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The Edmonton Oilers and their Plus-Minus Problem

3 1
18.11.2025
The man in the picture is Andrew Mangiapane, and I will get to why that is later. Remember when I mentioned that the Oilers have one of the worst goals against totals in the entire league so far this season? I thought it would be worth diving deeper into that.

Right now, the Oilers have 16 players with a negative plus-minus rating. Yes, you read that right. There are a whopping 16 Oilers in the red. See for yourself. That is absolutely horrendous, and if this team wants to get back to being a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, they need to bring that number down to four at the absolute most. Even at that point, no player should finish worse than minus-five.

Some of the names on that minus list are surprising. Mangiapane, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Trent Frederic, Adam Henrique, Brett Kulak, Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard, Kasperi Kapanen, Curtis Lazar, and even Connor McDavid are all included. These guys have been around long enough to know better. They are all well past the 200-game mark in their careers, which means we know exactly what type of players they are.

Matt Savoie, David Tomášek, Isaac Howard, and Alec Regula are also on the list. However, they are early in their careers, and we do not yet fully know what they will become. I am willing to give those four more rope because of their inexperience, even though the stat line is still ugly. They need more reps and more games to tighten up their defensive play.

Andrew Mangiapane takes the boobie prize for worst plus-minus on the roster right now,........

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