The Edmonton Oilers have had plenty of success over the last five or so seasons, where they have continuously been viewed as a contender and are undoubtedly one of the scariest groups for opposing teams to go up against. Most, however, have attributed all their success to their two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. What many people fail to realize, however, is how much the Oilers have improved in other areas.
Whether it be their forward depth with the likes of Zach Hyman or the recently departed Evander Kane, or the continuously underrated Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, this team has loads of talent up front. What many don’t give them enough credit for, however, is how solid their blue line has gotten in recent years.
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The Oilers were able to pick up a great player in Mattias Ekholm ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, but he’s far from the only legitimate blueliner they’ve brought in. The Brett Kulak acquisition remains extremely underrated, while they were also able to make a trade deadline addition earlier this year in Jake Walman.
Of course, the best piece on the Oilers’ back end is a player they were able to select 10th overall back in 2018 in Evan Bouchard. While there are still flaws in his game, his offensive abilities and elite work on the power play have played a big part in the Oilers reaching back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. And, though he is overpaid, Darnell Nurse is still a very competent defender that would be in every team’s top four. Factor those names in with additional depth in Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher, and you have a pretty good blue line. That said, certain analysts believe this group is even better than you may think.
Oilers’ Blue Line Among Best in NHL
Given that we are in the dog days of summer, many inside the sports world, and in particular the hockey world, are putting together some niche lists that help fans generate an idea of which teams and players are expected to have big years, and in the same breath, which ones are expected to struggle.
TSN’s Travis Yost chose to do a fun series where he is ranking every team based on positioning. He did so with goaltending last week, and recently put together a list ranking all 32 teams based on their defencemen. He did it by putting together five tiers, with tier one being the best and tier five being the worst.
There are just two teams in the tier five category: the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. Meanwhile, tiers three and four each have nine teams, while tier two has seven. The first tier has five teams, and lo and behold, the Oilers are one of them. The other four who had the honour of being in the top tier are the Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, and Ottawa Senators. One surprising omission is the Florida Panthers, who fell into the second tier.
“The goaltending can terrify you on any given night but a key reason why the Oilers have emerged as perennial Stanley Cup contenders – OK, setting aside the two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl – is a deepening of skill and talent on the blueline,” Yost wrote. “You need puck movers capable of igniting an attack with this collection of forwards, and Edmonton has that in spades – now featuring one of the best trade deadline acquisitions of the 2024-25 season in Jake Walman.”
Detractors Have Reason to Argue
While you can understand Yost’s points and agree that the Oilers are an elite team with a good blue line, there is certainly some validity to those who have voiced their confusion over the fact that Edmonton was placed in the top five. On top of Bouchard having some warts in his game, Ekholm was a shell of himself in this year’s Cup Final and will need to prove that his struggles were due to injury and not an age decline.
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Nurse, meanwhile, has many detractors and has struggled immensely in the playoffs in recent years. Walman is a very solid player, as is Kulak, though both Stecher and Emberson are sixth or seventh defencemen at best. Perhaps the Oilers should have been in the second tier in this category, but you won’t hear their fans complaining about where Yost elected to place them.
