The Edmonton Oilers entered 2025-26 with high expectations following two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final. After failing to reach 100 points in the regular season or win a single playoff round, several Oilers saw their stock plummet.

In some cases, injuries played a role. Trent Frederic played through a high ankle sprain during the 2025 playoffs, and his skating continued to look compromised for much of this season. Jake Walman hit the injured reserve twice in 2025-26, and his play when healthy rarely looked as sharp as it did the prior year.

For others, age-related decline could be the culprit. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a tough season, and there are question marks as to whether he can get things back on track as he approaches his mid-30s.

Whatever the cause, the result is all the same: a failure to live up to expectations. Today, we’re taking an in-depth look at several players whose stocks have fallen, and what they need to do to reverse their fortune next season.

Trent Frederic

At the 2025 trade deadline, Stan Bowman acquired Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins to add grit and secondary scoring. Frederic was out with a high ankle sprain at the time of the trade, but he had built up a strong reputation as a physical, productive bottom-six winger with decent finishing ability.

Frederic’s production at five-on-five was particularly impressive in 2022-23 and 2023-24, when he produced 1.97 and 2.1 points per hour. For reference, that would’ve been the best rate of scoring on the Oilers this season by anyone not named Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl.

Unfortunately for the Oilers, his ankle injury was worse than expected, and he was largely kept out of action for Edmonton during the 2025 regular season. That post-season, he struggled to produce at his usual clip, recording just four points during their run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Despite the struggles, Bowman made a bold bet that Frederic could bounce back once he got healthy, re-signing him to an eight-year contract worth an AAV of $3.85 million. His unique blend of size, speed, and scoring likely drove up his market value, but the Oilers felt they were in desperate need of his tools after they traded Evander Kane to the Vancouver Canucks.

High-ankle sprains are notoriously nagging for athletes for many months after the fact, and Frederic is no exception. He’s lacked his typical explosiveness for almost his entire tenure with the Oilers so far, making him slow to pucks and less effective on the forecheck.

The result was a disaster. Frederic went from a fantastic middle-six scorer to an offensive black hole. Out of 487 forwards who played at least 200 minutes this season at five-on-five, Frederic ranked 470th in points per hour. His skating and play-driving started to improve later in the season, but Frederic never got into an offensive rhythm.

Signing a bottom-six forward for eight years with trade protection was always a dangerous move by Oilers management. With how disastrous this season went for him, Edmonton will have to hope that a full season back at full health can facilitate a return to form.

Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Jan. 13, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators right wing Michael McCarron (47) and Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse (25) during the first period at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Darnell Nurse

Darnell Nurse’s contract has drawn the ire of Oilers fans for years now. And while he’s never lived up to that $9.25 million price tag, Nurse has still made some meaningful contributions.

According to HockeyStats’ expected goals model, the Oilers out-chanced the opposition in Nurse’s minutes for five consecutive seasons and outscored the opposition in four of them. He wasn’t a difference-making top-pair defenceman that Edmonton expected him to be, but he was at least a serviceable top-four defender. That wasn’t the case for most of this season. For the first time since 2019-20, Nurse was outscored and outchanced in his minutes.

The issues with Nurse’s game are well-documented. His offensive-zone puck touches too often result in wasted, unscreened wrist shots into the goalie’s logo. His tendency to ice the puck while under pressure. His overly passive approach while defending entries and poor gap control. But typically, these issues haven’t reached a boiling point until the post-season, when competition ramps up and time and space are limited. This season, we saw him at his worst for most of the year.

The gap between Nurse’s contract and value has reached a crippling level, and I’m not sure how much longer the Oilers can afford to keep him on the books. Perhaps another team with a desperate need for defencemen and abundant cap space could benefit from his services, but his outlook in Edmonton is concerning.

While his stock certainly took a hit in 2025-26, one potential light at the end of the tunnel was that his play with Connor Murphy did show signs of improvement. The duo had a 57 per cent goal share and 51.5 per cent expected goal share in 289 minutes together. If the Oilers can’t trade him, maybe re-signing Murphy will help Nurse going forward.

Jake Walman

Jake Walman got off to a great start to his Oilers career when he first arrived in a trade from the San Jose Sharks. In his first game, he blew up Mikko Rantanen with a bone-crushing hit and sent a beautiful flip pass up over the defence to send Zach Hyman on a breakaway for a goal.

He carried that momentum throughout the regular season into the playoffs, where he finished second on the team in plus-minus and helped drive dominant results from Edmonton’s depth lines.

Walman looked like a shrewd, off-the-board acquisition by Bowman after his fantastic playoff performance, and so the Oilers extended him for seven years at an AAV of $7 million this fall. His second season in an Oilers uniform was a major disappointment.

Like Frederic, injuries impacted Walman’s season. He suffered an injury in training camp that forced him to miss the start of the season, and then went on the injured reserve again in late November after getting a deep bone bruise from a blocked shot. When he was healthy enough to play, he looked like a shell of himself.

In his 15 regular-season games with the Oilers last season, the Oilers gave up 1.93 goals-against per hour, which was a team best rate among defencemen. This season, his defensive results did a complete 180, and he gave up a shocking 3.61 goals-against per hour.

The controlled aggression and quick puck movement that made Walman effective the year prior devolved into overaggression and failed exits. Some of his struggles may have been due to injury or to being forced to play his offside next to Nurse for much of the season, but ultimately, he failed to come anywhere close to the impact he had previously.

Of any Oiler who struggled in 2025-26, I believe Walman has the highest chance of bouncing back. He had a fantastic six games in the post-season against the Ducks, collecting four assists, including a highlight reel bullet of a pass through the neutral zone to spring Dickinson for a breakaway in Game 1.

If he can stay healthy and find more consistency, there’s plenty of potential for redemption for Walman in the near future. But as it stands, he has something to prove next season after a year where his stock fell considerably.

The outlook moving forward

Now that we’ve covered some of the main players who disappointed for Edmonton this year, let’s look at the players who I’m concerned could wind up on this list next season.

My main worry for this group right now is age-related decline. While the top stars like McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard still have many good years left, the supporting cast is in a transition phase. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has declined considerably, and probably would’ve made it into this article if I hadn’t already dedicated another entire piece to his decline earlier this week. But he and Hyman aren’t getting any younger, and rapid regression is always possible going into a new season.

Mattias Ekholm bounced back well and had a decent year after starting the season slowly, coming off the lower-body injury he suffered last year. Still, he’s going to be 36 years old next season, and I would be surprised if he can continue to play well in top-pair minutes for much longer.

2025-26 was a tough year for numerous Oilers. A bounce-back from some of their most disappointing players might be one of the keys to making a deeper run next season.

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