The Edmonton Oilers have had an embarrassment of riches over the last few seasons; mostly a result of their dreadful performances on the ice.
With each successive failure, they have added first picks in the NHL Entry Draft. This year they added Connor McDavid to the roster and now the Oilers feel they are ready to make a rush up the Pacific Division ladder.
Edmonton recruited and hired Peter Chiarelli as general manager with the resulting wheeling and dealing leading to the acquisition of Andrej Sekera and Mark Letestu via free agency, goaltender Cam Talbot, defenseman Griffin Reinhart, and defenseman Eric Gryba.
Add all of that talent to the already present Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Nail Yakupov and the Oilers have…. well they just have more of what that they have had for a number of years, incredible talent. In fact, they have enviable talent and ability and hope and optimism.
So what’s different? Not much, there is no recent history of winning in Edmonton. The 2014-15 season was a battle with the Arizona Coyotes to see who would draft McDavid in Sunrise, Florida.
Where the Oilers will be hanging their hats is in goal with Talbot who arrived from the New York Rangers in a trade.
Talbot was a reason the Rangers made the playoffs last season. When Henrik Lunqvist went down with a throat injury, Talbot steadied the club and sent them on a winning spree that propelled them to the Present’s Trophy.
We think he can be the mainstay in Edmonton but, and this is a big but. The Oilers are still the Oilers and their head coach Todd McClellan, who was relieved of his duties in San Jose, now has unproven youth on his bench. Can he handle youth as opposed to the veteran-laden bench of the Sharks?
The Oilers may not be last season but we don’t see them ending the playoff drought that started in 2006.
Too many question marks and too much raw talent reside on a bench with oceans of talent. The Oilers will battle the Sharks for the fifth spot but inevitably come in just ahead of the Coyotes in the Pacific Division.
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