Alright, so the season is done and we’re all salty about the way things went, which is expected and understandable, but I wanted to try to bring a little sunshine in this otherwise dreary Oilers-world we’re living in. I wanted to try and turn the narrative a little bit and give you guys five reasons why I’m looking forward to next season.

For as bad as the 2017-18 season was, the Edmonton Oilers are still the bridge that unites us all and I want to look at some of the good things that are happening rather than keep myself stuck in the rut of negativity that has captured us all for the past few months. Obviously, none of us want to watch losing hockey anymore and, with that in mind, I wanted to put together a quick list of reasons why I think next year will be better. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.

Alright, so having Connor McDavid on the team is the most obvious reason to be excited, so I’ll get it out of the way first. I mean, when you’re working with the back-to-back Art Ross winner on your roster, what’s not to be excited about? Not only that, the guy seems to be getting better and better, so the idea of him going for a threepeat on the Art Ross isn’t exactly out of the question. The bigger question, to me, is trying to figure out how many points he’ll get next year and whether or not he’ll be able to hit 50 goals. Would you bet against him? I wouldn’t. I think back to December when we found out that Connor was battling every illness under the sun and can’t help but wonder what a full, healthy season would have looked like. The dude went supernova over the last three+ months of the 2017-18 season and he ended up tracking down (and flying past) Nikita Kucherov for the NHL scoring lead to close out his second straight points win. Being excited about Connor McDavid is probably the easiest thing that any of us will ever do, and I can’t wait to watch him play hockey in an Oilers uniform again.

One of the best and most obvious wins from this season was when Todd McLellan finally got the good sense to put Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins together on the first line. That duo was something that a lot of us were wanting to see and, as expected, they developed some beautiful chemistry together which translated to all kinds of points on the board. In the 13 games played together, both players excelled and produced at a high rate with Connor McDavid amassing 27 points (10G, 17A) and RNH adding another 15 (7G, 8A). Needless to say, this is a pair that should be kept together until the end of time, and I can’t possibly think of any reason why the coaching staff would think otherwise. These guys are magic together and should be a pair that’s set in stone, written in ink, or whatever analogy you’d prefer. Frankly, keeping McNuge together will be one of the easiest decisions the coaching staff will ever have to make, and I’m excited to watch a whole season worth of it.

Call this wishful thinking, but I personally believe that the special teams will progress next season. The Oilers finished near the league’s basement with both the power play and penalty kill, and I truly think that this season was nothing more than a blip on the radar. Is it annoying that the Oilers’ power play was ranked dead last in the NHL with a horrific 14.8% success rate? Of course it was. But looking at the 2016-17 season, the Oilers’ PP ran at a 22.9% clip which was the best they’ve had since the 1985-86 and a definite goal to get back to. Now, I’m not saying that they will necessarily get back to that level of success, but even splitting the difference and landing around 18.9% would have them in 20th place overall. Mediocrity certainly seems achievable, no?

As for the penalty kill, the Oilers can do absolutely nothing and probably end up with a better home PK record than the 65.8% that they finished the year with. They were so bad early in the season that there’s no reason to think that the PK won’t improve even if they leave everything the same as it was. Somehow, the Oilers managed to become a black hole when down a man and it drove them to the worst home-PK ever on record, stealing that title from the 1977-78 Washington Capitals (66.7%). That said, they improved tremendously over the last quarter of the season, allowing power play goals against in only six of the final 22 games (home and away). That’s enough to give me hope for a better tomorrow. Had they been able to kill penalties like that over the entire season then there’s a good chance that we wouldn’t have had to miss out on the Stanley Cup dance. Again, maybe I’m just being a dreamer with all of this positivity but I don’t think I am, and you’ll have to work to convince me otherwise.

I know that some of you won’t buy this and I’ll likely get roasted for it in the comments section, but I feel confident in having Cam Talbot as the starter going into next year. Before this season, which was undoubtedly mediocre to put it lightly, Talbot had a history of being rock solid with and carried a .926 save%, which puts him in line with what you’d expect from your starter. This year’s .908 save% was far and away the worst of his NHL career and it shouldn’t be too much of a reach to expect him to get closer to his career average. Do I have hard evidence that this will be the case? Of course not, but I’d bet Gregor’s money on it. I would also go so far as to bet that Talbot won’t allow goals on the first shot of the game nearly as many times as he did this year — it just won’t happen. Frankly, if Talbot can get himself back to the level that he’s been at for most of his career then the Oilers will be just fine, and that’s what I expect to happen.

I know I’ve taken plenty of shots at Milan Lucic this season, but I’m looking to start next season with a clean slate. It goes without saying that the big man had a horrible year, there’s no argument against it, but I do think that we’ll see a motivated player that comes back with a chip on his shoulder which will translate to a better year.  I mean, the guy has been pretty consistent over this NHL career and the fact that his production fell off a cliff only after Christmas shows me that he’s not quite done either. I mean, it’s not like the NHL changed all that much since Christmas. There’s no doubt that only having eight points (1G, 7A) over the final 46 games of the season is a colossal disaster, but Lucic didn’t have much luck during that time either. Over the last half of the season, Lucic had 79 shots on net with only a single goal to his name, which translates to a 1.26 shooting%. Even after this disastrous season, Lucic’s career shooting percentage is 13.7% and that tells me that this horrible stretch of hockey at the end of this season is unlikely to continue next year. Obviously, I could be wrong but I think that we’ll see the guy get back to around 20 goals next year. Dare to dream?

I know I said this was going to be five reasons that I’m excited about next season, but I couldn’t finish this baby off without giving a shout out to my boy, Jujhar Khaira. The guy was an absolute warlord for the Oilers this year and was easily one of the best stories from the season as he turned himself into a viable option to move up and down in the lineup when called upon. Despite playing anywhere from 10-15 minutes per night, Khaira’s 11 goals ranked him seventh in team goal scoring and his five fights landed him in second place behind Zack Kassian. Actually, the fact that he fought five times was almost surprising when you consider that he basically annihilated anyone that squared off against him. At the end of the day, there’s a lot to like about a player that didn’t have many expectations heading into this year and I can’t wait to see where he takes it. If Khaira can keep developing and keep rounding out his game then the Oilers could have a real player here that was drafted outside of the first round, something that this team desperately needs as they look to climb out of the league’s basement.