3 Edmonton Oilers Players That Exceeded Expectations This Year

Edmonton Oilers Bench Mandatory Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-USA TODAY Sports
Edmonton Oilers Bench Mandatory Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-USA TODAY Sports
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Edmonton Oilers Cody Ceci, #5, lays a body check.
Edmonton Oilers Cody Ceci, #5, lays a body check. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

Cody Ceci

After the Edmonton Oilers signed Cody Ceci this offseason for $3.250 million/season I thought that there is no way can live up to that contract cap hit. Today I am telling you I was wrong, this contract now looks like a bargain.

He is now playing on the first pair with Darnell Nurse and in playing against the other team’s best players. Having a player at that cap hit playing top pair minutes is making Ken Holland looking like a genius.

NHL Standard career statistics
Season GP G A PTS +/- PIM TOI ATOI BLK HIT TK GV
2021-22 69 4 21 25 12 14 1444 20:55 111 107 11 35

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com

With the quality of players that Ceci faces for him to have the stats he does, to me is where he exceeds the expectations I had at the start of this season. I originally thought he would be the player that would come in the lineup if Evan Bouchard was struggling.

I had him and Kris Russell very close on the depth chart at the start of the season. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I am happy about that. With the way this back end has been playing as of late they are finding their groove at the perfect time and it’s exciting to watch.

Edmonton Oilers Playoff Run

It looks like at this point the Edmonton Oilers will need to have a monumental collapse to miss the playoffs. If this teams wants to go on a deep run these three players noted above will need to keep up their good play.

If they continue to play good and the rest of the team plays as expected this is going to be a fun team to watch and hopefully watch into the summer.