Host Matthew Zator welcomes Jim Parsons and Mike Cranwell to The Hockey Writers Roundtable to preview the 2023-24 season for the Edmonton Oilers.
0:00 Intro
1:55 New Additions: Connor Brown
3:50 Lane Pederson, Sam Gagner & Brandon Sutter
9:04 Storylines/Burning Questions
13:40 Goaltending – Stuart Skinner & Jack Campbell
17:36 How do the Oilers stack up in the Pacific Division?
22:19 Breakout Stars
26:08 One Player That Needs to Bounce Back
29:06 Potential X-Factors
32:07 Rookie/Prospect That Could Surprise & Make the Team
34:30 Prospects to Watch
37:54 Who will lead the team in scoring (forwards & defense)?
42:13 Potential Trade Bait
45:17 Bold Prediction/Hot Take
Check out Jim and Mike’s writing:
Jim Parsons – https://thehockeywriters.com/author/jparsons/
Mike Cranwell – https://thehockeywriters.com/author/mcranwell/
And the rest of the Oilers writers at THW as they preview the season in written form – https://thehockeywriters.com/tag/oilers-season-preview/
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6 Comments
Didn't know Mike before – great takes.
Media and some fans keep talking about how bad Ceci is, but there's really nothing that supports that at all. He was hampered a bit for sure last season with some kind of a core injury that limited him, but even ignoring that, he was solid against top competition, finished +11, and was one of the main penalty killers. What more would you ask of a $3 million defenseman? The same can be said for Nurse, he does have the occasional gaffe that makes you shake your head, but he does it all out there and his stats were perfectly fine, especially when you consider he doesn't get power play time to inflate his offensive stats. I think both of them are going to have a really good year this year especially with Ekholm shouldering a good portion of the load now.
We need to stop with the "guys makes X so he should be playing Y". We paid Nurse that much to keep McDavid, Drai and Nuge happy. Campbell was NEVER going to be a starter and to think he would be just because the *%&$@& LEAFS put him as one has always been a ??????????? to me. The dude has been a backup his whole life and now we expect him to change his stripes? There is no one in the league I would rather have as the backup for a young goalie anyway.
Skinner is going to be perfectly fine in the long run if we can just let him develop. I know people want this team to win now but I have a feeling when this decade is over the Oilers will have a cup or two under their belt if they can just keep the ship straight and not go shipping away every young guy we have for 1 year rentals that just leave.
I’m a kings fan so my perspective on the oilers is perfect lol: the Connor brown contract is bonus heavy meaning next years cap hit is weighed by that bonus. It’s a smart signing for this year but makes the increase in cap space obsolete for next year.
The oilers are elite. If you have the old jack Campbell from LA or Toronto you should see your weakness become not a weakness. Skinner is your starter unless Campbell wins it. Your defensive structure is sound. You step up at the redline and hold the blue line like your coached by Ken Hitchcock.
Eichel was drafted right after mcdavid. Competitiveness is what gets mcdavid to almost 200 pts this season or him going off in the playoffs. We should see mcdavid take on an insane playoff role. He already was dominant but draisaitl was the club MVP in the post season. Draisaitl did what mcdavid should have done in the playoffs.
A roster move I would entertain if I was Ken Holland is trading nugent Hopkins. His value right now is the highest it will ever be. Oilers make the playoffs regardless of his presence and I don’t see his game translating to a Stanley cup winning performance. Trade him to a team like the canadiens who missed out on Pierre luc dubois. The Canadians have assets and picks that the oilers can use to package and get a solid veteran to move the needle.
The real cup final last season was vegas vs Edmonton
Campbell "survived" in Toronto so much so that the Leafs declined not overpay for him like the Oil did & instead replaced him with 2 goalies in Murray & Samsonov who were either injury prone or inconsistent!! Stop making excuses for a guy who at best is a middle of the road goalie meaning he's better than your average backup, but not good enough to be a true #1.