With a 5-4 shootout victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at Rogers Place on Tuesday (Nov. 28), the Edmonton Oilers have completed the first quarter of their 2023-24 NHL schedule.
Edmonton has played 21 games, leaving 61 more to come, but this team has already been through a year’s worth of drama. The season was barely a month old when Oilers management relieved head coach Jay Woodcroft of his duties and installed Kris Knoblauch behind the bench. The Oilers got off to one of their worst starts in franchise history, winning just two of the first 12 games, but have since reeled off six victories in the last nine contests, including a current three-game win streak.
The result is a team with a record of 8-12-1 and sits 13th in the Western Conference standings with 17 points but is only five points out of the second wild card playoff spot. Here’s a look at who has stood out for the Oilers over this 50-day roller coaster ride.
3. Leon Draisaitl
Leon Draisaitl is tied for the team lead in points (28), and ranks second in assists (19), but is producing below his superstar standard, particularly when it comes to scoring.
With nine goals in 21 games, the German forward is averaging 0.43 per game, a significant drop from his average of 0.67 goals per game over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons combined when he scored 107 times in 160 games. He’s yet to notch a game-winning goal and went through a slump that saw him score just twice in 15 games between Oct. 19 to Nov. 22.
That said, Draisaitl still ranks top 10 in the league for points and is well on pace for the fifth 100-plus point campaign of his NHL career. And while his defensive drive is sometimes questioned, he’s presently second in the league with 28 takeaways.
2. Connor McDavid
This season started quite rough for Connor McDavid, who sustained an upper-body injury that kept him out of two games but may have hindered his play much longer.
Following games of Nov. 12, the date Edmonton’s coaching change was made, the five-time Art Ross Trophy winner was tied for 113th in the league scoring, with 10 points, hadn’t scored in eight games, and had just set a new career-low with one point in a span of five games. Since then, McDavid has erupted for six goals and 12 assists in eight games. That brings his season total to 28 points, tying teammate Draisaitl for ninth in the NHL and first on the Oilers.
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Over Edmonton’s current win streak, McDavid recorded five assists against the Washington Capitals last Friday (Nov. 24), four assists versus the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (Nov. 26), and picked up a pair of helpers against the Golden Knights. That equals Draisaitl (who else?) for the most assists over a three-game span in the NHL since 1997-98, with 10.
Whatever was going on before, the Oilers captain certainly seems back to form now, and that form is peerless. But the cold, hard, fact is that more than 40 percent of McDavid’s points for the entire season have come in the last three games. Like Draisaitl, McDavid was a big disappointment for most of the season to this point.
1. Zach Hyman
The consistency that Draisaitl and McDavid lacked is the biggest reason that Zach Hyman is Edmonton’s MVP of the first quarter of 2023-24. Breaking down the Oilers’ first 21 games into three seven-game segments, Hyman has totaled seven points, seven points, and eight points.
In 20 games, the 31-year-old forward has scored 12 times, which leads the Oilers and is tied for 11th most in the NHL. Hyman is on pace for nearly 50 goals this season, which would smash his previous career high of 36, established in 2022-23. His goals have mattered, too: three of them are game-winners, which is tied for fifth-most in the NHL, even though he plays on a team that is tied for the fifth-fewest wins in the league. Hyman has also picked up 10 assists, and the two-way winger is one Oiler whose effort can never be questioned.
Admittedly, Hyman’s spot atop this list, ahead of Draisaitl and McDavid, is based somewhat on performance relative to expectation. From that perspective, he is probably also Edmonton’s unsung hero over the first quarter, too.
Honorable Mention: Evander Kane
While he didn’t crack the top three, special acknowledgment goes to another player that fits the unsung hero description, Evander Kane. The veteran forward is second on the Oilers with 11 goals, and leads the whole league with 83 hits, eight more than the next closest player. His play clearly can be the difference between wins and losses, as evidenced by his points per game averages: 1.75 in victory, and 0.46 in defeat.
Kane could still stand to show more discipline – he’s tied for first in the league with 15 penalties, too many of which are completely needless – but he plays on the edge, and that’s an element that no one else brings to the Oilers.
The second quarter unofficially starts tonight (Nov. 30), with the Oilers visiting the Winnipeg Jets. When Edmonton hits the midpoint of its schedule, game No. 41 against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 18, Oilers fans hope their favourite team will be in a playoff position.