Through nine games the @Edmonton Oilers are averaging 3.33 goals/game, which is 10th best in the NHL. They’ve been even better defensively allowing only 2.22 goals/game (5th best).

The concern with the Oilers goal scoring is the fact their depth scoring forwards only have one goal, and none at 5×5. After last season’s record-breaking lack of offence, it is understandable why Oilersnation has some trepidation despite the Oilers excellent 7-1-1 start.

How does the Oilers lack of depth scoring compare to the other 30 teams?

Here is a look at all the teams. It includes How many forwards have scored a goal per team, the total forward goals per team, how many forwards/team have only one goal and then the leading goal scorer per team.

No question the Oilers need some depth forwrards to score. Their elite players are very good and that’s allowed them to stay near the top of the league in offence, but it will need to improve if they want to remain competitive.

And I’m not talking a lot of goals. If they had even two or three more players with one goal they’d be tied for 5th. So it’s not like they need unrealistic improvements.

But as they enter game ten tomorrow I would strongly consider playing @Sam Gagner. Gagner doesn’t kill penalties, but he can help your second unit powerplay, and he has more offensive potential than @Patrick Russell, @Markus Granlund, @Josh Archibald, @Jujhar Khaira or @Tomas Jurco. He’s proven it. Last season he scored five goals in 25 games with the Oilers.

He also had 51 shots in those games.

Outside of not scoring goals, the bottom six aren’t generating many shots.

Russell has been the best with ten shots in six games. Riley Sheahan has seven in seven. Archibald has six in six games, Granlund has six in eight games and Khaira has six in nine games. Jurco only has four in eight games.

Last season the Oilers depth players didn’t score a lot, but averaged more shots than this group. @Tobias Rieder had 92 in 67 games. @Ty Rattie had 84 in 50 games, @Kyle Brodziak had 74 shots in 70 games, Khaira had 64 in 60 games, @Jesse Puljuarvi had 53 in 46, Gagner had 51 in 25 and Drake Caggiula had 49 in 29 games.

That group combined to average 1.34 shot/game per player.

The six guys making up the bottom six right now are averaging 0.88 shots/game per player.

It is hard to score in the NHL, but it becomes much more difficult when you can’t even get pucks on net.

I understand the importance of the PK, and being sound defensively, but even the best defensive line will get scored on, and if you never produce a goal, then you will end up being negative in the GF-GA ratio.

The Oilers are off to a great start, but without question the bottom six needs to wake up offensively.

Having lots of depth scorers and no one producing a lot isn’t ideal either. The Dallas Stars have ten forwards with one goal, but their group only has 16 goals. Ottawa has ten forwards with a goal, but they only have 15 goals. The Kings also have ten forwards with a goal, but only a total of 19 goals.

In case you are wondering, the Oilers blueline is producing above the league average in goals.

Carolina leads the NHL with 11 goals from their blueline.
Nashville has eight.
Tampa Bay has seven.
Vancouver, Minnesota and Calgary have six.
Edmonton, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, Montreal, Pittsburgh, St.Louis, Washington and Winnipeg have five.
Arizona, Buffalo, New Jersey, New York Rangers and Toronto have four.
Anaheim, Colorado, Florida, New York Islanders and Vegas have three.
Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and San Jose have two.
Chicago and Ottawa have one.

The Oilers blueline has 26 points thus far. They only had 15 after nine games last year. @Ethan Bear, @Oscar Klefbom and @Darnell Nurse have given the Oilers some much needed punch from the backend.