October 8, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

Before the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, I wrote about Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers having an opportunity to put all the questions to rest. I wasn’t just referring to questions from the media and from fans about the team’s ability to win. I was also referring to the questions that Connor McDavid and the rest of the Oilers had to answer for themselves after their Game 7 loss in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.

Related: McDavid and the Oilers have a chance to put the questions to rest

Those questions are all about what they need to do differently to win.

The Oilers tried to do some things differently last season, but it didn’t work out for them. They got as aggressive as they could in the free agent market with the cap space they had by signing Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson to add to the team that lost in Game 7, but those two players didn’t work out and have since moved on to other clubs.

They intentionally limited their physical play during the regular season by finishing near the bottom of the league in hits during the regular season in an effort to conserve energy for another deep playoff run, but they still ended up with a rash of injuries at the end of the regular season and during the Stanley Cup Final. They appeared to run out of gas in June for the second consecutive season.

A change that McDavid made last summer didn’t yield the desired results either. He tried a different training regiment last summer, but he had his worst points per game average since the 2018-19 season.

In the piece referenced above, I wrote that the self-reflection and analysis needed after coming agonizingly close to a goal and falling short needs to be brutally honest. I can’t speak to what went through the minds of McDavid and the Oilers in the summer of 2024, but the changes they came up with didn’t work.

The Oilers fell a hair short against the Florida Panthers in 2024, but the Panthers were simply the better team in 2025. It didn’t matter that Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov were playing through injuries. Sam Bennett gained superpowers, Sam Reinhart came up clutch in the biggest games, and Brad Marchand ended up being a critical trade deadline addition.

Being outclassed by the Panthers made the Oilers realize that they needed to get faster, deeper, and more durable. They needed to not be the oldest team in the league anymore.

Trading Arvidsson and Evander Kane away along with letting Skinner, Corey Perry, and Connor Brown walk in free agency meant sacrificing a lot of experience; but those were the hard and necessary moves that needed to happen this past summer so the Oilers could begin to address their shortcomings that led to a second consecutive Stanley Cup Final loss.

Those moves addressed the speed and durability issues, but they took away from the team’s depth. They created roster space for some younger and less experienced players, but we don’t know if they will result in added depth or not yet. They’re only added depth if they can produce.

Matthew Savoie is set to embark upon his first full NHL season. The 2022 ninth overall pick proved that the details of his game are at an NHL level during an excellent training camp. The offensive potential is there, it’s just a matter of how long it will take to show itself in the NHL.

Oilers GM Stan Bowman acquired 2022 31st overall pick Ike Howard from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for 2024 32nd overall pick Sam O’Reilly. The Hobey Baker Award winner was seeking a trade because he felt that he was ready for an NHL opportunity that wasn’t coming with the Lightning. O’Reilly is at least a couple of years away. It was a shrewd move to get a young player that could add some offensive depth to the Oilers. Like Savoie, the talent is there; but we don’t know how long it will take for Howard to flourish in the NHL.

There’s also David Tomasek. The 29-year old has plenty of professional experience, but all of it has come in Europe. He led the SHL in scoring last season, and he has a long track record of offensive production and reliable play overseas. Once again, we don’t know if that will show itself in the NHL or not.

The problem is that I can’t guarantee that these moves will result in the team being deeper, especially not this season.

McDavid has had a hard time scoring goals in the Stanley Cup Final. He led the 2024 series with eleven points, but he only scored one goal. McDavid also only scored one goal in the 2025 series. Leon Draisaitl did all he could in the 2025 series after he struggled in 2024, but the support scoring around the two Oilers superstars didn’t show up in either series. Meanwhile, the Panthers had a third line with the Conn Smythe Trophy winner and Marchand on it in 2025.

McDavid wants nothing more than to win the Stanley Cup, and he’s committed to doing so with the Oilers. He also understands that the team needs to be deeper if they are going to win the Stanley Cup. McDavid made those points clear with his two-year, $12.5 million contract extension.

The best player on the planet didn’t take a pay raise when the opportunity came in the middle of the prime of his career. McDavid has 1,082 points as an Oiler along with numerous individual awards, and he didn’t take a raise. He knows that the cap is going to rise sharply over the next three years. His contract will allow Bowman to add more impactful pieces around him and Draisaitl.

Related: McDavid extension puts the Oilers in a great team-building position

Perhaps the realization that McDavid had about what it takes to win this summer was about sacrifice. Athletes sacrifice their time with friends and family because they dedicate so much time to practicing and training. They sacrifice comfort and convenience to treat their bodies like machines. The greatest athletes in team sports sacrifice their egos for team success.

McDavid already dedicates a ton of time to honing his craft and to taking care of his body. He left a little bit of money on the table with his current contract, but his next contract represents even more financial sacrifice. He sacrificed his ego because he could’ve made himself the highest paid player in the league and signed the richest contract in the history of the sport, but he took a massive hometown discount to help his team build a winning roster. McDavid sacrificed money for team depth.

Related: Connor McDavid’s desire to win is unrivaled

That bodes really well for the Oilers in the next three years, but it doesn’t help them this year.

Some analytical models have the Oilers being a better team this year than they were last year, if not the best team in the league; but some things will have to go right for either outcome to unfold.

The biggest wildcards are the fortunes of Savoie, Howard, and Tomasek. Their inexperience will have to trump the experience of the players they’re replacing on this roster.

Special teams will be a factor as well. The Oilers have a new powerplay coach who will inevitably install some new powerplay tactics. We know that the Oilers will be employing a new penalty kill system as well. There will likely be some growing pains on both sides of the ledger as both units get comfortable with the new tactics.

Goaltending is always a factor. Another hard decision they had to make was letting long-time goalie coach Dustin Schwartz go so they could hire new goalie coach Peter Aubrey with hopes of getting more out of Stuart Skinner. Skinner lost fifteen pounds this summer. He viewed the move as beneficial for the long-term health of his joints, but a bonus effect of his lighter frame could be increased lateral agility and quickness. Calvin Pickard will need to keep his solid play up in a backup role. Connor Ingram could work his way onto the roster, but his overtaking either goaltender would mean there was a struggle in the crease.

Health is another factor, as it always is. Added youth should theoretically make the team more durable; but there are already some injuries and there are still older players on the roster. The Oilers will be without Zach Hyman for the first month of the season approximately. Jake Walman and Mattias Janmark will start the season on the injured reserve. Mattias Ekholm says his torn adductor from last spring is feeling good, but I worry about that injury being a ticking time bomb.

The Oilers entered last season still feeling dejected after the Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final, and it showed with their early-season performance. The prevailing feeling among the team after last season was anger. Draisaitl has said that McDavid has a different look in his eyes right now. The thought of an angry and motivated McDavid is frightening for opponents and exciting for Oilers fans. There’s also a sense of excitement around the team after the extensions of McDavid, Walman, and Ekholm this week.

All of that is wonderful, but it might not be enough to get the team over the top this season.

The Oilers could win the Stanley Cup this season, but the result of some of the hard but necessary changes they had to make this summer could be another season without lifting the Stanley Cup. Nobody associated with the Oilers would be happy about that, but they might look back on this season as being the transitional season that the team needed to get them over the top in the future.

That’s exactly what this season is: a transitional season. Youth is being served. Cheap alternatives to expensive established players are being utilized as the Oilers absorb the new inflated contracts of Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard while they wait for the salary cap to climb even higher before reaping the benefits of McDavid’s hometown discount.

The Oilers have to juggle that reality with the internal and external Stanley Cup expectations that they face. Those are contrasting and conflicting ideas, so don’t be surprised if the Oilers have to face questions about what it takes to win for another year.