As we are now in the 2026 part of the 2025-26 National Hockey League regular season, there is growing speculation that the Edmonton Oilers might be involved in another trade. This time it appears the Oilers may try to trade left winger Andrew Mangiapane of Toronto, Ontario.
Not meeting expectations
Mangiapane only has five goals and six assists for 11 points this season. One glaring statistic is the fact he is a -17. That is the worst plus/minus rating he has had in a single season in his National Hockey League career, and it is not even remotely close. Just four years ago with the Calgary Flames, Mangiapane was a very impressive +20 and had a career single season high 35 goals. After just under one half of the 2025-26 NHL regular season, Mangiapane only has one seventh of the total goals he had in the 2021-22 season.
Also this season, Mangiapane has 32 penalty minutes, one game-winning goal, 40 shots on goal, two face-off wins, 15 blocked shots, 32 hits, six takeaways and 27 giveaways. Mangiapane’s game-winning goal came on October 11 in a 3-1 Oilers win over the Vancouver Canucks. Mangiapane scored an unassisted goal with 51 seconds left in the second period and put the Oilers up 2-0 at the time. Mangiapane’s faceoff wins came in Oilers wins. The first came in a 4-3 Oilers overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes on November 15 and the second came on December 4 in a dominant 9-4 Oilers win over the Seattle Kraken.
Not cracked the top six
One issue is the fact that Mangiapane has not cracked the Edmonton Oilers’s top six. The Oilers have among the best top five forward groups in the entire NHL. They are Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Vasily Podkolzin. The issue at the moment facing Oilers general manager Stan Bowman is finding a sixth forward to solidify the top two lines. One must realize how difficult it is for Bowman to find a player to crack the top six. McDavid and Draisaitl are difficult players to play with because at how skilled they both are.
Undisciplined against the Bruins
It was a sloppy game for the Oilers on Wednesday in a 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins. Mangiapane had 12 penalty minutes in the third period as he took a two minute roughing penalty and a 10 minute misconduct. The Oilers may show greater impatience with Mangiapane because of their expectation to win now.
