Edmonton Oilers season preview
After losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions in back-to-back postseasons, the Edmonton Oilers could be the team to beat in the Western Conference this year. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl continue to get more and more dangerous each season, but they need the rest of the group to help get them over the hump. They finished two points shy of the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Pacific Division last season, but this year, they are my pick to win it.
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Offense
Scoring goals is the least of the Oilers’ concerns. McDavid led the league in scoring for the third straight season (153 points) and Draisaitl was right there behind him (128 points). They are clearly the league’s most dangerous dynamic duo, but the Oilers actually had some other key contributors last season, like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who put up 104 points, and Zach Hyman, who tallied 83 points.
Their power play is the most dangerous weapon in the repertoire, finishing with an incredible 32.4% success rate in the regular season and skating to a 46.1% conversion rate in the postseason. What they’re able to do on the man-advantage is absolutely ridiculous. The offense will once again be reliable for Edmonton, and I don’t see anyone having more points than McDavid for the fourth straight year.
Defense
Defense has always been a concern for the Oilers in the McDavid era, but in my opinion, this is a strong defensive group. They allowed 3.12 goals against per game last season, which has to improve going into the 2023-24 campaign. Their blue line has plenty of size with guys like Darnell Nurse, Evan Bouchard, Vincent Desharnais, and Matthias Ekholm, but their penalty kill is an area that needs improvement. They finished 20th last season, only converting successfully on 77% of their kills.
Ekholm was a very strong acquisition at last year’s deadline for this team and having him for a full season should benefit the group. What they lack defensively, they make up for by scoring a ton of goals, so at least they can always rely on their best defense being a strong offense.
Goaltending
Things got a little tricky for the Oilers last season when it came to goaltending. Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell shared the blue paint for most of the season, but towards the end of the year, it became apparent that the crease belonged to Skinner. He earned 29 wins, while skating to a .913 save percentage, as Campbell was able to secure 21 wins, but wasn’t as pretty while doing it with a .888 save percentage. The net should belong to Skinner for the majority of this season, but as is tradition, goaltending will be this team’s biggest question mark.
Player To Watch – F Zach Hyman
Everyone loves to talk about McDavid and Draisaitl whenever the Oilers come up in conversation, but I want to talk about a guy who is almost equally as important to this team’s success. Hyman put up a career-high in goals (36), assists (47), and points (83) last season, and I believe that he can potentially up those numbers in the 2023-24 campaign. He is arguably the main beneficiary of playing with McDavid at 5-on-5 and on the power play. I think Hyman can easily tally 40 goals this season and possibly surpass the 90-point mark.
Outlook
This team is right there with the best of the best in the NHL, and I feel that this could be the year that McDavid finally gets his team over the hump. The Oilers offense is one of the scariest groups that this league has ever seen. If they can just tighten up defensively, they’re going to be a very hard team to beat. I have no doubt that they will make the playoffs and I am pretty confident that we will be watching the Oilers play come June.