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Ty Emberson vs. Joel Hanley: Top Oilers fights of 2025-26

Edmonton Oilers Ty Emberson Calgary Flames Joel Hanley

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

By Ryley Delaney

Jul 30, 2026, 19:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 30, 2026, 14:51 EDT

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This summer, Oilersnation will recap the top five Edmonton Oilers goals, the top five fights, and the top five overall moments from the up-and-down 2025-26 season.

There’s nothing better than a red-hot Battle of Alberta. On the rare occasion both teams are good, which is mainly the Calgary Flames’ fault, tempers tend to flare up.

Who could forget the 2019-20 season? With the two teams playoff-bound, there was a lot to play for entering the new year. The two teams played each other four times in a little over a month, and a Matthew Tkachuk hit on Jan. 11 was the spark that set things off.

Kassian and Tkachuk fought on Jan. 29, as did Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sean Monahan. In their final matchup on Feb. 1, all hell broke loose, and Mike Smith fought Cam Talbot in one of the most entertaining games of my lifetime.

Of course, 2020 is associated with something else, and the global pandemic robbed us of a possible first-round matchup between two teams. Two years later, the two Albertan teams did play, and while it was high-scoring and chippy, no fights happened. The Oilers eventually won the series in five, and the Flames have been in a rebuild ever since.

Although the Flames are, let’s put it frankly, bad, there was still some tension this past season. The two teams weren’t very festive in their two games near the holiday break, with 10 players getting a game misconduct at the conclusion of Dec. 23’s game. Not much happened in their game four days later, but the best fight of the Oilers’ season came on February 4th, 2026.

How did the fight between Ty Emberson and Joel Hanley unfold?

This time around, there was no spark like Tkachuk’s hit on Kassian. It was just two featherweights dropping the gloves after an icing. Hell, there’s no way to explain this fight other than they threw caution to the wind, exchanging punches in the pocket. Both landed strong punches, and it didn’t faze either player.

As for the hockeyfights voting, 41 of the 77 voters saw this as a draw, and it’s not hard to see why. Overall, it received a 7.31 rating, not just the highest-ranked Oilers fight, but also the highest-voted Flames fight.

In fact, there were very few fights this past season, and those that did either had a goalie involved or saw notable fighters like Mathieu Olivier, Nicolas Deslauriers, Arber Xhekaj, and others of that ilk. Emberson and Hanley, two players who don’t fight often, needed to have a special fight to get a rating this high, and they did just that.

At the end of the fight, the two players showed respect, and while neither player won the fight, the fans watching this game were the winners.

What were the Oilers’ top fights of the 2025-26 season?

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on X at @Ryley__Delaney.

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