The Oilers are missing Broberg, Holloway, McLeod, Foegele, Desharnais, Ceci, Gagner, fwiw. We'll also be missing Kane this season from all reports.
Are people really expecting Hyman to repeat a legend 55 goal season. Teams were adjusting and the scoring in bunches wasn't coming as much. Seems like every year we expect all our guns to have legend seasons even while we've depleted bottomsix drastically.
You know as well another calendar year flipped on a team that for starting players is very old.
He doesn't need to. McDavid and Draisaitl had down years on goal scoring and that's not likely to happen again (not that regular season scoring matters this team cares only about the playoffs). There's a lot of guys on this roster who have the potential to score more goals. Just off the top of my head McDavid, Drai, Nuge, Brown, Janmark all scored quite a bit below their career average (or in Draisaitl's case his "prime" average). Henrique is a good uptick candidate with a more settled in role on this team and his family situation figured out. It's never easy to come into a new team 3/4th way through a season and produce at the same level you normally do.
Here's what I know about Hyman. He's scored 30-19-49 in 53 playoff games since being here. His regression is not something I'm worried about in the regular season.
Arvidsson + Skinner is an enormous upgrade on anything that Holloway, McLeod, Foegele, or Gagner brought to this team. The top end got way better. You of all people should know how big an Arvidsson/Skinner will be for Draisaitl when he's had a carousel of bottom 6 forwards.
Did the bottom end really get much worse from a regular season perspective? Most of McLeod and Foegele's production came while playing in the top 6. The returning guys in Brown, Janmark, and Henrique are unlikely to put up offensive numbers like that this season. Ceci's puck moving is atrocious and Broberg wasn't even on the team for 90% of the season. Holloway produced at a 4th line level in the regular season as well and has yet to show he can produce above that level (he's a decent bet to going forward given the end of his season and playoffs, but he didn't provide that last year).
The Oilers will add a Ceci upgrade in season. There's a decent chance that Emberson can be an upgrade on Desharnais, and definitely in the puck moving department that the Oilers really need.
I still feel like this roster is better going into the season than it ended last year, and there's room to add later in the year to fill some holes.