As the longest-serving player on the Edmonton Oilers’ current roster, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been extremely important for the organization in more ways than one. Often referred to as the team’s “Swiss Army Knife,” Nugent-Hopkins has been exceptionally versatile, able to play both centre and wing at 5-on-5 while also being a key contributor on both the power play and the penalty kill.

In particular, perhaps where Nugent-Hopkins has been most valuable is on the man advantage. Here’s a crazy stat: in the 2025-26 season, Edmonton’s top power-play unit generated 15.4 goals per hour with RNH on it. Without him, it dropped to just 7.5. Pretty incredible split.

However, as Nugent-Hopkins nears his mid-thirties, some concerning trends in his underlying numbers have emerged, suggesting it may be time to reassess how he’s deployed within the roster.

Specifically, these concerns concern his performance at even strength, where he has spent the vast majority of his time in the top six. But for reasons that we will discuss in this article, perhaps it would be best for that to change.

We’ll start with a very simple overview of RNH’s 5v5 points per hour rate in each of the past five seasons:

In terms of individual performance, the peak of RNH’s career came in 2022-23, the season in which he hit the outstanding 100-point milestone. The majority of those points came on the power play, but make no mistake, he remained very good at 5-on-5. His points per hour rate of 2.14 was higher than several notable names that season, such as Mark Scheifele, Kirill Kaprizov, and Brad Marchand.

However, there has been a clear drop-off ever since. 

In the past two seasons, Nugent-Hopkins’ 5-on-5 points per hour rate sits at just 1.31. Among all players with a minimum of 750 minutes played over that timespan, that rate ranks at a lowly 339th place. Ouch.

Perhaps one may argue that rate stats can overrate fourth-liners who play fewer minutes, but even if you look at raw totals, RNH sits at 277th in the league in total 5-on-5 points at 43. He had fewer points at 5-on-5 than the likes of Nick Cousins and Jordan Martinook in 2025-26. 

Take into account that Connor McDavid has been his most common linemate over the past two seasons at 5-on-5, and these results are, frankly, quite ugly for RNH. Simply put, these production rates are not nearly at the level of an adequate top-six player.

Now, with all of that said, points are not everything, particularly in this case for two reasons. 

First, while a player who most frequently plays with Connor McDavid should be producing more in theory, RNH’s other most common linemates include Zach Hyman and Evan........

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