Bold Predictions for the Oilers Season
5 months ago
Would you like to see me eat cat food on a live stream?
Well, I guess it could happen. Earlier today on our new daily live show, Oilersnation Everday, I said that the Boston Bruins would miss the playoffs this year. One comments quickly pointed out that some projections have the Bruins winning the division. I promptly replied that if the Bruins win the division I’ll eat cat food. Do I instantly regret saying that? Yes. But I stand by my take. There’s no way the Bruins win their division.
Anyways, that was not the only bold prediction I gave out on the show. Inspired by Frank Seravalli, who dropped 32 bold predictions over at Daily Faceoff, I decided to throw out a few of my own that are more tied to the Oiler’s upcoming season.
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The first one? Connor McDavid will go supernova and score 51 goals and 92 assists for a total of 143. It would be the first time this century that a player reaches the 140 point mark and would mark the first time since 1995-96 that a player even hit the 130 point mark. That season saw Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux post 149 and 161 points, respectively.
McDavid went 44-73-121 last season so I can understand why some people might think that a 22-point jump might be insane, but McDavid took his play to another level in the playoffs putting up a staggering 33 points in 16 games. That’s a 169-point pace over 82 games. If he can keep up anything close to that level of production in the regular season, then 140 points is very doable.
He’s also surrounded by more talent than he’s ever been with Evander Kane and Zach Hyman both being potential linemates for McDavid.
I’ve always said that there will be a few years where McDavid blows our minds and does something historic. I believe that will be this season.
Not bold enough for you? Well, I have another one.
Not only will the Edmonton Oilers be the highest-scoring team in the NHL, but they will also have eight players hit the 20-goal mark.
Last season, the Oilers were the seventh highest scoring team in the league with 285 goals. The Florida Panthers were first with 337. The Panthers had six 20-goal scorers with two others scoring 18 goals. So it’s not impossible for a team to have eight 20-goal scorers. The St. Louis Blues actually had nine last season.
In 2022-23, Draisait, McDavid, Kane, Hyman, and Yamamoto scored 20 goals. I think Nugent-Hopkins, Puljujarvi, and one of McLeod or Holloway will be added to that group this season to bring the team up to a total of eight 20-goal scorers.
The producer of the show, and banana aficionado Liam, said that Evan Bouchard will score 20 goals. One of our listeners, Greg, said that Bouchard will finish top-five in defenseman scoring. I won’t go that far, but I think Bouchard can finish top ten in scoring for defensemen simply because of an uptick in powerplay time.
My final bold take is this one: the Oiler’s powerplay will finish the year at 40% or better, smashing the NHL record of 31.9% set by the Montreal Canadiens.
The Oiler’s powerplay is electric and with different pieces being able to be rotated through, I think they will be close to impossible to stop on a regular basis. Their powerplay took a bit of a hit under Jay Woodcroft, but that doesn’t worry me. More Bouchard, mixing in Evander Kane, and the usual dominance from McDavid and Draisaitl will propel this team’s powerplay to a historic level.
Got any bold takes of your own? I want them! Drop them in the comments here or come watch Oilersnation Everyday tomorrow at noon mountain time and let me know then!
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