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Remaining free agents who could be of interest to the Oilers

Montreal Canadiens Edmonto nOilers Patrik Laine

Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

By Ryley Delaney

Aug 31, 2026, 22:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 31, 2026, 21:50 EDT

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The 2026-27 National Hockey League season is less than a month away.

Even before training camp started for the Edmonton Oilers, there were several reported injuries. One big loss, at least for the first month of the season, is Matthew Savoie. The speedy winger was set to get a look in the top six after the end of his 2025-26 season, and will likely get a look whenever he has recovered.

Also set to miss some time are fellow forward Mattias Janmark, defenceman Alec Regula, and netminder Frederik Andersen.

Despite training camp quickly approaching, there are several notable unrestricted free agents that could be of use for the Oilers. Some could factor into their middle-six, others a bottom-six role, a few for depth roles, and a couple of reclamation projects.

Let’s take a look at some of the names that the Oilers could have interest in.

Vladimir Tarasenko

The best unrestricted free agent on the market is Vladimir Tarasenko, and it isn’t particularly close. It’s a bit of a mystery as to why he hasn’t been signed as well.

Tarasenko, 34, most recently played for the playoff-bound Minnesota Wild, scoring 23 goals and 47 points in 75 regular-season games. In the 11 playoff games he played, the veteran sniper added two goals and five points.

He’s not the player he once was when he consistently scored 30+ goals, which also means he didn’t get a ton of power play time. That didn’t matter, as Tarasenko scored 18 of his 23 goals during even-strength play, something the Oilers desperately missed last season.

Tarasenko’s name is on the Stanley Cup twice, leading the St. Louis Blues to their first Cup in franchise history back in 2019, as well as defeating the Oilers back in 2024 with the Florida Panthers. He’s still a consistent 20+ goal scorer and a middle-six forward, even though his defence leaves a little to be desired.

The Oilers also have the space to get a deal done. As it stands, they have a little under $2 million in cap space according to PuckPedia, but if they were to send down Janmark, Isaac Howard, Spencer Stastny, Regula, and place Andersen on the LTIR, they’d have about $6.2 million in cap space. Last season, Tarasenko made $4.75 million, so the Oilers would also be able to accrue deadline cap space as well.

Michael Bunting

Michael Bunting is another player who can produce in the middle-six, but also has a chippy side to him that most Oilers lack.

The 30-year-old winger hasn’t had a consistent home in his seven-year NHL career, spending two seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, two with the Toronto Maple Leafs, two with the Pittsburgh Penguins, two with the Nashville Predators, and parts of a season with both the Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes.

Bunting has been traded at the past three trade deadlines, but consistently scored 19+ goals from the 2021-22 season until 2024-25. Last season, he scored 13 goals and 31 points in 61 games with the Predators, but struggled to produce upon a trade to the Stars.

The winger is a good candidate to bounce back in 2026-27, producing for the Oilers in a middle-six role.

Eeli Tolvanen

It’s a bit surprising that Eeli Tolvanen has remained unsigned. At just 27 years old, the Finnish winger is just a year removed from scoring 23 goals and 35 points in 81 games with the Seattle Kraken in 2024-25. His scoring dipped in 2025-26, potting just 12 goals, but he’s reached the 30+ point mark in each of the last four seasons.

The price point matters, but he’s the youngest player we’ll examine in this article and he’s a good bounce-back candidate like Jack Roslovic was before last season.

Adam Henrique or Curtis Lazar

Savoie and Janmark are two key penalty killers for the Oilers, so losing them, even for a bit, requires the Oilers to use Connor McDavid on the kill. Not ideal for a player who plays over 20 minutes a night.

Former Oiler Adam Henrique remains a free agent and has loads of experience on the penalty kill. There’s familiarity there, but Henrique regressed significantly last season, dropping from 12 goals and 27 points in 81 games in 2024-25 to just three goals and 15 points in 65 games this past season.

There aren’t a whole lot of penalty killers on the market, but Henrique is probably the best of the bunch.

Curtis Lazar is also a free agent. He had even weaker production than Henrique, scoring four goals and six points in 45 games, but he kills penalties and is a right-shot centre, another thing the Oilers need. Additionally, the Oilers went 25-15-5 with him in the lineup, or 16-15-6 without him in the lineup.

Luke Kunin

Luke Kunin is another right-shot, penalty-killing centre. Last season with the Florida Panthers, the 28-year-old played 62:19 on the kill, down from 127:02 in 2024-25, split between the San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets. Granted, he played 12 fewer games in 2025-26.

Kunin won 49.4 percent of the 443 faceoff draws he took last season, well up from his career average of 45.8 percent. He also averaged just under 10 minutes in his 62 games, scoring four goals and 10 points in 62 games.

The Chesterfield, Missouri product has a higher ceiling than Lazar, managing to score double-digit goals in five of his last six seasons before 2025-26.

Tyson Jost

Tyson Jost was born in St. Albert, Alta. and was selected 10th overall in the 2016 draft. He hasn’t, nor will he ever, live up to that potential, but he is coming off a season where he scored eight goals and 16 points over 69 games. That’s his best season these past three years, as he managed just nine points in 39 games in 2024-25 and six in 43 in 2023-24.

At his best, Jost consistently reached the 20-point mark, doing so in all but one season from 2017-18 until 2022-23. Jost is also a quick skater and kills penalties, totalling 95:21 on the kill with the Predators in 2025-26.

The winger’s speed gives the penalty kill a threat, as the Predators managed to score four goals and allow just nine when Jost was on the ice during a penalty kill.

Jost is a perfect candidate for a professional tryout.

Jonathan Drouin

Another top-10 pick who hasn’t quite lived up to his potential is Jonathan Drouin. Selected third overall in the 2013 draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Drouin was traded to the Montréal Canadiens after his third season, a season where he scored a career-best 21 goals and 53 points.

Drouin remained a productive scorer, hitting 46 points in 2017-18, then 53 points in 2018-19. But then he appeared in just 27 games in 2019-20, scoring seven goals. In the pandemic-shortened 2020-21, he scored two goals and 23 points, but didn’t appear in the Canadiens’ run to the Stanley Cup.

His lack of scoring and inability to remain in the lineup marked his final four seasons as a Canadien. In 2023-24, Drouin reunited with his junior teammate, Nathan MacKinnon, and scored 19 goals and a career-high 56 points. He followed that up with 11 goals and 37 points in 43 games in 2024-25, but missed half the season due to injury.

Drouin signed with the New York Islanders last off-season, but his goal-scoring production dipped again, potting just three goals and 21 points in 55 games. He was traded to the St. Louis Blues before the 2026 trade deadline, scoring a goal and three points in nine games. Despite signing a two-year deal, Drouin only played out one season as he was bought out earlier this off-season.

The Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts product has proven capable of playing with superstars, but has also had some abysmal seasons. Signing him to a PTO to see if he can form some chemistry with Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl wouldn’t be the worst idea.

Patrik Laine

The 2016 NHL Draft is a weird one, and no players selected in the top five exemplify that better than Patrik Laine.

Drafted second overall, Laine consistently scores 20+ goals when healthy, but hasn’t reached the 30+ goal plateau since his first three seasons in the league. Still only 28 years old, Laine is best known for his shot, which is especially lethal on the power play.

The winger spent most of the 2025-26 injured, but scored 20 goals and 33 points with the Canadiens in 2024-25. It’s worth noting that just five of those 20 goals came during even-strength play. Will he get playing time on one of the best power plays of the best time? Probably not.

Like Drouin, it could be worth a flier to see if he finds chemistry with Draisaitl or McDavid on a PTO, but working him into the lineup is difficult given his defensive deficiencies and lack of five-on-five scoring.

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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