Are the 2024-2025 Edmonton Oilers the biggest preseason cup favourites of all time?

[PocketNines]

that's a description that would never have even occurred to me

are we just unfamiliar with past teams, or ... ?

 

[PB37]

As long as they all DIG....IN, they'll go far again.

 

[CanadasTeam99]

I'm an Oilers fan and I wouldn't even call us the top favourite TBH. We need to upgrade #4D still. I would throw us into a mix with about 4 teams

Most overrated team, yes. Literally have 2.5 good players and all these moronic "hockey experts" think they're going to win. Hysterical.

What an absolute horrendous take lol

 

[kingsholygrail]

Imagine picking the Oilers when the Devils already have 4pts.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Is this thread in the running for the most hyperbolic thread title of 2024?

 

[McJedi]

Literally every article I've read it's been Oilers all across the board. I don't recall seeing one team being such an overwhelming preseason favourite. Can you?

Canadian press trying to will it so, but here is the roster.

I see a crappy bottom line, weak in net, bad bottom 3 defenders, older roster, lacks speed and lost a lot of playoff grit. Any injury to a core player like Ekholm, RNH or Hyman will crater them.

And they are coming off a very long and ultimately disappointing season with a built in let down about to unfold.

Oilers are a playoff team. But overwhelming anything? Absolutely not. This is a team with a lot of holes in it, no depth, it's old and now it's pretty slow. And their goalie is suspect.

Edmonton Oilers NHL Line Combinations

Check out the latest Edmonton Oilers lines for tonight. Complete Edmonton line combination, game stats, and season stats updated daily.

www.dailyfaceoff.com

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

Is this an attempted jinx thread?

 

[Soundwave]

Canadian press trying to will it so, but here is the roster.

I see a crappy bottom line, weak in net, bad bottom 3 defenders, older roster, lacks speed and lost a lot of playoff grit. Any injury to a core player like Ekholm, RNH or Hyman will crater them.

And they are coming off a very long and ultimately disappointing season with a built in let down about to unfold.

Oilers are a playoff team. But overwhelming anything? Absolutely not. This is a team with a lot of holes in it, no depth, it's old and now it's pretty slow. And their goalie is suspect.

Edmonton Oilers NHL Line Combinations

Check out the latest Edmonton Oilers lines for tonight. Complete Edmonton line combination, game stats, and season stats updated daily.

www.dailyfaceoff.com

It's a salary cap world every team has a lot of holes on it.

Florida's bottom 3/4/5/6 D is not great either, a whole bunch of journeymen slapped together basically, Dallas' is unimpressive too (Dumba has been cooked for a while, he had a higher minus rating at -18 than actual points at 12, lol).

You need to have a coaching system that gets those pieces to buy into a system.

The last team that was genuinely "loaded" up and down the roster was maybe the 2022 Avalanche and that's only because MacKinnon was on a contract steal which is now over. Since then they've been nowhere near as deep or dominant.

The name of the game is having a top end that is good enough to blow games open while having a coaching staff that is good enough to make due with the lesser pieces. No one is getting like 3 great lines + a d-corps that's like 4-5 legit deep + great goaltending in this league.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

I feel like the 2012-13 Blackhawks were heavy favorites, pretty much everyone was expecting them to dominate and then they did.

Also Tampa Bay the next season after they won the bubble cup.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Becoming increasingly difficult to know if something is a joke thread before I click on it

 

[Hobnobs]

Literally every article I've read it's been Oilers all across the board. I don't recall seeing one team being such an overwhelming preseason favourite. Can you?

Tons of teams has had this. 70s Habs, 80s Isles and Oilers, Rangers won the cup in free agency every summer for a while, late 90s-early 2000s wings and so on

 

[Regal]

It's a salary cap world every team has a lot of holes on it.

Florida's bottom 3/4/5/6 D is not great either, Dallas' is unimpressive too (Dumba has been cooked for a while, he had a higher minus rating at -18 than actual points at 12, lol).

You need to have a coaching system that gets those pieces to buy into a system.

The last team that was genuinely "loaded" up and down the roster was maybe the 2022 Avalanche and that's only because MacKinnon was on a contract steal which is now over. Since then they've been nowhere near as deep or dominant.

The name of the game is having a top end that is good enough to blow games open while having a coaching staff that is good enough to make due with the lesser pieces. No one is getting like 3 great lines + a d-corps that's like 4-5 legit deep + great goaltending in this league.

I think you might see it in the next couple years as the cap goes up if teams have the right contracts but the flat cap really did a number on top teams.

 

[Soundwave]

I think you might see it in the next couple years as the cap goes up if teams have the right contracts but the flat cap really did a number on top teams.

It's the same rules for everyone, depth is not really a luxury for anyone. Maybe you will see deeper teams when the cap rises again properly, but the Oilers will benefit from that too.

Colorado had it for one fleeting year (2022) and then lost like a ton of that roster, as such they've since struggled to even beat teams like Seattle in the playoffs.

 

[BringTheReign]

Probably the 01-02 Wings and 03-04 Avs in my memory. Already elite teams that really loaded up.

Yep. 11 HOFers on that Wings team, wasn't it? Robitaille winning a title is the only reason I've ever been happy to see a Red Wings win.

I remember the Avs adding Bourque, Blake, Teemu, Kariya, etc in a short window. They didn't win the Teemu/Kariya years, but they just kept reloading. I've always liked the Avs, and Bourque is my favorite player, so those were easier all-star teams to pull for.

I'd also add the '92-'93 Penguins. They were coming off 2 Cup wins, won the President's Trophy, Mario came back from cancer, and then Dave Volek happened in the 2nd round against the Islanders. I feel like I've heard members of that team say it was their best roster despite not winning it all.

 

[Regal]

It's the same rules for everyone, depth is not really a luxury for anyone. Maybe you will see deeper teams when the cap rises again properly, but the Oilers will benefit from that too.

Colorado had it for one fleeting year (2022) and then lost like a ton of that roster, as such they've since struggled to even beat teams like Seattle in the playoffs.

Same rules don’t affect everyone the same way. Good teams in a flat cap can’t keep their depth, just like your Colorado example. So we’re in a place now where none of the top teams are as good as some of the past elite teams, and I think it makes the league more wide open right now, because everyone has flaws. It wasn’t a comment on Edmonton specifically. Though they have been hurt by the flat cap as much as anyone

 

[Soundwave]

Same rules don’t affect everyone the same way. Good teams in a flat cap can’t keep their depth, just like your Colorado example. So we’re in a place now where none of the top teams are as good as some of the past elite teams, and I think it makes the league more wide open right now, because everyone has flaws. It wasn’t a comment on Edmonton specifically. Though they have been hurt by the flat cap as much as anyone

The truth is this magical unicorn of a "contender" that is like 3 legit lines deep + legit 5 good D-Men + good goaltending guaranteed doesn't exist.

The post 2022 version of the Avalanche once stripped of their main depth couldn't even beat Seattle in a playoff series and that Seattle team might the worst team to make the playoffs in the last 3-4 years.

Coaching is more important than ever, need to have a coach that make roster deficiencies work.

It's a massive luxury when you have a McDavid that can just take over a game and blow it open. That doesn't hurt either, in such a league, having a nuclear weapon like that at the top of your roster if anything becomes even more valuable.

 

[Kingfan1967]

Literally every article I've read it's been Oilers all across the board. I don't recall seeing one team being such an overwhelming preseason favourite. Can you?

read more, Dallas, Florida, NJ, NYR have all been forecast as Cup Favorites too.