Are the Edmonton Oilers a better team now than they were last season?

It depends. We saw some different versions of the team in 2023-24, ranging from one that struggled mightily out of the gate to one that won 16 games in a row to one that reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The most worthwhile comparison we can make heading into 2024-25 is how the Oilers of this October stack up against the Oilers of last October. Are they in a better spot now? Let’s compare the season-opening rosters of both teams.

The Oilers started last season with the familiar one-two punch of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl up the middle while Ryan McLeod was the team’s third-line centre. Edmonton acquired veteran Adam Henrique ahead of the trade deadline, which gave the team another option to play down the middle.

Henrique found chemistry on the team’s third line with Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown during the playoffs and re-signed with the Oilers in the off-season. McLeod wound up as a salary cap casualty, as the Oilers moved him to the Buffalo Sabres for prospect Matthew Savoie.

Because of salary cap constraints, the Oilers had a two-player fourth line to start last season, with Janmark and Derek Ryan playing with other forwards from the top three lines. This season, they’ll have the salary cap flexibility to carry a roster with extra skaters.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Mattias Janmark are back on the left side of Edmonton’s forward group to start the season but Evander Kane had surgery in September and won’t be back until January or February at the earliest. It was expected that Dylan Holloway would get a larger role in Kane’s absence but the 2020 first-round pick signed an offer sheet with the St. Louis Blues and the Oilers opted not to match.

The Oilers acquired 2019 10th-overall pick Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks in Holloway’s place and free-agent acquisition Jeff Skinner will also be leaned on to provide offence in Kane’s absence. Though Skinner doesn’t bring the physical game that Kane does, both players scored 24 goals last season. Podkolzin scored 14 as a rookie in 2021-22 but only has four in 58 NHL games since.

Following the first 20-goal season of his career, Warren Foegele signed a four-year contract with the L.A. Kings in free agency. The Oilers replaced him with former King Viktor Arvidsson, who signed a two-year deal. After reaching 20 goals in back-to-back years with the Kings, Arvidsson scored six goals and 15 points over 18 games in an injury-riddled 2022-23 season.

The Oilers will have Zach Hyman in his usual spot with McDavid and likely Arvidsson playing with Draisaitl. Connor Brown had a difficult regular season last year but found his stride in the spring. He’ll start the year playing with Henrique and Janmark, the very effective third-line from the playoffs. Corey Perry signed with the Oilers in January of last season and re-signed in the summer after scoring eight goals and 13 points over 38 games with the team.

The left side of Edmonton’s blueline is nearly identical to the group that they used throughout last season and into the playoffs. The only difference is the subtraction of Philip Broberg, who also signed an offer sheet with St. Louis that didn’t get matched.

Though Broberg is left-handed, he often played on the right side while with the Oilers. He started last season splitting time alongside Brett Kulak with Vincent Desharnais and later played with Darnell Nurse in the playoffs.

Travis Dermott came to training camp on a professional tryout and earned a spot as Edmonton’s seventh defender. He hasn’t signed yet but is expected to in the coming days.

The right side of Edmonton’s blueline is very different than it was this time last year. Along with Broberg’s departure, the Oilers also lost Desharnais to free agency and traded Cody Ceci to the San Jose Sharks as a salary cap dump.

The team re-signed trade deadline acquisition Troy Stecher, added Josh Brown in free agency, and received young defender Ty Emberson in return for Ceci, so it’ll take some time for the group to gel. Adding a versatile top-four defenceman could very well be Edmonton’s top priority come trade deadline time.

Jack Campbell lost the net to Stuart Skinner during the first season of his five-year, $25 million contract but a strong performance in the pre-season resulted in the veteran getting the nod when the Oilers opened the 2023-24 season. After posting a .873 save percentage over five games, Campbell was waived and Calvin Pickard came up in his place.

The third-stringer was viewed as a stop-gap option for the Oilers but impressed as Skinner’s backup and remained in the role for the rest of the season and through the playoffs. Pickard played in 23 games and put up a .909 save percentage and was re-signed in the off-season to a two-year contract worth $1 million annually while Campbell was bought out.

It would be difficult to make an argument that the Oilers are a better team right now than they were a few months ago when they were playing the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. But that said, they don’t have to be better right now. Edmonton has five months to figure out what they have and what they need before the trade deadline rolls around on March 7, 2025.

The biggest difference for the Oilers heading into 2024-25 is the financial flexibility that they have. The team spent much of last season playing without an extra skater on their roster and they’ll be able to have one this season even without having to use the LTIR cushion. Since they won’t be using the cushion all year, the team will be able to accrue cap space to help facilitate additions ahead of the deadline.