One player who has not gotten a lot of recognition during these past three weeks is Josh Samanski. While Samanski is not seeing a ton of ice time nor inking his name on the score sheet, he has been a good fit for the Edmonton Oilers during one of their better streaks of the season.
Samanski has been with the team since the Olympic break, and has only missed one game in that time. In the games that he has seen the ice, the Oilers are 9–4 and five of those games have been without the help of superstar Leon Draisaitl.
Samanski has been bounced around with more than a few linemates in his recent tenure with the Oilers. He spent time with Curtis Lazar and Max Jones, Jason Dickinson and Kasperi Kapanen more recently, but his most common linemates have been Jack Roslovic and Matthew Savoie. That is a huge part of Samanski’s charm. As you will see, he has been able to put up some impressive numbers despite the inconsistent surroundings.
This is Samanski’s first year with the Oilers and in the NHL, here’s what he was up to before that:
Samanski’s career notes
Josh Samanski was born and raised in Germany, playing his minor hockey there. As a quick aside, Samanski’s father John had a long career in the German leagues in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and put up some crazy stats.
Samanski played two seasons in Canada: one Junior A with the Brantford 99ers and one in the OHL with the Owen Sound Attack putting up modest numbers both years. Samanski then moved back to Germany where he has played the vast majority of his professional career in the German DEL with the Straubing Tigers and their affiliates.
Samanski’s numbers slowly crept up over the years until he was noticed by the Oilers and signed to a two-year deal on April 2 of last year. It’s frankly more than a little impressive that he has been able to work his way through the leagues and found himself playing in the NHL. There aren’t too many players in the NHL that played Junior A hockey and/or in the DEL2.
Underlying stats
| Year | Goals | Assists | CF% | SF% | GF% | xGF% |
| 2025–26 | 1 | 2 | 50.56 | 53.7 | 61.54 | 54.73 |
For a player who isn’t likely to see any time outside the bottom-six, Samanski has very good underlying stats. I don’t know the exact stats, but I would be willing to bet that there are extremely few bottom-six players who have all their on-ice 5v5 stats over 50%. It’s a difficult thing when the opponents are always trying to match their stronger lines against you.
Among all NHL players who play a similar amount to Samanski (players who are also in a bottom-six role) and have played over 15 games, Samanksi has the eighth best GF%. These 18 games Samanski has played isn’t a great sample size, but it’s still a promising start for a rookie.
Again, while Samanski isn’t going to be setting any points records, he is a very solid depth player. If the Oilers don’t bring back Adam Henrique, it’s possible Samanksi could fill his role. His ability to play with many different lines and still come out the better is a great asset to the Oilers who have always craved depth.
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