The Edmonton Oilers are set to face the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season, and are looking to defeat them again and start to carve their path to another deep run into the postseason. The Oilers came up just short last season, losing in seven games to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, and are hoping for more success this season. After a ton of injuries heading into the postseason, captain Connor McDavid remains confident in the team and believes they can make another deep run and make a push for their first Stanley Cup since 1990.
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“I don’t like the theory that people are counting us out,” McDavid said, adding: “We’re a great team here. We’ve had bumps and bruises along the way here, but we’re a dangerous team when we’re rolling and we’re healthy. I think you’ll see that over the next little while, and we’re looking forward to showing that.”
The Oilers have been without Evander Kane for the entire 2024-25 regular season, and have recently seen Mattias Ekholm, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Jake Walman, Stuart Skinner, Troy Stecher, John Klingberg, and Trent Frederic deal with injuries as well, and while most of them are expected to be ready for the first game of the postseason, Ekholm will miss the entirety of the first round, potentially more. McDavid also dealt with an injury that kept him out of the lineup for a while, but he returned before the end of the regular season and was able to hit the 100-point plateau.
Oilers Have Tough Decisions to Make
The Oilers have some tough decisions to make heading into the postseason. Considering they have plenty of depth at all positions, they need to choose which players will be healthy scratches for the first game of the playoffs. Max Jones, Mattias Janmark, Klingberg, and Stecher might all be on the outside looking in, but their good play as of late forces the team to make some tough decisions. Noah Philp was also playing extremely well before he was sent down, and it will be interesting to see who will be playing and who won’t be.
Kane could be someone who eases his way back into the lineup after missing an entire season, but he shouldn’t have an issue getting back into the swing of things offensively. Fans have seen what Kane can bring to the lineup with his physicality and offensive style of play when he’s at his best, and while he is now fully healthy, there is optimism that he can find a way to bring back the dominance Oilers fans have grown to love.
At the end of the day, the Oilers have some extremely tough decisions to make with their lineup and will have to choose from a long list of players who play and who don’t. This is a much stronger team than last season, both at forward and defensively, and fans should be optimistic about their chances of making a deep run into the postseason. Despite losing Ryan McLeod, Dylan Holloway, and Philip Broberg in the offseason, they found strong replacements and added even more firepower at the 2025 Trade Deadline to make their case to be one of the favourites for the Stanley Cup. It should be interesting, and this could be their best chance to win a championship in the past several seasons.
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