{"id":39818,"date":"2026-05-10T23:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/39818\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T23:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:36:24","slug":"edmonton-oilers-crushing-it-in-2026-playoffs-ex-edmonton-oilers-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/39818\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers crushing it in 2026 playoffs — ex-Edmonton Oilers that is"},"content":{"rendered":"

The oft-repeated motto, \u201cOnce an Oiler, Always an Oiler\u201d hits differently just now, with the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> crashing out of the 2026 playoffs, but three Edmonton Oilers<\/a> alumni killing it. One of the three is likely to win a Stanley Cup in his new NHL home next month.<\/p>\n

Brett Kulak, Taylor Hall and Ryan McLeod are all critical players on teams with excellent 2026 Cup prospects, Kulak and Hall especially, as they play for Colorado and Carolina respectively, two teams now favoured to meet in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m uncertain if this is a coincidence, but Kulak, Hall and McLeod were also involved in three of most controversial trades of the McDavid\/Draisaitl era of the team.<\/p>\n

The Taylor Hall-for-Adam Larsson, that infamous \u201cone-for-one\u201d deal, wasn\u2019t so one-sided a loss for the Oilers as some feared it would be, given how well Larsson played for Edmonton. He was a key player in the team\u2019s strong 2017 playoff push. If he had re-signed here, the trade might even be seen as a win for the Oilers. But he did not-resign here. Hall\u2019s own career has been up and down, with good and bad seasons. He\u2019s played on six different NHL teams since he left Edmonton. Neither Hall nor any of his new teams did much in the playoffs until he arrived in Carolina last year.<\/p>\n

Hall, 34, only scored two goals in 15 playoff games last season for Carolina, but he\u2019s crushing it this year on a dangerous line with Jackson Blake and Logan Stankoven. Hall leads the Canes in scoring with 12 points in eight games and in plus-minus at +10. There\u2019s a possibility he\u2019ll add a Stanley Cup to his trophy case this year, maybe even a Conn Smythe. Such success would greatly repair his reputation as an NHLer.<\/p>\n

As for Kulak, he\u2019s a second-pairing d-man on the Stanley Cup favourite Avs. He\u2019s playing the sixth most ice time of any player on the team, 20:40 per game. In other words, he\u2019s replicating in Colorado exactly what he did in Edmonton, where he consistently stepped up and played his best, most effective hockey in the playoffs. A second-pairing of Connor Murphy-Brett Kulak would have done the Oilers well in the 2026 playffs, but not to be as Edmonton traded away Kulak in order to clear cap space to bring in goalie Tristan Jarry. The move famously blew up in Edmonton\u2019s face, though if Jarry can rebound, perhaps the trade will be seen in a new light next year.<\/p>\n

When it comes to McLeod, he\u2019s not killing it stats-wise in the playoffs, but he\u2019s playing the third most minutes of any Sabres forward in the playoffs, behind only first line big guns Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch. He\u2019s had two good scoring years in Buffalo with 53 and then 54 points, going +13 last year and +25 this year. If the Oilers had a third line centre with such numbers, Edmonton fans would be singing from the roof tops and dancing in the streets. But, of course, McLeod was traded out of here for Matt Savoie, who is four years younger.<\/p>\n

Savoie showed solid promise in his game this year, so perhaps that trade will turn out to be a win-win, but Buffalo has already gotten its win with McLeod\u2019s strong play. It hits hard all the more in Edmonton because when McLeod was traded away, most Edmonton hockey observers were OK with it given that the team seemed to have a ready replacement in big, fast and even more skilled Dylan Holloway.<\/p>\n

Enough said on that colossal screw-up.<\/p>\n

The three players, Hall, Kulak and McLeod, didn\u2019t move on from Edmonton. Edmonton Oilers management moved on from them.<\/p>\n

How can there be any hard feelings then on their current success? I\u2019m rooting for them and hoping at least one of them realizes that greatest of hockey dreams in 2026, winning the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

Will you support the Cult of Hockey and the Edmonton Journal? $12 for one year. Let\u2019s do this!<\/a><\/p>\n

At the Cult of Hockey<\/p>\n

Kurt Leavins and 9 Things<\/a><\/p>\n

Top two options for Oilers with Darnell Nurse? Move him to forward or move him out<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The oft-repeated motto, \u201cOnce an Oiler, Always an Oiler\u201d hits differently just now, with the Edmonton Oilers crashing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4874,3072,3300,1135,17333,17338,52,263,17335,17339,17337,943,448,17334,17332,12474,1142,5766,17336,17331,3073],"class_list":["post-39818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alex-tuch","tag-brett-kulak","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-colorado","tag-connor-murphy-brett-kulak","tag-dylan-holloway","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-jackson-blake","tag-larsson","tag-logan-stankoven","tag-matt-savoie","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-rasmus-ristolainen","tag-ryan-mcleod","tag-sabres","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-tage-thompson","tag-taylor-hall","tag-tristan-jarry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}