A year after making the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in years, the Edmonton Oilers took a giant leap backwards in the 2017-18 season.
Connor McDavid certainly held up his end of the effort with 41 goals and 108 points on the season.
Leon Draisaitl kicked in 25 goals and 70 and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had 48 points on 24 goals.
After those top three scorers, the production dropped off dramatically with the likes of Milan Lucic scoring just 10 goals with a -12.
Center Connor McDavid (#97) of the Edmonton Oilers Goalie Brian Elliot (#37) of the Philadelphia Flyers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
With that limited offensive output (229 goals scored), the Oilers ended the season with a 36-40-6 with a 3.19 goals against average, 27th in the league, and 262 goals against.
Special teams were an Achilles heel for the club as well with the penalty kill averaging 76.7% success and the power play was last in the league at 14.8%.
The Oilers were in disarray from the beginning of the season and the flashes of positive play were brief and scant over the 82 games.
Edmonton made some moves this off season that may or may not help the situation.
They added Tobias Rieder who iced for the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings last season and posted 25 points on 12 goals in 78 games.
“He’s a fast, quick player, he didn’t kill much with [the Los Angeles Kings], but he is a good penalty killer,” Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli said. “We were looking for some speed up and down the lineup and we were in contact with him over the course of the shopping period and it made sense.”
Kyle Brodziak signed a two-year deal with the Oilers who is returning to Edmonton; last season he had 10 goals and 23 assists.
“We did some analytics on Brodziak, with those [penalty kill] guys that were over 80 minutes in PK time on the ice,” Chiarelli said. “I call them stick touches, sticks in lanes, sticks on pucks in lanes and blocked shots, he was ranked 19th in penalty killers in the League. You combine that with his face-off abilities and his historic percentages and we’ve improved there.”
Ryan Strome signed a two-year deal with the Oilers as a restricted free agent.
“For the first time in my career, I’ve found a little bit of a home,” Strome said on the Oilers website. “Towards the end of the season, I started to really feel comfortable.
“I told my agent, ‘I’m a big believer in what’s going on in Edmonton.'”
The last campaign by the Oilers was a disaster given the string of top picks and first round selections in the draft. They fell flat out of the gate and no one really played well.
The additions to the roster in the off season have been average when they need to support McDavid and boost production. Filling open forward positions with quality and not just bodies should be a priority.
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