BLOG: Oilers 'frustrated' but focused on strengthening for another shot at Stanley Cup

EDMONTON, AB – It’s a different feeling this time around for the Edmonton Oilers.

Just two days removed from their Game 6 defeat to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, Oilers captain Connor McDavid and his teammates sat at the podium inside the Hall of Fame Room at Rogers Place on Thursday to discuss another season of coming so close to winning a championship, but ultimately falling just short of achieving their biggest goal.

This year, it’s a lot more difficult for them to digest.

“Incredibly disappointing,” McDavid said. “Another fun run to be a part of. It's always fun to see how the city supports us and gets behind us. It brings people together. But it's obviously extremely disappointing not to get it done.”

In 2024, the feeling of losing to the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final was more on the side of sadness for the Blue & Orange, who experienced their first heartbreak of coming within a few shots of winning it all in a 2-1 loss in Game 7 after fighting back from a 3-0 series deficit.

Almost a full calendar year later, the Oilers find themselves in the same situation, following their six-game defeat to the defending champions, which culminated in a disappointing 5-1 result in Game 6 on Tuesday in the same building where they suffered heartbreak last year.

Understandably, there’s a lot more vexation in the voices of the Oilers’ players from another long season that didn’t conclude with a Cup victory.

“I would say last year was more heartbreak and you're sad,” McDavid said. “I'd say this year is more anger than just heartbreak. It's more frustrating.”

But there's zero doubt in the Oilers locker room that they can't do it all again next year to take a third consecutive crack at winning the Stanley Cup.

"We'll come back and we'll do it again. There's no quit," McDavid said. "Guys can take their time and get healthy, and guys will go through that process, whatever it looks like. But ultimately, it's on every person in this organization to dust themselves off, come back next year and be better. I know that's cliché, but it's true.

"Everyone's got to find a new level. It's not like we have a ton of cap room, and we've got a long list of highly-touted prospects knocking on the door. It's got to come from within and the players that are playing, and everybody's got to find a new level – myself included."

McDavid said it's still difficult to think about all the good moments from this season after experiencing the same result as last year, having played 212 regular-season and playoff games over the past two seasons and still not having a Stanley Cup to show for it despite going all the way to the Final each season.

However, the disappointment of falling short again only fuels their drive to return stronger next season for another push at bringing it home to Oil Country.

"It's tough to focus on the good stuff two days out after that disappointment," he said. "As time goes on, we'll look back on another successful run, making it to the Final and being two games away. I'm sure there'll be a little bit of that. But at the end of the day, I get up here every year and tell you that it's all about winning, and it's only about winning, and we won't be satisfied until that's done."

Veteran forward Corey Perry, who had the unfortunate reality of losing in the Final for the fourth time in the past five years (twice with Edmonton) after winning the Stanley Cup in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks, says it only gets more difficult, but the Oilers have the team necessary to make it happen next year.

"At the end of the day, we didn't get the job done," Perry said. "That's why we play the game. That's why you play, work out in the summer and do all the things necessary, but it's unfortunate. It's tough. It never gets easy, I'll say that, but I think there's a lot of good hockey left in that room and a lot of good players in that room that want to win, and it's gonna get there."

After scoring 10 goals for the Oilers in the postseason, including three in the Final, the 40-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent on July 1, but is only interested in winning another Stanley Cup, so Edmonton is a place the future Hall of Famer wants to stay to give him the best shot at accomplishing it.

"I just want to win," he said. "Knowing me, that's been my motto the whole time: I want to win. Hopefully, it's here and we can figure something out and get something done because this is a good team, and there are some good things that are ahead in that vein.

"I would love to stay here. I'll let the higher-ups handle the rest of the talking and take care of everything. I left everything on the ice, everything I could give, and I let that do a lot of the talking. So we'll see where it goes, and hopefully I'll be back."

Superstar forward Leon Draisaitl is coming off one of his most impressive seasons in 2024-25 with a league-leading 52 goals in 71 games, finishing with a career-best plus/minus of +32 before setting a new high in playoff points with 33 points (11 goals) in 22 playoff contests.

Still, the German finds himself back in the same position as his teammates, left to discuss another season of falling just short of their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup as the Oilers look to retool their roster in the summer for another crack at it, while hoping luck will be more on their side next time.

"The plan is to have runs like that over and over again," he said. "Hopefully, the luck or whatever you want to call it is on our side and we win. It's two years coming as close as you can be, so lots of positives you can take out of this. But at the end of the day, there's one team celebrating right now."

Despite being the oldest team in the NHL this season (30.1 years), the Oilers are still positioned well for years to come to take multiple shots at winning the Stanley Cup, though it's going to take a lot of work for them to get back to the Final for a third straight year – same as Florida did by making it to the Cup Final in 2023 before winning their back-to-back titles in 2024 & 2025.

"Our core is probably in the prime right now in terms of maturity and experiences and all those things," Draisaitl said. "So we're an older team. Do we need to get a little bit younger? A little bit faster? Maybe. But I think our core group is at an age where we got a lot of juice left, so hopefully we can continue to kick away at it."