Prior to this season, the Edmonton Oilers were viewed as Stanley Cup favourites by plenty of media outlets. And while there are those who point out this is no different than previous years, this time it was backed up by the team coming off a campaign where they came just two goals short of finally winning it all for the first time since 1990.
Among those predicting the Oilers as favourites was The Athletic, with them giving the team an overwhelming 46.4 percent chance to win. For some context, consider that they had the Dallas Stars as second-favourites, at 21.4 percent.
Then the 2024-25 campaign began, and the Oilers decided to have a second consecutive season of starting off slowly, While not quite as disastrous as the 2-9-1 start last season, going 5-5-1 during the month of October certainly wasn't what was expected out of Edmonton.
As a result, when November rolled around, The Athletic plunged the Oilers' odds all the way down to just 9.7 percent. Although to be fair this still had the team as fifth-favourites, which actually doesn't sound as bad when we're talking about someone with a .500 record.
Things looking better of late
Irrespective, we've since seen the Oilers turn around their fortunes a la last season, albeit not quite needing to recover from quite as big a hole. They went 8-4-1 during November and at the time of writing, they have a record of 5-1-0 for December.
The Oilers are on fire in general at the moment, as evidenced by winning nine of their past nine games. As a result, The Athletic (subscription required) have slightly improved the team's Stanley Cup chances to 11.5 percent.
As with last month, this might not sound particularly great, but this increase does also have the Oilers moving up to fourth-favourites to win it all come June time. The Stars are top of the heap at 38.5 percent, while the Caroline Hurricanes and last season's winners the Florida Panthers, are tied-second favourites at 15.4 percent.
Interestingly and not surprising, last month the Oilers were seen as the biggest disappointment in the NHL, at 35.5 percent. This month The Athletic has dropped this to just 7.7 percent, although the team is still tied for the league's second biggest disappointment, along with the Vancouver Canucks and Colorado Avalanche. (The New York Rangers are now first, at a whopping 76.9 percent.)
How about individual Oilers?
Next, we turn to the chase for the Hart Trophy, where Connor McDavid was seen as the overwhelming preseason favourite at 82.1 percent. Thanks to the combination of his slow start to the season and injury issues, he fell to fifth-favourite last month.
However -- as with the team -- McDavid has been on a tear of late and got himself right back into contention for what would be his fourth Hart Trophy. Although it should be noted that while he has jumped up to second-favourite at 11.5 percent, this is well behind Kirill Kaprizov's 69.2 percent.
Finally, we'll take a look at Leon Draisaitl's pursuit of a first ever Rocket Richard Trophy, which saw him well behind Auston Matthews prior to this season, at 3.6 percent and 82.1 percent respectively. Now though The Athletic has Draisaitl favoured considerably among all NHL players, at 61.5 percent, with him tied-first on 22 goals with Kaprizov at the time of writing.
There are other Oilers predictions in the article, but the ones mentioned seem the most relevant and/or interesting. Of course all fans really care about is how the season concludes, specifically with the Stanley Cup coming to Edmonton for the sixth time in franchise history.
From our perspective, the Oilers seem well-placed both in the prediction AND real world, although we'll admit this is coloured by how they recovered from last season's poor start. Ultimately though, this team has the talent and mental fortitude to overcome any obstacles, and be in serious contention come playoff time.