I just finished previewing 32 NFL teams, so what the hell? Why not start all over again and preview 30 NHL teams? After all, we’re less than a month away from opening night, so we begin by previewing the Edmonton Oilers. Oh, the horror of it all! Some teams are bad, but the Oilers were just horrendous and embarrassing to watch.
After a 62 point season last year, the only direction to go is up. With a young crop of potential superstars all ready to play with the big club, there’s some room for excitement with the Oilers fan base. Oilers fans have the tough decision when it comes to buying a jersey because they can choose #4 for Taylor Hall, #14 for Jordan Eberle or #91 Magnus Paajarvi. Let’s not forget youtube sensation Linus Omark on that list.
However, there are still a lot of underachievers that will either improve enough to live up to their expectations or continue to flounder while getting paid handsomely. Shawn Horcoff tops this list and will need to improve in order to keep his spot as the team’s number one centre lined up with Ales Hemsky and Dustin Penner.
They will also need to get production from the players that have been in the league for a couple of years now and have yet to find their stride. Gilbert Brule had his best NHL campaign after some awful years in Columbus. Sam Gagner is already in danger of hitting his ceiling for productivity after years with 49, 41 and 41 points respectively. Andrew Cogliano is regressing after point totals of 45, 38 and 28 in his first three NHL seasons.
Defensively, the Oilers look a bit improved after some trade deadline and Canaday Day acquisitions. Toughness won’t really be the strength for this defence corps, but they do have a good set of d-men that can create some production offensively. Ryan Whitney and Tom Gilbert lead the group here as the top pairing. Sheldon Souray could be a dark-horse for this team and Kurtis Foster comes over from Tampa via free agency on July 1st.
Who knows who will be the starting goaltender for the Oilers on opening night? The best option out of the three would be Nikolai Khabibulin, but with a possible jail sentence in Arizona still to be sorted out, the job could land with Jeff Deslauriers. However, Deslauriers really didn’t do much to show that he’s NHL-calibre. There are inklings that Sens castoff Martin Gerber could find himself in play for opening night.
Two players to watch out for in camp are Sheldon Souray and Ales Hemsky. Both are coming off years with serious injuries, but could be going in opposite directions with their respective careers. Souray had a rough 2009-2010 campaign playing only 37 games and was a minus 19. What does the future hold for Souray considering that he’s proven to be injury-prone and that he’s asked out of Edmonton multiple times now? Hemsky was averaging a point a game in the first 22 games before being knocked out for the year with a major shoulder injury. How does he bounce back? The Oilers are counting on him to be on their top line and producing again.