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This year’s slow start for Oilers more concerning than previous seasons
Edmonton Oilers Stuart Skinner
Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Oct 20, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 20, 2025, 11:57 EDT
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Six games into the 2025-26 National Hockey League season, it’s clear that the Edmonton Oilers are struggling early for a third consecutive season.
After going 2-0-1 over their first three contests, the Oilers are now mired in a three-game losing skid, falling to the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and Detroit Red Wings. Edmonton sits in the bottom-third of the league standings at 2-3-1. 
In 2023-24, they started the season 2-9-1, but a November coaching change sparked some extednded winning streaks and a run to the Stanley Cup Final. Their early-season struggles to begin the 2024-25 weren’t nearly as bad. The Oilers started the campaign 2-4-1 before finding their groove during the spring, cruising to the Cup Final again. 
That said, the team’s struggles feel different this season. The 2023-24 season felt like they had quit on head coach Jay Woodcroft after he implemented a new defensive system. After dropping to 1-9-1, he won one more game before the Oilers let him go. 
Still, from Oct. 11 until Nov. 9, 2023, the Oilers had a 57.68 xGF% in five-on-five play, despite owning just a 38 GF%. Their expected goal share during this span was the best in the league, and by the end of the season, the Oilers finished with a 55.78 GF%, fifth-best in the league in 2023-24, also during five-on-five play.
In 2024-25, the Oilers got over their early-season struggles quickly, but it was similar to the season before. In those seven games from Oct. 9 until Oct. 22, 2024, the Oilers had an xGF% of 55.39% in five-on-five play, with a goal share of 39.13%. That xGF% ranked seventh in the league during this span.
This year? The Oilers aren’t underperforming their expected goals – they’re right where they should be. In five-on-five play, their 47.06 GF% ranks middle of the pack, but so too does their 49.33 xGF%. They’re also giving up more high-danger chances during five-on-five play than they’ve had this season, with a HDCF% of 45.83%, fifth-worst in the league. In the two previous years during their struggles, they had a league-best 62.07 HDCF% and a 59.02 HDCF% (second-best), respectively.
The slow starts in 2023-24 and 2024-25 were because they were unlucky; this season, it’s because the Oilers just aren’t generating chances, let alone finishing them. It isn’t just xGF% and HDCF%; the Oilers are struggling, as they are being outshot as well.
There are a few reasons to blame for this. Two of their key players, Zach Hyman and Jake Walman, are out with injuries. The loss of the latter has not helped their defence at all, as Darnell Nurse, Evan Bouchard, and Mattias Ekholm have had sub-optimal performances to begin the 2025-26 season.
The other main issue is that the Oilers have implemented a new defensive structure, the 1-3-1. It’s led to some boring hockey, but the Oilers have really only dominated one of their six games so far this season, a 3-1 victory over Vancouver. It’s not often you see the Oilers get out-chanced and outshot, but that’s exactly what’s been happening so far this season.
Hopefully, things can turn around sooner rather than later if they wish to make their third consecutive Stanley Cup Finals.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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