Just when you thought the Edmonton Oilers may have fallen asleep at the wheel on the first day of free agency, after a quiet start to the day, a flurry of signings followed the Darnell Nurse trade.

Among them was Mathieu Joseph, who signed a one-year contract carrying a $1 million cap hit.

If you look solely at his stats from last season alone, when he played 51 games in total — 39 with the St. Louis Blues and 12 with the Los Angeles Kings — scoring just two goals, it might not jump out as a signing that moves the needle significantly.

That said, Joseph had a frustrating 2025–26 campaign. An elbow infection sidelined him for seven games with the Blues, and he never seemed to gain traction. He was a healthy scratch at times, bounced in and out of the lineup, and ultimately fell down the depth chart. Last March, the Blues placed him on waivers for the purpose of a contract termination before the Kings signed him for the remainder of the season.

As a result of that down year, I feel the Oilers will be getting a highly motivated Joseph, and if you look beyond last season’s struggles, there’s reason to believe this could be a sneaky-good signing. Let’s take a look at what he could bring to the Oilers’ lineup.

Stanley Cup experience

The Laval, Quebec native is a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning, winning in 2020 and 2021. He didn’t play in the playoffs during the first Cup win, but suited up for six games in 2021, four in the Stanley Cup Final, where he registered a couple of assists.

Six playoff games in a Cup run may not seem like a lot, but that experience could still bode well for the Oilers. While he wasn’t a regular in the Lightning’s playoff lineup during their two Cup wins, he was still around the group and veteran leaders like Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, getting a first-hand look at the grind required to win it all. He has an understanding of what it takes to go on a deep........

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