Oilers Activate Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

The Edmonton Oilers announced today that forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the club placed center Jason Dickinson on IR.

The Oilers did not have an open spot on their 23-man active roster, so Dickinson’s IR placement was necessary in order to clear the roster spot Nugent-Hopkins now occupies. Dickinson has been dealing with a lower-body injury and has missed three consecutive games dating back to the team’s Oct. 15 loss to the Utah Mammoth.

Nugent-Hopkins is now set to make his season debut against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. He suffered a lower-body injury during a practice just before the start of the Oilers’ season, and has missed the first nine games of their 2026-27 campaign.

Despite missing Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers have gotten off to a flying start to their season. First-year head coach Mike Babcock has been able to push all the right buttons for the team, as they have lost just one game in regulation and have a 7-1-1 record through nine games.

The Oilers’ fast start has largely been powered by otherworldly performances by the club’s stars. Captain Connor McDavid has produced a downright ridiculous 26 points so far this season, making the 18 points put up by top defenseman Evan Bouchard, or 16 points produced by star pivot Leon Draisaitl, look pedestrian by comparison. Even a breakout start to the season by Vasily Podkolzin, a top-10 pick at the 2019 NHL Draft, has flown relatively under the radar in the face of McDavid’s brilliance.

The addition of Nugent-Hopkins back to the Oilers lineup will provide Babcock with another accomplished all-around forward to further reinforce a lineup that is already firing on all cylinders. The No. 1 pick of the 2011 NHL Draft, Nugent-Hopkins has been a steady top-six contributor for the entirety of his Oilers career, a tenure that now stretches longer than 1,000 games.

Now 33 years old, he’s not quite the 104-point player that he was in the 2022-23 season. But Nugent-Hopkins has shown he can still perform at a high level over the last few years, including in 2025-26 when he produced 61 points in 78 combined regular-season and playoff games.

Nugent-Hopkins feels almost certain to resume his role on the team’s No. 1 power play, while also becoming a regular part of the team’s penalty-kill rotation. According to Jason Gregor of The Nation Network, Nugent-Hopkins will line up as Edmonton’s No. 2 center against the Hurricanes tonight, in between a pair of veteran wingers: former 50-goal scorer Zach Hyman and the speedy Kasperi Kapanen.