With two years remaining on Connor McDavid’s contract, this will be the most important off‑season in the McDavid and Draisaitl era for the Edmonton Oilers.

There is no doubt the team needs to make meaningful changes, and their recent decision to fire Kris Knoblauch shows the organization is willing to do so. But whether that ultimately ends up applying to their roster or not will depend heavily on how they manage their cap space.

The NHL has set next season’s salary cap at $104 million, giving Edmonton over $15 million in space to work with. They have a combined 10 (noteworthy) pending UFAs and RFAs heading into the summer. 

Without further ado, let’s dig deeper into Edmonton’s overall cap picture and how it will shape their offseason plans. 

*All cap info via PuckPedia, all player and team statistics via Natural Stat Trick and EvolvingHockey

Where they currently stand

Here is Edmonton’s rough roster template as it currently stands:

The line combinations can obviously be adjusted, but the goal here is simply to show the general structure. Note that I would assume Isaac Howard will be a full-time NHL player for the Oilers this upcoming season, or at the very least, I expect him to be given a long, extended look, likely to begin the season.

So, with this setup, the Oilers will have approximately ~$15.52 million worth of cap space for three forwards, two defencemen, and one goalie, assuming the other 16 players on this roster remain. 

Specifically, they will likely need one top-six winger (or at least, one more player that can effectively play in the top-six), two bottom-six forwards, a second pair right-defenceman, a depth defenceman, and a goalie, likely a starting goalie in the scenario that Tristan Jarry does not bounce back (which, unfortunately, may seem most probable).

Can they run it back?

Can Edmonton bring back the exact roster that finished the 2025-26 season? The realistic answer is no. But they could bring back most of them.

Let’s take a look at Edmonton’s notable pending UFAs and RFAs from 2025-26 and what their next contracts might look like. I will use projection models from both EvolvingHockey and AFP Analytics, which have historically and generally been fairly reliable, though they can miss on certain players; you’ll see below where some of the numbers feel off. Nevertheless, I believe the models are still useful to at least consider. Here’s the list of those UFAs and RFAs along with their projected contracts: 

We begin with Jack Roslovic, who was signed on opening night to a one‑year, $1.5 million deal and produced 21 goals and 36 points in 69 games, though he managed just one point in six playoff games. Both models project him above $4 million on a multi‑year deal, which may be a tad high, as I could see him........

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