Nearing a quarter way into the 2025-26 National Hockey League schedule and the Edmonton Oilers have been struggling to begin the year.
Battling injuries, scoring problems, and goaltending are the main issues plaguing the Oilers right now and in the early parts of this NHL campaign. However, there has been some reason for optimism given the team's play, specifically in their underlying numbers. Even still, recent blown leads have not helped their case when looking across the NHL landscape.
Sportsnet gives Oilers low ranking
Canadian NHL TV rights holders, Sportsnet recently released a power ranking, highlighting new players on teams in tandem with it. Sportsnet gave the Oilers a ranking of 18th out of all 32 NHL teams, firmly in the bottom-half of the entire NHL.
The players highlighted of course were Andrew Mangiapane and Jack Roslovic. Looking at both players, with Mangiapane they mentioned his goal scoring putting him above a 20 goal pace and Roslovic's recent success with seven points in his last six games.
This ranking is a steep drop from last week's ranking that saw the Oilers sit 10th across the league, a trend that has been continuing as the season moves along but this is the first time the Oilers have left that top 10 range.
Poor results do not define Oilers recent play
There is no way to hide that some players have not hit the ground running and the Oilers' flaws as a group have been very evident through the early part of the NHL season. Much ink has been spilled covering them here and at other outlets but the process behind their game is improving.
Even still, their recent losses and the fashion they have been losing in has been dramatic with the club blowing multiple 2-0 leads. Even their one win since the last power ranking was an unconvincing overtime win in a close game.
Looking at their underlying numbers like the corsi and expected goals, both for and against proves this (evolvinghockey.com). It sounds like a cop out but in one of the most random sports, sometimes it truly is as simple as your team not getting the right bounces.
Even as a whole, on the entire season the Oilers record is not too bad at 6-5-4 in 15 games and their points percentage falls16th in the league. They have done a good job of taking games to extra time, even if they have lost in many of those outings, it has allowed them to still capture points in the standings.
All that can be hoped is that the team starts to improve on their results and can climb up the standings and power rankings as a result.