Potential Edmonton Oilers Rental – Ryan O’Reilly

It’s unfortunate that the Oilers didn’t get the extra point they needed against Detroit last game, but they’re still very much jockeying for position. They’re now going into a stretch of games against tougher opponents, starting tomorrow against a New York Rangers team that just traded for Vladimir Tarasenko not that long ago. They’re going to have to string together a winning streak if they want to have a chance at home ice advantage.  Looking at the standings as they are now, they’re currently tied with Seattle for third, who only occupy the upper spot due to having one less loss than the Oilers. That being said, first-place Vegas is only two points ahead of us, and second-place LA is only one point.

On the plus side, it looks like we’re pulling away from our opposition underneath us. The Flames still occupy the other wildcard spot, but they’re five points behind us now and tied with Minnesota for the last wildcard spot. That contest could go either way. Nashville is another five points behind those two teams and 10 points behind the Oilers. St. Louis is next in line, but I fully expect the Blues to drop out of the race any day now as they’re the first team to declare themselves as sellers since Vancouver started a rebuild 2.0 by trading away Bo Horvat.

Unless the Oilers implode between now and the end of the season, our opposition from underneath is unlikely to catch us at this point (they’re not mathematically out of it, but…..the Oilers would have to lose a lot of games and the Flames win a lot of games to make up the difference – or the Wild).  The Pacific division is starting to sort itself out, but all three of the playoff spots are still up for grabs between the Oilers, Kings, Kraken, and Golden Knights.