Oilers sign Connor Ungar to one-year, two-way contract

The Edmonton Oilers announced on Thursday afternoon that they have signed goaltender Connor Ungar to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2026-27 season that carries a salary cap hit of $850,000 at the NHL level.

Ungar, a 24-year-old who the Oilers originally signed as an undrafted free agent out of Brock University, split his time this past season between Edmonton’s AHL affiliate Bakersfield Condors and three separate ECHL teams.

The Calgary native was excellent in his limited showings in the AHL, posting a .923 save percentage and 2.51 goals against average to go with a 9-2-2 record.

Ungar’s ECHL run featured stops that went well with the Greensboro Gargoyles (2-1-1, 1.42, .945), Fort Wayne Komets (2-0-0, 1.44, .944) and Orlando Solar Bears (7-8-3, 2.66, .913).

Ungar is the fifth goalie Edmonton has under contract for next season, joining Tristan Jarry, Nathaniel Day, Samuel Jonsson and Matt Tomkins.

Oilers general manager Stan Bowman has his work cut out for him this offseason as he looks to improve his team’s roster to enable a return to the Stanley Cup contender form the team had in the prior two years in which they won the Western Conference.

Defenseman Darnell Nurse has requested a trade, and the Oilers appear likely to hire Mike Babcock as the team’s next head coach following his clearance to resume coaching in the NHL and the dismissal of Kris Knoblauch.

Prior to any relief that would come from trading Nurse, Bowman has about $14.5 million of space under the salary cap with which to maneuver, according to PuckPedia. The Oilers have just four picks, two in the top 100 and none in the first round, of next week’s NHL Draft.

Several prominent depth pieces are slated to become unrestricted free agents on July 1 without extensions, among them goalie Connor Ingram, defenseman Connor Murphy and forwards Kasperi Kapanen, Adam Henrique, Curtis Lazar, Jack Roslovic and Jason Dickinson.