Is The Oilers Forward Group Better Than Last Season?
While there is no doubt the Oilers defense has gotten worse from this time last season, the question is, did the Oilers forwards get any better?
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.
The Edmonton Oilers Bottom 6
The bottom 6 for the Edmonton Oilers is a different story than the top 6. The turnover in the bottom 6 is much greater than in the top 6. The Edmonton Oilers no longer have Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele. While those players rarely moved the needle in an individual game, they had their role and played that role well.
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
Podkolzin - Ryan - Perry
This is what we can expect the bottom six to look like at the start of the season. The one major change is the average age of this group. They lost the three youngest players and only added one younger player in Podkolzin. With the increase in age comes a decrease in overall speed.
When it comes to today's NHL, speed is one of the most important aspects of success. Look at the Oilers' top six, there is not one player that can be classified as slow. The Oilers' bottom six is the opposite, there is no one player that an opposing team would be worried about because of their speed and to me, that is an issue.
The one positive about the bottom six right now though is they are a veteran group that will not make bad mistakes. It is a very trustworthy group of veterans who know what it takes to win at all levels. Once this team makes the playoffs playing smart, mistake free hockey will end up being very important.
As an overall, I think the bottom six is worse than it was last season. The good news for the Oilers is that this is an area that can be easily improved at the trade deadline. It is hard and expensive to bring in the top 6 help at forward, but adding a depth piece is much easier and more cost effective.
Next. Who the Edmonton Oilers could sign on a PTO contract. Who the Edmonton Oilers could sign on a PTO contract. dark
Overall, I think the Oilers forward group right now is slightly worse than it was at this time last season. That being said I don't think this is going to be the 12 forwards that will be on the roster come the start of the playoffs. At the deadline, this team will make improvements to this group and after those changes, I expect this team to be improved from the lineup they iced this past season.
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