The Oilers finished 2024 on a good note with a 4-1 victory over Utah and finished the 2024 portion of the 2024-25 season at 22-12-3, which is impressive considering they were 5-5-1 at the end of October. The Oilers posted the second-best record in the NHL over the final two months at 17-7-2, trailing only Vegas (19-6-2).

Edmonton begins 2025 with the seventh-best points percentage (.635) so far this season trailing Vegas (.724), Winnipeg (.700), Washington (.697), Minnesota (.667), L.A. (.662) and Toronto (.641). The Pacific Division is home to three of the top seven teams right now and over the next three and a half months Vegas, L.A. and Edmonton will battle for home ice. It will be intense, and there are a few things Edmonton needs to do to ensure they start the playoffs at home, preferably for more than one round.

They can start by defeating the weary Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks won 4-3 in overtime in Winnipeg last night and arrived early this morning in Edmonton. The Oilers lost to the Ducks last weekend, but they are 7-2 in their last nine games head-to-head, however, there are no guaranteed win nights in the NHL. In the past six days the Ducks defeated Edmonton, New Jersey and Winnipeg. Montreal defeated Vegas, Florida and Tampa. Detroit beat Washington. Columbus defeated Carolina. San Jose downed Tampa Bay.

Top teams lose to bottom-ranked teams more often than you think, but overall, the Oilers have been quite good against weaker teams. They are 21-4 in their last 25 games vs. Anaheim, San Jose and Seattle. They play the Ducks tonight and Kraken tomorrow and they could use two wins to start a tough stretch (travel-wise).

Tonight is the Oilers’ first of nine games over their next 15 days, with no consecutive games in the same city. The Oilers are home tonight, then in Seattle, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, home to host L.A., then in Minnesota, Colorado and Vancouver. It is essentially an eight-game road trip, with one game back in Edmonton that causes more travel.

The Oilers need to stay within striking distance of Vegas and L.A. over the next two weeks. They enter tonight’s game two points behind L.A. and eight back of Vegas, with one game in hand. They can’t afford to fall too far behind Vegas, and the next two weeks will determine how likely, or unlikely, their chances of winning the Pacific Division are.

While the players will be focused on each game, GM Stan Bowman and his scouts will be focused on adding players to enhance their roster. As good as the Oilers have played, there are still a few areas they’d like to upgrade their roster.

Derek Ryan isn’t their regular fourth line centre anymore. He’s had an incredible career. He is one of only two players in NHL history to make their NHL debut at 29 years of age and play 600 regular-season games. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is the other. Those two along with Viacheslav Fetisov are the only three to play 500 games after debuting in the NHL at 29. Ryan’s unexpected career is one of the best stories in NHL history, and he should be uber proud of his career. But Ryan has been a healthy scratch in four of the past six games, and the Oilers will be looking for an upgrade to their fourth line centre spot.

They will either fill the spot internally or via a trade.

Internally they have two options. They can recall Noah Philp and give him 10-15 games to see how he plays. The other option is to run Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Henrique down the middle. However, in order to do that, they’d need to acquire a top-six left winger. When, or if, Evander Kane returns, he should be looked at as a bottom-six left winger. He could replace Jeff Skinner. He will bring more size, speed and physicality, but it wouldn’t be wise to expect him to play on their top two lines right away. Kane is coming off surgery that repaired two hernias, two torn hip adductor muscles and two torn abdominal muscles. Maybe he’ll have a great return, but more likely he will need time to readjust.

If the Oilers opt to use RNH at centre, they have to acquire a LW for the top line. That acquisition cost would be much higher than trading for a fourth line centre.

Could Jeff Skinner be an option? I guess anything is possible, but Skinner isn’t great at moving the puck quickly to his centre, and that is one of RNH’s most undervalued skills. He’s excellent in how quickly, accurately and efficiently he moves the puck to McDavid at even strength. Skinner hasn’t shown an ability to do that.

Bowman and company will also be looking to add a defenseman. They’ve carried six D-men for a month, and they will either look for a second pair RD or a third pair LD and keep Brett Kulak as a regular beside Darnell Nurse. The Oilers are good, but Bowman will make at least two additions, and I won’t be surprised if there are three new faces on the team after the trade deadline who aren’t on the roster today.

– Matt Savoie has 4-5-9 in his last five games for Bakersfield. He had 4-8-12 in his first 22 games. The return of Lane Pederson has helped Savoie, as skilled players produce more with other skilled players, but Savoie is also getting more comfortable at the pro level. The AHL is no joke. It’s a difficult league, especially when you are a 20-year-old rookie. It is great to see Savoie producing points and playing well, as the Oilers could really use a young offensive-minded winger in their lineup next season. I’d keep Savoie in Bakersfield this season, and he can be recalled as a Black Ace once the Condors’ season is over. Maybe he can be a bonus addition in the playoffs, but it would be best not to consider him as the LW solution if you play RNH at centre. It is a lot to ask a 20-year-old rookie to play top six for a legitimate Cup contender.

– McDavid is now third on the Oilers’ all-time scoring list with 1,036 points. He will pass Jari Kurri for second in the next 10 days. Meanwhile Draisaitl needs one point to pass Glenn Anderson for fifth with 907 points. Draisaitl needs 127 points in his next 94 games to pass Messier and have more points in fewer games played. Draisaitl will be in third place at some point next season. I strongly believe McDavid will sign a new contract next summer with the Oilers and during that contract he will pass Wayne Gretzky on the Oilers all-time scoring list. Draisaitl is on pace to finish this season with 974 career points. He’d need to score 675 points (an average of 84 points per season) during his eight-year extension to pass Gretzky. It is possible.

– Draisaitl and McDavid are riding 12-game scoring streaks. Draisaitl has produced 10-14-24 during his streak while McDavid has 3-20-23. This is McDavid’s 10th point streak of 12+ games while Draisaitl has six. They rank second and third in most 12-game point streaks in Oilers history.

– This is the first time Draisaitl and McDavid have had simultaneous 12-game point streaks. They did have 10 gamers that began on January 20th, 2021, and ended on February 8th. On March 14th, 2017, they started streaks that ended in 11 games for Draisaitl and 14 games for McDavid.

– This is the third time in franchise history two teammates have started points streaks of 12+ games on the same day. Wayne Gretzky and Dave Lumley started streaks on November 21st, 1981. Lumley’s ended at 14 games and Gretzky finished with 18. Later that same season Glenn Anderson and Gretzky started streaks on January 13th, 1982, that saw Anderson go 14 games and Gretzky went 24.

– McDavid and Draisaitl are among 18 players in NHL history to have six scoring streaks of 12+ games.

– The longest scoring streak this season is 13 games set by Martin Necas, Sam Reinhart, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. MacKinnon and Makar had simultaneous 13-game point streaks from October 9th to November 5th.

– Draisaitl has 27 goals in his first 37 games this season. That is the best goal-scoring start of his career. He had 26 goals in 37 games to start the 2021-22 season and finished with 55 goals. He had 21 goals in 37 games in 2022-23 and ended with 52 goals.

I wouldn’t get too focused on the line combinations. Last game they started with Henrique and RNH as centres and that didn’t last long. Knoblauch likes to use a variety of combinations during the game, and Janmark doesn’t take many faceoffs.

Lukas Dostal has allowed more than three goals only once in his last 12 starts. He has a .914Sv% and 2.72 GAA this season for the Ducks. Of the 25 goalies who’ve made 20+ starts this season Dostal ranks 6th in Sv% and 12th in GAA. He’s been very good for the Ducks.

The Ducks should feel pretty good about themselves with recent wins over the Oilers, Devils and Jets after going 3-7-1 in their previous 11 games. Edmonton did not play well in Anaheim this past Sunday and I expect a much better effort from them tonight.

GAME DAY PREDICTION: Oilers are 5-1 in their last six home games and outscored the Ducks 36-15. They continue that trend and defeat the Ducks 6-2.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: McDavid and Draisaitl extend their point streaks to 13 games.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Draisaitl scores his first hat trick of the season and first since April 1st, 2023, which was at home v. the Ducks.