The Edmonton Oilers have been inches from reaching the NHL’s mountaintop, however finally fell brief on this yr’s pursuit of the Stanley Cup. For the second consecutive season, the Florida Panthers defeated the Oilers to seize Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Following Tuesday’s crushing 5-1 loss in Recreation 6, it proved to be an emotional scene on the Oilers bench. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and lots of others have been visibly upset previous to becoming a member of hockey’s most time-honored custom within the handshake line.
“Clearly, their forecheck was nice,” McDavid stated. “They tilted the rink. They have been capable of form of keep on prime of us all over. By no means actually capable of generate any momentum up the ice. Stored making an attempt the identical issues over and over, banging our heads towards the wall. Credit score to them. They performed effectively.”
Very similar to McDavid, Draisaitl shared a annoyed sentiment.
“The takeaway is that we did not win,” Draisaitl stated throughout his postgame media availability. “No person cares. We did not win, so we’ll strive once more subsequent yr.”
The Oilers will definitely must do some soul looking this summer season as they try and retool their roster within the hopes of a return journey to the NHL’s grandest stage. With that in thoughts, let’s check out what the Oilers have to do to place themselves in a greater place to seize hockey’s final prize.
Daring offseason could also be required
The 2025 offseason is likely to be an important in Oilers franchise historical past. After dropping within the Stanley Cup Remaining for the second straight yr, the franchise is confronted with the sobering actuality that Connor McDavid is slated to turn into an unrestricted free agent following the 2025-26 season.
Edmonton must strive its absolute hardest to show to McDavid he ought to keep in the one NHL metropolis he is ever recognized since being chosen with the No. 1 total decide within the 2015 NHL Draft.
Primarily based on McDavid’s postgame feedback Tuesday, the Oilers celebrity is clearly annoyed by developing brief in back-to-back seasons. It is actually exhausting in charge him when the Oilers have arguably two of the highest 5 gamers in your entire sport, but nonetheless handle to let a championship slip away.
The offseason could possibly be one which requires excessive change primarily based on how the 2025 Stanley Cup Remaining got here to a detailed. In spite of everything, the Panthers outscored the Oilers 10-3 within the remaining two video games of the collection.
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Forwards Corey Perry, Connor Brown, Trent Frederic, Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Skinner will all be unrestricted free agent this summer season. It is exhausting to think about all 5 of these forwards re-signing with Edmonton this offseason, and the staff might need to go in a unique path.
The Oilers have projected to have round $12.3 million in wage cap area this summer season primarily based on their present payroll. Whereas Edmonton most likely goes to inject itself into the Mitch Marner sweepstakes, it would not be surprising to see the Oilers enhance their prime six group of forwards.
Perry seemingly might return for another season if he wishes. In spite of everything, apart from McDavid and Draisaitl, Perry was arguably Edmonton’s most efficient ahead within the Stanley Cup Remaining, and proved he can present worth within the prime six following the lack of Zach Hyman to a season-ending wrist harm.
Brown is a really inexpensive middle-six ahead that scored 5 objectives all through the Stanley Cup Playoffs. These are the varieties of gamers that may be the glue of a Stanley Cup-winning staff, so Brown would additionally make sense to convey again.
It will not be an enormous shock if the Oilers are extraordinarily aggressive this summer season each in free company and by way of the commerce market.
Discover a franchise goaltender
Very similar to having a franchise quarterback within the NFL, NHL groups will need to have a franchise goaltender manning their crease. The Oilers have did not obtain reliable goaltending previously two Stanley Cup Finals, which finally proved to be the totally different in each of these collection losses.
Merely put, one thing has to vary for this franchise. An NHL staff with championship aspirations should discover a reliable netminder that may change the tide of a sport or collection. We noticed that on the other facet with Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky permitting one purpose apiece in every of the final two Stanley Cup-clinching video games.
Stuart Skinner has proved to be a stable goaltender at instances, however finally hasn’t come up large when the lights are brightest. At first look, the free agent goalie choices aren’t precisely something to jot down house about. The Oilers could be taking a look at Jake Allen, Alexandar Georgiev, Alex Lyon, Ilya Samsonov or Vitek Vanecek in the case of accessible free brokers. Nonetheless, a few of these choices aren’t an improve from Skinner and will not even be an enchancment over backup Calvin Pickard.
That makes the Oilers’ path to search out an upper-tier goaltender fairly a bit murky.
For the Oilers to accumulate the kind of goaltender they might covet, it could seemingly have to come back by way of the commerce market. Franchise netminders do not precisely develop on bushes. In the identical vein, if an NHL staff has that elite goalie, they’re most likely not shifting on from them until they’re blown away with a proposal.
In wanting throughout NHL depth charts, most groups seemingly aren’t prepared to half with their franchise goaltenders, whereas their backups aren’t a lot of an improve over Skinner if in any respect. Nonetheless, there are a number of groups the Oilers might name to see if sure netminders can be found for the appropriate worth.
Oilers normal supervisor Stan Bowman might attain out to the Carolina Hurricanes or Washington Capitals since each have very spectacular goaltender tandems in the meanwhile.
In relation to the Hurricanes, the staff has relied upon veteran Frederik Andersen time and time once more within the postseason. Pyotr Kochetkov has seen his justifiable share of motion, together with within the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and compiled a 27-16-3 report to associate with a 2.60 goals-against-average and a .898 save proportion in 47 video games in the course of the 2024-25 common season.
Kochetkov hasn’t actually been given the prospect to be “the man” in web apart from when Andersen was out of the lineup resulting from harm. Talking of harm historical past, Andersen has handled a number of accidents in recent times, so the Hurricanes could also be hesitant to interrupt up their goaltending tandem. Nonetheless, it is actually value kicking the tires on.
The Capitals additionally possess one of many league’s higher goaltending tandems in Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren. The staff acquired Thompson in the course of the 2024 NHL Draft after the Vegas Golden Knights had tabbed Adin Hill as its starter going ahead. Thompson thrived in his first season within the Nation’s Capital and even signed a six-year contract extension with the franchise.
With the Capitals committing to Thompson long-term, maybe the franchise could be prepared to half with Lindgren for the appropriate worth. Lindgren produced a 20-14-3 report, a 2.73 goals-against-average and a .896 save proportion in 39 regular-season video games in 2024-25. The 31-year-old might not be an elite choice, however could possibly be value rolling the cube on as a change of tempo for the Oilers.
By way of what a commerce package deal might appear to be, the Oilers could must half with considered one of their prime defensemen, possibly a defenseman like Darnell Nurse or Mattias Ekholm, to accumulate an improve on the goaltender place.
Because the offseason unfolds, one factor is for certain: The Oilers seemingly will not go away any stone unturned as they try to interrupt by and win Canada’s first Stanley Cup since 1993.