Oilers Would Be in Rough Spot Without Jack Roslovic

Jack Roslovic wasn’t in the Edmonton Oilers’ season-opening lineup. He wasn’t even a member of the Oilers when Edmonton opened its 2025-26 schedule against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Place on Oct. 8.

But in just a few weeks, it’s already become hard to imagine Edmonton being without the contributions of the 6-foot-1 centre.

Roslovic scored at 1:19 of OT to lift the Oilers past the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday (Nov. 12), only two days after his goal 56 seconds into sudden death gave Edmonton a home victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. He’s just the second player in franchise history with overtime goals in back-to-back games.

The 28-year-old forward has now recorded at least one point in six of his last seven games and scored in four of his last six contests. Over the last nine games, he’s racked up 10 points, second most on the Oilers over that span behind only superstar captain Connor McDavid.

He’s proving to be something of a saviour for an Oilers team that desperately needs production while it waits for the return of injured winger Zach Hyman, and has recently had to deal with an injury to forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

“I have confidence in myself as a player and just want to come in here and help the team win,” Roslovic said while talking to media following Wednesday’s win.

Unique Addition to the Oilers

If for no other reason than the circumstances, Roslovic is one of the more memorable free-agent acquisitions by the Oilers. He agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million contract with Edmonton on Oct. 8, signing literally during Edmonton’s season-opener against the Flames.

The unique scenario resulted in Oilers general manager Stan Bowman conducting an impromptu media availability in Rogers Place, discussing the signing at the exact same time his team was playing on the ice level.

Roslovic, who scored a career-high 22 goals in 2024-25 as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes, was arguably the top free-agent remaining after the dust settled from the offseason signing frenzy.

“We’ve been talking to Jack going back to the summer,” Bowman explained on Oct. 8. “He changed agents and I talked to his new agent about a month ago … and I said the same thing to him then that I did the other day when this picked back up, which is, we love the player but we don’t have a lot of money to spend right now, so if he wants to come here and kind of bet on himself and get a chance to play, we’d love to have him. And I think he was obviously weighing his options and came to the decision that this was the place he wanted to be.”

Roslovic Quickly Steps Up

Roslovic made his season debut on Oct. 14 and picked up just one point, a secondary assist, over his first seven games.