When the Edmonton Oilers won the draft lottery almost one year ago, excitement and hope rushed over Oiler fans everywhere. Why wouldn’t it? Connor McDavid was the best prospect since Sidney Crosby, and while he missed a large chunk of the season, he lived up to expectations. He’s a superstar in the making and the next great Edmonton Oiler.
When Bob Nicholson took a larger role and then hired Peter Chiarelli as the GM days later, that hype and excitement reached another level. It climbed again when Todd McLellan was named head coach and it rose again when Cam Talbot and Andrej Sekera were added to the mix in Edmonton.
Playoffs? Likely not, but the Oilers were going to be in the chase and be arguably the most improved team in the NHL this season, we were so sure of it.
On December 14th, the Oilers beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in overtime to win their sixth in a row and move into a playoff spot in the Pacific Division. The team would be getting McDavid and Klefbom back soon and would finally push for a postseason berth. At worst, they were going to be in the race into late March or early April.
Oscar Klefbom never played another game this season and McDavid didn’t return until February. By that point, it was over, the Edmonton Oilers were toast and out of the postseason race. No meaningful games in April…or March……or February. Another season gone by with nothing competitive after January.
Ten straight years out of the postseason and tied for the NHL record for futility. If I was a betting man, I’d say they will break it next season. Inexcusable? No, more like embarrassing.
Born With Promise:
A new management team, coaching staff and player base had fans excited for this season. Cam Talbot was supposed to solidify the goaltending position while Andrej Sekera was supposed to come in and represent improvement over Jeff Petry. After a rough start for both, that was actually the case. Talbot is certainly locked in as the starter for next season while Sekera, although over matched in the number one role, has done quite well for the Oilers.
That said, the promise around many other players was not lived up to. Justin Schultz imploded yet again and was sent to Pittsburgh for a 3rd round pick at the deadline. Nail Yakupov showed something in a stint with McDavid to start the season, but he fell off a cliff following McDavid’s injury and suffered a key injury of his own.
Nikita Nikitin never showed improvement over 2014-15, while Mark Letestu and Lauri Korpikoski both fell well short of what many were hoping for when they were acquired in the off-season. All three players came to camp, played reasonably well, but fell off a cliff early and never truly recovered. Letestu is the only one I expect back next season.
The Oilers’ 2015-16 season was born with so much promise, but was dead almost on arrival. They never recovered from their 0-4-0 start, and outside of a six game winning streak in early December, they proved to be inconsistent at best throughout the season.
Walking Wounded:
Injuries hampered every team, but the Oilers got hit hard just about everywhere. Up front, Jordan Eberle got hurt in a preseason game and missed the first six weeks of the season. Connor McDavid missed a few months with his broke collarbone, Benoit Pouliot had two lengthy injury stints, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins broke his hand while Nail Yakupov had a knee issue from a freak accident with a referee.
On defense, Brandon Davidson suffered a season ending leg injury while Oscar Klefbom broke his finger in December and missed the rest of the season with a freak staph infection.
The Oilers got absolutely no luck when it came to injuries this season. They ended up playing over 50 games without their top defender and never once had their full top-six in the lineup. 82 games and not one with a full top-six. That, folks, is hard to believe.
Youth Emerges:
We knew Connor McDavid would be a superstar, and while he missed a chunk of time due to injury, he proved that he was the best rookie in the NHL. Leon Draisaitl proved he was ready for the NHL and emerged as a top-six option moving forward. He ended the year slowly but overall, it was a strong season for the German.
Brand Davidson was a revelation on the blue-line, emerging as a legit NHL defender. Darnell Nurse struggled at times, but he got his rookie season out of the way while both Griffin Reinhart and Jordan Oesterle showed quite well in late season auditions. I’m not sold on Reinhart, but he looked much better in the final month than in the early goings.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse and Davidson will be shoe-ins for the Oilers next season, and for the most part that was well earned. The McDavid cluster is shaping up quite nicely in my mind.
A Shift In Thinking:
Instead of bringing in guys like Ben Eager and Andy Sutton to provide toughness, the Oilers began to change the kind of players they acquired to be tough. Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian were mid-season additions that changed Edmonton’s mix to a degree. Kassian slowed down considerably as the season wore on, but Maroon’s style and offensive output were impressive.
I’d bring both back, they are physical, big, tough and can actually play. It’s kind of a revelation, really. More Patrick Maroon, please.
This shift in thinking shows that the Oilers are moving away from the coke-machine tough guys to gritty players who can, you know, play. That’s a great sign. Eric Gryba, an off-season addition, is another example of this.
The Positives:
Davidson, Draisaitl and McDavid all emerged and cemented themselves as legit NHL options moving forward. Cam Talbot took the crease and ran with it, crossing off a major item on the to-do list of Peter Chiarelli. Oscar Klefbom, when he played, further cemented himself as a top-four defender while Andrej Sekera ended up doing the same. The Oil can safely pencil those two in for next season.
Benoit Pouliot, Taylor Hall, Matt Hendricks and Eric Gryba can also be looked at as positives this season for the club. While he did struggle for parts of the season, Darnell Nurse getting valuable experience and emerging as a legit tough defender is a positive too.
Patrick Maroon and to a degree Zack Kassian are also positives from this season.
The Negatives:
Obviously, the final record and spot in the standings is a huge negative. Yes, the Oilers improved in some areas, but overall this was not good enough from Edmonton. This hockey club simply did not live up to expectations this season and the minimal improvements were just not enough. It’s a negative.
Injuries are also a huge negative for Edmonton as it impacted their season in a big way. I still don’t think this is a playoff team, but with better health the Oilers aren’t a bottom three hockey team.
Nail Yakupov, who outside of that early season stint with McDavid, faltered big time. Justin Schultz, Mark Letestu, Lauri Korpikoski and to a degree Griffin Reinhart and Mark Fayne were all disappointments and negatives this season.
The biggest disappointment? The Hall cluster continued to make the same mistakes when they were in the lineup. After this season, I truly question whether or not the Oilers can win with that group leading the way. I lean towards no, they cannot.
Final Thoughts:
The 2015-16 season was supposed to be a year of improvement and the year Edmonton turned north. Instead, the Oilers once again finished inside the bottom three and made only minimal improvements over the 2014-15 season. It wasn’t good enough, no where near good enough to be exact. The negatives far out weigh the positives and this season proved that it’s core should be questioned and that it is no where near ready to compete.
Here lays the 2015-16 Edmonton Oilers season – It started with promise and died almost right away, just like every season over the last decade.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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