Several former Oilers on the move as NHL free agency begins

Edmonton Oilers' goalie Stuart Skinner (74), and goalie Calvin Pickard (30) celebrate after winning against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series, in Vancouver, on Monday, May 20, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

Several players with former ties to the Edmonton Oilers found themselves joining new National Hockey League teams via free agency or trade on Wednesday and in the previous two weeks following the end of the Stanley Cup Final.

Among them are former starters and top-line players the Oilers either had moved on from before the end of the 2025-26 NHL campaign or ones who played with them through their first-round playoff exit in April at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks.

Others are past projects and prospects either moved or moved on from by the team in recent and not-so-recent times.

Stuart Skinner

The former Oilers starting goalie landed with the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, signing a two-year, $7-million deal with the Central Division club.

Edmonton moved on from the 27-year-old in December, when they dealt the Edmonton native and defenceman Brett Kulak to the Pittsburgh Penguins for goalie Tristan Jarry and forward Samuel Poulin.

Skinner emerged as the Oilers’ starting goalie in 2022-23, when he platooned with Jack Campbell between Edmonton’s pipes.

The South Side Athletic Club alumnus backstopped the Oilers to both the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup finals. The 2017 third-round Oilers pick has a career 121-71-23 record, a .902 save percentage and a 2.77 goals-against average in 224 regular-season games.

He’s played 53 NHL playoff games with a record of 26-25, an .892 save percentage and a 2.89 goals-against average.

Calvin Pickard

The 34-year-old netminder signed a one-year, $1-million deal with the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday as an unrestricted free agent.

He had spent the last four seasons with the Oilers, for whom he served primarily as the backup to Stuart Skinner.

Pickard is best remembered for coming into the Oilers’ runs to the Stanley Cup finals in both 2024 and 2025 in relief of Skinner. Pickard found himself out of the Oilers’ plans by the end of January, when the team had established Jarry and Connor Ingram as the top NHL pair. He cleared waivers on Feb. 2, was assigned to the American Hockey League and was called up at the Oilers’ third goalie for the playoffs.

The 2010 draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche has also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Arizona Coyotes.

Jack Roslovic

The 29-year-old signed a two-year, $8-million contract with the Maple Leafs on Wednesday after one season in Edmonton.

The forward scored 21 goals and 36 points in 69 games after signing with the Oilers after the regular season began and added an assist in six playoff games.

Drafted 25th overall by the Jets in 2015, the American has scored 123 goals and 296 points in 595 career games with the Jets, Oilers, his hometown Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes.

Brett Kulak

The 32-year-old defenceman stuck with the Colorado Avalanche, avoiding the free-agent market on Friday by re-signing with the Presidents’ Trophy winners on a five-year, $22.5-million deal.

Kulak, who hails from Stony Plain, finished last season with the Avalanche after he was traded by the Penguins for defenceman Samuel Girard and a draft pick before the trade deadline. He had spent parts of five seasons with the Oilers before Edmonton traded him and Skinner to the Penguins in December for Jarry and Poulin.

The veteran of 663 regular-season NHL games and 111 playoff contests has also played for the Montreal Canadiens, from whom the Oilers acquired him in March 2022, and the Calgary Flames, who drafted him in the fourth round of the 2012 draft.

Corey Perry

The 41-year-old former Hart Trophy winner and veteran of almost 1,500 NHL games re-joined the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday on a one-year, $1 million deal.

The 6-foot-3 winger finished last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning after he was acquired from the Kings for a draft pick at the trade deadline. Perry had joined the Kings a year ago in free agency after parts of two seasons with the Oilers.

The 2003 first-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks has scored 465 goals and 972 points over his 21-year NHL career with seven different teams. He joined Edmonton in January 2024, signing a prorated one-year contract with them two months after the Chicago Blackhawks had terminated his contract over misconduct that violated it and team policies.

Perry was an instrumental player for the Oilers in the 2025 playoffs, when he scored 10 goals and four assists in 22 games while at times playing on the first line.

Troy Stecher

The 32-year-old veteran blueliner signed a two-year contract worth $2.7 million on Monday with the Maple Leafs, sticking with the club that had taken him off waivers from the Oilers in November.

Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Vancouver Canucks in 2016, the B.C. native played parts of three seasons with the Oilers.

The depth defenceman has 25 goals and 131 points in 624 career games split between the Canucks, Maple Leafs, Oilers, Kings, Coyotes, Flames and Detroit Red Wings.

Vincent Desharnais

The 30-year-old defenceman signed a four-year contract worth $16.8 million on Wednesday with the Washington Capitals.

The six-foot-seven seventh-round choice of the Oilers in the 2016 draft played last season with the San Jose Sharks, for whom he scored a goal and six assists in 53 games.

He left the Oilers as a free agent in 2024, signing a two-year deal with the Canucks, who eventually traded him to the Penguins. He wound up in San Jose at the 2025 NHL trade deadline.

Viktor Arvidsson

The 33-year-old forward signed a two-year contract worth $10 million on Wednesday with the Red Wings.

The Swede spent last season with the Boston Bruins, for whom he scored 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points in 69 games.

A year ago, the Oilers – who had signed Arvidsson to a two-year, $8-million deal in 2024 – traded the 11-year NHL veteran to the Bruins after a disappointing, injury-plagued campaign with Edmonton in which he scored 15 goals and 12 assists for 27 points in 67 games and added two goals and five assists in 15 playoff appearances.

Noah Philp

The 27-year-old plays for HV71 in Sweden’s top pro league. The Ducks acquired his NHL rights on Tuesday from the Hurricanes in a deal for defenceman Kyle Masters.

The undrafted Philp started last season with the Oilers, who signed him in 2022 out of the University of Alberta. The Hurricanes claimed Philp from the Oilers off waivers in late December.

The Canmore native signed in Sweden a week ago.

Ethan Bear

The 29-year-old defenceman signed a one-year, $850,000 contract on June 15 to stay with the New York Islanders organization.

Bear, who was drafted by the Oilers in the fifth round of the 2015 Draft, has played the last two seasons in the AHL. He made his NHL debut late in the 2017-18 season with Edmonton and earned a full-time spot with them a year later.

He played two more seasons with the Oilers before he was traded to the Hurricanes on July 28, 2021, for forward Warren Foegele. Bear, who hails from the Ochapowace First Nation in southern Saskatchewan, has also played in the NHL for the Canucks and Washington Capitals.

Sam Poulin

The 25-year-old forward signed a one-year, two-way deal worth $850,000 on Wednesday with the Canadiens as an unrestricted free agent.

The Oilers had acquired the Blainville, Que., native in December’s Stuart Skinner-Tristan Jarry trade and spent the rest of the season with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

The 2019 first-round Penguins pick has played 15 NHL games over parts of four seasons with Pittsburgh.

James Hamblin

The 27-year-old forward signed a two-year deal on Wednesday worth $1.75 million with the Ducks.

The undrafted Edmonton native, a U15 teammate of Skinner’s with the South Side Athletic Club 12 years ago, spent six seasons with the Oilers organization, getting into 41 NHL games (two goals, one assist).

Olivier Rodrigue

The 25-year-old goalie signed a one-year deal worth $850,000 on Wednesday with the Lightning.

Edmonton’s 2018 second-round pick left the Oilers last summer when he signed with a Russian KHL team.

He joined the Blackhawks organization in February on a two-way contract. Rodrigue saw NHL action in two games with the Oilers in 2024-25.

Laurent Brossoit

The 33-year-old veteran netminder signed a one-year contract worth $1.1 million on Wednesday with the Ducks.

The former junior Edmonton Oil Kings standout was traded in 2013 to the Oilers by the Flames, who drafted him two years before. He saw action in 28 Oilers games in five years with the organization before signing with the Jets as a free agent in 2018.

The B.C. native served primarily as a backup goalie over his career but was the starting netminder for the Vegas Golden Knights when the team began its playoff run to a Stanley Cup victory in 2023. Brossoit was injured during the Golden Knights’ second-round series against the Oilers, with Adin Hill taking over as starter the rest of the way.

Brossoit has also spent time in the Blackhawks organization and played one game for the Sharks this past season.

Michael Kesselring

The Sharks made a move on June 17 for the 26-year-old former Oilers defensive prospect, acquiring the American and swapping first-round picks with the Buffalo Sabres.

Kesselring had spent three years in the Oilers organization after the team drafted him in 2018’s sixth round before he was traded to the Coyotes in a deal that netted Edmonton Nick Bjugstad and Cam Dineen.

A year ago, after his first full NHL season, the Utah Mammoth (formerly the Coyotes) dealt him to the Sabres.

Lane Pederson

The ex-Oilers prospect signed a two-year deal worth $1.75 million on Wednesday with the Kings.

The 28-year-old played two seasons in AHL Bakersfield after joining the Oilers organization in 2023.

The veteran of 76 NHL games with five different teams since 2020 left the Oilers when he signed a year ago with the Philadelphia Flyers.