The Edmonton Oilers are once again Stanley Cup favourites, and with that comes the pressure to perform well. Everybody on this team has a role to play, but a few players in particular need to step up. Aside from the obvious in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, and Zach Hyman, here are three players who need big seasons if the Oilers are going to duplicate last season’s success.
Stuart Skinner
Stuart Skinner had a rollercoaster of a regular season. Just like the team, he had an abysmal start to the 2023-24 campaign, posting an .863 save percentage (SV%) in October and an .888 SV% in November. He recovered nicely, finishing the season with a .905 SV%. The 2017 third-round pick has room for improvement, especially in the consistency department. Your goaltender needs to be your best player most nights if you want to have success in this league.
Related: Stuart Skinner Entering Make-or-Break Season as Oilers Goaltender
Skinner will once again be heavily relied upon this season, especially with the preseason struggles of both Calvin Pickard and Olivier Rodrigue. Rodrigue has shown that he’s not quite ready to jump into a backup role with the Oilers just yet. With that said, if Pickard struggles, Skinner will be forced to play more games which is not ideal.
Skinner is at his best when he’s well-rested. There are also major question marks on the blue line, so Skinner will likely have to bail out his teammates on a few occasions and make some big saves to keep them in games. The organization’s goaltending and defensive depth are severely underwhelming, so that puts an immense amount of pressure on Skinner to perform well, because if he doesn’t, this team will be in serious trouble.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Some might be surprised that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is on this list, but he has high expectations to produce, especially playing on a line with Connor McDavid. Other than his 104-point anomaly campaign in 2022-23, he has yet to reach 70 points in a single season. He registered 67 points last season, but only 38 at even strength.
The longest-tenured Oiler needs to generate more offense at 5-on-5, which is why a line shakeup may be beneficial. Nugent-Hopkins is a natural playmaker, similar to McDavid, so putting him on a line with a natural shooter could be the best course of action. Therefore, putting him on a line with Viktor Arvidsson could help his production.
Yes, his current linemate, Zach Hyman, scored 54 goals last season, but sometimes change is needed to get other guys going. A second line of Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl, and Arvidsson could provide a spark. Nugent-Hopkins could use a change of pace and different linemates in hopes of improving his game at even strength. If he’s firing on all cylinders, the Oilers are a more dangerous team. The 2011 first-overall pick needs a great offensive year.
Darnell Nurse
Darnell Nurse is in need of a major bounce-back season. He’s received heavy criticism from fans, but most of the backlash is directed at his $9.25 million cap hit and not necessarily the player. He will never live up to that ridiculous contract he signed back in 2021 and people need to accept that.
Nurse is still an integral part of this blue line, especially with the departures of Cody Ceci, Vincent Desharnais, and Philip Broberg this offseason. Nurse is still this team’s third-best defenceman, behind Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard. The 2013 seventh-overall selection was banged up at the end of last season and missed the start of training camp, but he played the last two preseason games and looks to be at 100 percent heading into the regular season.
Nurse registered 32 points last season which was his lowest point total since the 26 points he had during the 2017-18 season. The Hamilton, Ontario native was only a plus-3 during the regular season which was way down from the plus-26 he had the season before. In 2021-22 he was a plus-18, and in 2020-21 he was a plus-27. This team will have success if he can get back to those numbers.
A big question mark heading into this season is who will play alongside Nurse on the second pair. It will likely be either Ty Emberson or Troy Stecher. Stecher is simply not a top-four quality defender, and Emberson has the potential to be a top-four blueliner but has only 30 games of NHL experience under his belt. Therefore, Nurse will be relied on to lead his partner, so the Oilers are counting on him to be effective.
If he doesn’t play well, this blue line will be in worse shape than we initially thought. Nurse is in need of a great season more than anyone else on the team, especially with their current blue-line situation. If he can play like he did during the COVID-19-shortened season in 2020-21, the Oilers will have success.
The Oilers are once again in Cup-or-bust mode, and anything short of the Stanley Cup will be deemed a failure. In order to reach those heights again, they need everyone to step up and be at their best, especially Skinner, Nugent-Hopkins, and Nurse. If those three players are contributing factors on a nightly basis, the Oilers will be in great shape to make another deep run and hopefully bring Lord Stanley back to Edmonton for the first time since 1990.
