<p>The <a href="http://oilersnation.com/stats">Edmonton Oilers</a> will play their fifth pre-season game in six nights on Friday when the Winnipeg Jets roll into town.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And they&#8217;ll be doing it without any of the big guns in the lineup.</p>
<p>Many of the Oilers vets drew into the lineup on Wednesday night as <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/25/dont-buy-into-fear-mongering-about-connor-mcdavid-next-contract-edmonton-oilers/">Connor McDavid</a>, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/25/trent-frederic-plays-connor-mcdavid-leon-draisaitl-david-tomasek-spot-edmonton-oilers/">Trent Frederic</a>, Mattias Ekholm, and Stuart Skinner drew in for their first action. The rest was there, but that&#8217;s to be expected.</p>
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<p>Calvin Pickard will get his second start, his first having come on Tuesday night when Edmonton visited the Jets. He turned aside all eight shots he faced, with Matt Tomkins taking the second half of the game. Tonight, it&#8217;ll be Samuel Jonsson rotating in with Pickard.</p>
<p>And while it&#8217;s another pre-season game, it&#8217;s another chance for many young Oilers to make their mark. The top line will feature Adam Henrique centring Andrew Mangiapane and <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/13/first-thoughts-matthew-savoie-isaac-howard-edmonton-oilers-vs-calgary-flames-rookie-game/">Matt Savoie</a>, a trio who could be a potential third line for the Oilers.</p>
<p>The second and third lines feature players competing for other spots in the bottom-six. David Tomasek will centre Ike Howard and Kasperi Kapanen on the second line, while Noah Philp will centre Mattias Janmark and <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/26/edmonton-oilers-prospect-update-notes-ike-howard-quinn-hutson-maxim-beryozkin-nikita-yevseyev-albin-sundin/">Quinn Hutson</a>.</p>
<p>There are plenty of players in here who have been making noise this pre-season, and plenty still working to just shake off the rust.</p>
<p>The team has yet to make any significant cuts at training camp, and they&#8217;ve held onto players longer this year than last. While the team did assign David Lewandowski and Tommy Lafreniere to their respective WHL clubs <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-first-cuts-tommy-lafreniere-david-lewandowski-assigned-whl-teams">earlier this week</a>, it was after the fourth pre-season game last year when they trimmed the first bulk of the roster, re-assigning nine players.</p>
<p>Do we see the same this weekend?</p>
<h1 class="border-b-accent text-accent mb-5 border-b-2 text-3xl font-bold">LINEUPS…</h1>
<div>
<h2 class="mb-5 text-xl font-bold"><a class="text-accent" href="https://oilersnation.com/combinations"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">Oilers</strong></a></h2>
</div>
<div>
<p><strong>Mangiapane &#8211; Henrique &#8211; Savoie</strong><br />
<strong>Howard &#8211; Tomasek &#8211; Kapanen</strong><br />
<strong>Janmark &#8211; Philp &#8211; Hutson</strong><br />
<strong>Marjala &#8211; Samanski &#8211; Jarventie</strong></p>
<p><strong>Nurse &#8211; Stecher</strong><br />
<strong>Kulak &#8211; Regula</strong><br />
<strong>Dineen &#8211; Brown</strong></p>
<p><strong>Pickard</strong><br />
<strong>Jonsson</strong></p>
<p>No Arto Leppanen tonight on the blueline for the Oilers. He&#8217;s made some noise this pre-season, but gets a night of rest tonight. Leppanen is one of two players to appear in all the pre-season games, along with Hutson, who gets a look on the third line. The fourth line could be a top-six line for the Condors this season.</p>
<p>On the blue line, Darnell Nurse and Troy Stecher get a look as the top pair, while Alec Regula gets into his third pre-season game, this time alongside Brett Kulak.</p>
</div>
<h2><strong>Jets&#8230;</strong></h2>
<div>
<p><strong>Niederreiter &#8211; Namestnikov &#8211; Iafallo</strong><br />
<strong>Pearson &#8211; Barron &#8211; Koepke</strong><br />
<strong>Di Giuseppe &#8211; Gustafsson &#8211; Fagemo</strong><br />
<strong>Barlow &#8211; Zhilkin &#8211; Lambert</strong><br />
<strong>Julien</strong></p>
<p><strong>Fleury &#8211; Phillips</strong><br />
<strong>Heinola &#8211; Bauer</strong><br />
<strong>Stanley &#8211; Sautner</strong><br />
<strong>Barteaux</strong></p>
<p><strong>DiVincentiis</strong><br />
<strong>Poulter</strong></p>
<p>These lines are courtesy of <em>Illegal Curve,</em> who reported that AHL netminder Domenic DiVincentiis will get the start and the full game for the Jets.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h1>TONIGHT&#8230;</h1>
<figure id="attachment_181264" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-181264" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-181264" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-2025-09-26T113203.237.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="480" srcset="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-2025-09-26T113203.237.jpg 600w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-2025-09-26T113203.237-300x240.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-181264" class="wp-caption-text">Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk</figcaption></figure>
<div class="mb-5">
<p><strong class="text-lg font-bold">GAME DAY PREDICTION:</strong> The Oilers win 3-1.</p>
</div>
<div class="mb-5">
<p><strong class="text-lg font-bold">OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION:</strong> We continue to count down the days until the regular season.</p>
</div>
<div class="mb-5"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION:</strong> Ike Howard rips home another goal on the power play and Noah Philp scores one of his own.</div>
<div></div>
<hr />
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on X at</span></i> <em><a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing"><span style="font-weight: 400;">@zjlaing</span></a></em><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>,</em> or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.</span></i></p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</strong></h2>
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The <a href="http://oilersnation.com/stats">Edmonton Oilers</a> will play their fifth pre-season game in six nights on Friday when the Winnipeg Jets roll into town.



And they'll be doing it without any of the big guns in the lineup.

Many of the Oilers vets drew into the lineup on Wednesday night as <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/25/dont-buy-into-fear-mongering-about-connor-mcdavid-next-contract-edmonton-oilers/">Connor McDavid</a>, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/25/trent-frederic-plays-connor-mcdavid-leon-draisaitl-david-tomasek-spot-edmonton-oilers/">Trent Frederic</a>, Mattias Ekholm, and Stuart Skinner drew in for their first action. The rest was there, but that's to be expected.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2107" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="325"></div>
Calvin Pickard will get his second start, his first having come on Tuesday night when Edmonton visited the Jets. He turned aside all eight shots he faced, with Matt Tomkins taking the second half of the game. Tonight, it'll be Samuel Jonsson rotating in with Pickard.

And while it's another pre-season game, it's another chance for many young Oilers to make their mark. The top line will feature Adam Henrique centring Andrew Mangiapane and <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/13/first-thoughts-matthew-savoie-isaac-howard-edmonton-oilers-vs-calgary-flames-rookie-game/">Matt Savoie</a>, a trio who could be a potential third line for the Oilers.

The second and third lines feature players competing for other spots in the bottom-six. David Tomasek will centre Ike Howard and Kasperi Kapanen on the second line, while Noah Philp will centre Mattias Janmark and <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/09/26/edmonton-oilers-prospect-update-notes-ike-howard-quinn-hutson-maxim-beryozkin-nikita-yevseyev-albin-sundin/">Quinn Hutson</a>.

There are plenty of players in here who have been making noise this pre-season, and plenty still working to just shake off the rust.

The team has yet to make any significant cuts at training camp, and they've held onto players longer this year than last. While the team did assign David Lewandowski and Tommy Lafreniere to their respective WHL clubs <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-first-cuts-tommy-lafreniere-david-lewandowski-assigned-whl-teams">earlier this week</a>, it was after the fourth pre-season game last year when they trimmed the first bulk of the roster, re-assigning nine players.

Do we see the same this weekend?
<h1 class="border-b-accent text-accent mb-5 border-b-2 text-3xl font-bold">LINEUPS…</h1>
<div>
<h2 class="mb-5 text-xl font-bold"><a class="text-accent" href="https://oilersnation.com/combinations"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">Oilers</strong></a></h2>
</div>
<div>

<strong>Mangiapane - Henrique - Savoie</strong>
<strong>Howard - Tomasek - Kapanen</strong>
<strong>Janmark - Philp - Hutson</strong>
<strong>Marjala - Samanski - Jarventie</strong>

<strong>Nurse - Stecher</strong>
<strong>Kulak - Regula</strong>
<strong>Dineen - Brown</strong>

<strong>Pickard</strong>
<strong>Jonsson</strong>

No Arto Leppanen tonight on the blueline for the Oilers. He's made some noise this pre-season, but gets a night of rest tonight. Leppanen is one of two players to appear in all the pre-season games, along with Hutson, who gets a look on the third line. The fourth line could be a top-six line for the Condors this season.

On the blue line, Darnell Nurse and Troy Stecher get a look as the top pair, while Alec Regula gets into his third pre-season game, this time alongside Brett Kulak.

</div>
<h2><strong>Jets...</strong></h2>
<div>

<strong>Niederreiter - Namestnikov - Iafallo</strong>
<strong>Pearson - Barron - Koepke</strong>
<strong>Di Giuseppe - Gustafsson - Fagemo</strong>
<strong>Barlow - Zhilkin - Lambert</strong>
<strong>Julien</strong>

<strong>Fleury - Phillips</strong>
<strong>Heinola - Bauer</strong>
<strong>Stanley - Sautner</strong>
<strong>Barteaux</strong>

<strong>DiVincentiis</strong>
<strong>Poulter</strong>

These lines are courtesy of <em>Illegal Curve,</em> who reported that AHL netminder Domenic DiVincentiis will get the start and the full game for the Jets.

</div>
<div>
<h1>TONIGHT...</h1>
[caption id="attachment_181264" align="aligncenter" width="600"]<img class="size-full wp-image-181264" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-2025-09-26T113203.237.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="480" /> Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk[/caption]

<div class="mb-5">

<strong class="text-lg font-bold">GAME DAY PREDICTION:</strong> The Oilers win 3-1.

</div>
<div class="mb-5">

<strong class="text-lg font-bold">OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION:</strong> We continue to count down the days until the regular season.

</div>
<div class="mb-5"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION:</strong> Ike Howard rips home another goal on the power play and Noah Philp scores one of his own.</div>
<div></div>

<hr />

<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on X at</span></i> <em><a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing"><span style="font-weight: 400;">@zjlaing</span></a></em><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>,</em> or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.</span></i>

<hr />

<h2><strong>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</strong></h2>
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GDB -5.0: Stars take the night off as Oilers host Jets (7pm MT, TSN3)

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