And just like that, one week after it began, the 2026-27 NHL pre-season is over.

For the Edmonton Oilers, it couldn’t have come soon enough. After a long summer of waiting after getting bounced in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks, the Oilers came out swinging in the pre-season, capping off a perfect 4-0 with a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames Saturday night.

“It’s great to be done exhibition (games),” said Oilers head coach Mike Babcock. “I think we did lots of positive things during exhibition and we’ve learned a lot about our team. We can be way better. We understand that.

“We have to figure out our depth, for sure.”

Therein lies the problem. The games haven’t counted yet, and the team is already ravished. Matt Savoie and Freddie Andersen were banged up over the summer, something the Oilers could offset easily with Isaac Howard sliding up the lineup, and Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi tending the crease.

But losing Jason Dickinson has thrown a wrench into things — exactly what Babcock has alluded to.

Enter Owen Michaels.

Signed out of the NCAA last spring, he joined the team right away, but never dressed in a game. The consensus was that he was destined to start the year in the AHL and go from there, but now, he might be a centre for the Oilers to start the year.

“You gotta give Mike credit because he wasn’t even on the radar at all, and then he just keeps showing up in all the good clips, and then suddenly he wins these faceoffs, he tracks, he’s in the right spot,” said Babcock. “Then after he got going good, I started looking at his career scoring-wise, and I think I said this the other day, he’s never been the guy who led the league in scoring, but he’s the captain of the team that wins the national championship.

“Well, he must know how to play. He bought himself another day, and good for him. And I mean, that’s what we’re doing here. We’re trying to create depth and try to find good players, and he looks like he’s a good player.”

Good players are good to have, and the Oilers need as many as they can get.

One has to wonder how long keeping Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the same line will last for. The numbers are good together, so long as Zach Hyman has been there, but the numbers show they work well when they’re apart. It’s the age-old question in these parts, and one the team will likely never be able to make a decision on. Play ’em together, play ’em apart, there may not be a “right answer.”

Despite them skating together with Vasily Podkolzin on their flank since captains’ skates, one has to wonder if bumping Draisaitl to the 2C and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to 3C can better offset the loss of Dickinson.

Zach Laing is Daily Faceoff Edmonton’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

Toronto is calling — and this isn’t your average hockey trip.

The first 2026/27 Nation Vacation presented by JetSet Parking is here, and we’re taking over Toronto for one hell of a weekend.

A hockey trip is good. A Nation Vacation is better.