Oil Check 1: Not The Worst Start?

We are eight games into the 2025-26Edmonton Oilers season, which means it is time for the first Oil Check of the year.

The Oilers are 4–3–1, which is their best eight-game start since 2022–23, when they went 5–3 to kick off that campaign. They are in the final wild card position, one point behind…the Chicago Blackhawks? They are also tied in points with the Anaheim Ducks and a point behind the Seattle Kraken, so needless to say that we either shouldn’t be reading too much into the standings this early, or it is going to be one wacky season in the NHL.

Rejuvenated Nuge?

After posting 104 points in 2022–23, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has seen two years of declining stats, posting 67 the year after and only 49 last year, his lowest total since 2017–18 and his lowest points per game since 2016–17.

At 32 years old, there were questions about whether Nugent-Hopkins was starting to slow down in his “old age”. But Nuge has started the season hot, posting nine points in the first eight games and is tied for the team lead with five goals.

The most important thing is that Nugent-Hopkins is doing this without playing at five on five with either of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. The Oilers started the season off with the dynamic duo together, which raised questions on how the rest of the forward lines would do. Nugent-Hopkins has anchored that second line with newcomer Andrew Mangiapane and a rotating third winger. Being able to run his own line is huge for the Oilers, as it allows McDrai to stay together, or if you do split them up then you can have three lines with a top quality centre.

Paging Evan Bouchard

Scoring 238 points in 347 regular season games and then 81 points in 75 playoff games, especially as a defenceman, is going to earn you a big contract. Evan Bouchard got just that, with a four-year deal at $10.5M a year, the fourth-highest-paid defenceman this year.

It has been a rough start for Bouchard this year, however, as he has just two assists in eight games and is -7, the worst plus/minus on the team and tied for 11th worst in the league.

As always, Bouchard has had some major defensive gaffes that left many Oilers fans shaking their heads or fists. And, as always, his fancy stats show a completely different story, as they are all above 50%. It would appear this is nothing more than just bad puck luck for Bouchard, but when you are getting paid to put up points and are supposed to be the team’s number one defenceman that isn’t usually an acceptable excuse.

It is more likely than not that he will turn it around, but the Oilers need that to happen sooner rather than later. This rough start has also most certainly put a dent into his chances of making Team Canada for the Olympics, and he only has until December 31 to change management’s mind.

Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?

One topic that was top of mind this summer during the contract extension discussions with Connor McDavid was the future of the Oilers and whether the pipeline was stocked well enough for the team to continue to be a Stanley Cup contender for years to come.

Two young forwards came in expected to make a splash for the team in Isaac Howard and Matthew Savoie. With an injury to Zach Hyman and the departure of Evander Kane, Connor Brown, Corey Perry, Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, it was thought that they would both get a good look in the top-six riding shotgun with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.

That hasn’t been the case, as Howard has been stapled to the fourth line and averaging just over 10 minutes a game, the lowest on the team, and even scratched for a game. Savoie has had some more playing time in the middle-six, although he is also playing just over 13 minutes a game. It’s not surprising that they each only have one point in those circumstances.

Then there is the case of Noah Philp, who has looked good in the bottom-six centre role and even scored his first NHL goal in the second game of the season. He was then promptly scratched for three games for unclear reasons. Upon being inserted back into the lineup he then scored again and is now up to three points in five games.

Will that be enough to keep Philp in the lineup? Will the fact that Howard has now scored his first NHL goal (assisted by both Draisaitl and McDavid, by the way) earn him some more grace and rope from the coach? Will Savoie’s role continue to grow? These are big questions for both this season and the future, given that the Oilers really need all three to pan out given the dearth of blue-chip prospects and draft capital.

Looking Forward

The next eight games have the Oilers on a back-to-back road trip against the Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks, then a three-game homestand hosting the newly minted Utah Mammoth, the New York Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks. They then head out again on a quick, back-to-back road trip against the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars before coming back home to play the currently first-place Colorado Avalanche.

It won’t be a necessarily easy stretch, although the Oilers have already beaten Vancouver and the Rangers this season. Dallas and Colorado will be the first big tests for this team to see how the Oilers stand up against another pair of Stanley Cup-contending teams. These next eight games are also fairly important, as the team will then be on the road for eight of the next ten games after that, so banking points before that nasty stretch will likely come in handy.

Will the Oilers continue to be an up and down team where they look like world beaters one game and then a lottery team the next? Or will they start to right the ship and make any early-season worries seem silly? Given that it has happened the last couple of years, one would expect it to be the latter.