1. Edmonton Oilers
Call me biased if you want, but I'm not the only one saying that the Oilers are the favorites to win the Cup this year. They came so close to winning the division last season as well, but ended up in second place to the Canucks - but that's fine in my books because the Oilers defeated the Canucks when it counted - in the playoffs. In my mind there is no better team in the Pacific than our Oilers - and I've always been the first one to say it in past prediction blogs if I felt the opposite way. During the decade of darkness, I frequently left the Oilers out of the playoffs because that's the team I felt they were at the time.
What are my reasons for bold optimism? Let's start with the top six forward group - IMO one of, if not the, best in the league. The Oilers have the greatest 1-2 punch at center there is, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Then you have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, a natural center who's spent the last few seasons riding shotgun to one or the other of the McDrai duo at LW. Most teams would kill to have one of these players on the roster, let alone all three, because all three are capable of being a first line center on any team in the league. Backing up the big three is RW Zach Hyman, a winger who has done nothing but set new career highs from the minute he pulled on an Oilers sweater jumping ship from the Maple Laffs.
Rounding out the top six is the reason why I'm calling this list the best - newcomers Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner. Arvidsson has long been known as one of the best two way players in the game, putting up multiple seasons of 20 and 30 goals while also being on the right side of the +/- ledger more often than not, see for yourself. Skinner, meanwhile, is coming to the Oilers on a cheap short term contract after the Buffalo Sabres - not because he was performing badly but because they knew his $9,000,000 a year contract would be next to impossible to trade, and they knew he probably wanted to come and play for a contender. Skinner has played for such lousy teams in Buffalo and Carolina that he has yet to play a playoff game in over 1000 games and 14 seasons, something he is virtually a lock to experience here in Edmonton, which is why he signed here for cheap and only one year. Regardless of how he does, Skinner is hoping to win a cup here and then sign for big $$ elsewhere. Both the newcomers are slated to play with Leon Draisaitl, and as long as they can keep up with him are likely to clean up in the boxcars and give the opposition fits every night.
Meanwhile, the third line will feature Mattias Janmark-Adam Henrique-Connor Brown, a formidable third line that is capable of playing both offensively and defensively. It's a very experienced third line, having played almost 2000 games combined. It's worth noting that Henrique currently sits at 912 games, which means assuming he can stay relatively healthy, by the time Henrique's contract has expired after next season he'll have surpassed 1000 games played. I can't wait to see what Connor Brown can do now that he's starting the season healthy, unlike last season when he came in having played only four games for the Washington Capitals the season before with a lingering knee injury.
The fourth line is shaping up quite impressively as well. Derek Ryan retained his spot at fourth line C for now, having shaken off real competition in training camp from Noah Philp, Lane Pederson, and Drake Cagguila, all of whom have been sent down to Bakersfield in the interim. Ryan's wingers will be Corey Perry - at one time one of the NHL's premier power forwards, he's lost a step but still maintains cerebral play against weak competition and a physical nastiness. He's also played on the losing team in four of the last five Cup finals, a trend he's hoping to reverse this season with the Oilers, and I'm willing to bet he retires after this season if the Oilers win the cup so he can go out a winner, just like Lanny McDonald and Ray Bourque did before him. Throw Dave Andreychuk in there for good measure. Injecting youthful energy into the fourth line will be newcomer Vasily Podkolzin, ex of the Canucks and the only member of the line under the age of 37. Podkolzin is best described as a failed first round draft pick who, if training camp is any indication, will benefit from a reduced role and expectations on a better team coupled with a fresh start. That's a line that should do some damage against other depth lines in the NHL, and it's worth noting that Podkolzin is also taking the spot of Dylan Holloway at a much cheaper cap hit - and Podkolzin will be doing it at the price of only $1 million a season for the next two seasons, less than half of what Holloway was snatched from us by the offer sheet of the St. Louis Blues, who are taking a huge risk by playing Holloway in their top six forward group - and on the first line, no less.
On defense we have one of the best top pairings in the league with Mattias Ekholm-Evan Bouchard. Ekholm took Bouchard under his wing and became the stay at home janitor for Bouchard, who really broke out in a big way last season with 18-64-82 and a whopping +34 playing tough minutes and playing a big role in the Oilers record setting PP last season. Below him we have Darnell Nurse, who despite the heavy criticism he takes from fans and playing injured for part of last season and into the playoffs, still managed to put up over 30 points and finish on the good side of the defensive ledger at +3. This was a step down from the season before when he finished +26 with 43 points, but the difference between 30 and 40 points for a blueliner isn't a whole heck of a lot in the grand scheme of things. Following the departure of Philip Broberg from the organization due to the risky offer sheet he signed with the Blues, the Oilers have traded for Ty Emberson, sending Cody Ceci and his fall from grace last season to the San Jose Sharks to get him. Emberson won the sweepstakes during training camp of getting to be Nurse's partner and being the stay at home guy that takes some of the defensive load off of Nurse so he can crash, bang, and score like we all know he can.
On the bottom pairing we have the overpaid veteranosity of Brett Kulak, who while a very good bottom pairing defender is being paid like he's playing in the top four, an error that will likely be corrected via trade before his contract is over as he will become a luxury the Oilers simply won't have the cap space to afford once Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid sign new contracts. For now, though, we welcome him back to the left side of the bottom pairing. On the right side will be Troy Stetcher, who was playing on the second pairing for the Arizona Coyotes last season when the Oilers traded for him at the deadline. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see nearly enough of him before he got injured and couldn't play the end of the regular season or any playoff games. At less than $800K for the next two seasons he'll be exactly what the Oilers need on the bottom pairing, unless a prospect unseats him and there are a few of those.
In between the pipes we have Stuart Skinner in tandem with Calvin Pickard, a tandem that while not exactly elite have shown an ability to get the job done. Skinner struggled to start the year but then rebounded and outside of a bad stretch against the Canucks in the second round played very well, outduelling Jake Oettinger in the process and almost outduelling Sergei Bobrovsky in the in the finals. Skinner has only 123 NHL games to his name, so we don't completely know what we have with him yet. If he can stay healthy over the next two seasons, he'll surpass that mark and then we'll have a much better idea of how high his ceiling is. In the meantime he'll have a lethal top six forward group making his job much easier. Pickard, on the other hand, experienced a career renaissance last season. Expected to be only insurance for this team as the third goalie in the organization, he switched roster spots with the struggling Jack Campbell and proved to be a breath of fresh air, getting 20 starts down the stretch and winning 12 of them. He also got two starts in the playoffs when Stuart Skinner needed a reset in the second round, and performed solidly in that short sample size. As a tandem they're only costing $3.6 million against the cap for the next two seasons, a silver lining in not having someone like Connor Hellebuyck on your roster.
And there's the million dollar question - what are the odds that the injuries we saw at the beginning of last season will be the catalyst of a slow start to the season again? Unlikely.