If you were hoping that the Edmonton Oilers would catch a break on the travel schedule this year, I’ve got some bad news. Not only are they not getting a break on travel, but our beloved Oilers will actually spend more time on a plane than anyone else. According to Bill Speros of Bookies.com, Edmonton will lead the entire NHL in miles travelled during the 2025–26 season, and they’re not even one of the teams leaving the continent to start the season in Europe.

While teams like the Penguins (2nd place on the list) and Predators are heading to Stockholm in November to kick off the season for the NHL Global Series, the Oilers are sticking around and still somehow top the mileage leaderboard. How? Why? Huh? Personally, I blame the schedule-makers and a brutal road stretch in November that looks like it was put together by someone with a personal grudge against our beloved squadron.

Between November 12th and 22nd, the Oilers will play seven road games in 11 days. That stretch includes stops in Philly, Columbus, Carolina, Buffalo, Washington, Tampa Bay, and wraps with a Stanley Cup Final rematch against the Panthers in Sunrise, Florida. According to Bill Speros, that slog of a travel schedule works out to nearly 10,000 miles in a week and a half. That is a haul when you consider the last-place Islanders’ entire travel schedule is only 3x more for the entire season. The boys are going to Netflix hard, right?

At the end of the day, living on a plane isn’t anything new for the Oilers. According to Thomas Nestico of TJ Stats, the boys logged over 50,000 miles during the 2024–25 season, so another year of major travel time was probably to be expected. It’s a product of having your closest division rivals not named Calgary still being a multi-hour flight away, but that doesn’t make these numbers any less staggering. I don’t know how many of you reading this are big travellers, but even with being on the PJ, spending that much time on flights/airports/runways is a grind no matter how you’re getting around.

The only other team that even comes close to the Oilers’ travel schedule is the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins thanks to their trip to Sweden to start the year and a league-high 22 separate road trips sprinkled throughout their calendar. Even with bopping over to Stockholm, that’s a massive jump from where the Penguins were at last year when they traveled just 31,700 miles, which was good for dead last in the NHL. Maybe this is good training for any Pens who want to bail for an Edmonton exit?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the New York Islanders will travel less than anyone in the league at 28,477 miles total. As I’m sure you’ve heard plenty over the years, it’s easy for these guys to sleep in their own beds when your divisional rivals are basically a hop, skip, and jump away. The Isles’ mileage is barely half of Edmonton’s, and I think that’s bananas. The Islanders will knock out a lot of their total distance with two extended road trips in November and January, but for the most part, they’ll stay close to home on the East Coast. Must be nice, right?

And just when you think things might slow down, don’t forget that the NHL is taking a three-week break from February 5th to 25th when a selection of players will compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics. So if and when Oilers like Connor McDavid are selected to represent their countries — four Oilers were invited to the Olympic summer camp — those dudes will be racking up even more mileage on top of what is already a punishing travel slate. Again, say what you will about how these guys move around, but there’s little doubt that the eastern teams don’t have a significant rest advantage.

Life on the road isn’t new for the Edmonton Oilers, but it’s worth repeating just how much tougher the grind is when you spend nearly twice the time in the air as the last place team. The Oilers don’t have the luxury of short hops or same-day trips — they fly all over the continent in sometimes strange orders — it’s long flights, time zone changes, and back-to-backs sometimes in different states. That’s a solid even on a private jet. Again. But if the last two seasons showed us anything, it’s that this team can travel the world and still find ways to win play meaningful hockey when it matters most. I just hope the Oilers do everything they’re legally allowed to do to make the experience a little bit smoother because Gord knows our boys will be living on that plane for huge chunks in the six-month window that is the 2025-26 NHL season.

After posting the article, I got a text from Jason Gregor about this guy’s numbers being wrong. Per our man, the numbers posted by the NHL paint a different picture of where the Oilers are at on the road. Below you’ll see the numbers that Gregor compiled from the league.

So, what does it mean? Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. That said, the guy is doubling down on his numbers being accurate, but even so, I think I’ll trust my man JG over some rando.

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