Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers Have Found a Winning Formula, but There’s a Big Catch

The Oilers are off to a strong start, but their defensive minutes reveal a top-heavy strategy that could shape Edmonton’s season.

by
Old Prof
October 12, 2026

The Edmonton Oilers are the last team in the league without a regulation loss at 4-0-1, and everybody has a theory. Babcock’s structure, better health, a fresh energy in the room. Some of that might be partly true. But the numbers hide something easy to miss: how the Oilers are using their defence.

The Oilers Have Started Much Better This Season Than Last

Last year after five games, Edmonton was 2-2-1 with a top four of Bouchard, Ekholm, Nurse and Kulak. This year it’s Bouchard, Shea, Ekholm and Murphy, and Babcock and D.J. Smith are leaning on them a lot more. The top four have played about 455 minutes through five games, compared to 431 at this point last year. That’s almost five more minutes a night.

Here’s the interesting part. Bouchard isn’t picking up the slack. He’s actually down about 24 seconds a game. The extra work went to the guys behind him. Ryan Shea is averaging just over 23 minutes, more than Nurse was playing at this point last year, and Murphy is at about 21, up from roughly 19 for Kulak. All four are above 21 minutes a night.

The Oilers Third Pairing Isn’t Playing as Much as Last Season

Meanwhile, the third pair has been trimmed way down, by just over five minutes a game. Walman is at about 14:47, and Mukhamadullin and Emberson are each around 11 minutes. So all that talk about giving more players a bigger role hasn’t turned into a deeper rotation. It’s turned into a top-heavy one, and Shea in particular has stepped in and played like a top-pair guy.

Now for the honest part. It’s five games. The Oilers gave up 13 goals in their first two, so this isn’t a lockdown defence. And there’s a cost to leaning on four players this hard, especially with injuries already piling up around the league. Twenty-one-plus minutes a night gets heavy over 82 games.

But early on, it looks like a smart bet. The best defenders are on the ice more, the weaker ones are on it less, and the team is winning. If the top four can hold up, this could be one of the quiet reasons Edmonton’s start looks so different from last year’s.