the Chicago Blackhawks. With the Blackhawks, Bowman was able to find numerous future NHL players in Europe, such as Artemi Panarin, Erik Gustafsson, Antti Raanta, Jan Rutta, David Kampf, Pius Suter, and Michal Kempny.

Bowman has not been able to reach the same level of success importing professional free agents from Europe during his Oilers tenure, but he has been active, signing players such as Atro Leppanen, Josh Samanski, and Viljami Marjala. While Formenton’s situation is different from those other names, his signing today falls in line with one of Bowman’s well-established strategies for building the depth of a cap-strapped contending team.