There’s a big difference between a team on paper and how it performs on the ice. The Edmonton Oilers know all about that, especially after how good the team looked this past July 1 when they signed forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner. This all looked good in theory, and then things just kind of went downhill from there. Fast-forward to the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, big names such as Mikko Rantanen got moved to the Dallas Stars and Brad Marchand was traded to the Florida Panthers. Meanwhile, the Oilers were cash-strapped and couldn’t land a big fish.
Related: Bowman Fails Oilers in Disappointing Trade Deadline Showing
TSN’s TradeCentre panel were busy anointing the Stars, Panthers, and Colorado Avalanche as legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, and only one panelist, host James Duthie, still thinks the Oilers deserve some Stanley Cup consideration. Not surprisingly, perennial Oilers critic Craig Button is predicting they will bow out in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Los Angeles Kings. How quickly people forget.
Many Oilers Fans Not Happy
After the trade deadline, not only are hockey experts not picking the Oilers, but listening to Bob Stauffer’s coverage on 880 Ched, you’d think the sky was falling in for the Oilers. Stauffer himself still remains optimistic, but the amount of negative texts he was getting into this show was daunting. Edmonton Journal and Cult of Hockey Writer David Staples also published a piece gauging fan reaction, and things don’t look so pretty in Oil County these days (from “Staples: ‘Huge fail’: Hockey world reacts to Edmonton Oilers standing pat on deadline day,” Edmonton Journal, 3/7/25).
So many Oilers fans were jumping off the bandwagon saying that general manager (GM) Stan Bowman hadn’t done enough to keep up with the arms race in the NHL’s Western Conference. I actually thought he did a pretty good job in picking up forwards Trent Frederic, Max Jones and defenceman Jake Walman. The Oilers got bigger and added more grit up front, and Walman is a really solid defenceman who I believe is really going to help.
As far as getting a goaltender to replace Calvin Pickard or Stuart Skinner, the best move the Oilers may have made was not making any move at all, especially when you look at the market for goaltenders out there. Yes, John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks might’ve been a good add, but his $6.4 million cap hit was too rich, especially for a goalie who hasn’t won a Stanley Cup. There just weren’t any deals for a Dwayne Roloson type of goalie out there, and the Oilers may have saved themselves a lot of headaches by standing pat. If the tandem of Skinner and Pickard can come up big in the playoffs, then maybe all the talk about goaltender replacements will go away. We’ll see what happens once the postseason starts in mid-April.
Overcoming Adversity Is Key to Winning the Stanley Cup
The feeling of winning a championship is made sweeter when a team has to overcome adversity. Look at the recent 4 Nations Face-Off where Team Canada had to go into enemy territory and beat Team USA despite losing to them in Montreal just a few days earlier. Some Oilers fans might remember the 1990 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Oilers starting goalie Grant Fuhr went down with a shoulder injury and the team had to rely on unproven backup Bill Ranford. The rest is history as Ranford went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Oilers captured their fifth Stanley Cup title. Just because a few teams stockpiled huge contracts at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline doesn’t mean they’re an automatic lock to win the Stanley Cup. I like the fact that the Oilers are considered underdogs now. It’ll only make things sweeter once you see the wins pile up in the playoffs.
