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Which Oilers are most likely to land on NHL waivers?
Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Sep 19, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 18, 2026, 17:54 EDT
The Edmonton Oilers will need to make some decisions before the season starts.
As it stands, the Oilers’ roster stands at 29 players, six more than what is allowed, according to Puckpedia’s new waiver watch. All 32 teams must be compliant before Sept. 28 at 3:00 PM MT, a day before the 2026-27 National Hockey League is set to begin.
That begs the questions: which Oilers are likely to be waived, which other players are on the bubble, and who is waiver exempt? Let’s find out!
Likely to be waived
Puckpedia lists six Oilers as likely to be waived: Max Jones, Riley Stillman, Josh Brown, Matt Tomkins, Eduards Tralmaks, and Atro Leppänen. All players aside from Brown are making the minimum cap hit of $850,000, as Brown is entering the final season of his three-year deal that carries an annual cap hit of $1 million.
Brown is one of three players who have played for the Oilers, appearing in 10 regular season games and one playoff game during the 2024-25 season. The entirety of his 2025-26 season was spent with the American Hockey League’s Bakersfield Condors, where he scored two goals and 13 points in 57 games. The right-shot defenceman offers toughness, but is behind plenty of players on the team’s depth chart.
In fact, when the Oilers needed a defenceman last season, they turned to Stillman. The 28-year-old appeared in four games with the Oilers last season, but spent most of the 2025-26 season with the Condors. Over 51 games, he scored three goals and 18 points, then added two more goals in the Condors’ three playoff games.
Assuming he clears waivers, Jones should factor into the 2026-27 Oilers as he’s an energetic bottom-six forward who has shown a scoring touch in the past. Acquired before the 2025 trade deadline, Jones scored three goals and five points in 21 games for the Oilers last season. If he remains in the organization, he’ll find his way on the roster at some point.
Tralmaks is the other forward likely to be waived by the Oilers. Signed by the organization this past off-season, the 29-year-old Latvian winger played in 64 AHL games last season, scoring 26 goals and 42 points while hitting everything in sight. He’s yet to make his NHL debut, but could factor in the Oilers’ lineup at some point this season.
Leppänen is a Finnish defenceman who scored 21 goals and 63 points in 60 SM-Liiga games in 2024-25, leading the Oilers to sign the 27-year-old. With the Condors last season, the 27-year-old scored 11 goals and 38 points in 53 games. Like Tralmaks, Leppänen could make his NHL debut this season.
Lastly, Tomkins is a 32-year-old netminder who is set to enter his second season in the organization. Last season with the Condors, the veteran netminder had a .904 save percentage and 2.98 goals against average in 42 games. Losing Tomkins on waivers wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario for the Oilers, as they have a boatload of goaltending prospects in need of playing time.
Bubble players
Puckpedia also lists five Oilers who are waiver candidates: Alex Formenton, Colton Dach, Shakir Mukhamadullin, Spencer Stastney, and Ty Emberson.
Three of the five players are defencemen, as the Oilers are the deepest they’ve been at the position for years. Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Connor Murphy, and Ryan Shea are all locks to be mainstays on the Oilers’ back-end, meaning just one spot for four defencemen (including the injured Alec Regula).
Stastney was acquired by the Oilers during the 2025-26 season, appearing in 36 games where he scored just one goal. Prior to the trade, the left-shot defencemen scored a goal and nine points in 30 games with the Nashville Predators, but was often a healthy scratch in the final few months of the season.
Once the Oilers acquired Murphy and Walman returned to the lineup, they regularly used Emberson as the sixth defencemen. Over 72 games, the right-shot defenceman scored two goals and 12 points, while also picking up an assist in six playoff games. It seems unlikely that Emberson will be waived, as this spot is his to lose.
This off-season, the Oilers acquired Mukhamadullin from the San Jose Sharks for Darnell Nurse. In 50 games with the Sharks last season, the 24-year-old Russian scored five goals and 12 points. Capable of playing on both sides, Mukhamadullin figures to be the Oilers’ seventh defencemen, appearing in the lineup when there are injuries or poor performances.
Dach likely has a spot on the Oilers’ roster as an energetic bottom-six forward. After the Oilers acquired him before the trade deadline, the St. Albert product scored two goals and four points in eight regular season games, then picked up a helper in five postseason games. He’s not waiver exempt, but it’s unlikely he won’t be in the team’s lineup on September 29th.
Waiver exempt
There are a handful of players who are waiver exempt, even if they have the potential to factor into the team’s plans in 2026-27. The notables of the bunch are Ike Howard, Matthew Savoie, Viljami Marjala, Connor Clattenburg, Owen Michaels, and Quinn Hutson.
Other players Puckpedia lists as waiver-exempt are William Nicholl, Nathaniel Day, Samuel Jonsson, Tomáš Cibulka, Patrik Štefan, Damien Carfagna, Brady Stonehouse, Beau Akey, Aku Räty, and Connor Ungar.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for DFOEdmonton, DFOCalgary, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on X at @Ryley__Delaney.
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