A lot of people will look at the Edmonton Oilers and note a team which has won five of their last seven games. A team which is getting warmed up at just the right time, further buoyed by Connor McDavid's return and subsequently producing seven points in two games.
However, the reality is that in general the Oilers have been far too inconsistent this season, and that's even allowing for the multitude of injuries they've had by key personnel on the roster. Since being a genuine contender for top spot in the Western Conference in early February, they have gone 12-12-1 in the past 25 games.
As a result, even though the Oilers secured a playoff spot for the sixth consecutive season they have more than likely lost out on home-ice advantage versus the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs. Let's get to another round of weekly NHL power rankings from some of the main North American sports media outlets.
Not so super ranking for the Oilers
We begin with NHL.com and their 'Super 16', which has the Oiler in 12th place for a second consecutive week and doesn't account for the 4-2 win at home to the San Jose Sharks on Friday night. Derek Van Diest references them almost limping into the playoffs, but since then Stuart Skinner and Mattias Ekholm have both joined McDavid in returning from injury.
Individually speaking there was a point recently when some of NHL.com's voters didn't even have the Oilers in their Super 16 rankings, but this is no longer the case. Of the 14 voters, Bill Price and Nicholas J. Cotsonika have the most confidence in placing them 10th, while Shawn P. Roarke has them lowest at 15th.
Next we turn to Bleacher Report, who similarly have the Oilers ranked at number 12. As with NHL.com they didn't account for the most recent game, but the difference is they actually moved the team down from 11th place last week.
What's interesting about Lyle Fitzsimmons moving the Oilers down a place, is that he does give them credit for Wednesday night's despite still being undermanned, over a St. Louis Blues team which entered the game having won 12 of 13. In truth though ranking 12th it's bad in its own right, but the anticipation is that this team should and will be better come playoff time.
In an interesting change of direction Sportsnet has this Oilers in 10th place, up from 11th last week. As with the two previous media outlets they have not taken into account the most recent game, but we're not going to criticise them for moving the team up one spot.
No doubt about Oilers MVP
Ryan Dixon took it upon himself to name each team's MVP for this season, and it will come as zero shock to anyone that he picked Leon Draisaitl for the Oilers, and quite rightly so for a player who has even outshone McDavid in 2024-25. Draisaitl is on course to win his first ever Rocket Richard Trophy and has the impressive stat of being the only other player than Alex Ovechkin to have more than two 50-goal seasons this century.
All three of our regular readers for these power rankings reviews, will know we usually begin each one with a look at The Athletic. However, the reason we have left them until last this time, is because they decided to do a playoff team draft, which made for an intriguing read. (Subscription required.)
Similar to NHL.com's 'Super 16' due to that being how many teams make the playoffs, Dom Luszczyszyn drafted the Oilers fifth despite all of the inconsistency and injuries. Although it should be added that as good as this sounds, they were only the fourth-ranked Western Conference team behind the Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets and their divisional rivals, the Vegas Golden Knights.
This of course speaks volumes about the strength in the conference, and alludes to just how tough it's going to be for the Oilers to repeat last season's playoff run. Luszczyszyn understandably has McDavid and Draisaitl as the main pluses, but is concerned about Skinner between the pipes, with us recently mentioning ourselves that perhaps Calvin Pickard deserves to get the nod as the regular starter moving forward.
Overall, it's tough to disagree with where any of the main sports media outlets have ranked the Oilers, but as always we realise this is a fun exercise. Ultimately all that matters is what the team does on the ice once the playoffs begin, and while they might have two of the five best players in the game today, there are doubts about if this will be enough to facilitate a return to the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight year.
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