ESPN Future Rankings Sewer The Edmonton Oilers
Yesterday ESPN did a power rankings article, but it was for this year as well as the next 3 seasons. On the list of all NHL teams the Edmonton Oilers were ranked 20th. I guess Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are going to fall right off a cliff.
ESPN took four different aspects of the teams. They looked at the roster, prospects, cap/contracts, and owner/GM/coach. Each one of these was weighted differently. Roster-35%, prospects-25%, cap/contracts-20%, and owner/GM/coach-20%.
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The number one team on the list was the New Jersey Devils. According to ESPN the Edmonton Oilers are in the bottom half of the league. ESPN ranked the Edmonton Oilers roster 3rd, prospects 29th, cap/contracts 19th and owner/GM/coach 17th in the league.
My best guess is the Edmonton Oilers prospects are what tanked them. I just find it hard that there are only 3 teams with worse prospects than the Edmonton Oilers. The other thing that may be the problem is if the GM/coach number being 17 is due to not having Ken Holland with a contract moving forward.
I just don’t know how the Edmonton Oilers can be determined to be worse than the Anaheim Ducks(16th), Chicago Blackhawks(18th) and the Columbus Blue Jackets(9th). I get that they are looking at their younger core improving, but I can’t see the fact that they will be better than the Edmonton Oilers.
This List Doesn’t Take The On The Ice Edmonton Oilers Into Account
This list created by ESPN puts a lot of weight on the off-ice product, by only putting 35% of the weight on the roster. In the next 3 years, I would say that there is only going to be a max of 4 openings for prospects anyway, so the prospects should barely make a dent in the Oilers’ overall score.
The less skilled teams like the Blackhawks and Ducks are higher on the list simply because they have cap space because they don’t have any older skilled players they need to pay. That coupled with the fact all their better players are still young improves the prospects.
Just Forget About It
This list is really high on the things I am going to forget about. In a couple of months when the Oilers are near the top of the NHL ranking and other teams are at the bottom there will be no need to remember this list.
The only reason to remember this list is to look back at it and have a laugh that it was actually made.