The Edmonton Oilers entered the 4 Nations Face-off tounament break with a bitter taste in their mouth, after losing 5-4 at home to the Colorado Avalanche last Friday night. In truth though this fit the narrative of late, with the Oilers going a middling 5-4-1 in their past 10 games.
This recent run of indifferent form also reinforced that if the Oilers are to have one move to make above any other prior to the Mar. 7 trade deadline, it should be to add a quality goaltender. This roster is talented enough to take that final step and win it all this season, but not if they can't get more consistent play between the pipes.
Yes the Oilers are leading the Pacific Division at the time of writing, but a logjam has now formed behind the Winnipeg Jets, with the Oilers just one of five teams realistically battling for second place in the Western Conference standings. Let's get to the latest round of NHL power rankings, which this week is missing most of the usual culprits.
A different approach this time around
We begin with the one major sports media outlet which we turn to every week, albeit even The Athletic hasn't done their usual style of power ranking (subscription required). In this particular version, Sean McIndoe has picked and ranked which five teams he believes have the best chance of winning this season's Stanley Cup.
In this respect, fans in Edmonton will be happy to know McIndoe has the Oilers as the team with the second-best chance of winning the cup this season, behind the Jets. Further, he points to Leon Draisaitl as key, with him the only player in the NHL on course to reach 50 goals in 2024-25. (With him actually projected for a career-high 60 at this point.)
Next we turn to ESPN, who have kept the Oilers in third place for a second consecutive week. However -- for what it's worth -- this ranking does not take into account the aforementioned Avalanche game, so make of that what you will.
ESPN decided to go with a Super Bowl theme given that it's that time of year, with Arda Ocal picking something super about each NHL team and smartly going with owner Daryl Katz for the Oilers. Ocal referenced Forbes' recent NHL valuations which has the Oilers as the sixth most valuable franchise, and how Katz continues to have no issue ploughing as much money as possible into the team.
Oilers bumped down a little too much
Moving onto TSN, they have been the least 'generous' when it comes to the Oilers, moving them down from fourth to sixth place in their power rankings. While you can understand this from the perspective of our aforementioned point about the recent record, we would still contend it's slightly too much of a drop, for a team which is tied for the third-most points in the NHL at this time.
What makes the drop even more interesting, is that TSN even wrote that the Oilers won two of their past three games and entered the 4 Nations Face-Off break at the top of their division. In any event, we won't hold it against the Canadian sports media outlet, with them possibly even trying not to come across as being too biased!
On the subject of Canadian sports media outlets, finally we come to the Score, who move the Oilers down from third to fourth spot in the rankings. They have taken into account every game before the break, and you won't find any argument from us about where the team has been placed.
However, this isn't the case when it comes to the Score looking at every team's biggest wish ahead of the trade deadline. They believe the Oilers' need a left-handed defenceman prior to Mar. 7, and while they could use one, we still don't think this should be prioritised over an upgrade at the goalie position.
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