The Edmonton Oilers are counting down the hours to their first game of the 2023-24 NHL regular season, at Rogers Arena against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday (Oct. 11).
Edmonton finished the preseason with a 5-2-1 record for 11 points, second most in the Pacific Division (behind the Los Angeles Kings, who led the Western Conference with 13 points) and tied for fourth most in the NHL. The Oilers concluded their preseason with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place on Friday (Oct. 6).
Ultimately, preseason wins and losses mean nothing. For every example of a team that topped the preseason standings and went on to miss the playoffs, there’s an instance of a team that only picked up a couple points and went on to capture the Stanley Cup.
But that’s not to suggest that the exercise of preseason games are meaningless. Quite the contrary. These games allow teams to assess and analyze players competing for lineup spots; they provide opportunities for new teammates to familiarize themselves with one another; and they are a time for rookies to gain experience while veterans knock the rust off.
In those respects, the 2023 Preseason was a success for the Oilers and encouraging for Edmonton fans. Here are three Oilers that caught our eyes this preseason:
Jack Campbell
Edmonton’s big free-agent addition from the 2022 offseason, signing a five-year contract worth $25 million, Jack Campbell was thought to be the No. 1 netminder the Oilers had been missing.
His Edmonton tenure started badly. In his first 10 starts, Campbell posted a 4.27 goals-against average (GAA) and .873 save percentage (SV%), and he lost the role of starting goalie to rookie Stuart Skinner.
But Campbell improved, winning 13 of his 15 decisions after the calendar turned from 2022 to 2023, and he finished the regular season with a 3.41 GAA and .888 SV% in 36 appearances.
In the playoffs, Campbell was far and away Edmonton’s best goalie as the Oilers beat Los Angeles in the first round before being eliminated by the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2. While he didn’t start a single postseason game, Campbell came on in relief for a struggling Skinner four times, posting a 1-0 record with a 1.02 GAA and .961 SV% in 118 minutes played.
Suffice it to say, Campbell has progressed a lot since his nadir early last season, and that trend continues this fall. The 31-year-old goalie had a tremendous preseason, going 3-0 with a 0.99 GAA and .971 SV%. He didn’t allow more than one goal in any of his three starts. Campbell has played so well that it’s virtually 50/50 which goalie will start Game 1 for the Oilers in Vancouver.
Related: Oilers Goaltenders in a Battle for No. 1 Role
“He looks completely different between the pipes,” Oilers commentator Bob Stauffer said on the 630 CHED radio broadcast following Edmonton’s preseason finale victory over the Kraken in which Campbell stopped 35 of 36 shots.
“He’s not flopping, he looks bigger, he has newer equipment, he looks to be in better shape, and he’s less busy in goal,” said Stauffer. “He’s more economical in his movements, he looks really poised.”
Connor McDavid
In four preseason appearances, McDavid appeared in mid-season form, scoring a team-high four goals and picking up three assists to lead the Oilers with seven points. He had a pair of game-winning goals, including in overtime against the Canucks on Sept. 27, and racked up four points in Edmonton’s dominating 7-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Oct. 4. With a rating of eight, McDavid tied for the second highest plus/minus in the entire NHL this preseason, despite playing only four games.
Given how he spent his offseason, it comes as no surprise that McDavid has hit the ground running (or should we say, “hit the ice striding”). The Oilers captain spent the summer training with fellow Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl, and then got his teammates together in Edmonton to start skating two weeks before the official start of training camp.
“Leon bought a house in Toronto so he can be close to Connor [and] they can work out all summer,” Oilers general manager Ken Holland said as he spoke to media at the outset of training camp.
“I’m laying a picture of two driven athletes that are in the primes of their career and drive themselves individually, and they drive the team. We’re fortunate to have them.”
Xavier Bourgault
While there are several other Oilers who could easily be picked as one of the team’s three biggest preseason standouts (Ben Gleason equaled McDavid with a plus/minus of eight; Evan Bouchard tied for the NHL preseason lead with six assists, just to name a couple) we’re going off the board with a player that didn’t even last until the end of Edmonton’s preseason schedule: Xavier Bourgault.
Bourgault was loaned to the Bakersfield Condors, Edmonton’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, on Oct. 3. That came only about 12 hours after he had been named the game’s first star after scoring twice to lead the Oilers to a 4-1 victory over the Kraken.
It’s not his time yet, but the skilled forward is showing why Edmonton selected him in the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft and is giving Oilers fans a lot to look forward to. He was the most consistently impactful Oilers player during the Young Stars Classic last month, and should get to play a major role in Bakersfield where he spent his first pro season in 2022-23.
More seasoning in the AHL should only serve Bourgault well, as the Oilers don’t need to rush him. That said, there’s a great chance that Bourgault, who turns 21 on Oct. 22, will make his NHL regular season debut at some point in the months ahead.
The eight preseason games are out of the way. Now comes the 82-game regular season marathon. And that only serves as a warm-up for what championship-starved Edmonton hopes is four rounds of playoff hockey this spring.
