The Edmonton Oilers will open training camp later this month without four players, and general manager Stan Bowman says he has not decided whether to bring in outside help to cover for them.
Goaltender Frederik Andersen, forwards Matt Savoie and Mattias Janmark and defenceman Alec Regula will all be unavailable when camp opens, the club announced in late August. Daily Hive reported that no return timelines were provided for any of the four, and that all of them could miss time at the start of the regular season. The Oilers open the 2026-27 schedule Sept. 29.
Savoie and Andersen were hurt during off-season training. Bowman told Sportsnet’s Mark Spector that Savoie is expected back considerably sooner than Andersen, and offered the most concrete assessment yet of the young forward’s recovery.
“It’s not like he’s going to miss half a season or anything like that,” Bowman said, according to The Hockey News. “It’s going to be much less than that.”
No exact timeline has been made public for Savoie, and none has been made public for Andersen either. The Hockey News reported that the Oilers intend to take a cautious approach with the 36-year-old goaltender rather than rush him back.
That caution carries more weight than a typical camp absence, because Andersen was signed specifically to stabilize a position that has undermined Edmonton for several seasons. The Oilers signed him to a one-year contract on July 1, weeks after he won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes, Daily Faceoff reported. Andersen missed Games 4 through 6 of that final with a knee issue.
With Andersen out, the crease falls to Tristan Jarry, acquired from Pittsburgh in a midseason trade last year and signed through 2027-28 at a US$5.375-million cap hit, and to Devon Levi, one of Edmonton’s summer additions. Jarry posted a .858 save percentage over his first 19 appearances with the Oilers after the trade, according to Daily Faceoff, and was on the bench for five of the team’s six playoff games.
Savoie’s absence lands differently. The 22-year-old put up 18 goals and 37 points as a rookie last season and spent roughly a third of his five-on-five minutes on Connor McDavid’s wing, Daily Faceoff reported. His unavailability opens the door for Ike Howard, the 2025 Hobey Baker Award winner, to take the first look alongside McDavid. Janmark, meanwhile, is recovering from shoulder surgery.
Whether Edmonton adds a body to camp remains open. Speaking on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer, Bowman stopped well short of committing to a professional tryout offer while acknowledging the market still has names on it.
“There are still some decent players out there who are trying to find landing spots,” Bowman said, in comments reported by Daily Hive. “I’m not sure if we’re going to go down that road.”
“We’re not overflowing with players, but we also don’t have a shortage of players. We’re in that mode where, yeah, we probably could try to bring a guy in on a tryout.”
The Oilers have just under US$2 million in cap space, per Daily Hive, which limits what a signing could look like beyond a tryout. Among the unsigned forwards Daily Hive listed as still available are Vladimir Tarasenko and Michael Bunting, along with former Oilers Evander Kane, Adam Henrique and Curtis Lazar.
All of it arrives in front of a season Edmonton has framed as a reset. The Oilers fired head coach Kris Knoblauch after a 93-point season and a six-game first-round loss to the Anaheim Ducks, and named Mike Babcock head coach on June 23. Bowman also traded Darnell Nurse to San Jose on July 1 and signed Ryan Shea in free agency the same day.
A tryout signing would be a minor move against that backdrop. It would also be the clearest signal yet of how long Bowman expects to be short-handed.
Sources: Daily Hive (Colton Pankiw, Sept. 3, 2026); The Hockey News (Jim Parsons, Aug. 28, 2026); Daily Faceoff (Mike Gould, Sept. 2, 2026).
Photo: Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, February 2022. Credit: All-Pro Reels (photo by Brian Murphy), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. This photograph is from a previous season and does not depict 2026 training camp.
