BLOG: Roslovic focused on making the most of 'great opportunity' with Oilers

EDMONTON, AB – “Opportunity,” said forward Jack Roslovic on Friday.

“I'm here now. I want to focus on being here, playing well, and doing what I bring from a hockey standpoint. That's where the focus is now.”

After enduring an unpredictable offseason that required patience while trying to find the right landing spot, Jack Roslovic is happy to circle back to a Stanley Cup contender in the Oilers, who were always interested in adding him if the timing and the terms were right.

And it turns out, they were.

“This summer was the summer, and we're onwards and upwards,” Roslovic added. “It wasn't fun, but Stan [Bowman] always had interest, so it's great to be a place where you're wanted and a place where you see yourself succeeding. "It's great for me, and I’m just excited to be with the team and get going.”

The Oilers signed Roslovic to a one-year, $1.5 million contract that broke news during the first intermission of Edmonton’s season opener against Calgary at Rogers Place on Wednesday to give both the team and player a jolt of excitement after the puck had already dropped on a brand new campaign.

Roslovic adds more depth to the Oilers' already stacked forward group by giving them another capable five-on-five scorer who posted 22 goals and 39 points with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2024-25, scoring all but one of his goals at even strength while playing with the likes of Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis.

“Speed, scoring,” Roslovic said of what he brings to the Oilers. “Try to be a buzzsaw out there, make plays – kind of the thing that everyone already knows me for – and then be a good guy in the locker room, come in and fit well, don't disrupt and gel.”

For the 28-year-old, it’s a huge opportunity to add his skills to an established contender in Edmonton and compete for a Stanley Cup after coming close in back-to-back playoffs as a member of the Rangers and Hurricanes, who both made the Eastern Conference Final in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

“That's going to be the theme of today. Opportunity to win; opportunity to play with great players,” Roslovic said. “I've been to the Conference Final the last two years too, and these guys obviously went all the way. But the fire is in me too. I want to win. I know how hard it is, so it's a great opportunity.”

After another productive year with Carolina, surpassing the 30-point mark for the fourth time in his eight-year career following successful stints with the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets, Roslovic tried to find the best deal possible in free agency but knew the Oilers had interest in him.

General Manager & Executive VP of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman mentioned during his impromptu media availability after the trade that he’s been interested in signing Roslovic dating back to the summer, but conversations didn’t pick back up for several weeks when he changed agents and re-established Edmonton’s desire to add him to their group.

After that, it was an easy negotiation.

“We’ve been talking to Jack going back to the summer, and I know he changed agents, and I talked to him maybe five weeks ago, Bowman said. “We've been in touch the whole time, and I said the same thing to him then that I did the other day when this picked back up, which was, ‘We love the player, but we don't have a lot of money to spend right now, so if he wants to come here and bet on himself and get a chance to play, we'd love to have him’.

“I think he was obviously weighing his options and came to the decision that this was the place he wanted to be.”

Roslovic was drafted as a right-shot centre by the Winnipeg Jets in the first round (25th overall) at the 2015 NHL Draft, but has played more wing as his career has progressed through Columbus, Carolina, and now Edmonton. Last season, Roslovic won 54.1 percent of his faceoffs, and it remains to be seen how Head Coach Kris Knoblauch will deploy the newly-arrived winger when he gets into the lineup.

Over 526 regular-season games in the NHL, the Columbus, OH native has registered 260 points (102 goals, 158 assists) and a further 17 points (three goals, 14 assists) in 45 playoff games.

"I think I'm pretty versatile," he said. "I had a good face-off performance last year. I figured out that I can play centre, but playing on the wing is very comfortable for me. I did the majority of it last year with two good players for a little bit, so whatever needs to be done, I can do it."

Having not participated in any NHL training camp this year, Roslovic affirmed that he's been doing plenty of work in the meantime to be ready when he eventually signs a contract, but his Oilers' debut is expected to arrive not on Saturday, but on their first road trip of the season in New York next week.

"We'll figure that out," he said. "I find myself in pretty good condition most training camps, so people might think I was sitting around, but I wasn't sitting around. I was working. It's been a whole process this summer, so everyone around the league does it now. It's common to be ready for an NHL season."

Continuing with the theme of 'opportunity', Roslovic is excited for the chance to play in Canada again, and a long offseason of uncertainty has him excited to really dive into everything that's to come in Edmonton.

"I'm very happy. I'm familiar with Canada, familiar with the market, and familiar with you guys (the media)," he said. "Like I said, opportunity is kind of the theme. The ability to come here and have a good chance to put our names on a trophy is huge, and we gotta obviously take it day by day. It's my first day, so I'm still trying to get to know the people, but the opportunity is something I'm looking forward to."