yave1964 Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 PRESEASON OUTLOOK: Cautious optimism. They won the McDavid sweepstakes adding a once in a generation talent, then signed a real GM in Peter Chiarelli and a real coach in Todd McLellan. They added a goalie in Cam Talbot and overpaid but added a puck mover in Sekera. Solid pieces like Letestu and Korpikoski were added to the bottom six. a deeper team with direction hoped to be respectable at the least. FINAL RECORD: 31-43-8 70 points worst in the West, 2nd worst record in Hockey. STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR: The Oilers record in games that McDavid scored at least a point was 17-10-5. Otherwise it was 14-33-3. no pressure kid. HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR: After a dreadfully Oileresque slow start they caught fire in the beginning of December winning six in a row with Taylor Hall scoring 5 goals and 9 points during the stretch. LOW POINT OF THE YEAR: Probably losing McDavid in early November https://youtu.be/kXGHW9OcNoA?t=6 on a hard hit against the Flyers. He missed three months. WHAT WENT RIGHT: Taylor Hall (26-39-65) was brilliant. McDavid scored 48 points in his 46 games played and fellow rookie Leon Draisatl was fantastic with 19 goals and 51 points. Jordan Eberle in only 69 games managed a solid 25 goals and 47 points. Cam Talbot settled down the revolving door in the crease. Sekera was off and on but overall was a nice addition. Benoit Pouliot when healthy did a nice job scoring. Korpikoski and Letestu and Maroon helped establish some order in the bottom six. Klefborm and Nurse got their feet wet at the big level and both showed flashes. They again will have a top pick in the draft. Brandon Davidson under the radar had a fine season on the back end. WHAT WENT WRONG: RNH was average at best and then got injured. McDavid missed those three months. Yakupov regressed scoring only 8 goals. Anton Lander took a massive step backwards. Only Hall and Letestu played all 82 games, Sekera played 81, every other player missed at least ten games so cohesion was certainly a big issue with the young club. Andrew Ference played only 6 games, Nikitan only 11. Griffin Reinhart showed nothing to justify the Oilers giving up the 16th and 33rd picks in the draft. MVP: Going with Hall who had a fine year. FREE AGENTS: Nobody they want back. Gryba, Klinkhammer, Pardy. Nothing to speak of. TOP PROSPECTS: Most, Draisatl, Nurse, Klefbom, are already in the NHL but they still have a little bit ready. Laurent Brossoit is a good goalie prospect, Jujhar Kjaira might be able to push for a third line role. A few others will be injury callups, Oesterle is okay on defense, Moroz and Slepyshev will fill in for injuries for forwards. Bogdan Yakimov had a curious year, he may be a solid bottom six center if used right. OFFSEASON QUESTION MARKS: After adding Talbot, Reinhart, Sekera, drafting McDavid getting a coach and a GM ho have a clue, they still finished 29th out of 30 teams only one point ahead of Toronto. What do tehy do now? Do they ride it out and hope the kid defense prospers and the forwards stay healthy or do they make another big splash? Do they trade Eberle? Do they trade RNH? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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