Is The Oilers Forward Group Better Than Last Season?

I wrote the other day about how the Edmonton Oilers' defense has gotten worse over the last week in comparison to where they were last year at this time. Now I am going to take a look at how the forward have changed and see if, at the end of the day, the Oilers forwards has gotten better since last season. In order to do this, I will break it down into two different groups, the top 6 and the bottom 6.

The Edmonton Oilers Top 6

Last season the Edmonton Oilers' top 6 was one player short of being a near perfect top 6. Early in the season, they had a first line of Kane-McDavid-Brown and a second line of Nuge-Draisaitl-Hyman. Obviously, that is not how they finished the season and playoffs. In the playoffs, the lines were a combination of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, Foegele and Holloway. Those 6 were missing Kane, because of his injury.

There have been a couple of solid additions made this offseason via free agency. Bringing in Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson makes it so the Oilers now have 6 top 6 forwards. There are still questions surrounding Evander Kane and his health, if he is healthy and at 100% that would make 7 players that could play in the Edmonton Oilers top 6.

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Skinner - Draisaitl - Arvidsson

This top six is no doubt better than last years' top six. There is no hoping that a player has an amazing season to make this top 6 good. All 6 of these players have a track record of playing good hockey and putting up good numbers, because of this I think the Oilers' top 6 is better than it was last season. To be honest it could be the best top 6 in the whole NHL.