4 Edmonton Oilers New Year resolutions for 2024

As the NHL enters 2024, we look at four New Year resolutions for the Edmonton Oilers which can help them finally win a long overdue Stanley Cup.

Minnesota Wild v Edmonton Oilers
Minnesota Wild v Edmonton Oilers / Lawrence Scott/GettyImages
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Happy New Year to one and all from everyone at Oil on Whyte, with us hoping 2024 is a good one for you. This includes the Edmonton Oilers.

The 2023 portion of this season was an interesting one for the Oilers. Tagged as preseason favorites by ESPN to win it all, things haven't quite gone to plan thus far.

What the rest of this season holds for the Oilers remains to be seen. However, here are four New Year resolutions which, if they can fulfill, will go some way towards finally winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1989-90:

1) Resolve the goalie situation behind Stuart Skinner

From an overall season perspective to date, the team goalie stats for the Oilers are not exactly encouraging. At the time of posting, they are tied-26th with a .891 save percentage and 20th with a 3.24 Goals Against Average (GAA).

However, consider that at one point it was even more dire, with the worst team save percentage and second-worst GAA in the NHL. This speaks to an improvement which sees the Oilers ranked eighth with a .913 save percentage and fifth with a 2.38 GAA in their past 16 games.

In this respect, Stuart Skinner has completely turned his season around. At one stage he had a horrific 1-5-1 record through seven starts, as well as the third-worst save percentage among all NHL goaltenders.

Since then however, as the team has improved so has Skinner, with a spectacular 13-4-0 record in his past 17 starts. While his overall .892 save percentage still doesn't look great, it's above .900 since Kris Knoblauch came in.

In this respect, the Edmonton native is more than proving he has the chance to be the long-term solution in net for the Oilers. There is the concern of playing too much however, with his 24 starts, already halfway to his total from all of last season.

The question is, what do the Oilers do about their goaltending situation behind Skinner? In fairness, Calvin Pickard has been decent in his five starts, but there is some doubt -- fair or not -- based on his previous experience at the NHL level.

There has been talk of giving Olivier Rodrigue a chance with the Oilers and certainly he does offer some intriguing upside. He's been excellent in Bakersfield since taking over from Jack Campbell as the number one, and overall he is second among all qualifying AHL goalies in save percentage this season.

There is also still the option on the table of trading for a quality goalie, whether it be to serve as a backup or even as part of a tandem, although this would come at a cost. Ultimately, whatever route the Oilers decide to take, they need to give Skinner more time off or risk running him into the ground.

2) Be more consistent with their performances

The Oilers are notorious for their slow starts to the season. However, the 2023-24 campaign has been notable for them also being extremely erratic and streaky when it comes to wins and losses.

Consider that the Oilers began this season with a 2-9-1 record. This represented the worst start to a season through 12 games in franchise history, costing Jay Woodcroft his job in the process.

Then, after Knoblauch took over as head coach and started 0-2, the team lost three straight, With a record of 5-12-1, this was the Oilers' fourth-worst ever start to a campaign through 18 games.

To further highlight the streaky nature of this team, they then rattled off eight wins in a row. This was one off the franchise record for consecutive wins and all seemed right in the world again.

However, the up and down, roller coaster nature of 2023-24 continued for the Oilers, with three terrible losses by a combined 15-5. Just like that, the hopes and dreams for fans, was replaced by the desolate and inconsolable feeling from earlier in the season.

Since then though, the Oilers have been on a(nother) role with five straight wins, all of which have come on the road. As a result, after beginning this season 2-8-0 on their travels, they have since gone 7-1-0.

Of course, the question is can the Oilers now find more consistency in the New Year, which they enter with a 18-15-1 record? If you're looking for a positive omen, consider that they were 18-14-2 at the same point in each of the previous two seasons, and finished with 49 and 50 regular season wins respectively.

3) Strive to be the best once again

Already established as the best player in the game today, Connor McDavid took his play to another stratosphere last season. He scored the most points since Mario Lemieux during the 1995-96 season and the fourth-most by any player in NHL history.

As a result, McDavid won his fifth Art Ross Trophy. In addition, he took home his third Hart Trophy, fourth Ted Lindsay Award and first Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.

This season however, has been a tough one thus far for the 2015 first overall draft pick. It's been filled with plenty of adversity, including missing some playing time through injury, the Oilers' poor start and even controversy regarding his induction into the Canada Walk of Fame.

Worst of all, McDavid received unwarranted criticism from so-called fans with a short memory. Yes he was struggling by his own lofty standards as he equalled a career-worst eight-game goal drought, but still had 16 points through 16 games.

Regardless, the six-time All-Star then found his form, beginning with four assists in a 5-0 shutout of the Capitals. This represented the first of three straight games with three points in a single period, a feat not seen in 28 years.

All in all, McDavid has produced 32 points in his past 16 games, literally double the production from his first 16 contests of the 2023-24 campaign. As a result he has urged up the scoring charts and is now tied-fifth and 13 points behind NHL-leading Nikita Kucherov.

Certainly there is still a tough climb ahead of the Richmond Hill, Ontario native, in order to catch up to Kucherov. However, if there's one player capable of catching the Russian, it's the Oilers' captain.

No one is better when they're in a zone, compared to McDavid. He may well not end up winning four individual awards like last season, but he's going to at least be in the running for them all when it comes to crunch time.

4) Win the Stanley Cup

Yes, we appreciate this is a resolution, or more to the point goal, for the majority of teams in the NHL in 2024. However, more so in Edmonton, given what's at stake.

The Oilers have the best player in the game, as well as another who at times has been called the second best player in the league. There are a lot of legacies at stake, if this franchise does not manage to reach the peak at least once with the current core.

There will be those who point towards hockey being arguably the ultimate team game, and in this respect of course it will take more than just McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to win the Stanley Cup. This is where the reputation of Ken Holland, Jeff Jackson and company come to the fore, in terms of having a roster around the duo capable of helping in the quest for glory.

It is still debatable just how good this roster actually is overall, which is still essentially the same as last season's. That would be the season where the Oilers achieved 50 regular season for the first time since 1986-87, led the league in scoring and set a new NHL record for power play productivity.

However, come playoff time, the team fell apart in the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup champions. In this respect, the Vegas Golden Knights continue to dominate this season, and serve as a reminder of what stands between the Oilers and the championship.

The Oilers roster continues to face questions about how good they are in 2023-24. This is a team which got blown out 8-1 on opening night in Vancouver, but also has marquee wins against the likes of the Golden Knights and on the road versus the NHL points-leading Rangers.

As for McDavid and Draisaitl themselves, no matter the quality of the talent, they still need to lead the way. Yes they both performed well during last season's playoffs, but it still wasn't enough in the end and they have to both take their game to higher levels.

4 Oilers that need to step up in 2024 for playoff push. 4 Oilers that need to step up in 2024 for playoff push. dark. Next

Overall, this is a team which is more than capable of winning the Stanley Cup with the talent at their disposal; on their day no one can stop the Oilers. However, being capable of winning it all and actually doing it are two entirely different concepts, which will lead to an interesting 2024 for fans.

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