EDMONTON — The calendar year in Oil Country no longer passes quietly as it once did.
Today we say goodbye to 2025, which brought Edmonton Oilers fans have far more joy than grief, although admittedly the grief that did come had a grimly familiar aftertaste. Another sunset at Sunrise, another set of parade plans shoved back into the city planner's desk drawer to be used another time.
The Boston Bruins were supposed to be the latest casualty in 2025's 69-win season, including playoffs, but something went wrong on the way to the party. The Bruins won 6-2 when goaltender Connor Ingram fell to the ground in his worst start since being called up to Edmonton four games ago, and his team followed suit.
Boston was by far the better team, but the Oilers still managed to put their heads on the pillows Wednesday night as the first-place team in the Pacific Division—a worthy feat considering the tough schedule the NHL threw at them in the first half of the 2025-26 season.
But what has a year passed?
Is a year that produced three playoff series wins, another Conference championship and a second straight Stanley Cup appearance anything less than a success? Of course, it's not a complete success, but ask people in 30 other cities – or six other Canadian markets that haven't competed in the Cup in years – if they would take this template for their team. We would like to assume that we know what the answer will be.
2025 ends Connor McDavid on a legendary tear, having established himself as the undisputed best hockey player on earth and ready to show the world a new level of Olympic performance, as we wrote about Here.
On Wednesday, McDavid capped the most productive month of his career with one assist against Boston. He scored 34 points in December, surpassing his personal best of 31 points achieved twice in his career.
McDavid's 2025 was as tragic as his team's season: the good news was that he signed a new contract to remain an Oiler. Ugh!
Bad news? It was only a two-year deal, not the eight-year deal locals had hoped for. So the clock is ticking again in Edmonton.
Alas, Leon DraisaitlThe eight-year contract with the Oilers began in October 2025. So if McDavid were to disappear tomorrow, the Oilers would still have one of the three best centers in the world on their roster.
The year ends with injured goaltender Tristran Jarry, who is portrayed as either the answer or the problem in Edmonton's perennial goaltending problems (depending on his health) and unhappy Andrew Mangiapane. Like Jeff Skinner a year ago, Mangiapane has not found common ground with any of the world-class centers and cannot hold on to the top-six position he signed up for.
Mangiapane spent the night in the press box, returned Wednesday to play on Draisaitl's wing and lasted just 14 minutes of the game (three shifts) before being replaced by Jack Roslovic. He made a few appearances in Draisaitl's lineup, but Rolovich played just as long as Mangiapane's season lasted into 2026.
At the end of the game, no one played less than Mangiapane – 6:54. If this is demonstrated, we'll be wondering what it looks like when they're not trying to trade you?
The Oilers are reportedly shopping Mangiapane and that he is willing to waive his no-trade clause and go to a team willing to give him more ice time. On Wednesday morning, a reporter asked Mangiapane if he could “give us an idea of where things stand on your end?”
“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure,” he began, answering as coolly as one could imagine. “It's kind of the business side, isn't it? I'm kind of happy to be here and to be with this team, right?”
“So we'll see how it plays out. But it's kind of out of my control. I'm just going to continue to play my game and focus on hockey.”
Sounds like a guy who wants nothing more than to be an oil worker. Like.
A year ago, Jeff Skinner found himself in the same predicament. But Skinner earned respect in the locker room by keeping his mouth shut and his head down. He got the job done and put the team first, while Mangiapane and his agent are clearly ready to give up and move on.
If you give up in December, we ask, what will it be like to fight you in May? Probably not very good, we'd say.
The problem is that Mangiapane can't find any semblance of an effective game playing behind Draisaitl and sometimes McDavid. So an NHL general manager might say to himself, “Maybe if we get him here and play him (insert regular center here), he'll start scoring.”
As for the calendar, the Oilers might want to consider closing on July 1, a day that has caused far more problems than it has solved over the past two summers. In two harvests under this management team, the Oilers assembled Viktor Arvidsson and Skinner – both healthy scratches from the 2025 Stanley Cup Final – and then Mangiapane and Trent Frederic, whose eight-year contract hangs over this franchise like an icy fog.
In 63 games for the Oilers in 2025—regular season and playoffs—Frederick scored three goals and seven points. And all this for the hefty price of $3.85 million per season.
Well, you know what they say.
