Welcome to Oilersnation’s annual player review series, where we dive into the Edmonton Oilers season player by player. We’ll look back at the season that was, what kind of impact each player had, and what we could see from them next season. You can read about the analytics behind my analysis here. 

A promising start

From the moment he arrived in Edmonton at the 2025 trade deadline, Jake Walman made his presence felt. In his first game with the Oilers, he sat down Mikko Rantanen with a huge open ice hit and delivered a long-range flip pass onto the tape of Zach Hyman for a breakaway goal.

That was just the appetizer for his dominant stretch run. He finished the season first among Oilers defencemen in goal share at 61.9 per cent and produced eight points in 15 games.

In the playoffs, Walman was instrumental in Edmonton’s steamrolling of the Western Conference bracket. Kris Knoblauch deployed him in a third-pair role next to John Klingberg, and their ability to push the pace and move the puck up ice quickly gave Edmonton’s depth lines a significant advantage. It was largely their contributions that led to a 25-14 edge for the Oilers during that run without McDavid and Draisaitl on the ice.

The Stanley Cup Final ended in disappointment for Edmonton, but Walman emerged from the playoffs as one of their most impactful defencemen. On Oct.........

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