Christmas wishlist for the Oilers
December 26, 2025
Team Canada roster reaction
January 1, 2026
December 29, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg
There’s good news and bad news regarding the Edmonton Oilers. The good news is that it appears that they are close to getting healthy again because they are making roster moves to clear cap space. The bad news is that the Oilers are losing players.
David Tomasek is officially not an Oiler anymore after being waived for the purpose of contract termination on Sunday. He obviously cleared waivers, and his contract was terminated on Monday. Last season’s SHL leading scorer essentially lost his spot when the Oilers signed Jack Roslovic. Tomasek was barely playing and he sat out the team’s last seven games before this decision was made. He was clearly always going to be a part of the roster trimming that needs to happen before all of the LTIR players get activated, and he chose to go back to Sweden rather than going to the AHL. I respect him for earning an NHL opportunity and living out his dream. It’s too bad it wasn’t a good fit, but I’m glad he was able to land an opportunity in Sweden.
Related: Christmas wishlist for the Oilers
Noah Philp was also placed on waivers on Sunday. Unfortunately, he was claimed by the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday. The 27-year old Canmore native finally earned an opportunity out of training camp this season. He scored his first NHL goal in the second game of the season, immediately got healthy scratched for three games, then scored another goal in his return. After that, he only put up one assist in his final twelve games as an Oiler. It adds up to three points in fifteen games.
A lot of Oilers fans are upset about losing Philp. He’s an internally developed 6’3”, 198 lb right-handed centre that skates well and has shown flashes of some offensive creativity. The reality of the situation is that the Oilers are a deep team that’s hard to crack. That’s a good thing for the organization, but not for a bottom of the roster hopeful like Philp.
Philp also played fifteen games for the Oilers last season. According to Natural Stat Trick, his five-on-five goal share was 5-4 (55.56%) and his expected goal share was 55.64% last year. This season, he was outscored 3-10 (23.08%) and his xGF% was 36.4%. There was a substantial dip in his quality of play. He didn’t get scratched early in the season for no reason. He had a couple of bad giveaways in his own zone in the game he scored in against the Vancouver Canucks. The fact that he missed the last eighteen games with an injury and got passed by Curtis Lazar on the depth chart didn’t help his cause.
Now, it’s fair to say that the team was STRUGGLING as a whole when he was healthy and the quality of his linemates decreased. He made his debut on a line with Corey Perry last year for Pete’s sake. BUT, Philp’s numbers fell too far to make those excuses.
Some fans will say that risking losing Philp on waivers was poor asset management. It would’ve been nice to keep him in the organization; but if Philp is as good as many people seem to think he is, then he needs to be playing. Having him sit in the press box two out of every three games doesn’t do him any good. My view of him is that he’s an AHL-NHL tweener, but he deserves more of an opportunity to prove himself as an NHLer. That’s what the waivers system is designed for. Teams know the Oilers are in a tough spot with injuries right now and they had to waive someone, so I’m not sure why a team would’ve given the Oilers an asset for Philp in a trade.
I believe that Oilers GM Stan Bowman didn’t feel that Philp should be handed a roster spot or viewed as part of the solution based on the fact that he signed Tomasek and Lazar, two other right-handed depth centres, last summer. Then he added Roslovic, who will get a look at centre tonight against the Winnipeg Jets. Philp’s opportunity wasn’t going to come in Edmonton. It’s too bad because he’s a likable Alberta boy with a good story, but I hope he gets more of an opportunity with the Hurricanes and that he makes the most of it.
Additionally, the Oilers activated Connor Clattenburg from LTIR and loaned him to the Bakersfield Condors on Monday. The 2024 fifth round pick scored his first NHL goal against the Dallas Stars on November 25, which was his only point in five games. The 20-year old brought a ton of energy and led the Oilers in hits/60. I like what Clattenburg brought and I think he has an NHL future, but his recall was clearly a pat on the back for a job well done in Bakersfield and a signal to everyone in the organization that they want more of what Clattenburg brings. His demotion felt inevitable.
After removing Tomasek, Philp, and Clattenburg from the roster, the Oilers have $1,812,500 in cap space. You can basically ignore that cap space because once the Oilers are healthy, which is expected to happen early in the new year, the Oilers will need to become cap compliant by getting their annual cap hit to $95,500,000 or less.
After Monday’s roster moves, the Oilers have a current annual cap hit of $98,386,666. Therefore, they still need to shed $2,886,666 to activate Jake Walman and Kasperi Kapanen from LTIR. At full health, the active roster would have 25 players including Tristan Jarry being activated from IR. That means at least two more players need to be moved off the roster.
They can shed money by waiving and demoting players to the AHL, or by trading them. I’ll start by going through some scenarios that don’t involve trades, then I’ll get into some trade speculation.
Potential demotions
The maximum value of any one player’s contract that can be buried in the AHL is $1.15 million. Burying Kapanen or Mattias Janmark in Bakersfield would save the Oilers $1.15 million against the cap. If the preference isn’t to keep Kapanen over Janmark, it should be. Connor Ingram ($1.15M) also fits here.
$1.15 million doubled is only $2.3 million, so two players whose cap hits are $1.15 million or more plus one other cheaper player would need to be moved to activate Walman and Kapanen from LTIR. This tells me unless a trade is coming, the Oilers will end up carrying 22 players on the active roster rather than the full 23.
Of the 25 players that are counting towards the Oilers annual cap hit right now, fourteen of them are forwards, eight are defencemen, and three are goalies.
I feel confident in saying that one goalie will be removed from the roster. I don’t feel confident in saying which one of Ingram or Calvin Pickard ($1M) that will be. Nobody is fully certain of Ingram’s quality right now, and I don’t get the sense that Pickard is safe. The Oilers clearly want to give Ingram a good look at the NHL level while Jarry is out. He started the last three games in a row and played well, but none of those games were particularly difficult games. They know what they have in Pickard already, but he gets another chance to show improvement tonight against Winnipeg. There’s still a chance that another goalie is added to play above both Ingram and Pickard, but more on that later.
Demoting Ingram would leave the Oilers needing to shed $1,736,666, and waiving and demoting Pickard (or trading him) would leave the Oilers needing to shed $1,886,666.
The most efficient way for the Oilers to create cap space using demotions would be to send Ingram and Max Jones ($1M) back down to Bakersfield and to have Janmark ($1.15M buried) join them on the plane after being waived. That would put the Oilers $413,334 under the cap.
The math works out to the Oilers having exactly $0 in cap space after sending down Pickard, Jones, and Matt Savoie ($886,666). That’s a plausible scenario since Jones doesn’t require waivers and Savoie’s development wouldn’t be totally ruined by spending a bit more time in the AHL. My preference would be for him to continue developing at the NHL level since he plays on both special teams units and is a large contributor to the penalty kill.
I don’t believe that this will be how it will shake out. This scenario would leave the Oilers at the bare minimum of twelve forwards on the active roster, and Savoie’s role is too big to warrant demoting him. It could be a temporary solution though.
I believe that it’s more likely to see Riley Stillman ($775k) get sent back down to Bakersfield. The Oilers won’t need to carry eight defencemen after Walman returns. Stillman is playing in place of Alec Regula tonight after Regula committed a terrible giveaway that directly led to Ryan Lomberg’s breakaway goal in Saturday’s loss to the Calgary Flames, but the organization still likes Regula and Stillman is exempt from waivers until January 12, 2026. Demoting Stillman will leave the Oilers needing to shed $991,666 if Ingram gets sent down or $1,111,666 if Pickard gets removed from the roster.
Either of those figures could be shed by waiving and demoting Janmark alone.
If Stillman and Ingram are sent down, then demoting Jones would be enough to get the job done. If Pickard is the goalie to get moved alongside Stillman, then Janmark alone would be enough. A combination of Stillman, Pickard, and two of Jones, Lazar, or Savoie could work; but that would leave the Oilers with 21 active players and only twelve forwards.
The Oilers’ use of Jones during this callup is interesting to me. I wasn’t expecting him to be anything more than an extra body in the press box when he got called up prior to the team’s last five-game Eastern road trip, but he wil play in his sixth straight game tonight. He has been in the lineup for seven of the last eight games including tonight’s game. I don’t think he would’ve played as much hockey as he has recently if the Oilers weren’t interested in giving him a look to see if he could be a legitimate option going forward.
Note that the math works if Jones and Ingram are demoted. Both are legitimate candidates to stay up with the Oilers. If the Oilers decide that Ingram is the guy over Pickard, then they would either have to send Jones and another forward down, or they could allow themselves to carry a thirteenth forward if they were to move Janmark.
This is completely my own speculation, but it feels like Jones is getting such a long look because the Oilers need to know if he can fill a roster spot capably in the event that Janmark is moved.
Jones doesn’t kill penalties, so the Oilers would need to find another solution for the penalty kill since Janmark averages the third most penalty killing ice time per game. Here’s how he ranks in some key penalty killing metrics among the nine Oilers forwards that have played at least seventeen minutes on the penalty kill this season:
SA/60: 8th
GA/60: 5th
SCA/60: 7th
HDCA/60: 8th
Janmark ranks third in high danger chances for per 60 in four-on-five situations, but that doesn’t outweigh his low rankings in the key defensive metrics.
Janmark’s usual partner is Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins. Connor McDavid has been taking some shifts alongside Nugent-Hopkins on the penalty kill in recent games, starting in Minnesota on December 20. McDavid also got lots of penalty killing time early in the season. Zach Hyman has killed penalties in the past, and Kapanen did a little bit of penalty killing for the Oilers last season. There are other solutions for the PK aside from Janmark, so penalty killing isn’t enough of a reason to keep him around.
Trading Janmark would be more ideal since he’s under contract for next year as well, but he has a modified no-trade clause which allows him to choose ten teams that he will not accept a trade to. That’s not an impossible hurdle to maneuver around. Speaking of potential trades…
Potential trades
On Monday’s episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman suggested that Andrew Mangiapane would be open to waiving his no-trade clause to go somewhere where he could play higher in the lineup. Mangiapane has played in the bottom six a lot recently, but he’s a healthy scratch for tonight’s game in Winnipeg. Whether that’s trade related or not remains to be seen, so stay tuned to that situation.
I genuinely think that Mangiapane is delusional if he thinks that he’s a legitimate top six forward at this stage of his career, especially on a fully healthy Oilers squad, but I digress. Moving his $3.6 million cap hit would make life much easier for the Oilers.
Removing Mangiapane and Ingram from the roster would leave the Oilers with $1,863,334 in cap space. Swapping Ingram for Pickard would give the Oilers $1,713,334 in cap space. That would give the Oilers a bunch of flexibility.
One move they could make in that scenario would be to recall Ike Howard. Howard counts for $1,617,000 against the cap because he wasn’t on the season opening roster submission and the average of his yearly potential performance bonuses ($667k) is added to his cap hit ($950k) this season. They would have to send another player down to stay at 23 players, but they could fit Howard under the cap without sending anyone down in this scenario. Quinn Hutson merits consideration for another recall as well, but he isn’t a natural replacement for Mangiapane at left wing.
Another option would be to go out and get Alex Lyon from the Sabres to address the backup goalie position, as has been rumoured since before the holiday trade freeze. In that scenario, both Ingram and Pickard would be removed from the roster by the time Jarry returns, and Lyon’s $1.5 million would be added. In this scenario where Mangiapane is traded away, all of those moves would leave the Oilers with $1,363,334 in cap space with 23 players on the active roster. They could still recall Howard and send down another player if they got Lyon. Perhaps Mangiapane could even go to the Sabres in such a trade.
Lyon could be added without trading Mangiapane. Removing Ingram and Pickard from the roster and adding Lyon would leave the Oilers needing to shed $2,236,666. That could be Jones and Janmark, or any three of Stillman, Lazar, Savoie, and Jones.
Related: Lyon to the Oilers makes too much sense to ignore
Bob Stauffer suggested that the Oilers are considering adding a big right handed centre to play in their top nine during last Tuesday’s broadcast of the Oilers home game against the Flames. That centre would come from a team that thinks they’re in the playoff race now but won’t be by the trade deadline. Someone like Charlie Coyle ($5.25M) or Jared McCann ($5M, even though he’s left-handed and doesn’t fit Stauffer’s description), or Nicolas Roy ($3M) would require salary retention and a player being removed from the roster in addition to Mangiapane being moved and a goalie being demoted.
The decision to play Roslovic at third line centre tonight in Winnipeg seems like a confirmation that they want to see what a right-handed third line centre would look like on this team, but we already know that Roslovic is a great fit at right wing in the top six and adding a more prolific third line centre would be ideal.
Having said that, I’m always thinking about the future as well. Nugent-Hopkins could play 3C, but then the Oilers would need a top line left winger. That could be Hyman, and Roslovic could take his place on the top line. Vasily Podkolzin, Leon Draisaitl, and Savoie could be the second line. Savoie could even potentially play 3C in the future.
We have to consider Howard though. I believe the expectation is for Howard to develop into the team’s top scoring left winger. Howard should be in Nugent-Hopkins’ spot on the top line starting next season. That’s why I’d be hesitant to add a 3C with term right now. That would essentially block Howard’s path to the top line left wing spot next season. I don’t love spending assets on a rental, but I would be open to it depending on the return for Mangiapane and the acquisition price of said player. I’m more inclined to go with internal solutions for the 3C position though.
Wrap
Monday’s roster moves by the Oilers were the first of what is likely to be a small parade of player transactions that will happen over the next couple of weeks. They won’t all have to happen at once, but they will all have to happen if the Oilers get back to full health. No player that is currently injured for the Oilers is epxected to miss the remainder of the regular season, so they have to plan as if they will be fully healthy at some point. We don’t have exact return dates for Walman, Kapanen, or Jarry yet; but the most recent updates suggested that all three would be back early in the new year.
Basically what I’m saying is that the cap space gained by removing Tomasek, Philp, and Clattenburg from the roster isn’t usable because that money needed to be shed to activate their injured players eventually, and there’s more moves to come. Stay tuned.
