It’s a question that is on my mind, what can we truly and realistically expect from the Edmonton Oilers during the 2013-14 NHL season? A lot of people, myself and many podcast and radio guests included, believe this team CAN make the second season, but just as many will laugh and say once again, wait till next year.
The bottom line here is, we can all hope for and predict what we want to, but what is truly realistic for the Edmonton Oilers this coming season? Let’s take a look shall we?
Forwards:
I won’t spend a ton of time on the top line here, but Taylor Hall can realistically be expected to build off of last season and truly become an NHL superstar. If healthy, I’d be shocked if he did get 80+ points and lead this team offensively. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins might just be ready to go for opening night, and full season of Nuge gives Edmonton a legit top line option, and one which I fully expect to have a bounce back year. Ebs is Ebs, and I think we can expect a decent year from him overall.
David Perron is tricky, but he is an upgrade over Magnus Paajarvi, and gives Edmonton a really good running mate for Gagner and Yakupov. 15-20 goals should be his mark, and that makes Edmonton better. Sam Gagner will, in my mind, take a step back offensively from last season, but still be a decent second line option. As for Nail Yakupov, I think realistically this kid is going to be around 25 goals this season and take off as a star.
The Oilers top six will be their best in a long, long time. They have a legit star in Hall, a decent top-line center in RNH, and some really good support forwards in Perron and Eberle. Yakupov is a special player and Sam Gagner is a decent second line center. Overall, this realistically is a playoff unit.
The bottom six needs work, and I don’t think you could find any sane Oilers fan that disagrees with this statement. I loved the Boyd Gordon signing for the third line. Guy is a work horse and defensive zone legend, and will provide (in my mind) an upgrade over what Horcoff brought defensively. Ales Hemsky gives Edmonton a legit scoring threat too on line three. He’s a top six talent pushed out by the numbers game in Edmonton.
While I doubt he puts up the numbers we know capable of because of his role, Hemsky still provides Edmonton with a good player and decent option in the bottom six. That’s something they haven’t had in a long, long time. Ryan Jones is coming off of a tough year, but can score goals when right. He’s not a great player, but Jones is decent. You could plug in Omark (my choice) or Smyth here too.
Line four is a mess. It will be some combo of Ryan Smyth, Ryan Jones, Linus Omark, Mike Brown, Jesse Joensuu and Ryan Hamilton with Anton Lander or Will Acton.
Overall, the third line has some decent pieces to it (Gordon, Hemmer) but still isn’t complete, while the fourth line has some decent options, but nothing great. Still work to be done here.
Offensively the Oilers are more mature and have more fire power than years past. While they have a rough looking bottom six, they are going to score….a lot. Realistically, I think this is a middle of the pack group and good enough to sneak into the playoffs because of the go-to options they have.
Defense:
Jeff Petry is one of the most underrated defenders in the NHL. I trust this kid with top four minutes and don’t even think twice about it. Same goes with Ladislav Smid as a shut-down defender. Those two guys could play top-four on any NHL team, I truly believe that. Realistically I think we can expect them to play somewhere between their 2010-11 and 2013 levels of play, and that’s pretty good.
Justin Schultz was great offensively last year, but was a work in progress defensively and fell apart towards the end of the season. That all said on Schultz the younger, this kid is still extremely talented and no doubt good enough to play in a top four. Andrew Ference? Say what you want about playing for Boston, but this guy was really good for the Bruins, and is a legit NHL top four defender. He gives the Oilers four solid options here, and that is more than they have had in recent years.
Nick Schultz really struggled in a top-four role last year, but I think could handle limited minutes on a third-pairing if he sticks around. Corey Potter was a decent player last year and I believe can help a team as a depth puck-mover and PP player. Philip Larsen seems like an AHL player at this point to me.
Denis Grebeshkov and Anton Belov came over form Russia and look like good adds for the Oilers. With that said, we realistically don’t know what to expect. Belov has never played in North America, while Grebeshkov was awful in the KHL the last two seasons. I like both adds, but again what can we truly expect here?
Oscar Klefbom is close, but could use AHL time in my mind, and realistically that’s what we should be expecting here.
Overall, the Oilers have a good pairing chemistry wise in Smid-Petry. It’s a group that was good against top competition before, so I trust these guys in a top four. Ference-Schultz gives Edmonton a steady top-four defender to play with the wonder kid Schultz, while the glut of depth defenders gives Dallas Eakins a lot of really intriguing options to plug into his lineup. The defense isn’t great, but it is improved and should be worlds better than the previous few editions.
Goaltending:
Devan Dubnyk is arguably the most debated goalie in hockey right now. A lot of people don’t think he is a legit starter, while a lot of people (myself included) believe he is. I’ve been over it before, but Dubnyk puts up decent stats playing on a bad team. The team this year will be improved, and I expect Dubnyk to be improved too. He’s a good goalie and will prove that this season.
Realistically, I think we can expect a little improvement from him, and honestly I believe that is enough.
Jason Labarbera is a decent backup option and I think we can expect similar numbers to what he put up with the Coyotes. He’s a decent spot starter and I think was the perfect back-up option for this team. He’s a decent goalie.
Line-up:
Realistically looking at things, this is the line-up I think Edmonton breaks camp with and starts on October 1st.
- Hall/Nugent-Hopkins/Eberle
- Perron/Gagner/Yakupov
- Jones/Gordon/Hemsky
- Smyth/Lander/Joensuu
- Brown
- Smid/Petry
- Ference/J. Schultz
- N. Schultz/Grebeshkov
- Belov and Potter
I have Omark in Oklahoma City, but I’d prefer he goes on line three with Hemsky. Trying to be realistic here though!
The Prediction:
I’ll make my official prediction at the end of the month for the Oilers, but realistically I think that Oilers GM Craig MacTavish has in fact done enough to make this Oilers team one that takes strides this season. They have enough fire-power and enough on the blue-line to at the very least fight for a playoff spot. They will be in the chase late into the season, and that’s all I’ll say for right now!
It’s going to be a fun season, so kick back and enjoy it my friends. Follow me on twitter @Alex_Thomas14
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
