Edmonton Oilers making sweeping changes to forward lines
The Edmonton Oilers are on a two-game winning streak, but they aren’t satisfied with how their forward lines have been deployed.
Just three games into the season, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch is shuffling around the lines with some sweeping changes throughout the forward group. Though Edmonton was able to shut out the New York Rangers on Tuesday night, they didn’t quite achieve the offensive output they had hoped for.
The Rangers outshot the Oilers by a 30-22 margin and outplayed Edmonton for the majority of the game. A timely goal by Trent Frederic and an excellent performance between the pipes by Stuart Skinner stole the victory for the Oilers.
Knoblauch opted to change his lines midway through that game, and he kept those new-look lines intact at Wednesday morning’s practice. 880 CHED’s Bob Stauffer reported on the team’s lineup configuration ahead of Thursday night’s matchup with the New York Islanders.
The @EdmontonOilers practice in Long Island:
Mangiapane-McDavid-Tomasek
RNH-Draisaitl-Roslovic
Podkolzin-Frederic-Kapanen
Howard-Henrique-Savoie
Janmark (IR)-Philp-LazarEkholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Emberson
Walman (IR)Skinner
Pickard— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) October 15, 2025
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have been split up to play on separate lines after spending the first two and a half games together on the top line.
McDavid will be playing with newcomers Andrew Mangiapane and David Tomášek. Mangiapane has been impressive in three games, scoring his first two goals with the Oilers. Tomášek has had plenty of chances but is still looking for his first NHL goal.
Draisaitl has moved down to pivot the second line alongside recent signing Jack Roslovic and veteran Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The Nuge has also been on fire to start the year with three points in three games, while Roslovic is coming off his first game with the Oilers since signing midway through the team’s home opener.
The Frederic experiment on the top line has also come to an end, as he now moves down to centre the third line alongside Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen. This line combined for the only Oilers goal scored against a goaltender on Tuesday night. The previous centreman of this line, Noah Philp, appears to be a healthy scratch.
With Philp acting as the extra, fourth-line centre duties will fall to Adam Henrique, with a pair of rookies in Matt Savoie and Ike Howard playing on the wings. It’s an interesting choice to use both rookies on the fourth line, saddled with a veteran, but Knoblauch has a history of not thrusting young talent into feature roles.
Edmonton has looked like a much faster team to start the season, and the hope is that the team can finally put together a good start. So far, with zero regulation losses in three games, it’s looking like they are on the road to doing that.
We’ll have to wait and see if these changes can continue that upward trend.