December 18, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

Tuesday night’s game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Pittsburgh Penguins was an oddity because the teams executed a significant trade just four days prior. Stuart Skinner and Tristan Jarry wore masks adorned with the opponent’s colours. Skinner and Brett Kulak skated against former teammates in their first game for their new team.

The day after that trade, the Oilers faced the Toronto Maple Leafs and Troy Stecher, who was waived by the Oilers earlier in the season.

Thursday night’s tilt between the Oilers and the Boston Bruins will be the Oilers’ third game out of four with another reunion of sorts, this time between Trent Frederic and his old pals in Boston. The same goes for Max Jones. This is also the first time that Alec Regula has had the chance to face the Bruins since he was waived last December; but Regula will miss the game with an illness, as will former Oiler Viktor Arvidsson on the other side.

Frederic was a coveted commodity at last year’s trade deadline because of his physicality and because he scored seventeen and eighteen goals in 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively, and he got 40 points in 2023-24. However, his five-on-five points per 60 rate plummeted from 2.11 to 1.03 in the 56 games he played with the Bruins before he hurt his ankle on February 25, 2025 according to Natural Stat Trick. His five-on-five points per 60 rate being cut by more than half AND the ankle injury should’ve been enough to give Oilers GM Stan Bowman pause before spending a second round pick to acquire Frederic.

Related: Oilers acquire Frederic

Then Frederic only put up four points in 23 playoff games last spring. He got some benefit of the doubt because of his ankle injury, but he was basically non-existent.

Apparently, that was enough to land the 27-year old an eight-year contract worth $3.85 million a year.

Related: Frederic extension is an overpay

That brings us back to this season, which has been even more abysmal for Frederic. He has just two goals and one assist in 34 games. If you can believe it, his five-on-five points per 60 has decreased by MORE THAN HALF AGAIN (1.03 down to 0.48). His five-on-five expected goals for percentage has rounded to 50% in each of the last three seasons, but it has fallen down to 43.79% this season. His five-on-five goal share is a measly 32% (8-17).

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch called Frederic out in the media prior to the team’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 10, 2025 after some prodding from Sportsnet’s Mark Spector (who had given Frederic a tough time in a media scrum after the previous game), and Frederic responded by fighting Blue Jackets tough guy Mathieu Olivier. 

Frederic has been more present in scrums between whistles since that call out from the coach, but that hasn’t resulted in better play. His last goal came eleven games ago in Tampa Bay, and his last point came five games ago against the Winnipeg Jets. He’s -3 in his last three games as well.

I don’t enjoy being all doom and gloom, but I also have to be honest in my analysis of players. There hasn’t been much to celebrate about Frederic’s game this season, and the contract is looking like a poor choice so far. The only bright spot in Frederic’s game is that he’s tied for 26th in the league in hits with 86 hits.

When asked how he sees his role in Edmonton prior to Thursday’s game, Frederic said “I think I’m still trying to figure that out, I don’t know what I’ve created for myself. I haven’t had a great start, but there’s still a lot of season left.” Spector asked him if he’s close to figuring out what that role is, but Frederic didn’t have an answer for him.

Frederic didn’t try to sugarcoat the situation. He’s aware that he has not played up to his potential this season. Having said that, Frederic doesn’t seem like the optimistic, happy go lucky guy that fans were initially charmed by right now. The man that spoke to the media in the visitor’s dressing room of his former team’s arena on Thursday seemed like a man that’s fighting it.

Frederic’s high ankle sprain is an injury that takes a lot of time to FULLY heal. That excuse only goes so far with me though. Leon Draisaitl suffered a similar injury in the 2022 playoffs and proceeded to put up seventeen points in five games against the Calgary Flames in the second round of the playoffs, then he put up a career-high 128 points the next season.

I’m not expecting Draisaitl-like numbers out of Frederic, but it’s fair to expect him to find a way to be useful even with an ankle that might not be at 100%. I don’t expect seventeen or eighteen goals out of him at this point in the season, but finding a way to meaningfully contribute would help the Oilers a lot in the second half of the season.

I thought it was silly to expect Frederic to regain his near twenty-goal form that he is now a full two seasons removed from, and the numbers said he was regressing; but this is ridiculous. Hopefully being back in Boston and playing against his former team can give Frederic a boost because he’s a player that the Oilers have spent too much on to get this little in return.