Oilers ‘expect to have young forwards’ playing in key roles in 2025-26

For the second consecutive off-season, the Edmonton Oilers saw a considerable amount of turnover.

Following last year’s loss in the Stanley Cup Final, Warren Fogele, Sam Carrick, and Vincent Deshanrias left the team as free agents, Philip Borberg and Dylan Holloway signed offer sheets, and Ryan McLeod and Cody Ceci were traded in deals to make the roster younger.

Some of the holes left by those departures were filled in the summer, others during the regular season.

The Oilers inked Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, and Josh Brown in free agency and then traded for Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson in August following the offer sheets. The team grabbed Kasperi Kapanen off waivers in November and signed John Klingberg in January. Before the trade deadline in March, they added Jake Walman, Trent Frederic, and Max Jones.

Following this year’s loss in the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers again saw several roster changes. Connor Brown, Corey Perry, Skinner, and Klingberg departed in free agency, while Evander Kane and Viktor Arvidsson were traded as salary cap casualties.

The freed-up cap space was primarily used to re-sign Evan Bouchard and Trent Frederic. Bouchard signed a four-year contract with an average annual value of $10.5 million, which kicks in alongside Leon Draisaitl’s record-setting $14 million extension from last summer. Edmonton also made a couple of additions in free agency, bringing in Andrew Mangiapane and Curtis Lazar.

Without much cap room available, the Oilers will be looking for young forwards to contribute in 2025-26. More reinforcements will come ahead of the trade deadline later in the season, but the first few months will be about having the likes of Matthew Savoie and Isaac Howard get reps in key situations.

“The most difficult part of our job is giving young players an opportunity to play, while also trying to hold them accountable and find that fine line where they know how many mistakes are allowed,” head coach Kris Knoblauch told Jason Gregor on Monday. “We expect to have young forwards in our group. (Isaac) Howard is a very offensive player and we’d like to find him a role on the power play, probably on the second unit. I really liked (Matthew) Savoie’s play on the penalty kill in Bakersfield and he will get that chance with us.”

The Oilers acquired Savoie, who was the ninth overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, from the Buffalo Sabres in the Ryan McLeod trade. They acquired Howard, the 31st pick from that same draft, from the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier this month in exchange for prospect Sam O’Reilly.

Savoie scored 19 goals and 54 points over 66 games in the American Hockey League last season and picked up one point in a four-game stint with the Oilers in February. Howard was named the Hobey Baker Award winner as the top player in men’s NCAA hockey after leading Michigan State University to their second consecutive Big Ten title.

Having even one of these 21-year-olds hit the ground running as a productive NHL winger would be a huge win for Edmonton’s front office because they would be able to focus their in-season trade efforts on adding to the blueline or finding a goalie rather than the never-ending search for skill in the top-nine.

The Oilers are hoping that Trent Frederic can be a younger, cheaper Evander Kane and that Andrew Mangiapane can do a better job than Viktor Arvidsson as a pesky, skilled winger. Beyond those two, the team also needs to find forwards to replace Corey Perry, Jeff Skinner, and Connor Brown, who combined for nearly 50 goals during the regular season and were often used on special teams.

Nobody can expect rookies like Savoie and Howard to step into the shoes of grizzled, two-way veterans immediately, but the Oilers are going to give them both a shot to show what they can do. It’s a necessary play for a team dealing with the challenges of a tight salary cap situation while trying to maintain a lengthy Stanley Cup window.