Connor McDavid won his sixth Art Ross Trophy with 138 points. Leon Draisaitl reached 1,000 career points and then missed the final 14 regular-season games with a lower-body injury. Four goalies used all year. Both stars injured in the playoffs. Anaheim scored on 50 percent of their power plays. Kris Knoblauch fired within two weeks. The question the organisation has never solved came back one more time.
By Mike Holloway · June 2026 · 2025–26 Season Review Series · Playoff Teams
Oct–Feb · Stuck in Neutral
McDavid brilliant. Team five-on-five declining. Four goalies. The lowest points percentage in eight years. The structural problems hidden in plain sight by the league's best power play.
Mar 15 · Draisaitl Injured
Lower-body injury vs Nashville. Missed the final 14 regular-season games. McDavid produced 24 points in those 14 games and was personally responsible for 54.5% of the team's goals.
Mar 15 · Ingram Named Starter
Same day as the Draisaitl injury. Connor Ingram finally ends the goaltending carousel, four months too late to settle the position before the playoffs.
Apr–May · R1 Collapse vs Anaheim
Both stars unhealthy. Penalty kill broken. Anaheim 8-for-16 on the power play. Knoblauch fired within two weeks. The earliest playoff exit since 2021.
For the eighth consecutive season, Connor McDavid was the best hockey player in the world. He scored 48 goals and assisted on 90 more for 138 points, the sixth Art Ross Trophy of his career, the second-best single-season total of his career, a number that places him in the very short company of players who have been this dominant for this long in the NHL's modern era. Leon Draisaitl reached 1,000 career points and was producing at a 97-point pace in 65 games before a lower-body injury removed him from the final 14 regular-season games. Two of the best players in the sport, in their prime, on the same team, for the third consecutive year arriving at the Stanley Cup Playoffs with legitimate championship expectation. For the third consecutive year, they did not win the Stanley Cup. For the first time in five years, they did not make it past the first round.
The Anaheim Ducks won four of six games, allowed 8-for-16 on the power play (50 percent, the most damning individual statistic of the Oilers' season), and eliminated Edmonton in Game 6 with a 5-2 win that felt inevitable to anyone who had been watching the penalty kill collapse across the series. McDavid had an ankle injury. Draisaitl returned from his lower-body issue but was not at full health. Zach Hyman was injured. Adam Henrique was injured in Game 1 and did not return. Mattias Ekholm was limited. The six-game series is the story of two elite players trying to drag an injured, penalty-kill-broken team past an opponent that was healthy, well-coached by Peter Quenneville, and hungry for its first playoff series win since 2018. It did not work. It was never going to work the way the Edmonton roster was constructed. And the construction is the question that has been asked, in one form or another, for every single year of the McDavid era.
138 Points and 97 Points in 65 Games. 235 Combined. The Second-Best Offence in the Western Conference.
The two players combined for 235 regular-season points, the most by any two-player pairing in the Western Conference. The power play they drive finished first in the NHL at 30.6%. The offence they generate is legitimate Stanley Cup-calibre offensive production. The problem is not Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. It has never been Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The problem is the other 21 players on the roster, and specifically: who plays in goal.
The five-on-five expected goal share dropped from 55.1% the prior season to 50.8% in 2025-26, a significant regression that reflects how much worse the forward depth around the two stars had become. Without the power play concealing those numbers, the regular-season team was mediocre at even strength. In the playoffs, without the power play functioning properly, the mediocrity was exposed.
The 2025-26 Edmonton Oilers Goaltending Rotation
Stuart Skinner started the season, lost the job during it. Calvin Pickard was brought in to compete and was placed on waivers in February. Tristan Jarry was an emergency acquisition who started Game 4 against Anaheim and allowed 4 goals on 38 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss. Connor Ingram was named starter on March 15, the same day Draisaitl was injured, and posted a 16-10-3 record with a 2.60 GAA and .899 SV% in the regular season before going 3.86 GAA and .876 SV% across five playoff starts.
The problem is not that the individual goalies are bad. Ingram, by many metrics, was adequate in the regular season and is a genuine NHL-quality starting goaltender. The problem is that the franchise has not solved the goaltending question in eight years of a McDavid-era team built to win the Stanley Cup. The 2017 Cup contender (Cam Talbot). The 2022 run (Mike Smith collapsing, Mikko Koskinen filling in). The 2024 Finals (Skinner). The 2025 Finals (Skinner again). And now 2026: a carousel of four goalies with none of them capable of stopping Anaheim's power play when it mattered most.
The Ducks scored 8 power-play goals in 6 games, one every game, finishing at 50%. A playoff team with a legitimate No. 1 goaltender does not allow its penalty kill to be exploited at that rate. The Oilers have never found that goaltender. The window in which finding him matters is finite. The summer must produce a different answer.
Anaheim 4, Edmonton 2, The Penalty Kill That Ended a Season
The series in numbers. Anaheim power play: 8-for-16 (50 percent), scored in every game. Edmonton power play: 4-for-14 (28.6%), zero power-play goals in three of the six games. Ingram in five starts: 3.86 GAA, .876 SV%. Jarry in Game 4: four goals on 38 shots. The penalty kill that ranked among the NHL's best in the regular season was broken by the absence of Henrique (G1 injury) and Jason Dickinson (not at 100%), both key PK forwards. McDavid and Draisaitl played injured. Hyman played limited minutes. Ekholm was restricted.
"Whoever keeps them out of the net the best is going to be successful," Ducks coach Peter Quenneville said before the series. It was the most accurate pre-series observation of the playoffs. Lukas Dostal, Anaheim's young goaltender, was the reason. Ingram and Jarry were the other reason.
Connor McDavid Is 29. Leon Draisaitl Is 30. The Window Has Produced Two Runner-Up Banners. How Many Summers Remain?
McDavid and Draisaitl are in their primes. The argument that time is running out is sometimes overstated for dramatic effect and sometimes genuinely correct. In this case it is correct: a 29-year-old and a 30-year-old who have made back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals and are now losing in the first round have a window that is narrowing, not opening. Every summer without the right goaltender is a summer that does not get back.
The five-on-five regression - from 55.1% expected goal share to 50.8% - is the structural warning sign that the team around the two stars is getting worse, not better. The forward depth that struggled all regular season evaporated entirely in the playoffs. Depth forwards like Jack Roslovic managed one combined point through the series. The Oilers have the two best individual pieces in the NHL. They have had them for eight years. What they have not had is the third, fourth, and fifth pieces that convert individual brilliance into team championships.
Kris Knoblauch was fired within two weeks of elimination. Reports followed of interest in Mike Babcock, a controversial name given his history, but a coach whose tactical ability is not in question. Stan Bowman remains as GM with the mandate to solve what no Edmonton regime has solved in the McDavid era: a credible starting goaltender and sufficient even-strength depth to make the team competitive without the power play. The summer of 2026 is the most consequential in Edmonton since the summer McDavid was drafted. The time for tinkering around the edges has passed.
2025–26 Individual Season Grades
138 pts (48G–90A) · 6th Art Ross · 400th career goal · 9th 100-pt season · played injured in playoffs
The second-best season of his career, on a team that finished with its lowest points percentage in eight years. His 24 points in the 14 games without Draisaitl, when he was personally responsible for 54.5% of the team's goals, is the most important stretch of McDavid's 2025-26 season and the evidence that his individual production is independent of his teammates. He played the playoffs with an ankle injury and still produced. The A-plus is for the individual. The team result is not his failure.
97 pts (35G–62A) in 65 GP · 1,000th career point · lower-body injury March 15 · returned to playoffs unfit
A 97-point pace in 65 games is elite production. The 1,000-career-point milestone arrived mid-season and Draisaitl joined a very short list of active players who have reached it this quickly. The injury that cost him the final 14 regular-season games and left him compromised for the playoffs is the most consequential individual health event of Edmonton's entire season, the roster was built with his full health as a baseline assumption. Without it, everything else struggled to compensate. His summer recovery is the first health priority entering training camp.
18G–19A–37pts · one of three forwards to play all 82 games · 5 GWG (tied team lead) · earned top-line spot
The one unambiguous development success story on the Edmonton roster in 2025-26. Savoie's first full NHL campaign produced a permanent spot on McDavid's line by the end of the season, an endorsement from the most demanding linemate in the league. His five game-winning goals tied for the team lead. His willingness to play in all 82 games while others around him were managed for injury is the character detail that explains why he earned the top-line promotion. He is 22. He is the forward development story the franchise has been waiting for.
+32 (team leader) · elite shutdown defender · limited in playoffs by injury
The defensive anchor that makes McDavid's offensive activation possible by removing the pressure of defensive zone starts. Ekholm's +32 regular-season rating is among the best for any defenceman in the Western Conference. His playoff limitation, restricted by injury across the series, contributed to the defensive breakdowns that allowed Anaheim's power play to operate at 50%. A healthy Ekholm in 2026-27 is the team's most important single defensive asset.
Four goalies used · Ingram named starter March 15 · 3.86 GAA in playoffs · Jarry 4 goals in G4 OT loss
The franchise's perennial problem, in its most acute form yet. Four goalies in a single season on a Cup-contending team. Ingram's regular-season numbers were adequate. His playoff numbers were not. Jarry's Game 4 start was a desperate coaching decision that produced a desperate result. The collective grade is for what the position delivered in the moments that mattered, playoff goaltending against an opponent that scored on half its power plays. That is the grade.
Fired within 2 weeks of elimination · Mike Babcock interest reported
He took Edmonton to two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. That is the historical record and it deserves acknowledgment. He also could not solve the goaltending carousel all season, could not build sufficient even-strength depth to offset the stars' power-play dependency, and watched his team's five-on-five performance regress from genuine contender level to coin-flip level over two seasons. The D reflects the 2025-26 season specifically, not the full tenure. The full tenure produced two Finals appearances. 2025-26 produced a first-round exit and a firing.
| Player | POS | GP | G | A | PTS | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connor McDavid | C | 82 | 48 | 90 | 138 | 6th Art Ross · 400th career goal · played playoffs injured |
| Leon Draisaitl | C | 65 | 35 | 62 | 97 | 1000th career point · injured March 15 · not 100% in playoffs |
| Zach Hyman | LW | - | - | - | - | Injured in playoffs · restricted McDavid's linemate options |
| Matt Savoie | RW | 82 | 18 | 19 | 37 | First full season · earned top-line spot · 5 GWG (tied team lead) |
| Mattias Ekholm | D | ~75 | - | - | +32 | Team plus/minus leader · limited in playoffs by injury |
| Connor Ingram | G | ~32 | - | - | 16W | 2.60 GAA reg season · 3.86 GAA playoffs · Bill Masterton nominee |
“The main knock against the Oilers has always been that they're too top-heavy. The 2025-26 Oilers look downright unbalanced compared to the teams that went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and 2025.”
— Daily Faceoff, pre-series preview - a prediction that proved accurate in every detail it named
Stan Bowman must answer the goaltending question. He must address the five-on-five regression. He must find forward depth that makes the team functional when the power play is neutralised. He must do it in a summer where the coach has been fired and the market knows that McDavid and Draisaitl's patience for process is limited by the biology of professional athletes' careers. He must do it without sacrificing the cap flexibility that keeps McDavid and Draisaitl in Oilers jerseys for the duration of their contracts. He must do it in one summer.
The good news, the only unambiguously good news from the 2025-26 Edmonton Oilers season, is that the two best players in the NHL are signed and healthy and returning. McDavid's 138 points happened on a team that finished with its lowest points percentage in eight years. On a better team, that number might be different. In a better context, real starting goaltending, genuine even-strength depth, a coach who solved the roster construction problems Knoblauch could not, the same McDavid and Draisaitl produce the same offence and a different result. The window is narrowing. It is not closed. The summer is the last chance to make that true rather than merely possible.
Browse the full set at Season Reviews. Previous in series: #15 Utah Mammoth.
Season Review Verdict
138 points. 97 in 65 games. Two straight Cup Finals. Then Round One, Game Six, 5-2. Four goalies. Both stars hurt. A penalty kill that allowed 50 percent. A coach fired. The question that has never been answered, one year older.
The C-plus reflects an individual excellence grade that cannot be lowered because of the players who produced it, and a team-result grade that cannot be raised because of the result it produced. The average of those two is exactly what this season was.
McDavid had the second-best season of his career. Draisaitl reached 1,000 points and produced at a 97-point pace. The team around them finished with the lowest points percentage in eight years and lost in the first round to a team that scored on half its power plays. The summer is the most consequential in Edmonton since the summer Connor McDavid was drafted. Either the goaltending question gets a real answer this time, or it gets asked again a year older.