Yesterday, we gave a prediction for every Oilers forward ahead of the back of the season. Today, we are doing the same but this time with the blueline and goaltenders.

Bouchard set an incredible standard for himself after a great season last year and, unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to find that offensive display consistently this season. He’s still on pace for 60, which is great, but fans have expected more from him. His defensive errors have resulted in goals against often too. Nevertheless, Bouchard is still an awesome player that can get red hot. In the back half of the year, Bouchard is going to match his career-high of 18 goals. He’s only got six so far but the Bouch Bomb can only be contained for so long. Eventually, that rocket is getting to smash through the back of the net consistently. Zach Hyman found his game offensively and now its time for Bouchard to do the same.

Mattias Ekholm is slightly below his career high of 44 points, which he set last season, and is currently on pace for 36 points. He was on a similar track last season when he only had 14 points heading into the Christmas break, which is one less than this year’s 15. With that, it’s fair to assume Ekholm picks up the pace in the back half of the season and goes on to break his career high again. The Oilers have a softer schedule in the second half so thinking Ekholm can get hot isn’t out of the question.

Darnell Nurse will have the highest time on ice at 5-on-5 amongst Oilers defencemen by the end of the season. He’s currently third behind Ekholm (18:28) and Bouchard (18:47). However, in December he led the way averaging 19:25, which is the most out of all Oilers skaters. Nurse has so good this season that fans have started to defend his contract, so you know things are going well. Don’t be surprised if he’s on the top pairing once the regular season comes to a close.

Ty Emberson is going to become a constant in the Oilers top four. That’s not to say Edmonton won’t acquire another defenceman but, until then, Emberson is going to play his way into that role. His development this season has been remarkable already. He began the year as a rotation piece then started to play so well that you have no choice but to play him every night. He’s essential to the penalty kill and provides good physicality to the backend. All he’s missing is a goal so maybe that’s a prediction too.

My favourite thing about Troy Stecher is that everything he’s getting this season he’s earned. At the start of the year, it was him and Travis Dermott rotating in and out of the lineup. Now, Dermott is a wavier claim by the Minnesota Wild and Stecher is in the lineup every night. With that, the prediction is that he’s going to force the Oilers to change their deadline plans. It won’t be as drastic as they won’t acquire a defenceman but maybe they don’t spend as big knowing they can play him. That’s a massive credit to the way he’s performed this season.

Regula will play a game for the Oilers. A simple prediction but there’s really no other option for this one.

You can’t ask for more from a backup goaltender than what Edmonton gets from Calvin Pickard. He’s ready to go whenever you need him and rarely gives them a bad performance. Pickard had a .909 save percentage in 23 games last season. This year, he could get close to 30 games which is why he’s played in the NHL since the 2016-17 season. He’s already got 8 wins from his 12 starts, which is only 4 away from his total wins last season. This year, Pickard is going to finish with a minimum of 18 wins which would be outstanding.

The Oilers got red hot this time last year and Stuart Skinner played a huge role in that. He lead all NHL goaltenders in save percentage (.953) and had nine wins in as many games. Let’s see if he can run it back this year. The prediction is that January will be Skinner’s best statistical month of the season. December is his best month this season with a 0.914 which came in seven games, with a couple still to go after Christmas. In January, Edmonton played 14 games with Anaheim, Chicago and Detroit all coming up. There are a few divisional games against LA, Vancouver and Seattle coming up too, so Skinner’s going to need his A game. With that, Skinner is going to finish with a 0.918 over January.