If you’re reading this intro, it must be Monday again. As always, I’ve got a fresh Mailbag where I take your questions and send them off to the crew for their take on whatever is on your mind. This week, we’re talking about division wins, Jay Woodcroft striking out in the coaching market, Edmonton’s drafting issues, and a lot more. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk, and I’ll get to you as quickly as possible.

Finish with more points than Vancouver, Vegas and LA. 😊 Just play up to their potential. They have the most talented roster in the Pacific Division. They understand the importance of home ice advantage more than ever and I expect they will win the division.

Beat the Vancouver Canucks in the regular season. The Oilers were six points back of winning the division last year, falling short of the Canucks’ 109 standings points. Edmonton went 0-4 against Vancouver last year, and even if they went 2-2, they win the division.

Here’s a look at how the Oilers shaped up against Pacific Division teams last year:

Avoid the disastrous start they had last season, and the Pacific Division will be theirs. From my side of the screen, all the Oilers need to do is play like the Edmonton Oilers without the wild ebbs and flows we saw a year ago and they’ll be fine.

Knoblauch is a very different coach. I believe he will continue to rotate players on different lines and different D combos at times to keep things fresh. I think having Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson will help Knoblauch keep things fresh for the group.

There weren’t huge structural changes that Knoblauch and co. made when they came in. Instead, they simplified what the Oilers had, and Paul Coffey pushed the defencemen to not shy away from making plays. Rebuilding the teams’ confidence was the biggest thing they could’ve done, and they did it well.

Kris Knoblauch did a great job of maintaining his composure no matter what was going on, and I think that calmness helped the team tremendously. I think he’ll need to keep his willingness to make tough calls with his lineup to ensure accountability while also making sure guys feel rewarded when they’re playing well. More specifically, don’t immediately go back to Draisaitl/McDavid when things aren’t going your way.

I don’t think luck has much to do with the interview process. When Patrick Roy left Colorado he thought he’d get a job right away. It isn’t that easy and it took Roy seven years to get another NHL head coaching job. There are many qualified coaches, and each GM is looking for different attributes. A lot of it comes down to if they have a connection or if you connect with them during the interview process. Woodcroft will need to get back coaching in some capacity so he doesn’t become “out of sight, out of mind.”

While I don’t know this for certain, I’d speculate there’s likely some negative sentiment around him around the league. The fact the Oilers were able to rebound as much as they did under Knoblauch doesn’t paint a good image of Woodcroft, even though I still feel he’s an excellent coaching deserving of work in the NHL. I think he’ll be back sooner rather than later.

I think a bunch of teams are looking for more experience than Woodcroft currently has. It’s no surprise to see the NHL re-treading old coaches over and over again, and Woody may have to wait until those old boys have all spun through the cycle another time or two. I mean, the way things ended in Edmonton certainly can’t help, especially when you see how the team was able to rebound under Knoblauch.

Jeff Skinner has had a 40-goal season and has scored 80 points and if he does either is won’t be a big surprise. Arvidsson has had multiple 30-goal seasons and 60-point campaigns so reaching that won’t be an outlier. I will say Dylan Holloway will score 18 goals and 45+ points and produce his best season thus far.

Pencil me in for a 40-goal, 80-point season from Jeff Skinner. The Oilers bought low on an elite goalscorer coming off a down year. The big limitation here could be power play time, but he has a career-high 34 goals at even-strength, which he racked up in 2022-23. I could see him replicating that in Edmonton this year, and if the Oilers give their second power play unit more time this year, Skinner could tack on a few more there as the primary shooter.

I think Zach Hyman will hit 40 goals because he knows how to excel alongside Connor McDavid. Last season was magic, but I don’t expect Hyman to score 50 again this year. As for RNH, I’m thinking a 25-goal campaign with 75+ points sounds about right.

They hired Rick Pracey last summer to oversee their amateur scouting. He wasn’t here when those selections were made, so that is a major change. However, Schaefer did land them Mattias Ekholm, so I’d argue that pick worked for the Oilers. He’s only played one season in the AHL, and was only drafted two years ago. Way too early to suggest he was a bad pick. It is important to remember that for the majority of draft picks you don’t know what they will be for five years, some times longer.

I think that work has already begun in full swing, with Tyler Wright departing the organization last year, and Rick Pracey joining for this most recent draft. I think at the draft, the best thing to do is essentially draft the best player available and players that are producing at junior levels. You want to get upside into your organization, and I think the team did a good job of that this year.

I wish I could give you a better answer here because it’s definitely been annoying that the Oilers haven’t had a string of prospects come in and blow the door down. That said, the draft is a crapshoot at the best of times so maybe expecting nothing but bangers isn’t exactly realistic.

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