The Edmonton Oilers are once again struggling to begin the season

Crazy that just over one year ago today, this post came out detailing a second consecutive concerningly slow start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers. And here we are, five games into the 2025–26 season, fielding similar concerns. However, the results are not quite as bad as the last two years. A 2–2–1 record with a shutout win over the New York Rangers. Aside from the win over the Vancouver Canucks and parts of the Rangers game, this team has been astonishingly out of sync.

Yesterday afternoon was no exception, when an energetic New Jersey Devils downed the Oilers 5-2. After an uneventful first half of the game, the Devils took a 2–0 lead thanks to Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. Luckily, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got the Oilers back into it with a quick response.

That was about all the fight that Edmonton had. New Jersey took over the game from there with two more unanswered goals. Later on, Nugent-Hopkins scored his second of the game, and fourth of the season, to bring it back within two. An empty net goal by Dawson Mercer put the game out of reach. Although Curtis Lazar, in his Oilers debut, got on the scoresheet with a late miracle comeback attempt with less than three seconds left.

A 5–3 loss that leaves the Oilers in fourth place in the Pacific Division. There has not been much to write home about early on this season. Most storylines, as you’ll soon see in these takeaways, are entirely critical and negative. But at least as we’ve seen the past two seasons, a slow start should be nothing to worry about.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has rediscovered his scoring touch

It was one of the most heartwarming stories of the decade for us Oilers fans when Nugent-Hopkins had his 100-point season. Ever since, he has regressed in both seasons and finished 2024–25 with just 20 goals and 49 points. That is his worst full season since 2016–17.

Early on in 2025–26, Nugent-Hopkins’ performance has been one of the very small amount of positives for the team. Through five games, he has four goals and six points. If he returns to a point-per-game pace, the depth of this roster will be significantly bolstered. Though it does depend on where he plays in the lineup,

Nugent-Hopkins should be a crucial part of this forward core. Ideally, he is paired with the likes of Matthew Savoie or Isaac Howard to assist with their development. More on that later. Or, if not, returned to the top line with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman to bring balance between the two.

Edmonton needs Nugent-Hopkins at his best, and he has shown that he is back at that level so far.

Where is the offence?

It always seems to take this team a little while to fully hit its stride offensively. Slow starts, where the Oilers cannot for the life of them find a way to score, are nothing new to us. And this season it has been particularly apparent, once again, as it showed up in this game.

Edmonton was able to generate very little in the way of high-quality chances and offensive pressure through the majority of this game. The power play is dysfunctional and gave up more chances than it generated in this game, including the Devils’ third goal that really started to put this game out of reach.

That trend has been a problem all season, as the Oilers have been one of the worst teams in the league at generating offence at 5v5. Just six even-strength goals in five games, placing them in the cellar. And the aforementioned power play is clicking at just 18.8% so far this season, a far cry from the rate that Edmonton has scored on it in recent seasons.

The skill side of things may be something that just takes time as players settle into the season. But with some questions around line composition, opportunities for offensive players, and injuries to Zach Hyman and Jake Walman, there are plenty of factors contributing to this lack of offensive firepower.

Where is the promised opportunity?

There is no one right way to develop and integrate prospects into the NHL lineup. But it certainly seems that the Oilers are providing very little opportunity for their developing players to even show they can be a part of the team.

Isaac Howard

In just the fifth game of the season, Head Coach Kris Knoblach inserted Lazar in the lineup over Howard. Luckily, Lazar did score a late goal to justify his place in the lineup. But that is beside the point. The Oilers were supposedly in a bit of a youth-focused roster transition, led by two promising rookie talents in Matthew Savoie and Howard. So far, neither player has been put in a position to succeed regularly. Both have been sent farther and farther down the lineup, starting the past couple of games on the fourth line with Adam Henrique until Howard was fully scratched for the game versus the Devils.

Noah Philp

Similarly, for Noah Philp, who may not be a prospect at this point, but is still a promising depth player looking to break into the lineup. He hasn’t played since scoring his first goal against the Canucks.

It was said that the youth and speed on the roster would be given opportunities to succeed. But so far, we have McDavid and Leon Draisaitl both playing over 23 minutes per game, now including far more on the penalty kill than they used to. On the other side of the spectrum, Savoie, Philp, Howard, and even Vasily Podkolzin (whose game almost always generates praise) are all in the bottom five for ice time on the team thus far.

Howard averages less than 10 minutes of ice time per game. No wonder he hasn’t been able to create any meaningful impact on the game around him. Philp averaged 10:53 in his two games. Podkolzin and Savoie both clock in at about 12:50 in ice time per game.

Matt Savoie

Savoie started the season in the top-six, and didn’t look bad in his time there. However, he was quickly demoted to the fourth line. He did see some time with McDavid at even strength in this game, which was a positive sign, as Moneypuck lists him as having the most expected goals amongst Oilers players against the Devils.

If it is true that part of the core’s request moving forward was youth and speed in the lineup, it doesn’t seem that the team is serious about implementing it to start the season. It is even more baffling when veterans play instead and don’t make a significant impact on the game either. You don’t want to throw them to the wolves immediately like the Oilers used to do with prospects, but they do still need opportunity and trust to actually play.