Edmonton Oilers offer injury updates on number of key players

The Edmonton Oilers know better than just about any team that an NHL season is a marathon, not a sprint.

But in what could be described as the first kilometre of a long journey, the Oilers are perhaps seeing a few more hurdles in the way than they’d like.

Less than a week into the 2025-26 campaign, the Oilers have already seen several key players banged up with injuries.

And heading into a five-game road trip that includes stops against all three NYC metro area teams as well as the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators, Edmonton could use a few extra bodies along the way.

Kris Knoblauch met the media Tuesday in New York ahead of the team’s contest with the Rangers, and shared updates on a quartet of key Oilers players.

According to Knoblauch (and with a hat tip to OilersTV’s Tony Brar), the Oilers are “hopeful” to have defenceman Jake Walman back in the lineup Thursday when they take on the New York Islanders.

Knoblauch also mentioned forward Mattias Janmark could “possibly” return this weekend, in one of the two back-to-back contests Saturday and Sunday against New Jersey and/or Detroit.

For a pair of other Oilers, the diagnosis goes a bit longer. Knoblauch mentioned the team is optimistic that defenceman Alec Regula can return closer to the end of the five-game trip, while forward Zach Hyman might be waiting until the “end of the month” with a wrist injury suffered in the Western Conference Final last year.

Oilers lineup vs. New York Rangers

Here’s how the Oilers’ forward group lines up, as per Sportsnet’s Mark Spector:

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