In their first power rankings of the off-season, ESPN ranked the Edmonton Oilers as the second-best team in the NHL in what they’re calling their “way too early power rankings” leading up to the 2023-24 season.
Now that I have your attention — who doesn’t like knowing that our boys are favoured south of the border — here’s what ESPN wrote about the Oilers, who were ranked one spot ahead of the Dallas Stars (3rd) and one behind the Florida Panthers (1st):
“GM Ken Holland — a future Hall of Famer — is out of the Oilers’ front office, but the club made some wise moves thus far this summer to give the team he helped build a strong chance at glory next spring. Re-upping with Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark gives them two proven playoff performers, and inking Jeff Skinner following the veteran’s buyout by Buffalo should ensure that he’ll finally get to skate in a playoff game.”
As ESPN noted, the Oilers have already gotten a lot done this off-season. Not only did they bring back Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown, and Corey Perry as pending UFAs, but they also added to their top six by signing Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner to team-friendly deals that aren’t overpaying on either money or term. If anything, one could argue that the players brought in are upgrades on those who went out (Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Vinny Desharnais), but only time will tell if that’s actually true or not.
While the defence is still a question mark for many fans, the Oilers have undoubtedly upgraded their forward group and should feel confident they’ll be able to score goals in bunches. Last week, Gregor wrote about the best even-strength scoring teams in NHL history and wondered if this Oilers group has the potential to join them. A lot of things need to go right for Edmonton if they’re going to achieve some of the numbers Gregor talked about, but given that we’re in peak Kool-Aid season, I’m already counting my chickens here. Is that a smart approach? No. Does it work on July 10th when nothing is going on? Yes.
Another notable item from ESPN’s rankings is that the Oilers are Pacific Division favourites by a wide margin. The rest of the Pacific teams are the Vancouver Canucks at 9th, the Vegas Golden Knights at 12th, and Los Angeles Kings at 14th, followed long after by the Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks, who are all projected to finish in lottery territory. Again, I know these rankings don’t mean a whole lot when not even a single game has been played, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to have a good chuckle as I was reading them.
What do you think of ESPN ranking the Oilers as the second-best team heading into the 2024-25 season? Let me know in the comments section below!
