Oilers off season review?

God

Free Citizen
Apr 2, 2007
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Vancouver
It was a horrible off-season.

They jettisoned their 4th highest ES point scorer in Warren Foegele in exchange for Viktor Arvidsson for whatever reason. And the cap space that should've been used for Holloway, McLeod, and/or Broberg was spent on Jeff Skinner (3M) and Adam Henrique (3M), both of whom are over 30. Not only that, they got offer sheeted and had to ditch one of their top PKers in Cody Ceci.

Inexplicably, they also traded this year's 1st round pick in order to make a pick in last year's first round...for a winger who's struggling to hit PPG in his D+1.

And despite that, when you have McDavid and Draisaitl, anything can happen in the playoffs. So yeah, the off-season sucked, but it's not like they are no longer a contender.
 
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CantHaveTkachev

Cap Space > NHL players
Nov 30, 2004
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It was a horrible off-season.

They jettisoned their 4th highest ES point scorer in Warren Foegele in exchange for Viktor Arvidsson for whatever reason. And the cap space that should've been used for Holloway, McLeod, and/or Broberg was spent on Jeff Skinner (3M) and Adam Henrique (3M), both of whom are over 30. Not only that, they got offer sheeted and had to ditch one of their top PKers in Cody Ceci.

Inexplicably, they also traded this year's 1st round pick in order to make a pick in last year's first round...for a winger who's struggling to hit PPG in his D+1.

And despite that, when you have McDavid and Draisaitl, anything can happen in the playoffs. So yeah, the off-season sucked, but it's not like they are no longer a contender.
Yawn

heard the same non-sense last November
 
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CantHaveTkachev

Cap Space > NHL players
Nov 30, 2004
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I don't think anybody was calling the Oilers contenders last November lol
exactly...people thought the Oilers were cooked when McDavid was barely a PPG, McLeod has 0 goals, Janmark and Brown had 0 points, Holloway had 1 goal, Foegele was a team worst -9 (this time last year)
then the rest of the season played out..
 

benfranklin

Registered User
Jun 29, 2024
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That the Oilers had a bad offseason?
again, we heard the same thing last year at this time lol
Going to depend on a miraculous 16 game winning streak again? Or maybe Skinner actually playing well throughout the entire playoff run? Or one of the best PK's we've ever seen in a playoff run?

McDavid and Drais are good enough to will this team into a top 3 Pacific spot, but they are not constructed very well as a team and will likely go down in the 2nd round IMO.
 

CantHaveTkachev

Cap Space > NHL players
Nov 30, 2004
52,341
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St. OILbert, AB
Going to depend on a miraculous 16 game winning streak again? Or maybe Skinner actually playing well throughout the entire playoff run? Or one of the best PK's we've ever seen in a playoff run?

McDavid and Drais are good enough to will this team into a top 3 Pacific spot, but they are not constructed very well as a team and will likely go down in the 2nd round IMO.
why would we need to? we aren't 5-12-1 this year ;)
 

Chainshot

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I've wondered if part of their slow start is the fatigue of playing as late as they did. They've certainly seemed to have rounded into form lately.
 

Three On Zero

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I've wondered if part of their slow start is the fatigue of playing as late as they did. They've certainly seemed to have rounded into form lately.
I’ve always been curious to see if there is any merit to claims that teams start slower when they play deeper into the playoffs. Like actual statistical data to support such claims. Feels like just another fan made excuse.
 

WetcoastOrca

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I’ve always been curious to see if there is any merit to claims that teams start slower when they play deeper into the playoffs. Like actual statistical data to support such claims. Feels like just another fan made excuse.
Florida seems to be doing fine. I think it’s mostly an excuse. Edmonton has had poor starts the last 3 years and did not have deep runs except for last year.
 
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Three On Zero

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Florida seems to be doing fine. I think it’s mostly an excuse. Edmonton has had poor starts the last 3 years and did not have deep runs except for last year.
Small sample size though, we should have data from years of playoff hockey to determine how detrimental it is on a team the following season. I am leaning towards it having very little impact, but would like to see the data on it.
 

1989

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Aug 3, 2010
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Small sample size though, we should have data from years of playoff hockey to determine how detrimental it is on a team the following season. I am leaning towards it having very little impact, but would like to see the data on it.
Data would be nice but I do agree that on intuition I don't think the notion of a long playoff hangover really exists; otherwise back-to-back wins would be far less common.
 
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Three On Zero

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Data would be nice but I do agree that on intuition I don't think the notion of a long playoff hangover really exists; otherwise back-to-back wins would be far less common.
It makes logical sense for individuals that require post season surgery or injury recovery that can’t properly start until the season is fully complete. That’s about as far as I would take the notion that it impacts the following season.
 
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Soundwave

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Mar 1, 2007
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For the Oilers franchise, for whatever reason the teams of late that have gone either to the Cup Final or had a season high in points (109 points for the 22-23 team) have started slow. At game 20 for all of them:

This Year: 10-8-2 (22 points)
23-24 (Cup Finalist G7): 7-12-1 (15 points)
22-23 (109 points): 10-10 (20 points)

So that's the last three years, this year is some how the best even with a lot of things not going favorably (lowest shooting % in the league, terrible special teams, poor goaltending, McDavid not having the hottest start but heating up now, etc).

Going back even further for fun

05-06 Oilers (Cup Finalist Game 7): 10-9-1 (21 points)

89-90 Oilers (Cup Winner): 6-9-5 (14 points)*

*granted this is an era pre-3 on 3 OT/shootout so points were lower in general, but still a bad record at game 20.

So for recent history, for whatever reason, slow starts seem endemic to the more successful Oiler teams. Last three teams that made a Cup Final all had a poor or mediocre record at game 20.

Could be coincidental, could be that for some teams early season adversity actually helps later on.
 
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Honour Over Glory

#firesully
Jan 30, 2012
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Remember when Oilers fans declared they won the off season, Jackson was God, then they lost 2 players in offersheets and traded a solid bottom 6 player In McLeod, gutted their D depth and hired Bowman.

For me, their current state, karma for hiring that loser Bowman.
 
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Czechboy

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Small sample size though, we should have data from years of playoff hockey to determine how detrimental it is on a team the following season. I am leaning towards it having very little impact, but would like to see the data on it.
here are the Knights results after winning cup and going to finals

1732172560301.png


Here are the Avs after winning the Cup
1732172618188.png


Both won the final an didn't win a round. That's 2022 and 2023. Pretty recent data. Here are the blues

1732172783431.png


Caps

1732172825929.png


That's a pretty big sample size of teams winning the Cup and being boucned in round 1 the next season... happened to the 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Caps and Knights met in that 2018 final and both got bounced the following season.

Since I'm on it. Here are the Habs after their finals run

1732172944133.png


That's a lot of teams since 2018 shitting the bed after winning the cup or going to the finals. All situations are different, all teams are different.

I am not using this as an excuse for the Oilers. I'm not even saying it is conclusive (TB won back to back and Florida went to finals and then won as exceptions). But, that is a lot of recent teams.
 

Three On Zero

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here are the Knights results after winning cup and going to finals

View attachment 933482

Here are the Avs after winning the Cup
View attachment 933484

Both won the final an didn't win a round. That's 2022 and 2023. Pretty recent data. Here are the blues

View attachment 933490

Caps

View attachment 933491

That's a pretty big sample size of teams winning the Cup and being boucned in round 1 the next season... happened to the 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Caps and Knights met in that 2018 final and both got bounced the following season.

Since I'm on it. Here are the Habs after their finals run

View attachment 933494

That's a lot of teams since 2018 shitting the bed after winning the cup or going to the finals. All situations are different, all teams are different.

I am not using this as an excuse for the Oilers. I'm not even saying it is conclusive (TB won back to back and Florida went to finals and then won as exceptions). But, that is a lot of recent teams.
All look like they had decent season records though. Outside of Montreal
 
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Norwegianoiler

Registered User
Nov 17, 2014
580
803
Too many Skinners and Browns?
Or possibly not enough 🤔

Lack of complementary players. They need at least a Trapper or Hunter first, then a Butcher as well as the Skinners, before a Tanner and Currier can get involved. How a Bowman, of all people, cannot foresee the need for this is beyond comprehension.
 
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DitchMarner

TheGlitchintheSwitch
Jul 21, 2017
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They're not bad at all at puck possession and controlling the play. Ideally, guys like Skinner, Arvidsson and Henrique should be scoring more goals, but the team should be all right. The competition in their division isn't that great. I expect that guys like RNH and Hyman will start chipping in more goals eventually.
 

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