It was a strange feeling this past weekend, going around town at the beginning of May and not seeing people wearing their finest Edmonton Oilers threads, or a single Oilers car flag on passing cars, at least from what I saw.

The Oilers were ousted by the Anaheim Ducks in the first round, their earliest exit since 2021. In recent season-ending media availabilities, it became clear that several players were battling through injuries, and as a whole, a longer summer to rest will likely do the team good. Still, there were key players the Oilers needed more from in the playoffs, and below we take a look at five of them.

Darnell Nurse played the third-most minutes out of any Oiler (138:49) and had a good goal share at five-on-five at 7–3 against the Ducks, but offensively, as the second-highest paid blueliner on the roster, his zero points through six games was not good enough. At the end of the day, the team needed more production from him.

But above all, many years down the road, when I think back on Nurse’s body of work in the 2026 playoffs, two instances will stand out from the rest, and both of them involved the Oilers’ blueliner deflecting pucks into his own net.

One came in Game 6, when he put his stick out to block a shot in a way that would’ve made its way onto a “Coaches’ Corner” segment with Don Cherry if it were still around, on how not to block a shot, and another was the infamous one in Game 4, where the puck deflected off Nurse’s skate and was ruled a goal by the officials, despite some controversy over whether it fully crossed the line.

Adding to that, as Golden Era Hockey mentioned recently, Nurse deflected more Grade-A shots into his own net in the regular season than every other Oilers defenceman combined, and he carried that tendency into the playoffs.

Whether it’s bad luck or something in his game that could be cleaned up, combined with a tough playoff showing from the team and the natural urge to assign blame somewhere, it all feeds into the idea that, now more than ever, it may be time for the Oilers to move on from Darnell Nurse.

We now know the extent of the injury that Connor McDavid was dealing with in the playoffs, playing through a foot/ankle fracture in the first round against the Ducks, and that injury brought him down to rather a more mortal level of play, rather than his usual Superhuman-like standard.

In his recent media availability, he mentioned the things he couldn’t do on the ice, saying, “More like changing directions. Changing direction was tough, stops and starts were tough. I’m fast, but my advantage is my speed burst, that quick step. I had none of that.”

The Oilers’ captain registered six points in six games. Normally, registering a point per game would be considered a success for 95% of NHL players, but definitely not for the best player on the planet, who also sported a team-worst -8.

And his underlying metrics show just how tough the series was for McDavid and the negative effects of his injury, as his fancy stats at five-on-five are usually very good. But against the Ducks, according to Natural Stat Trick,  he posted a 46.67 CF%, a 47.38 xGF%, while being outshot 55–40, outchanced 46–35, and outscored 7–3.

That said, it’s hard to put the blame on McDavid for not producing a ton of points because of the injury he was dealing with. Did the Oilers need more from him? Of course. But he gets a bit of a pass because of what he was fighting through.

I think Oil Country is right there with me when I say this, but please get some much-needed rest this summer, my captain!

Oilers forward Zach Hyman was likely playing banged up in the first round of the playoffs against the Ducks, but the team certainly needed more from the former 50-goal scorer. He finished with just two goals in six games, had the third-worst plus-minus on the team at -6, and, facing elimination in Game 6, he finished the night at -3.

Also, the underlying numbers were not in his favour at five-on-five against the Ducks, as he posted a 44.44 CF%, 45.30 xGF%, while being outshot 51–36 and outscored 6–4.

Though in the final game, the effort was there from Hyman, he just wasn’t able to bury it. He was sprung on a breakaway and had a goal called back when he kicked it in. His facial expression after the puck crossed the line said it all and kind of epitomized the Oilers’ season as a whole to me in an “ah, sometimes it just doesn’t go your way” type of manner.

That said, despite likely fighting through a lingering injury, having missed five games down the playoff stretch with an undisclosed injury, a positive is that he was still throwing his body around in the series, finishing second on the team with 24 hits. Yet, overall, the Oilers needed him to produce more, as his 0.33 points-per-game was his lowest playoff scoring rate as an Oiler over the past five postseasons.

Much like many of the Oilers, a long offseason for the soon-to-be 34-year-old to rest and recover will likely do Hyman good.

Of all Oilers’ forwards heading into the playoffs, I was most interested in seeing how Jack Roslovic would perform.

He scored 21 goals in the regular season, including the fourth-most goals at five-on-five (15), and with him being an unrestricted free agent after this season, combined with a negative perception of not being a playoff performer after having been a healthy scratch for six of 15 games last season with the Carolina Hurricanes, I felt maybe, just maybe, that would be enough motivation for Roslovic to shed that perception and put up points in the playoffs. But just one measly assist in six games against the Ducks wasn’t exactly the playoff statement he was looking for.

There were several occasions where he made some nice defensive plays, but the Oilers needed secondary scoring, and he just didn’t provide it. At five-on-five, the Oilers were also outchanced 37–25 while he was on the ice.

Overall, Roslovic was a strong value signing in the regular season at a $1.5 million cap hit, scoring 21 goals, but unless he’s willing to take another $1.5 million-a-season deal — which is unlikely — I wouldn’t re-sign him, and his disappearing act in the playoffs, one he’s shown several times before, is a big reason why.

Matt Savoie became a staple on McDavid’s wing down the playoff stretch, proving that he can handle top-line minutes and finishing with 11 points in the final 15 games of the regular season. Because of that, many Oilers fans were intrigued to see how he’d handle his first taste of the postseason.

With only one assist in six games, it’s safe to say the postseason was quite the learning curve for Savoie, who played the bulk of his five-on-five minutes with McDavid (42:19).

Savoie learned that the battle level rises in the playoffs, as there were several instances where Ducks’ defenceman Jacob Trouba absolutely steamrolled the 5-foot-10 forward, dropping him to the ice on multiple occasions, with Savoie ranking third on the Oilers in hits taken in the series with nine.

Still, he had positives on the defensive side of the game. He was second among forwards in minutes played on the penalty kill (7:28), and he made an outstanding backcheck in Game 2 that led to Josh Samanki’s goal.

Did the Oilers need more point production from Savoie? 100%. Am I concerned about his ability to produce in the playoffs moving forward? Not a chance.

I’ve glanced at comments online comparing Savoie to former Oiler Kailer Yamamoto, who, at 5-foot-9, is also smaller in stature and whose play seemed to fizzle in the playoffs (though he most recently put up five points in six games with the Utah Mammoth).

Though what I feel separates Savoie from Yamamoto is his high hockey IQ.

At every level of hockey, Savoie has shown he can figure out the league he’s in. This past season, he figured out how to play defence in the NHL almost immediately, and then it took him about three quarters of the season to really figure out his offence, and eventually learning how to play alongside the best player in the world, in McDavid.

Overall, Matt Savoie was one of the positives from the Oilers’ 2025–26 season and moving forward, I have zero doubt that he’ll figure out how to use his skill and smarts to produce in NHL playoff hockey.

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