Oilers making lineup changes for Game 4 of Cup Final vs. Panthers. Who’s in? Who’s out?
The Edmonton Oilers are making several changes ahead of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
It starts with two players being replaced in the lineup — forward Jeff Skinner drawing in for Viktor Arvidsson, defenseman Troy Stecher for John Klingberg.
It continues with a slew of movement with the lineup itself.
Based on the team’s morning skate, Connor Brown is slated to be the right wing on Edmonton’s top line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at left wing and Connor McDavid at center.
Skinner will be the left winger on the Oilers’ third line with Adam Henrique at center and Trent Frederic at right wing. Thursday will be Skinner’s third game of the playoffs, getting one game apiece in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings and in the Western Conference final against the Dallas Stars. He has one goal and one assist in those games.
And then Corey Perry drops from the top line to fourth line right wing with left winger Vasily Podkolzin and center Mattias Janmark.
As for the defense pairs, Brett Kulak will be with Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse with Stecher and Mattias Ekholm with Jake Walman. Stecher has played in six games this postseason, two in the second round against the Vegas Golden Knights and four against Dallas.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner, who was benched in the third period of Game 3 on Monday, will be back in net for Game 4.
“Obviously a big game,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Felt that we have a lot of good players who had been in and out of the lineup. Some players haven’t even seen any game action so far in this series. Felt that we could use the change, have those guys come in, give us a boost. We’ve seen it throughout the playoffs where we’ve made alterations to our lineup and it’s benefited us. It’s been difficult to take those guys out because it’s not that they’ve been playing poorly; we just feel we have something with guys who have been out, so we’re making some adjustments.”
The Panthers, meanwhile, are expected to roll out the same lineup as Game 3. That should look as follows...
Forward lines
Carter Verhaeghe-Aleksander Barkov-Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer-Tomas Nosek-Jonah Gadjovich
Defense pairs
Gustav Forsling-Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola-Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt-Dmitry Kulikov
Goaltender
Sergei Bobrovsky
The Panthers lead the best-of-7 series 2-1.
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 12:19 PM.
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