With the preseason just weeks away, excitement is building up among hockey fans. The Edmonton Oilers fell one win short of winning the Stanley Cup last season and wasted no time improving the roster this offseason. While there are many reasons to believe they can win the 2025 Stanley Cup, there are also a lot of concerns that could ultimately lead the team short of their goal.
Defensive Depth Concerns
The first, and most glaring, concern the Oilers will face is in the defense, specifically the bottom four. The team lost Philip Broberg, Cody Ceci, and Vincent Desharnais this offseason. While none were massive contributors to the defense, they each played a role in getting the team to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Even with their mishaps, losing three defensemen will hurt the team, at least to begin the regular season.
This is not an issue that cannot be overcome, but there are a lot of hurdles to climb. The first hurdle is figuring out the defensive pairings. 24-year-old Ty Emberson was brought in from the San Jose Sharks and has experience playing top-four minutes. However, he has just 30 NHL games in his career, all last season with the last-place Sharks, meaning he has never played a shift with as much on the line as the Oilers will be playing for. He previously played for Kris Knoblauch with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL, so there is reason for optimism there, but only time will tell if he is ready to play a big role in the Oilers top four.
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Additionally, the Oilers still need to figure out who their sixth defenseman is. Assuming Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak remain on the left side, there is still a need for a third, right-handed defenseman. Josh Brown has not performed well enough in his career to be deemed capable of being the third-pairing defenseman on a Stanley Cup-winning team, and while Troy Stecher had some strong stretches last season, he, too, is in a similar boat to Brown. The Oilers could still sign a veteran like Kevin Shattenkirk or Justin Schultz to a PTO, but even then there is a lot of uncertainty.
No Cap Space
If the Oilers decide to begin the regular season with their current roster, it is not like they would be able to easily make a midseason trade to improve the blueline. As of now, the team has $945,833 in projected cap space. Enough salary could be accrued to add a solid defenseman at the 2025 Trade Deadline, but without…
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