20 important Oilers numbers 20 games into the 2024-25 campaign

It's fair to characterise the Oilers' season as unpredictable and frustrating in equal measures up this point. With the talent at their disposal, they really should be doing better than they are.

In this respect, numbers can often be used to show and explain why a team is performing how it is. As such, here are 20 numbers which help tell the story of the Oilers' 2024-25 season through the first 20 games:

N.B. All statistics up to and including Nov. 19.

Goals galore ... or not as the case may be

14 - Leon Draisaitl leads the Oilers with 14 goals, which is also one off the NHL lead ahead of Wednesday's slate of games. While ridiculously early to comment on, his goal total projects to 57 over the course of the season, which would surpass his current career best of 55.

3 - Not quite at the other end of the spectrum is Zach Hyman with just three goals, which would project to 12 for the regular season as a whole. This would be quite a spectacular drop from last season's career-high of 54 goals and would represent his fewest since 10, back in his first full NHL season in 2016-17.

2.75 - This is how many goals the Oilers have averaged per game so far in 2024-25, which is only good enough for 21st-best in the NHL. There's of course still plenty of time to improve, but for some context they ranked fourth-best last season at 3.56, and first in 2022-23 with an average of 3.96 goals per contest.

33.1 - The one thing the Oilers are still doing well at is creating shot attempts on goal, albeit not being nearly as clinical with their finishing. Their 33.1 shots per game rank second-best in the NHL, after leading the way last season at 33.8 shot attempts at goal.

15 - Connor McDavid leads the Oilers with 15 assists through 20 games (of which he has played in 17), pretty decent, but still way off his blistering total of 100 from last season. At his current pace McDavid will finish this campaign with 70 helpers, which would be his fewest since 63 back in 2019-20. (And that was only because he was limited to 64 games, due to the impact of COVID-19.)

Special teams causing genuine concern

17.3 - The Oilers' power play efficiency is just 17.3 percent so far this season, which ranks only tied-22nd in the NHL. Last season they were fourth-best at 26.3 percent efficiency, and the season before they set an NHL record at 32.4 percent.

68.6 - On the other side the Oilers' penalty killing unit has struggled mightily, with their 68.6 percent efficiency ranking a lowly 30th in the NHL. Don't forget this is the same team which led the NHL in penalty kill efficiency during last season's playoffs, at a tremendous 94.3 percent.

-8 - The effectiveness of offseason signing Jeff Skinner is open to debate, including a team-worst -8 rating. It's worth keeping an eye on this, with his career-low +/- rating of -27 coming back in 2017-18, while he was a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.

+9 - At the other end, Draisaitl leads the Oilers with a +9 rating, just one season after a +26 rating which was the second-best of his career. We don't anticipate him catching Mattias Ekholm's + 44 rating, which paced the team last season.

22 - The Oilers have so far compiled 22 points, courtesy of a 10-8-2 record through 20 games. For what it's worth they had 15 points at the same stage last season, with a 7-12-1 record.

-7 - The Oilers have a -7 goal difference so far in 2024-25, which ranks a poor tied-20th in the NHL. Last season they were +57 by the end of the campaign, which was fifth-best in the league.

Defensive struggles highlighted by goalie issues

3.10 - The Oilers are allowing an average of 3.10 goals per game so far in 2024-25, which is actually not too bad all things considered, at 15th-lowest in the NHL. Last season they finished 10th-best, at 2.88 goals per contest.

.885 - At the same time, this doesn't disguise the reality that it's been a struggle for the Oilers goalie duo of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard thus far. The team save percentage of .885 is tied for the second-worst in the entire NHL.

25.5 - What makes the goalie save percentage even more worrying, is that the Oilers have only allowed an average of 25.5 shots on goal per game so far this season. This is actually fourth-fewest allowed by any team in the NHL.

4 - During McDavid's shorter than expected absence of three games this season, the Oilers still managed to pick up 4 out of a possible 6 points. Making this even more impressive, is the Oilers' previous record of 20-27-9 in games which McDavid had missed since arriving in Edmonton.

53.1 - It's tough to find much fault with the Oilers' Face-Off Win Percentage of 53.1, which is fifth-best in the NHL. Interestingly enough they finished last season also in fifth-best, with an eerily similar 53.2 percent Face-Off Win Percentage.

Physical side of the game

18 - Darnell Nurse leads the Oilers with 18 penalty minutes, and that's despite also missing two games. We're sure fans will be interested to know that at this stage last season, a certain Evander Kane was leading the team with 40 penalty minutes.

39 - For all his defensive errors so far this season -- many of them avoidable -- Evan Bouchard is at least showing some commitment by way of leading the Oilers with 39 blocks. He also leads all team skaters with an average of 24:09 ice time, which would be a new career high.

48 - Vasily Podkolzin is doing his best to fit in with the team, leading the way with 48 hits. This projects to 197 over the course of the whole season, which would smash his current career-best of 84 hits.

5 - And finally, Connor Brown has 5 points through the first 20 games of the season, all of which he has played in. This is worthy of note, just because he had just 1 point at the same stage last season, which was poor, even allowing for the fact he only played in 14 of those first 20 games.

Overall, while disappointing in general, these numbers actually can be perceived as reason for encouragement when you consider that the Oilers have still managed to produce a record above .500. Once they begin playing up to their true potential on a more consistent basis -- and there's plenty of reason to believe they will eventually -- they're going to cause a lot of problems for the rest of the NHL, as they continue their quest for a second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

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