Oilers Players Experience More Frustration at World Championship

After their team’s postseason came to an early end, with a loss to the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a quintet of Edmonton Oilers players decided to compete at the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland.

Defencemen Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse were named to Team Canada, blueliner Mattias Ekholm joined Team Sweden, forward Issac Howard was selected for Team USA, and centre Josh Samanski joined Team Germany.

The World Championship represented an opportunity for each of these Oilers to get rid of some of the bad taste from a disappointing NHL season. But that’s not how things turned out.

While the Edmonton players provided strong individual performances at the World Championship, all of their respective teams fell short of expectations. Just like a few weeks earlier in Anaheim, Bouchard, Nurse, Ekholm, Howard and Samanski left the ice having lost their last game.

Now that the 2026 World Championship has concluded, with Finland beating Switzerland in the gold medal final on Sunday (May 31), here’s a look at how things went for the five participating Oilers.

Josh Samanski, Team Germany

After failing to advance beyond the group stage at the 2025 World Championship, ending a streak of five straight quarter-final appearances, Germany was hoping to get back to the playoff stage this year. They came up just short, however, finishing fifth in Group A with 10 points, one shy of qualifying.

Samanski did his part, scoring two goals and adding five assists over seven games to tie for third on the team with seven points. His best output came in a 6-2 victory over Austria, which saw Samanski record one goal and two assists.

The Erding native looks to have a bright future representing his country. He is now tied for most points among all German players at the last two World Championships combined, with 12. Samanski totalled five points in his debut at the annual tournament last year.

Issac Howard, Team USA

Having ascended to the top of the hockey world by winning gold at the 2026 Olympics, Team USA is now in a position where it’s expected to contend for the championship at every international event. But the Americans never really got on track in the tournament, and didn’t clinch a quarterfinal berth until the final day of group play, before being shut out 4-0 by Canada in the quarterfinal.

Over eight games, Howard totalled four points. He had three goals, tied for second most on Team USA, behind only Olympic gold medalist Matthew Tkachuk. He also scored the winning goal in one of USA’s three regulation victories, against Great Britain.

Howard made his World Championship debut in 2025 when USA captured gold, but only played four of the team’s 10 games. This year, he took on a much more significant role, and based on his performance, international opportunities should continue to come the 22-year-old’s way in the future.

Mattias Ekholm, Team Sweden

Team Sweden was coming off consecutive podium finishes at the 2024 and 2025 World Championships, but didn’t even get a chance to play for a medal this year after losing 3-1 to hosts Switzerland in the quarter-final round.

However, Sweden’s shortcoming certainly wasn’t for lack of effort from Ekholm, who more than lived up to his role as alternate captain. The veteran led Sweden with a plus/minus of plus-6, while tying for third among all blueliners at the World Championship with three goals. He also recorded a pair of assists to finish with five points over eight games.

This was Ekholm’s sixth and possibly last appearance at the World Championship. He turned 36 during the tournament and is a lot closer to the end than the start of his career. If this was the Borlange product’s final time representing his country, he went out proudly.

Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse, Team Canada

Canadian fans were hoping for some degree of redemption at the World Championship, after Team Canada’s heartbreaking overtime loss to the United States in the Olympic gold medal final three months ago.

The tournament started promisingly, with Canada finishing atop Pool A, and Canada did manage to get revenge on Team USA, eliminating their North American rivals in the quarter-final. But everything went sideways after that.

First, Canada lost to Finland in the semi-final. Then, in the bronze medal game, Canada suffered one of the biggest upsets in international hockey history, losing 3-2 in overtime to Norway.

In a scene that was far too familiar to Oilers fans this season, a misplay from Nurse led to Norway’s game-winning goal. The Edmonton defenceman laid out to try taking away the pass on a 2-on-1, but that only created an opportunity for Norway forward Noah Steen to fire the puck past Canadian netminder Jet Greaves.

For the most part, Nurse otherwise had a solid tournament, recording six assists to tie for third most among all defencemen at the World Championship.

Bouchard was unable to play Canada’s last two games after he was leveled with a dangerous hit by Team USA’s Ryan Lindgren during the quarter-final. The Oakville product shone through seven games in group play, racking up a goal and five assists while leading Canadian defencemen in ice time during group play. Despite being sidelined, he still finished the World Championship second among all players with a plus/minus of plus-14.

Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said that Bouchard is doing well and will be fine. That’s a relief to Oilers fans, as attention now shifts to the 2026-27 season, which gets underway in less than four months.