Despite a rocky start to their 2024-25 season, the Edmonton Oilers are still in the middle pack of the NHL’s power rankings.
NHL.com released their first “Super 16” power rankings Wednesday, with the Oilers coming in 16th among all teams — a notable drop from their pre-season ranking of 2nd.
Here’s what the website’s Dan Rosen wrote about the Oilers:
Oh my goodness turned into oh thank goodness when Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime to give the Oilers a 4-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. The Oilers were less than four minutes away from an 0-4-0 start until Evan Bouchard scored at 16:18 of the third period to tie the game 3-3. Maybe the finish and Draisaitl’s goal 56 seconds into overtime kickstarts them in the right direction, but so far there’s been a lack of energy and urgency until late against the Flyers. The Oilers have seven goals in four games. They’re hanging on in the Super 16 on reputation and potential. Let’s see if they can change the narrative before next week. Their next three games are against similarly underperforming Nashville (0-3-0), Dallas and Carolina.
As Rosen highlighted, the Oilers remain in this group in thanks to their reputation, and now it’s up to the team to prove their doubters wrong. The Oilers, however, aren’t the only team to see their rankings plummet from their pre-season spots.
In fact, four teams fell out of the top 16: the Colorado Avalanche (No. 6), Nashville Predators (No. 7), the Vancouver Canucks (No. 8) and the New York Islanders (No. 16).
And with four teams falling out, that means four teams who weren’t in the Super 16 in the pre-season ranks have worked their way into it: the Calgary Flames (No. 7), the Utah Hockey Club (No. 10), the Minnesota Wild (No. 12) and the Ottawa Senators (No. 15).
The top-five spots in their rankings belonged to the Dallas Stars, rising from No. 3 to No. 1, the New York Rangers, rising from No. 4 to No. 2, the Florida Panthers, dropping from No. 1 to No. 3, the Winnipeg Jets, soaring from No. 13 to No. 4, and the Vegas Golden Knights, similarly climbing from No. 12 to No. 5.
The Oilers have an interesting schedule ahead, with a two-game road trip kicking off Thursday night visiting the Nashville Predators and the Dallas Stars for a 2 p.m. MST matinee puck drop. Edmonton will return home to host the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday and Thursday.
They’ll close out October and open November with a four-game road trip, heading to Detroit, Columbus, Nashville again, and the Calgary Flames.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
