Just when you thought the Edmonton Oilers may have fallen asleep at the wheel on the first day of free agency, after a quiet start to the day, a flurry of signings followed the Darnell Nurse trade.

Among them was Mathieu Joseph, who signed a one-year contract carrying a $1 million cap hit.

If you look solely at his stats from last season alone, when he played 51 games in total — 39 with the St. Louis Blues and 12 with the Los Angeles Kings — scoring just two goals, it might not jump out as a signing that moves the needle significantly.

That said, Joseph had a frustrating 2025–26 campaign. An elbow infection sidelined him for seven games with the Blues, and he never seemed to gain traction. He was a healthy scratch at times, bounced in and out of the lineup, and ultimately fell down the depth chart. Last March, the Blues placed him on waivers for the purpose of a contract termination before the Kings signed him for the remainder of the season.

As a result of that down year, I feel the Oilers will be getting a highly motivated Joseph, and if you look beyond last season’s struggles, there’s reason to believe this could be a sneaky-good signing. Let’s take a look at what he could bring to the Oilers’ lineup.

The Laval, Quebec native is a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning, winning in 2020 and 2021. He didn’t play in the playoffs during the first Cup win, but suited up for six games in 2021, four in the Stanley Cup Final, where he registered a couple of assists.

Six playoff games in a Cup run may not seem like a lot, but that experience could still bode well for the Oilers. While he wasn’t a regular in the Lightning’s playoff lineup during their two Cup wins, he was still around the group and veteran leaders like Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, getting a first-hand look at the grind required to win it all. He has an understanding of what it takes to go on a deep playoff run and could provide support both on and off the ice if the Oilers go on another long postseason run.

According to NHL Edge data, last season the 29-year-old was clocked at a top speed of 22.78 MPH, ranking in the 77th percentile in the NHL, while his seven bursts above 22 MPH placed him in the 82nd percentile.

Joseph will bring a jolt of speed to the Oilers’ bottom six, and former Tampa Bay teammate Brayden Point once said of him, “[He’s] relentless on the puck. He creates chances out of nowhere because of his speed and his work ethic.”

Joseph has drawn a lot of penalties in the past. While Natural Stat Trick doesn’t track how penalties are drawn, logic suggests it often comes from his speed and ability to get a step on defenders. During the 2022–23 season with the Senators, he drew 23 penalties, which ranked fourth on the team, and the following season he drew 27 penalties.

However, he didn’t draw as many penalties with the St. Louis Blues, recording 21 drawn penalties in 99 games across two seasons, but that drop-off may simply reflect him not fully settling into a consistent role with the team.

Moreover, he also led the Senators in takeaways (20) during the 2023–24 season, which I’d imagine is at least partly tied to his speed and ability to close on opponents quickly.

In 2022–23 with the Senators, despite playing only 56 games, he was second among forwards in ice time on the PK unit (140:07). The following season, he played the third-most minutes among forwards (127:19) for Ottawa and led the team with 12 shorthanded takeaways.

In two seasons with the Blues, he played a total of 93 minutes on the PK. Impressively, during the 2024–25 season, with Joseph on the ice in just under an hour of PK time, the Blues allowed only two goals against.

Furthermore, he can be dangerous shorthanded as well.

He scored three shorthanded goals during his time with the Senators and added another with the Blues. One of those shorthanded tallies came on a breakaway last season, and at the time he described his approach on the penalty kill:

In total, Joseph has recorded 14 shorthanded points over the course of his career.

During the 2024–25 season, Joseph played with Kasperi Kapanen for 51:10 minutes before Kapanen was placed on waivers and claimed by the Oilers in November 2024.

When the duo of Joseph and Kapanen were on the ice with Brayden Schenn as the centreman, they outshot the competition 24–21. Though they didn’t score in 10 regular-season games together, they did connect for a goal in the preseason, with Kapanen setting up Joseph, as shown below.

At the time, Kapanen said of playing on a line with Joseph, “He was great.” He added, “I felt like we were hunting pucks and creating a lot of turnovers in the offensive zone.”

Much like I previously wrote about netminder Frederik Andersen, Joseph is a low-risk, high-reward type of signing, and his $1 million cap hit gives the Oilers the flexibility to send him to the AHL with full cap relief if it doesn’t work out.

That said, I’d imagine Joseph will be highly motivated on his one-year deal with the Oilers. Much like his former teammate Kapanen, who found a fresh start after being acquired by the Oilers in 2024, things didn’t work out in St. Louis due to injuries or fit, but he may have done some soul-searching, with this opportunity in Edmonton potentially being a last chance to stick in the NHL.

Although last season was a step back for Joseph, his toolkit still includes Stanley Cup pedigree, speed, tenacity, and PK ability, all of which could make him a valuable depth piece for the Oilers if everything clicks.

With Jason Dickinson returning to the Oilers after signing his five-year deal, he’ll be centering the third line, with the wingers still to be determined. While Joseph is likely destined to start on the Oilers’ fourth line to see how he does, I’m interested to see at some point what a Joseph–Dickinson–Kapanen line could do, given the familiarity between Joseph and Kapanen — a line consisting of a solid defensive centreman with two speedy wingers on either side of him.

Overall, there are more pros than cons with Joseph’s addition, and I’d wager he’ll come to training camp hungry to prove himself,  creating healthy competition in the Oilers’ bottom six.

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