The Edmonton Oilers, however, are such a great example of how hockey is so much more of a team game, rather than everyone on the 23-man roster leaning on the best player, looking for results. The Oilers had the league's leading scorer, but still failed to reach the playoffs and if I was to point my finger, it would be at the team's overall defense game. The team's goaltending couldn't play out of their skin every night and the goals against piled up faster than the goals for and that's where the Oilers suffered the most.
One could say that the 2018 season was a bit of a waste of talent and many would agree, but are there any quick fixes to get this team back on track to being a contender? They have some really good pieces up front, a starting goalie that can carry the load, but they could really use a little bit more depth, especially on the blueline. If they are going to win now, they can't wait for a few of these prospects to come along, the deals have to be made to acquire some more reliable depth, especially to help out their goaltending. It just seems like a broken record, year after year.
The Oilers had 10 players, including McDavid, to be considered pool worthy in the 2018 season and also among the forwards were Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan Strome and Milan Lucic. On defense, it was Darnell Nurse, Matt Benning, Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell, but all four were in the bottom half of the top 100, so nothing spectacular there, just good depth players. Cam Talbot appeared in 67 games for the Oilers, but only walked away with 65 pool points, good enough for 13th among all goalies, but that was more because of sheer volume of minutes, than the quality of his starts. There were quite a few points to be had from Edmonton, but besides McDavid, Draisaitl and Talbot, it wasn't terribly impressive.
What I Said Last Year, At This Time...
It's scary to think of what the Oilers could be capable of here in the next year, two and/or three. We've seen most of the Pacific Division already in these outlook posts and there shouldn't be a lot there that scares the Oilers moving forward. They gained some regular season experience with a big year, they played two playoff seasoned teams before getting eliminated this year, so most of that should add up to something fantastic, before too long. Undoubtedly, the Oilers are going to score a lot of goals and Cam Talbot will play as much hockey as he can, but the long-term results will always stem from the blueline here and with Sekera starting the season hurt and Russell unsigned right now, there are holes to fill and a division title and/or playoff success will hinge on what the Oilers do to help their defense. Everything is possible for these kids right now,, they just need help.
The kids were certainly capable, but the help just never came and things got worse, before they got better. The defense improved offensively, but regressed at their main function and the playoffs were nothing more than a pipe dream at the end of the day.
How did my intriguing or breakout player fare?
A decent stint in the AHL didn't really boost the morale of Jesse Puljujarvi's game in the 2018 season, as he was still able to appear in 65 games for the Oilers at the top level, but he only posted 12 goals and 20 points. It's getting increasingly difficult to see Puljujarvi succeeding in the Edmonton system, as they haven't been able to provide the ice-time or the opportunity for the 2016 4th overall pick to succeed at the top level. There were (and still are) too many mouths to feed up front in their organization and most of them make way more money than the kid's entry-level deal.
2019 Pool Outlook
Forwards | Cap | Defense | Cap | Goalies | Cap |
Connor McDavid | 12.500 | Andrej Sekera | 5.500 | Cam Talbot | 4.167 |
Leon Draisaitl | 8.500 | Oscar Klefbom | 4.167 | Mikko Koskinen | 2.500 |
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 6.000 | Adam Larsson | 4.167 | Al Montoya | 1.063 |
Milan Lucic | 6.000 | Kris Russell | 4.000 | ||
Zack Kassian | 1.950 | Eric Gryba | 0.900 | ||
Jesse Puljujarvi | 0.925 | Ethan Bear | 0.720 | ||
Kailer Yamamoto | 0.925 | Ryan Stanton | 0.700 | ||
Tyler Benson | 0.839 | ||||
Ty Rattie | 0.800 | ||||
Jujhar Khaira | 0.675 | ||||
Pontus Aberg | 0.650 | ||||
Brad Malone | 0.650 |
It seems silly to take the 2018 season and really cast a shadow over this team, thinking that they are not going to be that great in 2019 either. I suppose there is always going to be a chance of that, if management doesn't sort themselves out in this off-season, but there is a lot of talent on this team and they are very pool worthy. You're going to see a lot of points from these Oilers, but how many a guy like Cam Talbot is going to get is dependent on what management does to help fill the gaps defensively.
Free Agency and the Salary Cap
Now that McDavid's salary cap hit is going to take effect this season, the math crunch really begins! Restricted free agency is going to offer up some interesting situations, where pool worthy players like Ryan Strome, Darnell Nurse and Matt Benning are all in need of new deals and they might have the numbers to ask for some significant raises.
Unrestricted free agency won't really offer up too much, in the way of flexibility, except that Mark Fayne's $3.625 million comes off the books, so there is that, at the very least. There's no pool worthy talent coming off the books, which is probably the best news.
The early number for this summer is looking like $69.6 million for that 22-man roster above and a buyout still on the books. Once the cap ceiling gets bumped up, then the management team can finally come up with a solid plan to help fortify this squad.
Needs at the 2018 Entry Draft
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