Soft Schedule, Hard Reality: Oilers Enter Season Banged Up and Under Pressure

The Edmonton Oilers enter the season with a new bench boss in Mike Babcock, fresh additions throughout the lineup, and the same annual mantra echoing through the room: start strong. Every year it’s the talking point. Every year it’s the goal. And every year, the Oilers somehow stumble out of the gate.

This season was supposed to be different. The schedule is soft early, loaded with teams Edmonton finished ahead of last year. On paper, it’s the perfect runway for a fast start.

But the injury list is already trying to drag them back to old habits.

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Ryan Nugent‑Hopkins Hurt — And It’s a Big One

Ryan Nugent‑Hopkins left practice yesterday, and today the news dropped: he won’t play in the home opener. The timeline is somewhere in the 2–3 week range, which is brutal for a team already stretched thin down the middle.

Colton Dach is being thrown into the fire at center — a position he’s never played professionally. Owen Michaels, a college signing who impressed in camp, will slot in as the third‑line center. Josh Samanski is available in Bakersfield, but that doesn’t solve the glaring hole at 2C.

When asked whether this forces him to split Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Babcock didn’t hide from the reality:

“Well, it could potentially for sure change that… injuries are just an excuse and you find ways to learn about your team. You gotta figure out ways to play it, so we are gonna figure out how to play.”

More Bad News: Savoie, Dickinson, Andersen, Janmark

Savoie was already expected to miss time after an offseason injury, but the timeline just got worse. Babcock’s update was blunt:

“Savvy, I think at the start of the week was eight weeks away.”

Eight weeks puts him into late November, a major blow for a team counting on him to stabilize the top six. The silver lining: Isaac Howard now gets a long runway to prove he belongs. He’ll get every chance to grab a job and not let go.

Dickinson, injured last week, is skating but not at full speed. He’s still “a little bit away,” which adds another hole down the middle.

The updates on Frederik Andersen and Mattias Janmark weren’t encouraging either:

“Freddy I think, maybe December and Janny… I don’t know this one. He’s a ways away.”

That means the Oilers will lean heavily on Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi as a 1A/1B tandem. Both looked sharp in preseason, so this isn’t a disaster — but Andersen was supposed to be the stabilizer. Now the kids have to carry the load.

What It All Means

The Oilers are staring at a tough reality: their push for a strong start is already compromised. They’re missing:

• Their second‑line center (Nugent‑Hopkins)
• Their third‑line center (Dickinson)
• Their starting goalie (Andersen)
• A projected top‑six winger (Savoie)

That’s a lot of core pieces gone before Game 1.

But Babcock’s message has been consistent — injuries are an excuse, and excuses aren’t welcome. This is an opportunity for others to step up, earn trust, and force their way into the lineup.

The schedule helps. The competition isn’t elite early, which makes it even more important to bank points now. The team is rested, motivated, and bought into Babcock’s push. They also just finished undefeated in the preseason — a first in franchise history, even if it was only four games.

The Oilers have talked for years about starting strong. This season, they’ll have to prove they can do it while shorthanded. If they can weather this storm, it’ll say more about their maturity and depth than any preseason optimism ever could.

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