{"id":351753,"date":"2026-06-16T13:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=351753"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:01:18","slug":"1-player-oilers-must-check-in-2026-nhl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/16\/1-player-oilers-must-check-in-2026-nhl-free-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"1 player Oilers must check in 2026 NHL Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Edmonton Oilers didn’t make the Stanley Cup Final in 2026 after making each of the previous two Finals. Edmonton is beginning to feel a ton of pressure to win now while they still have each Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the roster. With the 2026 Stanley Cup Final now complete, the Oilers can turn their attention fully to the offseason.<\/p>\n

What Edmonton does actually stays to be seen. One move that is expected to occur is a trade involving Darnell Nurse. The Edmonton defenseman recently requested a trade out of Alberta following the 2025-26 campaign. Nurse, 31, is signed for 4 more seasons at a cap hit of $9.25 million.<\/p>\n

Clearing as much of that cap space as possible is essential for general manager Stan Bowman. As things stand, Edmonton only has about $14.5 million in available cap space<\/a>. This leaves the Oilers with some flexibility, but not much considering the rising salary cap. Edmonton goes to need to make some significant upgrades to the team. They usually’ll need as much cap space as they’ll get to make it occur.<\/p>\n

The particular moves Edmonton will need to make actually remain to be seen. But this will not be a team lacking when it comes to need. They might stand so as to add more forward depth to the roster. Adding defensive cover could also help, especially with Nurse out the door this offseason. Their goaltending woes actually need no mention here.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Oilers have a number of areas they need to deal with. With all this in mind, here is the one player the Oilers should sign when he becomes available in 2026 NHL Free Agency.<\/p>\n

Bobby McMann makes a number of sense for Oilers in NHL Free Agency<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Edmonton still boasts an incredible attack, with Draisaitl and McDavid remaining one of the best 1-2 punch within the NHL. Defenseman Evan Bouchard also emerged as a legitimate No. 1 defenseman, scoring 95 points for the Oilers this 12 months. Outside of those three players, though, Edmonton’s scoring depth is nigh non-existent.<\/p>\n

This will not be to say that Edmonton doesn’t have players it will possibly depend on. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins nearly hit the 60-point mark this season. Zach Hyman scored 31 goals in 2025-26 after falling in need of that mark the 12 months prior. Jack Roslovic was a great depth signing, as he scored 21 goals this 12 months, as well.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Roslovic is a free agent after this season. And there are inconsistencies with Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman that make it difficult to gauge what they’ll bring to the table moving forward. Adding one other forward to the highest nine could at the least give Edmonton some insurance in case one among their superstars has an off-night.<\/p>\n

Bobby McMann is a late bloomer, but he has been quite consistent over the previous few seasons. The 2025-26 campaign was his best, offensively. Splitting the season between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Seattle Kraken, the soon-to-be 30-year-old scored a profession high of 29 goals. He was unable to assist the Kraken make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he was excellent in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The Oilers will definitely battle a number of teams to sign McMann. He’s going to be a well-liked player in NHL Free Agency, even when he doesn’t have the track record of a number of the other wingers. There’s a likelihood he gets a healthy term, and he’s undoubtedly cashing in with a giant raise. The query is whether or not Edmonton is willing to outbid other teams, or if they are going to even have the prospect to accomplish that this summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Edmonton Oilers didn’t make the Stanley Cup Final in 2026 after making each of the previous two Finals. Edmonton is beginning to feel a ton of pressure to win now while they still have each Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the roster. With the 2026 Stanley Cup Final now complete, the Oilers can turn their attention fully to the offseason.<\/p>\n

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The Edmonton Oilers didn’t make the Stanley Cup Final in 2026 after making each of the previous two Finals. Edmonton is beginning to feel a ton of pressure to win now while they still have each Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the roster. With the 2026 Stanley Cup Final now complete, the Oilers can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[10012,805,649,8211,792,6768],"class_list":["post-351753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-agency","tag-free","tag-nhl","tag-oilers","tag-player","tag-sign"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351756,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351753\/revisions\/351756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}