One intriguing dark-horse candidate to crack the Edmonton Oilers’ bottom-six in 2026-27 is Eduards Tralmaks.

The 29-year-old winger from Riga, Latvia was signed by Edmonton in free agency to a one-year contract at a $850K AAV on July 1.

Tralmaks’ career has spanned multiple leagues on both sides of the Atlantic. After winning the 2013 Latvian U18 championship with hometown team SK Riga, he moved to the United States, playing in the USHL, NCAA and AHL over the next ten years. He would then play two seasons with the Kladno Knights of the Czech Extraliga, leading the Czech league in scoring in 2024-25 and earning a two-way contract with the Detroit Red Wings. He spent the 2025-26 season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s AHL affiliate. Tralmaks also has extensive international experience, representing Latvia at the past three IIHF World Championships and the 2026 Winter Olympics.

However, one key accomplishment remains missing from his resume: playing in the highest league in the world.

“My whole life, I’ve been battling to get an opportunity to play in the NHL,” said Tralmaks last December. “At the end of the day, the goal is to play at least one game in the NHL.”

I would say Edmonton has eight forwards who are locks to make the NHL roster: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Vasily Podkolzin, Matt Savoie, Jason Dickinson and Kasperi Kapanen. From there, prospect Isaac Howard should get a long look in the top-nine, while Trent Frederic, Colton Dach, Mathieu Joseph, Mattias Janmark, and Josh Samanski are in the mix for the remaining spots. Max Jones and Quinn Hutson could also be in contention.

That gives Edmonton a total of 16 other forwards either already penciled into the lineup or competing for a spot. GM Stan Bowman has also stated he’d like to add another forward, either this summer or closer to the trade deadline.

Needless to say, Tralmaks faces a difficult path to NHL minutes.

So, what exactly are the Oilers getting in Tralmaks? Can he earn a role in Edmonton’s lineup, and perhaps even make an impact in 2026-27? Let’s dig into the numbers and the video to see what this player can bring to the Oilers.

Tralmaks has excellent scoring totals in lower leagues and international tournaments

The first thing that stands out about Tralmaks is his goal-scoring over the past three seasons. Much of that offence has come at even strength, an important detail given that he’s unlikely to see meaningful power-play opportunity in Edmonton.

Here is a closer look into his scoring rates over the past three seasons in the AHL and Czech Extraliga:

From 2023-24 to 2024-25, Tralmaks scored 44 goals in 100 Czech Extraliga games, a scoring rate that ranked in the 96th percentile (i.e. superior to 96 per cent of the league’s forwards). 5-on-5 scoring data for the league is not publicly available, but the available power-play data allows us to calculate non-power-play goals, which serve as a decently reasonable proxy for even-strength........

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