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So much for rest as five Oilers head to the World Championships
Mattias Ekholm 4 Nations Face-Off Sweden
Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
May 9, 2026, 13:00 EDTUpdated: May 9, 2026, 15:30 EDT
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In the immediate aftermath of being knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the first round, the Edmonton Oilers leaders are doing the right things. 
Connor McDavid and his wife, Lauren, are on holiday with friends, laying down their yoga mats and relaxing in Savasana. By the evening, the couple are sipping wine with the sunset soft and orange, and a board game to busy their minds. 
Check. 
Leon Draisaitl and his wife, Celeste, are designing a new home, although the locale of that build isn’t listed. The limited summertime window is prime time for those home renovations. Designer extraordinaire, Lauren, is even giving them a hand. 
Check. 
These are things fans should be happy about. McDrai are soaking up the sunshine, taking trips to the Home Depot, maybe even getting a head start on the garden (although I’m sure they have ‘people’ for that). Spring and summer stuff. 
Take a mental load off from the hockey for a while, gentlemen. At this point, the only thing to look forward to is next year. 
Connor Mc’Ovid, poet of Metamorphoses, said it best: “For a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Or something like that. 
“I think for us as a group, maybe it is good to actually take two weeks off of training,” said Leon Draisaitl during a moment of reflection at last Saturday’s exit interview. That’s the same one where he said he was “concerned” about the direction of the team. 
“The last two seasons, everybody took seven days off working out, and then you’re back in the gym, right? That’s not a lot of time. So maybe it might be beneficial for everybody to get away from it for a little time and, you know, just get a little extra rest.”
Train. Reset. Refocus. 

The Worlds are calling

But a few Oilers are delaying their summer shutdown. They aren’t ready for conversations about their backswing. 
Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Josh Samanski, and Isaac Howard are all going to the World Championships. 
Five players. What happened to all that rest talk? 
On Mother’s Day weekend, let me say something your mom never would: “You’re gonna sit on that damn couch and you’re gonna like it!” 
Become a tourist. Learn to yo-yo. Read Joyce.  
Heal, fellas, heal. 
I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised. Elite athletes doing elite athlete things. Shutting off the competitive side of your brain, especially when a World Championship opportunity comes around, isn’t so easy. 
Especially when you still want to be playing. 
Evan Bouchard hasn’t played for Canada since 2019, and after being overlooked for the Olympics, this is a great opportunity to be the de facto number one. Leave a positive impression on the powers that be for future tournaments and end 2025-26 with an exclamation mark after the Norris Trophy conversation. 
“To have hockey over in early May is something that I’m not too familiar with,” said Bouchard on TSN Overdrive on Thursday. “So to get the call from them to go play? I feel like it was a no-brainer and get a few more games with Team Canada.”
Darnell Nurse improved throughout the season. Getting a chance on the world stage could leave his game on a high note, and if the Oilers are looking, try to move him this off-season. Whether Nurse wants to or not, that’s another story. 
While warmer weather is just beginning to dawn, Josh Samanski has been drinking from a firehose for a calendar year. This is his second Worlds for native Germany. Combined with the Olympics, the jump to North American pro, and being in the Oilers lineup in the most important games of the season, it’s been a heckuva run for the 24-year-old. He’s growing. 
Isaac Howard also gets to run it back with Team USA for his second straight WC after finishing 2025-26 on the AHL All-Rookie Team. With the possibility that the Oilers’ only big top-six or top-nine addition into next year’s lineup is Howard, it’s another competitive embrace for the former Hobey Baker winner. 

Ekholm

I suppose the only one that gives a guy pause is Mattias Ekholm. But I don’t blame him, he’s an awfully patriotic guy. 
Squabbles with Sweden’s Olympic coach, Sam Hallam, put Ekholm on the outs in likely his last opportunity to play in a best-on-best tournament. After playing all 82 regular-season games, Ekholm couldn’t resist the call from Tre Kronor. It was clear that being passed over hurt him. 
He plays an underdiscussed part in the Oilers’ Stanley Cup aspirations. I’ve often thought that as much as Edmonton is on a McDavid timeline to win, they’re also on an Ekholm timeline. On a blueline that likes to make plays and therefore is susceptible to mistakes, Ekholm acts as janitor, the quicker fix-upper, the magic eraser of mistakes since he arrived in 2023. 
The minutes he logs while still producing as a bona fide top pair defenceman are critical to the Oilers’ success. But he also turns 36 in two weeks.
Although there was no injury rap sheet shared at the Oilers’ exit interviews last Saturday, I thought, or maybe hoped in a perverse way, that Ekholm was injured. He wasn’t at his best in the first round. Then again, few were. Portions of the past two campaigns show that keeping Ekholm fresher throughout the season will pay dividends in the spring.
Taking a step back from the World Championships conversation, it pains me to wonder, because admittedly, I root for this guy harder than any other Oiler, how much longer can Ekholm play at this level? 

On the home front

The World Championships kick off on May 15 in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland. What a venue. 
In the short view, maybe you shared my surprise that so many Oilers were going to keep playing. But it ought to be a positive, especially for Howard and Samanski, who will share in Edmonton’s successes and follies next season. 
At the very least, being in Switzerland provides an Atlantic Ocean-sized buffer to the growing talk of coaching or front office changes in the Oilers ranks. 
Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4. 

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