As with last season, the Edmonton Oilers have overcome a slow start and are now building some momentum as we close in on the festive holidays. And what must be scary for other teams and their fans, is that Kris Knoblauch's team is actually better-placed than at the same point in 2023-24.
The Oilers have won nine of their past 11 games, and have an overall record of 19-11-2 ahead of Saturday afternoon's contest at home versus the San Jose Sharks. As a comparison, they had a record of 16-15-1 through 32 games last season.
For the last seven days specifically the Oilers won two of three games, with one of the wins an impressive and dominating 6-3 result against the Vegas Golden Knights. Meanwhile, the loss was a disappointing won, as they fell just short at 6-5 to the Florida Panthers in a rematch of last season's Stanley Cup Final.
The question is, how does this impact the Oilers in the NHL power rankings? Here's a look at the latest round of weekly rankings among some of the major sports media outlets.
Status quo in most cases
As per normal we begin with The Athletic (subscription required), where it's a case of no change for the Oilers from last week and them remaining 10th. Individually speaking, Dom Luszczyszyn ranked them at number nine, while Sean Gentille positioned them at 11th.
This week's theme was a positive pre-Christmas edition, with The Athletic picking each team's MVP for the past 12 months. To no ones surprise, Connor McDavid was the selection for the Oilers, as they said:
"McDavid is on another planet and it shows with a league-leading plus-42 Net Rating in 2024. As usual, it’s McDavid and then everyone else."
Next we take a look at Sportsnet who, as with The Athletic, don't move the Oilers and have them in 10th place for a second consecutive week. For this week's theme, Ryan Dixon picks players for each team to keep an eye on at the upcoming 2025 World Junior Championships in Ottawa.
For the Oilers specifically, Dixon selects two defencemen in Canadian Beau Akey and American Paul Fischer. For us, Akey is the player who intrigues us more, with him being one of the team's top-rated prospects but having his progress compromised by a long-term shoulder injury last season.
A slight movement
Turning to NHL.com and their regular 'Super 16', they have promoted the Oilers just one place from last week, to number 11 in their rankings. On an individual basis among the 15 voters, Shawn P. Roarke is particularly high in placing them sixth, while at the other end Amalie Benjamin, Nicholas J. Cotsonika and Adam Kimelman have the team down in 13th place.
For this week's theme, NHL.com takes a look at which players on each current roster can make the upcoming quarter-century teams. No surprise that they select McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for the Oilers, but they also make a case for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, which is understandable given the combination of his durability and increased productivity as his career has progressed in Edmonton.
Biggest jump of the week for the Oilers
Finally we come to CBS Sports, who are the exception is this week's round of NHL power rankings. This is because they have moved the Oilers all the way up from 10th to fifth place, which we actually believe is slightly too generous, but likely still welcomed among the fan base.
Austin Nivison goes with a fun theme this week, putting all but one NHL team on the nice list and picking something each of them could use from Santa Claus. Nivison goes with depth scoring for the Oilers, and quite rightly says Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner in particular need to step up, to help McDavid and Draisaitl.
Overall, as already noted, everyone but CBS Sports probably has it about right with where they've ranked the Oilers this week. As always though, these power rankings are a subjective and fun exercise, and in fairness to Nivison, the Oilers are the second-hottest team in the league right now over the past 10 games, behind just the Los Angeles Kings.