Fantasy Take: Oilers Add Depth by Signing Jack Roslovic
Michael Clifford
2025-10-09
During their season opener on Wednesday night, the Edmonton Oilers added to their depth by signing free agent forward Jack Roslovic to a one-year contract with an average annual value of $1.5-million. Roslovic had 22 goals and 39 points last season with the Carolina Hurricanes. He now heads to Edmonton and has a chance to play with top superstars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
What Edmonton Gets
Despite the chance to play with stars, fantasy managers need to keep in mind the kind of player Roslovic is: he has had five seasons with at least 70 games played and has never had a season with 140 shots, had one season with more than 25 blocks (he had 53 in 2022-23, more than double his next-highest total), and has never had a season with more than 60 hits. In fact, he has 42 hits over his last 140 games. In other words, this is a guy who will hurt in multi-cat formats, particularly because on a team with McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman (when healthy), he won't come close to being one of their top forwards by TOI per game.
When he's at his best, Roslovic is a good playmaker who can chip in some goals. He had 22 goals last year, but that was off the back of 15.8% shooting. He has shot at least 15% in two seasons and scored 22 goals each year. If he's shooting around 12% with 13-14 minutes a game, he is not a 20-goal forward. Expect his goal total to be something in the 15-19 range (the 2025-26 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide has him with 18 goals).
The other part of this is that going to Edmonton is no guarantee of offensive success. Vasily Podkolzin spent a lot of the 2024-25 season next to Draisaitl and scored 8 goals. Jeff Skinner was signed last year and couldn't even stay in the lineup. Not everyone is the next Hyman, and Roslovic, for all his offensive gifts, is a poor defensive player (there's a reason Carolina was healthy scratching him in the playoffs). It will be hard for a coach to trust him with regular top-6 minutes on a Stanley Cup contender if he continues his trend of only playing half the ice.
There is clear upside here if Roslovic can fit into what Edmonton needs, and he gives them a right-handed faceoff option that could fit well with the left-handed Nugent Hopkins. He won't get top power-play time when everyone is healthy, so that's another mark against him. If he can get 20 goals and 45 points over the balance of the season, that would be great production. It should also be seen as his upper limit, not an expectation, and it will be done with poor peripherals.