Edmonton Oilers: Ten Storylines To Watch This Upcoming Season
The Edmonton Oilers are fastly approaching a new season. After losing too early during the postseason for another year, this team is out looking for something more in 2021-22.
The Edmonton Oilers have added new faces, and in the eyes of general manager Ken Holland, they have improved their roster for a run to the postseason.
The Oilers will be back in their old division this season, the Pacific Division. A division led by the Vegas Golden Knights, Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, and newcomer Seattle Kraken. Being back in the Pacific should open the door up for the Oilers to succeed.
It is a long road to the postseason. 82 games need to be played before fans around the league can say their team is in the postseason. For the Oilers, that means there is a lot to improve on and follow before April. The season is a little over a month away, and with that in mind, here are ten things to keep an eye on before puck drop and throughout the entire regular season.
1. Will Connor McDavid have another career year?
Connor McDavid is entering another season with expectations for his roster after another season of being let down in the postseason. McDavid probably has a right to be upset after last year’s series against the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets did their best to shut down McDavid and, in doing so, won the series because Edmonton had nothing else to throw at them. Maybe if the Oilers actually bought in at the deadline, things would have been different, but no one will ever know now.
McDavid had a remarkable regular season, putting up over 100 points in 56 games. Yet his year still ended with the same long summer and the same short postseason run. Maybe there will be an extra spark under him to see the team do well this season, or maybe some frustration will hurt his game. Time will tell.
2. Is Leon Draisaitl going to outshine McDavid again?
During the 2019-20 season, Draisaitl led the Oilers with 110 points in 71 games. That gave him the best point total throughout the entire NHL and led him to a few different trophies. However, Draisaitl, similar to McDavid, probably is a little tired of losing during the playoffs.
This team has the star power, and those stars are some of the best around the entire league, but for some reason or another, they just have not gotten it done during the postseason. Maybe Draisaitl can help lead the charge.
By the time this season will end, Draisaitl will be 26 years old and, depending on how this season goes, have very little playoff success to his name. This bright start on the team is definitely fueled to win. The only question that remains is whether or not he can compete with McDavid for the team league in points as he did in 2019-20?
3. Does Duncan Keith still have anything in the tank?
Duncan Keith is a winner. He won three Stanley Cups, two Norris Trophies, a couple of gold medals, and has been an all-star in this league for many years. But the thing is, that was back in 2015, some six seasons later, and he is not getting any younger.
What does Duncan Keith have left in the tank? Can he return to the dominant form everyone saw from him during the Hawks championships? Or has his play declined to the point where he is going to be a liability in his own end more than a help?
Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest question marks for this team. If Keith can go out and play great as he has in the past, then they have a heck of a player to help add depth on the back end behind Darnell Nurse, but if he is a liability that cannot be trusted in big situations, then the Oilers are in for a long season.
4. How will the goalies perform?
The Edmonton Oilers’ goaltending depth throughout the entire organization was addressed earlier this week, but it is the talent that fans see during games this year that worries me the most. Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen definitely is not the best goaltending tandem throughout the entire NHL, but maybe they can provide the support the team needs throughout the season.
The regular season probably won’t be an issue for these two netminders. Fans have seen the Oilers outscore opponents for years, it is in the playoffs that goals get harder to come by, and teams with not as great goaltending fall – that is where the Oilers need to be careful.
The Oilers will be paying attention to how their two netminders perform throughout the entire regular season. If they are not living up to expectations giving up too many weak goals, I think we could see a rare in-season goalie trade for the Oilers as they find that one final missing link to their team.
5. Does Brendan Perlini find a spot?
Brendan Perlini has not found a home with any of the different teams he has played for. Originally drafted in the first round by the Arizona Coyotes, Perlini played in 153 games over three seasons in Arizona. He then was sent to Chicago in a trade for Nick Schmaltz. His time in Chicago was not great, and then he spent the 2019-20 season in Detroit with the Red Wings.
Perlini spent last season in the National League with HC Ambrì-Piotta where he put up 16 points in 21 games. I think Perlini is one of the team’s underrated acquisitions as it gives someone that deserves another chance in the NHL a chance in a bottom-six that is in desperate need of talent.
If Perlini succeeds, he earns another NHL contract at the end of the season, and the Oilers are better off as it didn’t cost much to get him during the team’s trying time with the salary cap and personnel due to some other offseason trades.
Perlini was a quiet addition for this team that could turn into something good. Next up is an addition that has everyone’s eyes on it from the get-go.
6. Zach Hyman better bring a lot more than his contract.
Zach Hyman is an example of a player that got overpaid during free agency, but sometimes that is the price for a team that is desperate for talent. Hyman is a top-six forward that has been a great help on the Toronto Maple Leafs. The thing is, though, Toronto has a LOT of talent offensively, so whether or not Hyman really is the skilled player or just someone good with guys of high caliber remains to be seen.
Either way, Hyman has his contract and is going to be playing with the team for a long time now. How the team performs with him around will help decide whether or not this contract and signing was the right move for the team, and that starts with how he plays with Connor McDavid.
If McDavid somehow hits another level alongside Hyman, the storyline of this contract and signing will be one of success. Still, if the two start spending more in more time apart and Hyman ends up not being on the top line every night, then things might not be as good as once thought.
7. The Bottom Six Dilemma
The Edmonton Oilers did their best by adding guys like Warren Foegele this offseason, but now it is almost time for fans actually to see how the bottom six performs in a game. All the important pieces of the Oilers organization are their star guys like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but it is their depth guys like Turris Archibald and Shore that are going to help win them a championship.
Dave Tippett now has an entire season to try and figure out which pieces of the bottom six he wants to utilize night in and night out. The team will have to figure out who can center the third line, and how they are going to find offense throughout the bottom six while also being competitive and able to eat up minutes throughout the game.
The best teams in the league, like the Tampa Bay Lightning, are able to roll four lines every night. It does not matter which line is on the ice; they are going to score goals, protect a lead, and basically overwhelm opponents any way they play. Edmonton needs to find a spark like that.
8. Holland and Tippett
Another interesting storyline to watch this season will be the management of Holland and Tippett. How they react in different situations will be critical to the season and the franchise’s success for years to come.
If the Oilers struggle early in a game, does Tippett get desperate and mess with the lines or bench players as much as he did during last season’s postseason? Does he start trusting more of his players and not overplay the star players on this roster? That is arguably going to be the only way this team wins.
For Holland, watching how he performs during key moments like the trade deadline will be interesting. One would imagine that Holland will do everything in his power to build a playoff contender when the team approaches the trade deadline, but I think everyone also expected that last season.
The moves Holland makes from now until the end of the season will be critical to the team’s success, and I cannot wait to watch it all play out.
9. Warren Foegele has a lot to prove.
Warren Foegele was traded to the Edmonton Oilers from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Ethan Bear, a fan favorite and a great young defenceman that has a future in this league.
It will be interesting to watch Foegele play this season and see if he can win over the fans as much as Bear did during his time here. Fans often hold a little resentment against players when they are a part of the trade that sends fan favorites away – even though it is not their fault.
Foegele has big skates to fill, and it is important he does just that from the get-go seeing as they added him to help lead the bottom six out of the struggled of the past. Someone that will probably play in every situation and is going to be expected to score some goals, I think I might be more excited to watch the bottom six throughout the regular season than I am the star players like McDavid and Draisaitl.
10. Evan Bouchard already has a lot of pressure on him
The Edmonton Oilers said goodbye to some fan favorites on the blue line, like Adam Larsson; a loss to the team very few expected. The other guys like Caleb Jones and Ethan Bear were also surprises that could have been avoided. The Oilers are moving on from those two young guys to make room for another, Evan Bouchard.
Bouchard has played 21 games in the NHL over two seasons thus far, and he has put up six points during that time. This probably will be the first time in his career that he will play the majority of a season after being drafted tenth overall in the 2018 NHL draft.
Watching Bouchard play and seeing whether or not he can step in and lead different areas like the power play will be interesting. If he succeeds I think his role will definitely increase from a bottom pairing defenseman to a top or middle pairing guy depending on how the year goes.
Bouchard is the future of this blue line, in part thanks to the moves of this offseason and partly because he was the best option for a while now. Seeing how he does during a full season is going to be fun to watch.