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Are the Edmonton Oilers forwards (already) better than last season?

By Gabriel Candido

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 16: Leon Draisaitl #29 of the Edmonton Oilers celebrates his third period power-play goal with Connor McDavid #97 against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on February 16, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 16: Leon Draisaitl #29 of the Edmonton Oilers celebrates his third period power-play goal with Connor McDavid #97 against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on February 16, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Edmonton Oilers celebrate goal
Feb 11, 2022; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; The Edmonton Oilers celebrate a goal by forward Jesse Puljujarvi (13) against the New York Islanders during the third period at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports /

Let’s talk now about the ones who almost left the team for this season and were set to an arbitration for their contract, which are Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto.

Starting with Puljujarvi, he just signed a one-year contract and we all know he isn’t the player who the primary stats tell the whole story.

With only 3 points on 16 GP played of the NHL playoffs, the 4th overall pick of the 2016 draft can for sure produce more on the ice, especially playing with McDavid and Draisaitl, but he’s nothing near a bad NHL player. His forecheck, number of pucks recovered and his defensive playing are among the best on the league, as we can see on the stats below.

"Puljujarvi is Edmonton’s best forechecker, as his forecheck pressures per hour rank higher than 97% of the NHL. Alongside this, Puljujarvi’s offensive zone takeaways, zone exit, and puck retrieval stats rank well above average as well. it was mentioned that SportLogIQ (a proprietary data company that numerous NHL teams use) placed Puljujarvi in the top-third of the league in offensive zone pucks recovered, rebounds recovered, and puck battle wins. This is the primary explanation for Puljujarvi’s marvellous 5v5 defensive metrics. He does an excellent job at forcing turnovers, retrieving pucks, winning board battles, and keeping the play in the offensive zone for his linemates, resulting in superb possession results. In 2021-22, the McDavid line allowed 1.5 goals against per hour with Puljujarvi, while they allowed 2.9 goals against per hour without Puljujarvi."

With Kailer Yamamoto, he signed a 2-year contract and comes from one of his best years on the team, scoring 20 goals and 41 points in regular season, but on the playoffs he had 7 points on 14 GP, with a plus-minus of -6.

Such as Puljujarvi, we know he has the potential to produce even more with time and good coaching. Yamamoto’s potential already was presented to the world with the “DRY Line” of 2019-20 with him, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins, which gave Draisaitl a Hart Memorial, Art Ross and Ted Lindsey award that season and showed that Yamo can score 26 points in only 27 games.

He can not only be better, but make the other players around him better too, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the bottom 6 this season, playing with even younger players, such as Ryan McLeod and Dylan Holloway.

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