The Oilers Cannot Keep Calling This Window Open While Treating the Roster Like It Is Finished

The Edmonton Oilers have spent years selling the same idea to themselves: if Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are healthy, the team is close enough to win.

That idea carried them to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, but it has also hidden too many roster problems for too long. Edmonton’s season ended with a 5-2 loss to Anaheim in Game 6, a first-round exit that landed harder because of everything that came before it. The Oilers did not need another reminder that McDavid and Draisaitl can drag a team deep into the spring. They needed proof that the roster around them was still moving forward.

That proof never arrived.

The cap sheet gives Edmonton some room, but the number does not come with a clean reset. According to Spotrac, the Oilers project to have $15.76 million in 2026-27 cap space, but only 15 active roster contracts are currently in place. The Jack Campbell buyout still carries a $2.6 million charge against the cap. Edmonton has space to work with, but it also has roster spots to fill and several contracts that already deserve a harder look.

Most of the public conversation usually starts with the biggest salaries. McDavid, Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse are the obvious names because their cap hits are impossible to ignore. That conversation is not irrelevant, but it has become too easy. The more uncomfortable problem sits in the middle of the roster.

Jake Walman is at $7 million. Zach Hyman is at $5.5 million. Tristan Jarry is at $5.375 million. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is at $5.125 million. Mattias Ekholm is at $4 million. Trent Frederic is at $3.85 million. Those are not background contracts. That is the salary range where a contender needs players who can hold matchups, extend shifts, and give the stars more than another mess to clean up.

The Oilers have too much money tied up in players who are not consistently changing playoff games. Fans and media can keep circling the highest earners, but Edmonton’s cap problem is not only about the top of the payroll. It is about the number of players making real money beneath the stars without giving the team enough when the games get heavier.

Nugent-Hopkins is the most difficult part of that conversation because of what he means to the franchise. He stayed through the worst years, adapted through different coaches, and remained one of the few links between the pre-McDavid Oilers and the current era. That history deserves respect, but it cannot decide his role anymore.

The playoff issue with Nugent-Hopkins was not only about his production. Too many shifts had the same look. He would receive the puck under pressure, get leaned on, and lose the strength battle before Edmonton could establish anything. This has become too common to treat like a small detail. It is not only about whether he gets on the scoresheet. It is about whether he can still handle the physical weight of the role Edmonton keeps giving him.

At $5.125 million, the Oilers cannot evaluate Nugent-Hopkins like a sentimental franchise piece. They have to evaluate him like a player occupying meaningful cap space on a team that still claims it is built to win the Stanley Cup. He can still help a good team, but help and dependence are not the same thing. Edmonton has to stop putting him in situations where the role is bigger than the impact, then expecting McDavid and Draisaitl to make the difference disappear.

The Stuart Skinner decision exposed another part of the same organizational problem. Edmonton keeps talking about development, but the team gave up on one of the few players it actually developed when the pressure got loud enough.

Skinner was drafted by the Oilers, came through their system, and helped them reach two straight Stanley Cup Finals. He had bad nights, and some of the criticism was earned. That still does not make the larger decision look wise. Young goalies rarely develop in a straight line. Edmonton had a goalie who knew the market, knew the pressure, and had already played meaningful playoff hockey for the team.

Instead, the Oilers moved Skinner, Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick to Pittsburgh for Tristan Jarry and Sam Poulin. The trade did not solve the larger question in goal. It only changed the name attached to it.

That matters because Edmonton did not simply move away from a struggling veteran. It moved away from a young goalie it drafted and developed. If the Oilers cannot ride out the hard parts with their own players, then development is not really part of the plan. It becomes a talking point until the next uncomfortable moment arrives.

Jarry now carries a $5.375 million cap hit, and that contract has to be judged by the standard Edmonton created when it made the trade. He was brought in as the answer. If he is only another version of uncertainty, then the Oilers paid to move sideways while giving up a younger goalie, a defenseman, and a future second-round pick.

This has been the larger Edmonton failure for almost a decade. The Oilers have had McDavid since 2015. Draisaitl became one of the best players in the world. The organization still has not built a strong enough internal pipeline beneath them.

Bouchard became a major piece. Skinner became an NHL goalie. After that, the record gets thin quickly for a franchise that needed young, affordable support around two franchise players. Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway should have been part of the next stage of the roster. Instead, Edmonton lost young players who could have helped keep the team cheaper, younger, and less dependent on veteran fixes.

Other contenders have found ways to keep feeding their NHL rosters. Dallas has turned draft picks into real contributors around its core. Florida has been aggressive, but it has also built a playoff roster that does not require one or two players to cover every weakness. Edmonton has changed names around McDavid and Draisaitl, but the burden keeps landing in the same place.

That is why this off-season cannot be another small adjustment dressed up as a plan. The Oilers do not need a few new bottom-six names and another public reminder that everyone believes in the room. They need a more ruthless evaluation of the players making real money beneath the stars.

Walman has to justify the price. Hyman has to be judged by what he is now, not only by what he was at his peak. Jarry has to prove the Skinner move was more than a reaction to frustration. Ekholm’s age and role have to be handled honestly. Frederic cannot be treated like a luxury piece if the impact does not match the commitment. Nugent-Hopkins has to be discussed without letting franchise loyalty soften the analysis.

The Oilers are not wasting McDavid and Draisaitl because they never built a competitive team. They did build one. They reached the Final twice and gave the fanbase legitimate spring memories. The waste comes from confusing those runs with proof that the roster was complete.

There is still time to fix it, but the old explanation cannot survive another summer. Edmonton cannot keep pointing to how close it came while protecting too many of the same problems. The cap space gives the Oilers a chance to act, but the harder part is deciding who no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt.

The McDavid-Draisaitl era has already given Edmonton enough proof of greatness. The question now is whether the Oilers can finally build a roster that stops asking greatness to cover for everyone else.