The Edmonton Oilers can rely on Connor McDavid to dominate for 22 minutes per night, but that alone isn’t enough to win a Stanley Cup.

It’s whether they can limit the damage in the non-McDavid minutes that ultimately determines their ceiling. For months, depth issues defined their 2025-26 season, but lately, they’ve shown significant progress. 

At the Olympic break, the Oilers were a brutal minus-19 without McDavid on the ice. The bottom six cannibalized the gains made by the top of the lineup night in and night out. Since the break, however, they’re nearly breaking even at minus-two despite missing Leon Draisaitl for half of those games. 

Their recent improvement isn’t driven by hot goaltending or shooting percentages either. The supporting cast is genuinely controlling play. At five-on-five, their expected goal share without McDavid has climbed from 46 percent before the break to 51 percent. What’s driving this progress? And what’s going to happen when the team gets healthy again, and the lineup gets crowded? Let’s dive in.

System changes

Perhaps the most significant difference between the Oilers now and the group we saw opening night is their tactical adjustments. One switch they made was tempering their aggression on the forecheck. For months, they struggled to defend in transition, so their F3 is now staying above the puck more consistently, which has reduced the odd-man rushes against.  

The biggest change they’ve made at 5-on-5, however, is to their breakouts. Earlier in the season, the Oilers’ forwards routinely tried to blow the zone and push the opposing defence back. Their approach proved far too aggressive. It often left defencemen without a short outlet, forcing them to make low-percentage stretch passes under pressure.

The problem was particularly worrying for depth lines, since they weren’t sharing the ice with Edmonton’s........

© Oilers Nation