Edmonton Oilers get bad-news injury updates on Savoie and Andersen
It appears a few Edmonton Oilers injuries are worse than initially thought.
After missing the entirety of training camp with injuries, both Matt Savoie and Frederik Andersen remain sidelined as the Oilers open up their season on Tuesday night. Both injuries came during the offseason, but GM Stan Bowman seemed to downplay the severity of each ailment in early September.
Before camp opened, Bowman assured reporters that Savoie’s injury was “nothing too serious” and wouldn’t sideline him for “weeks and weeks,” but head coach Mike Babcock was singing a different tune when asked about a potential timeline for Savoie on Tuesday morning.
It sounds like Savoie is in danger of missing the next two months.
“Savvy, I think at the start of the week, he was eight weeks away,” Babcock said.
"We're gonna take a step a day, keep grinding & try to get better. We still have a lot of things to get better at but we liked our first 11 days."
Coach Babcock on the #Oilers focus going into game one of the regular season. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/t2ctch47jo
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) September 29, 2026
That seems to contradict Bowman’s initial prognosis that Savoie would be able to rejoin the team sooner rather than later in the regular season. It will force Babcock to give players like Isaac Howard a bit more rope to hopefully find a consistent NHL spot in the top-six, especially with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also out with an injury.
Things aren’t too much better for Andersen. It was known that the 36-year-old goaltender would be out longer than Savoie, but it also sounds like a return isn’t in the cards for quite some time.
When asked when the Oilers could expect Andersen back between the pipes, Babcock guessed that it might have to wait until the holiday season.
“Freddy, maybe December,” Babcock said.
Luckily, the Oilers do have options in net that should be enough to get by until Andersen is ready to return. Both Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi have looked great throughout training camp and preseason, and the hope is that at least one of those goaltenders can get hot and hold onto the starter’s job.
There seems to be a bit more uncertainty surrounding forward Mattias Janmark. The 33-year-old was limited to just 43 games last year, and it appears he could play even less this year, as Babcock could not give a proper timeline for the Swede.
“Janny, I don’t know this one; he’s a ways away,” Babcock said.
No solid timelines were given for Jason Dickinson or defencemen Alec Regula and Atro Leppanen, all of whom remain on the Oilers’ IR.