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Sunday Scramble: Early injuries will test the Oilers’ core vulnerabilities right from the start

Photo credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

By Michael Menzies

Aug 30, 2026, 18:00 EDT

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The Edmonton Oilers are facing their first cold winds of adversity approaching the 2026-27 season.

Two weeks out from training camp, neither Matt Savoie nor Frederik Andersen will participate due to injuries suffered during off-season training, and the suggested timelines target late October returns. It presents an early curveball to the 2026-27 campaign for Mike Babcock and brass, the first of many in a long, now 84-game season.

No, not the time to panic. But it sure does feel familiar to last season.

Savoie was one of six Oilers skaters last year to suit up in all 82 games, exuding great health for a rookie adjusting to the NHL, especially for his size. That’s been uncommon for top Edmonton rookie forwards.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was a similar size as a rookie, but missed 20 games due to a shoulder injury his first season. Connor McDavid missed nearly half his coming-out party thanks to Brandon Manning driving him into the boards. Taylor Hall got feisty and sprained his ankle in a fight with Derek Dorsett in 2010-11.

Compared to recent Edmonton rookie forwards who entered the league with some cachet, Savoie enjoyed far better health, more in line with Andrew Cogliano and Sam Gagner in 2007-08, who only missed three combined games in their debut seasons.

His youth was important in the physically demanding, compressed schedule, but it’s a shame that his offensive ramp-up post-Olympics has a detour heading into his sophomore season.

Again, not to panic, but it is a blow as Babcock becomes acquainted with his roster. As Stan Bowman remains patient with his top six and says he isn’t worried, Savoie figured to start there and stay there this season.

Meanwhile, the three-goalie theory is tested out of the gate with Andersen’s delayed start. This isn’t a major surprise, but it would be nice to know whether this remains the knee issue, or whether this is a new injury entirely. Andersen said in July that the knee just needed rest, as he didn’t have to undergo surgery. Maybe we’ll learn more during training camp.

It is annoying that the season will start this way. There’s no ideal time to get injured, but it’ll be a great indication of whether three goalies equals zero goalies, or whether one of them can provide reliability stability.

Tristan Jarry should be better than a year ago, but I worry his first two months in Pittsburgh are the outlier in the grand scheme of his last three seasons. Devon Levi should be hungry for the chance, but he’s also played just 39 NHL games. Frederik Andersen should just require rest and be the team’s de facto important game starter, but can his body withstand the season when it matters most?

Considering how snookered the Oilers are with the Jarry contract, even in this new salary cap world, I felt more comfortable in the three-goalie tandem than other potential situations, especially with a peek towards the future in Levi.

But taking last season as a comparison, do you feel any better about any of the three than, say, Connor Ingram? I don’t – at least in the context of the regular season. I know this team’s goal is all about the Stanley Cup, but there are 84 hurdles to jump over before you start that sprint, and those games matter, too.

While these injuries don’t activate the Panic Meter, they sure do touch the two biggest vulnerabilities of the roster right off the start.

Oilers injuries in 2025-26 compared to the rest of the league

Success in pro sports has so much to do with timing, and although there’s no opportune time for injuries, the Oilers suffered atrocious injury timing throughout the 2025-26 campaign.

It was a defining factor in the playoff loss to Anaheim, a fitting end to a season marred by strange injury luck. Certainly not the only reason — that’s why Kris Knoblauch isn’t returning despite $10 million reasons to remain as head coach — but a key reason.

Don’t forget just how strange some of the injuries were. Leon Draisaitl gets jostled awkwardly at the Nashville bench, costing him over a month. Kasperi Kapanen misses a hit, injures his leg, then re-aggravates the injury at practice to the chagrin of the stick rack. Connor Clattenburg’s potential eyeball swelling forced him to avoid all exercise.

And so on, so forth. The Oilers ran the gamut in terms of variety. When a peripheral piece started playing well, they seemed at greater risk of getting injured.

Yet, despite this steady attrition, the Oilers did not finish among the league’s top 10 in total man-games lost (MGL) last season.

Data for HockeyViz.

They were just outside, sitting 11th in MGL with 279. No one competed with Florida for first with 540, although there was a certain organizational laxness in returning from injury in FLA that accounts for that.

Other contenders were bit far harder by the injury bug: Buffalo (second), Vegas (fourth), Pittsburgh (sixth), Tampa Bay (eighth), and Dallas (ninth) all logged more missed games, yet several managed the fallout more effectively.

When looking at CHIP (cap hit of injured players, calculated by [AAV / 82] multiplied by the number of injured games), the Oilers got off fairly light, essentially middle of the pack with $9.7 million.

The 2025-26 season is now behind them, and extended off-season recovery should theoretically leave the roster in better physical condition for the upcoming marathon. Yet these early tire tracks feel uncomfortably familiar. The Oilers remain an older group relative to the rest of the league.

As training camp approaches, the Savoie and Andersen injuries are a quick reminder that the ideal depth chart mapped out over the summer is fragile.

The front office can build all the safety nets they want on paper, but there’s a strong chance that, like last year, the Oilers’ 2026-27 regular season will be defined by how they play without their optimal lineup.

Which players could benefit the most from the injuries?

Opportunity knocks.

I am once again advocating for Trent Frederic to get a look on the penalty kill. I beat this drum a year ago and I’m going to bang it again.

Not that everything needs to be viewed through the lens of Frederic’s contract, but having a role on the penalty kill eases some of the pressure of justifying the max term. It allows him to contribute without needing to score.

He spoke recently about the struggles of last season, the loss of identity, and trying to play the game despite not feeling himself following the ankle injury in 2024-25. In that same interview, Frederic sounded eager to contribute on the PK.

With Savoie’s departure on a presumed top unit with Jason Dickinson (mentioned in passing by Bob Stauffer last week on Oilers Now), I’d like to see Frederic get some reps in this spot. With his foot speed hopefully back to pre-injury levels, it makes sense to try.

Interestingly enough, Frederic was seventh on the team in games played a year ago, only missing eight total due to injury or a healthy scratch. So despite playing “hurt” or at least not fully recovered last season, it was also his third most games played in a season.

He averaged 11:02 last season while playing essentially no special teams, so a handful of PK shifts a game would bump him up closer to the seasons he’s been more effective. Even before he got traded to Edmonton in 2024-25, he was averaging 13:50 a night. A year before that, his career offensive season of 18 goals and 40 points, he averaged 13:45.

It behooves the Oilers to play a guy they signed to a max-term contract on special teams. If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. But that was one stone left unturned a year ago that can be done in 26-27.

In the crease, what an opportunity for Devon Levi. Edmonton’s schedule starts with a home-and-home with Vancouver, Seattle, Anaheim, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Utah home-and-home. Then the competition steps up with Minnesota and Carolina, before facing Toronto, Detroit, and Calgary, all five at home to essentially wrap up October.

In other words, lots of potential starts for Levi.

One of the biggest potential victories of the season, beyond the obvious, is Levi looking like the Goaltender of the Future for this franchise. Not only does it help the long-term vision of the team remaining a contender, but it could help the Oilers re-sign Connor McDavid for a max-term contract again.

My working theory is that in order for McDavid to re-sign, the team has to continue cycling younger blood into the roster, as they’re doing with Savoie, Podkolzin, and Dach. Isaac Howard, Shakir Mukhamadullin, and Devon Levi will get a more regular chance this year. McDavid needs to see that the Oilers can still be competitive nearing 2030 and beyond.

Levi taking the bull by the horns and proving he’s NHL calibre has more ripple effects than just a November win. You can imagine a contingency plan in the crease and beyond.

What does Misha Donskov’s hiring tell us about Mike Babcock’s long-term future?

Did the Oilers tell us something about Mike Babcock’s long-term status with the Misha Donskov news?

The team announced they are bringing in Hockey Canada’s bench boss into the fold as a coaching consultant last week. Perhaps as another springboard, perhaps as a first date.

Amidst all the noise during Babcock’s hiring, we’ve never learned how long his contract is. There’s been an implicit notion, considering his background and age, that Babs is here for a “good time, not a long time.” Maybe a hard time, depending on how you look at it.

When this point about contract has been brought up, some people say, what does it matter? After all, Knoblauch got fired before his extension even began.

For one, hyper-obsessing about Oiler minutiae is what we do, so no apologies there. And two, the terms of the contract help us understand those backroom conversations better. It sheds light on how invested they are in the future with Babcock beyond just a 2026-27 season, especially with how much hangs in the balance if they don’t thread the needle for the Stanley Cup.

Sure, the length of the contract doesn’t dictate much, as owner Daryl Katz will spend what he needs to on his team. But if it was a one-year deal, then I’d read the hiring as more of a mutual trial run. If it was three years, that tells me the Oilers want Babcock’s fingerprints all over the team.

With how strong McDavid, Draisaitl, and Hyman’s endorsements have been, I’m led to believe it’s the latter. With Donskov’s entry, I tend to think it’s the former.

Counterintuitive to some narratives out there, if you’re going through the trouble and backlash of hiring Babcock, the goal would be to have him for at least multiple seasons unless the fit really hits the shan. That’s my view.

But Donskov is a big shot at Hockey Canada and commands wide respects in the hockey world. There is a faction of the fanbase who were championing his name for the vacancy back in May. He’s got a year left to worry about the World Junior and World Championship teams, but you’d have to wonder how much the allure of an NHL deal on a contending team would attract him.

He’s been on NHL benches in Dallas and Vegas and worked in and around the league since the early 2000s. The release’s wording wasn’t clear, but select appearances at Oilers home games sounds to me like some nights he’ll stand behind the bench, however janky that is.

Regardless, Donskov is in the Oilers orbit and could potentially be available in 2027. This isn’t to skewer Babcock out of his job, but like we say, we don’t know the terms of his deal.

The situation could be along the lines of inviting PWHL players and coaches at Development Camp, casting a wide net to have a mix of perspectives as corporations do. Or, the Oilers could be getting a first-hand look at how Donskov ticks as a coach, gaining intel on a potential candidate down the line.

Either way, it’s a storyline simmering in the background as the season unfolds.

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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