After defeating the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday (Nov. 19), the Edmonton Oilers are at the quarter-mark of the 2024-25 NHL season, having played 20 of the 82 games on their schedule.
With a record of 10-8-2 for 22 points, the Oilers currently sit fourth in the Pacific Division and occupy one of the Western Conference’s two wild card playoff spots.
Related: Oilers Haven’t Learned Lessons From Last Season’s Dreadful Start
For a team that is a Stanley Cup favourite, the Oilers should be higher in the standings. The defending conference champs haven’t quite looked the part, winning in regulation just six times while losing by at least three goals on seven occasions.
But despite Edmonton’s underwhelming start, there are a few Oilers players who have played well over the first six weeks of the season. Here’s a look at the standout Oilers thus far:
MVP: Leon Draisaitl
As sometimes can be the case when it comes to selecting Edmonton’s top performer, it’s a toss-up between superstar forwards Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Draisaitl gets the nod here, simply because the German centre leads the team in scoring and has been in Edmonton’s lineup for every game, while McDavid was out of action for a week with an ankle injury.
Draisaitl is tied with Florida Panthers forward Sam Reinhart for second in the NHL with 14 goals, just one behind Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. That puts Draisaitl on pace to score 57 times, which would be a new career high and his fourth season with at least 50 goals.
The 29-year-old hasn’t gone more than two games without scoring, and he’s already potted four game-winning-goals, which is tied for second most in the NHL. His consistent and timely scoring has proven beyond critical, considering that besides McDavid, the Oilers haven’t been able to count on anyone else for regular production.
Draisaitl has also registered 13 assists, second to McDavid on the Oilers. His total of 27 points is tied for seventh most in the league. He leads the Oilers with a plus-9 rating.
Top Defenceman: Darnell Nurse
Darnell Nurse was the least likely candidate for this honour after the first week of this season, as Edmonton started off 0-3-0 while allowing 15 goals, with Nurse perhaps being the guiltiest defender on a team full of culprits.
But the veteran blueliner completely turned things around, playing seemingly better each contest than the one prior, at both ends of the ice. Over Nurse’s first nine games, he recorded just two points and had a minus-5 rating; in his last nine outings, he’s got seven points and a plus-7 rating. He currently is tied for fifth on the Oilers with nine points and in a share for fourth place with a plus-2 rating.
THE OILERS GRAB THE EXTRA POINT. 🚨
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 15, 2024
Darnell Nurse nets the @SUBWAYCanada OT Winner for Edmonton. pic.twitter.com/ntWbznMlQr
On Nov. 14, Nurse had the greatest offensive performance of his career, scoring twice, including the winning goal in overtime, and adding an assist. He became just the third defenceman in Edmonton’s NHL history to pick up three points while also scoring an overtime goal in the same game.
Unfortunately, that was the 29-year-old’s last full game. Two nights later (Nov. 16) against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nurse was injured after receiving a hit to the head from Ryan Reaves and has been out of the lineup for Edmonton’s last two contests. On Monday (Nov. 18) Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said that Nurse is expected to miss five to 10 days.
Unsung Hero: Brett Kulak
Prior to Nurse being sidelined, he and Brett Kulak had been arguably Edmonton’s best defensive pairing, and the latter gets just as much credit for that as the former.
After being acquired by the Oilers in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens on March 1, 2022, Kulak became a fixture on the third pairing, consistently logging the fewest minutes of Edmonton’s blueliners. But the 2024 offseason departures of defencemen Philip Broberg, Vincent Desharnais, and especially Cody Ceci, meant an expanded role this season for Kulak, and he’s more than risen to the occasion.
The 30-year-old is logging 19:06 per game, an increase of nearly four minutes from 2023-24 and his highest average time on ice since debuting in the NHL in 2014-15. Kulak, whose bread and butter is playing sound defensive hockey, has been most dependable on Edmonton’s blue line this season.
He’s never been known for contributing offensively, however, which makes Kulak’s scoring such a huge and welcome surprise. Through 20 games, he ranks fourth on the Oilers with four goals and is tied for seventh on the team with eight points. Whether Kulak keeps this up is doubtful, but for the time being he’s on pace to absolutely shatter his career highs of six goals and 20 points.
Top Newcomer: Ty Emberson
This category is slim pickings, as pretty much all of Edmonton’s offseason additions are not performing as hoped: Jeff Skinner, a 10-time 20-goal scorer who was signed to do just that, has only tallied three times and contributed precious little else; Viktor Arvidsson was just starting to find his stride when he sustained an undisclosed injury that has kept him out of action for four games and counting; Vasily Podkolzin is the only player to appear in all 20 games for the Oilers and fail to score; and Travis Dermott has spent as much time in the press box as the lineup.
That leaves blueliner Ty Emberson, who the Oilers acquired on Aug. 18 from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Ceci and Edmonton’s third-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft, as the one newcomer who has met expectations, even if they were relatively on the lower end.
Emberson has suited up for all but two games, and is averaging 14:34 ice time per game, playing primarily on the third pair. Despite coming into the season with only 30 games of NHL experience, the 24-year-old has quickly acclimated himself.
He’s got 32 hits, third most on the Oilers, and ranks 11th among all NHL defencemen who have played at least 18 games with an average of 7.32 hits per 60 minutes.
With 62 games left on Edmonton’s regular season schedule, beginning tonight (Nov. 21) when the Oilers host the Minnesota Wild, there is a ton of hockey left to be played. It will be interesting to revisit these picks in the months ahead.
